September Messenger 2024

This month in worship we’re going to look at three big words: Gather, Give, Go, and ask that you prayerfully consider your participation in those things. We believe that this is a simple way to describe what we do as a church and a simple way to view your own spiritual growth. I am confident that if you commit yourself to participating in gathering, giving, and going, that you will experience more growth and more joy in your spiritual life. Gather: This one may seem simple and obvious to you. “Yeah yeah, come to worship on Sundays.” But that isn’t the only way to gather. It is important to our spiritual growth to gather with other Christians and sing, important to consider the teachings of Scripture, and important to pray corporately. But those are not the complete list of the ways we need to gather. We need to gather in more personal settings. We have quite a few options for Connect Groups or Sunday School classes on Sunday mornings at 9.15 AM. This is a space for you to know others and for you to be known. Being anonymous sounds great, but growth happens in community. In addition to our established groups, Associate Pastor Grace Sykes and I will be offering a group on Sunday mornings titled: “Faith, Doubt, and Deconstruction” where we ask questions we might otherwise be too shy to ask. Maybe Sunday morning isn’t great for you. We are working on establishing some home groups. You may be interested in facilitating or hosting one yourself, reach out to me and I’d love to talk about how we can make that happen. But, beyond gathering in those ways, we believe spiritual growth happens by gathering with the Triune God. Why say it that way? Because we often forget that God is three persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And when we pray, prayerfully read scripture on our own, and otherwise seek God individually, we are actually gathering with that Triune God. Give: Give us money. No, that’s actually not what this is centrally about. We believe that one thing that is essential to our growth is to give of ourselves. That means giving time, and often giving of our treasures. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” is not just DESCRIPTIVE, it is also PRESCRIPTIVE! We get closer to God as we return to him our money and our time, things that we only have because he originally gave those to us. So we believe you need to give to grow. Go: This could say “as you go” but we are made for mission. That doesn’t mean we always have to travel around the world, often mission is waiting for us at school, work, the gym. Every person we see is an image-bearer of God, and he invites us to love them by offering them his table and his church. Our mission is invitation. We grow by being on mission. I am excited for this series we’ll be starting on September 8 with our “kickoff” Sunday. I hope you will wear your jersey and join us!

SWEET SPIRITS: Wednesday, October 2 Calling all adults 50 and above to attend our next Sweet Spirits gathering! Great fellowship, a delicious meal prepared by our very own Chef Matt, a time of singing the old timey songs, and our guest artist, Michael McKnight. Michael is a concert/church pianist from Greenville, NC. For those of you who have attended SummerFest the past two years, you have had the opportunity to enjoy his talents. A gifted pianist, who can play any kind of music, is not stuffy…he can let his hair down. At SummerFest, he led us in a special fun program of “Name That Tune” and also shared a program of Broadway Show tunes. We had the option of trying to match the song with the Broadway show OR just sitting back and enjoying our favorite show tunes played so wonderfully by Michael! Michael is developing something new for our Sweet Spirits gathering where we will try and match the songs he plays to our favorite TV programs. It’s going to be so much fun! You will marvel at the way he plays the piano! Sweet Spirits meet each month from 11:00 AM–1:00 PM in our Fellowship Hall. The cost is $10.00 per person payable on Realm prior to the event or $12.00 at the door. Remember to register on Realm to receive your $2.00 discount for signing up and paying early! Reservation deadline is Thursday, September 19. We’ll need to turn in our final number to Chef Matt so he can order the food. Remember, the best place to be is together with you and the Sweet Spirits!

SPECIAL DAY TRIP to Field of Makers/Baptist Children’s Home/Mills Home in Thomasville, NC: Saturday, September 7 Sponsored by NCBAM Come see crafters from all over NC as they share their unique creations that will be judged that day as well as items that will be for sale. This juried artisan event features North Carolina’s finest craftsmen, food vendors, a tour of Mills Home and the headquarters of NCBAM. We’ll leave Pritchard by our minibus Saturday morning at 9:00 AM and return by 4:00 PM. Cost is $10.00 (admission and travel expenses). Sign-up on Realm or call the Church Office. SUNAGO CHOIR RESUMES Our Sunago Choir begins its new year on Thursday, September 5 at 10:15 AM in our Shoemaker Music Building under the direction of our Minister of Music, David Bailes. Lori Williams will be our pianist. We hope all our Sunago Choir members will be able to join us again this year, as well as those who have been wanting to join our outstanding Senior Adult Choir! Oh, by the way, it’s time to learn our Christmas music to present to our church and community in December. See you on Thursday, September 5!!! TUESDAY NIGHT ZOOM Fellowship, Bible Study and Prayer Time resumes Tuesday, September 10 at 6:45 PM to 8:00 PM.

Salutations! We hope you had a great labor day weekend and enjoyed time with friends and family. As summer gives way to fall, we are preparing for our children at the CDC to move up to the next age group and saying goodbye to our rising Kindergartners. August went fast and we enjoyed a month of water play on Fridays and the Kona Ice Truck as a special goodbye summer treat! In September, we welcome thirteen new families into our CDC. We are operating at nearly full capacity with the addition of new children and are looking forward to getting to know them. We will be moving some of our classrooms around to better utilize our space. We will add a library/specials room combo where children will have the opportunity to go for their music special, starting in October, and library time. We removed climbers from classrooms and gave our "blue room" a little bit of a face lift by adding these structures back in here for gross motor time and rainy-day space. We have also added some fun ocean themed decorations around the center and our theme for that is "Mightier than the waves of the sea is his love for you" from Psalms 93:4. We will begin planning for our October Trunk-or-Treat and our fall festival early this month. We will need volunteers, so, if you'd like to help, please send an email to Kim, myself or Lynn. We are also working on some additional volunteer opportunities that our church community can get involved in throughout the year, so stay tuned for that if you are interested. We'd love to see you and I am sure our children would love it too!