Shelby County Today

July 18, 2026 - Join a 5th Sunday Community Fellowship on August 30 from 4pm to 7pm at Tie and Timber Lodge in downtown Timpson for a special evening of fellowship, music, and food as we come together to praise the Lord and celebrate our community.

This will be a wonderful time for our community to gather, socialize, and enjoy gospel music shared by different churches. Everyone is invited to be part of the “Bring & Share” dinner—please bring a dish to share such as sandwiches, casseroles, peas, corn, or other covered dishes. Warming ovens will be available along with cooler space. We are positive there will be enough, bringing something is not required. 

It is asked that all covered dishes be clearly marked with:

• What the dish is
• What ingredients were used
• Who made it

Music & Worship

Different churches will be bringing music and sharing their love for Jesus. It is asked that all music be Christian hymns, contemporary, or gospel only.

• Woodland Church will be arranging the music and performance schedule.
• First Baptist Church will be helping arrange the “bring & share” meal.

Everyone is welcome—church members, church groups, and non-church members alike. Church-officiated groups are encouraged to come and show their church talent, and individual churches may also contact us if they would like tables reserved for their members to sit together.

It’s impossible to have a true community get-together without the whole community involved, so come share in Jesus’ love, great food, and uplifting fellowship.

To schedule music or questions, contact Stan Trala: Text or call - 936-244-6732

For questions, reserve tables for your church, contact Paul Smith: Text - or call 936-554-4557; or email: tie.timbertx@gmail.com

All community churches are encouraged to reach out and let it be known how you’d like to help. Those participating look forward to seeing you there.

Please share this with your congregation and other local churches. 

May God continue to bless our community, 

Tie and Timber Lodge & Event Center is loctsed at 397 Jacob Street, Timpson, Texas 75975
Event, Concert & Venue Center with Lodging, café & Game Room - Direct phone number to Lodge 936-262-0208.

July 20, 2026 - Good Morning! It’s Monday, July 20.

The church I worked at yesterday is sending their youth to camp today - on a bus. That news brought back some memories. I can’t begin to count the number of miles I’ve logged over the years on church buses. Mission trips, choir tours, youth camps - it’s probably greater than the distance from the earth to the moon! Many of the early trips, before the “turn of the century”, were on old-school, school buses. The kind with hard bench seats and air conditioning that consisted of sliding down the windows.

Later on we travelled on charter buses, and though they were a lot more expensive, they weren’t that much more comfortable - especially if the bus was jammed full of kids. Kids. Lying in the aisles. Kids. Shouting out “Are we there yet?”. Kids. Wall to wall... KIDS! The excitement of looking forward to those trips was at least equaled by the joy of seeing all those little darlings get back in their parent’s cars at the end of the week.

But, seriously, there are so many wonderful memories from those bus trips. Memories of hosting Vacation Bible Schools in city parks. Memories of being on The Today Show in New York City! Memories of teenagers touching the lives of inner city children and singing to the inmates of a women’s prison. Memories of standing alongside my youth group at Ground Zero a couple of years after 911, and of riding our bus through New Orleans the summer after Hurricane Katrina. I could fill a dozen devotionals with memories like these.

I’ve been in the work long enough that many of the teenagers on those buses have teenagers of their own now, or even teenage grandchildren! Sometimes I imagine them standing in a church parking lot waving goodbye to a bus load of kids. And I imagine, in those moments, that memories like mine flood back to them, and that they recall a time in their youth when God touched them, taught them, used them, blessed them.

Ecclesiastes 12:1 - “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.”

Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com

July 17, 2026 - The cross on Calvary’s hill was already casting its shadow on Jesus when he told his disciples to “love one another” (John 1:34) and then He said, “by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:35)

Sadly, of all the commands Jesus gave, this is more talked about and less obeyed than any of them. If we mean anything when we profess to have love for our brothers and sisters in Christ, it should show itself in our dealings with them.

Love is to be the grand characteristic and distinguishing mark of the followers of Jesus. Notice, Jesus does not name gifts or miracles as being the mark of a Christian. He does not tell us that “Holy Ghost Baptism” is the mark of a Christian. He says it is love. A grace within the reach of the poorest, lowliest believer on the face of the earth.

We can have sound doctrinal opinions, we can be completely orthodox in our view of the Gospel and still be wanting in the eyes of Jesus. If we in our daily lives, give way to ill-temper, malice, envy, quarreling, squabbling, bickering, surliness, passion, snappish language and cross words, we are not exemplifying Jesus in our lives. It is useless for us to talk about justification and regeneration unless others can see in us practical Christian love as Jesus commands.

“By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” How are we doing with that?

It’s something to think about... tbp
Center Church of Christ
www.centerchurchofchrist.com

July 15, 2026 - First Methodist Church - Center will have their Vacation Bible School (VBS) on July 20-23 from 5pm until 7:30pm.

Looking for mountains of fun? You otter be there.

New friends, Amazing experiments, Creative games, Super-fun snacks, Surprising adventures, Incredible music

For more information call 936-598-2707, visit www.centerfirst.org or church office.

First Methodist Church - Center is located at 211 Porter Street in Center.