"To put arms of love around our community and the world"
This is our prayer and earnest goal as a church. Since we have adopted this statement of mission, we have seen a tremendous surge of opportunities and growth here at First Church. F.A.I.T.H. is one such area where we have seen growth; this is an evangelistic program for churches to participate in where F.A.I.T.H. teams go out and visit recent visitors of the church or other prospects discovered by the church through its various ministries. F.A.I.T.H. students attend classes that teach them the proper way to conduct a door to door visitation program and then are given an opportunity to put that education into action by going out with their team to not only bring in prospective members, but to spread the gospel and to see lost people come to know Christ. Throughout the years of this ministry at First Church, countless people have made professions of faith and hundreds more have become apart of the First Church family.
Every year our students, both high school and middle school students, go out from our church on a summer Missions Trip. This program started back in 2002 with the very first high school trip to Washington D.C. where our students led a daily Bible Club in under-privileged neighborhoods and also worked for local charitable causes. These trips have since extended to Quito, Ecuador, Grand Bahama Island, Bahamas, Chicago, Illinois, Las Vegas, Nevada, and New York, New York in the summer of 2007. The middle schoolers have, in the past, taken an annual trip to Miracle Hill Ministries in Greenville, SC where they spend time in hard labor and fellowship with that ministry. This year, the middle school trip expanded and took a new set of students where this program began, Washington D.C. Because of the overwhelming success of these student trips, leaders in our church fell it time to begin exploring possibilities for adult missions trips to places where Free Will Baptist missionaries already have an established work.
Through our Helping Hands Ministry, First Church rounds up volunteers who label themselves to work on a particular project and then assigns them outreach opportunities throughout the community.
In recent months, our music ministry has established a wonderful friendship with the Gaston Symphonic Band. This relationship culminated on June 2, 2007 with a wonderful musical concert at Unity Place in Gastonia. This concert displayed the talents of the Gaston Symphonic Band (which features four of First Church's own instrumentalists) and the First Praise! Choir, who joined the Band in a few fun numbers such as A Tribute to Irving Berlin, but also shared the gospel and demonstrated a community spirit to those in attendance. This has spawned other ideas for future events featuring the two groups. In 2008 the Music Ministry of First Church under Daron Dwyer will head an adult Missions Trip to Rhode Island to aid Home Missionary, Bill Reynolds, with his church plant there.
First Free Will Baptist Church is committed to missions. Each year we collect two G.O. (Global Outreach) offerings, one at Christmas and one at Easter. These offering always go beyond what is expected and bear eternal fruit because of that. With this offering we have been able to give to missionaries like never before. We support Free Will Baptist missionaries all over the globe including the Turnboughs in Spain, Home Missionaries like Bill Reynolds in Rhode Island, and independent missionaries such as Matt Pettit who started the North Valley Fellowship of Las Vegas, Nevada. In this way we are able to put First Church's arms and more importantly the arms of Christ around the world.
Click on the Links to see profiles of each ministry.
Anthony Edgmon & Family - Spain
Jeff & Susan Turnbough - Spain Matt Pettit and Family - Las Vegas, NV
These are just a few ways in which First Church is seeking to reach out and touch the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Click on the FWB Mission Logo to learn exciting news about FWB International Missions!
