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St. John's Family News

Week of December 19-25, 2022 | Vol. 81 Issue 50

www.stjohnsbaptistchurch.org | @sjbccharlotte

Church Calendar | Realm Log-In | Deacon Schedule | Usher Schedule | Greeter Schedule | Men's Shelter Sign Up | Room in the Inn Sign Up | Basketball Schedule

Merry Christmas, St. John's!

 

From the staff of St. John’s, please know that we wish for you and yours a very Merry Christmas! We appreciate being partners with you in God’s mission for the Church as we grow in obedient discipleship together by following the way of Jesus.


We look forward to gathering with you again beginning January 8 as we begin Epiphany with a celebration of baptism.


 Dennis, Lee, Kevin, Kheresa, Haley, Amanda, Jill,

Lydia, Debora, Chris, and Mallory

Christmas Eve Worship


Worship with St. John's on Saturday, December 24 at 5pm for our Christmas Eve Service of Carols, Communion, and Candlelight in the Sanctuary.


We cannot wait to see you and yours as we celebrate the coming of the Christ child, Emmanuel, God with us this Christmas season.


(Please plan on arriving a little early if you have a specific seat in mind.)

Worship on Christmas Day, New Year's Day and Epiphany

by Dennis W. Foust

 

This year, with Christmas Day and New Year’s Day being Sundays, we WILL provide worship videos to guide you in your worship of God. We WILL NOT gather in the sanctuary. Please express your worship as families and households. This will allow our staff members to visit with their families during the holidays as well as provide a brief respite from COVID and other viruses which are on the rise. We trust you will find these brief twenty-minute expressions of worship to be meaningful in your celebration of Christmas and in the beginning of another New Year. When 2023 begins, we enter our second century.

 

On Sunday, January 8, we will gather for the first time in our second century. We will begin our second century with a celebration of baptism. If you are interested in being baptized with the other five candidates, please contact any of the ministers. 

 

During January and early February, I will offer a sermon series on Baptist Heritage and Principles.


My sermon series reflects the title of a significant book published in 1988 from the depths of the Baptist controversy initiated by the fundamentalists which caused Baptists in churches such as St. John’s clarify what it means to be Baptist. My sermons will focus on soul freedom, soul competency to live freely in God’s Spirit, local church freedom expressed as autonomy and servant-oriented collaboration, religious freedom for all people, and conclude with a consideration of St. John’s as a covenant-based community of active faith based upon and expressing Baptist principles. The messages and scriptures will be:


  • January 8: Freedom is Not Self-Indulgence, John 8:31-32 and Galatians 5:1, 13-15
  • January 15: Response-Ability, Genesis 1:26-27; Joshua 24:14-15
  • January 22: Free to Follow the Spirit of God, John 16:12-13
  • January 29: Free to Follow the Spirit of God – Together, Genesis 12:1-3; Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-16
  • February 5: At the Corner of State Street & Church Avenue, Matthew 22:15-22
  • February 19: A Church Vision – Baptist Style, James 2:14-18
  • February 12 will be Youth Sunday and Souper Bowl Sunday

 

In addition to our worship, we will also transition to The Gospel of Luke in our daily Bible readings.

 

Beloved, as we begin our second century, let us begin with prayers and renewed commitment.

 



Upcoming Worship Services and Opportunities


  • Christmas Eve Worship on Saturday, December 24 at 5pm in the Sanctuary - Join us as we celebrate the Christmas Story through singing carols, hearing special readings, sharing communion, and lighting candles.
  • Christmas Day and New Year's Day Worship will be ONLINE ONLY via Facebook and YouTube. There will be no other activities in the building on these days. We will email you with links to these pre-recorded services the morning of each Sunday.
  • WDAV Charlotte Lessons & Carols will re-air on the radio at 5pm on December 18 and at 1pm on Christmas Day; but you can listen anytime here.
  • Light the Knights Festival was cancelled last week and will not be rescheduled. The timing is just not right this time around.
  • We will celebrate a baptism on January 8 during worship.
  • Family Dedications: January 22 with the Bailey Family, January 29 with the Whipple Family, and February 26 with the Crawford Family
  • Don't forget to sign up for Room in the Inn and Men's Shelter with the links at the top of the Family News!


There will be NO Family News next week!


“Giving What We Have” Stewardship Campaign


2023 Ministry Vision Financial Plan Budget


Goals: 150 Commitments Totaling $900,000


Through December 15:

124 Commitments

Totaling $751,778

Year-End Stock Gifts

Our St. John's Finance Resource Team reminds you that year-end financial gifts are always appreciated as we transition by from one ministry budget year to another.


If you have stock gifts to contribute to the church, please contact Jill Rackley in our Church Administrator's office prior to or immediately after your transfer. She will then reach out to your stockbroker to be certain your gifts are received into our church's accounts.


You may reach Jill at 704-333-5428, extension 20 or at jrackley@sjcharlotte.org. Thank you.

A Centennial Christmas Gift to St. John's


Ninety years ago, the people of St. John’s heard the Christmas Story in a unique way. On this, our Centennial Christmas, please accept this special gift from your Heritage Resource Team.

 

The Rev. Chauncey Wright Durden, D.D., served as Senior Minister of St. John’s Baptist Church from 1929 to 1944. He became pastor at the age of 60 years of age and served until he was 75. He was born in Wilkes County, GA in 1869 and passed on ahead of us in 1952 at the age of 82. He was married to Eva May Patrick Durden. She was also born in Georgia in 1880 and lived to the age of 84, passing on ahead of us in1964. Chauncey and Eva loved St. John’s and the people of St. John’s loved them. Their graves are in Sharon Memorial Park here in Charlotte. They had three children, Phosa (b1900-d1991); Rose (b1904-d1994); and Chauncey Jr. (b1907-1986). In 1934, while serving St. John’s, his book, The Epic of Jesus, was published. This book retells passages from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John using the art of prose. Here is the Christmas Story as told by Dr. Chauncey Durden in The Epic of Jesus (II and III, pages 14-16).

 

The better that the tribute might exact

From all the conquered nations of the world,

Augustus Caesar did proclaim decree,

By which the head of every family

Were hence commanded to their native place

Repair, and there by law to be enrolled.

Obedient to imperial mandate sent

Did righteous Joseph and his wife, Mary

Leave Nazareth, their home in Galilee,

And make the journey down to Bethlehem,

The city of David’s nativity.

For Joseph’s genealogy was there,

And his was lineage from David’s line.

 

Long was the way, and journey wearisome,

Until at last they reached the public khan,

Where they refreshment sought and room to rest.

They were among the last of caravan

To reach the khan, and found no room therein;

For those who first arrived bespoke all room.

No plea that Joseph made, or offered price

Could room obtain for him and Mary there.

So tired and faint did Mary pine for rest,

Expectant too, of motherhood besought

Good Joseph that some place for her be found.

Again he asked the keeper of the khan,

And pleaded that some room for her be found:

“Long have we journeyed over hill and plain,

Till now the time since leaving Nazareth

Is measured by two holy Sabbath days;

All worn, I fear for thine handmaid, my wife;

If only place for her may yet be found,

That she alone may rest and comfort have,

I will a place in manger seek with beasts,

And so we both shall pass the night in peace,

And on tomorrow find another place.”

The kindly host could only make reply:

“All room is now by others occupied,

You must begone and find some other place!”

But ere they went, did Mary whisper words

That filled Joseph with deep concern and fear,

For now he knew the fullness of her time

Was near at hand when should be born her Child.

Hard by the khan was manger kept for beasts

Of caravan, where provender was stored

Of straw and hay abundant for their need.

 Here strangers, when no room in khan was found,

Might share with beasts the warmth of manager hay.

Here hither Joseph came with Mary sick,

And soon a couch of straw arranged for her,

Whereon she lay, the Queen of womankind,

The mother of our lord—and Christ was born!

No skilled physician, nor yet midwife kind,

Assisted at accouchement of the child,

No candle burned with flickering light to aid;

But mother with her hands the Infant wrapped

In swaddling clothes, and in the manger laid.

 

All through the night serene the shepherds watched,

Nort left the flock a prey to prowling beasts.

“’Twas duty’s high behest that they should guard,

That from the fold no sheep, nor little Lamb,

Should stray in hill or copse or tanged wood,

And be found wanting from the morning count.

And through the weary night with no complaint,

Making dark vigil holy sacrament,

They watched and waited for the coming morn.

But ere the light fell o’er Judean hills,

Or ran along the broad expansive plains,

Or walked upon the ridged mountain-top,

A vision wonderful from heaven came:

Far high above hung round a choral cloud,

From out whose limning radiance they heard

The chanting Cherubim in cadence sing

Of God’s good will to men and peace on earth.

Then forth stood Gabriel on the outer edge

Of the bright burnished cloud and to them said:

“Fear not, I bring glad tidings of great joy,

In which all nations of the earth shall share.

For there is born this day in Bethlehem,

The Christ, the promised Child of David’s seed.”

And then all the host joined with him and sang:

“To God be glory in the highest heaven,

Among all men on earth let there be peace.”

And richer far than hireling’s golden wage,

Or yet ambition’s honors, or valor’s wreath,

On diadem of kings and potentates,

Was Heaven’s bestowal that night upon these men.

Then ere Aurora opened the gates of dawn, --

Before Hyperon’s suffusing light,

Bathed topmost cedars on high Lebanon

Or flung his kisses shimmering afar

O’er all the hills and valleys down between,

Forth from the tented fields the shepherds came

To Bethlehem, and wrapped in swaddling clothes

They found the Holy Child, the infant Christ,

And bowed themselves in worship to the King,

Of whom they heard in field the angels sing.


Prayers, Thanks, and Celebrations


  • Tarsha Williams, Martha Brown, Barbara McElwey, Betty Herr, Margaret Falls, Marvin Carter, Buster Ledford
  • A Memorial Service for Richard Gordon will be held on Thursday, December 22 at 1pm in the Sanctuary.
  • A Memorial Service for Alethia Ross will be held on January 21

Minister On-Call Schedule


  • Dec. 19-25: Dennis 
  • Dec. 26-Jan 1: 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 - 910-890-3392 (cell)


  • 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
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