The 1st Explorers Ministry at First Baptist Church of Sylva has received a Grassroots Arts Program Sponsorship Grant for $1,000. This grant will provide art supplies for students in our Wee Explorers and After School Ministry to learn about art from Ann Melton, a former Art Teacher and School Administrator. Periodically we will post pictures in our Newsletter an on Social Media showcasing student’s art work and what they are learning. For more information about this project please contact Kelly Brown, 1st Explorers Director.
CodeRED Community Notification
Please sign-up for CodeRED Community Notification system provided by Jackson County Emergency Management. This allows emergency management officials to notify community members via telephone, text message, and email regarding community emergency notifications.
Sign Up Here: https://public.coderedweb.com/cne/en-US/6D00FECE19AA
Parents' Night Out Care
Parents Night Out will be September 30th from 5:30 - 9:00 PM.
Fees: One Child, $15; Multiple Children: $10 for each child.
Link to sign up: https://goo.gl/forms/eltaA2IMdOKkUaF33
Volunteers Needed to Host Meal!
On Thursday the 15th, First Baptist will be hosting a meal for the Smoky Mountain High School Varsity Football squad. We are looking for volunteers to help serve the meal during the mid-afternoon. Please contact Ruth McConnell (506-8827) if you are willing to help out!
"Jesus Is So Lucky to Have Us"
We chuckle at the cartoon because it seems preposterous. In light of the many church councils, schisms, schools of thought, reformations and denominational fracturing over the last 2,000 years, the suggestion that we have the monopoly on God’s truth is laughable.
“Jesus is so lucky to have us.”
When I look back on my seminary career, I sometimes find myself scratching my head. The three-year experience of earning a Master of Divinity required a broad range of study. Included in the course of study were language requirements, systematic theology, Biblical studies, pastoral care classes and a wee bit about congregational life (Somehow, I must have missed the classes on budget and finance, non-profit human resources and how to develop an internal network for our church’s technology needs).
But there was one other area of study that the seminary mandated that we take. It was church history.
“Church history? Really?,” many of us said aloud.
With so many challenges facing the church of the 21st century, the seminary wanted us to focus on the history of the church from Christ to the present? How would the study of 21 centuries of crusty old decrees and doctrinal disagreements prepare us to pastor and lead churches today?
It turns out, there’s a lot to learn. Most of the challenges and issues that we face today (yes, today), have been studied, prayed over and debated on long before we appeared on the scene. Like any study of history, we can learn from the successes and failures of those who have gone before us so that their plight was not wasted.
In truth, I enjoyed my study of church history. I found it fascinating to see how God worked through the lives, ideas and hopes of people from so many different eras and cultures. We are not the first to wrestle with the challenges of cultural relevance and indifference. We are not the first to wonder how the church and the state should properly interact. We are not the first to consider how empire-building affects the global Christian witness.
And we will not be the last.
This realization that our (relatively young) Christian tradition doesn’t have it all figured out motivates me to respect other Christian traditions and to find ways to learn from history and from one another. The word ecumenism is defined as “the principle or aim of promoting unity among the world’s Christian churches.”
As a study in Western Civilization will tell us, the story of the Christian Church is one of fracture. We are a splintered family, broken and mended time and time again. For me, our long story does two things: It gives me hope, and it makes me humble. The fact that God would choose to work in so many different ways among so many different people to reveal the truth in Jesus Christ is nothing short of miraculous. Personally, I am not threatened by this suggestion. Indeed, I am inspired by it.
You’ve heard this one before, but it’s worth retelling:
A woman died and found herself at the Gates of Heaven with St. Peter. He intended to show her a tour.
“There,” he pointed, “is where the Roman Catholics are located,” noting the people genuflecting and making the sign of the cross together.
“And over there,” he motioned, “are the Pentecostals,” clearly identified by their hands in the air and their ecstatic expressions.
But then he got very quiet and put a finger to his lips as they approached another group of people.
“Shhh,” St. Peter told her. “Those are the Baptists. They think they’re the only ones here.”
We have so much to learn from one another. When we make space to listen, we will find ourselves humbled at God’s work in different places and in a different ways.
But perhaps most importantly, we’ll learn that we’re not alone.
Thank You Note from Ruth McConnell
My heartfelt thanks to my church family for all the many acts of kindness shown to me during my recent surgery. The visits, food, cards, transportation, and phone calls all meant a lot. I appreciate your thoughtfulness.
With love,
Ruth McConnell
Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program
The Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program will resume on Mondays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to about 11:25 a.m., starting September 12th and running till November 2nd.
Journey Inward, Journey Outward
Like many optical illusions, this one took me a while to spot.
I was a college student at NC State, becoming involved and engaged in Baptist Campus Ministry, when I noticed the logo.
As it turned out, the logo for the Baptist Student Union in the late twentieth century was an optical illusion. In bold strokes, the emblem was comprised of arrows pointing outward. But if you looked closely, you’d see that there was also arrows pointing inward. In fact, the arrows pointing inward helped to establish the arrows pointing outward. Do you see it?
This BSU star represented both the journey inward and the journey outward. In short, our relationship with God through worship, devotion and Bible study (journey inward) helps to establish our call to ministry and mission (journey outward). One cannot exist without the other. And yes, one aspect of the faith is reliant on the other for its energy and definition.
This logo is a good description of our mission and ministry at First Baptist Church.
Over the last few years, our process of listening and praying together to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God has yielded fruit. Recognizing that it was imperative for our church’s health to be outwardly focused, we nurtured the seedlings of what has become our 1st Explorers Ministry. In an attempt to be faithful to God’s call for us, and out of a desire to be leaders on Main Street in our community, we began serving families with a missionary’s zeal.
In case you haven’t heard, this is where we stand to date:
"Last Monday, our 1st Explorers Ministry geared up for the school year! A hymn that came to mind as I prepared for work on Monday morning was, “Jesus Loves the Little Children.’ As I hummed it out of tune and off-key, I was reminded of the many ways our church loves all the little children. For countless years, First Baptist made space for a half-day preschool known as The Play Factory. Hundreds of children and their families have been impacted by this ministry. This year, with a new name and new teachers, Wee Explorers began 'Learning, Sharing and Growing Together' with 12 preschool-age children! For the past three years, our After School Ministry has become an integral part of who we are at First Baptist. This year we have close to 60 children enrolled in our daily, After School Ministry. This past summer we provided a comprehensive day camp to 50 children. Our ministries to children and their families are growing in leaps and bounds, and I’m grateful to be part of a congregation that is making a huge impact on our community and future generations."
-Kelly Brown, 1st Explorers Ministry Director
Our ministry to the families in our community represents our journey outward. By providing quality, affordable childcare for working parents through our preschool experience and After School Ministry, we are doing justice. We are making possible a service ministry that helps to make families stronger. By providing a setting that nurtures friendships and mentoring relationships, we are seeking to love kindness. And also, by teaching our children the stories of our faith every single day of the week--save for Saturday—and exposing our kids to mission education on Wednesday afternoons, we are helping our children to walk humbly with God.
Our Summer Explorers Camp lived out these principles in a more comprehensive and saturated fashion through field trips, water days, mission projects, Bible study and daily chapel worship services. Is it any wonder that children made professions of faith during this time?
Although these services are provided on our campus and in our facilities, our work with children and families in our community is a mission. This is one of our many ways of journeying outward. Brothers and sisters, people around town now describe us openly as, “The church with the children playing out front.”
We cannot, however, forget about our journey inward. Remember, we cannot journey out unless we are also nurturing our connection with Jesus. As a church family, we must remain committed to nurturing our relationship with God—walking humbly with Him—so that we may remain tethered to the One who calls us to be Kingdom People.
The work of the church can feel heavy, even burdensome at times. Life and ministry are far less tidy when we are on mission. Let’s recall that the presence of Jesus made a mess—literally a hole in a ceiling!—because people were clamoring to be near him. When our mission is grounded in the mission of Christ, our spirits are restored and our vision is revived. And our mess—before we clean it up!-- becomes a testimony of God working in our midst.
Of course, our 1st Explorers Ministry is but one aspect of our mission on Main Street. But health begets health, and we are already seeing its positive impact on the other God-directed missions that are surfacing in our congregation to serve those who need assistance.
God is blessing others through us. Indeed. But we have not yet arrived, y’all. There is more to do because the harvest is plentiful. The workers are not few, for we are many! However, we must wed our work with God’s direction for motivation and endurance.
Our journeys into the world, as well as our journeys into the heart of Christ, do not end. Fueled by the Holy Spirit, God’s movement never tires, rests or retires.
1st Explorers Update
Last Monday, our 1st Explorers Ministry geared up for the school year! A hymn that came to mind as I prepared for work on Monday morning was Jesus Loves The Little Children. As I hummed it out of tune and off-key, I was reminded of the many ways our church loves all the little children. For countless years, First Baptist has provided a half-day preschool known as The Play Factory. Thousands of children and their families have been impacted by this ministry. This year, with a new name and new teachers, Wee Explorers began learning, sharing and growing together with 12 preschool-age children! For the past three years, our After School Ministry has become an integral part of who we are at First Baptist. This year we have close to 60 children enrolled in our After School Ministry. This past summer we provided a comprehensive day camp for close to 50 children. Our ministries to children and their families are growing in leaps and bounds and I’m grateful to be part of this congregation that is making a huge impact on our community and future generations.
Our church most certainly loves all the little children and I’m grateful for the ways in which we are able to provide space for children and their families in our church each day of the week. I invite you to find out how you can become involved with our 1st Explorers Ministries.
- Kelly Brown
Needed: Prayer & Engagement (Not a Time Machine)
“It can’t be too bad. No one from the future has tried to stop me from doing it.”
Lately, I’ve found myself fascinated by fiction where time travel plays a significant role. As you snicker at my bold-face, literary confession, consider that the idea of time travel has been around for some time and has figured into some weighty theories. Some respectable individuals have even suggested that time travel might just be possible. Just ask a fella by the name of Einstein.
(Beat)
Not convincing was it? Well, you can’t say that I didn’t try to bring some respectability to my love of science fiction. I failed miserably. Snicker away.
The premise behind time travel narratives goes something like this:
1.) Something happened in the past that should be studied and learned from.
2.) Something happened in the past that should be changed or altered so that our future history will be better off for it.
3.) Someone either gets stuck in the past or the future, and all kinds of mayhem ensues (thank you, Marty McFly).
In truth, there has been a spike recently in pop culture surrounding the element of time travel, and I find our collective interest in it to be telling. In a world of increased connectivity and awareness of tragedy, corruption and violence, it would seem that we have developed a strange inclination for dealing with human suffering. Apparently, the world’s problems have become so challenging that the only way that 21st century inhabitants can address them is to go back in time to correct or prevent them. Present day strategies to combat the difficulties that we face do not present enough optimism for us to attempt them in the here and now.
Now that’s depressing.
Although the world that we live in may give us evidence to the contrary, we people of faith in Jesus Christ are not powerless to bring about change. While it may be tempting to withdraw and bemoan the downfall of the world, God calls us to engage so that the power of the Holy Spirit will transform and redeem a broken world. As much as we might be inclined to quote fiery prophecies from the Old Testament about the evils of our world, the Gospel compels us to remember Jesus’s words on the matter: “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:17).”
God wants to save us. And saving requires intervention, risk-taking and courage.
When we look at God’s action in human history through the person of Jesus, we see a God who was not content with the realities of his creation. God demonstrated the full-expression of his love for us by becoming flesh and dwelling among us. As his ministry details, Jesus did not retreat to a hermit’s dessert cave hoping that we might find him out of a desire for enlightenment. No, God comes to us. God intervenes in our present day. God suffers with us. God weeps with us. God heals us. God redeems us.
As followers of Jesus, we are called to model our lives after the life of the One who came to save us. This means that we dedicate ourselves to the tasks of prayer and engagement.
Jesus teaches us to pray for “God’s will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” By asking God to make things right in the here and now of our world, we are making ourselves available to be his instruments for his divine plan.
And when we make ourselves available to be used by God for his purposes, we see how God is calling us to be a people of both faith and action. For just as God is a God of intervention—creating our world, freeing the Hebrew slaves, sending his Son, Jesus, and saving you and I—God is asking us to be Kingdom citizens. Naturalization into the Kingdom of God means that we are a people who live according to God’s rules and realities and not the world’s predilections.
When we do this—when we pray for God’s will to be done, and when we choose to act as God has acted in the world—then hope, justice, healing and redemption will occur in our current day and age.
There’s no need for a time-traveling DeLorean. We can make more change today than we ever could have yesterday.