First Baptist Church Bozeman

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "First Baptist Church Bozeman"

Angelica Lynch
5 years ago
Views:

August 2016 First Baptist Church Bozeman Striving for Both/And in an Either/Or World It has been like this forever as there is nothing new under the sun but we currently live in polarizing times.

It is an either/or way of thinking about the world. But what if it could be BOTH/AND instead?

1 August 2016 First Baptist Church Bozeman Striving for Both/And in an Either/Or World It has been like this forever as there is nothing new under the sun but we currently live in polarizing times. We are pitted against each other. We are expected to take sides. One group must be right and the other must be wrong. Red vs. blue. Gay vs. straight. Black vs. cop. It is an either/or way of thinking about the world. But what if it could be BOTH/AND instead? What if you could BOTH hold your Christian identity with strength and assurance AND honor, respect, and learn from people of other faith traditions? What if you could BOTH support a political candidate AND acknowledge that the opposing candidate maybe-justmaybe isn t the anti-christ? What if you could BOTH question the morality of homosexuality AND love our LGBT brothers and sisters through welcoming them into our churches and supporting their equal rights under the law? What if saying Black Lives Matter came with the undergirded assumption that, of course, All Lives Matter? What if BOTH Black Lives Matter AND Blue Lives Matter? It is possible to BOTH love and support our police officers who daily risk their lives for our safety AND to recognize that there are some systemic racial problems in our country that have led to much discrimination and way too much lethal force of late. The danger of labels like black and blue is that we can so easily forget that REAL people are ACTUALLY being made black and blue. People are getting hurt and killed as we resort to violence instead of peaceful, creative solutions that might bring about real, actual, substantive change. The gospel of Jesus is all about breaking down barriers of separation. Jesus, in everything he does and says, is eradicating an either/or, us vs. them, hate-theenemy sort of worldview. And we are called to do the same. Let s commit to not demonizing our opponent. Let s commit to putting aside the false-binaries that our world teaches us exist. Let s commit to listening to all people, even and especially when we know we will disagree. Let s commit the Jesus-centered spirit of hospitality, generosity, and love that we see laced throughout the pages of Scripture. Let s commit to being BOTH/AND people, rather than EITHER/OR. Grace and Peace, Pastor Jason

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH BOZEMAN AUGUST 2016 The Rock Report - Gary Cook As I write this Link article we are completing our preparations for this summer s Templed Hills Senior High Camp, or as Sal dubbed

It s not exactly the same as a pilgrim, but using the word in our context, it has a similar connotation.

As long as I ve been directing, I ve always included a movie night at Senior High Camp, and over the years I have always tried to find a film that fit our theme.

That is, rather than trying to find a film to fit our theme we ve instead found popular entertainment films which, whether intentionally or not, tell stories that reveal Christian and biblical themes.

2 FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH BOZEMAN AUGUST 2016 The Rock Report - Gary Cook As I write this Link article we are completing our preparations for this summer s Templed Hills Senior High Camp, or as Sal dubbed it, Sojourners Camp. A sojourner is one who stays somewhere temporarily, someone who s on a journey, a traveler. It s not exactly the same as a pilgrim, but using the word in our context, it has a similar connotation. We are camping at Templed Hills, sojourning there for a time of intentional spiritual renewal or awakening. As long as I ve been directing, I ve always included a movie night at Senior High Camp, and over the years I have always tried to find a film that fit our theme. But for the past few years, Jason and I have structured our chapel lessons around a film. That is, rather than trying to find a film to fit our theme we ve instead found popular entertainment films which, whether intentionally or not, tell stories that reveal Christian and biblical themes. This year we re using the Disney/Pixar film Inside Out, and our theme is Changed from the Inside Out. On the surface, Inside Out is about one year in the life of Riley, an eleven-year-old girl whose family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. But, as the title suggests, it s also about what goes on inside Riley as she makes this emotionally disruptive journey. As a way of entering the film through the bible, we ve borrowed a framework from Walter Brueggemann s book called The Message of the Psalms. In his book, Brueggemann writes that the Psalms address the gamut of human emotions and that the Psalms can often be categorized as Psalms of orientation (in which God is praised because the world is as it should be), Psalms of disorientation (in which God is invoked to fix a broken world), and Psalms of new orientation (in which God is praised for creating the world and his people anew). The movement from orientation through disorientation to new orientation precisely mirrors Riley s external and internal journey in Inside Out. Which surprise! also mirrors the bible s story of creation, disruption (or fall), and redemption. And by now it shouldn t be a surprise it also describes the journeys or stories of many of the bible s most compelling characters, including Adam and Eve, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Ruth, Saul, David, Job, Jonah, the people of Israel, Mary, Peter, Paul, and so on. Even Jesus himself life, death, resurrection whose life s pattern we are called to take as our own. Do I think that the writers of Inside Out intended this connection to the bible? No. But it s a universal story, and one to which the bible speaks a particular word. So that s what we ll be doing at Templed Hills next week: sojourning with Riley and the bible, seeking to be changed from the inside out. Mission Moment - Pastor Jason Mission and outreach continue to be a growing edge for our church, but I have been so encouraged by the Summer Picnics in the parks that have served as incredible outreach opportunities. It was so exciting to watch you all engage with our community during the most-recent picnic at Bogert Park. You talked with people, helped kids, served food, and embodied love. Beautiful! It s what we are called to do as followers of Christ to love and serve and reach out to a world that desperately needs the community, hope, and love of Jesus. Now, it s yet to be seen if our efforts will produce any sort of church growth, but I am most-certainly convinced that we are on the right track. We need to get out of our comfort zones, outside of the convenience and safety of our church building, and really begin to connect with and serve the larger Bozeman community. Again, this is a growing edge for our little church, and it will take time for us to transition into being a more mission-focused church. But it seems like this is our next step forward as a church, and I am committed to helping us in this transition. 2

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH BOZEMAN AUGUST 2016 Leadership Team Meeting Report - Robin Moore, Secretary The Leadership Team reviewed the First Baptist Church (FBC) financial reports for June at our meeting

June expenses (General Fund + Escrow Fund contribution) were $4,997 (No Sr. Pastor). Thus we were short $519 in our Pledge & Plate giving to cover our June expenses. June expenses including the Sr.

3 FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH BOZEMAN AUGUST 2016 Leadership Team Meeting Report - Robin Moore, Secretary The Leadership Team reviewed the First Baptist Church (FBC) financial reports for June at our meeting on July 6. The Non- Designated General Fund balance was $49,190 as of 6/30/16. The Pledge & Plate giving for June, which included the 5/29/16 offering, was $4,478. June expenses (General Fund + Escrow Fund contribution) were $4,997 (No Sr. Pastor). Thus we were short $519 in our Pledge & Plate giving to cover our June expenses. June expenses including the Sr. Pastor were $10,579. A transfer of $6,500 was made from the Unencumbered Reserve Fund (URF) to the General Fund to cover Sr. Pastor expenses for June (salary, housing, retirement, health insurance, etc.). The balance in the URF as of 6/30/16 was $557,455. FBC has collected $8,978 for The Rock special offering as of 7/21/16. If you would like to contribute to this offering, please make your check payable to First Baptist Church and write The Rock on the memo line. These funds will go towards the $125,000 matching grant offered by the Gilhousen Family Foundation. The Leadership Team has also been discussing The Rock s financial situation and its future. A congregational business meeting will be scheduled for Sunday, August 14, after worship to update the congregation onthe Rock s financial situation and to discuss possible options for its future. The second quarter contributions to the ABCNW Region ($750) and to International Ministries missionaries ($150) were paid in July. The missionary support went to Mike and Jill Lowery who serve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These donations are paid from the Escrow Fund. Several building maintenance issues were addressed in July. Two new replacement fixtures were ordered for the lights in the basement Fellowship Hall to replace one glass cover which was broken in June and to have a spare on hand if needed. Austin Beard has been working on the boiler. He has installed a new control module and has made some other adjustments as needed. A representative from a concrete company in Billings is coming to look at the crumbling overlay on the front steps in the next week or so. Hopefully, he can give us some repair options and some cost estimates. We have been unable to find anyone in the Bozeman area to even look at the steps. Pastor Jason continues to work on plans for a new exterior church sign for the south side of the building near the side door. Hallie Kronebusch has designed the sign, and Pastor Jason is working through the City of Bozeman permit process. The Leadership Team reviewed Pastor Jason s job performance over the past 10 months, using the Sr. Pastor Job Description to guide the discussion. The Leadership Team felt that Pastor Jason had performed well in all categories. There will be a Sr. Pastor annual review in September after one year with feedback from the congregation. There will be an opportunity for members to submit comments, concerns and kudos about Pastor Jason s first year for the annual review. Remember to keep Pastor Jason, the church, and The Rock in your prayers daily as we all work together to discern God s will and direction for FBC and The Rock. Pray that God will help to meet our needs and that we will be a faithful church in all that we do. Also pray for your Leadership Team as they seek God s wisdom and guidance for FBC. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to speak with Pastor Jason or members of the Leadership Team. Leadership Team members are: Gary Cook, Grace Holiday, Austin Beard, Robin Moore, and Carl Fahlstrom. Thank you! - Pat Newby Dear Friends: My family and I are so blessed by all of you who faithfully held me up in prayer during my stay in Seattle and my convalescence here at home. Even though learning I had a brain tumor was a complete shock, nonetheless, knowing God was with me was SUCH a COMFORT! He took away any fear or anxiety and provided peace. The timing couldn t have been better, the right surgeon, the right team, the right medical facility and the right sister to house my entire family! Even though there were some challenges, still I m doing well and am getting closer to normal (?). How refreshing and encouraging to be a part of a loving and praying church family. Our God is wonderful, praise his Holy Name! 3

4 FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH BOZEMAN AUGUST 2016 Baptist Responses to Terrorism: A Historical Perspective - Bruce T. Gourley Fifteen years after the massive terrorist attacks of September 9, 2001, terrorism remains front and center of the American consciousness. Islamic extremists carried out the 9/11 atrocities in New York, D.C. and Pennsylvania, and the many terrorist attacks since that infamous date have typically been blamed upon Islamic extremists in the public eye. The recent slaughter of 49 patrons at a gay nightclub in Orlando by a Muslim man is just the latest example. Reality, however, is more complex. Whether or not the Orlando terrorist was motivated by religious beliefs or not remains unclear. Furthermore, in recent decades more terrorist acts on American soil have been committed by home-grown Christian extremists than by Islamic extremists, a dynamic rooted in a long history of domestic terrorism. The 2015 murders by Christian white supremacist Dylan Roof in Charleston s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church are just one example. How can this be? A look at the past can help us understand the tangled relationship of religion and terrorism in today s world. As the Islamic theocratic Middle East is today, much of Christian theocratic colonial America once was. Colonial violence and persecution in the name of God was common, including punishment and execution of adulterers and the imprisonment, torture, banishment and death of religious heretics. As in today s Islamic Middle East, colonial religious authorities in alliance with government opposed human rights and equality and often demanded at the point of prison or death that citizens conform to Old Testament laws. (The Quran s laws essentially mirror Old Testament laws.) More than any other group in America, Baptists were persecuted by colonial Christian officials. Christian hatred of Baptists was stoked by Baptist demands for equal religious liberty for all, including Muslims and pagans, and church state separation. Terrorism continued even after America became a nation established on Baptist freedom principles of religious liberty and church state separation. Slave owners often beat, raped and killed their slaves, frequently citing the Bible as justification. (The Bible does not condemn human slavery.) Having moved from a terrorized minority to a privileged majority, white Baptists of the early-to-mid 19th century South often participated in the brutal violence against slaves, dismissing their actions as the will of God. After the Civil War and through the 1960s white supremacist groups, including the KKK, an explicitly Christian organization, often resorted to systematic violence and murder in order to ensure privileges for and 4 the superiority of God s chosen, white race. Their religious faith included hatred of black persons and other minorities. Shamefully, Baptists were well-represented in the tens of thousands of terrorist acts committed against African Americans. How did so many of our own faith forebears become terrorists? In short, they strayed from their early convictions of freedom and equality for all persons, convictions born out of the belief that all humans are God s special creation and thus deserving of equal freedom of conscience protected by religious liberty for all and church state separation. Upon obtaining a privileged, majority status, many white Baptists (and other Christians) resorted to even more gruesome terrorist acts against minorities than an earlier generation of Christians had bestowed upon them. In the name of God and for their own glorification, they denied human rights and equality. Today, alongside Islamic terrorism, Christian terrorism continues in the form of violence and mass shootings against African Americans, the LGBT community, government representatives, and other persons and institutions deemed as threats to white privilege and supremacy. While many terrorist acts on American soil are not religiously-motivated, those that are, whether Islamic or Christian or otherwise, broadly share the same motivation of hatred of human rights and equality. How should we respond to religiously-fueled terrorism of the 21st century? Our early Baptist forebears as committed followers of Jesus understood that hatred and the gospel were incompatible. Over four centuries ago they openly shed their blood in advocating for the equal rights of even those with whom they disagreed, loving their enemies as Jesus commanded. Freedom of conscience, religious liberty for all and church state separation, convictions all rooted in the New Testament, they embraced as foundational to true faith and necessary for the destruction of religious theocracies, a primary root of terrorism historically. Fueled by opposition to human rights and equality, Islamic theocracies remain in today s Middle East. At the same time, some Christians in America are determined to replace our secular democracy with a Christian theocracy. From our own faith history as terrorized and terrorists, we can understand how hatred of others sometimes leads to religiously-fueled violence. We also know from our past that maintaining religious liberty for all and church state separation is absolutely necessary in the fight against terrorism. Finally, we must never forget the central message of the gospel: love is more powerful than evil. Today, tomorrow and every day of our lives, let us thus faithfully live the gospel and the best of our faith heritage by opening our hearts and our arms to all of humanity in the name of Jesus.

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH BOZEMAN Summer Schedule

Gourley s August 17 @ Bozeman Beach Outdoor

.. August 20 - Hike to Windy Pass in Gallatin

birding, fly fishing, and camping events - stay

5 FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH BOZEMAN Summer Schedule AUGUST 2016 Summer picnics August The Gourley s August Bozeman Beach Outdoor Ministry So far scheduled... August 20 - Hike to Windy Pass in Gallatin Canyon Currently working out details for birding, fly fishing, and camping events - stay tuned! Outdoor Ministry Hike to Beehive Basin Stunning photos provided by Will Moore - Thank you! 5

First Baptist Church August 2016 Denotes Anniversary Denotes Birthday 1 2 3 4 5 10am - Sweet Pea Parade 6 9:30am All Church Bible Study 7am - Leadership Team 10am - Mom s Club Lecture 6pm - Church

Leadership Team 17 18 19 20 9:30am All Church Bible Study Pastor Jason on Vacation 6pm - Church Picnic at Bozeman Beach 5pm - Cancer Group 5:30pm - Family Camp Planning Session 3pm - Walk with Sam

27 Newby Bruce Gourley Preaching 28 29 30 31 Sep. 1 Sep. 2 Sep.

6 First Baptist Church August 2016 Denotes Anniversary Denotes Birthday am - Sweet Pea Parade 6 9:30am All Church Bible Study 7am - Leadership Team 10am - Mom s Club Lecture 6pm - Church Picnic at the Gourley s 5pm - Cancer Group 5:30pm - Family Camp Planning Session Joe Barnett Patrick Flemming Preaching 7 8 NO Bible Study pm - Cancer Group Abrams Green am - Leadership Team :30am All Church Bible Study Pastor Jason on Vacation 6pm - Church Picnic at Bozeman Beach 5pm - Cancer Group 5:30pm - Family Camp Planning Session 3pm - Walk with Sam Interfaith Event at First Presbyterian Outdoor Ministry: Hiking Windy Pass 9am Cassidy Cook Becca Syme Preaching Crystal Connie Crystal Walt Gordon NO Bible Study pm - Cancer Group Newby Bruce Gourley Preaching Sep. 1 Sep. 2 Sep. 3 9:30am - All Church Bible Study Templed Hills Family Camp Worship Leaders; Pastor Jason, Mandy, Zoe, & Peyton Homebound & Nursing Home Members; Hallie, Louis & Chris Kronebusch The Rock: Gary & Tammy Cook, Alison Curry, John Kawalski Daily Prayer Points Leadership Team: Gary, Grace, Austin, Robin, & Carl ABW & Women s Ministries; Family Promise; Cancer Support Group Community Groups; College & Young Adult Ministries Our Church: the future mission & vision of FBC

Confidence in Being Gone

July 2017 First Baptist Church Bozeman Confidence in Being Gone To give you a little context, I m writing this Link article while sitting at a Taco Bell in Bismarck, North Dakota. The last week of my life