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Excerpts from The New Outlook June 2007
Council Recommends Dr. Stephen Jones
for Second's Pastor Stephen Jones is currently the coordinating pastor of Seattle First Baptist Church, a downtown church with an average attendance of 250-300, 4 pastors, and 26 persons on staff. He has a history of helping urban churches grow. As he puts it, “If I were to put into a sentence my pastoral specialty, it would be in congregational transformation, guiding an urban church into new patterns of discerning, acting, and risk-taking, offering preaching and worship for renewal and growth, developing a collaborative environment for teamwork, helping birth visions that enable the church to identify its communal values and unique mission, and laying claim to the possibilities of a new era in bold and public ways.” He has previously served churches in Boulder, Colorado; Dayton, Ohio; Wayne, Pennsylvania; and Detroit, Michigan. He spent a 3-month sabbatical in the Philippines, living and learning alongside pastors there and a second sabbatical in 1993 with black, “coloured,” and Asian pastors in the homelands and townships of apartheid South Africa. “I am deeply concerned about racial justice, concentrated poverty, urban renewal, equality and a sustainable environment,” writes Dr. Jones. In each city in which he has served, he has been extensively engaged with community issues, most recently with the Duwamish tribe in the Seattle area. He earned two racial justice awards given by African-American organizations in Philadelphia and was named a Diversity Champion by the Birmingham/Bloomfield Task Force on Race Relations in 2002. A native of Eldon, Missouri, Dr. Jones earned a B.A. in theater and philosophy from William Jewell College in 1970, the M.A. in religious education from Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in 1972, and a Doctor of Ministry from United Theological Seminary in Dayton in 1982. He has written 5 books: Rabbi Jesus, Learning from the Living Teacher, Faith Shaping. . .Youth and the Experience of Faith, Transforming Discipleship in the Inclusive Church (which we studied here at Second several years ago) and the last four chapters of Reaching Youth Today, Heirs to the Whirlwind. His latest book Peaceteacher, Jesus’ Way of Shalom, will be published this month by the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America. Dr. Jones has taught part-time in several seminaries. He has led conferences and preached world-wide and at American Baptist gatherings all over the country, including Green Lake. He has served as past President of the Church Council of Greater Seattle and currently is chair of its Interfaith Committee. He serves as co-chair of the Religious Coalition for Equality of Washington State. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the American Baptist Seminary of the West in Berkeley, CA and on the Board of Directors of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America. Five years ago, Dr. Jones created a set of eight posters on our historic Baptist Liberties and these have just been distributed by the ABC-USA to all ABC churches. As a theological and personal choice, Dr. Jones has chosen not to be ordained. “I stand for the ministry of all God’s people,” he says. However, throughout his ministry, he has performed all of the functions of ordained clergy and preached many ordination sermons for others. Dr. Jones’ wife, Jan, works as a vocational specialist helping homeless adults find employment in downtown Seattle. She has also been a teacher and occupational re-entry specialist. They have two grown children, Brian, a chef in Detroit, and Janelle, who is graduating from Central Washington University and will begin an internship in substance abuse prevention with an agency in Detroit. So why would Dr. Jones leave a larger church to come to Second? For one thing, Missouri is home for Stephen and Jan, and they want to be closer to their extended families. Stephen has a widowed mother in Eldon, and Jan has family in St. Louis and Kansas City. But there’s another reason. “I thrive on helping congregations turn themselves around and experience growth and renewal,” he says. “I think my gifts and temperament are best suited to a mid-sized congregation. In a large church, it is hard for the pastor to avoid serving as personnel manager. A smaller congregation can be more flexible, more versatile, and more easily take up new challenges. Second Baptist Church of St. Louis is exactly the size of congregation I’d like to serve. I am truly excited at the possibilities and potential of your progressive congregation. I sensed from the search committee that there was a readiness to ‘write a new chapter,’ and I’m excited to consider the possibilities of being a part of your future.” You can view, hear, or read Dr. Jones’ most recent sermons on his church’s website, www.SeattleFirstBaptist.org. Many, Many Thanks! Electing Next Year’s Officers
Shakespeare Enthusiasts Needed for June 9th
Our church will
be noted in the program, which is the same for all performances. If you are
interested in volunteering for June 9th, please sign up on the sheet
on the table in the narthex or contact Pat Justis at (314) 664-2417 or
patjustis@accessus.net. We need 8 volunteers. Hope to see you there!
Book Group to Discuss
Unbowed Maathai was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate, the first woman professor at the University of Nairobi’s Department of Veterinary Anatomy, first African and first environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Although beaten, falsely imprisoned, and threatened with death, Maathai mustered the courage, strength and cunning necessary to overcome the government’s barriers to her life’s work. Her memoir reveals how her unrelenting dedication to democracy, human rights, environmental sustainability and peace brought about positive and lasting change to Kenya. (From a review in the March/April 2007 issue of World Ark) ABWMinistries Conference June 10 Vacation Bible School—Save the Date! The children will explore different ways
we can experience God: nature, labyrinths, prayer, and meditation/yoga. We will
need teachers and assistants for the children’s classes and activity stations.
If you have any questions or are able to volunteer, please contact
me. Second Baptist in the News
Inspired by the honeysuckle removal efforts of the Ladue Garden Club, Richmond Heights resident and Wild One’s member Claire Anderson and Second Baptist Church member Pat Justis began by organizing a network of volunteers, including Tom Haegele of Haegele Landscaping, and volunteers from the Second Baptist Church to remove a dense thicket of Japanese honeysuckle. Ameren UE workers chipped the debris. Then, working with a native plant design created by Simon Barker of Barker Horticultural Services, Second Baptist Church member volunteers, Haegele and Anderson set about planting. With many plants provided by Cindy Collins of Hartke Nursery at cost, the new landscape is being transformed from an ugly, overgrown patch into a beautiful native (mostly) landscape, using small trees like hawthorns, red buckeye and elderberry that won’t interfere with overhead power lines. Larger native shrubs like hazelnut, Ozark witchhazel, ninebark and button bush are also part of the plan. Because the site included a swale for storm water runoff, a rain garden is planned to help capture water and reduce runoff from the site. DID YOU
KNOW? NOW WE KNOW: The Murrow Indian Children’s Home is in Musokegee, OK. The Murrow Indian Children's Home, a National Ministries mission partner, provides a residential home program to needy children from the Native American tribes of Oklahoma. The home's origins date to the Rev. J.S. Murrow, a Baptist missionary from Georgia who founded the Murrow Orphans' Home in the turbulent post-Civil War years when he began taking orphan and homeless Indian children into his home. The Home has been providing a residential home program to needy children from all tribes across Oklahoma for over 100 years. Ms. Joan Brown, Director of the home for over 25 years, says, “These abandoned, abused, or neglected children are deeply troubled and, in some cases, the state agencies have given up on them. Drugs and alcohol take a real toll on families and children. But each one is a child of God and we don't give up on them." Murrow's four cottages can serve about 18 children at a time, ranging in age from 8 to18 years of age. "After the kids grow up, some come back and share how much Murrow meant to them," she says. "One young man calls now and then and says 'I'm checking back with my roots.'" A number of alumni serve on the board of directors or are on staff. In her daily work, Brown appreciates the support Murrow receives. "There are so many American Baptist hearts that want to help through mission projects," she says. "And, of course, financial contributions make it possible to staff and operate the program. It is because of this support that Murrow can continue to help children heal the pain of their experiences." There will be a collection box in the narthex for items for the Murrow home until June 3. Mildred Shelton will deliver them at the ABW conference that week.
(Information from The American Baptist Website, and The Native TImes )
From the Interim Pastor, Michael Dixon Fifty years ago, we had another significant forward-facing moment in the life of this congregation. On May 26, 1957, as our sanctuary was beginning to take shape, our members gathered to lay the cornerstone. Let me quote from Neola McCorkle Koechig’s The Story of Second Baptist. “Chairs were placed for seating with the side walls and roof partially open. Mr. Robison’s sermon topic was ‘Christ, the Chief Corner Stone.’ Mrs. Rodney Bedell presented the corner stone box into which were placed scrolls of the names of the children in the nursery, kindergarten, primary and junior departments. Other articles in the box were the names of the building committee, an account of the Ground Breaking Service, copies of newspapers of the date, a roll of members, a picture of the Kingshighway church, news clippings on the move of the church, ‘This We Believe,’ and a copy of the by laws. Mr. Carl Westin, Sr. placed the box in the corner stone, and seventeen members of the church participated in ‘The Act of Placing the Brick and Mortar.’ You will find a copy of the bulletin from that service in your Sunday bulletin on May 27. It’s good to remember, as we did then, that Christ is the cornerstone of the church, and to honor those in the past who had faith in our church’s future. That helps put into perspective our own opportunities to build our church’s future, not with stone and mortar, but with planning, choosing, and dedicating ourselves to follow the leading of God’s Spirit. Grace and Peace,
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