Week of June 6-12, 2022 | Vol. 81 Issue 23

ARE YOU A SPIRITUAL PERSON?

by Dennis Foust

Recently, a person said to me, “I have no desire to be religious but I enjoy being spiritual.” This person was shocked when I affirmed them by saying, “I wish every person was spiritual.”

Do you consider yourself to be a spiritual person? Whether you answer ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ may depend on your definition of the word, ‘spiritual.’

Let me offer a very personal explanation of the word, ‘spiritual.’ When I describe myself as a spiritual person, I am not referring to a mystical or impractical dimension of life. My study of spiritual living guides me to this understanding: ‘spiritual living is living in relationship with God who is Holy Spirit.’ To live in relationship with God as Holy Spirit compels me to pursue the ethics, morals, principles and perspectives of God’s nature. Because I am committed to follow Jesus as the pattern for my life, I try to embody his teachings and revelation of God’s nature. Since Jesus teaches that God is compassionate and more gracious than people who put limits on God’s grace allow themselves to embrace, I try to relate with others with ethics, morals, principles and perspectives that express compassion and grace.

That said, my spiritual life, like every other human, is imperfect. I fail to be pure in my thoughts, decisions and behaviors. I fall short of God’s best for me. I tumble in my commitment. I mess up and identify with the Apostle Paul who acknowledged about himself in Romans 7:15 – “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”

However, God forgives, redeems, and guides me in the pathway of salvation and reconciliation. Therefore, while I am not yet what I strive to become, I am no longer what I was in the past.

Being a spiritual person who follows Jesus, I practice the spiritual habits of Jesus. Here are four.

Prayer – at least 25 times in the Gospels, we read of Jesus praying. He gave us the model prayer which we recite each Sunday during worship.
Public Worship – Jesus regularly gathered with others to worship The Living God.
Communal Faith – Jesus related with his disciples and close followers and encouraged us to ‘love one another as he loves us.’
Service – Jesus came to serve, not to be served, and gave us Matthew 25 to guide us.

If you want to experience spiritual growth, pray, express your worship with the congregation, devote yourself to communal faith, and serve other people in the spirit of Jesus. The world has plenty of religious people. We need more spiritual folks.

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SAVE THESE AUTUMN DATES AS WE CONTINUE OUR CENTENNIAL YEAR

Saturday, October 15, Dramatic Presentation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Al Staggs

Sunday, October 16, Al Staggs Dramatic Sermon Depicting Clarence Jordan

Sunday, November 20, Unique Worship Expression, ‘Dancing Our Prayers’

2022 Global Missions Offering

This year's Global Mission Offering goal is $25,000. So far, we have received $250 towards this goal.

We will continue to support our friends at the Nyarweng School, South Sudan, with $20,000 and we will send $5,000 to Project Ruth. Project Ruth, a CBF partner ministry in Romania, is currently assembling and distributing food care boxes for Ukrainian families.

You can give towards this goal today by donating online and specifying Global Missions, or by writing "Global Missions" in the memo line on your check.

Help us reach our $25,000 goal!

Worship This Summer

There is a great deal of unnecessary confusion over the Book of Revelation.

This book at the end of Christian scriptures was written as a public pastoral letter to scattered disciples amidst religious and political transformation.

We have this in common with those disciples of the first century. We are living in a time of religious and political transformation. In the first century, followers of Jesus dispersed into cities throughout Asia Minor. History tells us there was persecution during those days.

John, the beloved Apostle, was imprisoned on the island of Patmos. He had served as pastor in Ephesus. From Patmos, he wrote to seven scattered collections of Christians which were called churches because they had responded to the call of Jesus.

Through this summer, Dr. Foust will offer sermons on these seven passages treating them as iMessages to St. John’s from the first century.

Summer Worship Schedule

A Message from the Music Ministry!

Carillon Installation:

In July a digital carillon will be installed at St. John's. It will strike the hour throughout the day. At noon, it will play a selection of hymns for several minutes.

What joy this will bring to those who live and work in the neighborhood!

FIRST, we need your help!

We would like to have the carillon play hymns that are favorites of YOU! If you have a favorite hymn, please email, mail, or drop a note to Kevin Gray with a list of your top five favorite hymns.

Free Concert July 3 | 7:00PM | Sanctuary

This concert is sponsored by the American Guild of Organists and St. John’s and will feature two incredible organist, David Wilcox and Annette Martin, playing mostly patriotic music. The concert is FREE and open to the public. Join us for an evening of music!

Youth Mission Trip to Chicago!

A Message from Lee Gray

On the morning of Sunday, June 19, the St. John’s Youth will be flying to Chicago to partner with Sunshine Gospel Ministries for a week. There, we will have an experiential service-learning opportunity and get a better understanding of the challenges facing inner-city communities. We will learn through practical service opportunities, engage in conversations surrounding poverty, and participate in activities like a poverty simulation. Activities provided by Sunshine Gospel Ministries vary from week to week but include things like working in community gardens, packing meals in a food pantry, and other neighborhood beautification projects. We will return on Saturday evening, June 25^th. Assuming we all pay the pre-requisite Covid test to work with our ministry we will have 15 youth and 4 adults participating. Please keep us in our prayers.

Thank you, Lee Gray

Also - Please be on the lookout for more information next week about the Youth In-Town mission trip Saturday August 6 through Tuesday, August 9.

Welcome, Amanda Morrison, Ministry Coordinator!

by Nancy Wilson (Personnel Chair) and Dennis Foust (Senior Minister)

We are very glad to introduce Amanda Morrison to our church family. When we decided to expand the role of this position from Administrative Assistant to Ministry Coordinator, we knew we were looking for a unique person with a broad skill set. As we interviewed Amanda, we realized that her life experiences have prepared her to help us in numerous ways.

Amanda grew up in the small town of Mamers, North Carolina which is located north of Fayetteville and south of Raleigh – about 10 minutes west of Lillington. After finishing high school, like many good Baptists, she attended Campbell University in Buies Creek. There she majored in history with a concentration in international studies and a minor in government. As she learned about the larger world, she participated in a study abroad program through Temple University spending four months in Japan in 2009. In 2010, she was a diplomatic scholar at the Internship Institute in Washington, DC, and worked with the United States – Taiwan Business Council in Arlington, Virginia. In 2011, following her graduation from Campbell, she worked as an English as a Second Language tutor and then moved to South Korea where she taught English to middle schoolers for the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education. In 2014, she moved to London where she completed a Master of Arts in International Relations at Regent’s University in 2016. She then returned to South Korea where she taught English in Daejeon until 2020. After spending some time with family, she moved to Charlotte where she taught world history, US history, civics, economics, English, and world literature. As she desired to transition out of teaching, she started looking for a position that would allow her to invest her faith while making a difference in the world. We are already appreciating her ability to multi-task, her personable approach to communication, her positive contributions to our staff team culture, her inclination to express initiative, her organizational abilities, and her wonderful stories about her travels around the world.

As Ministry Coordinator, Amanda will provide assistance to the senior minister and ministry staff as we lead you to pursue our congregation’s vision and goals. She will help us build bridges of shared efforts between deacon panels, resource teams, and spiritual growth groups. She will coordinate membership information, ministry participation, and eventually the church calendar and facility usage. You can reach Amanda at [email protected] or at extension 11.

Children's Classes and Worship Care this Summer

With the summer months upon us, and with so many families and volunteers traveling, we will begin our Summer schedule for Infant/Toddler, Pre-K and Elementary Classes on June 12.

While there are no classes or care offered during the Sunday school hour, worship care will continue to be offered for our infant/toddler classes.

We will resume classes and care for all children (Infant/Toddler, PreK and Elementary) during the Sunday School hour as well as PreK Worship Care when we get back to our normal Sunday routine in August.

Called Church Conference This Sunday!

At the end of worship this Sunday, June 12, the search task force will present the candidate for the new Minister for Youth and Young Adults.

The task force is excited to present this candidate and will share more information with you in a separate email (sent yesterday) and on Sunday.

Men's Shelter Update:

Still need 2 more banana puddings for June 17!

St. John's serves at the uptown Men's Shelter every third Friday of the month.

We are NEARLY covered for June 17 but need two more banana puddings. Click the red button below to sign up to make a pudding!

Our next date to serve after June 17 is July 15.

Will you consider signing up for this great cause?

Click on the button below to sign up for service to our neighbors.

Assist M.E. Collection

June is our month to collect medical equipment (wheelchairs, shower seats, toilet chairs, walkers...) for Assist M.E.

Assist M.E. is a non-profit organization in the Charlotte. They take in gently used medical equipment and gift it to low income, uninsured patients in our community. Assist M.E. gets wheelchairs, bedside commodes, walkers, shower chairs and other medical equipment from individual donors and organizations.

NO BRACES OF ANY KIND, PLEASE.

Please bring medical equipment to the collection room as you are able throughout the month of June. Contact Jane Starnes for more information at 704-618-8353.

The Fast 50’s at St. John’s

by Ken Sanford

The 1950’s opened at St. John’s with a burst of activity, and the congregation knew they had chosen wisely in calling Dr. Claude U. Broach to the pulpit. Although a young man, he was known widely across the South. A graduate of the University of Georgia, he earned the Th.M. and Th.D. degrees from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and served briefly as pastor of a church in Covington, VA before becoming Associate Secretary of the Department of Student Work for the Southern Baptist Convention. In that position he became a popular speaker on college and university campuses and a writer for publications addressed to college students. As the 1940s ended and the 1950s began, Dr. Broach led a rapid expansion of programs and facilities at St. John’s.

By the end of the 1940s the church had raised funds for expansion, including the purchase of a red brick apartment building, which was renovated, first for a children’s building and later for a youth building when the children were relocated to a white brick building.

The church set its sights on a new educational building and raised the needed funds. The congregation broke ground in 1951 and dedicated the building in 1953. The new space provided for educational rooms for adults and youth, a chapel, and a meeting space with a kitchen.