Baptist Women in Ministry of North Carolina Volume 15, Issue 1 Winter 2014 God is Creating Still BWIM, NC s 31st Convocation When: Friday, March 28, 2014 9:30a.m. Light Breakfast 10:00a.m. Convocation Where: College Park Baptist Church, 1601 Walker Avenue, Greensboro, NC Childcare available for birth through preschool. Please reserve your child s spot at bwimnc@yahoo.com. (Due to scheduling conflicts, BWIM, NC decided to serve a bigger breakfast and forego a luncheon this year.) BWIM, NC s 30 for 30 Campaign: An Easy Way to Make a Difference As BWIM,NC lives into our next 30 years together, we have a great way for you to honor or remember someone who has supported you on your faith journey. Please remember our 30 for 30 Campaign (giving an extra $30 for our 30 years) as a way to: Honor your mentors and supporters. Show appreciation for Sunday School teachers, ministers and other leaders. Remember a loved one. God has surrounded us with a great cloud of witnesses who encourage, support, challenge and inspire us in our faith. By giving to the BWIM,NC 30 for 30 Campaign, we honor those people and support our sisters in Divinity School. It's an easy way to make a difference! (give online at www.bwimnc.org)***also remember that you and a group of friends could combine contributions to honor a mentor or leader with a $250 Lifetime Membership to BWIM,NC.
Where Are They Now? Rev. Kathy Naish GWU School of Divinity BWIM, NC Scholarship Recipient, 2003 1. Tell us about what you are doing now. I began serving as pastor at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Lincolnton, NC in August of 2012. While I have served in three other North Carolina churches, this is my first pastorate and I have been very grateful for this blessing. 2. What else have you been up to since your time at GWU? I graduated GWU in 2006 and went on to serve in NC congregations and to be active in CBF of North Carolina. In the last decade, both of my children have graduated college, married and begun their own homes. We now have two young granddaughters and my husband and I are deeply grateful for our family. 3. What is God teaching or revealing to you these days? I love the job description that comes with being a pastor and I think God is teaching me through my congregation and through the work that I do weekly and annually. I am learning to let go of anxiety and to enjoy the people and the opportunities around me. The opportunity to craft worship and to be present in the lives of others is such a gift, I don't want to miss it by worrying about things I can't control. Put simply, I think God is teaching me to live in partnership with the Holy Spirit and with other people. 4. What did/does being a BWIM,NC scholar mean to you? Being a BWIM,NC scholar was a great affirmation for me. BWIM,NC is a tremendous asset to women in ministry in North Carolina, but it is really valuable for women in our divinity schools. Knowing that others want to see you succeed is very encouraging when you are a female headed into ministry. 5. What do you see as a current need and as a current celebration for Baptist women serving in NC? The number of women currently serving in Baptist churches in North Carolina is definitely cause for celebration. Since we all hope for more opportunities in the future, I think the current need is for excellence in ministry. Women in divinity schools can strive to be top students and those serving in congregations and ministry positions can commit to excellence in their vocations. Nothing opens doors faster than being outstanding at what you do. Continued on page 4 Thank you to our board members who are rotating off this year: Tony Cartledge, Karen Metcalf Eickhoff, Clare Conway Johnson, Virginia Taylor and Keith Vaughan. Your three years of commitment, leadership and generosity with your time, gifts and wisdom has helped BWIM, NC become more of what God is shaping us to be. Thanks! PAGE 2
Where Are They Now? Rev. Abby Thornton Duke Divinity School BWIM, NC Scholarship Recipient, 2004 1) Tell us about what you've been up to since your time in Divinity School? After graduating from Duke Divinity in 2006, I moved to Norfolk, Virginia to serve as Minister of Spiritual Formation at Freemason Street Baptist Church. In 2010 I moved to Annapolis, Maryland to serve as pastor of Broadneck Baptist Church. I absolutely love serving this congregation while also writing and editing curriculum for Mennonite, Church of the Brethren, Baptist and Methodist publishing houses. 2) What is God teaching or revealing to you these days? Right now I am learning a lot about living into joy. My first five years out of seminary were very difficult as I struggled with what it means to be pastor and person and to find a sense of community in what can be a very lonely vocation. I really feel like I have hit my stride both personally and professionally the past couple of years, and I am working to embrace this new season and be present in this stretch of my life that has so much goodness in it. 3) What did/does being a BWIM,NC scholar mean to you? For me, it meant instant connection with a community that believes in my potential and supports me. This was invaluable to me in those first years of discerning my call! 4) What do you see as a current need and a current celebration for Baptist women? I think a need is for continued connection between women--to learn to see and rely on each other as community and not see each other as competitors for jobs, which I think is a trap women fall into too easily. For us to learn to live from a place of abundance rather than scarcity, of fullness rather than fear- -imagine the possibilities! The celebration is the places I see connection happening--women who are genuinely rooting for one another, supporting one another, and building deep, vulnerable relationships that transform us and give us strength to be more authentic in our ministries. 5) Words of wisdom for sisters in ministry? Be who you are. It sounds so simple, but when there are so many competing expectations this can get easily lost in the shuffle. Pastor from the core of who you are--and if you're not in a place where you can do that, don't lose hope that that place exists for you. Keep seeking it. 6) What can we be holding in prayer for you? I just got married this month, so I would appreciate prayers as I figure out what it means for me to be a married pastor! My congregation has been amazing through this transition, but it is definitely a change in my life that will have an inevitable impact on our life together. PAGE 3
Where are They Now? Continued from page 2 6. What can we be holding in prayer for you? I would be grateful simply to be remembered in prayer to our kind and loving God. If you are talking to God and you speak my name, I will be honored. From Kathy s January newsletter column: Whatever the landscape of December looks like through your rearview mirror, know that you have a constant Genesis before you. Nothing that went wrong is too wrong for God to redeem. The good can be repeated. The God who came into our lives from a manger in Bethlehem goes with us into our homes, our workplaces, and into our hopes and dreams. Any hope that was born in your life is ready to be nurtured. Any pain inflicted is ready to be healed. A beginning, a genesis, is always waiting when we understand anew something of who God is. --Rev. Kathy Naish, pastor FCC, Lincolnton, NC, January 14 newsletter Welcome to Our New Treasurer It s official! Esther Soud Parker, Minister of Children, Watts Street Baptist Church, Durham, NC is our new treasurer. Many thanks for Luelle Crumpler, our former treasurer, for serving BWIM, NC so faithfully and for assisting in the transition! Many thanks to Providence Baptist Church in Hendersonville for being a financial supporter of BWIM, NC. In the email version of our last issue, we inadvertently left Providence out of the list of our supporters. We apologize for this omission. Thank you Providence! Kay Simpson Memorial Scholarship Fund In 2007, BWIM,NC named our nascent scholarship endowment fund after a beloved friend and colleague, Kay Simpson, who died unexpectedly that year. A former BWIM,NC Convener, gifted pastor and champion of women in ministry, Kay appreciated a good laugh and a great theological discussion. Kay had been a second career student at Duke Divinity School in the mid-1990 s and understood well the struggles of financing a theological education. In her time as Convener, Kay led BWIM,NC to establish a scholarship fund as a long-term source of financial support for women Divinity students in NC. Though the stock market has dipped, dived and done the jitterbug, we are grateful to have $29,000 in this fund at present. In 2014, we will take the first $2000 scholarship from this fund. Our dream is to grow the fund so that all four scholarships, totaling $8000, can be generated by the fund s income. Our greater dream is to be able to fund even more women s theological educations. Thank you from DMin Project Grant Recipient Rev. Dr. Lynn Brinkley: Thesis-project title: Manners and Money: A Manual on Preaching Etiquette The purpose of this thesis-project was to promote good preaching etiquette. The manual addresses appropriate ways to host a guest minister, honorariums, and proper pulpit decorum. This research material can be used in the local church and academia to encourage ministry leaders to serve God in a more excellent way! Being the only female in a cohort of 17, I found the DMin process to be very affirming. I am thankful for my professor, Dr. Haddon W. Robinson, who would often pull me aside to make sure I felt affirmed, that I had a voice in the class, and he would often ask, Are these guys treating you right? (And they were). The grant I received from Baptist Women in Ministry NC afforded me the opportunity to complete my thesis-project requirements. With this grant, I was able to host three focus groups, provide workshop materials, and a meal for their participation. THANK YOU BWIM, NC!! PAGE 4
2014 BWIM, NC Membership Renewal It's a new year and the perfect time to renew your membership to Baptist Women in Ministry, North Carolina. By renewing your membership now you will be a part of affirming, supporting, connecting, and empowering Baptist women in ministry in North Carolina all year long. Renewal dues are $25 a year (only $15 for students). We also have a lifetime membership option for $250. In addition to never having to worry about remembering to pay membership dues, lifetime members receive an elegant BWIM NC lapel pin and lifetime membership certificate. To renew your membership, simply go online to www.bwimnc.org and click on Membership and Donations or fill out the form below, write a check to BWIM, NC, and put them in the mail to the address on the bottom of the form. Baptist Women in Ministry, NC Annual Dues for 2014 Name: E-mail: Address: City, State, Zip Phone: H C Institution/Church: Circle One: Clergy or Layperson -Year Membership $25 -Year Membership $25 -Year Membership $15 Please make your check payable to BWIM, NC and note 2014 Dues. Mail to: Esther Soud Parker, BWIM,NC Treasurer, 7913 Ocoee Court, Raleigh, NC 27612 Thank you for your membership and support of women in ministry. PAGE 5
B A P T I S T W O M E N I N M I N I S T R Y O F N C C /o Melanie Walk 239 Croydon Avenue Fayetteville, NC 28311 Address Service Requested Don t forget that February is the Martha Stearns Marshall Month of Preaching! If your church participates, please post it on our Baptist Women in Ministry of North Carolina Facebook Page! Other Upcoming Events March 28-29, 2014 CBFNC General Assembly, FBC Greensboro May 2-4, 2014 Alliance of Baptists: Alliance Annual Gathering: One New Humanity: Cultivating Racial and Economic Justice, Portland, Maine June 23-27, 2014 CBF: General Assembly, Woven Together: Threads of Faith and Fellowship, Atlanta, Georgia Baptist Women in Ministry, NC, publishes a newsletter 3 times a year. Editor: Alicia Davis Porterfield Lay-Out Editor: Melanie Mintz Walk melanieleah@yahoo.com Website www.bwimnc.org