As we move into May families with kids await the coming of summer and everyone enjoys the warmer temperatures and brighter days. At High Peak we’re enjoying the renewed Spirit of God’s presence. Our worship services lately have been filled with a sense of joy and celebration that excites me. Think about inviting someone to come experience the wonder of being in God’s presence along with His people!

On Purpose

We’re in week four of our series on the Purpose of High Peak Baptist Church.

Our purpose at High Peak is to

HONOR God!
GROW in His Word!
LOVE others as Christ loved us!

… as we reach for the Peak of God’s glory!

We talked about Honoring God with a sense of excitement and celebration when we meet together and a sense of awe and wonder as you meet with God by yourself. We talked about Loving people in fellowship and service both inside the church and outside the church. We experienced that loving fellowship in two wonderful ways last week – when we prayed over our brother and sister in Christ Tommy Auton and Martha Rector and when we gathered around the supper table that night.

Go and make disciples of all nations ... (Matthew 28:19)

This week we’re going to talk about Making Disciples! Look at Matthew 28:19-20 and ask yourself if you’re a disciple maker.

Events This Week

We have a regular schedule of activities this Sunday:

9:45 – Sunday School
11:00 – Worship
5:00 – Choir, Children and Youth Discipleship Classes
6:00 – Worship

Deacons Meeting at 7 PM Monday

Wednesday at 7PM

• Footsteps for Preschools
• Children In Action
• Youth Classes for boys and for girls
• Singles
• Adult Bible Sunday

Thrive Team Meeting after classes and worship!

Mother’s Day

We will honor our moms and then let you have the evening off with no evening activities!

Here is the Youth Calendar for May 2012.

SUNDAY – May 6th at 5:00 PM – Regular Youth Group

SUNDAY – MAY 13th - MOTHER’S DAY so NO YOUTH GROUP MEETING

SATURDAY – May 19th - 8:30 – 11:30 am
“STOP HUNGER NOW”
Preparing Food Packages
Morganton, NC
Permission Slips Required

SUNDAY – May 20th - “SNX” - 5:00 pm
Bring a Friend – Exercise & Worship

SUNDAY – MAY 27th
MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND so NO YOUTH MEETING

You can download a printable copy for Word Processor or an Adobe PDF version.

Here’s what’s going on this week @ High Peak

Our purpose at High Peak Baptist Church is to

as we Reach for the Peak of God’s Glory!

This Sunday we celebrate Easter! Remember that Thursday was the day Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Passover and Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. That evening he took his disciples out to the Garden of Gethsemane and he prayed. His emotions were strained as he considered the great event coming the next  day.

Early in the wee hours of Friday morning he was arrested, tried illegally, beaten and forced to carry his cross the Golgotha. He was nailed to the cross and hung there suffering for hours. At 3:00 pm, the same time the priests sacrificed the Passover Lamb in the temple, Jesus died. His disciples scattered in fear. They collected in an upper room and waited. When the Sabbath ended, they planned for the first day of the week when the women went to the tomb to do final burial preparation. They were not sure how they would get inside. They didn’t need to!

Jesus is alive!

I hope you will celebrate with us. Come for Sunday School and Worship at their normal times. We won’t have evening services or activities so you can spend the holiday with family.

Here’s the March youth calendar. You can download it in a format for Word and a PDF file.

YOUTH GROUP SCOOP MARCH 2012

Sunday – March 4th

MOVIE NITE – “CUTBACK”5-7 PM

High School Senior Luke Harris dreams ofjust one thing – pro surfing!  With his best friend Casey at his side, they have justtwo things in mind – surfing & partying!

One Life! One Decision!

Saturday – March 10th

“VictoryFest”5:30-9:00 PMAt “The Hub” in Hudson

Bands, Speakers, Food!

[Permission Slips Required]

Sunday – March 11th

YOUTH MEETING5:00 PM

Saturday – March 17th

ST. PATRICK’S DAY

Sunday – March18th

“SNX”5:00 PMFellowship Hall

Come prepared to sweat & worship!

Sunday – March 25th

“BONFIRE”5:00 – 7:00 PMKathy’s House

Hot dogs & Hot Chocolate & Smores

[Permission Slips Required]

“Are you a flame, a spark or just stone cold?”

COMING EVENTS

STUDENT MISSION CONFERENCE: “How To” Glorify God by Serving Others

Saturday – April 14thWinston-Salem

Registration Cost: $2

Sign up by Sunday – March 11th

SUMMER MISSION CAMP “SERVICE WORKS”

July 8-13 Hendersonville, NC

Registration Cost: $60

Start Signing Up NOW!!

Merry Christmas!

It’s almost here. As we come into the final days before Christmas, remember that the very word means Worship Christ – Christ Mass! We will do that starting with our Christmas Candlelight Communion service tonight at 7 PM. Come and enjoy some Christmas carols, the Lord’s Supper and we will do it all by the glow of candles and just a few lights in the sanctuary. We will sing some Christmas carols and I will share a message to hopefully inspire you in your worship of Christ.

Sunday morning we will only have worship service at 11 AM. No Sunday School or Evening activities! No meetings! Just a simple time of worship with singing and the message. Come as you are. I won’t be wearing a tie. We want you to be comfortable, bring your family, and have the rest of the day for your Christmas celebration.

I’ve been asking the question, Why Christmas? We looked at Why did God choose Mary, Joseph and why did he choose to have Jesus crucified. This week will be the final massage, Why Christmas. We will look at the final character in the Christmas story. Come find out who.

Looking forward to next week, I will be taking some time off and Dennis Hamrick will lead Wed services. Our Singles will have a New Year’s Eve Party, so see Michael Roberts if you are interested. And on New Years Day we will only have Sunday School and Worship. No evening activities!

This Week @ High Peak … an exciting time to celebrate Christmas!

Here in mid-December its all about Christmas. Tonight we will have our last Christmas With the Kranks Bibly study with snacks provided by Barb and I as our way of saying thanks to all of you for all you do for our church and for us as your pastor and pastor’s family. Tonight’s clip will conclude the movie and deal with forgiveness.

Second, we have our Christmas Program this Sunday night at 6 PM. The program is called The Night Before Christmas and the choir sounds great. We heard a bit of it at our annual Christmas Dinner for the ministers of the association. They did a great job on the songs we heard, so I expect it will be inspiring and entertaining. Please invite friends and family. The drama portion by the youth and kids of our church will share the Gospel.

Finally, remember that next week on Wednesday we will have our annual Christmas Candlelight Communion service at 7 PM on the 21st. And on Christmas Day we will have worship service only at 11 AM. Come casually or wear your new Christmas clothes. I plan to just dress in dress casually with no suit/tie.

Here’s what’s happening This Week @ High Peak!

• Senior’s Christmas Dinner is today at 11 am.
• Christmas with the Kranks Bible Study – Wed at 7 pm with snacks provided by the Kevin and Barb as our way of saying thanks to the church
• Christmas Social – Sunday at 5 pm
• Christmas Program Practice Wed at 6 pm but not on Sunday this week
• Catawba River Baptists Association Toy Store all week at Calvary Baptist Church – please be in prayer for it
• Sunday Night Football in Fellowship Hall after the Christmas Dinner this week

The Bible study on Christmas with the Kranks will focus on the issue of commitment in the midst of obstacles and opposition. I hope you will come a little early and get some snacks or stay after an enjoy some fellowship. Below is the trailer for the movie:

Barb Purcell kissing Santa Clause at last year's social

The Social will include meat provided by the church. Just bring your favorite dish and dessert to share. The kids will enjoy eating with Santa Claus who will be joining us for the party.

After the social, if you want to stay or come back, we will hook up the Satellite and enjoy Sunday Night Football with the Giants taking not the Cowboys. Invite friends to watch on the big screen!

All week our Association will be giving away toys to needy families so that they can give their children a nice Christmas. Please pray as we share the Gospel with these parents and also pray that God will use this ministry to help them know the joy of Christmas in Jesus Christ, not just presents.

Wayne Stamey waits to counsel someone at the 2009 Toy Store

Also, remember the other upcoming Christmas season events:

• Christmas program – Dec. 18 at 6 pm
• Christmas Day worship – Dec. 25 at 11 am – no other activities that day
• Christmas Candlelight Communion – Wed, Dec. 21 at 7 pm

Christmas with the Kranks Bible Study

Starting Wednesday night at 7 PM we will begin a three week study using the movie Christmas with the Kranks as our discussions starter. This is a funny look at what it would be like if an empty nest couple decided to forgo Christmas for a cruise since their only child won’t be home for the first time.

Each week we’ll look at a new theme using ideas introduced in the movie. This seek we will talk about who we often let other people set the agenda for our lifestyle, beliefs and ways of celebrating things like Christmas. The other two weeks will center around commitment and forgiveness.

Come and enjoy some light desert refreshments compliments of Kevin and Barb. This is our way of saying thanks to the church for all you do for us.

West Virginia Mission Trip

A team of people from our church will leave Friday to do ministry in West Virginia, giving away gifts for Christmas to the people there. Michael Roberts leads this team which will be in WV overnight. I won’t try to name all of them since I’m likely to forget someone. Please pray for them and we look forward to hearing a testimony next Sunday of how the trip went.

Christmas Parade

The Valdese Christmas Parade takes place this Saturday. Our children will ride in it. If you want your kids in the parade have them at church at 8:30 AM.

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering

The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions will be collected during December. This week we will collect the first of two special offerings during the worship service. To read more about the offering see the International Mission Board’s website.

Please consider taking the time to view the great videos about missionaries around the world. If you were at our adult missions study, this page has the videos I tried to show but couldn’t due to technical difficulty. The one below we saw part of during the study. Note that the video will be slightly cut off. You may want to click on the button to show it full screen in your web browser.

Christmas Play Practice

The Christmas program is December 18 at 6PM. Some of our youth and children will take part so they need to practice again at 4PM this Sunday.

THRIVE Team Subset Meeting

Our THRIVE Team won’t meet again as a whole team until January. However, a small group has been appointed to do some work on a Purpose/Mission/Vision Statement. They meet Sunday morning after the worship service. Please pray for them. They are:

• Scooter Farley
• Barb Purcell
• Kim Stamey
• Britt Abernathy
• Kevin Purcell

Here is the Youth Calendar for the month of October. You can download it here.

Here are some of the excitement that the Youth Team planned for you this month:

• Fifth Quarter – Every Friday from 9-11:30 pm
• Youth Group Sunday Nights at 5 pm
• Luncheon for Seniors and Parents – Oct 23 after AM worship
• Fifth Sunday Breakfast – Oct 30 at 9:45 am
• Visiting Shut-ins – Oct 30 5 pm