On Sunday afternoon we hosted the monthly community luncheon. Erica Corbett put together the kitchen crew which included her mother, Ginger Sullivan, Michelle Chaffee and Keely Backus. We cooked and served up a quiche dinner with a green salad, a summer vegetable medley, slice of ham, some au gratin potatoes and bread. It was yummy. For dessert we offered them a tasty fruity, chocolaty treat.
We offered up a blessing and included some prayers for some of the 55 guests who were present. Then Judy Vickers, her daughter, Janet LaFlamme and her daughter, Jennifer began bringing out the dinners. They had help from Taylor Chaffee, Chelsey Calkins and Else Chaffee.
After lunch everyone chipped in to clean up and we were out of there shortly after 3:00 p.m. It is a great way to spend an afternoon. Check out some of the photos from our outing.
Worship was great on Sunday. We continued our series of sermons on the Sermon on the Mount that I am calling "Walking with Jesus, Growing in Faith. Our choir sang another upbeat anthem and we came together in prayer for each other and our world. Here is a clip of our choir singing thjis week. You will notice that Shawn Rucker is missing. She is away for the next two weeks. So once again I am calling all singers to join us next Tuesday. Oliver Bray and I are lonely in the men's section. We have fun and as you can see from this anthem, we sound pretty good too. Come join us if you like to sing and want to use that gift for God.
My message focused on the reality that all of us have problems in our lives. Just because we are Christians we shouldn't think we will be exempt. I pointed out the truth that god never promised us a "problem free" life. As a matter of fact he talked about walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
What God did promise though, was that he would be with us to comfort and strengthen us. I pointed out three ways that God does that. First he hears our sighs and our cries. He gave us the gift of prayer to remind us that he is always there. Jesus taught his disciples how to pray in the srermon on the mount and we forget that this was a new idea. Prayer was always something you did as a community but Jesus personalized it and said we can call on God anytime.
Second he shines a light into our darkness with words of promise and hope from the scriptures. When God shines his light into our lives the problem never seem as big or imposing. Finally I noted that god always comforts us with a human face. He sends people with us to encourage us and help us get through. I noted how my step mother was there for me as a 13 year boy when my natural mother died. She was a gift from god. The truth is that God does this all the time. Even more amazing is the fact that after we have been comforted God often sends us out to comfort others.
If you are going through a tough time and think this sermon might be helpful for you, check it out here on youtube.
As I said, it was a good day of worship and the fun continues next week with a message titled Is that God's Yardstick?" as we look at how God defines success.
On Thursday night the Deacons met at church. It is an exciting time. We are looking at our purpose and trying to discern God's will for FBC Norwich. Sounds silly doesn't it? We know why the church exists. It is here to glorify God and to fulfill the great commission.
We are not looking to reinvent the world wide mission of the church. God did a good job. We are looking to focus in on what God is calling us to do and be here on the West side of Norwich, Connecticut, USA. It is the kind of thing we talked about when we were engaged in discussions with Central Baptist Church talking about a possible merger. We want to discern what God is calling us to do in 2011 and beyond.
So we began by looking at a list of things we decided were part of our purpose fro coming together as a church. The list included the following.
Bring Christ Into Our Lives
Do God's Will
Fulfill great commission
Share God's love
Feed & Clothe Poor
Teach God’s Word
Gather With Other Believers
Pray For Each Other
Share God’s Word
Learn (Study) God’s Word
Bring God’s Word To Life
Comforting The Sick
Beacon To Jesus’ Love
Bring New Believers To Christ
Physical Care For One Another
Christian Education For All
Share God’s Love Around World
Deepen Each Others Understanding Of Gospel
Inspire & Refresh
Glorify God
Then we looked at our church covenant, this list and tried to come up with a mission statement. We knew none of them would be the final version of what we were looking for but this was more a brainstorming session. Everyone's response went up on the board and this is what we came up with.
To let God’s love shine through you…
To bring the knowledge of God’s love to everyone…
Put God first before making any decisions.
A Bible believing church family that seeks to reveal Jesus’ saving message in fulfilling the great commission to other believers and teach God’s word to the unsaved. Will do this by living as Christ like example bringing God’s word to life. Caring for all in our community.
Coming together to learn, experience & see God’s love
Open our doors & sharing God’s love to all who walk in…
Seeking to do God’s will by meeting together regularly to pray for each other, share and teach God’s word…
Spread the good news of God’s love & grace to our human family, through word & deed, so that those who already know will be encouraged to always do their best to live in the way Jesus taught and showed us we should, and so those who do not know it will see the light of God’s love in us.
Open our hearts to people who need help in knowing God.
An authentic faith community showing God’s will through word and deed.
Our homework was to look at these and to try to refine one or more of them to fit into an all encompassing statement that reflects what we feel God is calling us to do. Stay tuned. There will be more discussion to come.
If you have ideas on this subject, feel free to share them with Curt Brockway, our chair, or any member of the Diaconate.
On Wednesday night we had our first mid week service of the Fall. we are calling them 45 MPH services. I stole the title form my fried Rev. Michael Crane at the Essex Baptist Church. It stands for 45 minutes of music prayer and hope. That's what these services are about. They give us a little dose of worship and encouragement in the middle of the week.
This Fall we are trying to keep them to 45 minutes beginning at 7:00 p.m. each Wednesday. Our singers weren't prepared for the first week so we sang some old favorites to get us warmed up. Then we spent some time in prayer. One of the things we will be doing this year is praying specifically for individuals and families in the congregation at random as well as focsing on those who have needs. We want to make sure that prayers are said for every family in the church. So each week we will lift up seven families or individuals and prayer for them even if there is nothing in particular going on in their lives. Then we will send a card to the family alerting them that we were thinking of them.
This week we lifted up the Tag & Joy Griffin and the family, Harry, Dot & Chelsey Calkins, Curt & Mary Brockway, Steve Contois, Adele & Harts Cofer, George & Lois Strouse and
We also kicked off things by watching a short video by Rob Bell. He is a pastor of a church in Minnesota and he has received national acclaim for his Nooma Series of short, thought provoking videos. I offered the first in a series of these videos titled, "Rain" and then made a few comments on what Bell said. We are going to use these videos as the starting point for a Bible study on Sunday nights in October and November.
The service ended at 7:46 p.m. with people already excited for the next Wednesday night adventure.
Choir met on Tuesday night and began working through the anthems for the coming weeks. We have a lot of new music so its been fun. It has also been harder than normal because we are learning a lot of new pieces instead of simply refreshing our memories on anthems we have done in the past.
We don't have a professional choir. That means most of us simply have fun singing. In order to catch on with a new piece Adele has to drill it into us. We need to go over and over it. That can be tedious at times but when you finally get it right, it is so rewarding and makes you glad that you decided to join the choir.
This week we are doing one that we did a few years ago that everyone liked. By singing it, we have a little breathing room to put the finishing touches on the first of the brand new pieces of the Fall. I put last week's anthem up on the page here and hope to do that regularly now that we are video recording the services. So look for them. Of course, I hope you'll plan to be here in person. There's nothing like it.
If you want to join the choir come next Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. and you will see for yourself how much fun it can be.
Lori Lord greeted everyone and welcomed them to the opening day of Sunday School. We call it "Rally Day" because we root and cheer everyone on and rally them to come back to join us. We had a good number show up for our kick off event. There were several more who promised to be here in the coming weeks as they wrap up the fair season and come back from family vacations and illness.
There were goodies for everyone to enjoy and some welcome back gifts for all those who registered. After everyone got settled in we began with a salute to the flags and a few fun songs. Then Noah and Chelsea helped by taking up the offering.
Lori then introduced this year's teaching staff.
Fran Rogers and Sandra Lucien were introduced as the Nursery Class teachers. Rachelle Weimer, Janet LaFlamme and Zelda Earle were leading the K - 2nd grade class. Pam Kane and Kelly Bolin welcomed grades 3 - 5. Mary Brockway was announced as the new teacher for grades 6 -8. I am working with the High School class again this year. Curt Brockway was named as the Adult Sunday School Teacher.
We finished up our opening exercises by going out front to take our annual photograph. As we look back over the years it is fun to see who was there and how much everyone has grown up.
Classes will run from 9:15 am - 10:15 a.m. again this year and anyone is welcome to attend. You don't have to be members of the church. All you have to have is a willing heart.
Pam Kane is the Superintendent of Sunday School. You can contact her if any questions arise. Lori Lord will be co-ordinating the opening exercises again this year and she and Cynthia Strouse will be working on music for the Sunday School. Cheryl Dutrumble has also offered to help.
Mary Brockway will be directing this year's Christmas Play so stay tuned for news as we move toward through the Fall.
It was a good day and we got aff to a great start. It is going to be a fun year for all of us.
Rally Day. That's what they call it. It marks the beginning of another year of Christian education and religious programming at Church. I like it because everyone who was taking time away for the summer comes back. It is like a mini reunion.
Gary and Nancy Schuster were at the door welcoming everyone and we had a good turnout for the service. Our custodian, Will Calderon, had worked very hard to make sure everything looked good for the day.
The choir was back and singing again. They not only led us in singing the hymns, but they also sang the anthem, "Make a Joyful Noise." It was great. Of course I put in a plug for people to consider joining the choir. Right now we have 13 of us in the group. It is a good size but we have had as many as 21 in past years and I believe in the saying "the more, the merrier!"
Check out the video from Sunday and you'll see what I mean. We really enjoy singing God's praises.
I began a sermon series based upon the Sermon on the Mount. It is titled, "Walking with Jesus, Growing in Faith." The Beatitudes provide the jumping off point each week.
The title of my first message in the series was "GPS for Dummies." The first beatitude says that those who are poor in spirit, those who know they need God, will see the kingdom of God.
I talked about building a foundation upon which to grow our relationship with God. To do that we need to program our God Positioning System with four settings. First, we need to give God the first part of our day. Second, we need to give him the first part of our week. Third, we need to give him the first part of our finances. Finally we need to give him the first part of our relationships. By doing so we will receive all the blessings of God's kingdom.
Our text was from Matthew 7:24-27 which encourages us to build our house on the solid rock. I can't do this every week but here is the full sermon in three parts. I hope to be able to post them on our church web site in the future. If you like this then you can check them out
It was a great day of worship and it got us off to a good start this Fall. If you missed it, we hope you'll join us next week as we continue in worship and praise together.
Steve Contois is another of our unsung heroes here at First Baptist. Most of us see him in the choir loft playing the guitar and working with the Praise team. He does a great job there but he also works our sound system each week. That may be even more important to making worship go smoothly.
Steve does a sound check each week and makes sure there are fresh batteries in the lapel mikes. He sets up the microphone stands for special music and adjusts the volume for the different people who speak each week. He also makes audio tapes of the services for Adele and anyone else who wants one.
He is always looking for help but for now he is a one man show and the rest of us owe him a big "Thank you!"
WE had a great day in worship on Sunday. We marked Labor Day by talking about the work of the church to make disciples. We also welcomed the Dutrumble family, their relatives and friends as Dan and Cheryl brought Caleb James forward to ask God's blessing on him in a service of family dedication. Cheryl's father, Paul Johnson sang "I Was There To Hear Your Bourning Cry" with piano accompaniment by his wife. It was beautiful.
We closed out the service around the communion table and then formed a circle of fellowship around the sanctuary and sang "Bless Be the Tie Which Binds."
Bob Walker was at church today folding the weekly bulletins and getting things set up for worship on Sunday. He changes the numbers on the hymn board, replaces missing visitor cards in the pew racks and checks to see that everything else is in order in the sanctuary. On the first Saturday of the month he also prepares the communion table and gets it ready for the service.
Most people who walk into church on a Sunday morning don't think about all the little things that have to happen in order to make Sunday morning worship a spirit filled time. People like Bob quietly work behind the scenes so that you and I can connect with the Lord.
Over the next several days and weeks I am going to lift up a few of the people who make themselves available to the Lord so that we can enjoy the service. Bob Walker has been doing this job for several years now. He took over as the chair of the reception committee from Oliver Bray and he has gone over and above the call of duty.
I met with Adele and Cynthia this morning to talk about the music program this fall. They are ready to go and have several new pieces of music picked out that will delight the choir. Rehearsals begin next Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. and we never know who will show up. We have a great group of faithful members now. The following people have indicated they are coming back this year; Mary Brockway, Amy Rezendes, Susie Rothholz, Cindy Costa, Nancy Allen, Cynthia Strouse, Lori Lord, Rosie Rakowitz and Helen Walker as sopranos and altos. Oliver Bray, Shawn Rucker and I singing Baritone.
Several of the new anthems are variations of familiar hymns or praise songs that touch upon the idea of God's grace. We will mix in a few old favorites along the way too.
Adele picked out a very nice anthem for the Annual Choir Festival. It is always a lot of fun and is usually held on the second Sunday of November. It is also one of the highlights of our ecumenical life in the city of Norwich.
We will also be practicing advent and Christmas anthems before we know it. I have to confess that they are my favorite.
So if you like to sing and are looking for something fun to do this Fall, consider joining us on Tuesday nights. You don't have to be a member of the church. The only requirement is a desire to sing God's praises. While you are at it, invite a friend to come with you. They will thank you and it will only add to the fun.
After a busy couple of days I had the opportunity to surf the web a little tonight. I was looking for some inspirational pieces I could for worship or in these blogs. I came across this video tonight and it spoke to me.
The truth is that this is the message of the church. We live in a broken world where dreams are unrealized and hopes are dashed. God sends us out to lift each other up and to help one another make it to the finish line. God himself often empowers us to to make it to the finish line.
A church that glorifies God is a church that carries his love out to the world to restore hope and make dreams become reality. I think our church is that kind of place.
I walk with God every day. That doesn't make me special. It just means that I've invited him to be a part of my life. The funny thing is that God wants to walk with you too. My job is to point out the many ways that God reveals himself to us in the hopes that you and I will stop and take his hand so we can dance through life together.
