Our SHINE Children’s Ministry will start back this Wednesday, January 9th. SHINE is an opportunity for our children to learn how to praise God by singing, acting, dancing, and creating art to be used in ministry and worship.
Sermon Series for January 2019
Nursing Home Ministry
First Baptist Church of Sylva has a history of providing worship services for the care facilities of the community. On the first Wednesday of each month, we visit Morning Star Assisted Living at 10 a.m., and go to Skyland following that. The residents there look forward to the message and the music, and mostly, I think that they value the time of greeting before and after the brief services. Most the time, Jeff offers prayer and devotion, and Bob leads music, with Barbara Vance accompanying the hymns. However, many others have contributed to the leadership roles for these services. We try to have several singers there to "make a joyful noise!" (We could really use some help with this--our numbers are down for several reasons.)
In addition to these, our church offers worship on five Sunday afternoons at 2 or 3 p.m. at Morning Star, Skyland, The Hermitage, and Blue Ridge on the Mountain. A team from the Women's Missionary Union (WMU) and the Baptist Men divide these responsibilities, and we do our best to make this a lay ministry project.
This Sunday, January 13, the men will be in charge of the service at 2 at Blue Ridge on the Mountain, and we invite you to join us. You would make some of those folks very happy, if you were to sit next to them during the service. Some have very few people to visit them. To be sure, it wouldn't be anyone's "choice" to live in a care facility. I know that if I were to find myself placed there at some point, I would sincerely appreciate the worship experiences, and those who provided them. Is God calling you to serve Him in this ministry?
Bob Holquist
Responding to Child Abuse and Neglect Training
When: Saturday, January 19th, 9:00 – 11:00 AM
Where: First Baptist Church of Sylva
669 W. Main Street Sylva, NC 28779
Cost: Free
Paige Gilliland of AWAKE Children’s Advocacy Center will present an interactive training on Responding to Child Abuse and Neglect, where participants will learn what to do (and not do) when a child discloses abuse. It will explore why your initial response to a child's disclosure is so essential in their healing, and how it can affect the course of the DSS and criminal case. It will also discuss who to make reports to and offer insight into the DSS screening and investigation process. There will be adequate time for questions, and participants will leave with a toolkit for how to respond to disclosures.
RSVP by calling or emailing AWAKE Children’s Advocacy Center at casemanager@awakecacenter.org or 828-586-3574.
Abundant Grace
In the year 2011, I started a women's meeting at a refugee woman's apartment. We began with 16 women and have grown to a group of more than 500. We praise the Lord for His abundant grace!
At one particular Tuesday meeting, Amina asked me to pray for her father during the time when I ask the women to share their prayer requests openly. Amina urged us to pray for he father because he had disappeared, and the last time this happened he was kidnapped for more than 5 months.
More than 150 women prayed together, and God is awesome. Two days later, her father was released and went back home.
We praise God for the amazing work we see among this community of women!
- Maha Boulos, field personnel serving in Beirut, Lebanon
Evidence of God's powerful work
These are 13 shelter graduates who are a part of a leadership cohort, a follow-up program of the shelter, which offers further mentoring and development opportunities. These women have emerged as leaders in their families and communities.
Grace is one of the members of this cohort. When she was 18 years old, she and her 7-year-old sister were homeless and without a place to go. Though they tried for many months to survive, they continued to struggle and came to the verge of suicide. Her sister asked her if they could try going to an organization one more time. This organization referred her to us and she and her sister immediately entered our shelter.
Today, Grace is now 22 years old and is working full time, which allows her to provide for herself and young sister. She has also just completed her first year of university in Business Administration.
Grace, like many graduates, has developed a passion for sharing what God has done in her life with her community. She is now a translator and leader in her church choir. She has also developed an outreach program through her church to minister among other vulnerable and homeless refugee women. Her life is one of many powerful testimonies of God's powerful work through our shelter program.
- Missy Ward-Angalla, CBF field personnel in Kampala, Uganda
Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes
We were able to track our Operation Christmas Shoeboxes and we learned that they were sent to Peru! The Dorothy Edwards Circle would like to thank everyone who supported this ministry this year, and we hope to be able to do the same in years to come!
Ornament Placement and the Gift of Family
The Christmas Tree at the Mathis household is especially pretty this year. Of course, we say this most every Christmas so our judgment may be a bit suspect. While not on the scale of, say, the tree in the dining room of the Biltmore House, our family does take pride in the tree that graces our living room.
It has taken us some time, but I think we’ve finally figured out how to decorate a tree. Rebecca freely accepts the task of putting the lights on the tree. I’m especially grateful for her willingness on this score because the work is tedious and tiresome. Actually, I loathe the task. I get tired just watching Rebecca work. Besides, she’s got an eye for light placement (though we’ve had a row or two over the years about whether we should use either white or colored lights. Relax, people. I’ve come around to her wisdom of using only white lights).
My job—besides the outside prep and tree-stand-placement fun—is to put the ornaments on the tree. Admit it, y’all. Ornament placement is an art. One would certainly not allow children to be unsupervised at this stage of Christmas decorating. With the exception of the heinous snowman which was made from a toilet paper tube in 1984 that must always find a home on our tree (sigh), our Christmas Tree is decked with a fun mix of charming, local and yet sublime ornamentation.
One of my favorite tree ornaments is a 6-inch porcelain figurine of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus. Each individual has been woven into one singular unit. The ornament is without detail or particular feature. Yet, it feels simple and elegant. It shimmers and reflects the lights Rebecca put on the tree. It finds its home in the front, near the top, of the tree.
And it reminds me of this fact: Christmas is about family.
Whether depicted in a nativity scene, on a Christmas card, or meme on social media, you almost never see the Christ-child appearing by himself. And for good reason. The Bible teaches us that Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph, and that they were visited by shepherds and later magi from the East. God’s arrival in the world is accompanied by community. Sure, it’s a mishmash of people—a virgin teenager, the lowly vagrant-like shepherds, the wise men—but the scene works! Even our own nativity scene at church highlights the communal aspect of numerous individuals, and their perspectives, motives, hopes, and fears.
In the Christmas story, Jesus never appears in isolation. When God becomes Emmanuel—which means ‘God with Us’—He chooses to dwell in the world. The glory and miracle of Christmas isn’t simply about a baby. It’s about the Holy Family. It’s about the love, support, and encouragement that we find in community. We cannot tell the story of God’s love in Jesus Christ without first talking about his mother, Mary, and his surrogate father, Joseph.
So, yes. I like that my favorite Christmas ornament has the Christ Child connected to his parents. I am fond of how their intimacy is on display. I love how God’s story is central to the family’s identity.
It’s not all unicorns and daffodils, though, is it? Perhaps that’s why I’m drawn to the imagery of the Holy Family at Christmas. Here’s the truth: Family is hard work. Although our family photos on the wall—like the image of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus—look idyllic, they are not. Our smiles in our family photos belie the fact that we are exhausted, crestfallen, distracted or even angry. Our perfect placement by the photographer masks the fact that our family dynamics are complicated by numerous variables and circumstances that are far beyond our control. Family is hard work. And even though we grow apart, move away, and begin our own families, we snap back to the dynamics that were present in those family photos of old during times of hardship or tragedy.
The same was true for the Holy Family. Lest we forget, Jesus was born into a family that was emerging from scandal. The question surrounding the identity of Jesus’s father would follow him deep into adulthood (“Isn’t this Mary’s son?”). The new family would become refugees of their native land when it became clear that their new son represented a political threat to the power holders at the time. We see in scripture a portrait of a family that is wrestling with the reality that one of their own is becoming a Messiah. There is maternal cajoling (turn this water into wine), sibling rivalry, an intervention, and even the rejection of family values and loyalties.
And you think your family is difficult?
But this is how God chooses to come into the world—through a family. In fact, without a family, one could argue, the Messiah would never have made it. For you see, we need nurturing. We need the safety and security of sanctuary. We need bold, faithful fathers and we need mothers who trust God’s greater work in the world. We need extended families and all their challenges because they teach us about the good, but hard, work of community.
So, at Christmas it’s vital that we give thanks for the gift of one another, as well; particularly our families of origin. To do this properly, of course, we need to practice the Kingdom values of mercy, forgiveness, unconditional love, and service to our family members.
Whether we like it or not, we are all like my favorite Christmas ornament. That is, we are connected and woven together. The Good News of Jesus’s birth is that this doesn’t have to be bad news. Indeed, being connected to one another might just be the closest we ever get to feeling God’s presence in this world.
And that, brothers and sisters, is worth displaying on the front of our Christmas trees.
Poinsettias
We are grateful to the following persons for providing the beautiful poinsettias decorating the sanctuary during the Christmas season. Donors may take their flowers following the Christmas Eve Service.
Holiday Church Office Schedule
The church office will be closed on December 24, 25, and 26 for Christmas, and will be closed on December 31 and January 1 for New Year’s Eve and Day. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!