West End Baptist Church

Heading Down Home Stretch

Sunday, April 22, 2012

For many weeks the Transition Team has focused on the mission of this church:  What does God want us to do in our community and around the world?  Constantly praying for God’s guidance, we have crafted a set of Core Values and a Mission Statement.  These values and the mission statement will be shared with you shortly.  You are invited to give your input, offer suggestions, and help us come to the point where these truly represent the values of this church.  As such, they will guide us in making future decisions about the use of our time, talents, and financial resources.  They will help us find a pastor who can lead us in the fulfillment of our mission.  This is not busy work.  Take time to study them, check out their base in Scripture, and pray over them, and participate in times set aside to discuss them.  You will see in these values a reflection of the practices of fruitful congregations.

Our study of the Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations is at an end, but the implementation and continual improvement of these practices is an ongoing challenge.  We must constantly evaluate how well we are doing at welcoming  our community with Radical Hospitality, expressing our devotion to God in Passionate Worship, impacting one another’s lives with Intentional Faith Development, undertaking Risk-Taking Mission and Service, and practicing Extravagant Generosity.  As we improve in each of this functions, our church will become stronger and more effective.

The Day After

Mark 16:6-7

"He said, 'Don't be afraid. I know you're looking for Jesus the Nazarene, the One they nailed on the cross. He's been raised up; he's here no longer. You can see for yourselves that the place is empty.'" (The Message)

The day after Easter is sometimes very quiet in churches. In many churches the staff and volunteers are often taking some well-deserved time off. The church might even look a bit of a mess, after what may be the most highly attended service of the year. The pollen from the lilies has had time to scatter around the church, as petals droop, giving things a musty air. Coffee cups spill out of full trash cans. The phones don't ring.

But not at WEBC.  I have participated in a variety of holy events this weekend—from a Good Friday worship, Saturday evening Easter Vigil, then a wonderful Resurrection Sunday! Still, as I write this, it is quiet--and I love how quiet it is, and how well-used it all looks. It's like waking up the morning after a great party, but no one has a hangover.

To me, Easter is the highlight of the church year, the biggest celebration of them all, after which I can't help but ask, "What now?" After the intensity of Holy Week, the sorrow followed by the joy, where do we go from here?

We go back to the work of living, of cleaning up the flowers, of straightening up after the party, of seeing the usual people on Sunday mornings, and not all those extras. It's hard to not feel a little sad that every Sunday can't be like Easter. It's tempting to judge the people who only come on Easter.

I think there's a reason every Sunday can't be Easter. We're not ready for it every Sunday. We need all those other Sundays to gear up for it, to appreciate it, and then to recover from that much joy in one place.

We need a quiet Monday, so that the walls of the church can rest, the halls of the classrooms can breathe, the cloud of witnesses in heaven can sigh and remember that one day later, Christ is still risen. He is risen indeed!

Prayer

Christ the Lord is risen today. And the day after. And the day after that. Amen.

God's Mission--Our Passion

During the month of December, members of West End are giving Christmas gifts to Jesus by contributing to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Missions Offering.  On each December Sunday, bulletin inserts are provided to give examples of ministries that are supported by our missions gifts through CBF.

On December 3rd, we focused on ministry to marginalized people in Miami.  On Dec 11th, our focus shifted to Africa where our CBF missionaries work among the people of Uganda.

Global Missions is our cooperative channel for giving to Christ so we can accomplish together what would be impossible for us to do alone.  Jesus said, "When you help the 'least of these,' you have helped me."  Let's be faithful to our calling by giving gifts that Jesus would recognize as gifts for him.  After all, it is HIS birthday.