Rangeview Free Will Baptist Mission

Summer Update!

2011-08-01T15:34:00.000-06:00

Hello to all who support our work here in Colorado! I wanted to share a few notes about our summer months and how the fall season is shaping up for us here in Denver.

First, our summer months have been great. We've added a few wonderful families and some new kids in the process. My wife's Sunday School class has grown! If you go to our church Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/rangeviewchurch) you can see the new faces and a few of the familiar ones too.

In July, our ladies held a yard sale to raise money for the Generations Free Will Baptist Church in Joplin, Missouri that was destroyed by a tornado earlier this year. The Lord blessed us with a wonderful day and we were able to raise $1,000 to give to the church. God is good!

Our fall plans are to host another family movie night and we are planning an afternoon out as well with the new movie "Courageous" coming to our moving theaters in September. Our outreach will continue.

One area that does concern me is our mission account. We are now about $2400 in the red in our giving and I'd love to take that out as quickly as possible. CLICK HERE to see deficit accounts on the Home Missions website. We have so many folks giving to us every month I'd like to ask our churches if they would consider having a special offering for us? Perhaps even schedule us for an "online weekend" worship. I or my wife could speak to your men/women's groups and then I can preach on Sunday if you'd like. I've done this in churches throughout Missouri and Arkansas and the pastors can tell you it's easy. It costs you nothing, gives you a break in the pulpit, and will help us erase our deficit. Anything I can do to serve you and help raise additional money I will be glad to do. Please contact me. We need the help heading into fall and I want to make sure our account is paid up as we head into this most important time in our church's history. Great things are on the horizon and I will share those with you in t the coming months!

Need A Break?

2011-02-21T12:13:00.000-07:00

Spring is coming! Even with the possibility of snow in Denver through April, I always look forward to the break in the weather and the beautiful summers we enjoy here in Colorado. I also like to start planning some time away for my family as I know many of you do. That's why I'm writing this now as many of you plan. For my pastor friends and those who pass this along to their pastors, I'm wanting to know if you would be interested in an online missionary service? We have done these for a few years now and the idea is gradually starting to catch on. Perhaps you have a Sunday night or Wednesday night service you'd like to take a break from and want a quality alternative that would help Free Will Baptist Home Missions. Depending on the time difference, maybe you're even open to a Sunday morning service? I've been known to preach an internet service from my office and then travel to my own church to make it on time as the songs are finishing up just in time to step into the pulpit and preach! Whatever your need, I wanted to let you know that I'm trying to book as many online services as I can during the spring season. (All year for that matter).

Online services are easy and fun to do and cost the church nothing. No housing worries, no meal expenses, no NOTHING. And every dime raised for the mission service goes directly to help us stay on the field to plant a strong Free Will Baptist Church in the Rocky Mountain West. If you already are using a laptop computer and projection system you already have everything you need to put a service together. A high speed internet connection is required but many churches I've worked with simply use a wi-fi card from one of their congregation members or a cell phone that's designed to be a wi-fi hotspot. This costs neither the church or the church member anything since they are already paying for the service. Many churches I've initially spoken to were concerned about adding internet service simply for the one service but once they realize that this alternative option of a member's wi-fi card or cell phone works just as well, then they see how easy this can be.

This time of year is difficult for missionaries to raise funds. Most mission conferences are held in the winter or fall months. Spring and summer are not optimum seasons for this type of activity but any time of year works for online services. Your church could plan ahead and have a mission emphasis month and have activities leading up to the service to raise money for the missionary. I can help you in your planning. Through the month, I could speak to your women or men's groups, Sunday school classes, youth or other special events using the same high quality and FREE Skype software. We could culminate with a full service at the end of the month and a question and answer segment at the end of worship for anyone who'd like to ask questions. I have references from other churches and districts that have done this quite successfully both in urban and rural churches. It doesn't matter where you're at! The money raised would take a tremendous burden off of my family and I as we work here in Denver to plant a new church. Our church is currently the only Free Will Baptist work meeting regularly in the entire city of Denver and we are proud to be your missionaries here. Would you please consider having us for a service? Depending on the times, my wife could be available as well (She works full time but if she can plan in advance, she could join me if you like). I have an entire package of information I can give you if you want. Simply give me a call at 720.296.1719 and let's talk about putting together something exciting for your church to be a part of Home Missions in 2011.

My Mission Trip

2011-02-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I was honored to travel to the Western half of Missouri to preach at the quarterly meeting of the Indian Creek Association and also Sunday morning at Republic FWB Church just outside of Springfield, Missouri. In between, I visited with the Missouri state missions director, Frank Webster, and caught up with our Kansas City support chairman (My title for him!) Rev. (soon to be Dr.) Kevin Williford.

The trip was incredible and I was blessed beyond measure. The picture at right is at the Republic Church's Sunday morning worship. I snapped it quickly with my cellphone so it might be a tad bleary but I wanted to share it with you anyway. We received a lot of prayerful and financial support but we are still not out of the woods with our financial standing. I am working diligently to shore up my month to month funding and will be looking to do some additional online services to raise support for the work.

Your prayers are always welcome and I'll have more to share in the days ahead. Thanks for helping us build a strong Free Will Baptist church in the Rocky Mountain West.

End of Year Account Needs

2010-12-28T07:42:00.000-07:00

Hello again! As the year winds down for us here in Denver, we are blessed with the work that's being accomplished in the mission church you are very much a part of. Souls are being saved, new disciples trained, and 2011 looks to be one of our finest if not the finest years in the history of the work. This has been a time of both great success and struggles. Success in that we are moving forward with our vision of getting the church closer to self-supporting status. The church is now contributing well over $10,000 to my support in addition to keeping up with our increased expenses at our new facility. We are hoping to offset some of those by finding a church to rent from us during times when we are not meeting at our building. I need your prayers for God to direct the right ministry to us so we can find a renter soon.

Also, I've not received my latest giving statement for the end of the month but it's safe to say we are in the red. I checked our account online this morning and at latest report, we are roughly $5,000 in deficit. You can see the web page here: http://www.homemissions.net/tp40/page.asp?ID=127092

As the year winds down, I'm asking each of you to please pray about my deficit. I am scheduled to make mission visits in January and February of next year but travel is getting harder and harder with increased fuel prices and the cost of a rental car, etc. It's also a strain on the church when I have to leave and I cannot be on the field making new contacts, meeting with families and following up on prospects for our work. If you are able, could you help us in this area? I know many of you give monthly to help our account and I'm so grateful but perhaps there are others you could forward this message to? Perhaps your church could take up a special offering for us? If you'd like to give a gift right away you can do that by visiting this link:

http://www.homemissions.net/tp40/application.asp?app=form&form=4124&id=230460

It allows you to make a gift online through our Home Missions department. In order for me to receive credit, you must select my account by clicking on the box right above the verification code and select "Cheatham Scott" on the menu. I'm praying for God to meet our need. We're doing all we can here and as many of you know, my wife works full-time and then some to help. Could you help us? Do you know someone who could? If you need to talk to me about this, feel free to call me at 720.961.3451 and I'll be happy to visit with you. If I can visit you virtually through SKYPE, I would love to talk to your church in any way I can serve. If nothing else, please pray for us. This time of year can be stressful for missions work across the country. Many of our mission accounts are suffering so pray for them also. Thank You for continuing to support the vision of a strong Free Will Baptist church in the Denver, Colorado area. We are blessed and humbled by your faith in us and thank you in advance for your help!

10/17 Worship

2010-10-18T10:38:00.001-06:00

Things are moving along well at your mission work. We are now in the midst of a series of sermons on the person and work of Satan. The first message was well received and we had a new family in attendance with us. I am blessed to have a great church family and we are looking forward to great things in the months ahead. Here's some points for you to pray for:

I will be speaking this weekend at the Kansas City association's missions conference. The Pastors in Kansas City have been very kind to us and I am blessed to have them in our corner! Pray for a good turnout for the conference and for some relief to my mission account.
Our church is sending out a 20,000 piece mailer to homes in our immediate area and are praying for some new faces in the weeks ahead. Please pray for this.
Our church's 2nd annual "Friends and Family" day is coming up November 7th (in just three weeks!) This is an event we enjoy putting together to invite new families to join us and our hope is that we build some good momentum heading into the holiday season. Please pray for our planning for this also.
Some great leaders are emerging in our midst. I am trying to spend as much time developing them as I can. This is how we will replicate church planting in Colorado. My dream has been to develop local leaders who can plant with a minimum of expense so Free Will Baptists will see our influence increase exponentially in the years ahead. Pray for these men and their development.

Last but not least, please pray for my mission account. We are still in the red and need some assistance to get back in the black. If you'd like me to visit your church for a virtual service in the near future, call me at 720.961.3451 and I'll be glad to set something up with you!

Sunday 10/3 Worship

2010-10-04T10:49:00.000-06:00

We were blessed to have Barry Simpson with us from the Free Will Baptist International Missions department this past weekend. Rev. Simpson shared some great stories with us about how FWB's are spreading the gospel message abroad while giving our folks a little background into how International Missions started 75 years ago. All in all, a great service and our people were moved.

Next weekend, we are having a Christian Motorcyclists day with the President of our local chapter (who attends our mission work) preaching. We've done this before and have always been blessed. It's quite the site to see the bikes roll in prior to worship! The follow Sunday, we begin a new series of messages on the person of Satan and his work in this world.

As I stated a few days ago, please be in prayer for our account. So many give to help us stay on the field and we so grateful but our need is great and I'm praying that God will provide for it while sustaining our account. To read more and see how you can help us, CLICK HERE.

God Bless you and thanks for helping us to establish a strong Free Will Baptist Church in Denver, Colorado!

Mission Update

2010-10-01T13:04:00.001-06:00

To my mission supporters, I say Hello! I wanted to post here to let you know of a serious condition that's developing with our mission account. For the past two months, we have fell roughly $1,000 short of needed giving just to keep our account balance at zero. We've seen drops in other months as well but the amount of the drop has been concerning to me and Becky as we move into what I feel is the most crucial stage of our development of the mission work here in Denver.

Just to recap, the church is now contributing $10,000+ each year to my support. Most of this is being eaten up by extremely high health insurance costs which is plaguing much of our country at present. We are making good progress on putting together a sound church budget that has very little frills in it. We are moving into what I feel is the final stages of the work and it is key for me to keep our mission account solvent as we move forward in these final years.

As of today, my account is now nearly $2700 in the red. I do have some gifts coming to aid in this deficit but I know they will not be enough. I have been working to schedule services through SKYPE and have had a few offers but nothing yet has come through. I am planning to travel after the first of the year but Becky and I have to be careful about how much I'm away from home. We still have to be here for the kids and she's working full-time+ to help reduce the burden on our needs. I have the St. Francois District's mission conference scheduled in January and that will be a boost to my account but I really don't want to go through the next quarter of the year building up a sizable deficit to have to reduce with my travel. I'd much rather see that money build a cushion to get us through to the spring of next year.

Please pray for our account and what you could do to help us. Pass this note along to others and see if there are churches who might be willing to schedule us for a mission service via the 'net through SKYPE. I'm willing to do all that I can to aid in this endeavor. The beauty of the SKYPE services is that ALL monies raised go directly to my account. When I travel, I have to deduct plane fare, rental car expense, meals, and gas from that which sometimes eats up as much as 25% of the money I raise.

We are in a wonderful season of ministry at Rangeview FWB Church. Our core is stronger than it's ever been. Richard Atwood from our Home Missions department was here last month and can testify to this. Your investment in our ministry here is paying eternal rewards. We thank you for your love and support. God Bless You!

Looking for a challenge?

2009-12-16T09:02:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted to this blog. If you're here, perhaps you clicked on the link that I posted on my Facebook page referencing this article in our denominational magazine ONE.

The church here in Denver is doing well. Now that we've settled into our new home, we plan to stay here a while. Once we grow past our current capacity, we plan on starting a second service. Already, the plans are taking shape even as we grow in our first service. One of the key pieces of our puzzle is to secure additional help in making this church grow. A partner or partners in the ministry would go a long way to helping us here. That's where you possibly come in. Do you feel of know of someone who feels like God is calling them to something entirely new and different? Church planting is like that. I call it the extreme sport of ministry. Our Home Missions department is now sending out teams of pastors to plant works and we need a partner as well.

I'm always up for sharing the exciting vision God has given us for this work. If you are up for the challenge, call me at 720.296.1719. I would love to talk to you!

September Already?

2009-08-31T06:32:00.001-06:00

It's hard to believe but tomorrow will bring us to September and the final four months of the first decade of the new millennium. For the mission work here it's another new fall season, our ninth since arriving in July of 2001. So much has been accomplished and yet so much still needs to be done. I feel we are finally at the "tipping point" of our work and am seeing progress more rapidly than in the past. I'm confident, our finish line isn't too far off now.

Which brings me to this point. We need everyone to pray for our spiritual and financial support in the coming season. Our mission account has been hanging in the black perilously for the past few months (summer always is a tough time for missions) but we are now within the "red zone" enough that I'm concerned. A few years back, our account was $15,000 in the red and through God's providence, we were able to erase that debt in a week. Since then, we have been stable but for the first time in nearly two years, we are very close to going back into a deficit if we cannot bring in sufficient funds. We dropped nearly $8,000 over the summer and if the losses we experienced over the summer continue, I will be back in the red by October 1. This comes at a time when the work is seeing it's greatest progress since we arrived on the field. Our church grew by over 50% this summer and new families are joining us every month. It's imperative I stay here to oversee things and traveling at this time is extremely difficult with young kids at home and my oldest daughter now married and unable to help us with the household.

In my printed newsletter from Home Missions, I mentioned the use of SKYPE as a tool for me to actually be in service with our churches via the internet. I've already done this once with a church in Tuckerman, Arkansas and the results were great! I would love to do it again with any and all who would have me. The cost is minimal as the software is free. If you already have a computer wired to your church for movies, worship, and video, you already have all you need! Call me at 720.296.1719 for information on how we could do this. I need the support and would love to visit with you about this.

If nothing else, please pray for new givers and for our existing giving to stabilize. This is an exciting time in Denver. Lives are being changed and a strong Free Will Baptist Church is growing because of your love and support for the work!

Another Decision for Christ

2009-08-17T14:04:00.001-06:00

Last night (Sun 8/16), I received a call from a family friend that Becky and I have prayed for for years. At one point, we had gotten the family into church but for a few years, they had quit coming. We never stopped caring about them and frequently called or visited them. On Saturday evening, I felt led to go by and visit but there was no one home. I left a card in the door and prayed for them and left to another visit.

Imagine my surprise at the call. No, they hadn't yet seen my card though it had been nearly 24 hours since my visit. But I was asked to come immediately. I traveled to their home and noticed both of them on the front porch. It was dusk so I couldn't tell that the wife had been crying. There's so much to say but for brevity's sake, the wife told me how lost was feeling. How separated from God she had been. Her tears flowed when she told me of her pain and how my recent visits to their home had alerted her to make a change. She could clearly feel the wooing of the Holy Spirit but was lost on how to respond. With her husband by her side, I explained to her how she could be saved and know that Jesus would always be there for her. She nodded approvingly and prayed the most beautiful prayer I've heard in a long time. She was broken, lost, and totally surrendered her life to the Lord I serve. Her husband took this all in and after several minutes of talk afterward, I believe God is working in his heart also. What a wonderful God we serve. There is a lot of "junk" in this lady's life that needs to go and today, she took the first steps in changing some of her surroundings away from home. Please pray for her and her family. Satan will no doubt attack her quickly about her decision so I need you to pray. Names aren't important. God knows who she is. Just pray!

What a mighty God we serve!

6/14 Worship Recap

2009-06-14T15:18:00.001-06:00

Today was a great day at your FWB mission. For the past five weeks, we've had five new families find us and today, we completed a series of messages titled "Right Thinking" with a study in the life of Job. Job was a great man both in good times and bad and that was our focus as we wrapped up the series of messages. Over the past few weeks, we've talked about calming the storms in our lives, making better use of our time so we stay connected to God, building relationships with others so we have real friends to turn to in our good times and bad, and then today we focused on how to stay even minded regardless of the outside influences in our lives.

We are excited for the new few weeks. My oldest daughter is getting married on July 11th and we have two youth groups coming down on the weekend of July 25-26. These groups should be a tremendous blessing to our work and help us with some minor projects at the new site that we have not had time to tackle with everything that's been going on.

So how can you pray? Well, here are a few things we need prayer for:

Our finances. Pray that our mission giving stays stable as we grow!
Our church finances. Pray that our tithes increase
A renter. Pray for another church as a rental partner to help us with expenses
Our new families. Pray for them to get connected and see the larger vision
A new family. Pray for another new family this month to join us.

These are just a few items. As always, feel free to contact me at: scottc@minister.com (my blog email) and I'll be glad to share more with you either over email or phone.

Be blessed. Have a great week!

Welcome To The New Blog

2009-06-13T14:29:00.002-06:00

Welcome readers to the newly remodeled and somewhat stripped down "Rangeview FWB Mission Blog Site". Many of you had asked about this site since I haven't been posting to it much the last year or so. My writing endeavors have me posting elsewhere but recently, I had received some emails asking me to post here again specifically on the church, our progress, and how you can help.

So I decided to go back to the drawing board and remodel the site. I wanted it to be an informational base for our work so you can follow our progress now that we've moved to our new storefront site. I elected to go with a much simpler theme that will facilitate reading, a few less bells and whistles since those didn't seem to be used much, an "easier on the eyes" layout, and a freshening of the posts. I removed some old stuff and put it in the digital dumpster, dusted off the desk, and now am ready to resume some regular posting here.

I'm not sure about my posting schedule here. I will try to add material here at least weekly but more often if time allows. I hope you will take the time to subscribe again using the new tool at hte bottom of the page to do so. Many of you now use feed readers for this task so I wanted to improve that option as well.

So welcome to the newly remodeled site. I look forward to our interaction here.