Coming Soon

We plan to begin sending out weekly emails with notes, reminders and thoughts from the pastors. If you would be interested in subscribing to these emails, send your name and information to contactus@asbc.net.

We are currently in the registration process for our summer trips to Guatemala! We have two trips scheduled in August, a trip through our Elevate High School ministry and a family trip. For more information, you can visit our Guatemala page by clicking here, or attend the family trip meeting this Sunday at 12:30pm in the Fellowship Hall.

Small Group Lending Library

The Apostle Paul was imprisoned and awaiting execution (2 Tim.4:6). He wrote his last letter during this brief imprisonment to Timothy, his beloved son in the faith and apprentice in the ministry. Paul made this request of Timothy, “When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments” (2 Timothy 4:13 ESV).

If you were near death, what would you ask someone to bring to you?

Paul wanted books so he could study about his God that he would meet face to face very soon. What Paul especially wanted were the parchments. And the text says, “above all the parchments.” Vines Expository Dictionary says that a parchment [Gr. membrane] denotes a skin. The writing material was prepared from the skin of a sheep or goat. The skins were first soaked in lime for the purpose of removing the hair, and then shaved, washed, dried, stretched and ground or smoothed with fine chalk or lime and pumice stone. The finest kind is called “vellum” and is made from the skins of calves or kids.” Pg.458

Paul’s request was most likely for portions of the Old Testament that were written on animal skin or vellum that he cherished.

In this same letter Paul wrote in chapter 2 – “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 ESV). Paul’s request for the books and the parchments were characteristic of his lifelong pursuit of getting know his God better!

We are currently developing a wonderful collection of study tools and curriculum for our small group leaders. If you have any training as a librarian or would be interested in learning & serving in this area please contact Pastor Rick at rickl@asbc.net  or 757-479-1133 ext.152.

God Time

The Children’s Ministry is intentional about teaching the indergarten through fifth grade kids that time with God should be a part of their routine.

If you are a parent of a child in this age group, make sure you are reminding your kids to spend their time with God. They each go home on Sundays with a great devotional tool – their “God Time” cards. This weekly devotional provides 4 days of God time. Assist your kids with developing this very important habit. It’s one of the best life-long habits you can create in your child. Hopefully, it will be a set part of their daily routine for life, and won’t be something they’ll have to add to their resolution list each New Year.

Greeting One Another

I am so proud of the grace of God in those that attend Atlantic Shores Baptist Church! Last week we received back a First Impressions Card that we send out to first time visitors. They wrote back and said they were greeted as if they had been coming to the church for years! It made a huge impression on them. Way to go church! Did you notice today in our culture people rarely make eye contact. You are actually shocked if someone takes the initiative and says “Hi” to you.  Greeting one another warmly and affectionately is a Christian virtue. The brotherly love that is expressed in a church doesn’t go unnoticed. It makes a huge impression on newcomers.
These greetings were not one sided but reciprocal. The specific command to “Greet One Another” occurs 4 times in the New Testament (Rom.16:16; 1 Cor.16:20; 2 Cor.13:12; 1 Peter 5:14) and is alluded to many other times.

Jesus taught that just loving and greeting those who love and greet you only qualifies you to be an unbeliever. There is nothing exceptional about this kind of behavior. Jesus said, “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same” (Matthew 5:46,47)?

Christians ought to be easily identified by their quickness to greet those who haven’t greeted them. Let’s be a welcoming person outside the four walls of the church. A winsome & warm personality is a magnet in a culture where people’s love is growing cold.

“Greet one another”
2 Corinthians 13:12

To read more on this “One Another Command” go to: http://atlanticshores.org/greet.

Twitter, a brief explanation

Let’s face it. Twitter can seem confusing, daunting even. But once you understand the basics, it’s a fun and informative way of gathering and sharing information.

If you’re familiar with Facebook, think of Twitter as a status update that is limited to 140 characters. If you’re new to both, think of it as a headline.

So here’s how it works:

You can sign up for free at www.twitter.com.  When you sign up, you can choose your twitter username, which is how people can find you or reply to your tweets.  One of the first things you will want to do is to start following accounts. Twitter has some great search resources to help you find feeds that will be interesting to you.  Here’s an easy way to start:  follow @ShoresChurch!

So what does it mean to follow? When you follow an account, every time something is posted, it will show up on your Twitter homepage. You can favorite tweets, reply to tweets or re-tweet them. When you re-tweet, you send the tweet out on your account, with a note that it was originated elsewhere.

You are able to make your account a private account (click here for directions), so only people you personally approve can see anything you post.

Common Questions

@ – The @ symbol precedes account names and allows you to link to other accounts. If you include @ShoresChurch in your tweet, it becomes a link to the ASBC twitter account.

# – Hashtags allow you to more easily categorize or add a keyword to your tweets. These are great to create a buzz for an event or campaign; for example, if a lot of people tweeted #aShoresChristmas, those tweets would be more likely to show up in searches and on local twitter accounts.

You can visit Twitter’s FAQ by clicking here.

You can get started by following ASBC’s main twitter account, or Pastor Kyle, Pastor Ira, or Pastor Roger. Many of our ministries have their own accounts. To see which ministries you can follow, click here.

Celebrating the New Year in Guatemala

This gallery contains 9 photos.

Today’s challenge: describe all that we did in Guatemala from December 31- January 6 without writing a book. Challenge Accepted! It was one of the most amazing trips EVER!  19 people from Atlantic Shores and 2 people from World Help … Continue reading →

Kid’s Thang Family Production

Excitement and anticipation filled the Theater!  The Team was prepared and ready to go.  The family Take Homes were packaged.  We had invited God into our day and asked Him to give us each a moment to minister to the heart and life of one child, one parent, or one family.  Then the doors opened.

If you missed our Kid’s Thang Family Production on January 8, you missed an awesome morning with God in the theater. After worshipping God through song and dance with the praise team (a little exercise was a necessary when we sang “Get Down”), the Hosts put everyone at ease and brought the first ripples of laughter from parents and kids alike!

We learned about the virtue of Self-Control and what God has to say about “doing what you know to do and not what you want to do.”  In the Clubhouse, nature-loving Sam beat Vinny, our resident athlete and gamer extraordinaire, at his new skateboarding video game.  He became so angry and frustrated he called Sam names and tried to put her down, and she yelled right back at him before she took his game controller and ran away.

Mrs. Ann, the Storyteller, with help from the audience, gave Sam and Vinny ways they could have handled their situation differently.  Sam and Vinny learned through Proverbs 12:18 that “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”  God knows how powerful our tongues are and how hard it can be to control them!  He wants to give us His power to be able to practice Self-Control.  All we need to do is ask God for His help.  The Bottom Line was “God can give you the power to control yourself.”

One of our new songs this month was ”Think It Through,” which reminded the kids to slow down and think through what they are about to say and do, and then make a wise choice and practice self-control!  It was so fun to watch the audience respond to the words of the song and see parents joining in and doing the motions to the songs too!  At the end of the day everyone was smiling and talking about the things that made them laugh, and what they learned about Self-Control.

Next month we will do it all again!  Come to church with your children for Kids Thang Family Sunday.  The next date is Sunday, February 5, at 9:30 and 11:00am in the Kid’s Thang theater.  Don’t miss out on sharing this day with your children.  You will laugh together, sing and dance, learn what God says about our new virtue, and leave church talking about what you experienced together!