God s reign. In the New Testament this theme of genera ons being together is furthered understood and deemed most important.

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1 A publication of The First Baptist Church of Westfield, NJ Genera on to Genera on Psalm 145:4 One genera on shall laud your works to another, and declare your mighty acts. A careful reading of Scripture gives us ample windows of life lived not only in community, but in an intergenera onal ethos where the experience and knowledge and beliefs of the older genera ons are to be passed down to the newer genera ons. This passing down of the faith, the culture, the norms and values is done by actually living, worshiping and being together in harmony. The Old Testament assumes this type of being together where children were to be treasured and taught, assimilated by the older genera ons and where the older generaons were to be cared for and honored. In the Old Testament each baby is placed within a family, and a family within a tribe. Tribes become na ons. In Joel 2:15-16, we read, Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanc fy a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Sanc fy the congrega on; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. This is a call is for all genera ons to be together under the canopy of JUNE 2015 God s reign. In the New Testament this theme of genera ons being together is furthered understood and deemed most important. When Paul and his companions were se ng out for a journey towards Jerusalem, we read about the group of believers that gathered to send them off When our days there were ended, we le and proceeded on our journey; and all of them with wives and children, escorted us outside the city. There we knelt down on the beach and prayed and said farewell to one another. (Acts 21:5-6a) Praying together, being together with no one le behind was the norm. Finally, in I Timothy 5:1-2, we read Paul s exhorta on: Do not speak harshly to an older man, but speak to him as to a father; to younger men as brothers, to older women as mothers, to younger women as sisters with absolute purity. The assump on for the early church was that all were together and that all were to treat each other with respect and honor thus pleasing God. So, all the above to say that being an intergenera onal church is God pleasing and God honoring. Genera on to genera on pass those beliefs and values that are worthy to be cherished and not forgo en. It is u erly important then for li le children to worship side by side the youth, the adults, and the elderly all together respec ng and honoring each season of life and con nuing on the Good News of Jesus to future genera ons. Imagine a church family without grandparents? Imagine a church family without children? Imagine a church family without youth and adults? Be er yet, let s not! Let us all work together to make sure that Genera on to Genera on are brought together simply, humbly and in peace at FBC Wes ield! Be sure to be present each and every Sunday in June for the following: June 7th Children s Sunday; Communion Sunday June 14th Youth Sunday June 21st Father s Day June 28th All Church Family Picnic a er the worship service! Pastor Mayra

2 page 2 The Messenger JUNE 28th, 12-3pm, TAMAQUES PARK It s warm and it s spring and it s time for our annual CHURCH PICNIC!! Bring your family and friends and join us in the fun!! We will also be honoring our graduates during the picnic, so come by and help us celebrate! Christian Ed will provide the burgers and hotdogs; please bring a side dish. Sign up on the bulletin board outside the office. Thank you to Natasha Klochkova, Jessy Brown, Bob Gotham, the Brown family, and the Martin family for volunteering for youth ministry in the month of May. For June we are blessed to have Tyler Martin volunteering as a youth leader. We still need volunteers to provide dinners some weeks in June. Youth Sunday is June 14th and the youth are looking forward to participating in worship. We'll have rehearsals on May 31 and June 7th during YG and also before worship on Sun 9:00 AM. Youth musicians should bring instruments to each rehearsal. June 7 - 5:00 June 14 - Youth meet at 9am for Youth Sunday June :00 June 28 - YG to church picnic at Glen Brown Youth Ministry Coordinator Do you celebrate a birthday or anniversary in January, February, March, April, May or June? If so, you are invited, on June 14th, to gather with your church family in the lounge during the after church reception, where we will share time to celebrate your special day. The Deacons Birthdays 6/4 Trent Gabriel 6/5 Vickie Koslowski 6/6 Melissa Virzi 6/8 MaryJane Schnitzer 6/11Owen Martin 6/12Chris Mancinelli 6/13 Janet Winey 6/21Tom Ball Kathy Barton 6/22 Jesse Kline 6/25Kaleigh Spinner Anniversaries 6/1 Allen & Mary Chin 6/7 Mike & Mary Dobos 6/12 Dudley & Doris Painter 6/13Matt & Jaime Barton John & Marie Vastano 6/20 Barry & Ann Hinman 6/21 Dean & Elaine Pratt 6/26 George & June Goellner 6/27 Bill & Kathy Barton 6/30 Luis & Hilary Araujo

3 The Messenger page 3 From the Music Corner Ye shall not be judged by what is written on your bumper, but by what is written on your heart. I like pithy sayings. If I liked bumper stickers, the above would be stuck to my car. Oh, I ve had a few in my past; I had a COEXIST sticker for a while and also one to support marriage equality. I ve had others that I wouldn t put on my car because they might say too much about me. But my interpretation of Matthew 6: 1-6 says that you shouldn t advertise your faith; that your actions should speak for your faith. Besides, if I have something like God is my Co-pilot on my car, besides thinking I need to change seats, I d feel too much pressure to make sure my driving reflected absolute perfection. I ve seen too many people who profess to be Christians making comments about idiot drivers who don t use a blinker or demonstrate other offenses. What does all this have to do with music? I recently discovered a web site called Ponder Anew ( Among other things it discusses the place of music within the worship experience. One five part series discussed 100 Hymns everyone should know ( While I didn t know many at the bottom of the list, I did know all at the top of the June 2015 list and could sing them from memory. But what started this was a discussion of hymns that should be discarded from use by the modern church. Chief among these was The Old Wooden Cross. His reasoning was based on the fact that the words of the hymn focused more on the physical cross than on the sacrifice that Christ endured that is the basis for our salvation. While I don t disagree with his reasoning, I hope that we ll keep singing this old classic. But it is important that we don t get trapped into worshipping the symbols of our faith, or the words of hymns, but keep our focus into their meanings in relation to our faith and our lives. Anyway, before I get too far down this rabbit hole of a rant, I recommend that while the choir is off for the summer, you might want to check out Ponder Anew. You can even like it on Facebook. I want to thank all the members of the Chancel Choir and Ringers for all their hard work this past year. We ve met our challenges and sang/rang glory and praise to our Lord. May we all enjoy the summer months. The fall will be here sooner than we want and we ll need to be refreshed to face new challenges. Choir members are invited to join the Song leaders during the summer services when you re available. And we can enjoy Michael Rosin playing our wonderful organ. Your humble Kappel Meister, Steve Lind Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 ESL Class, 6:30-8:30pm ABCNJ Raritan Assoc Mtg, 2:30pm, Eliz/Cranf 7 Children s Sunday/Cong. Mtg 8 Finance Committee, 7pm 9ESL Class, 6:30-8:30pm 10 Christian Ed Committee, 7pm 11 Musical Club, 7pm Youth Sunday 15 16ESL Class, 6:30-8:30pm 17 Agape Supper, 6:30pm Father s Day 22 23ESL Class, Church 29 30

4 page 4 The Messenger Women s Book Club Saturday, June 21, 10am The group will discuss The Collector, by John Fowles. Mary Foster will provide refreshments. All are welcome. CGCS T-shirts Order! JUNE 7 Annual Reports presented and voting of new officers and committee members. The newly designed Church Gathered Church Sca ered tshirts were such a big hit we are placing another order. We already have members who have ordered and happy to add more! If interested, please contact Nancy with how many and size needed (YXS - YXL and S 3X). All t-shirts are $15. We will be placing the order by June 19th. Thanks, Cheryl Rosario (CGCS Chair) 2015 Ministry In Ac on Budget Revenues Contribu ons Pledge Contribu ons Plate/Other Building Total $ Actual As of 4/30 Annual Budget 55, ,608 9,264 31,500 31,968 92,799 97, ,907 Expenses Programs Management & Admin Building & Grounds Office Total 8,758 56,316 47,061 2, ,372 33, , ,535 10, ,096 $ (17,288) (74,189) Non Restricted Funds Available $ 168,534 Revenue Surplus/(Deficit)...Paul Clark, along with Tom Ball, Warren Hanscom, Nancy Lambros, Kadin Williams, and Chick Miller for help on cleanup day....tom Ball, Warren Hanscom, Bill Hopkins, Paul Clark, and Ike Alvarado for additional help in spreading mulch the following week....dot Waugh, and Lil Wheeler, Caroline Siess, and Lee Romano for helping with the May Messenger...Terry Wooster for always making sure we have flowers, a bible, a cross, etc in the sanctuary....to Debbie Rosin for leadership as interim song leader/choir director the past 3 months. Your con nued support is greatly appreciated. As they end their time of service, we acknowledge with much gratefulness: Steve Lind for his faithful service as Treasurer of the Church; and Janet Gabriel for her faithful service as an at-large member of Church Council. And welcome back Michael Rosin as Summer Director of Music Ministries. Michael holds a Bachelor's Degree in Music Composition and Theory from the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University. He is currently pursuing his Master's Degree in Music Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. A composer, church organist, pianist/ accompanist, and conductor, Michael intends to seek further education in historical musicology. In the past, he was the Music Director and Organist at Christ Episcopal Church in Teaneck, and has been an Outreach Director and piano teacher at RMC Studios. We are happy that he will be with us this summer.

5 The Messenger page 5 ENGLISH ON NOW! Great news! We have 7 students and 7 tutors in the Tuesday classes at our church! We thank and praise God that our ESL program (English as a Second Language), announced through flyers, signboards and word of mouth, has met with such wonderful response! Starting with 2 ladies who walked in to sign up, it steadily grew to 7 students while those who volunteered to tutor moved up from the initial 4 (Pastor Mayra, Kathy Briedis, Cherie Parker, Rintu Mathew) to also include Bob Gotham, Nancy Lambros and Natasha Klochkova. It is always exciting when we come together for a common purpose and so it was for the seven of us as we came together to teach English to speakers of other languages and help them assimilate into American society. What a daunting task it must be to be uprooted from one s country and everything familiar and be thrown into a culture and language so very different! This program has given us an opportunity to understand the challenges they face at home, at the workplace and in their lives. Our students range from age 25 to 65 and represent Czech Republic, Brazil, Portugal, Haiti, Columbia and El Salvador. The 2 gentlemen and 5 ladies between them speak Czech, Portuguese, French and Spanish. Combined with the ethnicity of the tutors, it sure is a kaleidoscope of God s creation coming together for a time of upliftment and joy, as along with improving their English language skills they are also growing in confidence and positivity. We begin each session with prayer followed by a quick game to get everyone to relax and interact with each other. The students are paired with their tutors who engage with them on a personal level and determine their current literary skills, the challenges they face and where they are hoping to get. Beginners are taught vocabulary with a focus on conversation. The Intermediate level students focus on conversation, reading and basic grammar and the Advanced students are taught grammar, reading and writing. The first session of 45 minutes whizzes past and soon it is time for a short break. Natasha surprised us with a delicious cake on the first day which had the students wondering what she meant when she said she made it from scratch! No opportunity is wasted to teach listening, speaking, reading and writing skills to equip them for their daily life. At the end of the next 45 minutes of class, everyone comes together for a short exchange of ideas and close with a prayer. Goodbyes are said and a reminder to meet again the following week. Personally, Tuesday evenings have become more meaningful as we commit ourselves to help another improve their English language skills to get better jobs, communicate with family and neighbors, stay healthy and safe and feel more confident and comfortable in the community. Classes meet every Tuesday from 6:30 8:30 pm for 6 weeks. We began on 19 th May and conclude on 23 rd June. We are very grateful for your prayers and support as we move through this class cycle and prayerfully consider a second cycle of reaching out to the community following the summer break.

6 170 Elm Street Westfield, NJ ph: /fax: Pastor Mayra Castañeda Rev. Kadin Williams Glen Brown Ongoing Schedule Weekly, unless otherwise noted. Sundays: 9:00 am Singles Gathering (Harvey Hall) 9-11:30am FBC Childcare 9:15 Adult Bible Study, led by Pastor Mayra 10:30 am Worship Service 10:45 am Children s Sunday School (pre-school-5th grades) 11:30am Prayer Team meets (monthly, June 7) 5 p.m. Youth Group (6th-12th grades) Wednesdays: 12Noon Conversations with God (prayer time) Saturdays: 10 :00 a.m. Women s Book Club (monthly, June 21) C HURC H ST AFF Rev. Mayra Castañeda, Senior Pastor Rev. Kadin Williams, Associate Pastor Glen Brown, Youth Ministry Coordinator Nancy Lambros, Church Administrator Monica Cano, Custodian Matt Barton, Nightly Sexton Here are topics discussed at the Singles meeting in May. Money, Five rules for successful dating, Til death do us part and Socialization. We invite everyone to come downstairs, have a second cup of coffee, and join in the discussion. The Sunday Morning Singles Discussion Group meets every Sunday in Harvey Hall from 9:00 am to 10:15 am. All are welcome. Maryann Friscia O UR PURPOSE Coming together in joyful worship, we re here To share the reality of God s love, To connect our lifestyles to Christian truth, And to put our faith into action through responding to needs in our community, nation, and world.