Berean Baptist Church

Pastor's State of the Church Address for 2011

When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"    

                                                                                                                Lk 18:8

                I want to begin 2011 by thanking each every one of you for being a part of the community, mission and ministry of Berean Baptist Church.  Throughout 2010 Berean continued its strong focus on sharing the gospel with the Burrillville Community through its Nutritional Ministries, Clothing and Hygiene Ministries and Heating Ministries.  Many families have been blessed with the knowledge that God loves them through the summer lunch program, holiday baskets, and numerous other concrete gifts of grace that we have been able to give on God’s behalf. 

                 When I first started my ministry at Berean Baptist I was focused intently on social outreach ministries.  In 2004 when I started I felt that this was an area of church life that need to stretch and grow and develop, not just at Berean, but in every church, and you agreed with me.  And we have done many amazing things for a church our size in a community our size.  Some of our outreach ministries have come and gone, some have changed, and some have remained, but all have born faithful witness to the amazing love and extravagant grace of Christ and for that I am both proud and grateful. 

                While social outreach ministries are still a source of passion for me and I will continue to lend aid and support to these efforts I feel that 2011 is a time for me to shift my focus as your pastor.  The reality is that as important as these social ministries are and as vital as our participation in these ministries is, there are other institutions in our area that feed the hungry, warm the cold and cloth the naked.  While the way we do these ministries is different from other social institutions and the reason too, still these ministries are not completely unique.  The Mason’s, Lion’s club and a local bar also engage in these activities and while I am proud that we have formed and maintained partnerships with not only other churches but other local charitable institutions, it is time for me as your pastor to shine a light on what is unique about the Church.  And it is time for us as a church to focus our attention on what we offer to the community that is unique, what we offer that no one else does. 

                ‘Will the Son of Man find faith on the earth?  Will our children have faith?’  These are the questions that are keeping me up at night and which will be the focus of my attention in 2011 and perhaps even beyond.  What we offer that Tri-Town, the Lion’s Club, and the Mason’s do not, is faith. 

                The question which will be my theme for 2011 is connected to the scripture I quoted to open this address, and which was the focus of the first sermon of this year.  That question, which will be my theme is, ‘Will our children have faith?’  A question that has been growing increasingly louder in my mind as, despite the hard work, dedication, and creativity of Christian Ed, our children’s Sunday school attendance has stayed on a permanent plateau and that level not terribly high in number.  Teen numbers are dwindling.  Adult participation in opportunities for faith formation and study remain anemic.  And as good a record as we have with welcoming the un-churched, this past year has showed me that we have a lot to improve on in the form attracting to come and then keeping them from slipping out the back door.

In an effort to attract new adult Christians and keep them in the family of Christ I will be focusing our attention on these areas:

 Christian Family Nurture:

The main assumption of this experiment called Christian Family Nurture is that we will reach our potential for passing the Christian faith on to children, teens, and new adult Christians by working together, creating intergenerational relationships and engaging in works of mission and ministry together.  We can no longer continue to hope that 45 minutes on a Sunday morning will effectively show our children, teens and new adult Christians what it means to be a disciple of Christ.  Neither can we leave that responsibility up to Ann and Christian Ed.  We all bear the responsibility of making new Christians and all have gifts and talents to put to this use. 

 Christian Family Nurture Projects are meant to engage the whole family in forming Christian faith, and by family I do not mean simply the nuclear family, but the entire church family.  Each project is based not only on teaching a bible story or a Christian belief, but also putting into action a Christian Practice.  So our Lenten focus this year will be communion.  You will be invited to bake bread, at home, and here at the church, to be used for our communion together, and to be delivered to various saints who can no longer make it to worship regularly.  Together we will be putting into practice the Christian virtues that communion is meant to instill; forgiveness, hospitality and watch-care of those in need. 

 As a part of Christian Family Nurture for Lent we will also bring back a special worship/study series at the church for adults.  We will meet on Sunday evenings for 45 minutes to an hour to sing, pray and talk about a bible story that shows us the meaning of communion.  We will teach our children, teens and new adult Christians how to be disciples of Christ by intentionally forming our faith through study, worship and acts of service.  When they see us forming faith, they will learn how to form their faith. 

 New Adult Christian Mentoring:

New Adult Christian Mentoring is another new project.  New Adults are invited to a journey of faith formation that involves fostering a relationship with a mentor who will study the gospel of Mark with them, encourage them to volunteer in the various social ministries of the church, create a ministry project of their very own, and participate in the six membership sessions.  This is meant to take one year.  As this is a new project we will have to review and assess its effectiveness.  If it sounds challenging, it is.  The purpose of New Adult Christian Mentoring is not to make new folks jump through hoops or prove themselves to me or the diaconate.  It is meant to show that we take the responsibility of making and forming new Christian’s seriously and we want to do as good a job at passing on the faith as we possibly can.

 AGAPE Meals:

Worship and Fellowship will also be hosting more AGAPE meals.  The purpose of Agape Meals is to intentionally plan time to foster relationships in the church and to create time to share faith and grow in faith together.  New Christians learn how to be disciples by watching experienced Christians, listening to experienced Christians, and working alongside experienced Christians.  This is the point of Agape meals, much as it is the point of the Christian Family Nurture Projects, to give us experienced Christians an opportunity to create relationships, share their faith story and show new Christians what discipleship looks like in action. 

 Seekers Group/ Bible Basics:

Although we are already busy folks I want to encourage the diaconate, worship and fellowship and Christian committees to revisit the opportunities for evangelism and faith formation that a Seekers Group and Bible Basics group affords.  Seekers Groups are a four week study and discussion opportunity designed for the un-churched.  It requires us to reach out to others to invite them, not just to Berean , but to a relationship with Christ.  Bible Basics is an important opportunity for faith formation.  If I have made any mistake with New Adult Christian Mentoring that is trying to cram too much into the time before the new Christian is baptized.  If we could organize even two 4-5 week sessions of Bible Basics and tailor it allow experienced Christians and new Christians to explore the faith together I would consider that a great success.  Part of that struggle will be how to create opportunities that are supportive of young families with young children.  Sure, we don’t have a whole lot of those, but we cannot expect young families to go to a bible discussion group that is timed when the kids are getting ready for bed. 

 Creation Care.  We will have a monthly focus for throughout 2011 which will help us focus on living lives that are more caring and protective of God’s creation.  We believe this is the purpose of our humanity, to serve and protect the earth and so we are going to specifically focus attention to this purpose in the Spring following Easter. 

AWAB Discernment

A few years ago a group of American Baptist pastors decided that it was time to stand up and declare their affirmation of glbt people. The network of churches they founded is now called  the Association of Welcoming & Affirming Baptists (AWAB). AWAB members are Baptist churches, organizations, and individuals who have gone on record as being welcoming and affirming of all persons, without regard to sexual orientation. We know that much abuse of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons has been fostered and encouraged by the rhetoric of the church, leaving many people feeling that they must choose between their faith and their sexuality. AWAB members have joined together to advocate for inclusion of lgbt persons within Baptist communities of faith.

 Berean Baptist is beginning a discernment process designed to seeks God's guidance and will as some members feel that we are called to join with the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists and openly proclaim that Berean is a safe place for LGBT People.  This process will take at least one full year and it begins this with Cottage Mtgs.  These cottage meetings are designed to; Educate the members and friends of Berean about the way that LGBT persons are often treated in church and the adverse, sometimes tragic effect this can have on their lives, Give those attending the chance to ask questions and express their opinion of this initiative, either for or against.  The intent of the cottage meetings is to give everyone a safe space to speak their mind, share their testimony and get information. The facilitators will be taking notes about the questions raised and concerns voiced.  Please be assured that while the questions and concerns will be shared with the Discernment Team so that they can learn how best to plan future events and address questions and concerns, your name will not be shared with the team.  Your honesty is vital if this process is going to be successful and your safety and anonymity is of the highest priority to the discernment team.   So I invite you, I strongly urge you to be a part of this process, whether you are for or against the idea of joining with AWAB.  We can only rightly discern God’s will if everyone’s voice is heard. 

Your Question might be, what holds all of these various ministries, projects and process together?  There is a lot going on, but what is it that holds it all together?  What is the point?

As I said at the beginning of my address, my commitment in the year ahead is to shine a light on faith formation and discipleship at Berean.  My energy will be spent making sure that Berean Baptist Church remains committed to increasing our focus and attention to Discipleship.  Whether it is through our traditional Outreach Ministries or these new projects for Christian Family Nurture and Creation Care, the common theme that ties them all together is that we are working together to grow and stretch as disciples of a risen Christ and to be challenged to grow and stretch into sharing our faith with others.  .  Everything that we are doing as a church is meant to empower us to grow as Christian Disciples.  So I want to thank all of you who have been a part of the dreaming, planning and organizing of these discipleship efforts.  And I want to invite you, if you to join with us in working out our salvation if you have not already begun.  We are so blessed to have one another, in good times and bad, for support and encouragement.  And so I want to say finally how blessed I feel to be your pastor.  This year marks year seven of my ministry to and with you.  I feel so very fortunate that God has continued to call me to serve you and am so very excited about what God is going to do with us and through us in 2011.

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Last modified: 04/13/11