A New Path

According to Mark Tidsworth, Christian author and congregational coach, the number one pre-pandemic rule for church leadership was, “Don’t try anything new unless you can nearly guarantee it will be successful”; today, however, the number one post-pandemic rule for church leadership is, “The more holy experiments you try, the more likely your church will adapt and thrive in this new environment.” Tidsworth defines a holy experiment as “an innovative move, possibly inspired by the Holy Spirit, which helps us participate in God’s kingdom movement.” The word “possibly” is used because the discernment process does not always guarantee that our will is going to be aligned with God’s will. The goal is to do our best to seek God’s will, trusting that the Holy Spirit will guide us as we join Christ’s salvific-mission in the world.

Joining Christ’s mission begins with honoring Jesus’s Great Commandment of loving God and others, and obeying his Great Commission of making disciples and preaching the gospel in all the world. As the landscape of the world and community around us continues to shift, we too must be willing to make changes in order to meet the needs and challenges families are currently facing. Our message of Christ’s love and grace will never change, but the methods and ministries through which that message is shared most certainly will.

After having multiple conversations with Vinton Baptist’s Kitchen Committee, Deacons, and Church Council, one of the shifts we have chosen to make as a church is to forgo our Wednesday night meals for the upcoming season. We do not yet know if this change will be permanent. What we have learned in listening to our church’s lay leadership is that our current model for Wednesday night meals is no longer feasible or accessible for most of our church family. Though many still love the idea of sharing a meal with their church family each week, there are just too many scheduling conflicts on Wednesday nights at that time for most of our families to participate.

Though we will not offer our Wednesday night meal for the upcoming season, we will still offer all of our Wednesday night ministries for children, youth, and adults. Our children’s music ministries will continue to meet at their regularly scheduled times. Our youth will still meet at different locations in and around Vinton to engage in local missions. We will continue to offer a Bible study for our adults, as well as rehearsals for our adult music ministries. Rather than meeting in the gym for our Bible study, I will lead a study in the Small Dining Room on faith formation at home. My hope in changing our location is to promote more discussion in a warmer, more intimate space. I will be sharing more details about that study in the coming weeks.

I want to offer a word of thanks to our Kitchen Committee led by Kathi Costigan, as well as all of our volunteers on Wednesday nights who have made our Wednesday night meals possible. They are an amazing group of people who, along with those who came before them, have given us cherished time around the table with our church family for many years. We are so thankful for their time, commitment, effort, energy, and enthusiasm in providing weekly meals for nine months out of every year. We are so grateful for each of them and look forward to the new ways God will provide for us to serve together.

As we look back with a spirit of thanks, we also look forward with excitement for what God has in store for Vinton Baptist as we continue to follow and serve him. I am looking forward to sharing more details with you about our new weekday worship service that will begin in September, our new community playground that we will be voting on as a church on Sunday, July 30, the exciting work of our Children’s Minister Search Committee, as well as the new faith formation opportunities we will be providing that have the potential to transform our homes and families.

As we seek to be a church that adapts and thrives in this new environment in which we live, I am reminded of Walt Disney's famous words: "Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious . . . and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." May we remain curious, as we continue to listen and follow God's Spirit down new paths that lead us onward toward his will and kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

-- Travis

This Sunday @ VBC

Please join us at 8:45 or 11:00 AM this Sunday for worship (Sunday School at 9:50 AM). Travis will bring a message titled "A Welcomer" (Peter), and the scripture is Acts 11:1-18. If you can't make it in person, you can find our livestream at www.vintonbaptistchurch.org or on our Facebook group page.

Vacation Bible School starts Sunday!

Click here to register!

Upcoming Youth Events

Tonight's youth outing is Putt Putt & dinner; meet at VBC at 5:30 PM. Cost is $15 + dinner. Click here for the remaining summer activities for the first week in August.

PGA Youth Camp is scheduled for July 28th - 30th at Alta Mons, and our theme is "Identity." We will discover that we are God's creation, made in God's image, and loved unconditionally. Youth should sign up and pay ($90/person) no later than TOMORROW, July 20th. All required forms have been emailed to youth parents, or you can see Whitney for additional info.

Fun & the Son Play Group

We will have a modified schedule over the next couple of weeks due to VBS. Please note the following:

• Thursday, July 20th - We will meet at Mommy and Me indoor playground (opens at 10:00)
• Monday, July 24th - We will meet at Stonebridge Park for playground and creek fun
• Thursday, July 27th - We will meet at Troutville Park for playtime and a picnic

See Betty Jo Overstreet with questions.

JOY Seniors

TODAY is the last day to sign up and pay for the Mystery Trip planned for Saturday, July 22nd. The trip is $90/person, which includes 3 meals. We will depart VBC at 7:30 AM. You may need a light jacket, and there is not a lot of walking involved.

It's not too late to sign up for the Ark Encounter & Creation Museum trip October 17th - 20th, which will include admission to both museums, riverboat dinner cruise on the Ohio River, 3 nights' lodging, 3 continental breakfasts, 2 lunches, and 2 dinners. Sign up and pay at the JOY Senior table, please.

Annual Paper Drive for Keystone

Thanks to everyone who has already contributed paper products to the JOY Seniors' Annual Paper Drive for Keystone Community Center. Collection boxes are located near the Welcome Center and next to the elevator on the entrance level of the New Ministries Building, and we will continue to collect products such as paper plates, cups, bowls, plastic cutlery, paper towels, napkins, toilet paper, etc., through the end of this month.

5th Sunday in July

Mark your calendars for July 30th, when we will be on our 5th Sunday schedule! We'll have Sunday School at 9:15 AM, one combined worship at 10:30 AM, and lunch in the gym following worship. Our lunch menu includes hamburgers and hot dogs, mac-n-cheese, potato salad, chips, assorted desserts and sundae bar, and coffee and tea.

Called Business Meeting July 30th

At our last Ministry Matters meeting on May 17th Andy Nicely, representing the Property Committee, reported the following (as stated in the meeting minutes):

KABOOM, an agency out of Washington, DC, has approved $65,000.00 for the Boys & Girls Clubs to build a playground on our lot on the corner of Poplar Street and Washington Avenue. We design and build it with their assistance and it will be paid for by the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth (VFHY). The only cost to the church will be upkeep and insurance. It will be open from dawn to dusk and will be completely fenced in. We will need at least 15 volunteers to complete the work. Lotz Funeral Home, the Town of Vinton, and Roanoke County are agreeable to the playground. It will be brought before the church for a vote in the near future.

On Sunday July 30th, at the conclusion of our 10:30 AM combined worship service, we will have a called business meeting to vote on this matter. Please reach out to Andy Nicely, Mike Stovall, or Travis Russell with any questions between now and then.

Supper Club

Mark your calendars for our next event, August 12th at 6 PM, when we'll have a Back to School PJ Party at the church. Questions? Contact Erin Berry.

Blessing of the Backpacks &

Sunday School Promotion

On Sunday, August 6th we plan to have the Blessing of the Backpacks. The next Sunday, August 13th, will be Sunday School Promotion. We will also take an opportunity on August 13th to recognize and celebrate our Sunday School teachers who have taught for the past year, as well as those who have committed to teaching Sunday School for the upcoming 2023-24 year.

Budget Committee Meeting

The Budget Committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 8th at 6:30 PM in the small dining room.

Patty "Myles" Cook

Pheasant Ridge Memory Care

Tera Bella Room 178

4435 Pheasant Ridge Road

Roanoke VA 24014

Thank you to the Fellowship/Berean class for their donation to the Food Pantry.

Thank you to Wayne & Helen Foster for their donation to the Lovelace Scholarship.

Thank you to Nancy & Mark Burnette for their donation of non-perishable items to the Food Pantry.

A Message from the Finance Committee:

We want to provide some explanation for two funds that often get confused:

• The Building Fund is used to track donations for major church construction or renovation projects or to pay any loans used to finance major construction or renovations. We do not have any church construction or renovation projects at this time, so the funds are held for future use.
• The Capital Needs Fund is used to pay for mechanical components, fixtures, furniture, or other church assets that typically have a useful life longer than one year. This fund is used throughout the year to cover costs that are not part of the church's operating budget. In 2022 we paid approximately $67,000 for HVAC repairs, the Disciple Center roof, locks and door panic bars, fencing for the breezeway, and elevator repairs. In the near future, we will need to pay approximately $18,000 for electrical work and fire suppression components in the kitchen and additional security cameras. The Finance Committee thanks you for your generous donations to this fund as it allows us to pay for major expenses without having to borrow from the bank.

Congratulations to Grant and Carly Melchers in the birth of first child Ruth Elaine Melchers on July 12, weighing 7 lbs. 15 ozs. and measuring 21”. Proud grandparents are Gari & Wanda Melchers, aunt is Alyssa, and great grandmother is Ruth Roe.

CBF Offering for Global Missions

We've almost met our $2,200 church goal for this program this year! There is a gold envelope in your box of envelopes designated for this ministry, or you may notate "Offering for Global Missions" on a regular offering envelope, on your check, or in the memo of your online offering. Thanks for your support!

Blessing Box Needs

The following items are most needed for the Blessing Box right now: any size/type of fruit (easy open tops are particularly helpful for our homeless friends), cereal, Pop Tarts, pancake mix, and any type of Chef Boyardee canned products (Spaghetti O's, ravioli, etc.) Donations can be dropped in the appropriate bin at the Missions Tables. Thank you!

Bible Reading Plan

We're currently in 1 Kings and Psalms on our Bible Reading Plan. The account of Solomon's reign seemed awfully short, in my opinion, and now that we're getting into the reigns of various kings in both the northern and southern kingdoms, I'm just getting confused. There are so many people's names, as well as place names, listed in each day's reading that I'm left my head spinning. Here is some info that might help clarify 1 Kings:

Follow this link for a table listing the kings of Israel and Judah, their years of reign, and the prophets associated with their reigns. This chart will also clarify which monarchs were considered good or evil: https://www.biblegateway.com/.../updated-chart-of.../

Fee & Stuart (How to Read the Bible Book by Book) share some insight into Kings, as well. Together, the books of 1 and 2 Kings range from 970 BC (the end of King David's reign) to 586 BC (when Judah was taken away by the Babylonians). The primary emphasis of this history is whether each king followed God or not. "In Kings this is expressed in Deuteronomic terms - his [the king's] attitude toward the central sanctuary (the temple in Jerusalem) and whether or not he advocated syncretism [blending Judaism with other religions] (e.g., Jeroboam's golden calves; see 2 Kgs 17:41) or rival gods altogether, especially Canaanite Baal worship...."

Fee & Stuart also note that in many cases, we're given very little information in terms of the history of a particular king. Each king is primarily noted for when and where he reigned, whether he followed God, and his death info. We get additional information for only a few kings.

Note that the prophets Elijah and Elisha will become particularly prominent in the telling of Kings. And God will begin to use "major superpowers" (countries that, up until now, have not factored into the story of the Jewish people in their own land) to judge the sin of his people.

Dear Congregation,

On behalf of the family of Jerry Austin, I would like to express our thanks for the beautiful plant you sent. It brought light into a very difficult time. Our gratitude goes out to Rev. Whitney Russell for delivering the eulogy. Your words and your kindness at our time of need will always be treasured by our family. With love,

Rena Austin and family