Acts of Faith
MAY
2021
MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF FAITH BAPTIST CHURCH We are a family of faith, sharing God’s love in a spirit of hope.
REGATHERING PLAN The Deacons and Administrative Committee approved a plan outlining steps to resuming in-person activities. This Regathering Plan offers a timeline for changes to our current practices for worship, classes, meals, etc. based on the vaccination rate of our church family, incidence rate of COVID-19 cases in Scott County, and statewide mandates. You can read the Regathering Plan on our website at familyoffaith.net/covid-19-response. We conducted a survey of Faith members and friends to determine our current vaccination rate among adults. According to the survey results and the current designation of Scott County as yellow, we are in the High Vaccination phase of the plan. Therefore, registration is no longer required to attend in-person worship and congregational singing is allowed. Masks and physical distancing are still required. We will continue to stream our worship services on Facebook each week. Some other changes this month are the return of youth and children’s Sunday School classes beginning May 23 and the reopening of the church office on Monday, May 24. Several adult Sunday School classes have already returned to in-person meetings and others will begin doing so in the coming weeks. Please remember to follow proper health measures when meeting in person to keep our church family and community safe. Those measures include wearing a mask unless outside, maintaining physical distance, washing your hands regularly, and staying home if you are ill.
We are thrilled by the opportunity to gather in person more regularly! Please know we are still being cautious and following statewide mandates and CDC guidance. Many of our in-person activities will be outdoors and we will still offer some virtual activities. We appreciate your patience and compliance that have allowed us to get to this point.
Check out the summer calendar on pages 5 and 6!
Easter 2021
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CHILDREN’S CORNER The children are wrapping up the year with Popsicles with Pastor Amanda. We are having fun outside playing games and learning about the early church on Sundays. The children are studying the book of Acts and discovering what it means to be the church. We are meeting at 6 p.m. on Sundays on the playground in the backyard. Our Godly Play Circle continues to meet through the month of May on Sunday mornings during the worship service. All children are invited to join us. We will begin our in-person Sunday School on May 23. Mark your calendars now for art camp coming the first week of August — Colorful: Celebrating the Colors God Gave Us! Children will explore all the colors of the world while creating beautiful works of art, playing games, and learning about God’s love for us all. This is a week your child won’t want to miss! Sign up now with Pastor Amanda.
YOUTH NEWS We are headed to Passport in June! Right now we have seven youth and two adults, but more are welcome! We ask you all to pray for the Passport staff and for all the campers and chaperones headed to North Carolina. If you would like to provide a partial or full scholarship for a student to attend camp, please make checks payable to Faith and put Passport scholarship in the memo. Thank you! It’s graduation time! If you know of a Faith member graduating from technical or trade school, college, or graduate school, please let Sharon know right away. Graduate Recognition Sunday will be May 16. We
will recognize our graduates in the service and have an outdoor “receiving line” of sorts in the big parking lot following the service. Please feel free to bring cards and notes of encouragement for the high school seniors. We will have places for you to leave the cards. Let’s make sure we send off these students with all the love and support Faith can give!
FAMILY SUMMER KICKOFF PARTY: AN EVENING UNDER THE STARS Woo hoo! Summer is just around the corner! Families of youth and children are invited to join us for An Evening Under the Stars and learn about all the fun things we have planned for the summer. Get your picnic ready and meet us in the church backyard at 6 p.m. on Sunday, May 23! You don’t want to miss this fun for the whole family so be sure to sign up with Sharon or Amanda by May 16!
JOY REFLECTIONS Yeah!!! We are excited we have guidelines for getting together in person! The JOY group will be one of the first to gather…most, if not all, of us have received the COVID vaccine and we are anxious to see each other. Our senior lunches will be at our regular date and time and place, the third Monday of the month at 11 a.m. in the RA, beginning in June. The Senior Steering Committee will meet soon and make sure all rules are followed and all of you are aware. Anyone planning to meet with JOY during the summer should let the committee know if you have received the vaccine by texting 859-806-9552 or emailing jbandpb@bellsouth.net. In case you forgot, JOY stands for Just Older Youth. There is no age limit so if you think you would enJOY our group, you are welcome to join us! We hope to see all of you soon!
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Words from William With the release of our summer calendar in this newsletter I’m going to take a moment to tell you about the intention behind it. When our staff had a planning day in March to talk through the summer, one thing that kept coming up was how much we (people in general) need recovery space after over a year of COVID. We need time to breathe, to laugh, to process, and to remember how to interact with other people face-to-face again. Everyone is so excited to be around people once more, but we need casual space to adjust ourselves to gathering in community again. For this reason, we’ve dedicated this summer to relationships and continuing our theme of story. You know that I LOVE relationships. I believe the reason our church has survived COVID so well is because of how much you value relationships. The strong relationships that already existed within our family of Faith became virtual to keep us going this past year. However, as we emerge from COVID restrictions, we have to relearn what it means to do life together by being physically present. This summer will have an extra emphasis on creating spaces for us to reconnect as a larger community with each other in person. We’ll have lots of light opportunities to grow closer through storytelling, service, worship, and fun. My prayer for the summer is that as we enter the new way of life we are growing into after COVID, we do so with a strong family of Faith around us. I’d like to highlight some specific opportunities I’m excited about this summer: Faith Story Hour: Think Moth Radio Hour. Several times during the summer we will gather to share stories. Each story hour will have a different theme (the first one is resilience). People will be able to share stories (no longer than 5 minutes) that reflect the theme for the night. I’m so excited to hear the incredible stories you have to share! Summer Fun Days: This is something we did last year as well. Each of these will be a different fun activity for church members to participate in together. We’ll watch the parade together, go kayaking together, and go fishing together. It’s truly just an opportunity to have fun spending time together and I can’t wait!
Rec. Nights: I love attempting to play sports. Throughout the summer we’ll be having open gym style rec nights where we’ll play games and run around together. Games could include ultimate frisbee (a favorite of mine), volleyball, gaga ball, whiffle ball, or whatever else the people who show up want to play. I can’t wait to have fun playing games and hopefully recover a bit from how out of shape I got during COVID. Also, no promises, but there’s even talk of a church volleyball league! Look out for more info on rec nights. Outdoor Worship: Several of you expressed how much you loved the vibe of our outdoor worship services last summer and fall so we’re bringing them back on a (roughly) once-a-month basis. I loved getting to sit in nature with you in a casual environment as we worshipped God a bit creatively. It’s always good to worship in community!
WEDNESDAY NIGHTS: THE STORY OF THE CHURCH We continue our Wednesday night discussions of the early church described in Acts. This Bible study is led by four panelists who further examine and offer different perspectives of the scripture from Sunday’s sermon. Join us on Facebook Live each Wednesday at 6 p.m. to listen to the discussion and offer your own insights and questions in the comments. Let's dive deeper into the story of the early church and see how it relates to the story of our own church. This series will conclude on Wednesday, May 19.
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FAITH BAPTIST BOOK CLUB Our Faith Baptist Book Club met to discuss The Midnight Library on Thursday, April 29. We have had so many wonderful discussions this winter and spring, taking the opportunity to walk in others’ shoes, and learning about human resilience, what gives life meaning, and what it means to be known. Join us for our next book club meeting on Thursday, May 27! The Zoom link will be sent in the Faith File that week. Check out the Faith Facebook page or @FaithBaptistBookClub on Instagram to discover our next book.
@faithbaptistbookclub OWSLEY COUNTY FLOOD RELIEF Pastor William and Randy Napier took a team from Faith to Owsley County to do demo work at a house that was damaged in the recent flooding. Our team came back home in one piece and a family is a little closer to having a house they can safely live in again. Thanks to the guys that went and to CBF Kentucky and Together For Hope Appalachia for organizing.
ADMIN COMMITTEE UPDATE Faith Baptist Church is currently operating with business meetings on a quarterly basis. Our next meeting will be on Sunday, May 16, at 1 p.m. by Zoom. We always seem to have several very important topics on the agenda and this month looks to be the same. We have several items I think everyone will be interested in hearing the discussions and reports. Currently some of the agenda items will include: • Regathering Plan — a presentation of our current plan to establish a process and procedure of returning to in-person worship and activities. The Plan has been monitored and approved by the Deacons and the Administration Committee in consultation with Pastor William. It does appear that we are making significant improvements to combat the virus and we encourage all members to hear this update and help us move back to our regular in-person worship service. • Personnel Committee Report — Chairman Randy Napier and committee have been monitoring our current staff vacancy for Senior Minister. Be sure to hear the latest discussion regarding this position and next steps in the future. • By-Law Revisions — Garvel Kindrick has been chairing a special committee on church membership. This committee has been asked to consider constitutional revisions to make our acceptance of proposed new members be more welcoming. This committee will present by-law amendments for the church consideration leading to a formal vote and church action. • Sanctuary Technology — We continue to make significant progress to replace and upgrade the technology in the sanctuary to make the worship experience both in-person and virtual more seamless and welcoming. Hear a report from Jeff Stone and Brian McFarland on our progress and future plans. Several other chairpersons will be available for additional reports. We certainly hope that each of you will take advantage of attending the May 16 business meeting and as always feel free to contact any committee chair if you have questions or concerns. Thank you.
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SUN 2
MON 3
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11 AM — 10AM-12PM — Worship, Pickleball Godly Play 6 PM — Children’s & Youth Activities
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11 AM — 10AM-12PM — Worship, Pickleball Godly Play 6 PM — Children’s & Youth Activities Ramiz Derakovic Dale Stowe
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Tina Rose
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10AM-12PM — Pickleball
9AM — Love Your Church Day
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10AM-12PM — Pickleball
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10AM-12PM — Pickleball
Hazel Langlands
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10AM-12PM — 7 PM — Pickleball Book Club 7 PM — Faith Story Hour: Resilience
Freda Hale
Emily Rose
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10AM-12PM — Pickleball
Kenzee Knoblock
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Memorial Day
MAY 2021 With COVID guidance changing regularly, our plans also change.
Carrie Abner
The best way to get the most current information is by joining Jan Lester
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Jared Wilcox Callie Cook
10AM-12PM — Pickleball 6 PM — The Story of the Church
10AM-12PM — Pickleball
Matt Rose Betsy Sams
11 AM — Worship, Godly Play
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Sis Curry
Rhys Tilford
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SAT
David Davila
10AM-12PM — Pickleball 6 PM — The Story of the Church
11 AM —Godly 10AM-12PM — Play, Worship Pickleball 1 PM— Business Mtg. 6 PM — Children’s & Youth Activities
10 AM— Sunday School 11 AM — Godly Play, Worship 6 PM — Summer Kickoff Party
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FRI
Pat Blackburn Molly Sigmon
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Jim Arehart Brady Lookadoo Sarah Marinelli
THURS
10AM-12PM — Pickleball 6 PM — The Story of the Church
Roy Tudor
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WED
our email list. Sign up for the Faith File on our website.
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LOVE YOUR CHURCH DAY Thanks to everyone who showed up for Love Our Church Day hosted by the Trustees. With such a great turnout we were able to do a lot of good spring cleaning inside and outside! We love our church and any excuse to spend time together.
FAITH BAPTIST CHURCH STAFF SENIOR PASTOR William Reilly william@familyoffaith.net ASSOCIATE PASTOR OF STUDENTS Sharon Felton sharon@familyoffaith.net ASSOCIATE PASTOR OF CHILDREN & EDUCATION Amanda Langlands amanda@familyoffaith.net CHOIR DIRECTOR Natalie Tilford-Kopp natalie@familyoffaith.net OFFICE MANAGER Angela Earwood angela@familyoffaith.net
CARE BEAR VOLUNTEER AWARD Bearnabus has loved staying with all these incredible people, but even he needs a break some time. He's feeling a bit deflated so Bearnabus will be taking the month off to rest and refill. We'll resume awarding the Care Bear Volunteer of the Month of the Year award when he's all patched up.
CUSTODIAN Linda Johnston ORGANIST Charlotte McFarland NURSERY WORKERS Suada Derakovic Melisa Custard Church Office M-F, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. (502) 863-1537 *The church building is currently closed. Staff can be reached by phone or email throughout the week.
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116 Pocahontas Trail Georgetown, KY 40324 502.863.1537 www.familyoffaith.net
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