As we conclude the two-year ADVANCE initiative, we pause to thank God for His many blessings. While things didn’t unfold exactly as we had planned, we are reminded that God is still good in all things. Though this initiative has come to a close, God’s work is far from finished. He continues to move in and through each of us as we strive to give ordinary people a place to belong, so they can experience an extraordinary life in Christ.

It’s hard to believe that two years have already passed since we began ADVANCE! While the journey hasn’t looked exactly as we imagined, God’s goodness has been evident every step of the way. We are excited to continue trusting Him as He leads us into the next season at FBC.

Watch this final video update from Pastor Micah to see where we’re leaving things for now.

We kicked off our AWANA children’s program this month, and the turnout has been amazing! We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to invest in each child’s growth and faith every week.

Want to get your kids involved? Sign them up today at: www.fbcbelong.com/awana

This month, our Young Adult Ministry embarked on a Missions Trip to Romania! For nine days, they partnered with our missionaries, Gerald and Kristin Ziemer, to serve at their summer camp, Camp Eli, hosting and ministering to many children.

Watch this video for a glimpse of all the incredible things they experienced and accomplished while there!

This summer, our Faith Kids and Faith Students had the amazing opportunity to attend various camps! It was a true blessing for each of them as they spent focused, quality time growing in their relationship with the Lord.

We also celebrated our annual Vacation Bible School during the last week of the month. The gospel was shared with so many children, and we are overjoyed that several came to know Jesus as their Savior!

Our highlight for June was the "Legacy" Men's Conference! We were blessed to hear from guest speakers Ken Whitten and Rob Taylor, who each shared a powerful Word from the Lord. It was an incredible weekend filled with encouragement, fellowship, and spiritual growth for our men.

During the month of May, we had the privilege of sitting down with Pastor Todd as he shared his journey since experiencing a stroke this past November and how it is shaping his life. His testimony is a powerful reminder of God’s faithfulness. We’ve seen the Lord move in miraculous ways already, and we believe He is far from finished with Pastor Todd! To see his testimony, watch this video.

April was a month of celebration at FBC!
We rejoiced together in several meaningful ways:

• Easter Sunday brought a powerful time of worship with 1,086 people in attendance.

• We celebrated 54 years of God's faithfulness at FBC with baptisms. Our church family honored our pastors with heartfelt gifts and cards—thank you for your love and generosity!

• We finished off the month with 3 known salvations. Praise the Lord!

March was a monumental month for our Advance Initiative! We are thrilled to announce that we officially paid off the mortgage on our property. FBC is now completely debt-free!

Praise the Lord for His provision and for the faithfulness of our church family. This is a significant step forward, and we’re excited to see what God has in store next!

This month we celebrated all that God has done in the past year here at Faith. We have much to be thankful for as we look back and see the many blessings God has given. To see a glimpse, watch the video, and to see the full report, click here: https://fbcbelong.com/impactreport2024/

This month we were able to double our missionary support through Advance giving.

For Christmas, we took up a special offering to help several of our missionaries with things they needed:

• TTI (The Timothy Initiative) - plant more churches in Africa
• The Smith's in Tanzania - funds to help them launch a Bible College
• Haroon Masih, MissioServe in Pakistan - a Rickshaw for transportation
• Church Planting America - help start churches here in the US

We were able to give to each one. Pictured to the left is a Rickshaw missionary, Haroon Masih, who was able to purchase with the money gifted through this offering.

At our annual Thanksgiving 1+1+1 Food Giveaway, we served over 35 families. During this time, we also kicked off ADVANCE Halftime, celebrating the one-year anniversary of when we began our ADVANCE initiative.

Two hurricanes hitting our area within twelve days have delayed some of the bids forecasted to have been completed by this date; however, the Right of Way (ROW) Permit has been approved – Praise the Lord!!  Watch this video to see how our church sprung into action to help during this hurricane season and to see the latest update on permit status. 

As of this month, our property site permit was approved by Pasco County!  We rejoice in yet another milestone reached.  Bids are underway with contractors for the coming work.  Still pending though is a secondary Right of Way (ROW) Permit that will enable us to accomplish necessary work alongside Ridge Road.  We are praying for this to be realized next month.   

Pastor Todd addresses the church as we approach the one-year anniversary of the Advance Initiative.  Coming next month we will review progress, celebrate progress, and look ahead to what is next. 

While development plans remain in motion, our ministry Advances. We saw over 200 children in attendance during VBS 2024, with 11 salvations!

On this month, our church submitted an updated site development permit with Pasco County.  In this video update, Pastor Todd updates the church on current progress and also shares his and Angela’s own personal journey through ADVANCE. 

Our church is continuing to ADVANCE through ministry, outreach, and campus expansion efforts.  Watch the video and read letter to learn more.

In April we celebrated our 53rd church anniversary with 22 people Advancing in their relationship with Christ through believers baptism.

In March we were able to remove two houses from our property.  This demolition is exciting for us as it enables us to continue making room for a future parking lot and further campus expansion plans!

We are only a few months into our initiative.  Already we are seeing progress as our church ADVANCES.  Watch the video and read the update letter to learn more of what has transpired during the first quarter of ADVANCE. 

As promised, we doubled our mission support funds to all of our missionary partners.  These funds have been released enabling us to serve missionary endeavors all over the world helping serve villages like this one.

Dr. David Nelms, President of The Timothy Initiative, gives an update on the $10,000 they received from our church which went directly to start 25 churches in Togo, Africa.  This is part of the large goal of planting 400 new churches through ACHIEVE (a church in every village, everywhere). 

Our initiative began on the first Sunday of November.  This was an incredible moment as our church stepped forward with the largest one-week offering we have ever received.  The total for this one-day offering was $196,000 (six times the typical Sunday offering total). 

We asked the church to commit and trust God financially by turning in their Advance Commitment Cards.

Pastor Todd unveils the Vision of Advance to the church and asks them to start praying on what God would have them do to Move Faith Forward.