Vespers will be on Wednesday July 6th at 6:00 pm. We will be meeting at Waterrock Knob (located at milepost 451 on the Blue Ridge Parkway). The church will be providing a hot dog supper, a time of devotion for the adults and play time for the kids. Then, we will have a game of ultimate frisbee at 6,000 feet! Come cool off with us!
Building and Grounds Progress
Thanks to Harold Messer and our building and grounds team, First Baptist is making a lot of progress in renovating and cleaning out the church, as well as raising funds! Here are some of the accomplishments so far:
- A clock (pictured above) that was given to the church a long time ago was found and it is now working and hung in the office.
- The copper guttering was taken down and taken to be recycled, raising $900 in funds.
- 38 copies of the photograph from c. 1980 have been sold.
- The total revenue to date from our church yard sale is $2,055.
- With the funds raised from the yard sale, we were able to buy 14 square tables for the Mission and Fellowship Center.
We are so grateful to have a church family that values the preservation of our church and its history. We hope to keep making moving forward in this way.
In the Weeds - Jeff Mathis
One of my duties at our house is to destroy the weeds that stand embarrassingly high on our property. I cannot say it strongly enough. I hate this chore.
Even my rueful confession causes me grief and shame, for I know that I should relish the opportunity to make our mountain home look less jungle-like. It’s not that I don’t like for our home to look tidy. On the contrary. I want our home to look prim and proper, and yet I feel at war with the insidious creeping thistle. By this time of the year, however, I am nearing the point of surrender in a battle that I cannot win.
You see, the weeds just keep coming. It is a vicious cycle. I mow the weeds down. They sprout up while I sleep. I dress like a bee keeper to protect myself from poison ivy and assault them with my weed eater. It is a violent practice, with the remnants splattering my sunglasses and being flung hither and yon. Even so, the mulched weeds scatter their seeds to fresh soil and new opportunities just to irritate me. Yes, I’ve tried poison. But even poison conspires to haunt the view from my porch, as the cadavers of weedy plants stand as brown sentinels in an otherwise field of green.
I cannot win. A killing frost is my only friend.
Here’s the truth of the matter: Weeds are a part of life. Just as weeds are aptly named with monikers like pigweed or thecommon ragwort, and the spotted knapweed, the weeds in our lives have names as well. Although not necessarily associated with tragedies and other calamities, the weeds in our lives are the irritations, frustrations and confounding circumstances that crop up with alarming regularity.
In life, we are often sidetracked by these irritations because we give them too much of our time and energy. The weeds that seem to capture too much of our attention may be that passive aggressive co-worker, or that tone-deaf comment on your prized Facebook post. In a day filled with bright sunshine and pleasant afternoon showers, we focus instead on that maddening idiosyncrasy of a mother-in-law or next door neighbor. We are irked by these weeds and want to eliminate them from our points of view.
The weeds in my life include technology that conspires to defeat me, individuals who are not reflective, and every Major League Baseball team that beats my Braves (that would be all of them).
I agree with you. These are small things in a world with immense challenges and problems. But that’s my point. You and I both know that we often give these weeds far too much sunshine. By focusing so much of our precious attention on these small (but admittedly significant) concerns, it siphons off energy from more significant things.
Let’s face it. We cannot always summon a killing frost. Perhaps there is another way to make peace with the weeds that creep up onto our paths.
It has been said that the best way to respond to these irritating, organic anathemas is to not go after them at all. Instead, it may be a better use of our time and energy to grow healthy grass. A healthy lawn is the anecdote for weedy invaders.
When we focus on walking humbly with God, our lawns—so to speak—become lush and green. We can walk barefoot with God because we have developed healthy disciplines of reading scripture, praying as Jesus taught us and practicing acts of selflessness and kindness. Worship with the Body of Christ, as well as personal times of devotion teach us how to manage our lives in good times and in bad. These Christ-centered practices create a healthy ecosystem where the occasional dandelion or deer tongue weed cannot take root.
Well, at least not for long.
Oh, and one more thing. Watch your step. We haven’t even begun to address what might be hiding in those high weeds.
Sundays in July
Sundays in July: Rooted in Christ, Stronger Together
BALL Club Trip!
The BALL Club will be going to The Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center on July 30th to hear Balsam Range! The tickets are going fast! I need to order tickets tomorrow, June 30th!!! We will leave the church at 4:00, have dinner in Bryson City and then arrive at the center by about 6:30 for a 7:30 performance! Please let Tia know by tomorrow afternoon or call me, Glenda Dills, @ 506-5919. The ticket cost is $26.69! They only had 31 tickets left this morning!!! It will be a fun trip!
1st Explorers Newsletter!
Our 1st Explorers have their own newsletter now! If you would like to receive emails about what our 1st Explorers campers and staff are up to, make sure to subscribe to the newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/b4h7nr. You can also subscribe at the bottom of the 1st Explorers page of our website.
A New Artist's Bench!
Dr. Rhonda Furr has donated a beautiful new artist's bench for the piano in the sanctuary, in memory of her mother, Bert Speich. Rhonda grew up in our church, and began playing the piano for services while she was in high school. She soon became the organist, and served in that capacity until she left in the mid 1980s in order to earn a doctorate in organ performance at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. Rhonda accepted a position at Houston Baptist University, and has been there since her commencement from "Southern." She has continued in her role as church organist all these years.
Bert Speich sang alto in the Sanctuary Choir for some forty years. She was the chair of search committee which hired me as Minister of Music. Her gracious and loving spirit were always a model of Christian behavior, and her memory lives on in all who knew her. She, along with her husband, Hank, taught Sunday School for at least twenty-five years for grades 3-6. They were active in the total program of Sylva First Baptist Church, and we miss them.
Thank you, Rhonda, for your gift in memory of Bert!!
Sincerely,
Bob Holquist
The Music Ministry
Church Office and Summer Camp Closed for July 4th
Our church office and Summer Explorers Camp will be closed for Independence Day on July 4th. Summer Explorers Camp will be closed on Friday, July 1st as well. We hope you enjoy this long weekend!
Devil Hot - Jeff Mathis
Many of you know that I spent my first year out of seminary living in the desert southwest.
Tucson, Arizona was a dramatic change from New Jersey and Manhattan, where I had been studying and serving in preparation for a lifetime of vocational ministry. Yes, the desert was rugged and prickly. But the towering mountains, stunning sunsets and pyrotechnically-inspired lightning storms captured my heart.
Did I mention that it was hot?
When I complained to the locals about the 110 F temperatures (And no, it doesn’t matter that it’s a dry heat. Trust me, you still bake like an overly-toasted potato chip), they informed me that the other 8 months of the year were delightful. Still, it was hot. As in energy-sucking, what-is-wrong-with-this-place?, Satan-is-my-next-door-neighbor-hot.
The heat is dangerous, to boot.
As you may be aware, the southwest is currently being torched by a terrible heat wave. With low temperatures not dipping below 95 F in some places, the conditions are ghastly (and so are the electric bills).
I remember talking to a doctor who worked at an area hospital when I lived in Arizona. He told me that one summer he treated a man who had suffered a heart attack on a sidewalk at midday. Although he was only on the concrete for a few minutes before help arrived, his second degree burns to his face were more significant than the damage to his heart.
Tragically, otherwise healthy individuals have died during the current heat wave. Hikers have ventured out into the desert in temperatures approaching 118 F. These folk suffered dizziness, nausea, throbbing headaches and eventually the inability to draw a breath. Then, they died.
As one local authority framed it, “Every one of these deaths was 100% avoidable.”
This past Sunday we were reminded of Jesus’s teachings from his Sermon on the Mount. He told his followers that those who did not put his words into actions would suffer a terrible fate. In his model prayer, Jesus instructs us to pray that we will not be led into temptation and that we will be delivered from evil.
Jesus knows that sin is 100% avoidable but that we are universally powerless to its charms. So he tells us to be aware of sin’s insidious reality in the world and to summon God’s power and strength to defeat it.
Is it enough to pray Jesus’s prayer? Will these words buffer us from evil and protect us from ourselves?
I believe that this element in the Lord’s Prayer heightens our sensitivity to the lure of sin. With this prayer, God gives us the power to resist temptation and to choose God’s will and not our own. God equips us to defeat evil, but we are weak to summon God’s power, aren’t we?
Just as the national weather service provides us with warnings for threatening and inclement weather, Jesus teaches us to know what is good and what is right and to avoid circumstances where we are powerless to sin. God’s truth convicts us, and positions us to repent and to turn away from that which poisons our souls and wrecks our world. Practically speaking, we’ve got to be aware of that which we are tempted and to avoid it with the same seriousness of a dire forecast. Surrounding ourselves with others, and practicing confession and hearing God’s assurance, is an excellent step in locating ourselves in the cool breeze of the air conditioning rather than the charcoal-grill-heat of the wild.
In full disclosure, I hear two things as your pastor when I speak about sin. First, I hear appreciation for saying that which is hard to say and hard to hear. And second, I hear resistance, and an unwillingness to address ethical, moral and systemic failings.
And yet, I must confess to you that I am a sinner. Being aware of my own sin enables me to recognize my absolute need for Jesus Christ. Jesus is more than just a wise guru or peddler of prophetic wisdom. Because of my corruption and continued dance with temptation, I need Jesus to be my savior—to save me from my sins.
Like Jesus, I believe that the presence of evil and the temptation to sin is as real as the desert heat; and equally as deadly.
Vespers Tonight!
Vespers will be tonight, Wednesday June 22nd at 6:00 pm. We will be meeting at Waterrock Knob (located at milepost 451 on the Blue Ridge Parkway). The church will be providing a hot dog supper, a time of devotion for the adults and play time for the kids, and then we will have a game of soccer at 6,000 feet! We hope to see you all there!