AABC’s annual Vacation Bible School will take place next week (July 20-24) for ages 3-5th grade from 6:00-8:30 p.m.  There will be lots of fun, including games, crafts, and rally times for kids of all ages.  Make sure to join us for this exciting week as we learn more about what the Bible says about Jesus.  For more information call the church office 266-4341.

The Peasall Sisters—Sarah, 19; Hannah, 16; and Leah, 13; have earned GRAMMY and CMA Awards for their part in the blockbuster O Brother, Where Art Thou? movie and soundtrack.  They have performed at such esteemed venues as Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall with the acclaimed Down From the Mountain tour, in addition to the Grand Ole Opry. 

Our Stars and Stripes concert series will begin at 7:00 pm on July 5th with interchangeable sets by both the Peasall Sisters and singer/songwriter Andy Gullahorn. The Peasall sisters will also be accompanying Pastor Nate Bevier as he leads our congregation in worship at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday. 

AABC’s annual Vacation Bible School will take place on July 20-24 for ages 3-5th grade from 6:00-8:30 p.m.  You can pre-register for VBS - Studio Go here

Join us for this free event on July 5th.  Stars and Stripes is our gift to the Lexington-Metro area.  There will be tons of activities for the whole family including a KIDZ ZONE for children.  We will also have in concert Grammy Award winning bluegrass artist, The Peasall Sisters, as well as, Singer Songwriter, Andy Gullahorn.  The evening will end with a huge firework display!

When our churches are countercultural kingdom outposts, we’ll start to see the joy of a life that’s more meaningful than a two-car garage and a vacation at this year’s faddish theme park.  Once people learn to see their brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers in ways more significant than simply the flesh, adoption just doesn’t seem so strange anymore.

- Dr. Russell Moore

Adopted For Life (p.180)

The childlike Kingdom we’ve come into is filled with transracial adoptees like you and me.  It’s made up of “special needs” orphans like us.  Sometimes adoptions turn out with families that look remarkably similar - almost - “natural,” you might say. But let’s not fall for the carnality that values boys over girls, that pits ethnicities against one another, or that is repulsed by physical or emotional weakness.  Let’s be people of Christ, and, like him, let’s teach ourselves to welcome children into our homes, even in those out culture tells us we’re not supposed to want.

- Dr. Russell Moore

Adopted For Life (pp.165-166) 

As you pray about what you will give to the AABC ABBA Fund this Sunday June 21st consider the following quote: 

Our adoption is about more than just belonging.  Our adoption is about the day when the graves of this planet will be emptied, when the great assembly of Christ’s church will be gathered before the Judgement Seat.  On that day, the accusing principalities and powers will probably look once more at us - formerly murderers and fornicators and idolaters, formerly uncircumcised in the flesh or in heart - and they may ask one more time, “So are they brothers?”  The hope of adopted children like my sons - and like me - is that the voice that once thundered over the Jordan will respond, on last time, “They are now.”

- Dr. Russell Moore

Adopted For Life (p.57)

As you pray about what you will give to the AABC ABBA Fund this Sunday June 21st consider the following quote: 

Not everyone is call to adopt.  No one wants parents who adopt children out of the same sense of duty with which they give to the building fund for the new church gymnasium.  But all of us have a stake in the adoption issue, because Jesus does.  He is the one who tells us His Father is also “Father of the fatherless” (Ps. 68:5).  He is the one who insists on calling “the least of these” his “brothers” (Matt. 25:40) and who tells us that the first time we hear His voice, He will be asking us if we did the same.

-Dr. Russell Moore

Adopted For Life (p.20)

As you pray about what you will give to the AABC ABBA Fund this Sunday June 21st consider the following quote: 

The gospel of Jesus Christ means our families and churches ought to be at the forefront of the adoption of orphans close to home and around the world.  As we become more attuned to the gospel, we’ll have more of a burden for orphans.  As we become more adoption-friendly, we’ll be better able to understand the gospel.

-Dr. Russell Moore

Adopted For Life (p.18)

 

 

The AABA Fund exists to pool resources to aid families in rescuing orphaned children from all around the world through the God appointed means of adoption. We believe that because of His grace God chose to adopt us as His sons when we were spiritual orphans (Ephesians 1:5) and we have the responsibility to reflect His grace in the world by rescuing needy children (Psalm 72:12-14; James 1:27). On June 21st in our morning worship service, we will take up a special offering for the ABBA fund.  If you would like to support the Abba Fund at AABC, simply write a check to Ashland Avenue Baptist Church, designated Abba Fund, and send it the church. 

Now that school is almost over it’s time to get away and have some fun!  So we want to welcome all kids (ages 2-5th grade) to the Coconut Hut, an oceanview paradise with inflatable games, food, and a water safari.  Throughout the summer at the Coconut Hut, you can have a blast with all your friends and learn more about Jesus.  Help us kick off our summer adventure and stop by the Coconut Hut for a luau on May 31 @ 6:00 pm, with special guest, “The Coconut Kid.” Don’t forget to make a splash by wearing your water gear! Ages 2 years-5th grade.

DATES FOR THE COCONUT HUT (at 6:00 p.m.) 

• May 31st 
• June 7th  
• June 28th 
• July 12th 
• July 26th 
• August 2nd

How does a Christian date to the glory of God? What does the Bible say about relationships? Should we just accept the way our culture does it? In this four-part series, Casey McCall seeks to outline biblical answers to the relationship questions you may or may not be asking. The goal of this series is to help college students and singles navigate the pathway toward marriage in a way that honors the Lord Jesus Christ.

Join us for B.A.M. (AABC’s Be A Man Conference)  This weekend April 24-26. Register here.

B.A.M. Conference Schedule

Friday:
6:30 Sign In
6:30-7:30 Dinner
7:30-7:50 Guest Speaker, John Frisbie
7:50-8:00 Break
8:00-9:30 B.A.M. Session with Pastor David Prince

Saturday:
8:00-8:50 Breakfast
8:50-9:00 Break
9:00-10:00 B.A.M. Session with Nathan Millican
10:00-10:45 Guest Speaker, Mitch Barnhart
10:45-11:00 Break
11:00-12:00 B.A.M. Session with Pastor David Prince

*Brief Men’s Choir Practice Immediately Following the Conference Session.

Sunday:
8:30 Men’s Choir Practice
9:15 Bible Fellowship Groups
10:30 Worship Service Featuring Men’s Choir and Special Guest Doug Flynn. With Final B.A.M. Session with Pastor David Prince

By Pastor Jeremy Haskins

On January 4, 2009, Ashland Avenue Baptist Church kicked off the year with the theme “2009: The Year of Living Upside Down.”  Pastor David Prince’s first sermon of the year was a challenge to live like the disciples in Acts 17:5 who were described as, “those who turned the world upside down.”  As I listened to the sermon, I began to reflect on the opportunity adoption provides to live upside down.

For our family, adoption has turned our lives upside down in a variety of ways.  Since September 2008, we have been consumed with the task of rescuing two orphans from Ethiopia. Our days have been spent reading and re-reading, again and again, the various checklists of tasks needed to be accomplished. Constantly before us, are stacks of letters, forms, and legal documents all needing to be properly authenticated.

Once we finished our home study and thought we could breath we had to get right to work on our dossier.  Once we finished our dossier and thought the paperwork was finally done, our agency gave us a list of other documents that needed to be completed.  Once we completed those documents, we began the process of applying to ten different organizations for grants and interest free loans.  My name, financial history, and all my traffic violations clutter my house on what must be hundreds of documents.  On top of this, we still have many hours of adoption education to get done in a few short weeks.    

Many who have traveled this road before us warned that the workload can easily be compared to a part-time job.  But it is not just the workload. We helplessly have no control over the process at this point.  Our thoughts are consumed with what is in the hands of others on the other side of the world so that we can go get two new sons. We strive not to stress about a May 6^th court date but we known just about anything could happen.  We wonder if the judge will ask for more information.  We pray that the orphanage finds the needed representative and actually gets them to court on time.  We worry about whether or not we will have all the needed forms for the embassy. The pressure churns within us on a daily basis.       

Seeking to trust the Lord, constantly fighting off anxiety, swimming in background checks, medical exams, financial forms, and family pictures, we have often stopped and asked, “Why?” 

Why would we go through all this trouble?  Why would we spend time and energy rearranging the house, raising support, and enduring such a thorough investigation of our family?   Why would we put ourselves through such an opportunity for stress? Why are we doing this?  Such questioning can make little set backs seem like the perfect time to give up and settle for life as we know it or once knew it.

The Haskins are not exempt from the natural tendency in every fallen human to want to settle for mediocrity.  We fight against the desire to have lives that accommodate less stress and more comfort.   Yet God graciously continues to teach us that the gospel calls us to live in a radically different way.  The call Jesus issues to anyone who chooses to follow Him is one that challenges cultural norms and a life of ease.

The message of the Bible is about a King who is flipping the work of Satan on its head.  He is redeeming a world that has been turned upside down through the invasion of sin and death.   When we believe this message we become a part of a Kingdom whose power is actively confronting all that is ungodly in the world. This includes the reality of children who have been abandoned.

There are two little boys in Ethiopia right now whose lives have been turned wrong side up.  Born into extreme poverty, they were orphaned.  They have eleven other brothers and sisters and they will never get to see them.  Four of their siblings have died due to malnutrition.  God’s good gift of family is unknown to them.  What God intended for their good has been taken away, twisted, turned inside out, and flipped upside down.   

It would be easy for us to close our hearts and lives to such a tragedy. After all, there are folks with less challenging life situations who could adopt these boys, families with more room in their house and more time on their hands.  But what would the upside down message of the gospel call us to do?

As citizens of the Kingdom of Christ we are called to mirror the King of the Universe.  Jesus has flipped the wisdom of the world by willfully choosing to be born to a teenage girl and adopted by a carpenter from Nazareth.  Jesus, the One who had no place to lay His head, was abandoned to die as a criminal outside Jerusalem on a trash heap.  Holy God became a man to die for His sinful enemies.  None of it makes sense! 

According to the wisdom of this world, it’s backward and upside down.  But it’s this sort of logic that saves the world.  It’s just the thing that will eventually turn the whole world upside down or from God’s perspective right side up again.

So if it means for a time flipping our home, lives, and family upside down so that these two precious boys might one day enjoy the goodness of family according to God’s design, count us in!

While our hearts may be willing, our flesh is weak.  As we move forward, we need to be more and more convinced that living upside down is a path to greater joy. And that this path is worth walking against the grain, fighting the status quo, and killing the soul shrinking mediocrity that threatens our lives every day.  After all, we are called to follow one who suffered for the joy that was set before Him.  To follow in His way we must trust the Spirit of adoption who continually reminds us that God really is at work and will finally make all this right again. Spiritual orphans who believe in Jesus will know the joy of having brothers who overcome sin and death.  Abandoned sinners will know an eternal family.  

Maybe God is calling you to do something radical for Jesus.  For us it is adoption.  It may be the same for you.  It may mean giving more so others can adopt.  It may be becoming a committed advocate for orphans and orphan care around the world.   It may mean something all together different for you and your family.  However, for all Christ-followers the gravity of the gospel is pulling you to live upside down in some way that turns the wisdom of the world on its head.  May it be said of us this year and for eternity, these are they who turned the world upside down.

•  Friday, April 10th

Praying and the Cross  

Family Center (11:30 am-12:30 pm -Free lunch served) 

Our Week of Prayer will continue tomorrow with a Good Friday lunch.  The lunch will begin promptly at 11:30 a.m. and will conclude at right at 12:30 p.m. Join us as we continue to pray in light of Jesus’ finished work on the cross!     

Click here and invite your friends to join us for this Sunday (April 12th) as we celebrate Easter. We are praying that our BFG classes and worship center would overflow with new folks as we worship the risen King together.

Praying for the Joy of Your Family and Home - 6:30 pm  

Guest Speaker: Donald Whitney

(Wednesday Evening Meal at 5:30 pm)

Today at lunch Pastor David led a wonderful time of praying for gospel boldness. Tomorrow evening we will have guest speaker, Donald Whitney, author of Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life and many other helpful books and articles. He will be discussing the issue of, “Praying for the Joy of Your Family and Home.”  This will take place at 6:30 pm after our Community Meal, which begins at 5:30 pm. 

Evangelistic Prayer:

Praying for the Joy of All Peoples

April 5-12th 

WEEK OF PRAYER SCHEDULE 

• Sunday, April 5th

^{Week of Prayer Launch Sunday}  

^{Worship Center (10:30 am-Noon)}

•  Monday, April 6th

Praying for Open Doors 

Crossroads (6:30-7:30 am)

•  Tuesday, April 7th

Praying for Gospel Boldness

 Family Center  (11:30 am-12:30 pm) Free lunch served

•  Wednesday, April 8th 

Praying for the Joy of Your Family and Home  

Wednesday Evening Meal (5:30-6:30 pm)

Worship Center (6:30-7:30 pm)  

Special Guest: Don Whitney Professor of Biblical Spirituality the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Author of Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.

•  Thursday, April 9th

Praying for the Joy of the Nations

 Worship Center (6:30-7:30 pm - Lord’s Supper)

•  Friday, April 10th

Praying and the Cross  

Family Center (11:30 am-12:30 pm -Free lunch served)

•  Saturday, April 11th

Praying for the Joy of Your Neighbors 

Praying for and with Your Neighbors (Home Project)

•  Sunday, April 12th

Praying Because He Lives   

Worship Center (10:30 am-Noon)

High Attendance Sunday

No PM Worship