As a pastor, I’m confronted with stories of trial and tribulation on a daily basis. Recently, a young man asked for prayer after being fired from work due to an ongoing conflict and anger issues with a co-worker.
Anger and conflict has become mainstream, and no one is immune to its effects.
Anger, anxiety, depression or substance abuse all can derail someone’s life and destroy dreams. These issues occur in the rich, the poor, at family gatherings and sporting events, and in marriages. If not properly resolved, unhealthy attitudes and actions can lead to unemployment, health problems, financial loss and more.
Dealing with any of these challenges can be extremely frustrating and take a great deal of time and effort.
Finding purposeful and meaningful resources to address those means the difference between finding hope and healing and living in a state of desperation.
At FBC Tempe, we care for hurting people in many intentional and effective ways. For adults we offer a variety of classes on topics such as conflict and anger, substance abuse support groups as well as a compassion group for those impacted by HIV.
We have an active ministry for both men and women which include Bible studies, social outings and retreats.
There are summer camps for children that build various skills as well as a variety of creative learning activities for kids on Sunday mornings and throughout the year.
For those affected by homelessness we offer meals, and for parents with special-needs children we provide a safe, caring environment for them to learn about God’s love on Sunday mornings.
We offer compassion projects like Walk to Bethlehem, cleaning homes for single parent families and enhance McClintock Drive by trash collection between Baseline and Southern.
We invite you to join us on Sunday for authentic, Jesus-centered worship or try any of our other activities throughout the week.
For more information on who we are and what we do, log on to fbc-tempe.org or call 480-839-0926.
Pastor Dr. Roger Ball is lead pastor of Tempe First Baptist Church and an associate professor of leadership and ministry at Phoenix Seminary.
This message is for Pastor Roger Ball,
My name is Henry Dodge, I am a graduate of the old Southwestern Baptist Bible College and in 1981 I was ordained to the Gospel Ministry in Tucson, on the recommendation of the Conservative Baptist counsel which met at Barrio Baptist Church.
I hope you remember me.
I am currently pastoring Family of Faith Bible Church in Apache Junction. A church we started 5 years ago with 18 people. Our average attendance on Sunday morning now is about 110.
I am praying for help. I would like to have an associate pastor, full or part time to assist me in the ministry. If you know of anyone who is willing/lead to minister with us, would you be willing to put him in contact with me? You may give him my name and email address or telephone number. If you want to know more about our church you can go to our web site. Family of Faith Bible Church in Apache Junction. I am a Baptist and preach/teach Baptist doctrine. The people did not want to call themselves a Baptist Church but a Bible Church.
Thanks brother Ball, look forward to hearing from you.
Henry
Dear ASU/Tempe Campus Christian Leader(s),
My name is Clayton Javurek and I have worked at ASU as a staff person in Tempe, AZ for over 30 years.
With their (RC) encouragement, we are hoping to re-establish the ministry of Ratio Christi at ASU in Tempe as a volunteer in process of approval.
Ratio Christi is a nationwide parachurch group headquartered near Charlotte, North Carolina. https://ratiochristi.org/
Ratio Christi is dedicated to providing Christian Apologetics (solid intellectual reasons to defend and establish credibility) for the Christian Faith.
Apologetics comes from the Greek word, APOLOGIA or APOLOGEOMAI, which means a reasonable defense of something in court or in defense of Christian claims about Jesus Christ.
This Greek word occurs several times in the New Testament (see for example Acts 26:1-2 and Philippians 1: 7, 16).
As you may have already experienced, ASU students do have serious questions about the Christian faith, which need solid intellectual answers.
(Existence of God, Prevalence of Evil and Human Suffering on Earth, Creation and Evolution, Historicity and Reliability of the Bible, Uniqueness of Jesus Christ, Secular Philosophy, Existence of other major World Religions)
And such questions will likely arise in the university setting where academic challenges to the Christian faith are prevalent.
Ratio Christi is a supplementary value added ministry.
And basically, that is all that the ministry of Ratio Christi does (Christian Apologetics).
Ratio Christi is not competitive, and does not meet at the same times that other groups meet, but Ratio Christi’s niche is Christian Apologetics.
Ratio Christi is not a church, but RC is a parachurch organization, and we want students to connect with a Bible-believing church.
We want to serve and be helpful…not intending to compete.
We love answering hard case intellectual objections, dealing with question-ridden undergraduate and graduate students.
And we love to connect Apologetics to Evangelism knowing that the task of Apologetics is to deal with questions and objections to clear those obstacles away which may hinder belief in the Gospel.
You may probably have just a very small amount of persons or individuals who are currently in your group who do the following:
1. Ask you frequently about intellectual questions dealing with the Christian faith
2. Want to spend a lot of personal time reading, researching, and trying to get answers to those questions
3. Want to spend a lot of time discussing and thinking through the answers provided by Christian Apologetics with others who are doing the same
If you do have such a student, you might want to refer them to Ratio Christi to deal with the intellectual side of Christian Apologetics for that is what Ratio Christi does.
I would love to meet with you at Starbucks in the Memorial Union at ASU at your earliest convenience to discuss how Ratio Christi can assist or help your current ASU ministry to students.
I would also seek your advice on what to do when first establishing (or re-establishing) a Christian ministry to students on the ASU campus.
Thank you for your time in reading and responding to this note.
Starting in August 2019, we are planning to hold a free campus-reading forum with ASU students on the Tempe Campus using this book shown below.
REASONS FOR BELIEF by Norman Geisler and Patty Tunnicliffe, Bethany House Publications
Sincerely,
Clayton Javurek
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona 85287
E-Mail: javurek@asu.edu