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Site Map: Descriptive Directory

Major Indices

Apologetics
Reasons it is intellectually honest to believe

How to Become a Christian
You can have a relationship with God that is full & meaningful

Baptist Beliefs: Doctrine & Theology
What Christians Believe, Baptist Distinctives

  • Specific Christian Beliefs Distinctive Baptist Beliefs
  • Creeds & Confessions
  • Baptist Confessions
  • General Theology Reference
  • Baptist Books on Doctrine
  • Southern Baptist Baptist Resources
  • Calvinistic Baptist
  • Reformed Sites
  • The Church
  • Church History
  • Classic Christian Works
  • Baptist Faith & Message for Online Bible

Bible Study Tools
 Bible in multiple translations online, reference works, commentaries, Sunday School lesson helps, free Bible program downloads. See also Beliefs & Doctrine section and the Sermon section.

Also, the Christian Magazines section is helpful in preparation and for illustrations.

Building Programs
 Articles and resources for churches planning a building program. Covers the entire construction process - from ministry plan and space studies to capital fund campaign, specific space areas, and architects & contractors. If your church needs to add new education space or construct a new worship center, this page will be helpful. See also Relocation.

Christian Citizen
Resources for effective Christian citizenship. Contact your representatives, find sites on issues, links to the sites of political parties and think tanks, or look at historic documents.

Church Health & Growth
A wide variety of information and links for the church that wants to impact their community with the Gospel. Includes sub-sections on:

  • Leadership and vision
  • Church administration
  • Turn-around churches
  • Ministry teams
  • Church unity
  • Sunday School Growth & Ministry
  • Planting New Ministry
  • Web Ministry
  • e-mailing lists
  • For multi-site, see Relocation Section
  • See also Outreach Index, Evangelism,and Disciple-making sections.

Deacons

  • Biblical Role of Deacons
  • Deacon Ministries
  • Deacons & Church Growth
  • Administrative Resources
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Relations with Pastor & Staff
  • See also, Help for Hurting Pastors

Disciple Making
Articles, tools, and sites for developing disciples.

Evangelism
Articles, approaches, and tools about/for sharing the good news.

Family
Index to sites on family, marriage, & parenting.

First Baptist Church, Tallassee
First Baptist is the patron of the Baptist Start Page. Find information about the church in this section of the site.

Help!
Resources for Problems

  • Abuse
  • Birth Defects, Parents of Child with
  • Conflict
  • Crisis Pregnancy
  • Depression
  • Divorce / Troubled Marriages
  • Gambling Addiction
  • Grief
  • Guilt
  • Pornography
  • Prison
  • Self-Esteem
  • Sexual Issues
  • Substance Abuse

Homework Help

  • Dictionaries & Reference Tools
  • General Reference Tools
  • Homework Help
  • English
  • Geography
  • History
  • Mathematics
  • Science
  • Online Books
  • Translation Tools

Illustrations
Places to find illustrations for your sermons or Bible studies. See Sermons for more resources for preaching

Magazines
Index to Christian magazines online. Very helpful for sermon and Bible study/Sunday School lesson preparation.

Ministry Staff
This page has information and links of interest to members of the ministerial staff (that is, other than the senior pastor). See also Church Health & Growth and Help for Hurting Ministers.

Ministry Teams
This is a sub-section found on the Church Health & Growth Page and is possibly the most complete listing of ministry team information on the Internet.

Missions

  • Southern Baptist Missions Agencies
  • Other Missions Agencies & Information
  • Articles on Missions
  • Sermons on Missions
  • Information by Country
  • Current Time around the World
  • Translation Tools
  • See also our index to John Piper's Missions Sermons

News & Views
If you have ever seen the Drudge Report's list of columnists, this page is kind of like that. It's a comprehensive index of news and opinion from Christian and secular news sources: newspapers, broadcast, internet sources, blogs, etc.

Outreach Index
Outreach is a term Baptists use to cover the entire spectrum of evangelism, restoring backslidden Christians, Sunday School growth, etc. This is an extra index to help you find all the pages and sub-sections on the Baptist Start Page that relate to outreach.

Prayer Week
This is a collection of materials used at First Baptist Church, Tallassee for the annual prayer emphasis. We got the idea from Bethelehem Baptist Church; so we also have an index to John Piper's Prayer Week Sermons.

BSP Index to John Piper's Prayer Week Sermons

Help for Hurting Pastors
Help for pastors and staff members who are feeling overwhelmed, under stress, under attack, or who in trouble. Sub-sections include:

  • Stories and Testimonies
  • Encouraging Messages
  • Ministers' Personal Struggles & Growth
  • Bitterness, anger, depression, etc.
  • Minister's Professional Development
  • Ministers' Family Life
  • Ministers' Wives
  • PK's - Preacher's Kids
  • When Sin Preys on the Pastorium
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Staff Relationshps
  • Someone's Trying to Run You Off
  • Termination
  • Compensation Resources

PowerPoint Resources
Need a background for your sermon or a photo or cartoon to illustrate your point? We link to both free and commercial sites to help you find what you need. See also Sermon section and the Sermon Illustrations section.

Relocation
Is your church landlocked or in a changing context? Has there been talk about relocating? If your church is trying to decide this issue, First Baptist is sharing with you our experience. You will find information on the decision process and how to present the issue to your congregation. Page has on-site materials and links. As far as we can tell, this is the Internet's only index on relocation. Merger and multi-site materials are also found on this page. Be sure to look at Going Places With God, below.

See also Going Places EXTRA's
31-Day Devotional Guide for Churches Considering Relocation
Additional decision-making helps in appendix of devotional guide
Click Link:
* For more information about the devotional guide
* For extras - free materials not in the book
* To place your order

See also Church Building Programs.

Research & Homework Help

  • Dictionaries & Reference Tools
  • General Reference Tools
  • Homework Help
  • English
  • Geography
  • History
  • Mathematics
  • Science
  • Online Books
  • Translation Tools

Prayer & Revival
This page links to resources on prayer and revival, two very connected subjects - and both vitally needed.

Search When you are having trouble finding what you are looking for with your favorite search engine, come to this page to find other indices and search tools. Included are both Christian and secular search tools. Also on this page are online telephone directories and maps.

Sermons
This is the main sermon index. On the top of the page, you will see links to the three indices for Pastor Gentle's sermons - in print-friendly format, in MS Word, and in PowerPoint - all with different sermons listed. Scroll down to see links to other preachers's sites and sermon preparation tools.

See also Beliefs & Doctrine section and the Bible Study Tools section. Also the Christian Magazines section is helpful in preparation and for illustrations.

Sermon Illustrations
Places to find illustrations for your sermons or Bible studies. See Sermons for more resources for preaching

SBC Sites & Entities
Southern Baptist conventions, mission agencies, organizations, and information.

Student Ministry
Resources for student ministers (aka youth ministers). Find articles and tools for reaching and discipling students.

Just for Students
Christian resources that will be of interest to students in high school or college.

Sunday School Growth
This is a sub-section on the Church Health & Growth page. Organize your Sunday School for effective Bible teaching, ministry and evangelism.

Sunday School Lesson Helps
This is a sub-section of the Bible Study Tools page. If you use LifeWay materials, you will find lesson helps here and, of course, there are tons of tools for studying the Biblical text.

Theology
A fairly comprehensive index of Biblical Christian belief. Emphasizes evangelical theology and the beliefs distinctive to Southern Baptists. This page gets more hits than our home page.

  • Specific Christian Beliefs
  • Distinctive Baptist Beliefs
  • Creeds & Confessions
  • Baptist Confessions
  • General Theology Reference
  • Baptist Books on Doctrine
  • S. Baptist Resources
  • Calvinistic Baptist
  • Reformed Sites
  • The Church
  • Church History
  • Classic Christian Works

Turnaround Churches
This is a sub-section of the Church Health & Growth Page. Lists resources for plateaued or declining churches that need to make a "comeback."














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