Wednesday, April 24 at 5:15 p.m.
Potluck and Bible study with Pastor Ernesto and Dr. Yelton. The meal will begin at 5:15 p.m. with Bible study at 6:00 p.m. Choir practice will follow at 7:00 p.m. Please bring your best casseroles and your favorite desserts and let’s show our honored guests our North Carolina hospitality.
Our second congregation-wide conversation has been moved to Wednesday, May 1 to follow our regular first Wednesday Potluck family meal. Dr. Yelton will lead us in a group discussion that will provide information to the Pastor Search Committee team to use in calling a new pastor.
We will also vote to approve new Church Leadership Teams and Committees(updated) to serve 2024-2025. Please make every effort to attend as your thoughts and input are so important to making this a successful process. Thank you!
I have known Daniel for many years, though his relationship with our community has not always been a positive one. Daniel had started coming to Grace and Main Bible study over 11 years ago. He was the one who finally convinced Bruce to come to my house for a community dinner, a decision that eventually led to Bruce’s getting sober and becoming a leader in our community. Bruce and Daniel were old friends, and Daniel tried several times to get sober like Bruce. The process was much more difficult for Daniel, though, and every time he relapsed, he got more frustrated with Bruce’s success in the face of his own failure. Finally, during a particularly bad relapse, Daniel broke Bruce’s wrist with a baseball bat before leaving the community, possibly for good, we thought.
So, it was a surprise to me when, about three years later, not long after moving in to the first home of his own in many years, Bruce invited Daniel to be his first hospitality guest. Even though I had been helping run my own hospitality house for years at this point, I couldn’t understand how Bruce was able to forgive the abuse that he had endured from Daniel and, more importantly, how he could trust his old friend again after such a bad break. But Daniel’s health was starting to decline, and Bruce knew that Daniel needed a place to stay where he would have a friend to help care for him.
It wasn’t long before Daniel would return the favor. Daniel was there when Bruce went to the doctor and found out the first time about the cancer. Daniel was there at the hospital every day, helping Bruce eat as much as he was able, sitting with him so he wouldn’t be alone. Daniel helped sneak Bruce’s cat into the room one evening as the nurses conveniently didn’t come by the room for a while. Daniel was at Bruce’s side when he went home to die, watching the sun set over the community urban farm that he had put so much of himself into. And after Bruce passed, Daniel stayed in Bruce’s house, offering hospitality himself to another friend, Jody, who needed a place to stay while he also tried to quit drinking. Daniel would tell me, in those times when Jody would relapse that, if Jesus could help him after all that he had done, Daniel knew Jesus could also help Jody. And when he did, Jody would need a place to stay.
Daniel and Bruce certainly aren’t the people that I would have ever thought could be spiritual guides for me. However, I do not think I’ve ever known anyone else who could so radically embody Jesus’ command in Matthew 18 to forgive “seventy times seven” times. Daniel and Bruce lived the gospel of forgiveness: they forgave each other, just as God had forgiven them. And they both lived that forgiveness through acts of radical hospitality.
We thank Mary Lou Millwood and Judy Henderson for their willingness to serve in the nursery on April 28. Enjoy the little ones!
There is still room on the schedule to serve “the least of these”
on Sunday mornings. It is a blessing to see their smiles and enthusiasm as you spend
time with our infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.
Please contact Cheryl Beck (cabeck@ncsu.edu) if you would like to help.
The CDC recommends that you wear a mask indoors.
Maximize protection from the Delta variant and prevent possibly spreading it to others.
Our worship service will be streamed online at firstbaptistsylva.com.
United Christian Ministries is in need of: shampoo (prefer 2-in-1 shampoo & conditioner), body wash, deodorant, toothpaste, child diapers (all sizes), cereal, spaghetti sauce and spaghetti noodles. To donate items, please drop them off at UCM’s building at 191 Skyland Drive. Thank you!
Children in the 1st Explorers program and from the FBC congregation worked on a beautiful felt banner for the children of Kerygma Baptist Church which was presented to Pastor Ernesto and his wife Marisol during worship on Sunday, April 21. With the theme "Walk in the Light" — Jesus being the LIght of the World — the banner for the children of Kerygma Baptist Church featured a bright yellow sun set in a blue sky. The children learned to use fusible webbing and a hot iron to adhere the felt pieces.
Assisting with the presentation were Abby Pittman, Adalyn Davis, and Lexi Allen. A big shout out to David Jons who helped with the translation of the theme into Spanish — Camina en la Luz.
Wyatt and Adalyn Davis display the Walk in the Light banner they helped create and which was presented to Pastor Ernesto and his wife Marisol for the children of Kerygma Baptist Church in Holquin, Cuba.
Three girls presented the banner during Worship: Lexi Allen, Adalyn Davis, and Abby Pittman.
Thank you to Sandi Allen who taught the third session on handling emergencies while babysitting and first aid. The participants are getting better prepared to be responsible babysitters. Attending this session were Lexi Allen, Alex Wittekind, Ella Dux, Madison Rooney, Ivy Abbott, and Zoey Muse.
By Dr. Joe Yelton
Interim Pastor
To the surprise of no one, our church has been in numerical decline for many years, even decades. The fact that most congregations are in a similar state is of little solace. Addressing this is perhaps the most meaningful book to date, The Great Dechurching by Jim Davis and Michael Graham. It does the hard digging of data, helping discern how this slow but steady decimation of American church life happened.
Basically, the book addresses three phases: Phase One, “How big is the dechurching problem?” Phase Two, “Who is leaving, and why?” Phase Three, “What is happening in Evangelicalism?”
In the coming mid-week studies, information from this book will permeate our sharing. This is the kind of information which, to me, seems imperative, needing to be addressed as part of our new pastor selection work.
You know the adage: “Continue doing what you’ve always done, you’ll continue getting what you’ve always gotten.” Can we, right from the start, commit to the hard work of doing things differently, when justified? In making our church more relevant, we must mitigate old habits that no longer serve us, or God.
Christ is constantly wanting to pour fresh living water into the cisterns of faith that lift Him up. Our church is doing so much of that. We have loads of relevancies that bring the Gospel up close. Well done! Still, we need to look within and discover the places where familiarity has become an enemy to our message in the community. There is so much love within our congregation, and giftedness like I’ve rarely encountered. We have a bright future. To get there though, each of us will have to let go of some sacred cows that are no longer necessary. In their places, we must take up a new thing that tells that old, old story in fresh, relevant ways.