Another wonderful Camp Wightman Church Retreat is over!  Once again, we were blessed with fellowship, fun, food, and worshipful festivities!  It is so meaningful to witness people grow in faith by spending time with God and one another.  Thank you, God, for the gift of a Camp Wightman church retreat.

Excerpt from sermon on 09/20/2015:

It’s 2,000 years later but, just like the original disciples, we can also be thickheaded! We forget what greatness is measured by in the Kingdom of God. We get seduced by our culture, which tells us that greatness is measured by success, or money, or beauty, or talent, or intelligence – by something we possess rather than by something we give. But Jesus teaches us that that’s not how the love of God works. God doesn’t love us more if we’re more successful, or more rich, or more beautiful, or more talented, or more intelligent than others. God loves us no matter what we are or what we have. And the only thing that greatness lies in is giving that love of God to others, especially to those who don’t know the love of God because the world doesn’t give it to them.


FULL SERMON HERE

Excerpt from sermon on 09/13/2015:

As I was working on this sermon this week, I could not help but think of the refugee crisis and the millions of people who are desperately seeking asylum and a place to live without fear for their lives. According to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees in a report at the end of 2014, “the number fleeing war and persecution hasn’t been greater since World War II . . . More than 60 million people have been displaced by conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Ukraine and elsewhere, and the violence is expected to drive hundreds of thousands more to seek asylum this year and next."1 In a sermon about having open hands and open hearts, about receiving and releasing each other with love as we all live and move and have our being in God, these refugees, who are leaving a beloved place because of persecution and arriving at strange places in hope of redemption, deserve our attention. After all, the infant Jesus fled with Joseph and Mary from Bethlehem to Egypt due to persecution from Herod, who was going to find and kill him (Mt 2:13-18). How we treat those who are in desperate need matters, as Jesus made clear in his parable of the sheep and the goats. Just because we are in the United States and are not immediately affected by an influx of refugees does not mean we should not attend to them. Not only should we care because our faith requires us to care (“whatever you do to the least of these you do to me”), we should care because this crisis is an opportunity to show what Christianity is really about: extending the love of God outside of the doors of the church and into the world, and inviting those outside the doors of the church to come in and be loved.

FULL SERMON HERE

PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW, which is a beautiful testimony of what the God of Jesus Christ can do with we poor souls who often feel helpless in the face of violence and suffering.  Please listen to Miriam's song, especially, which begins at 4:40.  You will be blessed.

Please join the members and friends of Canton Community Baptist Church for an evening with Mercy Gonzalez Barnes, an American Baptist Churches of the USA international missionary in Latin America, on Monday, October 26, at 7:00 p.m., 125 Dowd Avenue, Canton, CT.  

Mercy has been serving as a missionary with International Ministries since she was commissioned in 2000. Fifteen years later, her ministry has entered an exciting period of transition as Mercy’s role has evolved from one of local mission work in Mexico to one of regional work. She will now take the experiences and skills accrued through 13 years of teaching, mentoring and walking alongside men and women who have felt the call of God and apply them to a wider ministry of responding to diverse educational and theological needs in Latin America. In addition, Mercy will be part of a team walking alongside the ministry of Cuban Baptists. 

To read about Mercy's trip to Cuba, CLICK HERE

Mercy's husband, Rick Barnes, works alongside her.  He talks about their mission and ministry in the video below.

Sermon excerpt from 09/06/2015:

After Qoheleth realizes that all of our work crumbles to dust, “all is vanity and a chasing after the wind,” you‘d think that he’d say work is pointless. Avoid it. Instead, he urges enthusiastic, vigorous engagement in work: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in the underworld, to which you are going” (9:10). Qoheleth is telling us to enjoy our work as an end in itself. If it is something we do in order to get something else, then we will be frustrated. Most of the trouble we get into with our work is when we fail to keep it in its proper place. Our work becomes who we are; it defines us. We secure ourselves through our work. This makes our work into an idol. And, as we know, all idols lead to trouble. God said, “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them” (Ex 20:4-5). Work is not meant to be made into an idol, something that gets in the way of our relationship with God. Instead, it is one of the gracious things God gives us to do while we are on the earth. The results of our work may not last forever, but our work can still be active, joyous creation – as long as we keep it in its proper place.

FULL SERMON HERE

The American Baptist Churches of the USA World Mission Offering 2015 will be received at our church during September.  This year, the offering seems particularly relevant because of the refugee crisis our world is facing.  There are so many in desperate need around the world.  The World Mission Offering helps to relieve some of this suffering by ministering to and serving those in need.  To learn more about American Baptists missions, see the video below.

American Baptist Women’s Ministries announces its mission focus theme for 2015-2016, “See…the Beloved Community: Transformative Relationships.” In response to current events, the mission focus provides American Baptist women and girls the opportunity to explore how we are drawn into reconciliation with God through the cross; how we are co-creators of the Beloved Community through authentic relationships with one another; and how our ministries and congregations can lead our neighborhoods, towns, and cities in becoming the Beloved Community. The one-year mission focus also builds on the organization’s 2015-2017 open-ended ministry theme, “See . . .”

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Yesterday, during the communion service at our church, the organist, Alan MacMillan, was playing "Ave Verum Corpus" by Marcel Dupre. For me, it was one of those lovely moments during a worship service when all the pieces of the service come together to touch me in a special way with the grace of God, and the music was central to this experience.

While listening, I began to pray for everyone there, then for those of our church who were not there, and then for everyone in the world. I imagined the love of God as tendrils touching each person, beginning with those in our church and then spreading out into the world. Then, I began to choreograph a dance in my head to "Ave Verum Corpus" that would express this idea that God touches each one of us with God's love and grace, and then we touch others, and on it goes until all have been touched and transformed.

For me, worship is a window through which the Divine can visit us and we can visit the Divine. Afterward, I feel I glow a bit more with the light of Christ, the love of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit, for God has been back and forth through that window we in worship have opened for Him/Her.

BELOW IS A LINK TO HEAR "Ave Verum Corpus."