Vol. 78 Issue 47 Week of November 23-29, 2020 |
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Advent Devotionals 2020: God's Hands
This year's Advent Devotionals are available now by clicking here or the button below. You can download this document to your computer and read digitally or print it out to enjoy at home. We are so thankful to everyone who wrote a piece for this year's compilation. This year, the devotionals are exceptionally well written and each of them will warm your spirit, especially during these most difficult times.
If you would like to receive a paper copy of the booklet, please email Mallory or give her a call and she will mail you one as soon as she can! Keep an eye out on our website and on social media for postings related to the devotionals and a few Advent videos to pair along with the writings.
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Worship on
November 29th-Advent I
This Sunday morning we will worship together online for the first Sunday in Advent. Worship in Advent this year will be focused on passages of scripture from the African American Lectionary and the Narrative Lectionaries. This week our scripture passage is Daniel 6:1-23, 25-27. The message title is "UBUNTU" and will be given by Dr. Foust.
The worship video will be available at 8am via our YouTube channel and at our website under the Worship tab for you to view. You can also link to worship from the Realm Connect App Events list.
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A Successful Jubilee Store!
This past weekend, St John’s Parking lot got into the holiday spirit with Christmas inflatables, volunteers decked out in their Christmas best (including holiday masks), and even a visit from Santa, all to ring in the season for the families in the Charlotte Family Housing program. This event could not have happened without St. John’s, which is a sponsoring church along with Myers Park United Methodist Church and Myers Park Presbyterian Church.
St. John’s members stepped up with monetary contributions for the gift cards the families received ($50 for each child and $40 for a holiday meal), giving over $5000. The families also received gift wrapping supplies and a holiday basket, filled with Christmas goodies, holiday decorations and a game for the family. Members of all ages answered the call to come out and volunteer on Saturday and Sunday. Most of the volunteers were from St. John’s, and your spirit of hospitality was evident. Thank you to the Stillerman family for letting us borrow your Christmas inflatables!
Thanks also go to those serving on the Jubilee Store planning committee - Kelli McCombs (our Charlotte Family Housing liaison), and James Laney, Allison Benfield and Jacquelyn McAbee ((who all served on the hospitality and logistics team). The store had to be creative this year and find a way to serve families safely during the pandemic. Thanks to you, they were able to bring smiles and hope to these families during this difficult time.
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The God Who Sees by Karen Gonzalez
Join the Faith Journey Book Study
Faith Journey book study will begin a new book The God Who Sees on January 4th. This book written by Karen Gonzales, an immigrant, explores her journey as well as the journey of immigrants in the Bible. All are invited to join this discussion via zoom at 11:30 am on Monday mornings. There are a few books available for purchase or you may purchase your own book.
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Join the Tuesday Book Study!
The Tuesday Bible Study (TBS) group is beginning a new weekly study on Zoom beginning December 1, 2020. Our Reference/Study texts will be Matthew and Luke and The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Birth, by Marcus J. Borg & John Dominic Crossan. You must research and purchase your own book.
We invite you to participate with us at 11am each Tuesday starting December 1. Contact one of our four facilitators to register your interest in this group study.
Steve Hoffman
704-604-9634
Tricia Miller
704-364-3601
Dan Biber
704-953-2766
Janet Wade
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Our Legacy
...and the HERE and NOW
As we approach our 100th anniversary in 2022 we find ourselves looking back over this past century and reflecting on many aspects of our history. Although we have only in recent years used the phrase “Actively faithful, faithfully active” that spirit has been a constant for us
throughout these years.
We continue to grow in that spirit and in being alert to ways the Holy Spirit guides us. We strive to keep ourselves tuned to all matters related to our membership and at the same time to look beyond our doors to what is going on among the people around us. St. John’s has endeavored to follow the path Jesus showed us in Matthew 25 of ministering to the sick, the homeless, the poor and hungry, and to welcoming the “strangers” among us. From serving the hungry and homeless in our community to sponsoring a refugee family from Latvia just after WWII, to ministering to Cuban refugee children and families in the 1960’s, to our journey beginning in 2001 with the Lost Boys of Sudan and later becoming a partner in the establishment of a school in South Sudan which serves over 500 children and their families we have lived out our covenant to be a servant church. Today we embrace and welcome Brickson and Annie Sam and those from Sierra Leone, Liberia, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo who make up Together in Christ International, as they use our chapel for their worship services and on special occasions join and enrich our own worship experiences.
Perhaps more than ever, we are now faced as Christians with big decisions about responding to the influx of refugees and other immigrants, some with legal papers and others trudging through the process of applying for asylum to escape tragic circumstances in their native countries. The adjustments they face once here can be overwhelming for them, and for us in knowing how God would have us respond.
The Mission Resource Team of St. John’s is committed to providing opportunities for each member of this congregation to discern God’s call to serve and to follow that call. Just over a year ago the MRT endorsed the formation of the Immigrant Support Study Group (ISSG) to learn about ways in which organizations in Charlotte are responding to the needs of immigrants and to explore how those of us who experience a call to serve in this area might partner with some of these efforts.
As ISSG has continued to utilize non-gathering means of sharing information, we have found a book that we want to recommend. The God Who Sees (Herald Press, 2019) is written by Karen Gonzalez, who came to this country as an immigrant at age eight with her family from Guatemala. Ms. Gonzalez is a seminary graduate, has been a teacher and is currently director of human resources at World Relief, a refugee and immigrant serving organization based in Baltimore. She skillfully weaves together the story of her own journey as an immigrant and her faith journey with current stories of other immigrants and biblical stories. She uses the stories of Ruth, Hagar, Abraham, Joseph and even the Holy Family to show how God supports those who must leave their homeland and adjust to a new culture, which even in the best of circumstances is traumatic. She gives us opportunity to relate closely to immigrants through these stories.
St. John’s Faith Journey Book Study group has chosen this book for their next virtual study beginning on Monday, January 4. We hope you will join in this study and/or decide to read the book for your own understanding and opportunity for spiritual growth. Information elsewhere in The Family News will give details about participation in this study.
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Happy Birthday, Jo Moore!
by Rev. Lee Gray
Jo Moore turns 100 years old on Tuesday, December 1st!
In 1945, Jake and Jo Moore moved from New Bern, NC to Charlotte, NC to their house on Laburnum Avenue. Upon moving to Charlotte, Jake’s brother Larry invited them to attend St. John’s Baptist Church. They took him up on this offer because it just made sense. At this time, St. John’s had a new exciting young pastor named Claude Broach and they lived within walking distance of the church. Jake was in charge of the local full service Exxon filling station, which was right near the church; and Jake’s brother Larry and his wife Virginia would be there to help them get to know the folks of St. John’s. Over time, Jake and Jo went on to develop close relationships with other couples in the church such as Walter & Bertha Taylor, Lonnie & Margaret Coggin, and Marcus and Lib Collier. Jake and Jo Moore’s four sons – Jess, Robert, Donald, and Ed – all grew up in St. John’s.
When Jo Moore turns 100 on December 1st, she will be the third St. John’s member to become a centenarian this year. Virginia Allen turned 100 on June 12th and Jerry Jerman turned 100 on October 23rd. In recent years, Jo has not been able to attend St. John’s regularly. Several years ago she was able to attend Mother's Day when she was brought by her sons. Some of Jo’s fond memories of St. John’s are the parties with other couples, being taught Sunday School by Pearl Wortman in the Workers’ Sunday School Class, having Katharine Broach help her name her son Bob, and her helping to relay the message of the sermon to her friend Bertha Taylor (who had trouble hearing).
In recent years, Lydia Farnsworth and Eva Lee have helped St. John’s maintain contact with Jo. I believe Eva has even watched a ball game or two with Jo. One of my favorite personal memories of Jo was when she so helpful to me with information for Margaret Coggin’s memorial service in 2004. On that same visit, Jo gave me fresh vegetables from her garden. To this day, Jo is still a very good host and greeted our youth warmly last December and me as well a month or two ago. While it is not advisable to visit her right now with where we are in the COVID-19 pandemic, you can write her a note to wish her a Happy 100th Birthday. I hope you will join me in saying “HAPPY BIRTHDAY JO!” See her address below.
Jo Moore
1109 Dooley Dr
Charlotte, NC 28277-4012
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Help Wanted for Room in the Inn!
Due to the pandemic, the traditional Room in the Inn program operated by the Roof Above organization each winter has been modified. Roof Above will instead operate a 130-bed overflow winter shelter at 3410 Statesville Avenue between December 1 and March 31. Roof Above has asked churches to help by providing bag lunches for shelter residents throughout these four months.
St. John’s has agreed to provide 65 bagged lunches for the overflow shelter on each of the following Sunday nights:
- Sunday, December 6, 2020
- Sunday, January 3, 2021
- Sunday, February 7, 2021
- Sunday, March 7, 2021
Five St. John’s members are needed to provide 13 bag lunches for each of these four Sunday nights. We also need a person to collect and deliver the bag lunches to the shelter on those nights. Can you help?
Please access the following link to sign up:
In addition, Roof Above has said they’d love the assistance of Room in the Inn sites to help provide cookies and in-kind donations for our 130 winter overflow nightly guests. Here are additional details:
Cookie Donations: Please sign up via the link below if you’d like to supply cookies. A supporting document for cookie providers with the guidelines and directions is found within the link.
If you are physically dropping off these items at 945 N. College St campus, feel free to do so during the hours of 9am – 12:30pm.
- NEW towels and washcloths
- NEW men’s hats and gloves]
- NEW men’s boxer-briefs (M, L, XL, XXL)
- NEW men’s socks
- NEW blankets and pillows (from Amazon wish list)
- Masks (washable or disposable – homemade masks welcome)
Presorted travel-sized toiletries in gallon bags containing the following items:
- Shampoos
- Shower gels
- Toothpastes
- Toothbrushes
- Razors
- Small cans of shaving cream
- Hand sanitizer
Please, no individual bags. Contact Dale Johnson at 704-364-2575 for more details.
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Prayer Concerns, Thanks & Sympathy |
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Polly Hull, Gene & Carol Poole, Elma Thomas,
Peg Russ, Alison Zieglmeier (daughter of Ken and Donna Scott),
Andrew Adair, Barbara Ledford, Tom Bryson,
Carol Hager (sister of Betty Harkey), Carole Ann Simpson, Ken Smith,
Jacob Goodson, Esther Narron, Susan King, Alan Christian
Sympathy to Carol and Gene Poole in the death of Carol's brother, Ron Kistler, and in the death of their daughter-in-law, Faye Poole, last week
Congratulations to Dr. Hank Packman and Elizabeth Stetson who committed their lives to one another as husband and wife on Thursday, November 19 in the parlor at St. John's Baptist Church!
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Financial Ministry Plan Report
Week of November 17-23: $12,385
Income through November 23: $984,218
Annual 2020 Ministry Plan Budget Goal: $1,175,000
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You can make contributions, view your giving history and pledge status, as well as update your pledge and giving information anytime by accessing your personal
Realm profile online or via the Connect App.
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Contact the Staff
To email a staff member, click on their name below
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