GOALS AND VISIONS
As First Baptist Church of Alexandria continues to respond to God’s commission to “go and make disciples of all nations” and to “feed His sheep”, we strive to expand our horizons and stretch to heights made possible only through God’s blessing and guidance. By taking a leap in faith and expanding our facilities in 2005, we worked to develop our dream of claiming for Him lost souls, better equipping believers and becoming a trauma center for His hurting people.
During the planning and preparation phase of our most recent building program, the Building Finance Committee researched what programming was currently taking place, what was lacking and other areas we wanted to explore. We divided the areas of goals and visions into the following categories: children, teens, senior adults, single adults, families, and outreach & missions. Each area has a clearly defined vision.
A Vision for Our Children
- Raise up a generation of selfless children committed to serving Christ and others.
- Equip parents to raise up children of integrity.
- Provide a safe haven for all children.
- Be a beacon of hope for all children in the community.
How We Are Reaching These Goals:
- The nursery facilities have been expanded allowing for more children to have a comfortable and safe environment.
- The HOOPS basketball program, introduced several years ago, continues to be a growing ministry into the community. This basketball program serves elementary age children and runs January through March. While the children learn basketball skills and sportsmanship, they are also taught about Jesus and His love.
- Expanded facilities have helps us grow our children’s choir, children’s church, pre-school lessons and junior church.
- The NETS volleyball program, very similar to our HOOPS program, was started in the fall of 2007. This program also serves elementary students. The children are taught about Jesus while learning volleyball skills.
A Vision for Our Teens
- Offer hope to teens that have no hope.
- Introduce teens to Christ and foster life-changing relationships with Him and others.
- Empower teens and their parents to deal with real-life situations in God pleasing ways.
- Develop activities to provide opportunities for youth to interact with other teens in the community.
How We Are Reaching These Goals:
- A larger area for the youth has allowed for more community activities.
- The new room is farther from the sanctuary so noise is better filtered.
- The Center Stage in the new youth area allows teens to showcase individual talents and host concerts and events for community teens.
- Girl’s only night featured a chocolate buffet and fashion show to promote modesty and self esteem.
A Vision for Our Seniors
- Empower our seniors with a renewed heart for ministry.
- Invest fully in our seniors by reinforcing their value at First Baptist.
How We Are Reaching These Goals:
- Body Recall continues to meet 3 days a week for exercise.
- Wednesday morning Bible Study for ladies is well attended by seniors.
- Wednesday craft group allows senior ladies, and a few younger ladies, to share skills of knitting, quilting and other craft projects. This group also supports a Prayer Shawl Ministry and makes blankets for Project Linus.
- Adult Sunday School classes continue to grow.
A Vision for Our Singles and Families
- Bind together all singles of our congregation.
- Create a powerful, unified community poised for aggressive ministry.
How We Are Reaching These Goals:
- With the addition of new classroom space, a College age class has been started.
- Several classrooms have PowerPoint capabilities.
A Vision for Our Outreach and Missions
- Develop a burning congregational desire to take the Word of God outside the church doors.
- Provide each one the opportunity to serve in a mission field and experience the thrill of seeing lives changed for Christ.
How We Are Reaching These Goals:
- The Adult Works Committee of the Board of Christian Education is working to develop programs to strengthen personal spiritual growth and study.
- The Adult Works Committee is also working to identify and implement programming needs of the community.
- The Deacons have sponsored workdays to serve the needs of other ministries and individuals within the community.
- Opportunities to donate supplies or money for local and foreign mission projects are provided.
- Missions Team is investigating and implementing new mission opportunities in our community.