Join us on Maundy Thursday, April 13th at 6:00 PM for a unique Holy Week experience. Maundy Thursday is the day that Christians remember Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples on the night before he was crucified. Traditionally, it is a time when the church shares communion together. This year, we will be offering a Passover Seder experience in order that we might better understand Jesus’s last night with his disciples. Jesus and his closest followers would have had a Passover meal (known as a Seder, which means “order”) before Jesus retreated to the Garden of Gethsemane. We will gather on Maundy Thursday in our Mission and Fellowship Center at 6:00 PM to have an experience that more nearly matches what Jesus and his disciples were doing. Although the experience will not be a meal as we know it, we will be sampling small items of familiar foods. Our one hour, Passover Seder will be appropriate for families with elementary school children, grades 1 and up. A nursery will be provided for infants up to Kindergarten. Please email us (fbcsylva@gmail.com) or call the church office to let us know that you will be attending so that we can be prepared for our time together.
Easter Egg Hunt
Please donate Easter eggs to the church office by Friday for our annual egg hunt following the worship service on Easter Sunday! And parents, remember to bring a bag or bucket for your kids to hunt eggs with!
Flowers for Easter Cross
Easter Sunday is this coming Sunday! As a tradition, on this Sunday, we decorate the cross on our front porch steps with beautiful flowers brought in by our congregation. If you would like to bring flowers to decorate with, please bring them to the foyer of the church before Sunday School.
Men's Ramp Crew Helps Our Community
Special thanks to our men who gather on occasional Tuesdays to build ramps for senior adults who need assistance getting in and out of their homes. If you are interested in assisting and helping out, contact Frank Wilkie or Dennis Wilkey.
A Note from Joseph and Jessie Moon
First Baptist family,
Jessie and I are overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity shown towards us and our Moon babies by you. Not only at the shower, but in the 4 years that we have been here.
It was not an easy decision for us to leave First Baptist, but we are so thankful for the time we've had with you all. We are already looking forward to visiting in the future.
We know that the opportunity for us to be in Asheville is part of God's plan for us. We are very appreciative of everyone's support and encouragement.
Love always,
Joseph and Jessie (and the Moon babies too!)
Remembrance through Reenactment
Much to my chagrin, it looks unlikely that time travel is possible.
How can we be so sure? Well, no has ever visited us from the future. Pressing the point, no one from the future has ever traveled through time to prevent the tragedies and terrors that have beset us.
The author Connie Willis has a fun take on the question of time travel. In her fictional future, individuals no longer study history as we might. Instead of learning about ancient cultures in dusty old libraries, historians physically travel through time to observe history. Of course, these historians must be careful that they do not alter the natural evolution of time and circumstances, lest their meddling might create a cataclysmic disaster.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel back to Jesus’s day and age? Have you ever found yourself wishing that you could observe the significant moments in our faith history? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to observe David fighting Goliath? Or wondered what Jesus’s voice sounded like, or to witness one of his miracles, or to be at the foot of the cross?
When we read scripture, the Word of God—literally, the revelation of God—helps us to make sense of past events. Scripture becomes truth because God breathes life in to the words on the page so that we can see Jesus and feel His presence. As a church, our task is to create an environment so that we can experience God’s story in a dramatic way.
Although we cannot physically travel back to the Holy Land in a DeLorean, à la the Back to the Future movies, or observe someone’s preserved memories in a Pensieve, à la the Harry Potter epic, we can replicate the events from the past so that we can better understand them.
Thursday, April 13 is Maundy Thursday. The use of the word Maundy comes from the Latin word, mandatum, which means ‘commandment.’ It refers to Jesus’s instructions to his disciples during the Last Supper for them to “love one another.” Traditionally, Maundy Thursday is a time when the church shares communion together. It is a time where we recreate the moment that Jesus breaks bread and shares the cup. For when we do so, we do so in “remembrance of Him.”
We remember Christ when we reenact Jesus’s last meal with his disciples. We understand Jesus’s life, ministry and sacrifice when we share table fellowship.
This year, we will be offering a Passover Seder experience in order that we might better understand Jesus’s last night with his disciples. We will do so by trying to experience firsthand what his Passover meal would have been like. The Bible tells us that Jesus and his closest followers would have had a Passover meal (known as a Seder, which means “order”) before they retreated to the Garden of Gethsemane.
In an effort to better recall Jesus’s life and teachings, we will gather on Maundy Thursday in our Mission and Fellowship Center at 6:00 PM to have an experience that more nearly matches what Jesus and his disciples were doing. Although the experience will not be a meal as we know it, we will be sampling small items of familiar foods.
Luke teaches us: “Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So, Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover meal for us that we may eat it.”
We will be preparing an experience for you to better see, hear and touch Jesus on that Maunday Thursday evening. Let’s discover together what it must have been like to be with Jesus during those last, fateful hours.
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Our Passover Seder will take place at 6:00 PM on Thursday, April 13 in our Mission and Fellowship Center. This one-hour experience will be appropriate for families with elementary school children, grades 1 and up. A nursery will be provided for infants up to Kindergarten. Please email us (fbcsylva@gmail.com) or call the church office to let us know that you will be attending so that we can be prepared for our time together.
Baby Shower for Jessie and Joseph Moon
Please come to a baby shower honoring Jessie and Joseph Moon and their two baby Moons (boy and girl). The shower will be April 9th from 2:00 – 3:30 PM in the Mission Fellowship Center. The babies are registered at Babies R’ Us, Target and Walmart.
Jessie and Joseph will be making their home in Asheville in the near future, due to Joseph's job. They have been such a blessing and asset to our church for several years. We are sad to see them go, but we pray for God's blessings on them.
Mission Moment
Our Church is pleased to support CBF Global Missions in moments like these where bearing witness to Jesus Christ takes form through meeting the needs of a community and growing ministry with assets and passions of the community .
"Conetoe, North Carolina, is one of the country's many "food deserts," where fresh, nutritious food is not readily available. Our partner Rev. Richard Joyner started a community garden in Conetoe and enlisted the youth in the community to help him take care of it. These youth became so involved in the garden that they not only helped with the garden daily, but they also organized a non-profit called the Conetoe Family Life Center and put together a grant allowing them to build an educational building for the ministry. We are finding as we work alongside the youth and Richard Joyner, that Conetoe is also a "spiritual desert." Therefore, our hope is to provide a Christian educational piece connected to the Conetoe Family Life Center ministry through our current music and art programs."
- Anna and LaCount Anderson, CBF field personnel in Eastern North Carolina
Easter Lilies for Sale!
If you are interested in buying an Easter Lily in memory or honor of someone please let the church office know. The Lilies are $13.00 and will be available for you to take home Easter Sunday.
