| August 5, 2026 | |
 | From the Desk of your AMSLet’s Celebrate Socks and Underwear Collection Upcoming Opportunities: August LoveBurke Schools Needs 2 More Sponsors Created for This- Pastor’s Wives Interactive Art Event Christmas in August Ducktown Mission Trip Pray for our CRBA Pastors of the Week More CRBA Calendar Events Resource of the Week VBS at CRBA Churches Save the Date: September Church & Ministry Partner News |
 A Great Day at Walker Road 08.02.2026From Michael…God has provided Amanda and me with the incredible blessing of spending time with so many of our wonderful people in the churches of the CRBA. On Sunday, Aug. 2, we attended a very well-prepared, well-presented Sunday School lesson followed by a great worship service! Pastor Mark Ball invited me to share the message on Sunday morning. Praise God for how He is changing lives in and through our CRBA churches!  Oak Ridge Baptist Church 08.02.2026 Pastor Nicholas Wilson taught on Islam and Sharing the Gospel with Muslims as his focus on Sunday evening. He pulled in the “Do’s and Don’ts” and best practices – from several different resources. It was a challenging topic, but Nick did a great job walking the congregation through the session!__________________________ Join us for our Thursday Pastors LuncheonWe hope you can join us! Lifeway Disciples Path. The orientation to this resource will be led by our LifeWay Church Solutions Partner for this region – April Rousseau. Thursday, August 6 11:30am NOTE Early Start Time Lunch is provided (for those who registered). If you didn’t register, come on and join us – just bring your lunch! | From the Desk of your AMS (Associational Mission Strategist) August 5 – Simplicity in Preaching How do we convey complex truths in simple ways? While most of our weekly newsletter readers are pastors of our churches, many of you serve in other areas of worship ministry, student ministry, children’s ministry, deacons, or other support roles. Regardless of your role, you have undoubtedly had times where you were tasked with teaching – and you struggled with how to convey that simply. Though not one of our Baptist resources, I gleaned some great tips from J.C. Ryle’s book Simplicity in Preaching. In this book, he wrote about the challenges he faced in preaching in his context. As he sought to teach profound truths in accessible ways, he developed several keys that served as great reminders for me today: 1. Understand clearly what you are preaching. When you are clear on the text, you will convey it more clearly and succinctly. 2. Use simple words. How can you convey this complex idea in accessible terms? 3. Use a simple style of composition. Organize your thoughts in a way that is easily heard and applied. 4. Speak directly. Rather than general terminology, use “I” and “you.” 5. Use illustrations and stories. Since our audiences are hearing more than reading, stories re-engage the audience with the topic. How often have I missed the mark simply because I did not utilize these tips? Maybe you are challenged in your delivery just as I was while reading those keys this week. Pastors, teachers, ministry leaders – I am praying for you as God opens doors to share His profound, life-changing truths! Michael R. Hodge Associational Mission Strategist/Director of Missions Upcoming Association Ministries As you will see in this issue, we have several great association ministries happening soon. From the Mission Trip to Ducktown, TN to our Praise & Prayer on the Square event (with Mission Fair at 6pm)…to our LoveBurke school partnership initiative, it’s a great time to serve together in Burke County!There’s a lot in this issue of our newsletter!  | |
| Let’s Celebrate | ||
Underwear and Sock Collection for Ducktown | A Room Full of Generosity!Thank you to the many CRBA churches that generously donated new socks and underwear for the Copper Basin Crisis Center in Ducktown, Tennessee. Together, you collected an incredible 41 cases and bags of much-needed items!As you can see from the photo, the donations nearly filled an entire room, and they’ll likely fill a van as our CRBA ladies deliver them on their mission trip this weekend. Your generosity will be a tremendous blessing to the families served by the Copper Basin Crisis Center and is a wonderful reminder of how God works through His people when we come together to meet practical needs.Thank you for your faithful giving, your compassionate hearts, and for helping make this mission trip a meaningful expression of Christ’s love. | |
| Upcoming Opportunities: August | ||
| LoveBurke Needs: | ||
 | We have 2 schools that still have no sponsor. Would you be willing to sponsor a 2nd school, or perhaps split the cost and partner with another church to sponsor one of these schools? Schools still needing to be sponsored (as of August 3) East Burke High School (90 staff) Hallyburton Academy (10 staff) (will be located at Draughn this year) Click this link to reserve your spot in this serve project. | |
| AAttention Pastor’s Wives | ||
| CRBA Ministry Wives Mark your Calendars for this event in September. This will be an interactive art event led by Amanda Hodge. This is for all our CRBA ministry wives. Bring finger food to share. No Cost. Casual Attire Bible Study, Art Opportunity, & Encouragement! |  | |
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| Praying for our CRBA Pastors | |
 Churches Without Senior Pastors Bethlehem FBC ConnellySprings FBC Morganton Catawba Valley Silver Creek First Hmong | Each week, we feature several of our Pastors who faithfully serve in our CRBA churches. We are providing a contact email for encouragement purposes. Please pray for these pastors – and send a much deserved word of encouragement as well! Featured Pastors for this WeekDrexel First Baptist Church (Interim Pastor Mike Chandler- drexelfbc@gmail.com) East Valdese Baptist Church (Pastor Chip Stallings- pastorchip@evbc.church) El Bethel Baptist Church (Pastor Justin Cunningham- jcunningham54@gmail.com) Enon Baptist Church (Randall Frantz- pastorrandallenonbc@gmail.com) Faith Missionary Baptist Church (Pastor Terry Robinson- tprobinson79@gmail.com) First Baptist Icard (Pastor Micheal Pardue- mpardue@fbicard.org) Friendship Baptist Church (Pastor James Cain- jamesccainjr@gmail.com) CRBA Churches Seeking Staff If you would like to see a list of the staff openings in our CRBA churches, please visit our website here. Please be in prayer for our churches seeking to fill staff positions. |
| More CRBA Calendar Events | ||
     | August Christmas in August Toy Drive all month 6- Pastors Lunch and Learn- Lifeway Disciples Path 7-8- Women and girls mission trip to Ducktown TN 9- Community Choir Rehearsal @ Pleasant Ridge 6:30pm 10- Men’s Rally @ Burkemont 6PM 16- Praise and Prayer on the Square September Baptist Mission Offering Emphasis 10- 6:30pm Created for This- Pastor’s Wives Event at CRBA 13- Timothy Project 17- Pastor’s Breakfast at CRBA @ 8:00am. 15- Senior Adult Lunch 19- Golf Tournament 19- Women’s Breakfast 22- From Our Seats to the Streets 23- SYATP Youth Rally 26- Youth and Children’s Volunteer Training 30- Oct. 8- Armenia Mission Trip October 2- Tractor Show 5&6- Toy Store Registration 8- Timothy Project 18- Fall Meeting @ Mt. Home 18- Coats for the City Donations due at Fall Meeting 18- Momentum Youth Rally @ Burkemont 27- Gospel Legacy Training for Sr. Adults @ 10am November 8- Timothy Project 9- Men’s Rally @ Grace 21- NC Baptist Marriage Conference with Gary Chapman @ Burkemont December 3-6- Coats for City Trip to NYC 7-10- Toy Store | |
| CRBA Resource of the Week | |
 | Your CRBA has Kan Jam available for you to check out. Checking out any resource is free of charge to all our CRBA churches. If you would like to reserve any CRBA resource just call (828) 437-0137. |
| Vacation Bible School | |
| VBS at CRBA Churches | |
| North Laurel –August 8th from 10am-3pm North Laurel invites you to attend their 1 day VBS from 10:00am – 3:00pm. Location: 1942 Laurel St NE, Valdese, NC 28690 For more info: (828) 874-4080 | |
| East Valdese- August 2-5 | Enon- August 2-5 from 6:00-8:30pm Ages 3 and up  |
Summit Community- August 3-6 | Icard’s Grove- August 15 from 9am-3pm  |
Lakeview- August 10-13 | |
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| A local church is looking for a mini-bus or a 15 passenger van to purchase. They would love a wheel chair lift attached, but they are definetly considering vehicles without a lift as well. If you have one for sale please let Ken Davis know 828-569-4974 | |||
| Region 8 Mission Rally- August 18 In August 2026, Baptists on Mission will host a series of Regional Mission Rallies across the state. These rallies (10 of them) will highlight the variety of opportunities NC Baptists have to be involved in missions across our state, nation and world. Featured will be worship, testimonies, mission videos, and a prayer time for missions. These rallies are for anyone in your church who is interested in missions. A main focus of these rallies will be state, national, international partnerships and projects (including Disaster Relief) and the NC Missions Offering.Region 8 Rally will be held in Lincolnton: 618 S Grove St, Lincolnton, NC 28092 Please register for the rally by August 11th so they can prepare the correct amount of food for the evening meal. |  Chainsaw Crews needed for Baptist on Mission Projects in our area. Call Danny Moore 828-310-2962 | ||
| Missionary Care Training Calvary West, 136 Medical Dr, Advance, NC 27006 Thursday, August 27, 2026 Cost: $10/person | |||
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