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Growing Faith, Friends & Families to Serve
In this issue:
Harvest for the Hungry Thank You
Thanksgiving Offering Goal for 2021
Meeting Pastor Nikki Leftley
How Can You Help Our New Pastors
October’s Bodcast
Financial Update as of the End of September
This Week’s Worship Services
A Request from the Salvation Army
L’Arche Fredericton Fundraiser
This Week @ BSBC
1. Harvest for the Hungry 2021
Thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU!
Even during a pandemic, you came through in a marvellous way. There were hundreds of individual non-perishable food items, paper products, cleaning supplies that were divided between our New Life ministry and The Greener Village Food Bank. In addition, as of Tuesday, Oct. 12, nearly $1,000 has been given to Harvest for the Hungry. This will be divided between New Life and Greener Village and will facilitate purchases of specific items needed for those they serve.
You are yet another reason for thanks to God!
Your Social Action Team
2. Thanksgiving Offering Goal
In February of this year, when our church family met for our Annual General Meeting, those gathered considered the financial life of our church family. A budget for our ministry work for 2021 was presented and adopted. Part of the giving profile for 2021 included a special/additional offering for Thanksgiving. The goal for this offering, given in addition to whatever each household regularly gives, is $7000. Thank you for prayerfully considering this opportunity to give. Please be sure to mark you gifts “Thanksgiving Offering”. Your church leadership remain grateful for the faithful giving of our church family.
Pastor Greg
3. Meeting Pastor Nikki
Please be in prayer for Pastor Nikki Leftley as, this Thursday morning, Oct. 14, she plans to leave Barrie, Ontario, and make her way to Fredericton and to us.
We anticipate that in our services this coming Sunday morning you’ll have opportunity to meet Pastor Nikki in-person and online.
Her first day in the office will be Monday, Oct. 18. Please keep the Pastor Nikki and the Watters family in your prayers as they settle in to leadership at BSBC.
4. How You Can Help Our New Pastors
The obvious answer is to pray regularly for them. Another way is to introduce yourself, repeatedly. There’s one of them and hundreds of us. I can assure you, they won’t be offended if you take the initiative to introduce yourself more than once!
BSBC's Online Church Photo Directory
There is another way. It will take a little initiative on your part but will be invaluable to them. If you are not already members of our Online Church Photo Directory — please do so this week. Imagine how helpful it would be to a new pastor to be able to scan the online directory until they find the face and then, name, of the person who really encouraged them with a kind word? Or, they scan the directory and see the faces that belong to an individual family. This week, the Watters joined the online directory so that they will have access to your faces, names and whatever other details you wish to include.
How does it work?
You contact the church office (bsbc@bsbc.nb.ca or receptionist@bsbc.nb.ca), indicate your interest and provide the email address you wish to use. The office will set that up for you, send you the link and you will establish your own password for your account. As far as security is concerned, only those in the directory have access to the directory, that is, it cannot be accessed by anyone surfing the net. This is predicated on the notion that none of the members of the online directory share their email and password — we’d ask that you wouldn’t do that.
It might be that uploading a picture is a challenge for you. If this is the case, email the photo you want to use to the office (email above) and we’ll get that done for you and walk you through adding the data you feel comfortable making available.
OH, and don’t you think it might be helpful to you to have access to the directory? So you can find out who that person is that sits next to you each Sunday morning!
Thank you for considering helping our new pastors in this very practical way!
Pastor Greg
5. October's BODcast
You’re invited to tune in for the next installment of Dr. Keith’s Bodcast series. Here is the introduction to this month’s offering:
With striking detail and deeply-felt pain, the poet of Psalm 79 describes the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and the aftershocks of invasion. Why are the voices of this psalm preserved for us, where does it occur in the Psalter, and does it apply to our Christian lives right now (some 2600 years after its composition)? In this short Bodcast we will listen to the words of Psalm 79, and suggest that it is a powerful (and challenging) resource as we seek to follow the Lord Jesus during this season of uncertainty for our surrounding culture.
6. Financial Update
Financial Giving Update, Jan. 1 to Sept. 30
Current Yr Prev Year Budget
General $606,083 $621,736 $679,118
Building $103,803 $85,905 $101,250
General fund giving is $73,035 below budget target, which is low for this time of year. We are hoping for increased giving this fall to close the gap before year-end.
Building fund giving is above our budget target and is significantly greater than this point last year. Any amounts above the budget will be applied to reduce the mortgage principle.
God bless each of you for your faithful giving, even during the tumultuous times we are experiencing.
Ken Reimer, Treasurer
7. This Week's Worship Services
Join us in-person or online as we gather this coming Lord’s day to offer ourselves in worship of the Living God. Stephen Alward, Executive Director of Green Hill Lake Camp, is our special guest in both services. Stephen comes to provide us with an update on our camp, summer ministry and fall needs.
Contemporary Service
In the gym, Julianne Moore will be your worship leader and Dr. Keith will launch the first instalment of his 3-week sermon series, Turning a New Leaf. A series inviting us to consider how we revive our faith and embrace a new iteration of sheltering in and serving God.
Sermon notes: Time to Reconsider
“When Jesus is speaking at the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4), he reads a passage from book of Isaiah, and announces that the prophetic word has been fulfilled with his arrival on that day. Yet the assembled crowd are doubtful that this local son of Joseph could possibly be the great fulfillment of the Scriptures. As part of his response, Jesus reminds them, “there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.” Who is this widow, and how does her story make a difference in our lives right now? As it turns out, she’s character who is invited to have a completely new perspective on her desperate circumstances, her lifetime of disappointments, and her doubts about the resurrection power of God. When we put these various portions of God’s word together, we are given a fresh invitation to consider the reality of Jesus and his call on our lives this season.”
Traditional Service
In the sanctuary, our musicians include David Steeves, organ and Gloria Tranquilla, piano. In addition to ministry by one of our vocal ensembles, we’ll find blessing in the ministry of Gloria Tranquilla.
Sermon notes
Pastor Greg will offer the first sermon in the series Unleashing the Church, an ongoing study in Ephesians. This Sunday, we’ll be looking at Ephesians 1: 3-14. One key element in the church’s vitality and impact is a realization that God has gifted the church with spiritual blessings that orient it for powerful ministry inside and out.
8. A Request from the Salvation Army
This week, our office received a call from Major Deering, pastor of the Salvation Army Citadel here in Fredericton. Major Deering was calling to ask the congregation of BSBC to assist with their annual Christmas Kettle Campaign.
12. L’Arche Fredericton Fundraiser
Are you familiar with the L’Arche movement? “L’Arche has a broad social vision beyond providing care and services for people with disabilities. L’Arche seeks inclusion for people with disabilities but also seeks to change the society in which they are included. How? One heart at a time.
Did you know that Fredericton has a L’Arche community?
“L’Arche Fredericton started as Willow Tree Community in 2010 when a group of people was brought together by a note in a church bulletin. The seeds of L’Arche had been planted in that group in different places and at different times. Some had lived in other L’Arche communities, others had family members living in L’Arche communities, some had attended a retreat with Jean Vanier held in Saint John, NB. All had been inspired by the message of Jean Vanier and were interested in seeing a L’Arche community in Fredericton.” Want to know more? Visit www.larchefredericton.org.
Fundraiser
L’Arche is offering their annual Fredericton Fall Dinner Fundraiser on Saturday, Oct. 23, with pick-up of your dinner at Greener Village between 5 and 6 p.m. Dinner for two is $50.
Dinner includes melt-in-your-mouth Lasagna and Caesar Salad prepared expertly by Chef Yves Dechaine, followed by something for your sweet-tooth from The Muse and Colburn’s fresh apple cider.
To purchase your tickets, please contact larchefredericton@gmail.com by Tuesday, Oct. 12.
10. This Week at BSBC: Oct. 13 - 20, 2021
Please note: FLC stands for Family Life Center
Wednesday, October 13
9:30 Seniors Exercise (Gym)
10:00 Library Open
6:00 Vocal Ensemble (Sanctuary)
6:30 Youth Bible Study (Zoom)
6:30 “Not Your Usual Prayer Meeting” Prayer Meeting (Zoom)
Thursday, October 14
9:30 New Life (3rd Floor, FLC)
1:30 Ladies Bible Study (Family Room)
7:00 Mandarin Choir Practice (Choir Room)
7:00 GriefShare (Family Room, FLC)
Friday, October 15
9:30 Seniors Exercise (Gym)
6:00 “Friends Are Us” Puppet Team (Puppet Room, KidzTown, FLC)
Saturday, October 16
1:00 Worship Team Practice
2:00 Youth Groups Pumpkin Carving (Church Parking Lot)
Sunday, October 17
06:00 Mandarin Prayer Meeting (Boardroom Over the Main Kitchen)
9:00 Asian Class (Boardroom Over the Main Kitchen)
10:15 Preschool Classes (1st Floor, FLC)
10:15 KidzTown (2nd Floor, FLC)
10:30 Contemporary Service (Gym/Facebook Live)
10:30 Mandarin Worship Service (3rd Floor Assembly Area, FLC)
10:30 Traditional Service (Sanctuary/Youtube)
Noon Fresh Start Young Adult Luncheon (Barnabas Center)
4:30 Third Sunday Supper (Gym)
Monday, October 18
9:30 Seniors Exercise (Gym)
7:00 Board of Management (Zoom)
7:00 WMS (Family Room, FLC)
Tuesday, October 19
12:00 Mandarin Prayer Meeting (Boardroom over Main Kitchen)
1:30 Pastoral Staff Meeting (Family Room, FLC)
1:30 Quilters for Missions (Quilting Room, 2nd Floor)
2:15 Full Staff Meeting (Family Room, FLC)
6:30 DivorceCare (Family Room, FLC)
Wednesday, October 20
9:30 Seniors Exercise (Gym)
6:00 Vocal Ensemble (Sanctuary)
6:30 Not Your Usual Bible Study (Zoom)
6:30 Youth Bible Study (Zoom)
