Dennis R. Wiles
First Baptist Arlington
October 12, 2025
Flourishing Together
First Baptist Arlington
2025 – 2030
2025: Flourishing Together: Rooted in Christ
1 Corinthians 2:6-16 (Gospel Guide: Matthew)
FALL 2025: It is Not Good . . . to be Alone
September 7 – November 1, 2025
The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.”
Genesis 2:18
It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood!
Matthew 5:13-16
God has created all of us with an innate desire for significant and meaningful relationships. We find fulfillment and meaning as we live in relationship with God, with our families, with our friends, and with our church family.
As believers, we are also called to be disciples and to make disciples. We are to live purposefully in relationships so that we can help others to: Know God, Experience God, and Serve God.
Each person in our various relational webs needs . . . to be saved, shepherded, shaped, and sent!
This is for all the lonely people!
SALT AND LIGHT: Jesus challenges us to live influential, inspirational, and informational lives in the various relational contexts of our lives as disciples.
BIG PICTURE
Where and to the extent we are able, faithful presence commits us to do what we can to create conditions in the structures of social life we inhabit that are conducive to the flourishing of all.
-James Davison Hunter, To Change the World
INDIVIDUAL/EVERYDAY LIFE
Through our relational webs (neighborhoods, civic groups, athletic organizations, schools, etc.) we have numerous opportunities to practice faithful presence and Christian hospitality.
INCLUSIVE AND INVITATIONAL
We are to learn how to include people into our circles of relationships and invite them to a life with Jesus!
In a world where our neighbors do not understand our language, friendship—not argument—will become the place of evangelism . . . In the West, secularism is not an argument, it is a mood. The functional atheism we experience is not something that most of us have ever thought out, it’s just the way we feel. Anyone who knows relationship knows you cannot disrupt a mood with an argument, you must disrupt it with a presence.
-Justin Whitmel Early, Made for People