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It Is Time to Take the Next Step

by Dennis Foust

Now that we have gathered our new church staff, it is time to take the next step forward, upward, and onward. It is time to begin our next significant efforts in active faith. As we begin this journey, let me clearly identify where we are and what we need to do. 

First, we have a healthy radius of trust in the life of the church. The radius of trust includes relationships, character, and competence.

Second, we have defined our reality. We are an inclusive and intergenerational covenant-based active faith community focused on worship, community, spiritual growth, and servant faith in the world expressed through practices that are rooted in the Baptist tradition.

Third, we have determined our vision to be focused upon five primary emphases:

1.    Focused Attentiveness on Families with Children and Youth and Young Adults.

2.    Engaging with Guests through Enhanced Ministries of Outreach, Messaging & Media.

3.    Enlarging Our Missional Impact Upon the City of Charlotte.

4.    Increasing Our Emphasis on Spiritual Growth.

5.    Expanding Our Expressions of Congregational Care.

Therefore, we now need to…

First, coordinate our energies and efforts. Every Sunday School small group, every resource team, every ministry group, and every area of ministry must identify how their efforts connect to one or more of the primary vision emphases above.

Second, commit our resources to pursue and achieve the emphases above. In the next few weeks, we will make our financial commitments to support our 2023 Church Financial Plan Ministry Budget.

Third, collaborate through prayer and positive initiative. These connected church actions help us stay on course as we pursue our vision. In other words, we must stay on message.

One leader of a literacy project was described by his closest colleagues as a leader who kept everyone on message. When asked, “Can you give an example of how they stayed on message?” the colleague said, “If you asked him, ‘What time is it?’ he will answer, ‘We must teach the children to read.’”

Beloved, our city and the world needs a church like ours to take the next step of active faith, church vitality, and missional impact. Let’s go FORWARD, UPWARD, AND ONWARD!

Daily Gospel Passages for October 20-31

Click here for the daily guide. Below are the readings for October 20-31. Each week, you will receive a separate email with the readings for the week and a link to the recordings. You can find the recordings anytime here.

• October 20 - Matthew 7:13-20
• October 21 - Matthew 7:21-29
• October 22 - Matthew 8:1-4
• October 23 - Matthew 8:5-13
• October 24 - Matthew 8:14-17
• October 25 - Matthew 8:18-22
• October 26 - Matthew 8:23-27
• October 27 - Matthew 8:28-34
• October 28 - Matthew 9:1-8
• October 29 - Matthew 9:9-13
• October 30 - Matthew 9:14-17
• October 31 - Matthew 9:18-26

Expanding our Partnership with Church World Service

As you know, St. John’s has for many years provided office space for Church World Service’s CROP Walk. Just this past weekend the people of St. John’s were faithful in walking in the annual CROP WALK and/or contributing as a way to support the ongoing work of CWS to feed those throughout the world affected by hunger and poverty.

Church World Service was begun after World War II when 17 Christian denominations came together to address the devastation created by the war and to “do in partnership what none of us could hope to do as well alone”. While the initial efforts were on distributing food and medical supplies, the focus has evolved over the years to include many situations that affect the quality of life for the world’s poor, such as natural disasters, wars, violence, and economic inequality. This organization also provides much needed services for immigrants and refugees.

Our longstanding support of the work of CWS is expanding beyond CROP to include two more of the CWS programs:

• The Home Study and Post Release Services program, which began in July, 2022 and is now housed at St. John’s, serves unaccompanied immigrant children and their sponsoring families.
• The Greater Charlotte Area Immigrant Solidarity Fund, which operates in collaboration with Comunidad Colectiva, a grassroots organization in Charlotte that advocates for and serves the immigrant community.

On Wednesday, October 26, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. we will learn more about these new programs, as three enthusiastic leaders will be with us for a meal in Broach Hall and a presentation about their work. The speakers are:

• Gricelda de la Cruz, Director of the Home Study and Post Release Services program and the Charlotte office of CWS-NC
• German Munoz, Migrant Services Coordinator for CWS-NC and administrator of the Greater Charlotte Area Immigrant Solidarity Fund
• Daniela Andrade, Community Support Coordinator for Comunidad Colectiva

Reservations for the meal should be made by noon on Friday, October 21.

Childcare will be provided to those that need it, please confirm your need for childcare by Oct. 24!

You can confirm either on Realm or by contacting Amanda Morrison at amorrison@sjcharlotte.org.

Cost is $10.00 each, or $30.00 per family. Pay at the door, but reserve your meal:

1. On Realm.
2. By filling out one of the paper forms, available outside Amanda’s office, and giving it to Amanda or putting it in the “Sunday/After Hours” box outside her office.
3. Or by calling Amanda at 704-333-5428 ext. 11. You will need to provide your name and how many people for whom you are reserving a meal.

No reservation is needed for anyone choosing to attend the program only, from 6:00-7:00pm.

We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to hear more about these Church World Service programs.

Will you join us for Fall Fun Day for children, youth, and families on October 30? We hope so!

Please see the schedule below for a day of fun for children, youth, and their families:

• 11:30 - Children (ages birth - 5th grade) and their families are invited to a Pumpkin Painting Palooza in Lasater Hall immediately following worship on Sunday, October 30. Lunch will be provided. Simply bring paint-friendly clothes. 
• 12:30 - Youth arrive in parking lot to load up
• 12:45 - Leave St. John’s (Everyone - Children, Youth, and Families)
• 2:00 - Arrive at Kersey Valley Maize Adventure in Archdale, NC
• 6:00 - Youth leave Kersey Valley Farms (Families are free to come and go as needed) 
• 7:30ish - Youth Arrive at St. John’s

Registration is in Realm or below and the cost is $15/person (children under 3 are free). Youth will need to bring money for dinner.

Families with children birth-5th grade have the option to register for just the Pumpkin Painting Palooza or both the Pumpkin Painting Palooza AND the trip to Kersey Valley Farms.

Please contact Haley (620-515-3558) if you are willing to be a driver for youth (your ticket will be covered).

From the Heritage Room

During the upcoming Advent season, we would like to have a display of past Christmas celebrations at St. John’s. This would include dramatic presentations, Christmas pageants, Hanging of the Green services, special choir programs, etc. If you have programs and pictures from any of these events, we would like to borrow for the display. You may give to Fredda Kimball, Linda Crowder, or Amanda. If pictures, please identify event, date, and names of those pictured if possible. Also please indicate whether you would like your items returned.

We would also like for each member or family unit to donate a Christmas ornament to be displayed on a Centennial Christmas Tree this year. The ornaments will be kept and used for future Second Century Christmas celebrations with any additional ornaments added by new (or current) members.

The ornament should be related to the Christmas Story and be identified with your name(s) and the year 2022 on the ornament in some way. You may give your ornaments -starting now- to Fredda, Linda, or Amanda. Thanks in advance for your contribution.

Traffic Pattern Change

The traffic signal equipment that manages the reversible lane system on 7th Street through the Elizabeth community is aging, and the city has received reports of conflicting or missing information being displayed on the overhead dynamic signs.

The portion of 7th Street with the reversible lane system (which operates from 6 – 9:30 a.m. and 3 – 7 p.m. on weekdays between Laurel Avenue and Charlottetowne Avenue) will have one travel lane in each direction at all times, preserving the center lane for left turns only.

This setup is effective now and will be left in place for 90 days while the city evaluates equipment and studies traffic flow in the corridor.

Motorists are encouraged to remain alert and pay close attention to their surroundings and adhere to all traffic signage and signals.

Reaching Out into the Community

A much more concerted churchwide effort to reach out to the Community was evident in the 1970s. Support of the Miss Anita neighborhood Children's program had begun in the 1960s. In 1970, under the direction of Rev. Bob Lasater, St. John’s became the custodian of the funds for the program. The Senior Highs assisted with summer camps and held skating parties and a yearly Christmas Party. A long-standing tradition of “sock trees” was begun with the church family putting socks on a Christmas tree for the children. One year, a member donated 500 flowering plants to be sold to raise money for Miss Anita. The Youth brought small gifts for each of the children. Fellowship dinners sponsored by the Baptist Metropolitan Ministries were held with participation by seven black and seven white congregations. This group also sponsored Camp Amigo, a day camp for elementary-age children of varied cultural and ethnic backgrounds. There were three two-week sessions, divided by age, and was hosted by St. John’s.

Red Cross blood drives were held regularly. Paper drives were held (a recycling facility would pay by the pound) with the money used for both needs within the church and given to community organizations. Members also volunteered with Crisis Assistance Ministries.

The Hunger Program was begun in 1974. Church members were asked to fast for one meal per week for four weeks and donate the money which would have been spent on the meals to the Mission Action Committee for CARE or UNICEF. The initial amount collected was $502. Also in 1974, the Elizabethan Lunches program to provide meals for the elderly was begun by St. John’s, St. Martin’s Episcopal, Hawthorne Lane Methodist, and Caldwell Memorial Presbyterian. In 1976 this program became Friendship Trays. Initially, the meals were purchased from Mercy Hospital. (In 1977, its support expanded to 30 Charlotte area churches). In 1977, the Elizabeth community churches sponsored a Vietnamese couple. Caldwell Memorial Presbyterian made a house available (which a one time was occupied by Dr. Durden, the second minister at St. John’s) and St. John’s assisted with furnishing the house.

In 1978, the church became a sponsor of Highland Elementary. In 1977, the church voted to establish a Mission Center on Garrison Road in the Dixie Community, a primarily black community off West Boulevard near the airport. A double-wide mobile home, a gift from an anonymous donor, was provided as the home for the Director. The Finance Committee voted to borrow up to $20,000 to finance the construction of a 1000-square-foot building for the center. In later years, the youth of the church held day camps for the children and other groups held Christmas parties for the elderly residents of the community. In June 1978, the Youth went to the District of Columbia and held a day camp. This is the first mention found of a youth mission trip.

One little interesting note- In 1979, the church provided eggs for dying for Easter- for Miss Anita (uncooked) and for the Dixie Mission (boiled and dyed).

Mention needs to be made of “‘We Love Lewis Burgess Day” held in August 1979. Mr. Burgess was honored for his eight years and over 14,700 hours of service at Charlotte Community Hospital. Also known as Good Samaritan or “Good Sam”, it was the first private hospital in North Carolina for the black community and operated as such from 1888-1961 when it was purchased by the City of Charlotte and operated until 1982. (It was closed and renovated into Magnolia Rest Home and demolished in 1996 for the building of Bank of American Stadium).

Prayers, Thanks, and Celebrations

• Tarsha Williams, Martha Brown

Minister On-Call Schedule

• October 17-23: Dennis
• October 24-30: Kheresa
• October 31-November 6: Lee
• November 7-13: Kevin
• November 14-20: Haley

Staff Contact Information

• Haley Blackwell, Minister for Youth & Young Adults - 620-515-3558 (cell)
• Rev. Dennis Foust, PhD, Senior Minister - 704-359-7234 (cell); 704-333-5428, ext. 12
• Rev. Lee Gray, Minister for Congregational Care - 704-451-1309 (cell)
• Kevin Gray, Minister for Music and Worship - 803-524-0287 (cell)
• Rev. Kheresa Harmon, Minister for Children & their Families 



• Mallory Brown, Media Coordinator - 704-477-3349 (cell)
• Chloe Hall, Children's Choir Director
• Noel Lance, Organist
• Dr. Matthew Manwarren, Associate Organist
• Amanda Morrison, Ministry Coordinator - 704-333-5428, ext. 11
• Lydia Olmstead, Weekday School Director - 704-333-5428, ext. 39
• Jill Rackley, Church Administrator - 704-333-5428, ext. 20