Ministry at the church

[Danny]

My Name is Danny and I am moving to New Orleans in January 2012. I have a wife and a 3 year old Daughter.

Why should I visit Kenner 1st Baptist?

[Mike Miller]

Hey, Danny. Welcome to New Orleans. I pray that you will love it like we do, having a passion to win the people here to Jesus.

My initial answer to your question is probably not what you are looking for, but I would say that you should visit FBC Kenner if the Lord leads you to do so. Finding a new church is not an easy task, and it must be approached very prayerfully and deliberately. I'm glad the Lord has put us on your radar screen, and personally I hope he leads you to come worship with us. As you visit churches, I will pray with you that the Lord leads you to the place he will have you and your family serve Him and His Kingdom.

Now, as for a different kind of answer, I will tell you a little bit about our community of faith. But as I do, I want to be clear that we are not in competition with other Gospel-preaching churches. Many churches are doing a good work in the city. Also, we are not a perfect church. We are a church consisting of sinners and pastored by a sinner. However, some good things are happening here, and I think that will be obvious when you walk in the door.

To begin with, since you have a young child, let me just say that our children's ministry is terrific. So is our young family ministry. In fact, the fastest growing demographic of our church is families with young children. We have several Bible studies for young couples, and our preschool ministry is busting at the seams. We have to keep adding classrooms for them. Two Sundays ago (I don't have the numbers from yesterday), we had 350 in attendance, and 40 of those were in "extended session" (4 years and younger). Our preschool and children's minister is outstanding, and I know he'd love to talk to you. Just call our church and ask for Philip.

As for our Sundays, we have Bible Studies (adult) and Sunday School (children and youth) at 9:00 a.m. Our morning worship is really exciting. You will meet friendly people and sing old and new songs led by the best minister of music I've ever known. I preach Scripture, and you can listen to some of my sermons online to get an idea of my preaching. In the evenings, we do different things. Right now, we have Breakouts, in which we meet for a short time of worship then go to different sessions. We might be doing something different in a few months, as we don't want Sunday night to be just a repeat of Sunday mornings.

Our church also does lots of outreach to the community and the world. I would be happy to discuss the many ways we are seeking to fulfill the Great Commission.

We are also what many call a "high expectancy" church. What that means is that we have expectations of our members. To join FBCK, you will have to attend a new/prospective member orientation. The commitment to membership involves a commitment to attend, to serve, to reach out to others, to be in a Bible study, and to give (no, we don't look at the amount; we just expect our members to support our mission and ministry). Since our mission is the Great Commission, we expect all our members to be involved in helping us make disciples by being disciples who make disciples.

If you have follow-up questions, feel free to ask. You can also call me any time. I'd love to talk to you. And if you're in town for any reason, I'd love to have lunch or coffee with you.