A monthly publication of St. John s Baptist Church Kristen Duncan Student Minister duncan.stjbc@verizon.net Mary Easter Music Director Elgia Easter Sunday School Director Bob Thomas Deacon Chairman Rebecca Thomas Baptist Women Dan Terry Baptist Men I am writing this opening article as the Deacon Chairman for St. John s Baptist Church, as our beloved Pastor Chuck Haley has made a decision to resign as Pastor of St. John s and step away from the ministry. The members of St. John s wish Chuck, Cheryl, and family all the best during this period of adjustment and want to thank Chuck for his strong leadership under the Lord s direction for our church during these past 2 plus years. You will be missed Pastor Chuck and Cheryl, and our prayers are with you. It is most important at this point that the members of St John s come together in Christian unity to move forward worshiping and serving our Lord and our church families. But as Charlie Atkinson so plainly told us during one of his sermons, we must begin by understanding exactly whom the church belongs to. The church does not belong to the pastor or to the leadership or the congregation. The church is us, the people who belong to Christ, who is the Head of His church. Since God is the head of St. John s, we must recognize that He already has a plan for our church s future. It is up to our leadership and congregation to earnestly pray to God for His guidance and direction that we move our church forward according to His plan. We are blessed at St. John s to have a pool of strong Christian men who can lead our church services for a few weeks as the Deacons begin our search for Pastoral Supply, an Interim Pastor, and begin to put together a Pastor Search Committee. We just have to constantly pray for our church and our leadership to put all things before God to guide our paths in the right direction. 757-427-5309 stjbcholland@verizon.net www.stjohnsbaptistvb.org Everything for God s Kingdom God has assured us that all things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). The Deacons earnestly seek your prayers, too, that we fulfill our responsibilities to help lead the church in the absence of a Pastor and to be zealous in guarding the unity of the spirit within the church in the bonds of peace. We want all members to know that the Deacons are daily praying for our church families. We ask that you stay in touch with your assigned Deacon for questions, suggestions, or prayer concerns as we go through this time together as members of St. John s Baptist Church. In the Lord s Service, Bob Thomas Deacon Chairman
It s Spring Time! Well maybe not so fast as old man winter, showed us this past Sunday, with the unexpected snow show. What a great testament as people turned to each other with the same puzzled look and question, I didn t hear anyone mentioning snow in the forecast. But, as with many other things in today s fast paced smart electronic society we sometimes fall in that lull that we know or can pretty well predict everything that is happening. We often forget that as much as we think we can predict, GOD is always in charge and He already knows what is happening. Randy Wright With GOD in charge, He is leading the men forward in assisting with a lot of activities coming up at St. John s. I am happy to say we just had a successful turnout of men and women for breakfast this past Saturday and a workday afterwards in conjunction with the Properties Committee in which a lot of necessary work was completed. Please keep on the lookout for upcoming information on breakfast being served up by the men prior to Sunday school on Easter Sunday April 16. More details in to come. The men will also be supporting and staffing the upcoming Easter egg hunt in conjunction with Military Kids Appreciation Day Saturday, April 15 th. Due to our full day of activities on this date (3 rd Saturday) there will be NO Men's Breakfast scheduled. Our next Baptist Men s monthly breakfast will be on May 20th. Hope to see you there. A Note From Your Student Minister As I sat with my reading buddies at Christopher Farms this week, one of them had a writing assignment that asked them to make a list of things that change in the Spring. We are already starting to see some of those changes in flowers blooming, grass becoming greener, and temperatures getting warmer (at least on the good days). Isn t it amazing to slow down and take in all that God is doing around you? Even in difficult times, God is at work. Will you pause and take in all that God is doing? Will you use the remaining time of lent and reflect on Jesus journey to the cross? God was at work then and is at work now. I hope you will recognize it and share the way God is working with those around you. Now that Spring is here, that means we have more and more events the closer we get to summer.. On April 15 th, we will have Military Child Appreciation Day and our annual Easter Egg Hunt from 3-6pm. Mrs. Phyllis is coordinating people to stuff Easter Eggs for us, so if you would like to do that please see her. Please avoid using chocolate as it could melt if we have a hot day. We will need volunteers to man the bounce houses, concessions (popcorn, sno cone, and cotton candy), to help with cooking hotdogs, as well as helping hide the Easter eggs and helping to keep children away from the road. We will have a volunteer sign-up sheet that breaks each area into 30 minute segments, so everyone can sign up for 30 minute slots. We will also need help with set-up and clean-up that day. On April 22 nd, we will have another family movie night at 6pm. The adults will watch God s Not Dead 2 and the children will watch The Peanuts Movie. Snacks will be provided, but there will be a donation basket for those wishing to donate toward the cost of the snacks. On April 28 th and 29 th, the Sonrise Music Festival is happening at the oceanfront. The youth will be going, but this is really open to anyone wanting to join us. It is free to attend, but they will be collecting canned food at the gate to help feed people who are homeless. On Friday night, gates open at 4:30 so we will leave as soon as the middle schoolers get out of school. Performers on Friday include: Plumb, Natasha Owens, Shonlock, Tiffany Sinko, Seth Franco (Harlem Globetrotter), C. Goss, 757 Worship Blue Team, Galatia Rose, and ICC worship team. Gates Open Saturday at 3:30pm, so we will plan on leaving around 2:30pm. Performers on Saturday include: Matthew West, Natasha Owens, Manic Drive, Aaron Ray, Royal Youth, Mike E., 757 Worship Red Team, and EK&C. You will want to bring money for food and any merchandise you may want to buy. Please see Kristen for more details. This month we will also be selling tickets for our first spaghetti dinner which will take place on May 6 th at 6pm. Cost will be $5 per person or $20 per family and all proceeds will go to help send the children to Centri-kid and the youth to Impact Virginia. We will also have a cake auction at the spaghetti dinner. If you are willing to bake a cake to be auctioned off, please see Kristen and let her know as soon as possible. Our second spaghetti dinner will be on June 3 rd. The cost will be the same and will go to sending the children and youth to camp. On that night, we will also have a silent auction. If you know of a business that may be willing to donate gift cards, services, etc. toward the silent auction, please contact them and then let Kristen know. You may also purchase items that you are willing to donate to the silent auction or get together with your Sunday School class or other groups and create a basket to be auctioned off. Once you have items to be auctioned off, please bring them to the church office or turn them into Kristen.
A Note From the Sunday School Director. The Sunday School maintains its enrollment of 201, which we have had for the last few months. Our weekly attendance averages in the upper 80s. We have seen no significant drops other than just seasonal and meteorological fluctuations. I encourage each of our teachers to remind their classes of the Maundy Thursday program called The Gift that is coming up on April 13 at 7 p.m. This inspirational program, presented by the choir and deacons, will help shed some light onto those events that lead up to Easter Sunday. We trust that you will find it helpful and bring a greater understanding to what is meant by the term Maundy Thursday. As the balmy days of spring approach, we trust that you will make every effort to be in Sunday School each Sunday. Not only that, but we hope you can encourage a friend to come with you. Spring is an especially good time to do things together, whether it be with family or friends. This applies to church also. It is especially encouraging to see our Young Adult class having more attendance. This class, with so many of our young adults away at college, is difficult to maintain a consistent attendance. Keep up the good work. In addition, it is good to see our middle school age group of youth with fairly consistent attendance, and showing signs of growth. This is encouraging. Again, keep up the good work. Elgia Easter Bless you all. We ll see you at the Maundy Thursday service. Welcome Spring! Goodbye Winter! It's April and time again to say a little thank you to our men and women who work at the fire stations in our community and neighboring communities. Each year we make a basket of goodies to share with the fire stations nearby--princess Anne, Sandbridge, Creeds, Strawbridge and as donations permit others as well. At our April WMU meeting we will bring our donations and assemble the baskets. If anyone would like to share in this ministry, please bring any goodies to me or put in the Ruth Sunday School classroom and we will include them. These are some items that we share: candy, cookies, just treats in general, pens, note paper, puzzles, word search games, Sudoku, cross word puzzles, inspirational books, magazines, mints, gum, etc. Of course we thank them for their service and invite them to our church. They always are so grateful. As I'm writing this, our Annie Armstrong Offering is a little over halfway to our goal of $2500. I'm hoping that by the publication of this newsletter we will have either reached or will be close to our goal. We will continue collecting funds until we do. If you have not yet made your contribution, please pray about it. Remember all the monies collected goes to the support of missionaries in North America and Canada. You know, Jesus commanded us to share the gospel throughout the world. That means to be bold in our witness, to be generous in our giving, and to be constant in our prayers. In other words to have a "missionary spirit". Thank you for your generosity. Upcoming ministries! In April we will begin a sewing project making washable feminine hygiene products for girls 10-14 to share in the "Shoebox Ministry" in the fall. We have recently learned of this need and so are working to perhaps prepare products for 50 shoeboxes. At our May Mother s Day Tea, we will ask for people to bring other items like washcloths, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, hair ribbons, combs, brushes and other items that a 10-14 year old would like. Of course, this brings me to remind you that we will be having our Mother s Day Tea and we look forward to a beautiful afternoon. Be Sure And Save The Date--MAY 13th. Let me know if you would like to be hostess of a table. Sign-up sheets will be available in April. You won't want to miss it. As always. We, in WMU, invite all ladies in St. John's to join us on the first Tuesday of each month at 10:00am in the Ruth classroom. We learn about missionaries and pray for them and their ministries and plan mission activities. Welcome All. Boldly Sharing Christ, Becki Thomas, WMU Director EASTER EGG HUNT The children s Easter Egg Hunt is scheduled for Saturday, April 15 th. We will need a large number of eggs filled with candy for this event. As has been done in prior years, please help us by filling eggs and returning them to the church no later than Sunday, April 9 th. Eggs will be available in the foyer and in Rm. 100. Thank you for helping to make this event a success.
We are starting a new study in the Sunday evening Adult Bible Study. Charlie A. will lead us in study of Doctrinal Positions of the Southern Baptist Convention - what we believe and why we believe it. We will look to topics in the Baptist Faith and Message and the Scriptures. Please come and benefit from our discussions and Charlie's wealth of knowledge. In Charlie's words: "this is good stuff"! Ladies, we are continuing our chronological Bible 101 study on Friday mornings. Please come and enjoy the teaching and the learning. We are presently in I Samuel. Linda Gazaway What an exciting and emotional time we have had during the month of March! We began the first Sunday by honoring Elsie Benson, our organist, who has retired from playing the organ after some 25+ years. She has also served St. John s in many areas and continues to be a faithful and caring member. Bless you Elsie, for your many years of service. On that same Sunday, we welcomed three other choirs to join us in a time of praise and worship. What a glorious time we had hearing individual choirs sing their favorites and then all choirs blending their voices as we sang At the Feet of Jesus. We then enjoyed fellowship together in our social hall. To the ladies that worked so earnestly to make that happen, we applaud you for all you did. To those that assisted with parking, greeting, recognizing churches with various colored stickers, and all who supported this event with your presence, we sincerely thank you. We have heard many positive comments, not only from our church, but also from the other churches involved, with each expressing the desire to make a choir sing an annual event, hosted by different churches. The adult choir is now preparing music to enrich the deacon s presentation of a Maundy Thursday program, The Gift. Please mark your calendars for April 13 th at 7 p.m. We also thank our Youth Ensemble for blessing us with music from their heart. We thank you for your time and dedication. Our adult worship team is in need of more instrumentalists to assist them as they lead us in praise and worship songs. They are practicing on Sunday mornings at 8:30, and would love to have more voices join them. Many thanks to Debbie Phelps, our pianist, and Kathy Eaton, our choir director, for a job well done. Please continue to pray for our music ministry as we bring, glory and honor and praises to God. The Library is here for you from 9:00 until 12:30 each Sunday. We will be happy to make copies for your Sunday School Class or Children's Church. Just bring it by before you go to class. As always, we will help you find books for you and your children, or materials that may be needed. This is what we are here for. The book group will be reviewing " The Prophetess" by Jill E. Smith the 23rd of March and if we can get the books "Thin Air" by Bette Nernberg in April. We meet Second and Fourth Fridays at 10:30 in the library. A Note from the Bondage Breakers.. 'Time Is Drawing Nigh'...April 30th is the day we bring our offerings to be dedicated at the altar - that God will bless these offerings in a mighty way to pay down the interest debt on our beautiful sanctuary. Remember, every $1.00 we pay will reduce the interest debt by $2.50...s-o-o-o...save your pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters & dollars for this special time of giving. Let's all give with a joyful heart and remember - "God loves a cheerful giver." Please continue to pray for this special day, that our hearts will respond to this very important need. Everyone is excited to see what the results will be. Note: Be on the lookout in early April when special red envelopes will be distributed for this offering. We will be going to the "Signature Grill" on the 19th of March. We will not meet as a group in April because Easter falls on the third Sunday. We hope you will be spending Easter Sunday with your family. We will meet the third Sunday in May (the 21). The place will be announced by the first of May. Hope all will have a blessed Easter.
Issue 4 April 2017