Acts of Faith MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF FAITH BAPTIST CHURCH We are a family of faith, sharing God’s love in a spirit of hope.
So many people find God in nature. We are impressed with the beauty and organization of the world around us. The rocks, and trees, and flowers, and birds, and all of God’s glorious creation draw us into communion with God. This summer we’ll be leaning into how beautiful Kentucky is as we gather in this natural sanctuary to worship the creator God. On June 1 and 15 we’ll gather in June Williams’ backyard, on July 6 and 20 we’ll congregate in the Collins’ backyard, and on August 3 we’ll gather around a table in the Hadaways’ backyard, all at 7 p.m. You’re invited to bring your own chair, but there will also be seating on hand for those who don’t have one. Each service will be different, but they will all be simple, involving some music, prayer, scripture, and reflection. It will be a glorious time to connect with God surrounded by God’s beautiful creation, both nature and our family of Faith. So come congregate, commune, and worship.
Experience art and community with our friends and neighbors at an open mic night! Everyone (even non-Faith people) are invited to participate through listening or sharing stories, poems, songs, music, or any other way you express yourself. We’ll gather in the RA on Tuesday, June 7, at 7 p.m. Light refreshments will be provided. Sign up when you show up for a 5-minute slot. Contact Natalie Kopp with questions.
The Wilcox Family is inviting everyone to join them in attending "The Wizard of Oz" in Harrodsburg on June 25 at 7 p.m. You may even see a familiar face on stage! (Spoiler alert: it’s Jaycie!) A group will take the church bus and leave at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 and must be purchased in advance. The link to buy tickets is in the Faith File and can also be requested in the church office.
We said “see ya later” to Pastor Amanda last month as she began her time of travel, rest, and reflection this summer for her sabbatical. The Langlands family departs for their month-long trip to Italy on June 8. Please pray for them as they travel and explore, and pray specifically for Amanda as she tries to resist the pressure to be productive during this time of intentional rest. We are excited to welcome two familiar faces to our staff this summer! Piper Gullett has begun her work as Interim Children’s Minister in Amanda’s absence. She has hit the ground running by leading Sunday School and Godly Play on Sundays and preparing for VBS. Carter Felton is serving as our summer intern and will be helping in all areas of church life. His work is through CBF’s Student.Church program which provides congregational internships to students who are interested in a deeper experience of church life or pursuing a call to ministry.
We celebrated the risen Christ in many meaningful ways this year. Alleluia!
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Have you registered for VBS yet? Passport to Peace, our summer adventure for kids in kindergarten through 5th grade, is almost here! Join us on Wednesdays, June 8, 15, 22, and 29, for Bible stories, crafts, recreation, and a unique experience each week like cooking, soccer, art, and architecture. We will have fun all morning from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and lunch is included. Please wear clothes that can get messy and splashed with paint as we are going to be having lots of messy fun! Register online now!
During Lent, the children collected change to support Watering Malawi after learning about its efforts to bring clean water to everyone in Malawi in Kids on Mission. Thanks to your generous donations (and some assistance from the change machine at Commonwealth Credit Union), we were able to mail a check for $138.24 last month! That's a lot of change for a really good cause.
This month we have several fun activities on the schedule and we hope you’ll join us! First up is our movie night on Friday, June 3, at 6:30 p.m. in the RA. We’ll watch Florence Foster Jenkins and enjoy popcorn and drinks! Then on Tuesday, June 14, we’ll head to Midway for lunch at Wallace Station. This scenic stop is known for its homemade sandwiches, soups, salads, and an irresistible bakery. We’ll leave church at 10:45 a.m. and return by 2 p.m. Our monthly potluck luncheon is on Monday, June 20, at 11 a.m. in the RA. Our meal will be hamburgers and hot dogs with chips and coleslaw. Bring a dish to share if you are able. Our speaker will be Officer Ryan Hill. Our big outing for the month is Anchors Away Friday from the Belle of Louisville! This hour-and-a-half cruise on the Mary M. Miller steamboat is the perfect way to unwind and enjoy time together. We will leave church at 4 p.m. and the cost is $15 per person. Concessions are available for purchase on the boat. Sign-up sheets for both outings are on the JOY bulletin board in the main hallway and need to be completed by the Wednesday prior.
In May, Heather Clary from the BBB came to our JOY lunch to talk about how to spot and avoid scams. Last month we also took a trip to Lexington for a tour of the beautiful Jonabell horse farm and lunch at Ramsey’s.
3 On June 11, fourteen of our Faith family will board a plane and fly to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the next 8 days. Please be in prayer for our group and for the church we will be working with, Del Sol Church. Please pray for the children we will work with at a local homeless shelter and in a new summer reading camp program the church is beginning. We will help lead their service on Sunday and do various activities during the week to help this new church start connecting with their community. I am so excited about this trip and about the group going to serve! I can’t wait to see how God uses our group and to see the impact the experience has on each one of us. I am so proud of the work this group has put in already! Thank you so much for all of your support and financial help which has made this trip possible! We could not have done it without the encouragement and support from our Faith Family! Here are the names of those going on the trip so you can pray for them specifically: Carrie Rashleigh Patrik Rashleigh Laryssa McConnaughhay Lucy McConnaughhay Tate McConnaughhay Ross McConnaughhay Jeff Stone
Aidan Stone Simon Hatch Philip Hatch Derek Hatch Maya Felton Carter Felton Sharon Felton
We celebrated and recognized our graduates last month in worship and at a special potluck lunch. We are excited to see where their journeys lead and we will pray for them along the way.
After worship on Sunday, June 5, we will take our new sixth graders and other middle school students out for lunch and ice cream! We’ll talk about what it’s like in middle school and also what kinds of things we do in the youth group. Make sure if you’re in middle school to stay after church! We will head to MOD pizza for lunch and Spotz for ice cream! You may pick students up from Spotz. Our first-ever craft fair was a success! It was HOT, but that didn’t stop the fun! We had a wide variety of vendors (including several Faith members and friends), a steady stream of shoppers, and some excellent items for the raffle baskets! All the money from vendor fees and raffle baskets went towards the New Mexico mission trip. Thank you for your support of this event and the youth! We are so appreciative of our family of Faith!
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Words from William After somewhere between eight and eighty years of discussion and rumored progress, Faith Baptist Church officially has an updated constitution and bylaws as of our May business meeting. Yay! This is a big deal because it is significant for the governance of our church, but also because for years people have uttered “those new bylaws will never happen.” It’s become a common refrain at business meetings. The first question I fielded at my first business meeting was, “Any progress on the bylaws?” These bylaws are a pinnacle representing A LOT of administrative work over the last three years. In the past three years our committees and staff have created and implemented a child protection policy, launched a new website, redesigned all of our print and digital communication, created a new logo and branding, updated the staff handbook, made a new wedding policy, drafted new membership policies, formally entered into partnerships with Scarlette Jasper and Together For Hope Appalachia, created a statement of welcome that provides clarity on how welcoming we are for people in the LGBTQ community, updated financial filing systems and securely destroyed several years of records, changed Amanda and Sharon’s titles to Associate Pastor, and of course passed extensive updates to our constitution and bylaws. During most of that time we were also creating numerous policies and procedures to safely navigate a global pandemic. Wow! Countless committee meetings, nights of research, formal and informal conversations, and diligent prayer have allowed these necessary administrative accomplishments to happen. So yes, celebration is appropriate. Thank you for your work in making sure our church functions effectively. However, while it is important to celebrate this work, let us not lose sight of something. All of these administrative tasks are necessary and good to allow our church to function, but they themselves are not the function of the church. The point of the church is not to perpetuate the church, but rather to love God, love neighbors, and make disciples. We are a family of faith, sharing God’s love in a spirit of hope. While we rightfully celebrate all this this committee work, let us remember that it is only necessary to allow us to do the real work of the church. The business of the church does not happen in a business meeting, but around a table with a friend as you talk together about God. It’s not in a report, but in the way the spirit moves during worship. The thing that really impresses me over these last three years is that while we’ve done all of this important administration work, we’ve continued being a church. We’ve continued loving each other, teaching and learning, and sharing God with our world. That is the real celebration! As always, I’m blown away by how competent and resilient our church is. We have accomplished some incredible administrative wins over the last three years, but we’ve also never stopped being a church. Thank you for taking on these monumental tasks and for never losing sight of what church is really all about. There will be more administrative tasks that demand our attention in the coming years, but I am confident we will handle them. And all the while we’ll continue to share God’s love in a spirit of hope. We’ll continue to do the real work of the church.
We helped Elizabeth’s Village again with some work at their domestic violence shelter construction site. Thanks to everyone who volunteered! Be on the lookout for more opportunities to serve.
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Dear Faith Family, Thank you all for your presence and support for the changes to our Constitution and By-laws last Sunday. The By-laws committee led by Charlie Perkins worked with church staff to update these documents. Please let them know you appreciate this careful and important work. Some of the changes will affect elected positions and committees, and we decided that these will take effect with the next election cycle this fall. The other changes will take effect immediately. Changing the rules by which we conduct the work of our church is a sign of a healthy and vibrant congregation. I am glad we have accomplished this work together. Roger Ward, Moderator You can view the updated Constitution and By-laws on our website at www.familyoffaith.net/project/bylaws.
Pat Blackburn has been working hard to collect updated pictures from Faith members and friends over the past few months. Thanks to her work, as well as help from photographer Flash Williams, we will be ready to distribute a contact list that includes pictures this summer! We will email a password-protected document as well as provide a limited number of hard copies on Sunday mornings and upon request from the church office. If you haven’t sent in your picture, please do so as soon as possible. Pictures should be sent to photos@familyoffaith.net.
Thank you to Isaac Dean and friends for building an incredible gaga pit as an Eagle Scout project. We’ve already gotten good use out of it at our End of the Year Cookout last month!
Over the course of two weeks in June CBFKY and its churches will build an entire house for a family in McCreary County from the ground up! This year we are building a house for a family of 6 and this will change their lives for generations. Faith members and friends have been helping in this effort for years and you are invited to help again. We will be going as a group to work on Monday, June 13, but you are welcome to volunteer any day that week. The work is varied and EVERYONE can find something they can do so all ages and abilities are welcome. No prior building experience is required. To volunteer, you must register at cbfky.org/extreme-build. In addition to the registration form, please let the church office know if you're coming with Faith on Monday, June 13. We are blessed with many talented musicians in our congregation! We have enjoyed many special musical offerings recently, including several pieces from a jazz ensemble in worship on May 22. Music is such an integral and meaningful part of our worship and we are thankful for those who share their time and talents with us.
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Sharon Felton
Betty Cruse Emiline Langlands
Rick Hawthorne Asa Overall
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Ron Hastings Maya Felton
Aalyah Custard
Melisa Custard
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Amara Dean
Parks Gullett
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Betty Covington Marilee Pollock
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Bill Oster
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Rick Kopp
Jared Cain
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FAITH BAPTIST CHURCH STAFF PASTOR William Reilly william@familyoffaith.net
Branson Wren joined the church last month and will be baptized on June 12! We are excited to officially welcome Branson to our family of Faith!
Deacons will meet on Sunday, June 12, right after worship in the Martha Simpson Sunday School Classroom.
All are welcome to join Prayers & Squares on the second Tuesday of each month in the church basement at 6:30 p.m. to work on prayer quilts. No quilting or sewing experience is necessary; there are plenty of jobs! Contact Kathy Fraley with questions. Clyde McConnaughhay took a break in the shade while mowing the church lawn on a hot day. We are thankful for all those who work hard to make our church grounds look nice!
ASSOCIATE PASTOR OF STUDENTS Sharon Felton sharon@familyoffaith.net ASSOCIATE PASTOR OF CHILDREN & EDUCATION Amanda Langlands amanda@familyoffaith.net MINISTER TO SENIOR ADULTS Rick Hawthorne rick@familyoffaith.net CHOIR DIRECTOR Natalie Tilford-Kopp natalie@familyoffaith.net OFFICE MANAGER Angela Earwood angela@familyoffaith.net CUSTODIAN Linda Johnston ORGANIST Charlotte McFarland
PIANIST Judith Williams
— Rick & Betty Covington — Dawne McConnaughhay, Connie Hastings — Clyde McConnaughhay, Mattie Katz — Maya Felton, Lucy McConnaughhay
NURSERY WORKERS Suada Derakovic Melisa Custard Church Office: (502) 863-1537 M-F, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
116 Pocahontas Trail Georgetown, KY 40324 502.863.1537 www.familyoffaith.net
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