1st Explorers Donations Needed

1st Explorers could use your support in donating the following supplies: 

• Cotton balls 

• Glue: glue sticks, glue bottles, hot glue sticks and/or gallon containers. 

• Varied colored construction paper. 

• Poster board and/or paper.

• Canvases of all sizes. 

• Varied colored yarn. 

• Tape: colored, masking, craft, duck and/or scotch. 

• Writing utensils: pencils, washable markers, crayons, and/or expo markers.

 
Also, see our Amazon wishlist here to order things directly from Amazon for us: http://firstbaptistsylva.com/giving/
 
All items can be left outside of Kelly’s office in the 1st Explorers Area. If you have any questions, contact Kelly, our 1st Explorers Ministry Director. 

Raise the Roof Campaign

Your church needs upkeep just like your home…Time for some major repairs!

We have a few large-scale projects that can no longer be put off:

 Our church needs a new roof.

 A new wall needs to be built in front side of the church.

 Furnace needs to be repaired.

 Windows need to be replaced. 

 Several small projects need attention.

Truth is, we have no money for the above projects.  We do have an emergency fund for needs such as a furnace or plumbing problem which we need to keep in place.  We will seek the most cost effective and physical pleasing options for these projects. 

That is why we are launching the Raise the Roof Campaign to raise funds for these projects.  We chose this name because:

1. Much of the money raised will be for a new roof and
2. During this initiative we want to not only raise money, but to raise hearts to God, our hands to help, raise hope for the future, and raise eyebrows as we come together to accomplish these tasks!

Because you are an important part of our family, we thought you would like to know what we are planning for the next six months.  We would like to invite you to be a part of this process.

Now, we ask you to prayerfully consider how you can help with Raise the Roof campaign.

Your generous donation to the project will eliminate the number of fundraising projects we have to initiate. We would appreciate a monetary donation toward this goal. Please write checks to First Baptist Church and put “Raise the Roof” in the memo line. They can be placed in the offering plate or left in the church office.

Sincerely,

Jennie Hunter, Co-Chair
Linda Stewart, Co-Chair

Mercy Begets Mercy

It seems so odd and unbelievable that we are quick to dismiss what happens when Jesus calls Matthew to follow him. When we read this story from the New Testament, we regard it with the same suspicion and skepticism that we reserve for the other outrageous and supernatural miracle stories in the Bible:  

“A big fish swallowed Jonah?” 

“Moses split the Red Sea?” 

“Jesus turned water into wine?” 

“Matthew left everything to follow Jesus?”  

“Whatever,” we mutter. None of those things are even remotely believable.  

Jesus adds to our incredulity here. Just before the story where he calls Matthew to follow him, Jesus gives us several examples of individuals who do not wish to drop what they’re doing to follow Jesus. Each person is willing to follow Jesus, but just not at that specific moment.  

One particular individual will gladly follow Jesus but wishes first to bury his father. Sounds reasonable to me, but Jesus thinks not. In fact, he’s curt: “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”  

So yes, it seems unrealistic that Matthew would leave his place of employment that moment to follow Jesus. But that’s precisely what he did. Many of us who read this passage are grateful that this moment happened in ‘Bible Times’ so that we don’t have to face it today. Think about it: If we were approached by Jesus in the middle of our work day, or while on the way to tackle an important matter, would we drop everything to follow Jesus?  

Some of us will remember that Matthew was a tax collector and that he was manning a booth on the road outside of Galilee. Local merchants and fishermen would saunter by him, trying to avoid eye contact with the Roman official. But in the end, with the force of the empire behind them, the tax collector would wind up with a portion of the sojourners’ money or goods. Tax collectors were universally despised. They were stooges to Rome and took people’s money. It worked this way: the tax collector would first pay a year’s worth of tribute up front and at the beginning of the year out of their own wealth, and would then work to collect it back by taxing the locals in their district the following year. If they wanted to break even on their ‘investment,’ they would work hard by securing money from the people who trafficked by their booth. If they wanted to pull a profit, they would simply ask more from these same people. Clearly, many tax collectors wanted to make quite the profit.   

And just like that you can see why tax collectors were despised.  

When Jesus asks Matthew to follow him, the tax collector freely surrenders his investment and chooses to lose money rather than extort it from his fellow Jews. Jesus doesn’t demand that Matthew do this in order for him to become a follower. Jesus simply extends Matthew grace and mercy by inviting him to be a part of his team. In turn, Matthew chooses to extend grace and mercy to those he had been cheating.  

Zacchaeus, another tax collector from Luke’s Gospel, responds much the same way. Jesus announces to the diminutive tax official that he will be staying at his house that same day. This great honor causes the local onlookers to grumble. How could Jesus extend such an honor to one such as Zacchaeus?  

Right then and there, the tax collector pipes up and says: “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.”   

This, Jesus announces, is how salvation comes to Zacchaeus’s house!  

Jesus is merciful to individuals who are not deserving of it. And in response, the person who benefits from his mercy chooses to extend mercy to others. Zacchaeus even quadruples the amount of reparations due his ‘customers.’ Mercy begets mercy. 

This is why Matthew, and Jesus’s other followers and disciples, could just up and leave everything to follow Jesus. Their truest, most authentic response to Jesus’s invitation to follow him was to stop defrauding others and to become his disciples. Almost immediately, both Matthew and Zacchaeus began to make things right. Mercy is contagious that way. When we experience it firsthand, we are far more likely to share it with others. Because when we experience mercy, it feels like a breakthrough. It feels like a second chance. It feels like salvation.  

Who would have thunk it? Mercy feels downright miraculous. 

Cuba Meeting after Church this Sunday

There will be a Cuba meeting this coming Sunday right after church in the gathering room. At this meeting, we plan to select a new date for going to Cuba and complete the VISA applications. Please, bring your passport.

A Note of Thanks

To My Church,

I want to thank everyone in the church for your kindness to my family while Conrad was in Skyland Care Center. Thank you to those who brought him the good chocolate candy which he sure enjoyed so much. The many cards and visits were lovely and he was glad to see each of you. Thank you to those who brought food to the house. Thank you to those who provided the good lunch after the funeral which our families enjoyed. Thank you to those who set up the fellowship hall. The prayers you said for us helped us face our everyday life so much better.

God bless each member of our church. You are so loving and kind. We will always remember how loving and kind you were to us.

Juanita, Karen, and Reagan

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support Group

Mike Nichols Memorial Concert

The Michael Nichols Memorial Concert will be held on Saturday, March 2 at 2:00 PM in the sanctuary with a time of receiving and visitation to take place immediately following the service in the MFC.

Bumping Into One Another Along the Way

One of the things that I love about church is that you find and encounter people at any number of points along the path. 

I find this to be very encouraging.  

For example, I have found great comfort during my season of grief to feel my brothers and sisters in Christ come up alongside me and share about a similar time of sorrow. These conversations along the way don’t take the pain away, of course. But the times of mutual sharing help me to feel less alone during this difficult time. 

Being church means making a commitment to sharing our lives together. Some of these moments of communion occur by design. That is, we are given permission to self-disclose in our Sunday School classes, or around the table on Wednesday nights, or later during prayer times and Bible Study. To a lesser degree, our passing of the peace allows for us to bump into one another so that we can learn who we need to circle back around to and follow up with later in the week.  

True, many of our encounters with one another at church are unscripted. They occur during a crisis, or while serving together on a project, or out in the parking lot after choir practice.  

Whether serendipitous or providential in nature, these encounters remind us that the church is most powerful when it becomes a network of friends and neighbors, colleagues and elders, brothers and sisters who understand how life can be.  

They know what it’s like to be in recovery. 

They know what it’s like to be a caregiver to their children and to their parents; and all at the same time. 

They know what it’s like to feel the heartbreak of miscarriage, the disappointment in failed marriages, the aching sense of loss that estrangement can bring.  

They know joy, too. They know birth, reunion, and laughter. 

But they also know fatigue and economic difficulty. They know about addiction and they know about failure. They have firsthand experience with tragedy and they know what horrors this life can wrought.  

Through Christ, God gives us the gift of one another. Life is hard enough as it is. God certainly doesn’t want us to go through it alone. So God sends us travelers for the journey. Some are ahead of us, and some are behind us. Some, like us, are stuck in one place. Others are finishing up their journeys, while others are just getting started. We are all in this together and we can sense God’s strength when we allow our lives to intersect. 

Now, finding places of intersection with one another doesn’t just happen. Being church together demands something of us. First off, it demands that we show up and that we are present with one another. Additionally, it requires that we look around to see other people, and to see where they are on the path. When we look beyond our own exhaustion, our own discontentment, and our own anxiety, we may just be surprised by what we see in others. We may just discover that those around us are not as different or unique as we have once thought. Sure, we’ll see things differently and we’ll naturally respond to life in any number of different ways. But, when we take the time to see one another, and to listen to one another, we’ll be more willing to extend and to receive grace.  

These moments of epiphany, awareness, and revelation, are the salve that can soothe our wounds. For when we learn that we are not alone, we learn love. We learn persistence. We learn hope.  

God is the genesis of our community and our relationships with one another. Because God came to dwell among us, He sought to demonstrate that love is best demonstrated in proximity and most fully revealed in understanding.  

This past month, I’ve known and experienced grief differently than I ever have before. But our church—and our brothers and sisters in Christ—have taught me that I am not alone in this season because so many others have been through it themselves and know how it feels. My circumstances, while particular, are not unique. This realization helps me to know that this road has been walked once before and that it can be redemptive. The way forward looks hard, but it is not impossible. What’s most personal does tend to be what’s most universal. 

And I know all this because I have learned it by traveling with you, my brothers and sisters in Christ. I’ve learned it because you’ve been willing to share your life, and your heart, with me. God has comforted me through you, and your stories. I’m grateful for this new awareness and I am convicted to be as faithful, vulnerable, and as trusting as you. 

Sundays in February

Youth Ski Retreat

This past weekend the youth joined youth groups from approximately 14 other North Carolina CBF churches in a time of worship and fellowship in West Virginia. We arrived on Friday night. First stop was check-in at Winterplace, where we met with the retreat organizer and picked up our equipment for Saturday. Although Saturday was very cold, it was a great day for skiing and snowboarding. Conditions were super and everyone had a good time. After a day of fellowship on the slopes, we all met at Tamarack center for a wonderful meal and Bible study, then a moving time of worship with the entire group. Worship leaders Katie and John Callaway did a terrific job of helping us examine the idea of community as believers. Using the story of Ruth, Katie led us to open our minds to faithful, unconditional love for others and providing a true sense of belonging within our communities. Sunday morning continued the theme of “Called Together” with worship that included communion. The send-off was a challenge to love others the way Christ has loved us.