Shepherding Groups
Wednesday, June 11th, began the summer mid-week meetings of Morning Star's new shepherding groups. If you would like to participate but do not know which pastor's group you belong to, or if there is some confusion about where your group is meeting, please email or call someone on the leadership team (815.520.3697) for more information.
Bible meetings with Ken Casillas
The meetings with Dr. Ken Casillas this past June 1-4 were excellent. He preached and taught through the book of Jeremiah.
Please email Jeremy Scott if you would like PDFs of Dr. Casillas' handouts, and the messages are all available online from Morning Star's SERMONAUDIO profile.
Conferences come to a successful end
On April 11-12, the Lord gave us a wonderful Grace and Truth Conference for the ladies. Pastor Bixby opened with a paper addressing the theme, "Courageous Femininity," Holly Stratton described foundational doctrine from Ephesians, and Theresa Bixby spoke on practical applications as seen in the life of Abigail. Barb Moore and Anouk Scott also prepared workshops on various topics from which the ladies could choose. The 100 or so ladies in attendance came from all over the United States, and we truly believe that God blessed us with edifying and encouraging lessons and fellowship during these two days.
In addition, some eighteen people from Morning Star attended this year's Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville, April 14-17. Sermons preached by John MacArthur, Thabiti Anyabwile, Ligon Duncan, Mark Dever, John Piper, C.J. Mahaney, R.C. Sproul, and Al Mohler are available to anyone as free downloadable mp3s from the T4G website
HEAR THE CALL OF THE KINGDOM
The Gospel According to Matthew
This will be our theme for 2008. Pastor Bixby began a series from Matthew on January 6th.Additional meeting place
January 13th marked our first Sunday using the Union Grange hall (on Sandy Hollow, a couple blocks west of our church building) for the adults to meet for Bible hour before the morning services. Breakfast will continue to be served from 8:30-9am at the church building, and coffee will be available at the Union Grange building, as well. The children's and younger teens' Bible hour classes take place at the church building (at the northwest corner of Sandy Hollow and Alpine).Pastor Jeremy officially on staff
As of December 2007, Jeremy Scott has been voted on to join the Morning Star staff as a part-time pastor. He begins working in this capacity in the official sense in January 2008. Please keep Pastor Jeremy and Anouk in your prayers as this year promises to bring a lot of change for their family!Bible study for adults
On Wednesday evenings, some of the adults are involved in a Bible study while the children are participating in Kids 4 Truth. The meetings take place upstairs at the church building at 7:15pm (K4T begins at 6:30pm). Prayer meetings will continue at the homes of the Aschers and the Lees, at 7pm.Kids 4 Truth!
Morning Star's children's program starts every Wednesday at 6:30pm. You can learn more about Kids 4 Truth Clubs here.
SERVING A MERCIFUL SOVEREIGN
2007 Missions Conference
The church family enjoyed a wonderful time getting to know missionary candidates and hearing sermons, particularly the 4-part series on Jonah preached by Pastor Tim Bixby. It was an honor to get to know these families better, as well as to hear Dr. David Hesselgrave's lecture on contextualization. All the messages from the conference are available at the Morning Star page on SermonAudio.com, under the keyword search ["Missions Conference 2007"].Missionary guests this year were Tim & Ruth Bixby (to France), Daniel & Jennifer Arnold (to Germany), Melissa Carlson (to Sweden), and Dave & Kimberly Deets (to Italy). It was a blessing to have them with us.
Global Grace Director back from Jamaica
Thank you for keeping Chris Metras in mind last week as he was in Kingston, Jamaica. He traveled with two men from Southeast Valley Baptist Church to assess post-hurricane damages and needs. Chris is still praying particularly for wisdom to discern how and to what extent Global Grace might be able to help.Pastor Bixby's trip to New Zealand
In mid-August, Pastor went to NZ to visit the Silsbee family. He wanted to be a blessing to the Silsbees and to become better acquainted with their ministry there in Good News Baptist Church. You can see photos and read about trip highlights at Pastor's blog, the Bixby family blog, or at our own church family blog, Morning Star Miscellanies. Please continue to remember Scott, Lori, Heidi, and Daniel in your prayers.First deacons installed
Sunday evening, July 8th, the congregation of Morning Star Baptist Church installed our first three deacons and committed to pray for them, their families, and their ministry as they take on the service of this God-ordained office. Technically, these men (Bill Hunt, Terry Miller, Jack Cook) have already been "deaking" for years – ministering faithfully to Morning Star's leadership and congregation, but on this night they were commissioned officially. To celebrate the occasion, there was a time of food and fellowship after the service at the church building.Mexico team members report
During the last week of June, three of our young ladies joined a To Every Tribe Ministries outreach team ministering in a tiny fishing village near the northeastern coast of Mexico.
They shared a report with the Morning Star church family on Sunday evening, July 8th. It was a blessing to learn about the mission's theocentric philosophy and to hear how God used the trip in the lives of team members and villagers.
The ladies challenged everyone to consider participating on a trip next summer if at all possible.Where-the-Rubber-Meets-the-Road Theology
Our annual Bible conference was June 20-24. This year's theme was "Where-the-Rubber-Meets-the-Road Theology." Dr. Burggraff did a wonderful job teaching lectures on the theology of war, of worship, and of social responsibility. He also gave an introduction to Dispensationalism. Recordings will be available soon from SermonAudio.com.Resurrection Sunday in the new location
Morning Star's first meetings in the new building were on Sunday, April 8th (Easter). About 145 people met together to commemorate the Lord's victory over sin and death and to fellowship together as believers. The Rockford Register-Star included a write-up here, and you can view more photos here (click on the Easter Celebration link in the tan "Related Content" box).
The address for our new meeting place is 3426 Colony Bay Drive / Rockford, IL 61109 (see map and get directions online). Pass the word along to visitors!
iTunes Users: Sign Up for Podcasts!
If you have iTunes on your computer (available for Mac or PC users) you can subscribe to Morning Star's featured sermon downloads. To sign up, simply open up iTunes and use one of the following ways of subscribing:1. Either click on Podcast directory (near the foot of the iTunes window), search for "Morning Star Baptist Church" (there are 3, but ours says "Bob Bixby") in the iTunes Podcast directory,
2. Or click on the Advanced tab (near the top of the iTunes window), click on "Subscribe to Podcast" and then type in the following URL:
feed://sermonaudio.com/rss_source.asp?sourceid=msbc
To receive a notification whenever new events are posted here, please send an email to subscribe@wordcentered.org.
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m e e t u p | discipleship, counseling, fellowship
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Upcoming events
Men's Fellowship
(Thursdays, 6:30am)
Pastor is now leading an early morning study with the men who are able to attend (at the church building). Currently, they are reading Tozer's PURSUIT OF GOD together.
Men's breakfast meetings
(Weekly/Alternating, Saturdays)
Two separate men's groups meet on alternating Saturday mornings at 7am for encouragement and fellowship. To sign up, contact Chris Metras or Bill Hunt.
Missionary updates
Jack and Jennifer Mitchell
Grace Dental Mission
recent prayer letters
Duane and Hannah Scott
Bangkok, Thailand
website and current news
Bob and Bonnie Bixby
Pessac (Bordeaux), France
church website, church blog (in French), and Bixby family blog
Scott and Lori Silsbee
Hamilton, New Zealand
church website and family blog
Dan and Lyn Sehested
Beius and Stiuca, Romania
website and current news
Matt and Susan Bixby
Universidad Cristiana de Las Americas in Monterrey, Mexico
ministry website and blog
Tony and Belinda Jones
St. Helena Island, SC USA
church website
Randy and Karen Wilkins
Lazkau (Gipuzkoa), Spain
December 2007 prayer letter *new*