The Pinnacle for June 17, 2022

The Pinnacle

June 17, 2022

June 19 Livestream * Order of Worship * Scriptures

A Word from Scott

A pastor at 50: I am so thankful for the birthday celebration I received last Sunday. It was a surprise! I was so honored and so glad to celebrate my birthday with our church family!

Beginning Sunday, July 3, our worship will look and feel a bit different. We are shifting to our summer schedule at Northside Drive. This summer we will be staying in the sanctuary. At this point we are not set up to stream our worship online from the chapel. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do that in the future. Our summer worship will be ‘chapel worship’ in the sanctuary.

I want to share a couple of worship elements that we will integrate into our worship this summer. We will have a time of prayer that allows us to share our concerns and our thanksgivings with each other. During ‘Prayers of the People’ I will invite the congregation to share brief statements requesting prayer or sharing words of gratitude. After each person shares, I will lead us to respond either “Hear our prayer, O God,” or “We give you thanks, O God.” I think that our congregation will enjoy the community time of hearing from one another.

We will also combine ‘worship leader’ with ‘lay reader’ into ‘liturgist,’ who will lead us in our Call to Worship and read the Old Testament lesson and Epistle lesson. We will be looking for volunteers to serve as liturgist.

Our summer worship will take us through Labor Day weekend (September 4) until we return to our fall schedule on Sunday, September 11. Please know that we are always open and interested in any comments or questions about worship. Join us for worship this summer!

Join us for worship on Sunday!

Join Us for Summer Bible Study

The Pastor’s Bible Study will be studying highlights of Isaiah during July and August. Join us on Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. on Zoom.

Thank You, Northside Drive

A message from the NDBC Missions Committee:

Once again through the wonderful generosity of NDBC members, we have been able to support families and communities experiencing food insecurity. Our virtual Souper Bowl this year raised more than $3,600, a record for the event. Beneficiaries of your gifts include the children and families of the Andrew P. Stewart Center, Ukrainian refugees through the Peace Cathedral of Tbilisi, Georgia (a partner of Alliance of Baptists), and our friends at Urban Recipe. Here are links to these organizations if you would like to learn more about their efforts or perhaps make an additional donation.

Peace Cathedral of the Republic of Georgia - Alliance of Baptists

Andrew P. Stewart Center

Urban Recipe

NDBC Members Sing at Carnegie Hall

On Saturday, June 4, Amy and George Taylor and Keith Walker participated in a concert at Carnegie Hall under the batons of Joseph Napoli and former NDBC Music Minister Len Willingham. Len conducts the Three Rivers Singers (Rome, GA) and the Jubilate Alumni Group. Joseph Napoli is the conductor of the Athens Master Chorale. Members of the DeKalb Choral Guild, under the direction of NDBC's own Keith Walker, also participated. The concert was produced by Mid-American Productions, headquartered in New York City.

The program featured Five Mystical Songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams, conducted by Len, and four movements from Frostiana by Randall Thompson, conducted by Joe. The selections were accompanied by members of the New England Symphonic Ensemble.

Latest News from the Shabani Family

Back in the 1990s, a civil war was going on in the Balkan countries in Europe. Thousands of Muslim Albanians fled their country for fear of their lives. They walked for days to escape the atrocities of the invading Serbians. Because there were so many displaced Albanians, America offered to take many of them in. Our church was courageous enough to adopt one of those Albanian families, bring them to Atlanta, and help get them on their feet in a new land.

In August 1999, the Shabani family arrived at the Atlanta airport with only a suitcase and the clothes on their backs. They didn’t speak English, and it was obvious that they were overwhelmed. There were many NDBC members waiting to greet the Shabanis, and the Shabanis quickly learned to trust us. Since that day, the family has now become US citizens, they own a lovely home in Cumming, and they have settled in to life in America. Hulusi (the dad) works as the manager of several Avalon apartment complexes in Roswell. Qefajete (the mom) stays home and takes care of the family. Shqiprim (the son) works as a loan officer for a banking company. He is married, has a three-year-old son and another baby on the way. Shkendije (the daughter) graduated last weekend from pharmacy school with a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. We were honored to attend the graduation ceremony and celebrate with the family afterwards. At the dinner, Hulusi asked us to tell the folks at NDBC how grateful he and his family are for “saving their lives and helping them to build a good life in America.”

It has been such a growing and learning experience to be friends with people who are different from us. Our hearts are bigger because of it.

Kay Braswell and Karen Massey

Adult Ed Summer Series for June 19

This Sunday we will hear the second of three presentations from Rev. Dr. Angela Parker, assistant professor of New Testament at McAfee School of Theology, in the series "Colorblind No More! Reading with Eyes of the Other."

The theme for this Sunday is “Reading with Eyes of Privilege.” Reading through post-crucifixion narratives, we will ponder together where we see privilege in the text, specifically in Mark 14 and 15.

We hope that all NDBC adults will join the discussion at 9 a.m. via Zoom at this link:

https://northsidedrive-org.zoom.us/j/89882569327?pwd=M3VDc2JnSE5MdjhwZ3VWSW90RlpaZz09

It's going to be a great summer in Adult Ed, and you can join via Zoom no matter where the summer takes you. Get familiar with the schedule by taking a look at the lineup for the summer and the bios of all our presenters.

Congregational Concern

The congregation of Northside Drive Baptist Church expresses its sympathy to the family of Brian Martin on the death of his father, Jim Martin, who died on June 4.

Have News to Share?

Do you have news to share with NDBC about your church group's activities, or do you have personal news of celebration? Send the details to Will Mathews at will@northsidedrive.org or Cathy Wooten, cathy.t.wooten@gmail.com. We will include these items in the Pinnacle whenever possible.