Search Committee To Recommend Candidate for New Pastor
At their meeting Monday night, May 14, Second’s Minister Search Committee unanimously chose a candidate to recommend as our new pastor. For details about the process the Search Committee has followed, see the list of steps on the chart in the narthex. Fred Adams, chair, has been checking off each one as it is completed. They are almost at the end!

Their next step is to present their candidate to the council at its meeting next Sunday, May 20. If the council approves their choice, we will put out an issue of the New Outlook next week to make information about the candidate available to the whole congregation. The Search Committee will arrange a time for him to come to Second so we can all meet him and hear him preach before we vote on whether to call him as our new minister.

“We’ve got an exceptional candidate, experienced and articulate, with a proven track record,” says Jay Jensen, Vice Chair of the Search Committee. “He is eager to help us translate our values and concerns into concrete action.”

Young Adults Meet This Friday
Young adults will gather for dessert at the Wakefields’ home (9029 Haverford Terrace, across from the McKnight Road entrance to the church) this Friday, May 18, at 7:00 p.m. A nursery will be provided for children through age 12 at the church. Call Judy Gurley (636) 230-8393 or Lynn Wakefield (314) 569-1282 for more information.

Second Baptist 101 Continues
We’re halfway through. On May 6, Larry Whitlock led a fascinating study on American Baptists’ heritage and beliefs It was a great way to see our own beliefs in a larger historical, biblical and theological context. Then last Sunday, May 13, twenty three of us gathered around tables in the Fellowship Hall, looked at old documents and directories, heard Linda Marks give a brief historical review of our congregation, then we told stories, and swapped memories. We lifted up people and events that made an impact on us. It was a great way of recalling the significant and humorous, touching and powerful stories that go to make up our story as a congregation.

On May 20, we will gather in the Community Room to see images and hear words that will describe how we do ministry today. We know bits and pieces of how our church serves, but this will give us an overview. Second Baptist 101 will end on May 27, also in the Community Room, as we look again at our visioning results from last fall, and name some areas of future growth and service.
Mike Dixon

Summer Worship and Church School Schedule
May 27           Last day of church school until fall
July 1            Begin summer worship services in Fellowship Hall
July 22 - 25    Joint Vacation Bible School with First Presbyterian Church and The Mennonite Fellowship
September 9   Launch Sunday: Church School resumes, and we move back upstairs to the sanctuary for worship

The “Come On In and Pull Up a Chair” Class will meet throughout the summer. To those of you who have been attending other adult classes that will break for the summer, we extend a warm invitation to join us for mutual encouragement as we try to live out our faith in the challenges of daily life. We meet in the library at 9:30 on Sunday mornings.

Mark Your Calendar!
The next congregational meeting and dinner will be be held after the worship service June 3. We will elect the church officers for the coming year at this meeting. Please call the church office or fill out a slip in the bulletin for your lunch reservation.

Second’s Book Group will meet on Monday, June 11, at 2:00 p.m. in the Community Room to discuss Unbowed, a memoir by Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai.

Second Baptist is providing 8 volunteers for the Shakespeare Festival in Forest Park on Saturday, June 9. If you can help usher, set up chairs, and do whatever is needed, contact Pat Justis. The play this year is Much Ado about Nothing.

A New Column: Did You Know?
The New Outlook will begin a new column this issue on Second Baptist Church’s involvement in mission. We hope this information will make the mission projects come to life for us. If we see how our money, our specific donations and our time are used, then we want to do more. Mission becomes active, a way of life for Christ’s disciples.

A brief question will appear under the heading of “Did you Know?” The answer will appear under the heading "Now We Know!" along with information on the specific mission project.
Sandy Dixon

NOW WE KNOW:
(From the American Baptist Website--- www.abc-usa.org)
White Cross grew out of the Red Cross work being done everywhere during World War I. In 1922, the North American Baptist Conference (now known as American Baptist) got involved with the program. Since that time, White Cross has provided much-needed supplies to missionaries and nationals in Africa.

The White Cross program distributes desperately-needed medical supplies to NAB hospitals in Cameroon and Nigeria. Donations are received by the truckload and shipped three or four times per year in a sea container to hospitals in Africa. The most recent shipment contained 180 large boxes, weighing in at over 12,800 pounds!

NAB hospitals in Cameroon and Nigeria, among the best and highly regarded in those countries, could not function without White Cross-donated baby jackets, baby blankets, hospital gowns, pajamas, plastic pill bottles, baby diapers, eyeglasses, hospital bed sheets, pillowcases, rolled bandages, gauze, and many other supplies North Americans take for granted.

These well-equipped and well-supplied hospitals are great incentive for nationals to go to them when in need. As a result, the people are well-cared for and taught good health care techniques. They also receive spiritual care through exposure to the Gospel as chaplains, doctors, nurses, other health-care workers, and missionaries actively share their faith

“These seeds may not grow the flowers that bloom in May,
But they’ll grow the crops that will feed people every day”

A gift of Seeds for Church World Service Is presented in honor of:

Our friends at 2^nd Baptist Church

For their witness to the Christian Faith.
Flowertine Sunday, May 6, 2007

This came to the church anonymously (after some digging, we discovered that it was from Mike and Sandy Dixon), along with this explanation:
"For struggling farmers, hoes and shovels are lifelines of hope -- tilling the soil, planting seeds, and clearing weeds. Simple, inexpensive garden tools and seeds to plant allow farmers to grow vegetables and other food crops to feed their families.

"For example, in Sierra Leone and Angola, countries striving to recover from years of civil war, tools and seeds from Church World Service provide former combatants with a reliable source of income, an essential ingredient for a lasting peace. Seeds and tools are gifts that keep on giving!

“Thanks to Dotty and Richard and the Junior Church School Class for a wonderful Flowertine Sunday!"

From the Pastor
Last week, Sandy and I stood near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, watching the mighty waters rushing by at flood stage, carrying trees, debris, and even a semi-floating refrigerator along in their currents. Near us was a pole, nearly twenty feet over our heads, indicating the water level during the 1993 flood. It was quite a reminder of the awesome force of nature.

I remembered an old hymn by Isaac Watts, based upon Psalm 90, and the verse “Time like an ever-rolling stream,/ bears all its years away,/ they fly, forgotten, as a dream,/ dies at the opening day.” Funny how time sometimes seems to flow by like a raging river, sweeping us along, and other times we’re impatient because time seems to move so slowly, like a turgid backwater, as we anticipate something in the future.

It seems like the nine months that I have been here as your interim pastor have gone by quickly! Of course, an interim ministry has a shorter life cycle than a settled one. An interim minister has to move quickly to develop relationships, to learn a congregation’s style and rhythms, and to become accepted as its pastor. That’s why interims sometimes joke about being “faster pastors.” I am glad that you are a healthy congregation, and that you are moving well in the process of living into your future. Your search committee is doing an excellent job!

Even in the short time we’ve been together, you have become a significant part of Sandy’s and my lives, as we hope that we have become a significant part of yours. No matter how long or short a time we have together as pastor and congregation, it’s a blessed time, a time where we are aware of God’s presence and love. Although at some time in the future we will part, you will be a part of our lives. Time carries us on, but behind time is a timeless God, in whom we are all one.

WEEKLY ACTIVITIES
Mon    7:00 p.m.    Obsessive-Compulsive Group in Community Room
Tue    10:00 a.m.    American Baptist Women's Ministries, 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month
Tue     6:30 p.m.    Adult Children of Alcoholics Group in Community Room
Wed    7:00 p.m.    Choir practice

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES
May 18    Young adult gathering, Wakefield’s home, 7:00 p.m.
May 19    Men’s Breakfast, 7:30 a.m., Delmar Baptist Church
May 20    Council meeting, 12:00 noon
May 27    Last day of church school until fall
May 28    Memorial Day (office closed)
June 03   Congregational meeting and dinner
June 09   Shakespeare Festival--Volunteers, sign up with Pat Justis
June 11   Book Group, 2:00 p.m., Community Room

Our friends at 2nd Baptist Church

Our friends at 2^nd Baptist Church