Welcome

Thank you for visiting unitybaptist.church  This is the landing page, a static front page you will always see first. A listing of recent posts is on the right and each page of the site has a tab that appears above.

What would you like to d0?

Learn About  who we are and what we believe.
Read about our church’s History. 
View this week’s Bulletin.
Listen to Sermons.
Get directions to Find Us.

PASTOR’S WELCOME

This is Clark Bunch, pastor of Unity Baptist Church, extending you a personal invitation to worship with us at our church home in Plainville, GA. We hope that old friends and first time guests are made to feel equally welcome.

I grew up in Calhoun and have spent most of my life in this area. I am a 1994 graduate of Calhoun High School and a 1998 graduate of Shorter College (now Shorter University) in Rome, GA. I met my wife Teresa while at Shorter. We have been married 18 years and have one daughter, Johannah. We were called by Unity Baptist in September of 2014.

I believe the Bible, from one end to the other, tells the story of how a holy and righteous God deals with sinful, fallen and broken people. At the center of that story is Jesus. The Bible is the center of everything we do at Unity Baptist but it’s a story that never gets old. We believe the Gospel is good news. It’s not just something we talk about at church, it affects the way we interact with friends, family and neighbors in the community. If it doesn’t sound like good news, it’s not the Gospel. If it cannot be supported by scripture, it’s not of God.

Join us for worship! Our services have very little ritual; the congregation is small but friendly. Our building is wheelchair accessible, childcare will be provided if needed. Contact me if you have any questions not addressed by the website or have any other concerns.

email: pastor@unitybaptist.church

Thank you and God bless!

Clark Bunch

Clark, Teresa and Johannah Bunch

---

On Mission Connection: Praise and Thanksgiving

26 churches in the Gordon Memorial Association participating in On Mission Connection Revival 2016! Pictured with Pastor Clark is Gwen Wilkinson, IMB missionary to Africa for 32 years. We also heard from Bill Sharp (Smoking Mountain Ministries) Sunday evening, then joined our brothers and sisters at Fellowship Baptist Church to meet a couple with no last name ministering to Muslims, President Don Dowless of Shorter University and Jeff Rudell of the Gideons. Very grateful to Fellowship for the warm welcome and the invitation to supper each evening. (It was all delicious.)

I don’t have numbers on the association-wide love offering but we collected $165 at Unity on Sunday Alone! Continue to be in prayer for our missionaries across the street and around the world as we work together to build the Kingdom.

On Mission Connection Revival

27 churches in the Gordon Memorial Baptist Association are working together to make On Mission Connection 2016 a reality. Missionaries from our state association (GBC) the North American Mission Board (NAMB) and the International Mission Board (IMB) will be speaking and presenting in our churches, bringing the images and stories from the mission field “home” to those who offer prayer and financial support.

Unity Baptist will have missionary speakers during the morning and evening services (11 am and 6 pm) on Sunday August 14th and partner with Fellowship Baptist on Plainville Rd. Monday – Wednesday. Join us on Sunday morning and stay for food and fellowship following the a.m. service. Fellowship’s evening services begin at 6:30 pm, supper at 5:45 each evening.

Click here to read more about OMC from the IMB website, or here for details from the Gordon Memorial Association. Pray for the many missionaries, pastors, coordinators, drivers, and association personnel as they plan and work together on this massive endeavor.

Getting the Gospel Right

 

When the Pharisees bring a woman to Jesus, caught in the act of adultery, he forces them to reflect on their own sinfulness. Jesus offers grace and mercy but does not ignore sin and its consequences. In this sermon we will consider how some have got the gospel message wrong and look to the example set by Jesus in our efforts to get the gospel right.

Father’s Day

NKJV = New King James Version, c. 1984 Thomas Nielson Publsihers. Used by permission. Images via freebibleimages.org and Pixabay.com.

The Gospel Changes Things

The Gospel Changes Things, Romans 12, June 12 2016

Looking for full text? Please read this post. Feedback welcome.

For full description (legal small print) please view this video at its source: https://youtu.be/9rg-GyxBQcc

 

Church Picnic

Join us for food and fun on Sunday, July 3rd at 6 PM.  We will eat in the fellowship hall and then go outside for cornhole and water games, or just sit inside and chat if the heat is too much. Church members please invite family and friends. Have a happy and safe 4th of July whether you are with us or not. God bless America!

A Note on Online Sermons

When unitybaptist.church launched a litle over one year ago, I started writing a full text version of the Sunday morning sermon. I had been blogging sermon material at The Master’s Table for years. Sermons became blog posts and sometimes vice versa. So linking Bible texts and writing sermons out in full sentences and paragraphs came quite naturally.

A few weeks ago we began the transition to recording and posting sermon audio.

The Advance of the Gospel

June 5, 2016     |     text: Philippians 1:12-18

(Please visit https://youtu.be/z9C2bHjc-Cw for full description and details, including copyright notices.) 

About this time last year I preached a three part series titled What is the Gospel? In the final message of that series (May 27, 2015) I said that the Gospel is both our privilege and our obligation. We are privileged to have received it, to have benefited by it, to have been born again. We were dead to sin but now alive to God and this through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We also have an obligation to the Gospel because led by the Holy Spirit and having the mind of Christ in us, our desire is for other people to receive it as well. As glad as we were to receive it we should be eager to share it with others. It is a privilege and an obligation and no one understood this better than the Apostle Paul.

Memorial Day: Some Things are Worth Remembering

May 29, 2016     |     text: Joshua 4:1-7

Memorial Day began after the Civil War as Decoration Day, founded by a group of Union veterans in Decatur, IL to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers. Today Memorial Day honors all men and women who died serving their country. Christians disagree sometimes over how much patriotism to bring into our worship service. (Christians disagree sometimes may be one of my greatest understatements of all time.) Jesus is no more American than he is Russian or Chinese. I get a little uncomfortable with crosses covered in stars and stripes or portrayals Jesus draped in the American flag. Sometimes American ideals are in direct opposition to the values of Christianity. I believe we can celebrate our national identity and honor God in the process but don’t forget what we said last week about being deliberate and intentional. At all times we have to think about what we are doing and the message we are sending. Remembering those who have gone before us, honoring the dead, even setting up a memorial, is very biblical. Memorials are established because we so easily forget.

Do No Harm: Audio w/ Slideshow

Recording the sermon audio is something new we are experimenting with. Next week instead of two separate posts the text and the video will be on the same page. You can read the sermon text by following this link. 

I am probably my own worst critic. There is nothing wrong with preaching a 30 min. sermon but I don’t think this is 30 min. worth of material. I feel like I spent half an hour preaching what would have been a good 20 or 25 min. sermon. Right or wrong, I will try to a better job next week.

Notes:

1. You can read the Jeremy Myers post here and my response, But on the Other Hand, by clicking here. 
2. NKJV = New King James Version. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
3. Job’s friends sat with him silently for seven days and nights. That’s the kind of thing that happens when I add things not in my notes and rely on memory instead of looking them up.