By Robbie Spiers, Kilmarnock Baptist Church

We decided to take our youth group to Mission Madness this year, and boy I am glad we did. We are a small church in the rural county of Lancaster in the eastern Northern Neck (Kilmarnock Baptist Church). We have a growing, thriving congregation where the Lord is definitely working, and we just started a youth group, which is steadily growing. We have an all-volunteer youth leadership team that is being blessed every day.

I’ve been involved with some type of missions my entire life, but this was a new thing for our kids. They didn’t know what to expect, and quite frankly many didn’t go because they didn’t know what they were going too. We took 4 of our regular Sunday School attendees whom I teach. These four kids are growing in their walk with God, and were open to a “Christian” experience.

Getting over the fact that we were the smallest group there, and probably came the farthest was a bit overwhelming for the kids at first, but they had each other, and met other youth who were a part of their mission team on Saturday. Despite the hesitations, they were READY to charade ‘lipstick’ on the stage at the first night’s worship, and what a great job they did.

I want to congratulate the CBFVA staff and crew for a “flawless” weekend. All the planning, logistical considerations, and leadership were very evident. It was stated that they had been planning for 11 months. Let me say, it really showed. The check-in process was easy, the worships were well thought out, meaningful, and full of energy, and the mission opportunity was a life changing experience for both my kids and me.

Here are some personal reflections from the three worship services. I found the music to be very well done: the band played tastefully and quite skillfully. I have made notes and am going to get many of the songs we sang for our praise band at KBC whom I lead. Being a High School Band Director, I was very “in tune” with the music, and found it to be well done. The pastor/speaker was wonderful. She clearly put a lot of thought and planning into her messages. She had a natural ability to relate with the kids, and had a God given bubbly personality that made being around her a joy. The creativity she used to make worship not only enjoyable but more meaningful was fantastic.

Concerning the Mission opportunity, I can say first hand that I was blessed. We attended the Chancellor’s Village Senior Community, and met many wonderful residents. We worked with the residents in planting an herb garden that they would take back to their room. This opened up the opportunity for dialogue. It was a joy to see the beauty in two ladies that I had the pleasure to just sit down and talk with. One was mentioned in worship, Mrs. Mildred Powell, a 95-year-old gem of a woman. She spent almost an hour just sitting and chatting with me. She spoke of her love for God, and of being a Christian her entire life, working in many churches with WMU and other programs. She is currently a member of Fredericksburg Baptist Church, which was the home base for our Mission Madness. She spoke of the many inventions she has seen in her lifetime, as well as her family of 13 kids, of which only 3 are left. She shared her love of poetry and even went back to her room to retrieve 3 or 4 poems to share with us. She was a delight to sit and talk with, and I hope I was able to share the same beauty with her that she shared with me.

Our second stop on the Mission Saturday was at the Rappahannock River clean up with the “Friends of the Rappahannock”. We spent several hours beautifying the banks and paths along the river, but the one thing I will remember the most is my visit with a man fishing with his son. He seemed very eager to talk with me, and I actually couldn’t get away from him to go with my group down the path. I was happy to stand there and show the love of God by listening and talking with him about life.

He told me of his life there in Fredericksburg, and how he wanted to do more with his son. He spoke of his appreciation to me for the work that was being done, and how much he admired the unselfish dedication that the kids and adults were showing. I felt that he FINALLY had someone who would just stand and listen, and it seemed as though he didn’t want to let me go. I never got his name, but will remember him in my prayers and I’m hoping our example, our prayers, and my willingness to show him “Beauty” will change his life forever.

I saw the beautiful people around me that day. It wasn’t the work that mattered the most to me but the relationships that were created by showing God’s love. I looked at them differently than I normally would. You see, we were challenged to see Beauty in all faces that we came in contact with. We were also challenged to be beautiful people, as we meet and work with others. I indeed remember these beautiful people that I was able to show God’s Beautiful love to.

Coming home, my 14-year-old son told me, “I loved the mission part the best. It was fun to go out and help people. “ I think he is a changed young man as well, and I can’t wait to get back next year to Mission Madness, and in the meantime, do our own Mission Madness here in Lancaster County. Thanks CBFVA for a job well done, and Thank You to our God who made every detail possible in this anointed weekend.

In her own words, Ai asks for your prayers for the following:

- Pray for those who live in fear of the nuclear power plant explosions.

- Pray for those who are spending nights in shelters such as school gymnastics buildings without enough heat or blankets (one elderly died recently due to the below freezing temperature in a shelter).

- Pray for those who are working on nuclear plants right now.

- Pray especially for pastors in north east part of Japan who minister to their members and people in the community with the fear of the nuclear effect and lack of gasoline.

- Pray for people in North East Japan as well as Tokyo area people who are constantly exposed to aftershocks daily.

- Pray for those who have families and relatives still missing.
(I have a church member whose relatives are still missing and we are looking for those names on TV news daily to see if they are alive.)

- Pray that we, Christians in Japan can best serve God and the people here to show God’s love and compassion in time like this.

- Pray that we, Christians in Japan gain richer understanding of God’s love and salvation.

Everyone has an opinion about the plight of the poor – how they became poor and how to help. But most people don’t know the poor. For the youth at Haymarket Baptist Church, a recent mission immersion weekend in Washington, DC, sponsored by the CBFVA, gave them the opportunity to experience poverty and urban life up close.

The mission immersion experience moved the Haymarket youth away from their comfort zone and placed them in an urban environment where they were able to see God at work in a different setting. The weekend was planned in conjunction with CBFVA and Calvary Baptist Church who hosted the group. Calvary is a historic Baptist church located in the District’s Chinatown neighborhood, situated in the shadows of the Verizon Center and the White House

“We hear about the homeless and the poor a lot on TV and at church,” said one youth participant. “But it wasn’t until this weekend that I could say I actually know someone who is homeless. For me, this weekend has brought new meaning to the word poor. She has a name and a story.”

The experiment for the Haymarket youth, who live in the suburbs of Northern Virginia, was to see if the place where many of their parents work from day-to-day was any different than the place they lived, just thirty miles down the road. Upon arriving, the youth were asked to think about questions like: What are the challenges and benefits of living in an urban area? Do the people who live in this urban area look and dress like me? How much does it cost to live in this neighborhood as compared to my neighborhood? Do we see people sleeping on the streets in our neighborhood? Is God at work in a place that has so much wealth and power and so much poverty and crime? If so, how do we join in with God’s work?

From the minute the group left to the church on Friday until they returned, they intentionally immersed themselves in an urban culture. Instead of driving into town, the youth and their chaperons depended completely on public transportation or their feet to get from place to place. And they were quickly introduced to the different sounds and sights of an urban setting.

“Each morning, we would walk across the street to get breakfast,” said one youth. “Walking less than a block, we saw three homeless people. One was sleeping against a wall on the church step. On the other side of that wall was the room we were sleeping in. That was an eye-opener and a little unsettling.”

The highlight of the weekend was spending time at Rachael’s Women’s Center, a day center for women that offers a range of services from providing basic needs such as food and shelter to education and support programs. The youth cleaned the center, sorted clothes in their clothes closet, improved the front and back yards, and served the ladies lunch. During lunch, many of the youth ate with the participants and learned a little about their stories.

Afterward, during a debriefing on the National Mall with their guide Jason Smith of Calvary Baptist, the youth had plenty to think about and share. “I learned that poverty is not always the fault of the person who is poor,” said one participant. “There are lots of factors for why most people are poor or homeless.”

During their stay, the youth walked to the White House where they prayed for the nation, its leaders, and those who work, study, and visit Washington. They visited with Brent Walker, director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, and learned about the BJC’s advocacy and education efforts on Capital Hill. The youth also got a chance to explore the city and sample some Asian cuisine in Chinatown. The weekend was capped off with Sunday school and worship at Calvary Baptist Church. Calvary is a diverse church that has worked to intentionally reach the community in which it is located. Its worship and mission reflect both its historic roots and its present diversity.

Many churches desire ways to move their members from a discipleship that is removed from the rest of life to one that is holistic and intersects with the world’s needs. In doing so, they are asking members to understand that God is at work outside the church walls, to look for God’s presence in all of life, and to respond to the places and people in which God is working. While bible studies are useful in training our churches for this missional approach, mission immersion experiences like the one in Washington, DC are truly formational.

Matthew Hensley is Minister of Education at Haymarket Baptist Church in Haymarket, VA and Northern Virginia regional representative on the CBFVA Coordinating Council.

*Shane Claiborne, “Downward Mobility in an Upscale World,” The Other Side (November 1, 2000), http://being.publicradio.org/programs/newmonastics/claiborne_downwardmobility.shtml

This week’s blog was written by Dr. Drexel Rayford, Pastor of Walnut Grove Baptist Church in Mechanicsville, Virginia.

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“. . . to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:19

At first, everybody felt real proud. The local boy had been just downright eloquent. He’d stood up in front of everyone and had read from the prophets so smoothly: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” It was the rough equivalent of a reader in one of our congregations saying, “This is the word of the Lord,” and everyone mumbles, “Thanks be to God.”

I can imagine people in that Nazarene synagogue pointing in Jesus‘ direction, looking sideways at each other with smug grins, nodding their heads. “I knew him when he was just his dad’s apprentice. You know Joseph? He’s a friend of mine – ordered a coat stand from him.” They cross their arms, jut out their jaws, and nod like bobble heads.

And then, after he waits for the benevolent murmuring to die down, it’s like Jesus says, “No, folks. I really meant it. The year of the Lord’s favor. Yes, the year of Jubilee! I came to tell you that I mean to make it real. God means to make it real, and if y’all who were called to do it don’t get on board with this, God’ll call someone else. And it won’t necessarily be one of you!” (That’s my interpretation of verses 20-27.)

They stop nodding. Grins fade. Jaws drop.

“Now, wait a minute, boy! Who do you think you are?”

“You can’t possibly be so naive as to suggest that we’re really supposed to do what Leviticus and Deuteronomy say! I mean, how in the world are we going to run an economy if we just give all the land back to the original owners and cancel all debts?” (They would’ve been familiar with Leviticus 25 and Deuteronomy 15 just like you, right?)

If Jesus had been a good Baptist preacher like me, at that point he would have told a sweet, tear-jerking story to distract them, rendered a benediction, then gone to the narthex for the vestibule review. That’s the way you avoid cliff edges.

But evidently, he meant this bit about the Year of “Jubilee.” Jubilee? Really? Jesus’ audience that day didn’t find much jubilation in the suggestion that their prosperity was empty, especially when he reminded them of how God lavished his favor on foreigners in Elijah and Elisha’s time. That’s when they tried to kill him. He was actually saying that God’s generosity extended to people who didn’t believe the right things or live the right way!

This story both indicts and liberates me. You see, I’m guilty of sitting with those guys in Nazareth and admiring Jesus’ eloquence – until he points out that God wants to bless even those people who voted for . . . (fill in the blank). But it liberates me to know that God really doesn’t care about property rights or even doctrinal purity as much as he cares about ridiculously lavish, extravagant love – for everyone – today – right now – fulfilled in our hearing! This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God!

This week’s blog was written by Rev. Mark D. White, Pastor of Chamberlayne Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia.

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“He has sent me…to set the oppressed free…”
Luke 4:19c

I suspect, if you’re like me, you gravitate towards the heroes and heroines of the Bible. We like to be on the side of the winners, not the losers. When we read about Pharaoh, or the Pharisees, or any other evil doer, we tend to think of our enemies and other scoundrels rather than ourselves.

When Jesus said he was sent “to set the oppressed free,” I bet most of us would see ourselves as the oppressed. Wouldn’t you agree? And there is a good reason we see ourselves in this role since all of us come up short in life because of sin. We all want to experience the liberation offered by Jesus Christ. We want to be set free from the chains of our sin.

But if we are to be true to the Bible and to God, we should also take the time to see ourselves in the role of the oppressor so we might more clearly see how we sin against other people. If we choose to see ourselves in this way, I believe we gain a fuller appreciation for the kind of liberty Jesus offers. This freedom is both a spiritual and physical reality.

It is both a present and future reality. Though Jesus had his eyes fixed on heaven, his feet were firmly planted on the ground so he could set people free in the here and now. The widow, the sick, and the poor are a case in point. Jesus spent time with the oppressed because he wanted to liberate them from the poverty, sickness, and homelessness caused by real world people.

I rejoice in the good news that Jesus has come to set the oppressed free and set me free from my own sin. But when I compare myself to others, I hardly fit the bill of one who has been exploited, kept down, or oppressed. I am white, male, married, educated, and middle class. I am the prototypical person of privilege, and as a person of privilege, I believe God calls on me and others of privilege to be a voice for the oppressed by standing up for justice.

We do justice by crossing the lines of race, class, economics, and political affiliation to help those in need. We do justice by weeding out the ways we directly or indirectly cause oppression for others in this world. And when we do justice, we share the presence of Christ with others.

Mark D. White
Pastor, Chamberlayne Baptist Church
Richmond, Virginia

Jesus answers that, first, He was under direct orders of a higher authority to act. When we, individually, put on the Christian wardrobe  through salvation, we should tap into the Spirit of God (Holy Spirit) to act when needs arise. In other words, the Spirit of God will guide us to either help or direct others into the type of aid that they need; we can’t help everyone that we come in contact with because we may not have what that person needs.

Jesus’ second call to action responds, under His anointed calling, to be committed to spreading the good news, wherever He traveled, regardless if people received His message or not. Unanimously, those who gather for worship every Sunday morning, are the minority; the greater work lies outside the four walls of the church house. On the occasions when Jesus was not able to heal through His physical touch, Jesus’ spoken words restored the wounded. For us today, as Christians, we have to understand that sharing the word of God brings unity, healing, and can set the captive free. Our call to action under our divine anointing requires us to spread the good news in season and out of season.

Lastly, Jesus used His gift to act according to the need presented to Him. In other words, when a situation arises and the Spirit of God prompts us to move, then we already possess what it takes to meet that need. The Spirit of God will reveal the real need and our part is to jump into divine motion to speak , heal, and deliver. Therefore, as we challenge ourselves to act in the manner of Jesus, we have answer the relevant question to determine how, if anything, we are helping further the kingdom of God.”

The following post is from a series of blogs from the CBFVA Vision Team in preparation for the CBFVA General Assembly 2011. The theme of the assembly is “Beautiful Witness. Being Baptists Together. Doing God’s Mission” and the focal text is Luke 4:18-19.

This week’s blog was written by Joshua Hearne, pastor and a founding member of Grace and Main Fellowship in Danville, Virginia. Until the Grace and Main website is active, you can find out more about Grace and Main by emailing the community at graceandmain@gmail.com, or view Joshua’s other blog posts at www.ttstm.com.

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Chris and Laura showed up on a Thursday night to have dinner with our community. We’re a non-traditional Christian community of people, committed to making disciples (not members) and to addressing the needs of downtown Danville by a ministry of presence, stability, prayer, and social action. Chris and Laura came with Matt, one of our leaders, and seemed a little apprehensive at first. So, we behaved as usual: we broke bread together before offering them a plate and told them what was in the assorted bowls and dishes. We ate, we learned a little about them, they learned a little about us, and an entire set of relationships were started.

After the meal, we drank from our common cup and went into the living room to read scripture together and talk about what it means for our lives as individuals and as a community. It was evident that Laura spoke the language of “Bible study” but Chris seemed a little more distant and disconnected—he was listening, but he wasn’t asking the questions that were clearly on his mind. As the night closed, Chris asked, “Look, do you guys really think God loves you? Like, for real, like God cares about people?” We nodded and shared a little more of our stories and our amazement that a good God would spend time with broken people like us. Chris had more questions, but they would wait for another night.

We found out that Laura had recently been released from jail for possession of crack cocaine and for a slew of other charges that went along with her addiction. Neither Chris, nor Laura, have led a perfect life before or since that night we met over baked chicken and sweet potatoes, but then, real stories don’t end that way. They’ve both been back to jail since that first night, but they know they have a place where they can come and be safe. They know they have a place where they can be free from the addictions and challenges that haunt their every waking hour, with brothers and sisters who oppose the captors that prey upon them. They’re not perfect, but then neither are we.

The truth is: captivity comes in more than one form. To make a sanctuary for a brother or a sister who has been beaten down by the world and told that they are of little importance and will amount to less, is to proclaim release to the captive—it is to believe in freedom in the face of slavery. Chris and Laura are on their way out of Egypt, and that doesn’t mean they don’t look back fondly, but they’re taking steps a day at a time that will lead them to the same freedom that each of us so desperately seeks. This spring, we will have the sublime privilege of baptizing our brother Chris and our sister Laura as a sign, neither of their perfection or their current freedom from captivity, but as a sign of the promise that Jesus had made to them: release from all that binds them.

This week’s blog was written by Rev. Barbara J. Morton, Minister of Church Growth and Development at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia.

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Luke 4:18c “to preach good news to the poor,”

So what is this “good news”? The answer is simple. It is the good news of Jesus Christ. It is the good news of God’s grace, mercy, salvation, and blessings. Just as God heard the cry of His people in Israel, today he hears the cry of the poor all over the world. Whether poor in spirit, living in poverty, homelessness, fear or doubt, God still hears the cries of his people and anoints His chosen to preach GOOD NEWS to them.

Through and because of His love for humankind, God feels the pains of the poor and oppressed. When we preach the good news to the poor, we must preach through scriptural lenses. When we preach through these lenses, we remind the poor that even though the economic outlook is bleak, there is still hope for the hopeless.

The good news is that there is still help for the helpless and love for those who feel alone and left out. Together as black and white Baptists we are anointed, which makes us responsible and accountable to preach the good news of Jesus Christ. We must remind the poor that there is still faith for the faithless.

The good news is true even in poverty or doubt: rather than turning away from Christ, turn to Him. The poor will always be among us, but there is good news! Jesus described his earthly mission in Luke 4:18. This was His work. This must be our work, for we are anointed to preach the Good News of freedom, mercy, salvation and blessings.

As we journey together, black Baptists and white Baptists, let us forget about gender, race and nationality. The poor will always be among us, but together let us preach good news.

I had no intention of ever becoming a career clergy person. As a child, and later as a teenager, my focus was set on music and baseball.  I played professional baseball in the spring and summer, and conducted an orchestra the rest of the year.  However, to my surprise, my vocational direction changed in the fall of 1971.

My high school choir sang for an evening service at Richmond’s First Baptist Church. What an experience! A sanctuary twice the size of my parents’ church, the major hallway that seemed the length of a football field (it really wasn’t), and a massive pipe organ. Imagine my surprise when I realized that some of my closest friends from middle and high school attended worship there. Following that initial worship experience, I was invited to join the youth group, the contemporary and traditional youth choirs.

This was during a point in my pilgrimage where I wanted more from the church in terms of activities and spiritual growth. Over the next year and six months, I became engaged in the youth and music ministry of First Baptist; I was ready to make this place my spiritual home, except for one minor issue: would this predominantly white congregation accept a sixteen-year-old African-American teenager? As I struggled with making this decision, I began to sense an incredible movement of the Holy Spirit that I have experienced only two other times in my life. So on a bright Sunday morning in October 1973, I went forward…

The story doesn’t end there. For it was in this same sanctuary just three years later that I publicly responded to the call to ordained Christian ministry. My ministry pilgrimage has been unique in that I have served in white congregations from Indiana, to New Hampshire, to Virginia, and in Baptist, Disciples of Christ, United Methodist and Episcopal churches. The same Spirit, I believe, opened the doors to my places of ministry.

Robert Brearley ‘s commentary on this passage in Feasting on the Word (Year C, Volume 1), states that the same Holy Spirit that lead Jesus in saying no during the temptation story is the same Spirit that leads him to accept the mission given to him by God. Just as God anointed me in my call to ministry, He is waiting and wanting for you and others within your congregations to do the same. To know our mission and to understand what God has given us to do are as important to us as they were to Jesus. (1)

The theologian Frederick Buechner wrote, “In his holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a handkerchief. These handkerchiefs are called saints.”  As we prepare to cross the bridge together as Baptists—black and white—in March, let us do so with the anointing of God’s saints in ministry. The Holy Spirit comes when we have something to do for God and a time to do it. (2)

Blessings,
Tom Baynham
Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond

Footnotes:
1 and 2: Robert Brearley- Feasting on the Word: Year C, Volume 1: David Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors (Westminster John Knox Press, 2009)

Rev. Tom Baynham is a Doctor of Ministry student at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond.

The nature of the Holy Spirit, how it works and is known, is the subject of much differentiation among God’s many children. Some of God’s people feel that if they cannot “feel” the Spirit, it must not be present. On the other hand, that which seems Spirit-filled to some can feel downright chaotic to others. Our many human experiences and traditions measure the presence of the Spirit with a variety of yard sticks.

Finding a worshiping community in which to meet God as our true selves is an important consideration. If we are not careful, however, our cultural tastes can divide us from the beautiful witness to which we are called as a whole people. In fact, our peculiar heritage as Baptists puts us in the midst of this tension every Sunday.

Very few of us in the US can say that our faith heritage comes from this or that unbroken line of “low-church” or “high-church” Baptists. In one meeting house, we hash out, act out, and hope for those elements of worship and ministry that seem most fitting to our own sensibilities of what it means to be Baptist. It’s not that anything goes. It’s that, over the space of 400 years, many ways of being church together have qualified for residence under our big, Baptist tent!

Our family is diverse, and in that diversity can lie both promise and peril. The promise is that we might become a testimony of grace in a divided world by finding unity in the Spirit. The peril is that we may allow our preferences and very real historical divisions stand as insurmountable obstacles to the actualization of God’s Kingdom.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…

With these powerful words from the prophet Isaiah, Jesus inaugurates his public ministry (Luke 4:18). A few verses before this, Jesus is returning from his retreat in the wilderness during which he confronted the devil. It is said that he was “filled with the power of the Spirit,” and word spread about him through the Galilean countryside.

The image might come to mind of an emboldened prophet, who powerfully and effortlessly strolls back into Galilee…low sunlight radiating behind him, outlining his figure. What was in his eyes? His thoughts? His stride? His breathing? With what purpose did he move? With what was he possessed as he picked up those scrolls, claiming the words of Isaiah for a new era?

If we claim to follow Christ, this is our Lord. While sometimes we have domesticated him into a friendly, neighborhood super hero, Luke’s Jesus is one who rolls in from the desert having stared down the devil. The same Spirit who walked with the Hebrews across the Red Sea is upon him. The force of God’s presence throughout human history has coalesced upon his person. He is ready to do business.

Are we?

Would it be too bold if our prayer for the people of CBFVA were to call upon this very same Spirit? Do we have the nerve to consider that God might use us – us! – in yet unimagined ways to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor? May it be so in 2011.

Rev. Nathan Taylor serves as the Associate Pastor for Christian Formation & Children at Central Baptist Church, Richmond.