From The Pastor

Brothers and sisters,

Today’s article may seem a little strange at first but bear with me. As I write this article, both WRAL and WTVD are calling for snow this weekend. They’re not officially estimating totals, but have said anywhere from 1-3” of snow is quite likely for the Triangle. The little widget on my computer is telling me 6-12”, but it was also convinced we’d get 11” of snow this past weekend, so I don’t trust it at all.

Regardless, I’ve been hearing stories all this week about people helping each other during this past weekend’s winter storm. I’ve heard stories about neighbors shoveling out driveways for other neighbors to make sure they could get out. I’ve heard stories about lawn maintenance guys going the extra mile to make sure their clients’ sidewalks and outdoor stairs were cleared. I’ve gotten to hear these simple stories of people doing right by each other in the midst of a difficult weekend.

It reminds me of the way we Christians are called to do simple things to help others. The call that Jesus places on all of us is to see other people as our neighbors and to under-stand that helping them is always the right thing to do. Sometimes that looks like shoveling driveways and clearing sidewalks. Sometimes it looks like calling someone to check on them and remind them they’re not alone. Sometimes it looks like telling them and others that our neighbors are children of God, fearfully and wonderfully made in the im-age of their Creator, and respecting the basic dignity that comes with that.

So, as we prepare for round two of winter weather here in Durham (I’ve been reminded of the old wives’ tale that says if snow doesn’t melt, it’s waiting for more!), go on and be thinking about ways you can reach out to your neighbors. Be thinking of things you can do to help them and stay faithful to the call of Jesus. And in scrolling through social media this past weekend, I was reminded there are some ways you can help your neighbors that you might not have thought of before.

First, there are several non-profits around Durham who, during periods of extreme cold, open their doors to folks living on the street. Durham Rescue Mission and Urban Ministries of Durham are both designated as “warming centers”. If you are in a place to donate to them, I’m sure they’d appreciate it as they’ll be taking on some extra costs this weekend.
Second, if you’re thinking of going out for a meal before the snow hits, I saw someone suggest that you go to a local restaurant. McDonald’s can survive if some of their stores are closed for a couple days. Mom-and-pop shops will struggle if they have to close or their foot traffic is down due to the snow. After the snow hits, if you want to, you can order something online (a meal, a coffee, etc.) and include a note on the order that says, “I’m not going to get this order. Give it to someone who needs it”—that way you help the business and someone in need.

And, of course, call and check in on folks who you know might be a little more vulnerable to this kind of event. Even if they’re doing just fine, they’ll appreciate the call! In doing these things, we can reach out to our neighbors and remind them that we love them and God loves them too. Stay safe and stay warm!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

I want to write about New Year’s Resolutions this week. I recognize that we’re over two weeks into January by now, but that may actually help me make my point. See, every new year, people all over the world make New Year’s Resolutions—something they want to do in the new year. Some will take up a new hobby. Some will decide this is the year they go to the gym. Some will try to stop doing something harmful. People take stock of where they are and project where they’d like to be in this new year.

But, as most of us know, New Year’s Resolutions get abandoned pretty quickly by most folks—to the point that there is a specific day of the year known as Quitter’s Day. According to Google, around 80% of all New Year’s Resolutions will be abandoned by the second Friday of each new year. So, January 10th is, unofficially, Quitter’s Day. And there are plenty of jokes and memes on the internet about Quitter’s Day. But most of those jokes come back to one main idea—that the person was silly to think they could keep their resolution.
I want to push back against that idea. First of all, I don’t think it’s silly for a person to take stock of their life and seriously think about things they could do that would make them happy, make them healthy, etc. There’s no need for the sarcastic, self-defeating attitude of, “Why would I think I could do better?”

Second of all, as a committed Christian, I have to push back against this “all-or-nothing” attitude. It seems crazy to me for a person to set a goal for themselves, stumble a little bit, and then decide, “Well, what did I expect? Of course I stumbled; I can’t do anything right!” We in the church know—or we ought to know—that everyone falls short. We all have good days and bad days. We all struggle to do the things we want to do and we sometimes end up doing things we don’t want to. But where the internet memes see no path forward, we Christians believe—or we ought to believe—that we can always get back up and keep trying. What else is the Christian life but seeking to act faithfully, falling short, and asking for forgiveness, only to be met by a God who says, “Of course I forgive you. Let’s set you back on the right path and keep walking”?

So, by the time this article comes out, Quitter’s Day will have come and gone. But I would encourage all of you, whether you made a resolution or not, to challenge yourself to do something new this year or to give up something harmful this year or to recommit to something you love this year. And on those days when you fall short of your goal, be gentle with yourself, and remember that life is a series of ups and downs, trials and errors. Through it all, we worship a God who loves us and encourages us. God does not quit on us; let us not quit on ourselves.

Happy New Year!
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

Here we are at the end of 2025 and it has been a busy year here at the church! Each year presents its own challenges and opportunities, so I wanted to go over some of the highlights of 2025 here at Hope Valley.

This year, our church reached out to our community in so many different ways, seeking to fulfill the commandment given to us by Christ to love our neighbors as ourselves. We held our annual Souper Bowl of Caring this year, raising money for both Urban Ministries of Durham and Hurricane Helene Relief. We also held our annual ACC Tournament Food Drive benefitting the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC (FBCENC) and collecting 669 pounds of food! We collected school supplies and clothes for the children over at Parkwood Elementary School. Most recently, we quickly began a food drive in response to the cutting of SNAP benefits during the government shutdown — that collection is ongoing, by the way!

But, we did not just collect things here at the church! During Operation Inasmuch, our church reached out in a variety of ways: putting together “Thinking of You” bags for church members and care packages for people struggling here in Durham, doing yard work around the church, and sending our kids to Carolina Reserve to sing for the residents there. We’ve also had a regular group of volunteers going to the FBCENC every month to help there. And, of course, we partnered with Scarlette Jasper once again to send Christmas boxes to our brothers and sisters in rural Appalachia who are struggling right now.

The year was not just about missions, however. We also had big, community-focused events here at the church. We hosted our Easter Egg Hunt and let local kids know about the resurrection. We had another summer of Super Saturday Adventures, where children learned about a God who loves them very deeply. Our Fall Festival was a hit once again this year, with local children and families having the chance to come and be joyful together

And we’ve had all kinds of special events within our church family, including baptisms and deacon ordinations. We remembered and celebrated the lives of people we’ve lost on All Saints Sunday. We hosted Andy Hale from CBFNC. We finally went to the North Carolina Museum of Art — just three years after I said we’d go! And, of course, we’re coming off another season of Advent with beautiful services like the Hanging of the Greens, the “Peace on Earth” musical service, and the Christmas Eve service.

It has been a wonderful year here at Hope Valley Baptist Church! I’m looking forward to all God has in store for us in 2026!

Happy New Year,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

There are a lot of different ways to tell that it’s Christmastime right now. The decorations in people’s yards. The endless ads telling me how many shopping days are left till Christmas. The fact that Mix 101.5 is nothing but Christmas music right now. But for me, one of the main ways I am constantly reminded it’s nearly Christmas is my Instagram feed.
For those that may not know, Instagram is a social media app that runs based on an algorithm. Basically, I “follow” different accounts on the app to see their posts. Instagram’s algorithm then monitors which accounts I follow and which posts I click on to suggest new accounts for me to follow and new posts to click on. I follow several different cooking accounts on Instagram and all those accounts are putting out holiday/Christmas recipes right now. Their stuff looks good, so I click on their posts and watch the whole vid-eo they’ve posted. That then tells the algorithm that I like that content, meaning I obviously want to see more of it.

Long story short, my Instagram feed is buried in thirty to sixty second videos of Christmas recipes right now, particularly Christmas cookie recipes. One account is showing off the five different recipes they made to make their “Christmas cookie box.” Another account is showing how they recreated their great grandfather’s bakery out of gingerbread. Yet another account shows how they made “log cookies” that are made of two different doughs swirled together, then sliced, and individually cut to look like log slices, before being baked and packaged to look like a bundle of firewood.

Now, baking has always seemed like magic to me. I can bake, but only if there is a recipe and only if I follow it exactly. But in watching all these different accounts, all these different posts, all these different cookies, I noticed something. For the most part, the basic ingredients stay the same—flour, butter, sugar. And a lot of the basic techniques are the same—dry ingredients to one side, wet ingredients to the other, cooling doughs once mixed. It isn’t until midway through the recipe that you begin to see how each cookie is uniquely its own or how each baker adds their unique personality to it. They start with the basics, build a strong foundation, and allow their creativity to flourish.

In that way, these Christmas cookies re-mind me of the faith of individual Christians. We all agree on the same basic tenets—Jesus Christ is the son of God; our sins are forgiven when we place our faith in him, etc. And a lot of broader ways we express our faith are the same—serving our community through volun-teer work; talking with others about our own faith, etc. But as we grow more and more into our faith, we learn how to express ourselves in ways that are more consistent with the gifts God has given to us. Some folks are called to be musicians. Some folks are called to not only volunteer with organizations but lead them and create opportunities for others. Some folks are called to teach others about the faith. It’s not magic, but it is amazing what God can do with us when we affirm those basic beliefs, build a strong foundation, and focus our creativity on honoring God.

Merry Christmas,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

Back in 2019, while I was the pastor at Sharon Baptist Church in Smithfield, I preached a series of sermons that used Christmas carols as points of emphasis. It was very similar to our “Faith and Art” series, but with carols instead of art pieces. On the Sunday of Peace, I wanted to focus on the idea that the things God desires are different from the things people desire. In particular, I wanted to focus on the second verse of one of my favorite carols (as printed in the 1991 Baptist Hymnal) and the righteous indignation of the carol’s author. With that in mind, here’s what I wrote back then:

Now, the carol I wanted to take a little closer look at today is our final hymn this morning, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear. I have always loved this particular hymn. As a child, it was mostly because I liked the tune — it is so different from the sound of most Christmas carols. As I got a little older I started to like it more because of the presence of the angels. Now as an adult, I love it because of the fact that while this carol is certainly more melancholy than most of the others we’ll sing over the next few weeks, the writer, Edmund H. Sears, never gives up hope. He dreams of a world, as he says, “When peace shall over all the earth Its ancient splendors fling,/And the whole world give back the song Which now the angels sing.” Sears was a pastor all the way back in 1849 and while his exact inspiration is not known, most folks seem to think he wrote this carol in response to the many wars raging in Europe and in response to the end of the Mexican-American War. And so I love the kind of resilient hope that comes from the second verse. In the first verse the pastor establishes that the song the angels are singing is “Peace on the earth, good will to men.” Not only that, but the song comes from “heav’n’s all-gracious King.” And so in the second verse he writes, “Yet with the woes of sin and strife The world has suffered long,/Beneath the angel strain have rolled Two thou-sand years of wrong;/And man, at war with man, hears not The love song which they bring:/O hush the noise, ye men of strife, And hear the angels sing!” Sears believed deeply that the war, the violence, the strife that was afflicting his world was not God’s intention. In this carol, the angels sing God’s message of peace and good will, and Sears is confident that one day the world will sing along with the angels. But at the moment, it seemed to him that people would rather continue on with their sinful ways. They’d rather drown out the music of heaven, with the noise of worldly power. And so I love that line, “O hush the noise, ye men of strife, And hear the angels sing!”

So many things in our world clamor for our attention. So many of those things claim that they can offer us hope, peace, joy, and love, but only if we’re willing to ignore the truth — that the angels have been singing a song of peace over the world for thousands of years, but we’ve allowed ourselves to listen to “men of strife” instead. This Advent, I’d encourage you to push back on the things that cause you strife and hear the angels sing, “Peace on the earth, good will to men.”

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

Advent is almost here! Even though I’m writing this article on November 19th, the next Illuminator will not come out until after Advent has begun! So, let me run down the Advent schedule for you all and tell you about the special services we are having here at Hope Valley to celebrate the birth of Christ.

First of all, Sunday, November 30th will be our Hanging of the Greens service. This service happens during morning worship and is a time for us to celebrate and participate in the joy and the ceremony of Advent! It is a service of readings and carols in which we finish decorating the sanctuary and explain the meanings behind all the various decorations and symbols on display. It is a dynamic service in which people will move about the sanctuary, special carols will be sung, and all will be invited to contemplate what Advent means for us. Make plans to be here that Sunday!

The next special service will be on Sunday, December 14th, again during morning worship. That Sunday, the musicians at our church will be leading us in our annual musical service. This year, the title is, “Peace on Earth”. The choir will sing. The handbells will play. The children of the church will sing. There will be readings that bring out the message of Christmas. And immediately following that service, there will be a reception—a time of fellowship for all of us to gather, share some food, and catch up with each other before the last big push toward Christmas. All are invited to come, so tell your friends, family, neighbors, etc.

Finally, on Wednesday, December 24th, we will have our Christmas Eve Candlelight and Communion Service in the sanctuary. That service will start at 5:00 PM. This ser-vice always ends up being a delightfully intimate service. It’s the night before Christmas, meaning much of the hub-bub and preparations have been finished, and there’s just a general sense of peace and quiet that comes over the world. In that peace, we gather at the church to hear the Christ-mas story, sing familiar songs, take Communion together, and light candles as we welcome the Light of the World. It serves as a moment to catch our breath before the holiday itself—so come and celebrate with us!

There are other Christmas events happen-ing throughout this time as well—check the rest of the Illuminator for those. But I look forward to worshiping with you all over the next month as we celebrate the birth of Christ once again.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

A few weeks ago, I went up to Charlottesville, VA with some friends in order to go apple-picking. We’d planned the trip for months, talking about how the four of us wanted to do something that felt quintessentially “fall”, if that makes sense. And we had a wonderful time! We ended up picking a literal bushel of apples, meaning I came home with a lot of apples. Fujis, Granny Smiths, Staymans, and Winesaps—all of them freshly picked, all of them delicious. Now I had a quandary: what to do with ¼ bushel of apples?

I started out by making a batch of apple freezer jam using some of the Granny Smiths and the Staymans. That jam has been delicious layered between pancakes on Saturday mornings. The Fujis and Winesaps have made their way to the office with me as afternoon snacks. But the main thing I wanted to make was a fresh apple cake, specifically the fresh apple cake my mother used to make.

So, I texted Dad and asked him if he could find the recipe anywhere in Mom’s old cookbooks or recipe cards. And he delivered, though not the way either of us was expecting. He texted me five pictures of five different recipes from Mom’s cookbooks and said, “It was one of these, but I don’t remember which one.” Each of these, by the way, was drawn from either the Methodist or Baptist cookbooks from various churches in Mom’s hometown, Ahoskie. I looked over the recipes. Some were more helpful than others—one suggested I bake the cake, “in a warm oven till done”—but I chose one to bake, and set to it. And you know what? I picked the right one! My kitchen smelled like Mom’s kitchen. The cake looked like hers. And, most importantly, it tasted just right!

When I was telling Dad about my cake, he asked me which recipe I’d used and how I’d known to pick that particular one. So, I said, “Well, there was one picture where the page looked like it had wrinkled from being wet. Mom didn’t always dry her hands that well after she washed them, so I figured that water damage was from her. Also, that recipe called for a 325° oven and Mom always used to say fresh apple cakes take forever to cook. This was also the only recipe that called for nuts and Mom loved desserts with nuts in them. Finally, I saw where the recipe called for cinnamon and nutmeg, but I remember Mom always saying she didn’t like nutmeg so any recipe that called for it, she’d sub in cinnamon. So, you know, that made it obvious.” Dad just laughed and said, “Oh, is that all? You two really did know each other well, huh?”

We celebrated All Saints Sunday this past Sunday. We talked about all the ways those who came before us have shaped us and shaped our faith. But there are a lot of different ways folks shape us, aren’t there? And even when it’s not explicitly faith-related, they can shape how we see the world, can’t they? It’s a gift to be able to live together as a church family and be shaped by such a cloud of witnesses, to be able to encounter challenges and draw on the faith and ideas of others to meet those challenges. Who are the folks in your life who have shaped you as a person and as a Christian? What are the things you still do that they taught you? Can how can that memory provide you with comfort?

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

In just a couple of Sundays, we will be celebrating All Saints Sunday. Now, if you’ve been coming to Hope Valley for a while now, you know what things typically look like on All Saints Sunday. You know what this Sunday means to folks and for folks. But for those that may not know about All Saints Sunday or for those of you who may be thinking, “I remember we always do some-thing that day, but I can’t remember what,” let me tell you a little bit about it.

All Saints Day has been celebrated by the Catholic church for centuries. Basically, it is a holiday on which Catholics remember and celebrate the saints of the Catholic church, i.e. Saint Peter, Saint Christopher, etc. They will also celebrate anyone who died for their faith. (By the way, we get our word, Halloween, from All Saints Day. “All Saints” can be written as “All Hallows” and since “All Hallows” is on November 1st, that makes October 31st “All Hallows Eve,” aka “Halloween.”)

However, as time has gone on, Christians—particularly us Protestants—have begun to refer to all believers as “saints,” since that is one of the words used by Paul to describe us. And so, we Protestants have be-gun to celebrate All Saints Sunday on the first Sunday of November. All Saints Sunday, then, is a time to remember those Christians that have come before us and celebrate their lives and their faith journeys. It is a time to contemplate the ways in which we have been shaped by “so great a cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1; NRSVUE).

It is also a Sunday on which we honor specific church members and/or the immediate family members of church members who have passed away within the last year. It’s a time when we can come alongside their family and remind them that we love them, that we are with them. It is a time to remind them that we loved their family member, too. It’s a time to catch up, tell stories about the person, and be grateful for all they meant to each of us.

This coming All Saints Sunday, we’ll be remembering five people who have gone on to glory: Bonnie Lyon, J.J. Bush, Dorothy Moore, Herb Finch, and Carolyn Tippett. During the service, we’ll read their names and have any family present stand. Then, we’ll light a candle for them and ring a bell. It’s a touching moment as we remember them.

So, plan to be here on Sunday, November 2nd as we remember those saints who have gone before us. Come to honor their legacy. Come to spend time with their family. Come to worship a God who promises us that death does not have the last word.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

In just over two weeks, we’re going to be having our annual Fall Festival here at the church. As you all know, this is a night when we come together as a church family to offer things like Trunk-or-Treat, carnival games, prizes, crafts, and food to our neighbors. It’s a wonderful time each year as we set aside a Saturday to provide good, clean fun for families in our community. Every year I look for-ward to this event because every year it is a reminder of the joy that comes from time spent together.

Read through just about any part of the Bible and you will find biblical authors who write about joy. Even in the midst of hard times, they will find reasons to celebrate and to speak of the goodness of God and the joy that brings them. The psalmist declares, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24). As Paul ends his first letter to the Thessalonians, he writes, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:16-18). The whole of the Bible speaks to the idea that in good times and in bad, be-lievers can find joy because we know that God is with us.

Why do I bring all this up? Because right now, there’s a lot of stuff happening in our world that seeks to steal our joy. The news apps on my phone love to send me upsetting headlines that, as a whole, send a message that the world is scary, that fear is good, that community is fundamentally broken, that joy is silly. But joy is not silly. It never has been. It has always, always been a form of resistance. To acknowledge that life is difficult and still choose joy takes strength and dedication. I’d argue, it takes faith.

On the night that he was betrayed, Jesus talked with his disciples and gave them his final sermon. According to John’s gospel, Jesus touched on topics like love, persecution, community, justice, and more. But I think one of more important things he told his disciples was this, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:10-11; emphasis mine). When facing trying times, Jesus tells the disciples his joy would be with them, if they would simply believe in him and follow his lead.

So, on October 25th from 4:30-6:30 PM, our church will have a Fall Festival. We’ll have it because it’s a fun event for everyone involved. We’ll have it because it will bring joy to our community. We’ll have it because in the midst of all these headlines desperately trying to tell us the world is falling apart, we can remind folks that community is still possible, people can still be good to each other, and there is still joy to be found. We’ll have it because Jesus tells us that his joy is in us and that makes our joy complete. Let us be joyful believers in Christ!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

A little over three years ago, I preached a sermon series entitled, “Faith and Art.” It was a series designed to connect different passages of scripture with pieces of art hanging in local art museums here in the Triangle. Since then, several folks have mentioned to me that they’d enjoy doing a series like that again. So, I spent some time in the North Carolina Museum of Art and the Ackland Art Museum and I found six new pieces I’d like for us to talk about as we move into autumn.

I’m not going to list out all six in this article—you’ll need to come to worship or tune in to see which pieces we talk about—but in looking over the six pieces as a whole, I realized there were some common threads connecting them all. I didn’t mean to pick pieces that seemed so connected, but art has a tendency to resonate with whatever we’re feeling when we view it. And so, I suppose these pieces all stirred up similar things within me. They connected with me at this particular time, in this particular place, for their own particular reasons.

In looking these pieces over, there’s a consistent theme of appreciating life for what it is and living in that moment. Artists, so often, try desperately to capture one moment, one idea, one dream and communicate it to the rest of us. These pieces speak to that message from the artists—live now; life is precious. There’s also a consistent theme of choosing to do the right thing in the moment. Art often seeks to encourage our better angels, empowering us to do right by others, and challenging us to value things like truth and beauty and grace.

So, starting on October 5th—with a break on the 19th for a guest preacher—we’ll be looking at these works of art and asking ourselves, “What do these pieces stir up in me? And how do they connect to my Christian faith? How can I take the lessons of these artists, filter them through the lens of scripture, and find faithful ways to live and express myself?” I’m looking forward to this series!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben