Thursday Thoughts

As we get ready to enter the busy holiday season, I wanted to take this opportunity to make you aware of a couple new opportunities within our Children and Families Ministry!

Since my arrival at AFBC, I have noticed a strong desire for more events that meet parents where they are, giving them opportunities for fun (with and without their little ones) and equipping them with resources that they can use in their everyday lives with their families. While we have begun to do this in some small ways, I am excited to introduce a new event just for parents that will take place on Sunday, November 17th. We will meet in the Roberts Building from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. to have some fellowship time over a meal, discuss some parenting/family resources, and learn some family spiritual practices. The goal is for this event to be the first of many, so please bring ideas, and we will have some conversation about what the future of our family ministry could look like! 

In order for this event to happen, we also wanted to provide something for the children and youth of our parents so that they can attend their event worry free! So, while the parents are in the Roberts Building, the children and youth will be having a movie night outside on the grassy area near our church office (weather permitting). If the weather doesn’t cooperate, we’ll just move the party inside! Either way, there will be a meal provided, chaperones to supervise, and even childcare for any of our babies and toddlers! Both events are free of charge, but because there are so many moving parts, we just ask that you register your family for this event ASAP using the following link: https://subspla.sh/w4bscgr/. This will help us determine how much food and childcare we need!

Lastly, I want to introduce our new Winter Retreat for children in grades 3rd-6th! This event is made available through CBF of Georgia and will take place on January 10th-12th at Rock Eagle in Eatonton, Georgia. The total cost for each child is $100 (which includes a $50 deposit up front). The deadline to register is Wednesday, November 20th, so please use the following link to make sure you sign up by then: https://subspla.sh/ttnhjyq/. If you have a child that has been unsure about summer camp or overnight trips in the past, this would be a great opportunity as it would only be two nights away from home. Lots of fellowship, recreation, and spiritual enrichment will be had through the following activities: worship, arts & craft, fun sports, Bible study, and missions. I am excited for this new opportunity and the relationships that will be made there! 

If you are someone who wants to plug into these events, great! We hope to see you there! If not, you probably know someone who would, so please help me in connecting with young families and spreading the word! I am thankful for our families and the many people striving to make our church a more welcoming place for all! May it continue to be so!  

In truth and love, 

Matt Waller 

mwaller@fbcaiken.org 

(704) 466-2321 

As most of you are aware our church has embarked upon several initiatives in which we are seeking God’s guidance regarding our work for the Kingdom at this time, and in this place.

One of those initiatives is our “Bold Faithfulness” journey which has involved many of you already and will continue to need your input and participation as we continue our walk.   Our eleven-member team has begun this process by gathering as much information as possible, including:

·        historical information about our church,

·        the state of the church in America,

·        your thoughts/input via our round table discussions,

·        a panel discussion in which we heard from leaders in the Aiken community,

·        additional individual conversations with other leaders in our community,

·        conversations with individuals who are unchurched and/or have left the church

In addition, we have sought guidance from our friend and congregational leadership specialist, Dr. Bill Wilson.  Along with his valuable experiences and advice our team has been extremely busy seeking input from as many sources as possible.

We are currently reviewing that information and have been developing a format to better understand and share what we have learned.  This process will take us a few more weeks, but once this is completed, we plan to bring this information to you at a congregational gathering on Sunday, November 17, at 9:30 am in the Fellowship Hall. We are very excited about what we have heard and look forward to sharing this information on the 17th.

This journey began with the founding of our church nearly 200 years ago, and throughout those years God has called our church to Serve and Love.  As we continue to seek what it is that He is calling us to do today, please pray for our community, our church, and our willingness to understand and embrace the Bold Faithfulness we will need to accomplish this calling.

God Bless,

Randy Duckett

Bold Faithfulness Committee Member

My name is Kingsley Rice, and I am 15 years old. Recently I went to the Mission: THERE trip to Danville, Virginia. The reason I went on this trip was so that I could get to know some of the people at my church that I have never talked to before. I was honestly a little hesitant to come on this trip at first because I didn’t really know who all was going to go on this trip and if there would be anyone that I knew. I had never been on a mission trip before and didn’t really know what happens on mission trips other than working on different projects. This trip helped me to not only get to know people in our church, but to make relationships with people I had never talked to before and to create stronger relationships with the people I had already known.

I didn’t just get to make relationships with the people from our church but also the people from Grace and Main. The people from Grace and Main were so welcoming to us and so hard working. Some of the people would even go to work in the garden in the morning and work at their paying jobs in the afternoon. It was really cool to see the dedication they had to this garden. I thought that for this mission trip the main focus would be to work on the garden but once we started working, I got to really see how this community of people comes together and cares for each other, and it made me realize that the main focus was to create relationships with the people from Grace and Main and get to know them. It was really inspiring because sometimes we can tend to look at someone and assume things about them but seeing the community that they have built was very eye opening for me. Every night, everyone from AFBC would gather around the fire back at the camp and talk about everyone’s day and one of the nights, someone said something about if we saw these people somewhere random -like downtown- and not in the garden, what would we think of them? This comment really made me think about how sometimes we can be so quick to judge people just by their looks and the way they may carry themselves, but we never know what the people are like because we don’t take the time to get to know them.

Another thing was on the last day, before we left, we got to hear the stories of how the community around the garden formed. From those stories, one of the things I took away from them was that we can start the most important relationships by looking to the people that live on our street or in the same apartment complexes as us and simply knock on their door and ask if they want to come over for a Bible study or just have a time to read scripture together. This mission trip was so inspiring for me, and I am so thankful I got to experience this with the people from the church, and being able to create those relationships will forever stick with me!

Dear Church Family,

I hope you all are well and continuing to recover some sense of normalcy after the recent storm. Now that Fall Break is coming to an end, and we are starting to settle back into our schedules, I look forward to spending more time with you all once again! One thing that I hope you all are looking forward to is our annual Trunk-or-Treat event! Last year’s event was a blast, and I am so excited to provide you with some details for this year!

Trunk-or-Treat will take place on Wednesday, October 30th from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in our church’s parking lot. No matter if you’re young or old, parents or not, or somewhere in between, we invite YOU to come out and join us! There will be a place for everyone to plug in and have fun, whether that means simply attending the event, volunteering, or even some of both. There will be food, games, and lots of sweets, but as you know, an event like this cannot happen on its own, so here are some ways we need your help!

• Candy: If we learned anything from last year’s event, it’s that there is no thing as too much candy! 🙂 Candy donations can be dropped off in the white cabinets or clear bins by the church office. We will need lots of it to make sure our folks decorating trunks and supervising games have a steady supply to hand out to everyone! 

• Trunks: Like last year, we will be awarding three prizes to the groups who have the best trunks in the following categories: Trunk with the Best Costumes, Most Interactive Trunk, and Most Creative Trunk (one prize per category). The more trunks we have, the better, so please plan to decorate your trunk and ensure your chance to win a prize! Since the event starts at 5:30, we ask that you have your car in place no later than 5:00 so that we can secure the rest of the parking lot for visitors! Also, I am looking for several judges who are not planning to decorate a trunk, but who would be willing to help decide who wins the prize for each category.  

• Cakewalk: We need lots of cakes and/or other sweet treats for the cakewalk! While we all love homemade goodies, you do not have to make everything you donate to the cakewalk. We will happily accept store-bought items, as will those who win them! 

• Games: We need some people who would be willing to supervise the carnival-style children’s games that will be set up on the grass. These individuals would help direct participants on how to play the games and make sure that any tools and candy are shared fairly. Our youth usually do a great job with this one, but they could use help! 

• Food: If you have a grill or are handy with a spatula, we need several hands to help make and serve hotdogs to our participants. All food, tools, and supplies will be provided; we just need the gift of a grill and those with the gift of service. This includes everything from flipping hotdogs to handing out bottled water and napkins. Like last year, we will keep it simple with chips and water so that participants can eat and move around as needed. Monetary donations to help offset the cost of food are welcome, but not necessary. This event is for everyone, and our goal is that, by not charging for it, we provide both our members and all of Aiken with an equal chance to come out and experience the love of God through generosity and sharing in fellowship with our wonderful neighbors!

If you are willing to serve in any of these ways, please contact me either by email or phone (listed below). If not, you can also help by telling those in your circle about this event and inviting them out to join us too! This will be a wonderful opportunity to practice joy through play, deepen relationships with those we know, and make connections with those we do not. Let’s dig deep to help make this event all it can be and to be a light to our community! 🙂 

In truth and love, 

Matt Waller 

mwaller@fbcaiken.org 

(704) 466-2321

Dear Church Family,

I am so very excited about our upcoming joint worship opportunity with Second Baptist Church, and I hope you are, as well.  On Sunday, October 20 we will welcome our brothers and sisters from Second Baptist Church to our campus for worship at 11:00 am and a wonderful fellowship opportunity following worship. 

As with last year, members of Second Baptist’s choir will join our choir for a special anthem, and the Second Baptist praise team will also offer a special selection during the service.  Leaders from both congregations will guide us throughout the entire service.  Additionally, we will be blessed as Rev. Ray Speller brings the message that morning.  Then, we will all get to share in a time of light refreshments and fellowship following worship. 

Here are some things to be aware of and some ways that you can help us welcome Second Baptist well that day. 

If you are able, please park at one of our more distant parking locations for that day.  If you need to park closer, please park toward the Roberts Building side of our parking lot as we are seeking to reserve the York Street side of our parking lot for our guests that day.  Additional handicap spots will be noted for the day, as well.  We will need additional ushers to assist with parking and welcoming everyone that day, so if you are able to serve in this way, please contact David McGuire or the church office to let us know. 

When you enter the sanctuary, do your best to spread out, welcome our guests from Second Baptist, and sit alongside them for worship.  I know we all have our seats that we are accustomed to using every Sunday, but we will be flexible and hospitable this day as we would anytime we welcome guests. 

When worship ends and we begin making our way toward the fellowship hall, please offer to show our friends from Second Baptist the way and then join them in line.  We are accustomed to letting guests go first, but if we do that this time around we will accidentally end up separating ourselves from one another and not be able to share lunch around the same tables.  So, let’s help folks find their way and then share a time of fellowship and conversation together. 

Also, remember the upcoming opportunity we have to deepen our understanding of issues related to racial reconciliation and repair work on November 8 and 9.  I hope you will sign up and prepare to join this wonderful conversation by going to this link:  https://subspla.sh/s4ytvtr/  

Finally, let me close with a huge thank you to all the folks that have already put in great work to prepare us well for this Sunday.  I know even more work by more folks will be offered in the weeks to come; and I am grateful.  It is going to be a wonderful day, and it will be so because of the good work and the good hearts of God’s people in this place.

Grace and Peace,

John 

Each year, this church so graciously supports this Youth Ministry in our Chili Cook-Off fundraiser to subsidize travel costs for trips and events. This year you will be helping BOTH the Youth and Children’s programs grow their scholarship funds by participating in our combined Children & Youth Funds for Fun Chili Cook-Off!

I invite you to this important event that is always unlike any other Wednesday night. When you arrive for activities on Wednesday, October 16th you will not be attending your regular Wednesday night meal and programming. You will enter our Children and Youth Funds for Fun Chili Cook-Off! The Fellowship Hall will be transformed into a festive college-themed extravaganza, and I hope you will dress accordingly! Come decked out in your favorite team gear as you prepare to fill your bellies with the many delicious chilis that will be lining the room!  

On this fun-filled Wednesday you can expect to find great chili, tasty desserts and a whole lotta fun! While you are enjoying the event you can make donations in several ways. You can plan ahead and bring cash to vote for your favorite chili, write a check for your donations, and we will have donation jars on all the tables to make a private donation of cash or check if you would like. Also, we still have envelopes hanging on the board outside the main office! Our goal is to have all envelopes filled by the 16th. If all envelopes are filled, we will have just over $1000 to add to our cook-off total at the end of the night! 

We have a wonderful group of students and parents in our ministries, and I never want money to get in the way of students having an opportunity to be with their group, to build meaningful friendships, and engage in learning about their faith. Your donations help supplement the cost of the amazing activities we can continue to do. Thank you for being a church family who support our young people and the many opportunities that we can provide for our students to grow and learn in their faith. 

Grace and Peace, 

Sarah Laurence

I’m so thankful to have the pleasure of introducing a new development within our children’s ministry here at AFBC! When I entered my role a little over a year ago, one clear expressed desire from both our parents and volunteer Sunday School teachers was for a new curriculum that would not only better serve our grade-school students, but also include our preschoolers, toddlers, and their families both inside AND outside of the church on Sunday mornings. I am excited to let you know that after much discussion, research, and prayer, we are now beginning to implement a new curriculum called Orange!

The name “Orange” is intentional, and it comes from the organization’s strategy to align the church and the family. They describe their mission in the following way on their website: “The church is yellow, symbolizing light. It delivers biblical teaching and a formative environment for young people as they mature in their faith. The home is red, symbolizing love. Nothing influences kids and teens more than family. We’re Orange. Our mission is to create resources and experiences that help you bring together the church and the home and create a greater impact in the lives of kids and teens.” To read more about Orange’s mission, team, and goals, you can follow this link: https://thinkorange.com/what-we-do/.

This curriculum is also noticeably modern, and it does a great job of offering new ways of connecting and doing ministry together. Orange recognizes how valuable our time is and how, especially today, the church has fewer and fewer hours to take part physically in the spiritual development of your children and families. So, while their “in-church” curriculum is strong, they also offer much that allows families to stay connected with what is being taught inside the church as well as tons of resources to use in everyday life.

One such resource that I am in the beginning stages of setting up for us is the Parent Cue app. If you have children (whether they are participating in our programs at AFBC or not), I will highly recommend going ahead and downloading this app! This will be a great resource to you for many reasons, but I will emphasize two here. First, it will offer a way for you to see what your child is learning on Sunday mornings as well as to access supplemental tools and activities that you can use throughout your week to build upon what the children are learning at church. Secondly, this app offers tons of strong parenting resources such as newsletters, articles, age-specific guides, and a shop with fun and formational tools for the whole family. Just downloading the app and creating an account will get you some of this, but Orange even offers an affordable subscription that grants you full access to more resources for $5 a month or $49 a year! I know I pay more than that for other subscriptions that aren’t nearly as important or impactful as this! If you want to go ahead and download the app or even read more about it, you can follow this link: https://theparentcue.org/parent-cue-app/. Whether you pursue the subscription or not, I would encourage all parents to download the app and create an account for free. Then, click on the “Church” icon at the bottom of the screen and link your account to “Aiken’s First Baptist Church!” Please feel free to contact me with any questions!

As I said earlier, we are only beginning to implement this new curriculum, so please know that there will be more to come as I help to train our volunteer leaders as well as send things out on the app. For now, you can be on the lookout for take-home materials that your children will receive at the end of Sunday School each week. Thank you all for your continued support as we strive to be the best we can be for our children and families!

In truth and love,

Matt Waller

(704) 466-2321

mwaller@fbcaiken.org

Below you will find information pulled together by leaders of both Second Baptist and First Baptist about the upcoming Repair Conference we are hosted jointly on November 8-9. I want to invite you to prayerfully consider being involved in the conference and the meaningful conversations that we hope will take place throughout the weekend. You will find a link at the bottom of the email to register, or you can find the event in our church app and register there.

Grace and Peace,

John

Aiken Churches Hosting Conversation Around History and Hope, Continuing Work of “Repairing Breaches” in the CSRA

Aiken’s First Baptist Church and the Second Baptist Church of Aiken are taking a new step in their longtime journey of serving the community together. On November 8th and 9th, the congregations are gearing up to host a symposium of conversations surrounding the history of race in Aiken from the perspective of faith leaders, with an eye toward healing historic hurts and bridging individuals and communities as Aiken moves into the future. The event is titled Repairing the Harms of Racism: Why This is a Work of the Church. Featured facilitators for the weekend will include the Rev. Dr. Prince R. Rivers, Senior Pastor of the Union Baptist Church of Durham, NC and a faculty member at the Duke Divinity School, as well as Rev. Dr. Bill Leonard, Founding Dean and Professor Emeritus of the Wake Forest Divinity School.

Heavily inspired by the Scriptural mandate for believers to become “repairers of the breach” (Isaiah 58:12) within society, the weekend of activities aims at facilitating courageous conversations and intimate communal experiences to foster true openness and unity among Aikenites of goodwill. Within the immersive weekend, participants will hear others’ stories, have open conversations about the past, and strategize on how to build a fair and hope-filled future.

For years the two congregations have engaged in mutual ministry opportunities, including hosting a GED program along with ChristCentral, worshiping jointly twice per year, leading out in a cohort of churches taking racial harmony seriously within the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of South Carolina, among other projects. This next step is meant to further unity and understanding among citizens.

Registration is required for the two-day event which includes meals on both Friday and Saturday. The registration fee is $20 to help defray the costs of the event, but if the cost is prohibitive to participation, then individuals are encouraged to register through either church office where the fees may be waived. The event will be held at Second Baptist Church of Aiken and will run from 5:30 to 8:30 pm Friday and 9:00 am to 3:30 pm Saturday. Registration is currently open to all and interested parties are encouraged to register now at: https://subspla.sh/s4ytvtr.

We wanted to take a moment this week to encourage individuals to use our excellent church app! The app is a hub for many of the wonderful things going on at Aiken’s First Baptist. Our livestream and all previous worship services can be viewed there, our podcast can be listened to there, all events and registrations can be found there, and there are groups for various Sunday school classes and committees in which communications can be sent out. That is only scratching the surface! If you already have the app, feel invited to dive back in and see what is going on. If you don’t have it, please invited to download and register for it!

We have prepared a tidy guide for getting the app which can be found below. We also suggest everyone view this guide, as it discusses how you can best be sure you are getting all notifications from the app!

Click here to view the app guide!

Toward the end of last year, our Church Council made the decision to participate in an initiative of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) called Thriving Congregations. For those who might need a refresher on what that is, CBF defines it well in the following way: “The Thriving Congregations Initiative exists to equip churches to fulfill their unique call, and by extension, thrive, in today’s chaotic world. The organizing thesis of this work centers on the belief that thriving congregations exhibit capacities around five key traits: Compelling Clarity, Holy Tenacity, Faithful Agility, Rooted Relationships, and Dynamic Collaboration. The Thriving Congregations Initiative’s signature ministry is the year-long, incubator-style learning community to equip congregational leadership teams to develop practices that lead toward the embodiment of the five thriving traits. Through this process, congregations will engage in Holy Experiments to accelerate learning and uncover pathways that lead to transformation.”

Since our decision to take part in this initiative, the six-person team put together to participate in it (Randy Duckett, Lindsey McCullough, Rose Ann Pistole, Josh Pniewski, Matt Waller, and John Carroll) have been hard at work learning about and acting out the process named above. We have now participated in two different retreats, monthly Zoom calls with Chris Aho (along with other groups taking part in this initiative), monthly sessions with our “Wise Guide” (Mike Smith), and several other meetings with just our team.

Much of our work has revolved around understanding and assessing our church’s abilities when it comes to the five key traits (listed above) to highlight some areas that our future Holy Experiments might address. You might be glad to know that many of our church’s strengths have been easily identified both by those participating as well as those leading us through this process. However, as with any system, there are areas that have been identified where we have a large capacity to be better. The trait of Compelling Clarity stood out as one that fell into this category. Becoming clearer on who we are as a church and the specific mission God has called us to live out in our unique context has also been a large part of the work we have been doing. Fortunately, our church is already taking steps to improve clarity through things like our recent Bold Faithfulness Initiative, and that is just one of the ways we are moving toward thriving together!

Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “That sounds great and all, but this is so much new vocabulary and I’m not sure I’m following along!” That’s okay! Our team has put in the work learning this process so that we can continue to pass it on to one another and continue to provide you with some clarity. In fact, there are two main ways that you can expect to hear from us very soon and learn more about the Thriving Congregations Initiative. The first is by tuning in to our podcast, Rooted and Grounded. The members of our team are already meeting up to record some conversations on the five traits, design thinking, holy experiments, and the work that is ahead of us to become a thriving congregation! The second is by tuning in to worship on Sunday mornings. Throughout the months of September and October, the sermons will also be addressing these topics as well as their deeply theological bases. You won’t want to miss either, so please join us as we seek to find a more excellent way of being God’s hands and feet in Aiken.

Lastly, I would just like to thank you for your continued prayer and support of our team and the work they are doing. As is anything worth doing, this is not easy work, but I can attest to the fact that it is deeply fulfilling, honest, and transformational. May we all pursue a more adventurous spirit as we continue our journey to be obedient to God’s will. Amen.

In truth and love,

Matt Waller

Christmas Cantata!

Greetings and salutations to you, church family!

Much like Hobby Lobby, we here at Aiken’s First Baptist Church are already looking ahead to Christmas! Yes, although it seems very early, it is time to start preparing for this joyous season. This is particularly true for the music ministry, so much so that we will be having our Christmas Cantata Kickoff on Sunday, September 8, from 3:00 pm to 6:30 pm. This event serves as an opportunity for those interested in singing in the Christmas Cantata on December 15, 2024 during our 11:00 am worship to come together and become accustomed to this year’s music. The first part of the kickoff will be spent running through the entire work but beginning at 5:00 pm we will transition to a wonderful Italian dinner in the fellowship hall. If interested in joining us, please follow the registration link below so that we have an accurate count for the meal. Please do consider singing with us as it is a wonderful opportunity for fellowship and leadership in worship. After the kickoff, the first 30 minutes of regular Wednesday night rehearsal beginning at 7:30 pm will be devoted to cantata work. Even if you can’t make every rehearsal, or even the kickoff, you are invited! We would love nothing more than to fill our choir loft for this very special service.

Cantata Kickoff 2024 – Aiken’s First Baptist Church (subsplash.com)

Soli Deo Gloria,

Zach Derr

Earlier this year, the discipleship committee began working on Bible studies for this fall and next spring.  As they were working on these, they decided to pick one overarching theme that various short-term Bible studies could fit into. Eventually, they landed on Micah 6:8:  

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; 

   and what does the Lord require of you 

but to do justice, and to love kindness, 

   and to walk humbly with your God?  

Now, not every Bible study in the fall, winter, and spring will touch on this theme exactly, but most of them will in some form or fashion.  For instance, our Wednesday night study on our Baptist identity may seem distant from this theme.  Yet, it will touch on what it means to be a Baptist church that ordains and affirms women in all levels of church leadership—definitely an issue of equity and justice in our day.  

Below you will see a full list of the offerings for the fall, winter, and spring, and we hope you will make plans to join in some or all of these studies.  We especially hope this will be true for those of you who do not yet have a regular small group you belong to.  If we truly want to grow deeper in our faith and closer in our walk with Jesus, we need to do so alongside others who enrich us by their words and their walk of faith.  

Speaking of regular, ongoing small groups, you will find a full list of our Sunday morning and weekday small group listed below.  There are some new offerings there as well, including a Friday morning offering for men, so we hope you will check those out and join us as we grow together!