The BALL Club will be going to a mystery lunch on October 7th. We will be leaving at 10 AM from the church. Lunch w/ water and tip = $10.32; Lunch w/ drink and tip = $12.45. If you pay with cash, there is a senior discount of 5%.
United Christian Ministries Meeting
For all our church families in Jackson county:
It is the time of year for you to say what you like/dislike and would like improved here at United Christian Ministries. We plan to get together on October 9th at 2:00 PM at First Presbyterian Church in Sylva. Please mark your calendar now. Help us to keep our ministry strong in the Father. We want each church that supports us to help us make some long-range plans for UCM.
With great enthusiasm, we look forward to talking with you on the 9th.
Sincerely,
Kathy Cross, Executive Director
United Christian Ministries
Beyond the Castle's Keep
It’s known as the Smithsonian Castle and it certainly stands out on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Living up to its namesake, the building rises like a fortress on the edge of our nation’s most-celebrated lawn. Constructed out of red sandstone, the building is hard to miss.
Or at least it was hard for me to miss this past week. Rebecca and I were in D.C. for a brief trip to celebrate the retirement of Brent Walker, the executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. Rebecca has been serving these last years as the co-chair for their Religious Liberty Council. “The BJC’s mission is to defend and extend God-given religious liberty for all, furthering the Baptist heritage that champions the principle that religion must be freely exercised, neither advanced nor inhibited by government.”
While Rebecca met with their Board on Monday, I did my morning run on the Mall.
Of all the many museums in the Smithsonian system, the Institute’s Castle was one that had previously escaped my attention. Well, until this trip. It is a breathtakingly beautiful facility that is overshadowed by the museums it has spawned.
Today, the facility serves as the official welcome center of the Smithsonian Institute. However, when the Castle was completed in 1855 it housed the nation’s treasures. For over 30 years the Castle was the sole repository for our country’s museum collections and exhibits.
And then, the museum outgrew its home. Over the following years and decades, new museums would spring up on the Mall to house the priceless collections of our history, art, and heritage. Just this past weekend, the newest addition opened to wide-acclaim—the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
I adore the Smithsonian Institute. It tells our nation’s story. The family of museums details the wounds, triumphs, mistakes and redemptions that make up our collective history. The Smithsonian Institute deftly reveals the beauty we are capable of, and the resilient nature of our identity.
From manmade devices that soared into the heavens to the revolutionary ideas that are the cornerstones of our freedoms, a visit to the Smithsonian Institute both humbles and inspires. It’s hard to hide one’s pride for what we’ve accomplished in the past and what we can be in the future when you visit our nation’s capital.
As our plane took off from Reagan National Airport and banked toward Northern Virginia on Tuesday, we were afforded a sweeping view of the District of Columbia. And I couldn’t help but be proud of the courage it took to build newer and bigger museums to line the Mall. The Smithsonian Castle was the starting place, but it could not hold our history or our most priceless possessions. Instead of keeping our identity and our promise stunted in a building much too small for our future hope, the Smithsonian was given permission to leave its original footprint and spread out across the street and beyond the grassy fields.
This is my hope for the Church.
Of course, the story of the Smithsonian’s growth, mission and influence mirrors the growth of the Church over the past 21 centuries. Instead of trying to fit into one particular space, context or culture, the Church expanded across the globe. We are followers of Jesus because others before us were not content with the expression and scope of the call that they once knew. They realized that the Church was bigger than any one building. And its members allowed it to burst out of its first home to influence and impact the arc of human history.
We, too, are called to go beyond who we are and what we’ve become. Our identity is more than our physical location. To where and to whom are we being called?
Today, the Smithsonian Castle is a jumping-off place for further learning and engagement. It contains maps and models that can help us to locate where the larger work and storytelling can be found. The castle has administrative offices and provides hospitality to weary but curious travelers. It showcases the past but has open doors with friendly docents to help point the way to the next step.
I don’t know about y’all, but it sounds like a fitting image of Church to me.
Upcoming Sundays
Sunday, October 2: Join us in celebrating the ordinances of baptism and communion this Sunday during our worship service!
Sunday, October 9: Homecoming Sunday - Meghan Beddingfield will be our pulpit guest, and a potluck supper will follow in the MFC.
Forrest Bryson Sunday School Class - Moved!
The Forrest Bryson Sunday School Class has moved rooms! They will meet on the second floor above the church office.
Staff Spotlight
Get to know our First Explorers staff with "Staff Spotlight!" Every week, we will highlight a 1E staff member so that everyone can get to know our team a little bit better.
Meet Cassandra Talabi!
Cassandra works on our 1st Explorers Ministry Staff in our After School Ministry.
Where are you from? Florida
If you are in school, what year are you in and what is your major? Junior, Elementary Education
When you were in Kindergarten, what did you want to be when you grew up? A doctor
Now, today, what kind of a career do you want to have? A successful one
Favorite Bible verse or story (and why?): Luke 15:4, I like the parable of the lost sheep
"I spend a lot of my free time doing...": making videos, playing volleyball
"One thing I love about living in Western North Carolina is...": the mountains!!!
"One thing I want to do before graduating is...": get a puppy or go to Yosemite national park!!
1st Explorers Fundraisers
Mad Batter Food & Film will show Finding Dory on November 19th at 2:00, 4:00, 6:30 and 8:30 10% of the proceeds that day will go to 1st Explorers Programs.
Zaxby's Fundraisers
10% of proceeds between 5:00 PM - 10:00 PM will go to the 1st Explorers programs on these dates:
November 14, 2016
February 13, 2017
April 17, 2017
Baby Shower Sponsored by WMU
WMU would like to invite you to help this young couple.
Aarti and Rakash Gupta are from India. They want a better life than they can have in India.
Rakash is working for Leo and Sandra James’ corporation.
They are living in the corporation’s student housing and have no transportation.
Aarti speaks limited English but Rakash speaks very good English.
They said they have nothing for the new baby. Let’s help them to get ready.
All ladies of the church are invited to participate.
For more information contact Karen Monteith at 586-2103.
Book Project
For over a year our members have been donating books to be used in an outreach program for prisoners in jail in Jackson, Macon, and Swain counties. Unfortunately, this program has been discontinued, but another opportunity has arisen.
Elois Clegg, widow of Bob, a former pastor, has been actively ministering to the residents at the Baptist Retirement Home in Asheville where she is also residing. She has said she would welcome books that would be appealing to the residents and could use hardbacks or paperbacks fiction or nonfiction. There is also a need for coloring books and crayons, puzzle books or other activity books. Please leave you donations in a designated box in the Loving Kindness room, and materials will be delivered to Elois.
Many thanks for your participation.
Sanctuary
This may surprise you. The space that is used the least in our church is our sanctuary.
If you look at our building usage throughout the week, our sanctuary is almost exclusively used only on Sunday mornings. Yes, an occasional funeral or (increasingly rare) Saturday wedding takes advantage of our sanctuary. And yes, our children and youth will be rehearsing their Christmas production in the sanctuary this fall. But other than that, our sanctuary is used only 3 hours per week.
Our worshiping space has a sacramental quality to it. That is, we give our sanctuary space the power of Divine significance. We believe, not incorrectly, that God has encountered us in our sanctuary space and that because of that, the space is different. It is sacred. It is set-apart. It is Holy.
We have heard God’s Word in our sanctuary. We have sung God’s praises there. We have rejoiced in wedding ceremonies, and wept sorrowfully during funerals in our sanctuary. We have been convicted by preachers in our pulpit, and we have embraced one another in reconciliation and reunion in our worshiping space.
In many ways, our sanctuary is both familiar and foreign. It belongs to us, but we acknowledge that it is the House of God. Everyone is welcome in our sanctuary, but we discourage our youth from playing spooky games in there during Lock-Ins.
In building a sanctuary, our church decided to emulate our ancestors going back to the time of Moses and the Tent of Meeting in the desert. Interestingly, the first reference to a sanctuary in the Bible is from Exodus 15:17 where Moses references it as the place of God’s presence. The sanctuary is the place of liberation, truly a Promised Land, protected and guarded by God.
In time, the sanctuary would become the Temple of God in Jerusalem. And although it was widely believed that God’s presence could not be localized or confined to any one space, the people’s need for an actual residence for God was too hard to ignore.
If the Gospels teach us anything, it is that because of God’s love, God’s presence has been turned loose among us. Readers of Mark’s Gospel will denote that this is a chilling consideration. God cannot be contained. God is with us. God does not rest in a stuffy old room. God bursts through walls, shatters barriers and emerges triumphant from a grave!
This raises a question for most of us: With Jesus as our Savior and King, do we really need a sanctuary? Isn’t God with us wherever we go?
We know that the early church met in people’s homes—again, echoing the radically intimate nature of Christ’s presence in the world. We know that where two or more are gathered, Christ is there. We claim that we are the Body of Christ. God has not only chosen to make his home among mortals; God has made his home within us! And lest we forget, let’s remember that the word ‘church’ is translated from the Greek word, ‘ekklesia,’ which means 'gathering' or 'assembly;' not ‘steepled building’ or ‘ornate meeting space.’
None of this makes our sanctuary any less important. Indeed, our sanctuary serves a vital purpose in the life of our church. It is where we meet together to meet with God. In a world of constant distractions, our sanctuary becomes the place where we give our full attention to God. Yes, God is always with us. And yes, we can ‘be church’ wherever we might choose to do so. So, it is with a spirit of self-determination that we acknowledge that it is our sanctuary where we have chosen to ‘be church’ for these many years. And for that reason alone, our sanctuary has a history that is worthy of our respect and attention.