Hurray for Our Nursery Workers of the Week!

This weekend was a busy one for the nursery/child care.  On Saturday night,
Autumn Burnes and Kristi Hill provided care during the choir rehersal. 
Thank you for taking time from your weekend to help!

Sunday, Autumn Burnes assisted with nursery during Sunday School.  For worship, Heather and Jeremy Ellenburg had a full house in the nursery.  They report that they had a lot of fun!
We appreciate all of you!

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.

Clothing Donations Needed

We have a clothes closet for our students in need at Jackson Community School and are currently in need of belts (both male & female), bras/sports bras in larger sizes (L, XL, 2XL). Also, hot weather clothing such as shorts, short sleeve tops, etc. in larger sizes.

I hope we can collect some donations of these items with the help of our congregation. There will be a collection box in the Loving Kindness Room. Thank you for your consideration. –Brooke Drum

Clothing Donations Needed

We have a clothes closet for our students in need at Jackson Community School and are currently in need of belts (both male & female), bras/sports bras in larger sizes (L, XL, 2XL). Also, hot weather clothing such as shorts, short sleeve tops, etc. in larger sizes.

I hope we can collect some donations of these items with the help of our congregation. There will be a collection box in the Loving Kindness Room. Thank you for your consideration. –Brooke Drum

Mission Moment 10.11.23

Carson and Laura Foushee
CBF Field Personnel, Japan

Growing up, I (Laura) do not particularly remember learning Rahab’s story or her example being highlighted as a “hero(ine) of the faith.” The story she is part of is a complex one; she makes her initial appearance in scripture in Joshua 2 as a part of the recounting of Israel’s violent siege of Canaan in Israel’s quest for the promised land. Her own background as a prostitute, though disputed by some modern scholars, may make her seem like a less-than-noble character. Yet for one who is mentioned just twice in the book of Joshua, she is noted three times in the New Testament. She is among three women mentioned in Jesus’ lineage in Matthew 1 and she, along with Ruth, accounts for one of two of Jesus’ non-Israelite ancestors. In James and Hebrews, she is heralded alongside those like Abraham who lived lives of both faith and good works. Hebrews 11:31 summarizes the model of her faith in her act of receiving, or welcoming, the spies in peace. 

Over the last few years, I have had the opportunity to preach in several Japanese congregations, including delivering one sermon that explores Rahab’s example alongside our call as the church to welcome others in peace. Her feminine and ethnicoutsider perspective challenges us to view hospitality not in terms of etiquette or politeness, but as an act of faith that may change both the one giving and the one receiving hospitality. The hospitality Rahab initiates because of her faith in the Lord God is mutually reciprocated to her by Israel as she and her family are saved during the fall of Jericho and taken to live among the Israelites. As she learns to live in a new culture, Israel is also changed as she becomes a mother in the line that would lead to the Messiah. The risk we take in offering true hospitality is that it may change our lives. The possibility of offering hospitality is that it will become an act of faithful peacemaking. 

As a part of our call to cultivate beloved community in Japan, hospitality plays a central role in our day-to-day ministry. Rahab’s example has become a challenge for me and our partner congregation to engage in a similar model of mutual hospitality that brings about peace in this world. In working with our church on how to meet the needs of the internationals in our community so that they may lead full, healthy lives as minorities in a homogeneous society, we must be reminded that these relationships are mutual. We, too, can be recipients of hospitality as we open our hearts to one another. Hospitality is sharing meals together, worshiping together, supporting our congregation together and learning from one another. In this best kind of hospitality, no one leaves unchanged by the relationship, and we have a chance to sow a seed of God’s peace in the world. 

Pray. . .Give. . .Go.

Flowers for Sanctuary

If you would like to provide flowers in the sanctuary for Sunday morning services, please contact Gwen Messer at  828-506-8370, or Janice in the church office to be placed on the calendar.

Dawnings Continues Wednesday, November 1

The second of our of four congregational meetings will be Wednesday, November 1 beginning at 6:00 PM in the Mission and Fellowship Center. A blessing for our potluck meal together will be at 5:30 PM. 

Childcare will be provided for children up through the fifth grade in our nursery. Youth are encouraged to be a part of our congregational meeting in the MFC alongside adults. 

Dawnings is a narrative-based approach for personal and congregational visioning and discernment. Our four congregational meetings this fall will help us determine together who God is calling us to be and what God is calling us to do. Our entire church's participation in this process is critical to our determining what our future will look like. 

"This is what God says,

  the God who builds a road right through the ocean,

  who carves a path through pounding waves,

The God who summons horses and chariots and armies—

  they lie down and then can’t get up;

  they’re snuffed out like so many candles:

“Forget about what’s happened;

  don’t keep going over old history.

Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.

  It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?" Isaiah 43:16-19

Brian Foreman, the Coordinator of Congregational Ministries for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, comments that "These last two lines of scripture are both encouragement and command. The former encourages us to remember that God is still in control. The latter reminds us of our responsibility to notice and join God in doing something brand new."

"Dawnings is a congregational resource that helps you accomplish both of these things. By leaning into a spiritual discernment process through listening and responding to stories, your congregation will open itself to its place in God's sacred story for the community."

"Congregational postures of prayer and curiosity cultivate a sense of calling, not just for the congregation, before individuals as well. What better way to "be alert, be present," and to be a part of the "something brand new" God is doing!"

An Afternoon on the Farm – Sunday, October 29

The next Family Fun Event will be held at Cheryl Beck's family farm in Graham County, near Stecoah, on Sunday afternoon, October 29.  Families with children and teens are invited to visit the farm, enjoy a cookout, see the cattle, ride horses, and maybe have a hayride!  We will carpool from the church right after worship service.  Please let Cheryl know if your family will be participating.

The Hospitality Table After Worship Is Back!

Sign up here to provide goodies and beverages on Sunday mornings after worship.

When we are hospitable, our congregation can become a church on the sidewalk after worship while munching on a cookie or sipping fruit punch. Click here and find a Sunday to host our Hospitality Table! 

Mission Friends – October 18

A new group of preschoolers will begin Mission Friends on Wednesday, October 18 at 3:30 p.m., in the preschool room of the Nursery.  This group is made up of after school kindergarten students and FBC children.

Head in the Clouds

My head really is in the clouds this week!!  The outpouring of love and support I’ve experienced from current Sanctuary Choir members, and former singers is most heartwarming.  During the thirty-two years I served as choral director and voice teacher at WCU, there were many students who were faithful members of our church choir.  They were solid voices and trained in music, and certainly, significant contributors  to the offerings of our music ministry.    Typically, there were four to seven singers from WCU each year.  Our choir members made them feel welcome, as did the congregation.  Several served in leadership roles as children’s or youth choir directors, and also as pianist.  It won’t surprise you to know that these former students are still active in their churches--some are choir directors, several are pastors, and many others are the people who continue to serve as singers and musicians. First Baptist of Sylva, you were their church home during their university years, and for that, I am most grateful.

Music ensembles, like athletic teams and other groups which work together toward a common goal, form a special bond.  Leaders and members must all work together if success is to be realized.  A great leader without talented and committed members, can do nothing.  A group of highly talented members needs leadership to provide direction toward the goal.  Because of this dependency on one another, a close relationship develops.  Joy and satisfaction is manifest in a job well done, and team members take pride in the results that are achieved.  And. . .we want to do it again, and again, and again. . .

That is why some sixty-five singers (plus our eighteen current choir members) have decided to come together this Saturday and Sunday, for a few precious hours of fellowship and making music. I can’t wait to have my eyes make contact with their eyes as I conduct them.  Once again, God has richly blessed me.

Bob Holquist