Wells Chapel Baptist Church

10/30/2026

Day 5: Come Together, Come Expecting

Scripture:
"And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching." (Hebrews 10:24-25)

"Let all things be done decently and in order." (1 Corinthians 14:40)

Devotional Thought:
We have come to the last day, and it is the day for the hardest Sundays. I mean the Sunday you wake up tired. The week was long, the bed is warm, and a voice in your head says, "They'll get along fine without me."
But think about the potluck again. If you stay home with your dish, the table has a gap. Maybe nobody will name it out loud, but somebody will go through the line and find that the very thing they needed is not there. That is why the writer of Hebrews says we gather to "stir up love and good works," and why we do not stop meeting together. You are not only coming to receive. You are coming because someone needs what you carry.

So come together, and come expecting. Expect God to meet you. Expect Him to use you. Expect that He has already arranged a seat, a conversation, and a moment where your dish is exactly what is needed.

Paul closes his whole instruction with a gentle word: "Let all things be done decently and in order." Bringing your dish does not mean pushing past everyone else. A good potluck has a line, and everybody waits their turn. Come with love, come with humility, and make room for the next person.

Application:
Pray for people by name this week, even if it is just three or four. Ask the Lord to show you who will be at Wells Chapel or your church on Sunday that needs a word, a smile, or a seat beside them. When you walk through the door, you will already be on your way to the table.

Challenge:
Show up this Sunday, even if you are tired. Come early enough to greet someone. Come expecting God to do something, and come ready to be part of it.

Prayer:
Lord, You have made us one body and set us at one table. Thank You for every member of Wells Chapel. Forgive me for the times I stayed away or came with empty hands. Teach me to come together with love, decently and in order, ready to give and glad to receive. I give You my gift, my weariness, and my willingness. I do not want my place at the table to be empty. Lord, here is my dish. In Jesus' name, Amen.

10/29/2026

Day 4: Prepare Your Dish Before Sunday

Scripture:
"Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You." (Psalm 119:11)
"Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift." (Matthew 5:23-24)

Devotional Thought:
Nobody pulls into the church parking lot on Sunday and starts cooking a casserole. A good dish is planned. Somebody shops, somebody chops, somebody lets the dish bake while the rest of the house gets dressed. By the time it reaches the table, a lot of unseen work has already gone into it.
The same is true of what we bring to worship. We need to prepare and there are three kinds of preparation that matter.
First, prepare in prayer. Ask the Lord before Sunday what He would have you bring. Pray for your pastor, your church, and the people who will sit around you.

Second, prepare in the Word. The psalmist says, "Your word I have hidden in my heart." You cannot share a psalm, a teaching, or a word of encouragement from an empty pantry. A few minutes in Scripture each day stocks the shelves, so that when someone needs a word, you have one.
Third, and this one is easy to skip, prepare in your relationships. Jesus says if you are bringing your gift and remember that your brother has something against you, stop. Leave the gift. Go be reconciled. Then come back and offer it.

Think about what that means at a potluck. You can bring the finest dish in the country, but if you have been holding a grudge against the person at the next seat, the meal is going to taste bitter. Unforgiveness spoils whatever we carry in. God would rather have a humble, reconciled heart with a plain dish than a fancy dish carried by a heart that will not let go.

Application:
Look at your week the way a cook looks at a Saturday kitchen. What do you need to do before Sunday so that you arrive ready to give? A quiet fifteen minutes? A chapter read? A phone call made?

Challenge:
Forgive or reconcile with someone this week. If a name has already come to mind, that is the Spirit speaking. Make the call, write the note, or knock on the door. Do not wait for them to go first.

Prayer:
Father, search my heart. Show me what is stale in my pantry and what is sour in my spirit. Help me hide Your Word in my heart, and give me the grace to forgive as You have forgiven me. Make me ready to bring something good to Your table. In Jesus' name, Amen.

10/28/2026

Join us on Saturday at the park!

10/28/2026

Day 3: Bring It to Build Someone Up

Scripture:

"Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel." (1 Corinthians 14:12)

"Yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue." (1 Corinthians 14:19)

"As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." (1 Peter 4:10)

Devotional Thought:
Paul ended our key verse with these words: "Let all things be done for edification." Edification is a building word. It is the language of a carpenter raising a house, one board at a time, so that people can live in it.
That is why Paul says he would rather speak five words that teach somebody than ten thousand that only impress. The Corinthians loved to show off their gifts. Paul loved to see them put to work.

Think again about the potluck. Why does anybody bring a dish? To feed people. Imagine a cook who sets a casserole on the table, then stands beside it waiting for compliments, and gets upset when folks pass it by for the banana pudding. We would say that cook missed the point. The dish was never about the cook. It was about the hungry person holding a plate.

Peter says the same thing: "minister it to one another, as good stewards." A steward does not own what he handles. A gift is not your trophy. It is something entrusted to you for somebody else's good.

This takes the pressure off. You do not have to be impressive. You only have to be useful. You do not need the biggest dish. You need the one that meets the need in front of you.

And it takes the pride out. If the encouragement you gave went unnoticed, if nobody said thank you for the chairs you set up, you can still rejoice. Someone was fed. That is what the table is for.

Application:
Before you speak, sing, serve, or give this week, check your aim. Am I trying to be seen, or trying to build? The same act of service can be either one, and only God sees the difference.

Challenge:
Ask every day this week: "Lord, what can I bring to build someone up?" Ask it first thing in the morning, and then watch for the answer. Put it on your mirror, your dashboard, or the refrigerator door.
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Prayer:
Lord, make me a builder and not a show-off. Let me be a good steward of what You have given me. Help me forget about being noticed and remember who needs to be fed. Lord, show me what I can bring to build someone up today? In Jesus' name, Amen.

10/27/2026

Day 2: Every Member Has a Dish

Scripture:
"But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased."
"And the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you'; nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary." (verses 21-22)
"Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually." (verse 27)
1 Corinthians 12:12-27

Devotional Thought:
Yesterday we saw Paul's picture of a table where everyone brings something. Look at his words again: "each of you has." Not "some of you." Not "the pastor has." Not "the ones with the best voices" or "the ones who have been here longest." Each of you.

Paul was writing to a church that was, frankly, a mess. The Corinthians were gifted, but they were noisy and competitive. Some were showing off, and some were convinced their gift mattered more than anyone else's. Yet Paul never says, "Sit down and let the professionals handle it." He says the church is at its best when everyone has something to bring.

Here at our church, I do not have to convince you that you have something to give. You are willing. You are gifted. I have watched you sing, pray, teach, encourage, visit the sick, bring a casserole to a grieving family, set up chairs, run the sound, and greet a stranger at the door. I thank God for you.
But some of you think your gift is too small. You are not the soloist. You are not the Sunday school teacher. You do not pray the eloquent prayer. Think about the potluck. Nobody turns away a dish because it is not fancy. I have never seen anyone walk up to a plate of simple biscuits and say, "I'm sorry, these are too plain." Some of the most loved dishes on the table are the plainest ones, the ones that remind somebody of their grandmother's kitchen.

Maybe your dish is a word of encouragement in the hallway. Maybe it is a handwritten note, or a quiet "I've been praying for you" to someone who needed to hear it. Maybe it is simply being the one who notices the visitor sitting alone.

And hear this plainly: when you stay home with your dish, the body is not just quiet. It is incomplete. Somewhere in that room, someone goes hungry for what only you were bringing. It’s like fixing a hot dog. Sometimes you just want to eat a hot dog. So you get the bun, you add the mustard, relish, a little bit of onions, some chili – then you put it in the oven and let it toast for a few minutes. Then you take it out and put it on a plate, add a few chips, get a glass of sweet tea, walk over and sit in your favorite chair. Then you take the hot dog and take a big bite, some of the chili runs down the side of your mouth and you start to chew and that’s when you discover that something’s missing! You forgot the hot dog – the wiener. You thought everything was perfect but you forgot the most important part. That’s what worship is like when you’re not here. Something is missing.

Application:
Do not compare your dish to anyone else's. God set the members in the body "just as He pleased." That includes you, and He did not make a mistake.

Challenge:
Name your dish. Write it down in one plain sentence: "I can bring ________." Then offer it to one person before the week is out.

Prayer
Father, You have set me in this body just as You pleased. Forgive me for calling small what You have called necessary. Show me what You have placed in my hands, and give me the courage to set it on the table. In Jesus' name, Amen.

10/26/2026

Everybody Brings a Dish:
A Five-Day Devotional on Every Member's Part in Worship

Day 1: Worship Is Something We Bring

Scripture:
"How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification." 1 Corinthians 14:26

Devotional Thought:

If you’ve been in a church for very long, especially a small church, then you’re familiar with Potlucks. There are two kinds of church potluck.

At the first, the fellowship hall fills with the smell of fried chicken, green beans, macaroni and cheese, deviled eggs, and at least four kinds of banana pudding. Nobody planned the whole menu. The table is full because each family brought something.

At the second type, everybody walks in and thinks, "Surely somebody else is bringing the main dish." Everyone assumes and nobody brings. Then we stand around a bare table with a bag of paper plates and a lonely bowl of pickles left over from the last potluck.

The difference between those two tables is not talent and it is not budget. It is whether each person came ready to give.

Paul opens with a question: "How is it then, brethren?" In other words, here is what it ought to look like when the church gathers. What does it look like among you? He is talking about "whenever you come together." He is talking about Sunday morning at your church. And he does not picture a crowd waiting to be served or an audience waiting to be entertained. He pictures a table where each one has brought a dish.

A great many of us have been trained, without anyone ever meaning to or realizing it, to think of worship as something we attend. We find our seat, watch what happens up front, say amen in the right places, and go home. Then we review the service like a restaurant: "That was a good service." Or maybe, "That was a boring service."

But Paul is not describing a restaurant. He is describing a potluck. In a restaurant, you sit and are served. At a potluck, you are both the guest and the host. You eat from what others brought, and others eat from what you brought. So hold onto this all week: Worship is something we bring, not something we watch.

Application:
Think about how you walk into the sanctuary. Do you walk in asking, "What will I get out of this?" Or do you walk in asking, "What have I brought for somebody else?" Notice which question comes first in your heart.

Challenge:
This Sunday, arrive as a host, not just a guest. Before you sit down, look for one person you can serve with a greeting, a song sung with all your heart, or a prayer whispered for the person in the next pew.

Prayer:
Lord, forgive me for sitting at Your table like a customer. Teach me to come as family, with something in my hands. Make me a host in Your house this Sunday. In Jesus' name, Amen.

10/25/2026

10/25/2026

What a great time tonight at Trunk or Treat! We had tons of kids and had several that had never done a cake walk before! Everyone went home with lots of goodies and we had a fantastic time of fellowship!

Join us tomorrow for Sunday School at 9:30 and Worship at 10:30. We’re saving a seat just for you!

10/24/2026

10/24/2026

Join us at 6:00 for Trunk or Treat and some Bright Leaf Hot Dogs, a cake walk and chili! We’re saving a plate just for you!