OUR CHURCH LIFE

At First Baptist Church, the pastor has generally been the primary planner and leader of the worship service. During the past four years when Rev. Halliburton was our minister, we had two worship services each Sunday. The early service was a contemporary service with a praise team leading the music. The latter service was a traditional service with a song leader leading the congregation in traditional hymns. Recently, we have combined into one worship service with a blend of traditional and contemporary styles of music. Our Church has an organ and piano and our praise team contributes with drums, guitars and tambourine.

Approximately 100 persons attend worship service each Sunday. Lay leaders participate in the worship service with announcements, scripture reading and prayer. Lay leaders have delivered the message on occasion. Solo or special music is quite common and a children's choir has recently started participating. The pastor serves Holy Communion monthly on the first Sunday of each month. Children's Church occurs at the same time as our worship service and averages about 12 children each week.

We have a nursery staffed by volunteers for all Sunday, Wednesday and special services of the Church. A "cry room" with closed-circuit TV is available so parents with fussy babies may comfort their infants and still share in the worship service.

Our worship services are friendly and somewhat informal as to attire. Greeting is an important activity to our congregation and to the ushering staff. Our congregation enjoys a variety of worship styles and sermon topics. Responsive readings, litanies, unison prayers and unison scripture readings have occasionally been part of our worship services. We have a quality sound system and computerized audio/visual equipment which contribute to our worship activities.

Sunday School is available to all ages of the church and we average about 60 people each week in Sunday School. Sunday School classes include pre-school and kindergarten, first and second grades, third and fourth grades, fifth and sixth grades, junior high, high school and three adult classes. A nursery (for ages up to 4 yrs.)is available during Sunday School.

Wednesday night is Family Night at First Baptist. The Youth Ministry for junior and senior high kids is attended by 25 to 30 youth from the community. Pre-school and kindergarten, first through third grades and fourth through sixth grades classes are offered on these Wednesday nights. Nursery services are available. An adult Bible study is offered on Wednesday morning and another adult Bible study is offered during Family Night on Wednesday evening.

Summer camp at Camp WYOBA (American Baptist Youth Camp near Casper, WY) is promoted to all youth of the Church. Scholarships are available. Each year, the Youth Ministry sponsors at least one trip to a regional "Acquire the Fire" program.

First Baptist offers many other activities to praise the Lord. Vacation Bible School, which reaches over 100 children from our community, is a well-planned and quality program that many of our members support. Our Church contributes to a Deacon's Fund that gives financial assistance to families from our community who need a helping hand. We sponsor a bread ministry, delivering home-baked bread to newcomers of our community. We have a radio ministry which features a recording of a recent sermon on the local radio station on Sunday mornings. We have a prayer chain and flower ministry that is quite active. Men of the church have a weekly prayer breakfast on Saturday morning with 20-25 men participating. Women are active in American Baptist Women's Ministry and have hosted their the Wyoming State Conference for the past two years. Women also participate in Ruth Circle, craft night and an exercise group. Special topic classes, teacher training classes, spiritual gifts assessment classes and new Christian classes have also been offered.