AROUND MABELVALE
Dennis Gulledge

     What is going on around Mabelvale that you might like to know about and perhaps join in as a participant?  Listed below are some of the happenings in the Lord’s church at Mabelvale intended for the glory of God.

Monthly Preacher’s Luncheon
     The Mabelvale church is now hosting a monthly area-wide preacher’s luncheon that meets every first Tuesday of the month.  We will meet in the corner adult classroom in the all-purpose area at 10:30 AM each time.  If we should need more space we will move to another classroom. The program will include a brief talk, a book review, sermon outlines presented, a religious journal reviewed and sermon illustrations given. We will make announcements of area-wide events.  We will dismiss at about 12:00 noon to eat at a local restaurant.
New Class on the Causes of Unbelief
     The Wednesday night class taught by Dennis Gulledge and Dale Morris has begun a study of the new book by Bert Thompson entitled, “The Many Faces, and Causes of Unbelief.”  This new study began on January 5th.  This promises to be a very interesting, informative and challenging study.  We would love to have as many as can to join us in this class.
“House to House, Heart to Heart”
     “House to House, Heart to Heart” is a relatively new mass mailing evangelistic tool produced by Allen Webster, preacher for the Lord’s church in Jacksonville, AL.  Some of you will know brother Webster as one of the staff writers for Gospel Gleaner.  He is an excellent Bible student and an outstanding writer.  The Mabelvale elders have elected to utilize this wonderful evangelistic medium in the hopes of reaching more people in our area with the gospel of Christ.  This tool will present extremely well written articles by Allen Webster and others, and will allow us to advertise up-coming events such as Vacation Bible School, gospel meetings, singings, etc.  We are now in the process of expediting this new program.  You will be hearing more about it in the new future.
Gospel Gleaner
     Our work with the quarterly journal Gospel Gleaner continues to grow.  The circulation of the paper has grown to 5821 with the fourth quarterly mailing of 1999.  We expect very soon to top the 6,000 mark in circulation.  The Mabelvale elders agreed to increase the amount budgeted for the paper from $4,000 to $5,000 for the year 2000.  This vote of confidence from the Mabelvale elders is certainly indicative of the way that the Gospel Gleaner is becoming more widely known and utilized.  Gospel Gleaner will have a special display at the Freed-Hardeman University lectures in February.