COVID Updates
Check here for Church updates during this world crisis, if you have prayer requests or want more information about what the Church is doing during this time, please call 217-893-3888
Letters from the Pastor
Sat. March 14, 2020
Dear Church Family,
I’m navigating uncharted waters with this email. In light of governmental recommendation along with public response…the deacon, as well as myself have unanimously decided to cancel our services for tomorrow (3/15/2020). Our hearts are seeking to balance skepticism with the need for ecclesiastical and societal sensitivity. The CDC of Champaign County recommended that all churches with an attendance over 50 not meet at this time. This recommendation, along with the counsel of other churches and solid religious organizations, and our desire to have a good testimony in Rantoul have led to this decision. We have also decided to postpone our weekly AWANA meetings until the public school system resumes classes. The board and I will keep abreast of the most current information available and meet weekly to reevaluate the situation. Please pray for the welfare of our church, community, state, country, and world. Pray for God’s will and redeeming purposes to be accomplished through COVID-19 as well as these trying circumstances. In addition, please pray for leadership both inside and outside the church. As the church we must not succumb to the panic of the culture, rather we must respond with biblical hope, wisdom, discernment, and discretion. Please spend time in private prayer and scripture reading with you family tomorrow.
Thurs. March 19, 2020
Video posted on Church’s Facebook page as well.
Fri. March 20, 2020
I hope each of you are doing well and that this email finds you resting in the Lord. I just wanted to send out an email to remind you that we will not be having normal services for a while. The deacons and I are seeking to stay on top of the recommendations of the CDC as well as local and state government. We will continue to meet every two weeks to assess the situation. I will be reaching out to each of you during this time of quarantine, but if you have any needs physically or spiritually please don’t hesitate to contact me. I’m praying for each of you and for God’s glory and redeeming purpose during these trying times. I also wanted to make you aware that this weeks sermon will only be an audible recording. It will be available at our website (bbcrantoul.org) by 10:45 am, if not sooner. For your convenience, I will attach the sermon to my Facebook page and the churches Facebook page. It’s our hope to record the sermon visually by next Sunday. For ease of use, we are planning to create a church YouTube page as the means of publishing the videos. We will share the link and video on our Facebook page.
Awana Update
After careful consideration and deep prayer, we are regretfully announcing that our current Awana club year is being cancelled for the remaining club days. We wish to make sure that we are doing our part in slowing the spread of the virus and since the schools are staying closed for now, we found it more difficult to try to postpone the club days without undue stress on everyone and everything. Therefore, Awana for the Bible Baptist Church in Rantoul, is done for the year.What does that mean for the clubbers who either finished their book or were close? We will be going through the records and comparing the % of the club days that club was open for attendance to the whole year and applying that % to the books that the clubbers were in. If your child completed that % of their book, we will consider them as having completed their book and they will receive a book award. We are moving the Awards night to the last Wednesday in August. We will be planning both an Awards night for this year and a pre-registration for the new club year. More details to come on this later.Unfortunately though, we will be cancelling the scholarships to Camp for this year. With all the uncertainty, we decide to not choose anyone for a prepaid camp registration this year but hope to bring it back next year.We will be trying to have the Pizza Party for the clubbers who meet the pizza point goals prior to the interruption to club. We are tentatively moving that to mid to late May. We will also have more information concerning this to come as well and will make contact with those clubbers who achieved the point value for an invite.Our Club Commander will be trying to contact all of our clubber’s family personally to make sure that everyone knows what and why we are doing these things.
GRACE GIVING
Grace giving is a tangible way that we express worship and gratitude to God as our savior and sustainer. Giving enables the church to carry on Christ’s commission of making and teaching disciples. Would you prayerfully consider supporting the ministry of Bible Baptist Church in its mission to reach the lost with the gospel of Christ and then to teach them the great truths of His Word. Its our mission to know Christ and to make Him known.