Lenten Luncheon Series

The schedule has been set for the 2010 annual ecumenical Lenten Luncheon Series hosted annually by the Henderson County (KY) Ministerial Association.

Beginning the first Wednesday following Ash Wednesday, the luncheon series will take place at seven different churches in the community.

The half-hour services begin at noon followed by a luncheon served by the host churches at 12:30 p.m. An offering for the meal taken at the beginning of the lunch line goes to the ministerial association’s outreach fund.

Here’s the schedule for the Lenten Luncheon Series as well as the Easter Sunrise Service on April 4, 2010.

February  24 — First Christian Church, 830 S. Green St.
March 3 — First United Methodist Church, 338 Third St.
March 10 — Community Baptist Church, 1026 Pebble Creek Drive
March 17 — Presbyterian Church of Henderson, 100 S. Main St.
March 24 — St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 5 S. Green St.
April 1, Maundy Thursday — Zion United Church of Christ, 437 First St.
April 2, Good Friday — Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church, 511 Second St.
Easter Sunrise Service — 6:30 a.m. April 4, Methodist Hospital, 1305 N. Elm St., garden area at the rear of the building overlooking the river. Speaker: The Rev. John Guthrie, Presbyterian Church of Henderson.

We here at Community Baptist Church take great pride in participating in these ecumenical services.

Children’s Program Survey

Please take time to complete the online version of the Children’s Survey that was passed out in worship today.  You can find the survey at http://communitybaptistchurch.org/survey.

The survey will be used to help us in or selection of a new Children’s Director staff position.

Faith Comes by Hearing

I want to let you know about an exciting opportunity that we at Community Baptist Church are going to take advantage of in just a couple of weeks. It’s called, “You’ve Got the Time: A Journey of Biblical Faithfulness.”

The Bible has traditionally been very important to Baptist life. In fact, many Baptists like to call ourselves “The People of the Book.” But if we are honest with ourselves, many of us would have to admit that time constraints on our lives prohibit us from reading the Bible as we should. Here is a great opportunity to listen to the entire New Testament in 40 days by spending only 28 minutes a day.

We, along with many other congregations are using the season of Lent, which begins on February 17, 2010 to listen to the entire New Testament. Through a grant given to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF), they will provide an audio MP3 disc with the entire New Testament on it to every person in our church free of charge. Even the children will receive a Kidz Bible with Bible stories and songs.

An MP3 disc looks like a CD, but it holds much more information. You can play your MP3 on most computers. Most DVD players will play MP3’s, and some gaming systems connected to your TV will also play MP3’s. Some of your newer CD players will play MP3’s, or you can load it onto your computer and then onto your Ipod or many mobile devices.

Additionally, we are going to set up “Listening Times” at Community Baptist at 7:00 a.m., 12:00 noon, and 4:00 p.m. each weekday, so that you can come into our building at one of these times and walk our track to get some exercise, or simply sit and listen as the Bible is spoken.

CBF is partnering with an organization called Faith Comes By Hearing to provide these MP3’s. Their true mission is to provide an oral version of the Bible to the millions of people across the world who may not have a written language or who cannot read. As a part of this program, we will take a love offering on February 7^th and 14^th to support their mission efforts. You will also receive your MP3’s on those dates.

I am truly looking forward to sharing this experience with you. It is a remarkable opportunity for us to explore the Bible in a new way.

Listening for God’s voice with you,

Tim Hobbs, Pastor

Excuses, Excuses!

Around the year 628 B.C. God called on Jeremiah, a young man from a priestly family to be a prophet. The mantle of priesthood was generally passed from father to son, so as the son of a priest Jeremiah was expected to enter the priesthood as well.

Priests were very important to the Hebrew people. They were the bridge between the people and God. Priests taught the law and guarded the covenant between God and God’s people. They offered incense and offerings on God’s altar on behalf of the people. They sacrificed animals as an act of atonement for their sins.

Even though the priesthood required a huge amount of work and responsibility, the position also had its perks. Priests were highly respected. They had an honorable and secure position in society. The people usually took very good care of their priests.

But Jeremiah never got to experience these joys of priesthood because God had other plans for Jeremiah’s life. When he was a young man God called on Jeremiah to become a prophet---a much less cushy job than the priesthood. And a job that few people relished.

Has God ever done something like that to you? You know…changed your plans midstream? Has God ever turned you around and sent you off in an unexpected direction? Or has God ever called on you to do something that you were absolutely, positively sure that you could not and would not do?

Many of us have had this happen to us, and often our response was to offer excuses. Jeremiah did. “I’m too young. I wouldn’t know what to say. I don’t have the experience for that kind of thing.”

God’s response was, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born I set you apart.” (Jeremiah 1:5)

In other words, “Quit making excuses. If I have set you apart to do this special work, then I will provide the words and deeds and strength that you need to accomplish it.”

God sometimes calls on us to do difficult things. We sometimes make excuses too, and run away from God’s calling for our lives. True faith is not necessarily having the confidence that you can do anything. It is stepping out to take on a challenge even when you think you cannot do it. Faith is believing the word of God when God says, “Do not be afraid. I am with you.”

Tim Hobbs, Pastor

When has God asked you to do something difficult and you accepted the challenge?  Share your story with us here.

Theology of a Big Toe

Many years ago, Kenny Rogers of the Texas Rangers baseball team had just pitched the 12^th perfect game in the history of Major League Baseball. This means that the opposing team had no hits, no runs, no walks, no one even made it to first base. The game featured a diving catch by rookie outfielder Rusty Greer to preserve that perfect game. Greer made a sensational catch on Rex Hudler’s lead-off line drive in the ninth inning. Greer said, “I was going to give it my best effort whether I caught the ball or not…No matter what, I was going to dive. I got a pretty good jump on it, then I dove and it just fell into my glove.”

Kenny Rogers got credit for that perfect game, but here is the question: Did Kenny Rogers hurl a perfect game, or was the entire team responsible for that no-hitter?

The answer, of course, is that the pitcher could not have done it alone. It took the efforts of every team member to achieve that incredible feat.

The Apostle Paul would concur. In First Corinthians, Paul tells us that the church of Jesus Christ is like a team on which every person does his or her part. Actually, Paul’s analogy is that of the human body---the ultimate team effort. Some of us are hands, some are eyes, some of us are toes and ears.” But all of us are important…and all of us have a role to fulfill.

The hand cannot say to the foot, “I don’t need you.” And the eye should not tell the ear how to hear. We are all important whether we are singing in the choir, teaching a Bible Study Group, welcoming visitors, receiving the offering, cooking a meal, visiting the sick, or cleaning a toilet. It takes every one of us in Christ’s family working together to accomplish God’s work.

World-renown singer, Marian Anderson, was once asked why she always uses the first person plural, “We,” instead of a simple “I” when she spoke about herself. Her response was, “It is probably because the longer one lives, the more one realizes that there is no particular thing that you can do alone. With the execution of the work that we do there are many people involved---those who wrote the music, those who made the piano on which the accompanist is playing, the accompanist who lends support to the performances…so the “I” in it is really very small indeed.”

Moral of the story? I need you, you need me, God needs us, and all God’s children need each other. We’re all in this together. Let us seek to work together, adding support to one another, and doing our part for the sake of God and God’s church.

Blessings of Unity from your Big Toe,

Tim Hobbs, Pastor

Listen to the New Testament in 2010

Coming This Lent: a program that gives YOU the opportunity to Listen to the New Testament in 2010.

We are joining the churches of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in listening to the Bible in 2010. In partnership with the audio Bible ministry, Faith Comes By Hearing, the Fellowship is embarking on a historic and unique initiative to enlist all partnering congregations in a Bible listening program during 2010.

Those committing to the program will be provided FREE Audio Bibles.

This program is carried out in partnership with Faith Comes By Hearing thanks to a generous grant from a CBF-supportive foundation.

Look for more information coming soon on this exciting new initiative to hearing God’s Word.

What color is God’s Skin?

Note: The writer of this blog article is Adell Martin a mother, grandmother,  member-deacon of Community Baptist Church, a retired Army Chaplains wife and retired administrative assistant. This article is the transcript of her children's moment presentation during worship January 17, 2010.  We post this today as a part of the celebration of the life of activist Martin Luther King Jr. 

Do you ever ask your parent's questions that are hard to answer?  (speaking to children)

Mr. Jerry and I have three children, two boys and one girl ( a son in Maryland, a son in Ohio and a daughter in Connecticut. Our son Greg was the one who could always ask “hard” questions when he was a little boy.

Here’s an example:

Goodnight I said to my little son, he was so tired out when the day was done, And he said to me as I tucked him in—"Tell me Mommy, what color’s God’s skin?"  What color is God’s skin? What color is God’s skin? I said it’s black, brown, it’s yellow, it is red, it is white. Everyone’s the same in the good Lord’s sight!

The Apostle Paul tells us in the book of Galatians, that “we are all one in Christ.” That’s what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., told us when he was alive, and we celebrate his birthday tomorrow (January 18, 2010). Our son, Greg, was born the year he died.

Mr. Jerry (Martin) and I tried to teach our children that God loves all people the same. No one is “better” or “loved more” than anyone else for any reason. We taught them to be decent and to be fair.

When we lived. In Germany and Greg were about 4 years old, we had African American neighbors who had very dark, beautiful skin; Greg played with their daughter, Jessica, and they had great fun. I was so worried that he might say something about Jessica’s skin color. One day he came running to me laughing so hard, and said “Mommy, isn’t it so funny that Jessica’s family has a black car, their last name is White, and they have a brown dog.” Wow, I was relieved, and so pleased and thankful. Greg got a super big hug from me that day.

Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Every color, every race, all are covered by His grace, Jesus loves the little children of the world.

I’m so very happy to be a member of Community Baptist Church  where ALL PEOPLE are welcome to worship and serve.

My very favorite song, sung by Louis Armstrong, has a line that says:

“The colors of the rainbow-so pretty in the sky-are also on the faces, of people passing by-I see friends shaking hands, saying “how do you do?”  They’re really saying, “I love You!”

And I do love all of you---and God loves you too!

Will you please help me tell everyone to Love the skin your in–and that God loves us just the way God made us!