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Autumn Sundays Offer Light to You

by Dennis W. Foust

Just as leaves bring us brilliant colors in this season, Autumn Sundays in the St. John’s sanctuary offer you bright light.

Our worship this Sunday, October 9, includes a Family Dedication as Anna and Blinn Cushman present Julien and Alexandra. It is also the first Sunday for Rev. Kheresa Harmon to be with us as Minister for Children and Their Families.

On Sunday, October 16, Dr. Al Staggs will portray Clarence Jordan in his sermon. After worship, we will have the opportunity to receive flu or COVID vaccines and make purchases at our annual Craft and Bake Sale. The afternoon also finds many of our members participating in the CROP Walk.

On Sunday, October 23, our worship provides practical insights into how you can be God’s good-news people in a bad-news world.

On Sunday, October 30, we will focus on our financial vision for 2023 through the theme, ‘Giving What We Have: Trusting God to Multiply Our Commitments.’

On Sunday, November 6, while some of our women are on retreat in Blowing Rock, we will welcome The Charlotte Contemporary Ensemble as our worship leadership choir.

Sunday, November 13, is Commitment Sunday. On that day, we will begin making our financial commitments for 2023, as we begin our second century.

Sunday, November 20 brings to us the unique experience of being guided in worship by a youth and young adult group of the Yakama Native Nation. This group, ‘Mending Wings,’ will be sharing ‘Dancing Our Prayers.’

On Sunday, November 27, we enter the season of Advent through a theme, “Do You Hear What I Hear?”

In the coming weeks, our experiences as GATHERED CHURCH provide brilliant diversity of color. Our expressions of mission and ministry will share God’s light as SCATTERED CHURCH. Let us also invest in CONNECTED CHURCH through daily Gospel Readings, One@1:00, and Saltshaker Groups.

One final thought: beloved, we have now assembled an amazing staff to serve and lead through collaborative efforts. Let’s all renew ourselves to support our staff as we move into our second century.

Uptown Men's Shelter Meal on October 21

St. John's serves a meal at the Uptown Men's Shelter once a month. We need your help! The next date to serve and bring banana puddings is Friday, October 21. So far, only one person has signed up to help this month!

Check out the sign up list to see how you can help. Click below!

Daily Gospel Passages for October 6-22

Click here for the daily guide. Below are the readings for October 6-22. 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 6 - Matthew 5:1-12
• October 7 - Matthew 5:13-20
• October 8 - Matthew 5:21-26
• October 9 - Matthew 5:27-32
• October 10 - Matthew 5:33-37
• October 11 - Matthew 5:38-42
• October 12 - Matthew 5:43-48 
• October 13 - Matthew 6:1-4 
• October 14 - Matthew 6:5-15
• October 15 - Matthew 6:16-18
• October 16 - Matthew 6:19-23
• October 17 - Matthew 6:24-34
• October 18 - Matthew 7:1-5
• October 19 - Matthew 7:6-12
• October 20 - Matthew 7:13-20
• October 21 - Matthew 7:21-29
• October 22 - Matthew 8:1-4

Al Staggs is coming to St. John's to present his dramatic play from the Sanctuary on Saturday, October 15 at 6PM. Have you purchased your tickets?

This play, "A View from the Underside," brings the life of one of the great heroes of the twentieth century, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, to the stage. The audience is brought into the prison cell where Bonhoeffer awaits execution and listens to his struggles with evil, injustice, and God.

This is brought to you by the McLeod-Brown Fund of St. John's Baptist Church.

Purchase your $10 tickets TODAY through Eventbrite. Click the button below to purchase.

*If you purchased tickets for this event in 2020 or this spring, your tickets are still good for October 15.



St. John's is walking to stop hunger locally and around the world on October 16.

The CROP Hunger Walk is an annual walk averaging 4 miles that takes place nationally each fall and represents the average distance citizens of developing nations have to walk to obtain clean water. This walk raises awareness and funds for malnourished communities both domestically and abroad. The Charlotte Chapter is the largest CROP Hunger Walk in the country in both the number of funds raised and the number of walkers who participate.

The walk has a flexible start at 1:30pm (each group can begin walking as soon as they are ready). We are walking around the field at Memorial Stadium, so you can walk as little or as much as you like, or come sit in the stands and cheer on the walkers.

Micah Belong is our team captain and you can reach them at e-mail micahbenjibelong@gmail.com or by text or phone at 541-210-1357.

Register below to walk with us on October 16!

Over the course of the next few weeks and months, you will begin to see information about the St. John's Academy of the Arts that will be directed by Jessica Borgnis.

There will be two phases. We are in the process of constructing phase one now, which includes piano lessons. Phase two will expand to teaching music programs such as Kindermusik and will begin in January. The purpose of the academy will be to provide music and instruction to our community and city, as well as augment what is available to the weekday school.

October 17 & 24

Join us for kids' basketball clinics in the St. John’s gym on Monday, October 17, and Monday, October 24. The clinics are open to children ages 8 and under and will cover fundamental basketball skills. The clinics last one hour each and start at 5:30 pm. The clinics are free and do not require registration.

The clinics are excellent preparation for our 6-&-Under and 8-&-Under kids basketball teams. In the past, we’ve hosted kids as young as 4 for the clinics (it’s a great way to determine if your child is ready for team play). We will take Monday, October 31 off for Halloween, and then team practices will start the week of November 7. 

To sign up for the kids' basketball teams, click below.

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. You will see elsewhere in the Family News the notice about our continuing support of their work in the upcoming Crop Walk 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. Cost is $10.00 each, or $30.00 per family. You may reserve your meal either:

1. On Realm by CLICKING HERE.
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 6:00-7:00 p.m.

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

The Needle and Craft Ministry will be having a Craft Fair & Bake Sale this fall on October 16 after worship service.  

Our proceeds will be donated to expand our Sunday school ministry to young children and to fight hunger by donating to Loaves & Fishes/Friendship Trays.

Please put this date on your calendars and plan to come and shop for a cause!

We need your help with any craft items or baked goods you could donate. Please call Tricia Miller (704-562-4818) OR Ruth Jackson (704-517-5198) if you can help.

COVID-19 & Flu Shot Clinic

Sunday October 16, 11:30 – 1:00

St. John's Gymnasium

Vaccines made available by Mecklenburg County Public Health. Vaccines available are: First, Second, and Booster Doses for all available ages 6 months+, Flu Shots.

Last week, Ken Sanford’s article listed several significant events in the life of the church in the 1970s.

One of these events was the construction of what was called the Youth Ministries Building, the portion of the building which houses the ministers’ offices, the Music Suite, children’s Sunday School rooms, the Lounge, and the Gym. The contract with the architectural firm of Wilbur, Kendrick, Workman, and Warren was approved in early 1970 and the plans for the building were presented to the congregation in March. In October, the church voted to give the construction contract for the building to Laxton Construction for an amount not to exceed $675.000. The old apartment house next door on Hawthorne Lane then referred to as the Children’s Building was torn down to accommodate the construction. Construction continued throughout 1971; the church was able to start using the building in early 1972.

Prayers, Thanks, and Celebrations

• Tarsha Williams, Arnold Philemon, Martha Brown, Joyce Ehrenberger, Sierra Leone, Rob Peacock
• Congratulations to Joanne and Kenn Compton on the birth of a grandson, Oliver Emerson Compton. The parents are John and Taylor Compton.
• Sympathy to Mike and Christel Hall in the death of Mike’s father, Kenneth Eugene Hall on Sunday, October 2.

Financial Ministry Plan Update

• Month of August 1-31 $65,306
• Income through August 31: $735,881
• Annual 2022 Ministry Plan Budget Goal: $1,135,000

Minister On-Call Schedule

• October 3-9: Kevin
• October 10-16: Haley

Staff Contact Information

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



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