2021 Deacon Nominees | SJBC Family News

Vol. 79 Issue 32 | Week of August 9-15, 2021

Worship on Sunday, August 15: Lia Benton as Proclaimer

We will worship this Sunday, August 15th, at 10:30am in the Sanctuary. Lia Benton will offer the message called, "God's Presence in the Room," from the St. John's pulpit this Sunday!

Lia is in her final year as a student at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Charlotte and a Candidate for ordination in the Presbyterian Church, USA. She recently finished one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at Atrium Health-Main and is a practicing lactation consultant with Atrium Health. She is married to Kevin and is a mother to David, Tyler, and Nora Frances Benton. We are excited to hear from Lia this Sunday.

The worship theme is "The God Who Shares Our Suffering" and the scripture passage is Luke 23:32-34, 44-46. We hope you will join us in person or online, as we continue to live-stream the service starting at 10:30am on Facebook and YouTube. The live-stream and worship guide links will be sent out via email on Sunday morning for those of you joining us online.

Here is the link to last week's worship service!

Sunday School for children (preschool-5th grade) and youth (6th-12th grade) begins in person on Sunday, August 22 at 9:15am. We are excited to welcome our children and youth back to Sunday School on Sunday mornings after a year and a half apart. When children and youth arrive, they will need to check in at one of the kiosks. Families will check-in students with their parents using the last 4 digits of a parent’s phone number at any kiosk. Children in the preschool group or the nursery may check-in at the computer outside their room on the main level.

Questions? Looking for how to get your children and teenagers engaged at St. John's?

Contact Nate at ndove@sjcharlotte.org or Allison at abenfield@sjcharlotte.org!

2021 Deacon Nominees

On Sunday, August 22, the church will be called into conference to affirm our 2021 Deacon Nominees and our Leadership Report for the new church year, beginning in September.

The Leadership Resource Team is pleased to present its slate of nominees for the 2021 deacon election. Click here or on the button below to read about each of the nominees via our website.

2021 Deacon Nominees

Ministering in a Pandemic World: Part 3

by the St. John's Staff

Thank you for wanting to know what is going on in your church. As your church staff, we are offering a series of articles to report how St. John’s has continued to make the world better and the church stronger during the pandemic. Each article in this series reports what is happening in the life and ministries of St. John’s as we transition through the summer and increase our level of activities post-Labor Day. Although we are NOT-YET in a post-pandemic world, we are continuing to look forward to the new church year.

Because the Delta variant is causing the Center for Disease Control and other groups to encourage all persons to wear face coverings indoors, we will gather the COVID-19 Task Force again next week to project our protocols for this autumn. Meanwhile, we are using this summer to begin regathering and planning our future. This week, we offer reports on our church communications ministries, our new members, our use of digital media, our Message and Media Resource Team.

Communications Ministries: Communicating the story and message of St. John’s Baptist Church, through various platforms, is key to our growth and success now and in the future. We are currently working on a strategy for improving our messaging and media across all platforms in order to increase our audience and the reach of our message.
New Members: During the pandemic, we welcomed 15 new members into the life and ministry of St. John’s. We look forward to being able to get to know these new folks and welcome even more folks as we slowly regather in person.
Reach of Our Message through Digital Media: Over the past three years, we have significantly increased our presence and consistency on social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, SoundCloud, and, somewhat less significantly, Twitter. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were thrust into further increasing our presence online as it was our only option to reach our congregation and beyond for worship and other opportunities. Throughout the past 18 months, we have reached thousands of people online from all over North Carolina and South Carolina, as well as many other states.
Message and Media Resource Team: This year, the Message and Media Resource Team has begun a new endeavor in an effort to improve our current branding and communications strategies. We are working alongside Christen Kinard, founder of Digital Congregations, to accomplish these efforts. Christen comes alongside churches like ours to help make connections faster, wider, and deeper than ever before—and all of it digitally. Thus far, we have met with Christen to discuss the history and impressions of St. John’s, the current logo and branding, and our mission, vision, and value statements. She has created a first draft of a Brand Messaging Strategy document that we, as a team, are reviewing and planning to meet with Christen about later this month. As we continue working with Christen, she will help us create a clear and effective brand and messaging strategy as well as teach us ways to effectively implement this strategy and improve our messaging on all platforms including, but not limited to, our website, social media, print materials, and news media.
Zoom: In the Spring of 2020, Zoom became a vital means of connection and fellowship for various groups in our congregation. Spiritual Growth groups found a place to gather on Sundays and other community connections were made between the ministers and congregation. We also saw growth in committee involvement and attendance as Zoom allowed more people to attend from home. We even saw growth in some ministry areas as folks did not need to travel to the church to participate in study and conversation. In the spring of 2021, we streamlined our staff Zoom accounts into one church account under a unique St. John’s URL and gave all church staff shared access. Having this option gives us the opportunity to continue this new and unique way to be more accessible to more persons to fellowship, learn, and serve together.
Realm: St. John’s had planned to adopt and roll out our new church database and management in the spring of 2020. We transitioned from ACS church management to one of their new cloud-based products called Realm in March of last year and many of you have begun to access and learn about what Realm provides us. This new ministry tool allows every participant and member of St. John’s to access their church contact information, giving records, directory, group information, and meetings from online or a customized app. We are now actively working to educate the congregation on how this new tool can help is to better connect with one another and guests. If you are a user of Facebook, you can easily learn to use and understand Realm. Looking to the fall, we anticipate using Realm to better connect with families that are connected to SJBC through our community ministries such as youth basketball. We will also continue to grow our Check-In process and guests follow up, all managed in Realm. We encourage you to take advantage of any trainings or information sessions about Realm when they are offered this summer and fall.

Once again, thank you for your faithfulness to God and to the ministry of St. John's. Next week, we will offer some more reports on church health and vitality.

As we continue to regather and prepare for the return of more Sunday programming on August 22, there are some ministry areas that are in immediate need of volunteers.

In Children's Ministry, our preschool care is in need of volunteers to serve on Sunday's from 9 am to 10:30 am to care for children under 5 on a rotation. If you are interested in this ministry area and willing to join the serving team, contact Rev. Allison Benfield.

We are also in need of volunteers to serve in on our Welcome and Hospitality teams as ushers and greeters on Sundays. Ushers serve to welcome members and guests to worship and greeters welcome those who attend the Sunday school hour. Please complete an information form if you are able to serve the church in this area by clicking here. Completing this form does not obligate you to serve but just to share your interest and availability to ministry leaders and staff.

Save the Date!

St. John’s Women’s Retreat 2021 with Martha Kearse as our facilitator!

Retreat Title - The Wholeness of God: God Beyond Gender
Scripture - Deuteronomy 6:4, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one."
Location - St. John’s Baptist Church
Date - Friday evening through Saturday afternoon, November 5 & 6, 2021

Please save the date and join us! More details to follow.

School Supplies for ourBridge for Kids

In the month of August, St. John’s is collecting school supplies for children being served by ourBridge for Kids, a new mission partner with St. John’s.

As you shop for your own kids’ supplies, or if you want to help a child be ready for school, pick up any of the following school supplies and leave them in the receptacle at the Main Entrance any time through August 22nd.

Backpacks, Pencils, Crayons, Paper, Folders, Pencil Pouches, Markers, Scissors, Erasers, Notebooks, Glue Sticks

Uniforms for Highland Renaissance Academy

We will also be collecting uniforms for students at Highland Renaissance Academy in Charlotte as we have in the past. We are in need of boys' and girls' clothing sizes 5-14.

White or Navy Collared Shirts
Navy or Khaki Shorts, Pants, Skirts, & Jumpers
Socks & Underwear

Donations may be dropped off at the Main Entrance no later than August 29th on Sundays or weekdays during church office hours.

Starting on Monday, September 13 at 11:30am, the Faith Journey Book Study begins their study and discussion of Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again by the late Rachel Held Evans. Anyone is welcome to join! The group will meet in Room 114 at St. John’s each Monday at 11:30 throughout the fall.

If you have questions please contact Loretta Brown at lorettaybrown@gmail.com or Kathy Bragg at tahtee123@gmail.com!

Click here for the 2021-22 Faith Journey Book Study Schedule

Tuesday Bible Study (TBS)

Mark: Finding Ourselves in the Story

Begins September 14th on Zoom

TBS begins to Zoom again with a new study guide starting Tuesday, September 14. Our facilitators invite you to participate in this exciting study of Mark: Finding Ourselves in the Story by Brett & Carol Younger.

We Zoom each Tuesday for ONE HOUR (11am-12pm). Facilitators rotate on an assigned schedule and use various methods to reflect on the study guide and Bible text. We seek active participation via facilitator prompts for group discussions and personal learnings.

This invitation is for new and returning participants. A Zoom link can be sent to you upon request.

Contact Steve Hoffman (704-604-9634) at hstevehoffman@gmail.com with your questions pertaining to registration and securing the study guide. Other facilitators include Janet Wade (704-519-8149) Dan Biber (704-953-2766) and Tricia Miller (704-364-3601).

Prayer Concerns, Celebrations, Thanks & Sympathy

Andrew Adair, Maggie Bond, Carol Drye, Betty Fuller, Polly Hull, Tish Philemon,

Gene & Carol Poole, Elma Thomas

"I want to thank you for your prayers for my sister, Carol Hager. She entered Hospice on January 2 and was not expected to live through the night. She has had a gradual and miraculous healing and Hospice will release her from their care this week. Thank you, dear friends, for being faithful prayer partners." -Betty Harkey

Please email info@sjcharlotte.org to share a prayer request, thank you, or celebration.

Financial Ministry Plan Report

Week of August 2-8: $14,575

Income through August 8: $657,134

Annual 2021 Ministry Plan Budget Goal: $1,175,000

Give Online!

You can make contributions, view your giving history and pledge status, as well as update your pledge and giving information anytime by accessing your personal Realm profile online or via the Connect App.