Vol. 78 Issue 46 Week of November 16-22, 2020 |
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Have you signed up for or donated to the 2020 Jubilee Store happening this weekend? See below for more details! |
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Worship on
November 22nd-Commitment Sunday
This Sunday morning we will worship together online focusing on Commitment Sunday: Creating a Vision for Our Next Year of Ministry and Mission. Our scriptures will be Luke 19:1-10. Rev. Dennis W. Foust, PhD will offer a message called, "Happy to Welcome Jesus."
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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Stewardship 2021:
Climbing the Sycamore Tree
This year's financial stewardship emphasis will highlight the story of Zacchaeus's encounter with Jesus. This story is often told to children in the church. Yet, it has important principles for adults to consider. Our theme this year is "Climbing the Sycamore Tree."
Commitment Sunday is November 22. You might have already received your commitment card and letter in the mail this week!
Below is a message from Paul Huffman on the subject of stewardship.
As we approach the latter part of the year, we look forward to the cooler weather, the turning of the leaves, and the season of Thanksgiving when we celebrate our blessings. We also enter our traditional time of stewardship at St. John’s. But this year things seem different. Our sense of normalcy has been turned upside down because of the pandemic. Each day the news brings more evidence of suffering across our community, nation, and world. We read about the physical and emotional toll inflicted on individuals and families by the virus, people losing jobs, families being displaced, and more. With the deprivation seeming to increase daily, we naturally find ourselves asking, “how can we minister to those in need?”
For me, the answer begins with St. John’s. I believe our church is at the right place at the right time to provide help and hope to a hurting world. Our ministers are equipping us for ministry and our outreach programs support organizations on the front lines of confronting hunger, homelessness, healthcare, peace building, and other vital needs, not only in our community but in the world.
And now, through our stewardship campaign for 2021, each of us has the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others during these challenging times. I believe in the mission and vision of St. John’s Baptist Church. And I believe that the work we are doing is not only vital today but will be important to our community and world in the future. And so, I invite you to join me as we thoughtfully and prayerfully consider our support for the mission and vision of St. John’s during 2021. In considering my gift, I am constantly reminded of Jesus’ words in the gospel of Matthew: “…whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Perhaps as we join together in unity of spirit and purpose, we can joyfully continue to do what God calls us to do as we seek to “Be Christ” to those who need Christ in our world.
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Jubilee Store 2020
Drive-through event this weekend
November 21-22, 2020
Financial support and volunteers needed today!
During this unusual year of pandemic and unrest, many families, including those in the Charlotte Family Housing program, are struggling and looking for hope. You can help provide these needy families, and especially their children, with hope by supporting the annual Jubilee Store. We are on track to help over 100 families and more than 200 children have a happier holiday season!
We are currently in need of further donations to go toward this effort and would love your financial support to make the Jubilee Store a success this year. You can donate via Realm here or by check made out to SJBC with "Jubilee Store" in the memo field. Text "SJGIVE" to 73256 to give using your mobile device.
Here is a breakdown of how your donations can help:
- $25 – gift wrap supplies for one family
- $50 – holiday meal for one family
- $100 – gifts for two children
This year, Jubilee store will look a little different. Instead of “shopping” inside our church, they will drive through our parking lot this Saturday and Sunday and purchase gift cards at a reduced rate to buy gifts for their children. Families will also receive a Food Lion gift card for a holiday meal, a basket with holiday goodies, and supplies for wrapping gifts.
Our parking lot will be decorated with Christmas inflatables and volunteers will be dressed up to spread Christmas love and cheer to the families as they drive around the building to collect their goodies. If you would like to be a part of this event, volunteers are needed to run gift baskets to cars, direct traffic, and help with check in - all very easy things! You can sign up for a 2.5-hour shift on either this Saturday or Sunday - or both if you wish! Please note, volunteers must be 18 years old and undergo a background check (quick and easy). Volunteers will be on their feet for most of their shift. The link to sign up is here: http://jubilee.charlottefamilyhousing.volunteerhub.com/
We are partnering with Myers Park Presbyterian, Myers Park Methodist, and Charlotte Family Housing to make Jubilee Store happen. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to Kelli McCombs at kellieklund@gmail.com or 704-796-3033. Thank you!
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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.
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Create Your Realm Account
Over the past 6 months we have been implementing our new church database, Realm, to not only manage our church data but also improve our communications and engagement. We have had many of you complete your personal log-in and begin to use the available tools and resources.
As of now we still have over 200 persons who have been invited but not yet logged in. It is important for every member or attendee of St. John’s who is able to participate with Realm. In the coming weeks you will receive important giving and contribution information via Realm and also have the opportunity to make your upcoming pledge online. If you have not received an email invitation to join Realm, it is possible we do not have your correct contact information.
If you need assistance with setting up your profile please contact Derek or Mallory.
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Our Legacy & the HERE and NOW
A Virtual Book Study with the Mission Resource Team
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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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 wishlist)
- 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 Poole in the death of her brother, Ron Kistler, this week
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Financial Ministry Plan Report
Week of Nov. 11-16: $15,490
Income through Nov. 16: $971,833
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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