September 16, 2012 WELCOME! WE'RE GLAD YOU'RE HERE We are a group of believers who simply try to follow the Bible as a guide for all we do. Everything done in our worship service is something for which we have a Bible basis. You are welcome to participate as much or as little as you wish. We will sing hymns together and we will observe the Lord's Supper or Communion together. We will also have an opportunity to give to the work of God in this area. This collection is for the members here, and if you are visiting you should not feel and pressure to give. Our lesson time will be divided into two groups. The young children will go to our classroom area in the basement where they will be taught the Bible at a level they can understand. The adults will stay in the auditorium for a lesson at an adult level. We do try to serve the community, and if you have some needs that we can help you with, mention it to one of the members. Thank you for worshipping with us.

FAMILY NEWS

CHILDREN'S AREA — Please see the back page [below].

PRAYERS — We have some folks with special needs we want to bring to your attention and ask you to have on your prayer list. Diana Davis has a very important surgery coming up to remove tumors from her neck. It is scheduled for this week. Tammy Coney is a Christian moving into this area from Indiana and is the new head of nursing at The Timbers. She is facing some major challenges due to neglect at the facility in the past and needs our prayers. Lauri Bowers was with us from Palmer, Alaska, because her mother Florence Radtke is in The Timbers after suffering a fall. Janice Dahuff has completed her chemo and is at a critical point in recovering from her battle with cancer. Joan Rice's son Gary is in critical condition and not expected to recover from his battle with kidney cancer. There are some other situations we are aware of and probably some we are not aware of, so be sure to get the prayer list sheet from Julie and Karl, but these are current crisis situations, and we need to be proactive believing that the fervent prayer of a righteous person has great power in its effects& — James 5:16.

TODAY'S LESSON

THE INCREDIBLE ACCURACY OF THE BIBLE

Genesis 1

THE CHILDREN'S AREA AND OUR FUTURE

We have a number of sister congregations in our brotherhood who are on the verge of extinction. Their membership is almost entirely made up of seniors and their numbers have dwindled in recent years. Many children have moved to other parts of the world and no longer live in the area or have left the church. There has been a general failure to prepare our young to deal with the challenges of the twenty-first century. In many communities there has been no evangelism, and the number of people in attendance keeps getting smaller and smaller. There are cities where the congregations have closed their doors and sold their buildings.

Dowagiac has been hit hard by the recession and many people have moved away. The church here has grown some, but we have not been very successful with young couples. We have children's classes, but the question is whether we will continue to demonstrate to the community that we are concerned about children and want to help them face the challenges of the future or not.

Putting in a fenced-in children's play area provides a safe place for the children when they are not in class. It says to visitors "we care about kids." Having the play area is a first step towards being able to offer the ladies' weekly Bible study we proposed last spring, where a class would be held with extensive advertising to the community and children would be cared for while their mothers study God's Word. It also gives us the ability to have a "Mother's Day Out" program where mothers could leave their kids with us for three hours while they do some shopping or just rest.

Are we going to be a graying church that keeps house, or a dynamic, growing group of Christians that serves the community? We are deciding that question right now as we construct and design the children's area. Let us do it right.