From The Pastor

Brothers and sisters,

This coming Sunday, we will celebrate All Saints Sunday. 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 something 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 begun 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: Dixie Ferrell, Alan Mangum, Phyllis Edwards, Moria Packer, and Shirley Lewter. During the service, we will read their names and have any family present stand. Then, we will light a candle for them and ring a bell. We will also have a candle for anyone in attendance who lost someone this year. It’s a touching moment as we remember them.

So, plan to be here on Sunday, November 1st during morning worship 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,
Our church’s annual Fall Festival is coming up quickly! Well, for today’s article, I wanted to run through the details with you and encourage you to volunteer or contribute! The most effective way to catch you up is just to describe the festival we’ve planned.

First of all, the festival itself will take place from 2:30 – 4:30 PM on Saturday, October 31st. Most everything will be happening in the Family Life Center or right in front of the Family Life Center, so visitors should be able to park in the side parking lot next to the sanctuary. As they come into the festival, we’ll have a Welcome Table set up where the kids can get glow sticks, a coloring book, a bag for candy, and a token to vote for the Best Trunk they see. From there, they will find a face-painting station and a photo-op area.

Our trunks for Trunk-or-Treat will be in front of the Family Life Center this year. Volunteers from the church are transforming their trunks into all kinds of fun things! They’ll pass out candy and the kids can vote on which of the trunks they like the best.

Then, in the Fellowship Hall, they’ll see lots of fall-themed crafts they can do. Things like real pumpkins they can paint/color, masks they can make, and a special craft from our Ceramics ministry! Plus, we’ll be passing out bags of popcorn for kids and parents to snack on while they’re here. There will also (potentially) be a guessing game where families can win a prize if they correctly guess the number of candy corns in a jar.

Finally, in the gym, the kids will see all kinds of games they play. At each game, they’ll have the chance to win tickets which they can bring over to the Prize Table and trade in for
fun prizes (or more candy)! In addition, we’re hoping to have the Cake Walk again this year, where families can win delicious desserts to take home with them. We are also planning to have a “costume parade” for the kids at around 3:15!

We’ve got a wonderful event planned for our community! These are all things we’ve done in the past and I’m sure we can do them again. But we need your help!

First of all, if you can volunteer on that day, be sure to sign up on the volunteer sign-up sheets in the vestibule! We need people in every area I just mentioned: trunks, face-painting, crafts, popcorn, games, cake walk, and prize table. If you can’t come the day of, but you’re free on October 30th, Frances is planning to get a lot of things set up that night and could use help! Let her know if you can help that night!

If you’re not sure you can be there either of those days, you can still help! Trunks typically
bring their own candy to pass out, but we always like to have candy on hand to replenish them if we need to—so you can donate candy anytime! We are also in need of new prizes for the prize table this year—so you can donate prizes (in the past, kids have loved things like rings with fake gemstones, small sports balls, small stuffed animals, etc.). We also need desserts for the Cake Walk—so you can donate a dessert. We ask two things related to that: list any major allergens your dessert may have (nuts, dairy, etc.) and, if you can, pre-package it into more manageable portions (i.e. if you made a couple dozen cookies, put them in Ziploc bags, and give 3-4 cookies per bag).

I’m looking forward to the festival this year! I think it is a wonderful way for us to bring
joy to our community. Be sure to sign up on the sheets in the vestibule!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

First of all, don’t worry. I’m not working while I’m on vacation; I wrote this article ahead of time! It would be silly to preach a whole sermon series on taking time to rest and then refusing to rest, wouldn’t it?

More importantly, however, this coming Sunday is World Communion Sunday. This tradition was originally started by Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, PA all the way back in 1933 by Dr. Hugh Thomson Kerr. The Presbyterian Church (USA) adopted it as an annual celebration in 1936 and in 1940 the Federal Council of Churches (now the National Council of Churches) endorsed it and began to promote it to other denominations all over the world. Thus, on the first Sunday of October every year, churches all over the world, across denominational lines gather to celebrate Communion. It serves as this wonderful moment of unity among a church that can sometimes get so caught up in our differences, we forget that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ and are united by our belief in his grace and his gospel.

And while here at Hope Valley Baptist Church, we will celebrate with grape juice and bread, I remember a professor of mine once telling my class at Duke Divinity a story about a unique style of communion she took years ago. She was in Southeast Asia (I don’t remember where exactly, but I believe it was either Indonesia or the Philippines) on a mission trip. She and her group were there to provide services to local communities and connect with some of their Christian brothers and sisters living on the other side of the world. They were there one Sunday and so they went to church with the Christians in the area, singing, praying, and worshiping together.

Toward the end of the service, they took communion—though the communion in that
Southeast Asian community looked a little different than ours. When my professor went
forward, she was presented with a saltine cracker and a glass of milk to dip it in. She gratefully took the cracker, dipped it in the milk, and ate it, but after the service she talked with one of the locals who they’d been staying with. She explained to them that in America, we typically use bread and either grape juice or wine for communion and asked why it was saltines and milk here. The local told her, “The reason we use the saltines and milk
is because those things are precious here. They are not easy to find! So, since we want to offer our best to Jesus, we use the saltines and milk.”

On this Sunday, all over the world, our brothers and sisters in Christ will be taking
communion. Some will use bread and grape juice. Some will use a wafer and a chalice of wine. Some will use saltine crackers and milk. But all of us will be united in our common belief that this table was set by none other than Jesus Christ himself and that anyone who would like to lay down their burdens and take up his goodness may come to it. Eat the bread. Drink the cup. Rejoice with your church family all over the world.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

Have y’all ever had a musical crush? Now, let me be clear, have y’all ever had a crush on a musical artist cause they themselves are attractive? I mean, have you ever listened to a new artist’s song and thought, “Oh! I need to hear more of their stuff!”? You get a hold of their record, start listening, and realize that there’s just something about their music that makes you want to do nothing but keep listening. They can do no wrong; their music hits you in just the right way. Have y’all ever had that?

Well, of late, I’ve had a musical crush on Olivia Dean. If you’ve listened to any radio station that plays Top 40 songs, you’ve probably heard either her song, “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” or “Man I Need”. Dean sings this wonderful kind of pop-jazz-soul music that is easy to listen to, but I appreciate her lyricism as well. The two songs I just mentioned are fun and flirty, with one of the lines in “So Easy” being, “There’s Heaven in my heart, and we could find you some space.” But there’s one song later in her record, The Art of Loving, with a line that has haunted me (in a good way) since I heard it.

The song is called, “A Couple Minutes,” and it’s this slow, nostalgic song about an encounter the singer has with an ex of hers. She’s surprised by some of his changes at first (“Since when are you smoking now?”), but eventually she and her ex connect over some of their shared memories, the feelings they had for each other, and it becomes clear that while the ex has moved on, the singer has not. She’s trying to, but there is a part of her that he knows and she wishes they could linger in their memories and their shared knowledge (“Back on your sofa/Of course, I still care…And although it’s over/I’ll always be there/Only have a couple minutes, then we’re going back to real life”). But the line that gets me, that prompted this article is buried in the middle of the chorus, “Love’s never wasted/When it’s shared”. The singer, despite the pain the breakup caused, is still able to look at the love the two of them had and see it as a good thing.

As a pastor, I think about that line not in the sense of a breakup, but in the sense of why the church does what it does. Why do we reach out to people and help them, knowing they can never repay us? Cause God calls us to love our neighbors and help those in need as a reflection of God’s love for us. Why do we host events and pursue mission projects even if we don’t achieve “success” as church consultants might define it? Cause God calls us to be joyful people who love others the way God loves us. And so, we reach out. We draw people in. We meet needs. We offer joy. Because God has loved us and has called us to share that love. And love is never wasted when it’s shared. It is always a good thing to love others. I think that’s an idea we could all stand to keep in mind in the days and weeks ahead. Loving our neighbors is never a waste. Loving those who are struggling is never a waste. Loving our enemies is never a waste. Cause God loves us and has never seen it as a waste. Thanks be to God!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

We are entering my favorite time of the year. Collectively known as the “-ber months” on social media, September, October, November, and December are popular with a lot of people. There are the holiday folks who look forward to the fact that three major holidays happen seem-ingly back-to-back-to-back: Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas. There are the cooking/baking types who look forward to the particular dishes and flavors that come in vogue during the “-ber months”: soups and stews, pies and cookies, cinnamon, ginger, clove, etc. There are also the, what I’ll call, “activity people” who love this time of year for the unique things that come around: ghost tours, hayrides, county/state fairs, caroling, etc. It seems like everyone has some special way of engaging with the “-ber months.”

The church also, obviously, has big events that hap-pen in the “-ber months”. Most churches have some sort of Fall Festival (including us—Saturday, October 31st this year) in October. A fair number will have some sort of Thanksgiving service or mission—whether they open it up to the community, partner with another church, or encourage church members to volunteer that week. And, of course, every church’s December is dominated by Advent and Christmas, for good reason! It is never a small thing to celebrate the birth of our Savior, nor is it something we should take for granted. But you’ll notice that still leaves one “-ber month.”

September has no major church holidays in it. We take a day off for Labor Day, sure, but there’s not really anything on the church calendar that demands the church’s attention. Which I think means September becomes this wonderful time of reflection and rejuvenation. Fall is not quite in full swing yet, meaning we still have longer days and higher temps that encourage us to be outside. Hallow-een is not dominating the airwaves yet, even though you can already buy Halloween candy. Children and youth are back in school, football is on again, and soon baseball will be entering its playoffs. September occupies this interest-ing space in the church calendar. It feels like a moment to breathe.

So, as our sermon series, “Come Away from Rush and Hurry,” comes to an end this
Sunday, I would encourage you all to see September as a month-long moment to catch your
breath. Take it as a time to slow down once more before the hustle and bustle of the other
three “-ber months” begins. Have a slow, easy supper on the back porch a few more times while the days are long. Watch—or go to—a football game and let that be your whole day. Let September be a month of preparation so that when October 1st comes around, you’re rested and ready!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

I joked with a couple church members this past Sunday that my sermon was nearly going to be two and a half hours long. Not because I was going to write a 50-70 page sermon, but because I was going to propose we all go to the movie theater and just watch the new Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: Brand New Day. And while the idea of watching a movie as a sermon was a joke, the message of the new Spider-Man movie is not. I remember leaving the theater thinking, “That’ll preach.” So, without spoiling any of the movie, let me give you a brief taste of why this movie’s message is being so well-received.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day takes place after the events of the previous Spider-Man movie, No Way Home. The incredibly short recap of that movie is this. Spider-Man’s secret identity has been outed by one of his enemies, Mysterio, meaning everyone now knows that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Peter’s friends and family begin to suffer because of that revelation and he tries to fix the problem by having Dr. Strange—a sorcerer—cast a spell to make everyone forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. The spell goes awry, all kinds of crazy shenanigans ensue, and at the end of the movie, reality itself is about to be torn apart. So, Peter asks Dr. Strange to cast a new spell—make everyone forget Peter Parker ever existed. Dr. Strange casts the spell, reality is saved, but now Peter is completely and totally alone. No one knows who he is—at all.

Brand New Day picks up from there. At the beginning of the movie, we get to see what Peter’s life looks like now without any of his friends or family. As Spider-Man, he spends all his time taking down villains, cracking cases for the NYPD, and generally being a force for good in NYC. But there’s a stark, sad dichotomy that the movie starts with. Spider-Man, the hero, is beloved; Peter, the person, is forgotten. Spider-Man builds connections; Peter is isolated. Spider-Man gets the key to the city; Peter gets an asbestos-laced apartment. And so, the movie wrestles with several questions.

On the one hand, it asks questions about identity. Peter must decide, “Am I Peter
Parker or am I Spider-Man?” The movie also asks questions about what truth is—who possesses it and how do you responsibly wield it? But the most persistent questions Brand New Day asks are about love and connection. What does it mean to be loved? How do our connections shape our identity? Who do we build connections with, how do you build them, and what happens when we’re disconnected? In the end, the two main assertions the movie makes are, “You don’t have to do this alone,” and “The people who love you, they love you not because you’re special. They love you because you’re you.”

These are the kinds of questions churches should be asking. These are the kinds of things churches should be asserting. We believe in the truth of a God who loves us deeply, simply because we are who we are. We believe in the truth that God is with us, even during difficult times, and has created and molded the church to be a community where people do not have to go through life alone. We should be a place, as well, where the truth is preached—that there is a God who created us all, a Savior who loves humankind so incredibly deeply, and a Holy Spirit that guides us all to live faithfully. So, yes, Spider-Man: Brand New Day will preach.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

My article this week is going to be short and sweet. This coming Sunday, August 9th is the deadline to turn in Deacon nomination forms. In light of that, I wanted to just reflect for a moment on what it means to be a deacon.

We see the first deacons appearing in Acts 6:1-7. The church is in its infancy and the twelve apostles are realizing that there is more work than the twelve of them can do. So, they go out into the community and find seven people (in this case, men) and appoint them to serve their brothers and sisters in Christ. At that time, the main ser-vice that was needed was the daily distribution of food to those in need. Their service would allow the twelve apos-tles to continue to do the important work of growing the church.

So, what does it mean to be a deacon? It means recognizing that your community trusts you and repaying that trust with humility, service, and faithfulness. It means partnering with the pastor to meet people’s needs. It means praying for folks and reminding them they are a be-loved part of God’s family. It means working to foster community within the church. It means your church family recognized your gifts, sensed a call from God, and believes you could serve well. All those things may sound lofty, but sometimes all it takes to be a deacon is being willing to serve food to people.

So, if you have someone in mind that you think would be a good deacon, be sure to talk with them this Sunday and see if they would serve. If you have been approached about being a deacon, but are not sure if you’d be “good enough,” remember that all it takes is a humble spirit and a desire to serve. Pray about it. Listen for God’s voice. Respond in the way you deem faithful.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,
In this past Sunday’s sermon, I talked about part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In particular, I preached on the part of the passage where he tells those listening to him, “Do not worry,” about their lives, their clothing, their food. I tried to offer a more nuanced take on the passage considering the relative privilege most of us live in—for example, that most of us don’t have to worry about if we’ll eat tonight, just what we’ll eat tonight. I argued that part of the “not worrying” process was recognizing that God is in control, so we don’t need to fret over stuff.

There was another point I left out of the sermon be-cause it would have taken a lot more time to set up, but I was reminded of it earlier today. So often, one of the hardest parts of “not worrying” is the “letting go” that comes with it. What I mean by that is that all of us have different stressors in our lives. For some, it’s the daily grind of working — getting projects done, emails sent, meetings attended, etc. For others it’s the strain of maintaining relationships, particularly those relationships that don’t come as naturally. Think of the coworker you don’t see eye-to-eye with but have to collaborate with, the family member you had harsh words with and don’t know how to reconcile. Of course, there’s also stress that comes with money, health issues, following the news, etc.

One of the lies we tell ourselves is that we have to hold on to all these stressors. We have to keep them close to us and we cannot let a single one of them drop cause if we do, who knows what will happen? And what that means is that we grip them tighter and tighter and tighter, the whole time wondering why we can’t relax, why we feel so off, why it feels like God is so detached. The truth of the matter is, God is not detached, but we’ve filled our hands with so many things and have refused to let go of any of them, we cannot accept the good things God offers us. We’re so convinced that we are the only ones that can hold all these things together, that when we hear Jesus say, “do not worry about your life…do not worry about tomorrow,” we can’t help but think, “That’s nice, Jesus, but if you knew everything I was holding with you’d realize I can’t afford to relax.”

I’ve told this story before, but years ago my Old Testament professor was talking to my class about our impending finals. She said she’d received emails from students talking about all the stress they were under, all the obligations they had committed to, etc. And she said that she’d emailed them back, encouraging them to find time to rest, and been met with more emails explaining that rest was not an option for them. If they did not do these things, everything would fall apart. Inspired by those emails, she took time out of our class to say to us, “I know this is a stressful place. I know a lot of you are here because you are the types who work hard, take on lots of responsibilities, and then sacrifice your health and well-being to get things done. Let me remind you that in the Creation story, God took a day off to rest and, somehow, the world kept spinning. If God can take a day off and nothing falls apart, I think you can give yourselves a break and rest. Do not worry. God is in control.” Sin lies to us and tells us that if we stop worrying, our lives will fall apart. Jesus reminds us that’s not true. So, let go of the stressors that are harming you, open your hands, and receive the blessings God offers.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

The next three Saturdays (July 11th, 18th, and 25th) are going to be wonderful times here at Hope Valley Baptist Church. Starting this Saturday, July 11th, we will be hosting Vacation Bible School from 9:30AM – 12:30PM. These will be days filled with fun, learning, and fellowship for the kids in our community! We’ve got games lined up for them to play, crafts ready for them to assemble, missions projects for them to participate in, and, most importantly, Bible stories for them to hear that all tell them one very important thing—God loves them!

Our theme for this year is “God’s Toolbox: Built for a Purpose.” Each Saturday, we’re going to be exploring a different theme with the kids, reminding them that they have been made by God to do good things for other people. The themes include phrases like, “God created me,” “I am equipped,” “I am strong,” “I can help others,” and “I can build God’s Kingdom.” I love these themes because it tells the kids who come to our VBS that they are already a part of God’s kingdom. They are already a part of God’s plan for the world. They can already live like God wants them to live and do the things God calls them to do.

There are several things you can still do to help out with these Saturdays. The first is to pray. Pray for the kids that are going to be coming to the church these Saturdays. Pray that they would have fun, make friends, and learn more about God. Pray for the volunteers as well, that we would be able to help disciple these kids and show them what faith looks like.
The second thing you can do is to reach out friends, neighbors, and family members to invite more kids to come! You can register on the church’s website or you can call up to the church office to let us know you’re coming. Also, kids can drop in on any Saturday, so if a kid can only be here on the 11th and 25th, bring them on!

Finally, if you have the time, we can always use more volunteers to help out. Whether that’s walking around with the kids, helping the various stations prep for them, or helping to clean up throughout the day—there’s always work to be done. If you are planning to volunteer, please try to be at the church by 9:00 AM each Saturday.

I’m looking forward to these next three Saturdays and all the things God has in store for these children and for us as a church!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

This week, Robin and I got a reminder of what it means to be the church. This week has been a busy one up at Hope Valley. We’ve had meetings to prepare for and attend, special documents to print up for services, a funeral service to plan, and then the day-to-day stuff that comes with working at a church.

For myself in particular, I know that I’ve had pastoral care meetings this past Monday. I led staff meeting on Tuesday morning, where we started looking ahead to things like Graduate Sunday, the first Sunday of July, and VBS. I met with a family to plan a funeral service for their mother and have coordinated with another pastor who will be participating in the service. As I write this article, I’ve worked with Robin to get a prayer list together and sent out, proofread the rest of this Illuminator (if there are any typos, I’m sorry), and started prepping for a committee meeting I have this afternoon. In addition to that, we’ve had our usual Wednesday foot traffic at the church.

I say all that to say that just as Robin and I were get-ting to a place where we could really get into a groove and work on the things we needed to, a man rode his bike up to the church and told us that he needed help. We sat in my office and talked for a little bit. And I must confess, my mind was racing through a thousand other things I “needed” to be doing in that moment. Prayers needed to be written. Volunteers needed to be contacted. Paperwork needed to be reviewed. And again, I’m going to confess, there was a part of me that thought, “Just tell this guy you can’t help and you can get back to the stuff that needs to get done; the stuff that matters.”

Then, I remembered something I’d literally just read Wednesday morning. When preaching about the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote that the Good Samaritan “will always stand before us as a nagging reminder that we must … see men as men.” He goes on to talk about why the Priest and the Levite may have passed by the injured man on the Jericho Road and argues that they may have had perfectly valid reasons to keep going — be it religious duties, civic duties, or just fear of bandits on the road. He says the question of the Priest and the Levite is, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” Dr. King writes, “Then the good Samaritan came by, and by the very nature of his concern reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’ … The good man always reverses the question.”

So, Robin and I helped him. We stopped doing all the church things that needed doing. We went and got a gift card to help pay for some medicine. We gave him some water to drink. We took him to Burger King to get some food. And, amazingly, when we got back, the church had not fallen apart. Emails went out. Prayers got written. Volunteers were contacted. Paperwork was reviewed. And a man who needed help was seen and helped. I’m grateful for Dr. King’s sermon and his conviction to call me out of my own selfish preoccupation and attend to this man. Dr. King asked both Robin and I, “If you do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?” Thanks be to God, we saw past the day-to-day and were able to do the work God called us to do.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben