Saturdays at church usually bring a number of mixed events together. The Praise team of Buenas Nuevas usually comes in to practice for Sunday afternoon. Bob Walker drops by to fold the bulletins and set up for Sunday. He adds pew cards and changes the number board and does any other set up that is needed. Adele usually comes in to practice on Saturday mornings. She goes over the order of service and makes sure everything flow right. Our Praise team comes in to practice too.
I usually use Saturday to get my head ready for Sunday. I try to lay low, work on my sermon and pull together anything special that is going to happen the next day. Of course weddings, memorial services and youth group events often take priority. This time of year we have a lot of things going on. That means that every Saturday will have something. For example next Friday night the youth group will be participating in an all night event called the Super Bowl. That means I'll be home and sleeping in next Saturday.
The great thing about ministry is that it is fluid and that defines Saturdays. We do a lot of the same things at church but each one is always different. Why? Because the events always involve different people. The Super Bowl is a perfect example. Over the years nearly every teen in the church has gone at least once. Some have loved it and others never want to do it again. The kids make it what it is though. Their enthusiasm, excitement and energy feed into the night and make it unique every time. I remember the years when we went on a school bus because we had so many kids. That was a trip. I remember the first time we went. We actually stopped at a Denny's on the way home. There was the year that we celebrated Amy Rezendes' birthday. Like I said, every year is different.
Saturdays are like that too. You just never know what you'll find if you drop in.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Walking with God through Friday
Fridays are not usually busy days at church. Unless we are trying to get the newsletter out or we are working on some project, Sandy doesn't work and the office is closed. I use it as my "overflow" day and if nothing is pending, I often take the day off.
Today we wanted to get the last of the stewardship letters out. Sandy came in with her daughter, Nicky and they did that as well as a couple of other small jobs. I had a light day planned and was going to help but the phone began ringing as soon as I walked in the door.
As it turned out I ended up meeting several people during the course of the morning. It was almost as if I was meant to be at church. I met with Cynthia Strouse to talk about our missional church emphasis. I caught up with Bobbie Adams who brought some books by the church. I met a friend who was going through a tough time. I ran into Rabbi Charles Arian at Subway and we had lunch and conversation together. Then I stopped in to see Marge Booth and we had a nice visit.
I always say a little prayer as I start the day. I ask God to guide my steps and lead me to the places where I can do the most good. That certainly happened today. I walked with him all day and I was blessed.
Cal
PS The stewardship newsletter went out and all of our members and friends should receive it over the weekend. It includes the Narrative budget, the proposed 2010 budget, a copy of last week's sermon and a letter from the stewardship committee.
Today we wanted to get the last of the stewardship letters out. Sandy came in with her daughter, Nicky and they did that as well as a couple of other small jobs. I had a light day planned and was going to help but the phone began ringing as soon as I walked in the door.
As it turned out I ended up meeting several people during the course of the morning. It was almost as if I was meant to be at church. I met with Cynthia Strouse to talk about our missional church emphasis. I caught up with Bobbie Adams who brought some books by the church. I met a friend who was going through a tough time. I ran into Rabbi Charles Arian at Subway and we had lunch and conversation together. Then I stopped in to see Marge Booth and we had a nice visit.
I always say a little prayer as I start the day. I ask God to guide my steps and lead me to the places where I can do the most good. That certainly happened today. I walked with him all day and I was blessed.
Cal
PS The stewardship newsletter went out and all of our members and friends should receive it over the weekend. It includes the Narrative budget, the proposed 2010 budget, a copy of last week's sermon and a letter from the stewardship committee.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Meeting Mitch Albom
Today I had the opportunity to hear Mitch Albom speak at St. Vincent De Paul Soup Kitchen in downtown Norwich. He was there to meet with the clergy and give a word of hope to the downcast. It was great.
Mitch spoke about the story behind his latest book, "Have A Little Faith." In it there are two real people whose stories are inspirational. One is an aged Rabbi. The other is a Protestant minister. At the Soup Kitchen Mitch focused on the minister. He told how he went from a drug dealer and convict to a man of God. He talked about the pastor's change of heart and how that opened the door for him to become a beacon of light to the homeless community in Detroit. He closed his remarks by sharing a conversation he had with the rabbi shortly before he died. Mitch was asked to give the eulogy at his funeral and felt woefully inadequate. He said, "You're the man of God. Who am I?" To which the rabbi responded, "You are a man of God too. We are all children of God. Remember that." It was a powerful message that we all needed to hear.
Cal
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
A FBC Wednesday
What a day. It began early with work on a mailing for the stewardship committee that is going out this week. I got to the church about 6:30 a.m. because I had to finish up the narrative budget before Sandy came in. We were hoping to send it out today but of course everything takes much longer than you expect. I was still working on it when she got there. That was good because i needed her opinion on a couple of things.
Just before eleven a.m. I met a couple who owned a cleaning service. They wanted to give me a price on cleaning the church. We are pretty happy with the job Will and Don are doing but I felt it was important to at least check them out to make sure we are being responsible with our budget. They were nice and they said they'd get back to me.
That left me forty five minutes to finish up my weekly epistle. I was making good time on it when my computer started acting up so I decided to leave it and go to Rotary.
After lunch I came home and finished the epistle here and then I got to work on the message for Wednesday night church. This week I was going to talk about the phrase "Give us this day our daily bread." I actually enjoyed this week's message because it was so practical. The point was that God cares about our life and about the mundane ordinary things. I used the feeding of the 4000 as my text and pointed out how Jesus couldn't let the crowd go away hungry. He not only healed their souls and their bodies but he healed their hunger as well.
Then I hunted down the forms I needed for our mission Mexico team meeting. I hurried down to church for the six o'clock meeting. It was great. We met for an hour and talked about a fund raiser we are planning in January. Then we set the date of our next meeting, which just happens to be Tuesday, November 16th.
We finished just in time for church. The Praise team played, I preached and we prayed. It was a perfect ending to a good day at First Baptist Church.
Just before eleven a.m. I met a couple who owned a cleaning service. They wanted to give me a price on cleaning the church. We are pretty happy with the job Will and Don are doing but I felt it was important to at least check them out to make sure we are being responsible with our budget. They were nice and they said they'd get back to me.
That left me forty five minutes to finish up my weekly epistle. I was making good time on it when my computer started acting up so I decided to leave it and go to Rotary.
After lunch I came home and finished the epistle here and then I got to work on the message for Wednesday night church. This week I was going to talk about the phrase "Give us this day our daily bread." I actually enjoyed this week's message because it was so practical. The point was that God cares about our life and about the mundane ordinary things. I used the feeding of the 4000 as my text and pointed out how Jesus couldn't let the crowd go away hungry. He not only healed their souls and their bodies but he healed their hunger as well.
Then I hunted down the forms I needed for our mission Mexico team meeting. I hurried down to church for the six o'clock meeting. It was great. We met for an hour and talked about a fund raiser we are planning in January. Then we set the date of our next meeting, which just happens to be Tuesday, November 16th.
We finished just in time for church. The Praise team played, I preached and we prayed. It was a perfect ending to a good day at First Baptist Church.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Our Barnes missionary partnership team meets
Today I met with Michelle Madsen-Bibeau and Ellen Jones in West Hartford. We are three members of the Missionary Partnership team for Mercy and Rick Barnes. We called Rick and Mercy to celebrate the fact that they had achieved 111% of their fund raising goal this year. Of course that also meant that it is now time to begin reaching out for their support for 2010 and beyond. We had a great conference call and heard about some of the new ministries that they are engaged in.
During the call we also got an update about their daughter Aida and her reports from the University of Virginia. She is a freshman there and enjoying life very much. She's made friends and today is working to help people get out to the polls. Rick and Mercy were also very excited that a group from California was coming out to paint their house this weekend. The group wanted to find a way to say "thank you" to the Barnes for all they do.
While on the line we also caught up with Mercy's sister Wanda, who is also part of our MPT. She has a new web site up and running that tells about their ministry. You can find it on the web at www.barnesbajamexico.org.
We also gave Rick and Mercy the dates that our team from Norwich was planning to be with them. It will be the week of February 23rd. I told Rick we would give them more information after our team meeting tomorrow night.
Cal
During the call we also got an update about their daughter Aida and her reports from the University of Virginia. She is a freshman there and enjoying life very much. She's made friends and today is working to help people get out to the polls. Rick and Mercy were also very excited that a group from California was coming out to paint their house this weekend. The group wanted to find a way to say "thank you" to the Barnes for all they do.
While on the line we also caught up with Mercy's sister Wanda, who is also part of our MPT. She has a new web site up and running that tells about their ministry. You can find it on the web at www.barnesbajamexico.org.
We also gave Rick and Mercy the dates that our team from Norwich was planning to be with them. It will be the week of February 23rd. I told Rick we would give them more information after our team meeting tomorrow night.
Cal
Monday, November 2, 2009
It is time for the youth superbowl
Tonight I signed up nine kids for the Word of Life Superbowl in Springfield, Massachusetts on Friday, November 13th. It's an all night event that begins with a hockey game and continues with an on ice rally, followed by an all night long spree of bowling and roller skating. Throw in a ton of pizza and soda and lots of fun and you've got the picture.
We've gone several times over the years. One year we even had one of the top ten largest groups. We brought sixty kids from the Norwich area on a school bus. It was great. The hardest part has always been trying to stay awake all night. The kids have an advantage because they are busy running around and having fun. Their adrenaline kicks in and they go like the energizer bunny.
Over the years we have had lots of different kids from the church go and several adult chaperons too. Among the adults are Curt Brockway, Fred Green, Kathy Duntz, Joel and Sharon Fishkin, Mark Ferguson, Bob Duntz, Amy Rezendes, and Buffy McFalls.
Just about every kid who has been active in our youth group has gone on the trip. The most memorable trip was back about 1999 or 2000. That was the year that Fannie Bray came with us and broke her ankle at the skating rink. She was a friend of Fred Green Jr.'s. The night was going great until Fannie fell over by the snack bar. We ended up getting her in the van and heading back to Norwich and the Backus Hospital where we spent the rest of the night.
Since then we have never had another similar incident, thank goodness. A few hurt rumps from the falls but nothing else.
We have room for a few more if you call by the end of this week. The cost is $39.00 per person.
Cal
We've gone several times over the years. One year we even had one of the top ten largest groups. We brought sixty kids from the Norwich area on a school bus. It was great. The hardest part has always been trying to stay awake all night. The kids have an advantage because they are busy running around and having fun. Their adrenaline kicks in and they go like the energizer bunny.
Over the years we have had lots of different kids from the church go and several adult chaperons too. Among the adults are Curt Brockway, Fred Green, Kathy Duntz, Joel and Sharon Fishkin, Mark Ferguson, Bob Duntz, Amy Rezendes, and Buffy McFalls.
Just about every kid who has been active in our youth group has gone on the trip. The most memorable trip was back about 1999 or 2000. That was the year that Fannie Bray came with us and broke her ankle at the skating rink. She was a friend of Fred Green Jr.'s. The night was going great until Fannie fell over by the snack bar. We ended up getting her in the van and heading back to Norwich and the Backus Hospital where we spent the rest of the night.
Since then we have never had another similar incident, thank goodness. A few hurt rumps from the falls but nothing else.
We have room for a few more if you call by the end of this week. The cost is $39.00 per person.
Cal
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Fill Our Cups, Lord
We asked everyone to bring in their favorite cup or mug today and we used them as part of our communion celebration. Today was also the start of our annual stewardship campaign. The theme is "Fill My Cup, Lord" and that happened to be the title of the sermon too. The scripture passage was from John 4, the story of the woman at the well.
If you don't know the story it is essentially about a chance encounter of Jesus and a Samaritan woman. He stops by a local watering spot and while he is there a gal comes to draw some water. He asks her for a drink and she is taken aback. Not only is she something of a scandalous woman, but Jesus is a Jewish rabbi. Those two things don't mix. The encounter turns into a spiritual discussion and Jesus offers her a gift that keeps on giving, living water.
I made a couple of points during the sermon. The first was that it was no coincidence that the two met. Jesus planned it that way. He does the same thing with us. He seeks us out and shows up when we least expect it. Second, he wants to fill our cup with that living water too. He wants us to have his blessings.
So when it came time to receive communion, I invited everyone to come forward and to have their cups filled. Usually we share a small cup during our service. Today I wanted us to recognize the fact that it is our cup he's filling and he wants to fill it to the brim. (We did that symbolically.) God wants to bless us and too often we are the one's who limit what he can do. So let's start asking him to fill our cup and see what happens. Then we can share what we have with others.
A quartet of Mary Brockway, Lori Lord Fred Green and I sang our stewardship theme song, "Fill Our Cup, Lord." Next week we will all sing it out of the hymn book.
After church Mark Kane, representing our Mission team, hosted the coffee hour. The Mission Team will be hosting the coffee hours this fall. They also put up a display of 2010 calendars that they are selling as a fund raiser for the trip.
Cal
If you don't know the story it is essentially about a chance encounter of Jesus and a Samaritan woman. He stops by a local watering spot and while he is there a gal comes to draw some water. He asks her for a drink and she is taken aback. Not only is she something of a scandalous woman, but Jesus is a Jewish rabbi. Those two things don't mix. The encounter turns into a spiritual discussion and Jesus offers her a gift that keeps on giving, living water.
I made a couple of points during the sermon. The first was that it was no coincidence that the two met. Jesus planned it that way. He does the same thing with us. He seeks us out and shows up when we least expect it. Second, he wants to fill our cup with that living water too. He wants us to have his blessings.
So when it came time to receive communion, I invited everyone to come forward and to have their cups filled. Usually we share a small cup during our service. Today I wanted us to recognize the fact that it is our cup he's filling and he wants to fill it to the brim. (We did that symbolically.) God wants to bless us and too often we are the one's who limit what he can do. So let's start asking him to fill our cup and see what happens. Then we can share what we have with others.
A quartet of Mary Brockway, Lori Lord Fred Green and I sang our stewardship theme song, "Fill Our Cup, Lord." Next week we will all sing it out of the hymn book.
After church Mark Kane, representing our Mission team, hosted the coffee hour. The Mission Team will be hosting the coffee hours this fall. They also put up a display of 2010 calendars that they are selling as a fund raiser for the trip.
Cal
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