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Small Town Church

Descriptive Index

Site Map: Small Town Baptist .Net

The Small Town Baptist web site is a library providing free resources for those who serve traditional churches (more or less) in small town America. New pdf and audio files are regularly added in sections for Preaching, Leading Worship, Small Town Ministry, Strategies, and Beliefs & Doctrine. There are training materials and resources for Sunday School, Deacon Ministry, the Ministry of the Baptist Association, and Strategic Planning. The Doctrine section offers text and audio files on biblical beliefs including two lengthier sub-sections on the Trinity and on the Person and Work of God the Father. Another subsection includes devotional material in audio and pdf called "Recovering Church Health." While some of the material reflects our Baptist background, other evangelical believers will find almost all of our offerings helpful for use in their churches.

PREACHING    WORSHIP    SMALL TOWN    STRATEGIES    SMALL CHURCH    CHURCH HEALTH    DOCTRINE    TRINITY    THE FATHER



Preaching

Sermon Preparation, Selected Sermons

  • Sub-Section:Sermon Preparation & Planning
  • Booklet: Preparing Sermons with Limited Time
  • Audio Overview: Preparing Sermons with Limited Time
  • Preaching "Food Pyramid" to Help in Sermon Planning
  • Audio: The Preaching Pyramid Tool Explained
  • Audio & Factsheet: Illustrating Sermons
  • Audio: Leading Funerals
  • Booklet: Fact Sheet & Funeral Messages
  • Easter Sermons
  • Christmas Sermons
  • Preaching Tab: Small Town Baptist .Net


    Worship

    Leading Worship, Prayer, and Praise

    Many are re-thinking how to lead worship, seeking ways to make it less about attending the "church show" and watching other people worship like a spectator - and more about the people gathering to worship. This page also provides resources for a prayer emphasis and corporate prayer.
  • Sub-Section: Leading Worship
  • Booklet: Leading Worship
  • What Worship Is and Our Role as Worship Leaders
  • Where's the Gift of Music?
  • Biblical Calls to Worship
  • Audio: Leading Trinitarian Worship
  • List: Biblical Trinitarian Praise
  • List: Bible Belief Verse of the Week
  • Article: Time of Confession
  • Articles & List: Assurance of Forgiveness
  • List: Bible-Based Prayers for Understanding
  • List: Benedictions -Speaking Blessings Over God's People
  • A Plan for a Themed Intergenerational Service
  • Sub-Section: Praise
  • Booklet: Describing God, on the arrtibutes of God
  • Sub-Section: Leading a Praying Church
  • Booklet: Leading a Prayer Emphasis
  • Leading Guided Prayer
  • Audio: Praying Your People Toward Prayer, Bob Weber
  • Audio: How to Have a Devotional Time, John Fain
  • Audio: How to Hear God, John Fain
  • Audio: Reenergizing Our Quiet Time, Fain & Weber
  • Worship Tab: Small Town Baptist .Net


    Small Town Ministry

    The Unwritten Rules for Ministering in a Small Town

    If you grew up in suburb and have been called to a small town, this page might be especially helpful for you.
  • Advantages of Small Town Ministry
  • Don't Let 'Em Get You Down
  • Off-Site Links
  • Small Town Ministry Tab: Small Town Baptist .Net


    Strategies

    Strategic Planning, Church Health, Sunday School, Deacon Ministry, Associational Ministry

  • Strategic Planning
  • Ministry Project Planning
  • Recovering Church Health
  • Emphasis Ideas
  • Booklet: Recovering Church Health
  • Hear Booklet Devotionals in Audio
  • World Evangelization
  • Audio: Are You Willing to be Number 4?, Roy Fish
  • One Sentence Testimonies Worksheet
  • Audio: How to Talk with Children About Salvation
  • Spiritual Gifts
  • Booklet: How to Recognize Your Gift
  • Booklet: What About the So-Called Charismatic Gifts?
  • Ministry Teams
  • Audio: Decentralizing Ministry Without Anarchy
  • Building Programs
  • The Building Process
  • Balanced Space
  • Space Evaluation Worksheets
  • Spreadsheet: Worship Center Capacity, Pews
  • Spreadsheet: Sunday School Capacities
  • Capital Campaigns: An Introduction
  • Sunday School
  • Booklet: Adult Teacher Training Booklet (21 pages)
  • PowerPoint: 1. Sunday School: Still a Good Idea
  • PowerPoint: 2. Bible Study Tools
  • PowerPoint: 3. Teaching the Passage
  • PowerPoint: 4. Sunday School, Evangelism, & Disipleship
  • PowerPoint: 5. Sunday School: Ministering
  • PowerPoint: 6. Starting Classes
  • Audio & Fact Sheet: Starting New Classes Like New Churches
  • Audio: Types of Adult Classes
  • Audio: Rebranding Sunday School is Not Enough
  • Deacon Ministry
  • Booklet: The Biblical Role of Deacons
  • PowerPoints for Deacon Ministry Skill Training:
  • PowerPoint:How to Give Your Testimony
  • PowerPoint: Leading Public Prayer
  • PowerPoint: Making Hospital Visits
  • PowerPoint: Protecting Church Unity
  • PowerPoint: Making Hospital Visits
  • PowerPoint: Biblical Role of Deacons
  • PowerPoint: Staffing the Church
  • PowerPoint: Crisis Management
  • Associational Missions & Ministry
  • Devotionals: Church Members, the Association, & the Mission
  • Prayer Guide for Associations: Look on the Fields
  • Miscelllaneous
  • Vacation Bible School: Observations & Suggestions
  • Strategies Tab: Small Town Baptist .Net


    Small Church Ministry Sub-Index

  • Ideas for Leading Worship & Ministry in the Small Church:
  • Audio Session 1: You're Not So Small, Elevate the Fellowship
  • Audio Session 2: What Worship Is & Our Role as Worship Leaders
  • Session 2, continued: If You Can't Sing It, Say it!
  • Audio Session 3: Vision and Your Church's Niche
  • Audio Session 4: Options for Small Churches ih Critical Decline
  • Audio Session 5: Pastoral Leadership in the Small Church
  • Fact Sheets & Articles (some found also in other sections):
  • Leading Guided Prayer
  • Ideas for Livening Up the Worship Service in a Small Church
  • Leading Guided Prayer
  • Biblical Calls to Worship
  • Bible Belief Verse of the Week
  • Time of Confession in Worship
  • Assurance of Forgiveness
  • Benedictions: Speaking Blessing Over God's People
  • A Plan for a Themed Intergenerational Service
  • Sub-Index: Small Church Ministry


    Recovering Church Health Sub-Index

  • A devotional booklet and ideas for an emphasis on strengthening church health. Each day's devotional is available in audio.
  • Sub-Index: Recovering Church Health


    Doctrine

    Helps for Understanding and Teaching Biblical Beliefs

    The materials under this tab offer helpful resources for teaching biblical truths. Some will be helpful for the minister's personal edification. You may also want to take notice below of the sub-index on the Trinity and on God the Father.

  • Booklet: Know the Truth: 62 Questions & Answers for Families
  • Verse List: Bible Belief Verse of the Week
  • Sub-Index: The Trinity
  • Sub-Index: The Person and Work of God the Father (Paterology)
  • Audio: The Doctrine of Man
  • Booklet: The Attributes of God
  • Baptist Faith & Message 2000, compared to 1925 & '63
  • Doctrine Tab: Small Town Baptist .Net


    Trinity Sub-Index

    The Trinity
  • 1. A Young Couple (3:24) {audio}
  • 2. We're Not Unitarians (5:43) {audio}
  • 3. Let's Take a Fresh Look (2:45) {audio}
  • 4. The Guardrails (4:16) {audio} {fact sheet}
  • 5. Guardrail 1: There is One God (4:22) {audio}
  • 6. The Oneness of God (4:33) {audio}
  • 7. Guardrail 2: There Are Three Persons (3:20) {audio} {fact sheet}
  • 8. Reasons We Miss the Three-ness (3:03) {audio}
  • 9. What We Mean by Person (4:46) {audio}
  • 10. Three Persons... Simultaneously (2:17) {audio}
  • 11. Guardrail 3: Each Person is Fully God - The Father (3:41) {audio}
  • 12. Jesus, the Son, is Eternal God (5:51) {audio}
  • 13. The Spirit is God (4:39) {audio}
  • 14. How the Incarnation Fits (4:11) {audio} {fact sheet}
  • 15. How God's Plan Unfolded (12:29) {audio}
  • 16. Christ-Centered or Triune? (4:15) {audio}
  • 17. Guardrail 4: There Are Three Persons Eternally (6:01) {audio}
  • 18. Guardrail 5: The Persons Are Distinct (3:35) {audio}
  • 19. Guardrail 6: The Persons Mutually Indwell Each Other (3:57) {audio}
  • 20. Guardrail 7: Inseparable Operations (6:29) {audio}
  • 21. From the Father, Through the Son, By the Spirit (6:51) {audio}
  • 22. There's Always That Guy (3:50) {audio}
  • 23. Is Eternal Generation a Thing? (8:41) {audio}
  • 24. The Procession of the Spirit (5:44) {audio}
  • 25. Outward Missions Reveal Inward Relations (4:15) {audio}
  • 26. The Persons of the Trinity Glorify One Another (4:45) {audio}
  • 27. Why isn't the Spirit Mentioned? (3:56) {audio}
  • 28. Leading Trinitarian Worship (5:34) {audio}
  • 29. Preaching Trinitarianly (4:59) {audio}
  • 30. Equipping Members to Worship Trinitarily (6:22) {audio}
  • Glossaries

  • A Shorter Glossary of Trinitarian Terms {audio} {fact sheet}
  • A Longer Glossary of Trinitarian Terms {audio} {fact sheet}
  • Recorded Live: Some audio files have been edited by the speaker for length and polish.

  • Recorded Live: The Three-ness of God (30:26) {audio} {fact sheet}
  • Passage List: Passages Mentioning the Three Persons {passage list}
  • Recorded Live: Seven Guardrails in Understanding the Trinity (56:15) {audio} {fact sheet}
  • Recorded Live: Eight Principles in Understanding the Incarnation (26:23) {audio} {fact sheet}
  • Recorded Live: Nine Objections to the Trinity (33:15) {audio} {fact sheet}
  • Recorded Live: How is God the Father... a Father? (9:27) {audio} {fact sheet}
  • Recorded Live: God the Father: Source & Planner (30:26) {audio} {fact sheet}
  • Recorded Live: Is God the Same in Public as He is in Private? (56:15) {audio} {fact sheet}
  • Recorded Live: Relating to God the Father (17:17) {audio} {fact sheet}
  • Trinitarian Worship

  • Trinitarian Praise: Bible-Based Trinitarian Praise (pdf)
  • Sub-Index: The Trinity


    God the Father Sub-Index

    The Person and Work of God the Father (Paterology)
  • 1. What Can We Say About God the Father? (5:58) {audio}
  • 2. Father as Metaphor (4:34) {audio}
  • 3. The Father is Called, Simply, God (6:27) {audio}
  • 4. How is the Father a Father? (6:03) {audio}
  • 5. The Planning Father (6:05) {audio}
  • 6. The Distant Father (3:10) {audio}
  • 7. The Sending Father (3:30) {audio}
  • 8. Access to the Father (5:43) {audio}
  • 9. Access to the Father Experienced (5:51) {audio}
  • 10. The Father Giving the Son (5:05) {audio}
  • 11. The Father Raised Jesus from the Dead (6:02) {audio}
  • 12. The Father Hearing & Answering Prayer (14:37) {audio}
  • 13. The Father Adopting (9:19) {audio}
  • 14. The Father and His Kingdom (8:11) {audio}
  • 15. The Father Correcting (8:23) {audio}
  • 16. Repentance Toward God (3:56) {audio}
  • 17. Your Father (5:57) {audio}
  • 18. The God & Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ (2:25) {audio}
  • 19. Our God and Father (2:24) {audio}
  • 20. The Father: Summary & Closing Argument (7:50) {audio}

  • Recorded Live

  • Some audio files have been edited by the speaker for length and polish.
  • Recorded Live: How is God the Father... a Father? (9:27) {audio} {fact sheet}
  • Recorded Live: God the Father: Source & Planner (35:54) {audio} {fact sheet}
  • Recorded Live: Relating to God the Father (17:17) {audio} {fact sheet}
  • Sub-Index: God the Father



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    Some visitors to the site may recognize some material from our previous site, The Baptist Start Page.


    PERMISSION FOR USE:

    All resources, whether audio, pdf, or web files, are free without further requests for permission to use.
    "From www.smalltownbaptist.net" is all that is asked for attribution.
    Unless otherwise noted: Articles, fact sheets, and audio are from Derek Gentle,
    who spent 24 years of his ministry in Tallassee, Alabama.



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