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 by THIS Sunday, October 22, if your family will be participating.
Sunday School and Childcare is Available!
Join Us for Worship!
Join us for worship on Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. in the sanctuary! Also join us for Sunday School at 9:30 a.m. for all ages!
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.
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!
Rolls of Film & Mountain-Top Experiences
by Dr. Jeff Mathis
One of the most challenging moments of road trips, family vacations, and holidays with loved ones is when those moments come to their conclusion. No one wants a good thing to end.
Many years ago, in an attempt to keep a transcendent experience on life-support a little bit longer, we would rush off to the nearest drug store to drop off rolls of film to be developed. Although people under 30 will not be able to comprehend this, we had to wait for our trip memories to become incarnate expressions we could savor and show to friends.
A couple of days later, we would find ourselves waiting on the attendant behind the counter to fish out our photo packet from a bin of other people’s memories, high hopes, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. If memory serves correctly, we would hope that the photos had developed well (not always a sure bet, as some of us can attest), and we’d carefully consider who we’d share our pictures with first.
For me, the picture memories were always a mixed bag of emotions. On the one hand, I would feel nostalgic for the extraordinary moments they revealed. But on the other, I would find myself disappointed that the pictures didn’t fully capture what it felt like to be on the ferry at dusk in the Irish Sea, or what it was like to be in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, or at the wedding reception with your best friend (and the bad lighting).
“The photos don’t do it justice,” we would say to a friend while carefully guarding the photo from finger smudges.
And, of course, we’d be right. The photos rarely do the moment justice.
This past Sunday’s Homecoming Service at First Baptist Church was a mountain-top experience. And no streaming video or digitally captured image can truly reflect what it felt like to hear the choir’s powerful melodies or duplicate the warmth of an embrace from an old friend.
The singularly beautiful moments we experience can feel like the changing leaves of autumn in our mountains. Neither our memories nor the blazing fall foliage lasts forever. The glow of the maple trees and the magic of Sunday’s worship linger only as long as we are attentive to them in that particular moment.
Yes, videos and images can remind us of what it was like. But they certainly cannot replace what it was like to be there to experience them.
This week, we bask in the glow of a phenomenal Sunday morning (and afternoon!) at First Baptist. We’ll ‘like’ and ‘love’ photos we see on social media about our day together, and we’ll play on a loop in our minds what it was like to sit in our pew and be surrounded by people who have a shared love of God, one another, and our church.
I feel a deep sense of contentment and thanksgiving for a day of music, reunion, and celebration. I am also mindful that we cannot remain there once a moment is lived, even though a nostalgic spirit wants to pull our attention and energy backward. Our experience must be lived fully, and the energy it elicits should nudge us onward.
I could never understand why, when learning about leading games with children and youth some years ago, it was a best practice to stop a game at its zenith or most exciting moment. In time, I would learn that if you played a beloved game too long, the people’s energy and interest would be spent, and they wouldn’t have anything left in the tank to try something new.
But if you allow a game or a moment to end when thoroughly enjoyed, we’ll have boundless energy to do the next thing.
So perhaps the best response now is, “That was awesome. What’s next?”
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.
C.A.R.E. Team to Make Visits on October 24
The Children Caring and Reaching Elderly (C.A.R.E.) Team is invited to meet at church at 3:15 p.m., on Tuesday, October 24 to visit some of our church’s shut-ins. We will return to the church by 5:15 p.m. Please try to come!
NEW Bible Study to Continue THIS Monday, October 23
A Bible Study will continue THIS Monday, October 9 at 10:00 a.m. in the Gathering Room. Janet Ford will lead a study based on the book Praying Backwards by Bryan Chapell. Books ($15) are available in the church office. Plan to come and learn different ways to pray.
Giving the Jesus Way
United Christian Ministries is in need of pasta sauce, ramen, pancake syrup, applesauce (6-pack individual cups), and laundry detergent. To donate items, please drop them off at UCM’s building at 191 Skyland Drive. Thank you!
Mission Moment 10.18.23
Cindy Ruble
CBF Field Personnel, Malaysia
“Who do you want to be and how are you going to get there?” my spirituality professor, Dr. Glenn Hinson, asked.
It is a simple question with a complex answer. “I want 10 pages,” he said. Ten pages?!
That simple question has reverberated throughout my life. “Who do you want to be and how are you going to get there?”
The “how” is always the same—with intentionality.
Growing spiritually takes intentionality
It doesn’t just happen
It requires self-reflection
Self-examination
Raw honesty
Commitment to grow and become more
To mirror more each day the One we follow
Day by day
Moment by moment
I remember Dr. Hinson’s reading Scripture and a student asking what version of the Bible he was reading. He smiled and said his own. He was reading in Greek and translating it as he read. Dr. Hinson was always intentional in his spirituality, intentional in his scholarship. He modeled a life of faith and nurtured spiritual formation in all his students. We were expected to think, to draw deeply from scripture, to ask questions, to reflect, to journal.
I loved Dr. Hinson’s classes. They resonated. I remember reading the book Prayers by Michel Quoist in Dr. Hinson’s class. Dr. Hinson asked us to read one of Quoist’s prayers each day and then journal one of our own. I still have my journal. It is sitting beside me on my sofa in Malaysia as I write this. I learned to journal prayers about all of life. My favorite way of praying is journaling prayers about ordinary life. Reflecting is good for the soul. It helps me to grow. It also helps me to see when God has answered my prayers because sometimes I miss God’s answers.
Dr. Hinson used to start every spirituality class with 10 minutes of silence. Awkward at first; but oh, how I grew to love it! It calms the soul. I didn’t grow up in a church tradition that taught or nurtured meditation. Yet Psalm 46:10 tells us to “be still and know that I am God.” I now regularly meditate. Meditation is stillness. Meditation is intentional silence that leaves space for God. Joshua 1:8 instructs us to meditate on the book of law day and night, so that we may be careful to do everything written in it and then we will be prosperous and successful. Psalm 1:2 tells us that the person who meditates on the law of God is like a tree planted by streams of water and that that person will prosper. It has been 30 years since I was in Dr. Hinson’s class and I still hear his voice in my life. He still guides me. Thank you, Dr. Hinson!
Pray. . .Give. . .Go.