God’s Blessing This Week

Wow, what a great VBS we have had this week at First Baptist Church of Cape Coral! I love VBS. I have been intimately involved in VBS for years. Our family pastor, Jonathan Phillips, has done a masterful job of organizing VBS, and we have had an outstanding team of volunteers.

We have the best attendance we have had in the 6 summers I have been here at First Baptist Cape Coral. Our missions offering for Brazil has been excellent. And we have seen a remarkable number of children come to Christ as their personal Savior!

Thank God for VBS!

Pastor Jim

Upward Basketball

Wow, what a great week we had with our Upward Basketball camp here at First Baptist Church of Cape Coral. The atmosphere was festive. We had four basketball teams of children. It was boisterous, exciting and happenin’! We had a full-house Friday for the closing banquet and play-off.

Our family pastor, Jonathan Phillips, and his entire team did a great job! Pastor Jonathan clearly presented the gospel, and a number of young people opened their hearts to Christ. Hugh Morgan put on an outstanding Friday evening banquet.

What a week! We give God all the glory for what He is doing here at First Baptist.

Pastor Jim

Leadership

As we celebrate Memorial Day and look forward to the anniversary of D-Day, we can learn much about leadership in history from both our military and political leaders. Four quick points on leadership:

• General Dwight Eisenhower, later President, led the D-Day invasion at Normandy Beach in June of 1944. The success of the invasion was not happen-stance. Eisenhower was known for attention to detail. As weather was a key to the invasion, he completely questioned his meteorologist until he understood every nuance of the weather himself.
• Eisenhower also depended upon flexibility. While he believed planning was essential to military success, once the battle began flexibility was paramount.
• Like, Eisenhower, President Woodrow Wilson, who led our country during World War I, believed in solitude in decision making. He sought all manner of advice and discussion but would seclude himself to think an issue through and arrive at his decision.
• One of America’s greatest leaders was J. Edgar Hoover, who literally built the modern FBI. Hoover took over a weak and somewhat inept agency and built it into the greatest law enforcement agency in the world. He was known for his enthusiasm. It was said he would try anything once — always striving to inspire, improve and do better.

Each of us is a leader in some capacity. You may only be leading a small child or grandchild, but you are leading someone. We never quit learning effective ways of exercising leadership. In the Bible Joshua was a great leader. He exhibited these traits of leadership.

Pastor Jim