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 Serving As The Hands and Feet of Christ
"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me -- watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." Words of Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30, THE MESSAGE BIBLE (Eugene Peterson) |
37 South Jackson Street |
856-845-0526
office@cbcwoodbury.org |
| Home Page | Meet The Pastors | About Us | The Spire |
| Co-Interim Pastor | Co-Interim Pastor | |
| Rev. Dave N. Knipel | Dr. Carla A. Romarate-Knipel |
A MESSAGE FROM YOUR INTERIM PASTORS “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”.” - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a (NIV) As we approach Valentine’s Day, we are reminded of the great “Love” chapter of the Bible – 1 Corinthians 13. It contains the beautiful description of love quoted above. When the apostle Paul wrote about the fact that love never fails, however, he was not referring to romantic love, which we know is sometimes inconstant. Instead, he was referring to the steadfast love quoted 26 times as a refrain in Psalm 136 – “God’s love never fails.” Anything that NEVER fails gets our attention. Sounds too good to be true. Failure is a part of our lives, and we have plenty of experience with it. We also have learned many ways to deal with it. For instance – “It’s no use crying over spilled milk.” How often have you heard that saying? At the recent meeting in Orlando of the Board of General Ministries of American Baptist Churches USA, Board Chaplain Jeff Savage recounted a touching story about spilled milk and lessons to be learned from what seemed like failure.. He reflected that there's something so humble - so earthy and ordinary - about the story of Christmas. But Paul apparently realized how difficult this covenant might be to fulfill for this lower-middle class congregation at Corinth. So what does he do? Does he say, okay, you promised, now just do it? No, he encourages them with a report of how gracious God has been to the churches over in Macedonia. As Pastor Savage tells the story, there was a little boy was trying to help himself pour a glass of milk all by himself, with no parent around. He opened the refrigerator and tried to take out the plastic milk bottle, but in doing so, his little hands slipped and the milk spilled all over the kitchen floor, splashed on the walls and even up to the ceiling – a big milky way mess. The boy started to cry, expecting a major scolding, and just then his mother came into the room and saw the havoc this little misadventure had created. To his surprise, his mother did not start with a lecture. Instead, she said: “Well, since the milk is already all over the place, would you like to play in it?” Shocked and delighted, the little boy said “yes” and proceeded to do what little boys do so well – playing in a puddle – in this case, a huge puddle of milk. When he eventually tired of that, his mother said: “Well, for every thing we do, there are consequences, and the consequence of this is that we need to clean up the milk. Can we do that together?” And so, with a mop and some towels, the mother and child cleaned up the milky mess. After this, his mother said: “Trying to get the milk by yourself this time was an experiment that did not work out so well. Would you like to see if you can find a way to do it the next time by yourself without spilling it?” The boy said “Yes” and he and his mother went outside, filled a plastic milk bottle with water, and experimented again and again until the little boy figured out a way to grasp the bottle by the neck and carry it to a place where he could pour it without spilling it. The little boy grew up to adulthood and became a renowned research scientist with a number of important discoveries. He said later that he always remembered that day and the way his mother handled that spilled milk situation. He credits it with starting his interest in experimental research. He recounts: “What it taught me is that there are no failed experiments. Even when we don’t get the result we were hoping for, we learn something. We learn what doesn’t work and that helps us on our way to discovering what does work.” This is a critical lesson for a church family in an interim transition status – a time when experiments can be safely tried within the congregation. THERE ARE NO FAILED EXPERIMENTS. THE ONLY FAILURE IS THE FAILURE TO LEARN FROM OUR EXPERIMENTS. We thank God for the willingness of our church family to be flexible and to try out new ways of doing mission, ministry and worship during challenging times. We are blessed to be able to minister with you during this transitional period, and pray that together we will continue to trust God’s Holy Experiment in our midst, knowing that with God, there are no failed experiments, because as Psalm 136, 1 Corinthians 13 and the old hymn reminds us: Jesus Never Fails. Yours and His,
FEBRUARY WORSHIP THEME Main Theme:Walking With Jesus: Living the Christian Life Together EMERGENCY CONTACT INFORMATION If there is an EMERGENCY in your family or you know of a need please call at any time:
ANNOUNCEMENTS COUNCIL UPDATE – Our Church Council met on Thursday January 26th. The Council, heard reports from the Committees, heard an update on Riverview Estates and we made plans for the year 2012. Please note that everyone is invited to attend the Council meetings, our next scheduled meeting is Tuesday, February 21st 7pm. CBC Sunday School Classes – The adult Sunday School is being led by Bob Miller and they are studying Ecclesiastes. The Junior High Class is led by Pastor Carla. This group has 6 tweens and they are having an exciting class every Sunday learning from The Bible In Life curriculum! The young children are working on a Magic Church Bus trips back in time to Biblical Times. BIBLE STUDY GROUPS
FEBRUARY MISSIONS PROJECTS
FOOD MINISTRY- Food collection to support The Greater Woodbury Cooperative Ministries is an on-going mission project. The Food Bank accepts donations of food (canned, boxed or fresh) and household supplies on Tuesday and Thursday Mornings, located at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church on the corner of South Barber and Evergreen Avenues, from 9am to 11am. The Food Bank will accept gift cards to any local grocery store for them to purchase The American Baptist Women of CBC is asking for your support in the collection of items greatly needed for several mission projects. Your participation with this mission outreach will help meet the physical and spiritual needs of others locally, across the United States and around the world. Each mission will reflect the date items are needed. White Cross Ministry needs the following items. In lieu of items a gift card to BJ’s, Wal-Mart or Kmart is acceptable. White Cross gifts are going to an American Baptist Community Center located at Tabernacle Baptist Church, Utica, NY. Ziploc bag ( sandwich size) Disposable diapers (any size) Hair brushes First class postage stamps Baby booties Baby sweaters/sweatshirts Clothing Ministry- New or used (good condition) clothing are needed to support The Greater Woodbury Cooperative Ministries (Jeanette’s Closet) and our Homeless Sister and Brothers in the Camden area. The collection of these items will be an on-going mission from now to the end of winter:
The Auxiliary of the Baptist Home of South Jersey
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Web Page updated February 14, 2012 Production of Central Baptist Church James Krauss - Webmaster |