b'OUR CONGREGATIONFirst Baptist Church Abilene is a hospitable community. We are a multigenerational church that strives to connect people of all ages. Our church is a tradition-rich community that values its deep-rooted heritage and looks for opportunities for innovation and progress. As a mission-minded congregation, our focus on ministry reaches within our community as well as around the world.PARTICIPATIONEngagingandinvolvingpeopleintheworshipandministriesofFirstBaptistisvery important to our congregation. We have a few different ways of thinking about attendance and involvement. A traditional way is by counting the number who participate weekly on a Sunday morning. In light of lifestyles in our current culture, we also recognize that many activities compete with Sunday church attendance, such as the burgeoning number of weekend activities for children that involve Sundays, visits to family in other cities, and weekend get-a-ways for a brief respite from the work week. As a result, an increasing number of congregants at First Baptist are able only to participate in person one, two, or three times a month, yet they consider themselves core members. Therefore, our Pastor for Administration developed a system some years ago for counting how many attend at least once a month, and this metric has provided some helpful insights. 8'