Excerpts from The New Outlook
Early December 2007
A Christmas Dinner and Children’s Play
On Sunday, December 2, join Elkin and P.J. from Cricket County as they
experience their first cruise at sea on the S.B.C. Funship. Meet all 13 cast
members, ages 3 to 13, of the “Cricket County Christmas Cruise“ as they reveal
“seacrets” and a bit of a twist on the real Christmas story. The kids are
enjoying working on their parts and are putting a lot of character into the
people they play.
You can choose to wear your favorite
cruise attire on anything else you desire. Dinner in the main dining room will
be served at 5:00 p.m. Enjoy an evening of fun and delicious food on the high
seas, and we’re hoping a special guest will drop by.
Make your reservation by filling out the
form in the bulletin or calling the church office by 30. The cost is $7 per
adult and $3 per child, with a $20 maximum per family.
“SLOW DOWN FOR CHRISTMAS”
The most rushed season of the year calls for a hectic pace that often pushes us
away from the meaning and mystery that awaits us in Advent. Advent requires
spaces, emptiness, readiness, preparation. Using Hebrew scripture, we slow down
for Christmas.
The First Sunday of
Advent, December 2, “Slow Down and Wait”
It is a season of waiting and
anticipating, not rushing ahead. It isn’t a race to Christmas.
Lighting the Joseph Candle
Text: Isaiah 30:18-20
Communion
Sunday
The Second Sunday of
Advent, December 9, “Slow Down and Behold”
There is something for you to see, to
behold, this Advent season. It is something unexpected and unplanned. Will you
allow it to
happen? Will you open your eyes and behold?
Lighting the Shepherd’s Candle
Text: Micah 5:1-5
You Are
Invited
To a Progressive Dinner
On Saturday, December 8, 2007
At 5:00 p.m.
Appetizers
At the Marks’
Main course
At the Joneses’
And at the Mahans’
And at the Nalls’
Dessert
At the church
Tickets are
available from Linda Marks.
The cost is $15 per person.
Please let
Linda Marks know if you would like to carpool.
Directions will be provided.
Parents’ Christmas Shopping Helpers
SBC Youth provide child care on
Sunday, December 9, from noon to 3:00 p.m. as a fund-raiser for their future
conference and mission trips. This is an opportunity for parents to go shopping
while leaving their children at the church.
Christmas Lessons and Carols Sunday
Expect great music from our choir and
musicians on Sunday, December 16, in our 10:30 a.m. service. Invite your family,
colleagues and friends to this opportunity for beautiful Christmas music.
Also on December 16 is the dinner and
annual meeting to vote on the budget for 2008.
Annual Christmas Eve Candelight Service
Monday, December 24, 5:00 p.m. for all
ages
Dr. Jones has an annual tradition of
telling different Christmas night stories on Christmas Eve and will preach
briefly on “Slow Down and Listen.” Our Second Baptist choir will be singing. We
will close the evening as we light the Christ Candle and then light our
individual candles throughout the sanctuary.
Adopt-a-Family
Northside Team Ministries has given us
a family of eight to help for Christmas. Ornaments are on the tree in the
narthex. Please take an ornament-name tag and sign up on the list next to the
tree. Gift-wrap and tag gifts, placing them under the tree by Sunday, December
16. Gift cards are an easy way to respond. You will be a blessing to this family
in need at Christmas time.
Angel Tree Ministry
Second Baptist Church begins a new ministry of reaching out to children of
parents who are incarcerated. One family of two young children live in the Lake
St. Louis area and one child is from Richmond Heights. The Angel Tree committee
will purchase Christmas gifts for the children and continue to communicate with
them through the coming year. The American Baptist Women’s Ministry fund assists
with the Angel Tree ministry.
The Second Baptist Blessings Book
The SBC Blessings Book made its public debut in worship on Blessings Sunday,
November 18. Selections from 54 members and friends of Second Baptist Church
described how this church and congregation has been and continues to be a
blessing in their lives! Wonderful stories are included in every page, touching
every facet of congregational life. As thrilling as it was to hear selections
from the contributions in worship, it is even more of a blessing to read every
entry.
The Blessings Book has room for more contributions. There are blank spaces in
the back. We ask that you use the Blessings pages that are available in the
office. You can type or hand-write on your page.
A particular word of thanks is owed to Mike Apple for his leadership in
coordinating all the efforts of our "Blessed to be a Blessing" stewardship
emphasis and to Paula Rardin who creatively designed every page in the Blessings
Book. The book is a delight to the eye and to the soul. Drop by the church
office anytime and take a look. The book is on a stand out in the open just
inside the office door. It will serve as a keepsake for a generation to come of
how God has blessed our lives through Second Baptist Church at this point in
time.
Stephen Jones
Book Group To Discuss
A Celibate Season
Second’s Book Group
will meet Monday, December 10, at 2:00 p.m. in the Community Room to discuss
A Celibate Season. Carol Shields and Blanche Howard, two award winning
Canadian writers, collaborated to write this novel--the story of a married
couple who are going to be separated for a year and who decide to communicate by
letter during this period. The letters of Charles, the husband, who is left in
Vancouver without a job, but with their house, their 17-year old son, Greg, and
their 13-year old daughter, Mia, were written by Carol Shields. Blanche Howard
wrote the letters of Jocelyn, the wife.
She is across Canada
in Ottawa, serving as legal counsel of the commission looking into "The
Feminization of Poverty." We, the readers, have the opportunity to read all of
their letters, to see the effects during that year on the whole family, and to
compare the writing styles of the two authors.
Hanging of the Greens
The turn-out for the Hanging of the
Greens night was almost as large as the Sunday morning crowd! The potluck dinner
was varied and delicious. The congregation seemed to enjoy decorating the
sanctuary in teams. The evening closed with introducing and dedicating the
candles that will be in our church’s advent wreath and with our pastor sharing
two Christmas stories which he has told for many years. The children cut out
sugar cookie figures of the crèche and had a great time throughout the evening
participating in everything we did. It was a wonderful Second Baptist evening.
Thanks to Karen Fields, Cindy Collins, Peg Wann, Phyllis Westin, and Ann Turner
helping set up the Hanging of the Greens.
Burmese (Karen) Refugee Family Response
As the Refugee Resettlement volunteers
of our church took inventory of all the needs of the family we are sponsoring,
it was uncanny that in our random giving as a congregation, we met every
requested need in a bountiful response. The household materials were delivered
by the team last Tuesday morning, November 27. The father of the family had to
flee his home 20 years ago because of war. The family has been living in a
refugee camp for 20 years, waiting resettlement. They have 3 young daughters. We
continue to pray for them as they adjust to life in the United States.
Congratulations to the American Baptist
Women’s Ministries who mailed several large boxes of materials to the Friendship
House of Peoria, Illinois to assist families in need at Christmas time. This
effort was supported by the mission funds of ABWM.
From the pastor
Even So, Come, Lord Jesus
Last
Friday morning at 4:00 a.m., it hit. Actually, I wasn’t even awake, but that was
the absurd hour at which the retail stores opened for after-Thanksgiving
sales. Christmas music in stores had begun before November. Here we go again.
I have to
tell you that Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. I love nearly
everything about Christmas. I love busy city sidewalks and festively
decorated downtown department stores. I love outdoor light displays. I love
holiday music and holiday concerts. We have pictures of our children with Santa
every year.
In our
family, the advent season competes with three family birthdays. Combined with
my career, it makes for an amazingly hectic season.
And all
of that is contrary to the meaning of Advent. Advent is a time of the year when
we tarry, we wait. It isn’t a time of the year to rush or to fill our lives with
busy-ness. So the cultural celebration of Christmas is at odds with the meaning
of Advent, and that is why faithful Christians often feel discomfort with this
time of the year. One issue is that the birth of Christ gets sidetracked, and
another issue is that Advent as a season of expectancy gets overwhelmed by
“Christmas delivered.”
I think
the real issue of Advent is a request for room in your heart and soul, not the
busyness of your calendar. You can pick up the pace, but still find daily and
weekly soul time. That is why I am asking you to consider using an advent wreath
in your home if that has not been your tradition. We will be lighting the
candles in the Advent Wreath in the sanctuary each Advent Sunday (beginning next
Sunday, December 2).
It is
also why I have selected a daily advent devotional booklet for those who choose
this discipline. You will be receiving in your Advent Sunday worship bulletins a
take-home sheet to guide you in the lighting of your advent wreath. If you don’t
own one, we have ordered 12 brass advent rings along with the purple/pink/white
candles and they will be available this Sunday for $9. If you own one, locate
where it is stored before Sunday. If you live alone, of course you can light
your wreath alone. But you might choose a friend or two with whom to light a
shared advent wreath on a weekly basis at a mutually convenient time. If you
have children, please include them in this tradition.
Then,
find some daily time to center yourself by going deep into God’s Spirit. This
needn’t be a time of words, but a time of communing. Particularly because this
is such a hectic season, even 20 - 30 minutes a day will add an unbelievable
balance in your life. I might suggest a mantra: “Even so, come, Lord
Jesus.” Yes, my life and my calendar are cluttered, “even so…” Yes, my list of
things I must get accomplished is long, “even so…” Yes, I get distracted by all
the secular trappings of Christmas, “even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
Breathe
the prayer repeatedly, quietly. Don’t think about it. Don’t solve it as a
puzzle. Don’t work for an answer. Just breathe the prayer. I predict you’ll be
amazed at the difference this Advent season will make in your life.
–
Stephen Jones
WEEKLY
ACTIVITIES
Sun 8:45 a.m, Adult Choir Rehearsal in Sanctuary
9:15 a.m. Classes for Children, Youth and Adults
10:30 a.m. Worship in the
Sanctuary
11:30 a.m. Coffee
Fellowship
Mon 7:00 p.m. Obsessive-Compulsive Group in Community
Room
Tue 1st and 3rd 10:00 a.m., American Baptist Women's
Ministry
Tue 6:30 p.m . Adult Children of
Alcoholics in Community Room
Wed 6:30 p.m. Choir Rehearsal
SPECIAL
ACTIVITIES
Dec 2 Children’s play and Christmas dinner 5:00 p.m.
Dec 8 Progressive Dinner, 5:00 p.m.
Dec 9 Shopping helpers' child care provided, Noon-3 p.m.
Dec 10 Book Group 2:00 p.m.
Church
Council meeting 6:15 p.m.
Dec 16 Christmas Lessons & Carols during worship service, 10:30 a.m.
Congregational luncheon and budget vote 11:30 a.m.
Northside Christmas family gifts due under the tree
Dec 23 Open House at the Joneses’ 3-6 p.m.
Dec 24 Christmas Eve Candlelight service 5:00 p.m.
Dec 25 Christmas Day! Christ is Born!
