Claim your ministry

Last night I traveled to Watertown for the calling hours for Tess Beauchamps. I met Tess through my involvement with the Miss Connecticut program seven years ago. She was involved with oversight of all the Miss Contestants from across the state that year. I was a volunteer. I offered to drive the girls back and forth between Connecticut College and the Garde Arts Center during competition week.

She was a real lady. A former contestant and a long time volunteer in the Miss America system, Tess worked out every detail of the week. She was eighty years old but she had me hustling. The next year my role changed and I didn't get to work with Tess until last year when I was asked o be her assistant. In 2007 she took over as the state Judges Chair. That meant it was her job to greet them, instruct them on what their role was and to make sure that they had a good time while they were here. I was the gofor.

I had a good time and when she asked me if I would work with her again, I readily agreed. So a few months ago she and I hooked up again for the 2008 Miss Connecticut Pageant. During our two years we had a few opportunities to talk about life and faith. She was a devout Roman Catholic and her faith was important to her. As a matter of fact, it was one of the reasons she got involved in the Miss Connecticut Scholarship Program. She wanted to encourage young woman to excel in all they did. At eighty years old, Tess was still going strong and she proved to be an inspiration to many of the young women in the program. You should have seen the line of people waiting to get in to pay their respects last night. There were hundreds of people and the wait was about an hour and a half long.

Are you wondering why I am telling you this in the First Baptist Life blog? There are two reasons. First I want you to know that I believe my ministry as your pastor goes beyond the boundaries of our membership.

In some ways I feel called to be a pastor to the whole community, akin to the Jewish philosophy of being a rabbi to the whole village. I am blessed because you give me that freedom. My ministry extends to the Norwich Rotary club, Hospice of Southeastern Connecticut, the Otis Library Board and the Backus Hospital. Over the years I have been involved with the Martin Luther King Center, the YMCA, United Community and Family Services and several other groups. You have given me permission to work and pray with all who come to me for counsel and advice. The ministry you have given me extends beyond the needs of our members. That means that at times I have had a special relationship with the employees at Charles Toyota, the parents and staff of the Luis Pabon Dance Arts Center, the group of parents who make up the NFA Band Boosters and members of the music department staff, the Community Theater community in Norwich and the list goes on. In some ways. my ministry and therefore our ministry has no limits and therefore its reach is boundless. That is good.

The second reason I am telling you this is because the same is true of your ministry. Your ministry is not limited to serving on a committee or Board at church. Your ministry is not limited to helping at the tag sale or bringing cookies for the reception after service. Your ministry goes with you wherever you go. When you volunteer with the Girl Scouts or help with the team at Little League you have an avenue for serving God. When you are standing in the classroom or waiting on tables, you can use that venue for sharing God's love.

You see, we all have a ministry that extends beyond the walls of the Church. Jesus told us that we were called to be salt and light to the world. We are to be out there flavoring it with the love of Christ. We are told to bring light into the darkness. We don't have to carry our Bibles with us to do that. We can simply do it by being thoughtful, caring, friends who are there when God needs us to say a word or offer a prayer for someone we know or work with.

All it takes for this to happen is for you to say a little prayer and ask God to use you. Believe me. He will. So get out there and claim your ministry.

Cal

Busy Sundays at FBC

What a day! It began with Sunday School and Lori Lord filling in to host the Opening Exercises. We broke up into classes and had the usual fun. It seemed the like hour flew by.

During worship we focused on the first great theme of Rick Warren's book, The Purpose Driven Life. My message was entitled, "You are A Friend of God." After singing "In My Heart There Rings A Melody" I declared that we were created to bring pleasure to God. HE put that song in our hearts. He didn't have to create anything but he decided that he wanted to create us to walk hand in hand with him as friends. We closed the service with communion.

We held our Quarterly Meeting after church and heard reports and talked about the kitchen project and the possibility of joining Central Baptist for worship this winter.

At 4:00 p.m. we had a youth group meeting. Fred Green and Kristen Deptulski led the group in games and Bible Study The group was small but it was intimate and good.

We closed off our evening with our Small Group Bible Study. We had nine of us present and Lisa even brought some goodies to share.

Cal

Being the hands and feet of Christ

Today I traveled to Shiloh Baptist Church in Hartford with Cynthia Strouse, Sue Ferguson, Amanda Duntz and Curt Brockway for our Missional Church workshop with Glynnis LeBarre from National Ministries. It was a great session.

The Missional Church Project is all about being the church in our community. As we come together we explore the vision of the body of Christ that Jesus had. It looked vastly different than what we often think about today. The early Christians met in homes. They supported each other physically as well as emotionally and spiritually. Love was the key and knowing each other was important.

Glynnis reminded us that the world has changed in the last fifty years. The church and the Christian religion was the dominant culture. We sat back and waited for everyone to come to us... and they did. We did programs, we worshipped, we had pot lucks and enjoyed being the center of community life. But that has all changed. Today we represent a minority and two generations of kids have grown up without church in their lives. In many corners of our world the church has become irrelevant.

The good news is that it forces us to rethink our mission. It gives us the opportunity to go back in time and see what it means to be the body of Christ, to be his hands, feet, ear, and eyes. As we look at Jesus in the scriptures, we get an idea of what he is calling is to do and be. We are to be the salt, the light, revealing God's love and compassion in our neighborhoods.

So that is what we are looking to do at First Baptist. We have our first project and you will be hearing more about it in the coming weeks. We are going to partner with some others in our community to meet a need this winter. We hope to reach out with "Winter survival kits" to some of those in need in our neighborhood o the West Side. In doing so we will be able to show our neighbors we care.

It should be interesting. Stay tuned as the plan develops.

Cal

Thank God, Sunday is coming

This morning Sandy and I put together the finishing touches on the bulletin for Sunday. Adele was in early and that prompted me to pick the hymns and make sure all the elements of the service were in place. I like to do this before Thursday morning so Adele and I can chat about it and make changes if needed. It doesn't always happen though. Maybe next week!

We also decided to push back our target date for sending out the newsletter until next week. I hated to do that but it just wasn't coming together. Sandy and I pick out some of the features and she did her part but I was a slacker. So blame me. You will have to tune in here to get the latest news. Of course if you are reading this, then you already know the best place to get updates.

I'm looking ahead to this weekend. It should be a great Sunday morning at church with Sunday School and Worship. We'll begin week two of our forty days of purpose series and my message will be entitled, "You Are A Friend of God." Our youth group will meet at 4:00 p.m. and we begin our second week of Bible studies at 6:00 p.m.

Cal

Spending time with friends in study

Tonight we held the second edition of our weekly Bible study at the home of Patricia and Steve Ohlund and there were fourteen people present. These Bible studies are great because they get a bunch of us together to talk about important things. We can learn from each other and stretch our own understanding of what the Bible says and how it can inform our faith.

I hope several others will take advantage of our get togethers. We will be meeting at church on Sundays at 6:00 p.m., Wednesdays at the Ohlund home at 7:00 p.m. and at church on Thursdays at 1:00 p.m.

Cal

Food pantry gets filled up

On Tuesday I went shopping with the money that we received from Wildwood Christian Academy. I filled two shopping carts with non perishable food for our community pantry. It felt good to see the cupboards filled again. That afternoon we had a request for some food and we were able to help. You should have seen the smile on the woman's face as she walked out with two bags of groceries.

We will be specifically collecting food on the third Sunday of each month. But we will take food anytime. We have people stopping by all month long. You can bring it in and drop it off in the kitchen or put it in the orange basket at the back of the church. We will also accept monetary donations earmarked "food pantry" anytime.

Right now we can use peanut butter, canned vegetables and soups in particular. We can also use margarine.

Cal

Love in action - coming soon

On Monday night we put together our formal presentation for the Missional Church project that our church is involved in. This proposal will be submitted to National Ministries of ABCUSA on Saturday and this winter we will begin to reach out into our community with Winter Survival kits. These kits will include blankets, socks, underwear, laundry detergent, personal health care items, light bulbs, batteries and more.

Once we put together these kits we will be heading out to our neighborhood and helping some of the neediest families with this love gift. You will be hearing more about this in the next couple of months as we secure some partners in this ministry and begin to look for help in putting them together and giving them away.

Cal