Arundel Association
Elvaton Church, Millersville, has a winter/spring Christian bowling league called “Pins for a Purpose” that meets at Southdale AMF bowling alley.
Faith Church, Glen Burnie, will host Charles Roesel as the guest speaker at a spring revival Feb. 13-16. Roesel is pastor emeritus of First Church, Leesburg, Va., and founder of The Christian Care Center.
The church recently had a men’s bowling night out. Men met for a light meal then headed to the local lanes. Women had a “souper” bowl time of fellowship and students had an all-night laser tag event.
Lake Shore Church, Pasadena, is planning its first ever mission trip this month. The church will head to Tallahassee, Fla., from Feb 19-26. The team will minister with Fellowship @ Midway Church in their outreach into the community through roof repairs, building handicap rams and other repairs.
Ed Blizzard, Lake Shore’s pastor of assimilation and mission trip coordinator, said that the area of Gladsden Co., although only a few miles from the state capitol of Tallahassee, is the poorest county in the state. Midway Church was founded only three years ago and until last year met in an operating bar/club (cleaning up each Sunday morning to “make ready” for worship service).
Since then they have purchased another building (a closed bar/club) and renovated it into worship and meeting rooms. Their congregation is growing by reaching into their community with service that helps meet the more basic of needs, such as a sound/watertight roof over their heads.
The Church at Severn Run had a tubing trip to Ski Liberty last month.
Baltimore Association
Colonial Church in Randallstown, Md., will hold its 12th annual Missions Conference, Mar 13-15, with a combined 11 a.m. worship on Sun, Mar. 13 and 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. services on Monday and Tuesday evenings. All are welcome.
Immanuel Church serves food monthly at the Eastern Family Resource Center, a shelter located next to Franklin Square Hospital.
Stauros Ministries now meets at North Point Church. Stauros is a ministry that helps those addicted to alcohol and other drugs and helps their families. Stauros volunteers and participants will lead worship at North Point Church on Feb. 27. The guest speaker is Arthur Williams, founder of Stauros.
Blue Ridge Association
The Blue Ridge Association working in close cooperation with the BCM/D recently purchased a 29-foot 1995 Winnebago motorcoach to replace their current trailer-based Disaster Relief Communication unit. The new vehicle will need significant modifications for its new Disaster Relief role including some rewiring and cabinet work. When completed, the new unit’s missions will include Disaster Incident Command and Liaison, Emergency Communications, Disaster Victim Assistance and Chaplain Support. The communications bay will have amateur radio, Red Cross radios and our Baptist radios.
The unit is hoped to be in-service before this year’s hurricane season. It will be based at Faith Church, Knoxville. For more information or to volunteer with this project email Al Caho at ka3dyl@verizon.net.
Delaware Association
Iron Hill Church, New Castle, has a women’s small group study on Tuesday evenings. The ladies are studying “Extraordinary Women,” by Julie Clinton. Topics include focusing on strengths and the stages of life.
North Church, Wilmington, has formed a partnership with Memorial Church, Killeen, Texas. Ken Cavey, pastor of Memorial Church was a guest speaker at North Church last month.
Eastern Association
First Church, Hurlock, celebrated its 95th anniversary on Oct. 17. Former pastor, Dallas Bumgarner, returned to present a special message during the 11 a.m. worship service. Following the service, members had a fellowship dinner on the grounds then had an informal afternoon service with comments from former pastors Lee Hughart and Curtis Fox. There was also an opportunity for worship, singing, special speakers and members’ remarks and remembrances. Throughout the day members and guests browsed through photo albums highlighting the people, events and ministries that defined the church through the years. One special item was a quilt made by the “Ladies Aid” women’s missionary group in 1939 as a fundraiser to update the parsonage.
Immanuel Church, Salisbury, called Andrew Morgan as their new minister effective Jan. 9.
Mid-Maryland Association
Covenant Church, Columbia, will host “Get the Picture,” a children’s seminar on Feb. 5 from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The BCM/D-sponsored leadership training event is intended for teachers, parents, volunteers and anyone else involved in children’s ministry. For more information see www.bcmd.org.
Hope Church, Laurel, has a new before and after school child care program for children in kindergarten through fifth grade. The program is an extension of the church and provides loving care in a Christian environment.
Hope Church celebrated its 24th anniversary last month with a special luncheon.
Mid-Maryland Association is planning now for their annual mission trip to Mississippi June 26-July 1 to continue helping with Hurricane Katrina ongoing relief efforts. Teams will help with construction, and do VBS and offer other assistance and outreach.
Montgomery Association
First Church, Rockville, called Kevin Domingue as full-time youth pastor.
Kensington Church welcomed special musical guests, “Flutes on the Brink,” last month. The group is comprised of professional and amateur musicians playing standard flutes and piccolos. The group also includes lower alto flutes, bass flutes and contrabass flutes.
Redland Church has a runners’ ministry. Redland runners meet for fellowship running in a local park and team races.
Potomac Association
Ken Brown resigned as pastor of Kingdom Church, Waldorf. He accepted a pastoral position of a church in San Antonio, Texas.
Brown and his wife Phyllis planted the Waldorf church in 1997 with their first services in a Days Inn. As the mission grew, they moved to an office space, later to a local middle school and finally they leased a large building space and remodeled it into a worship center. Brown was also the founding president of the Kingdom Bible College and seminary located at the facility.
Prince George’s Association
New Song Bible Fellowship Church, Bowie, celebrated their 20th church anniversary and Pastor Bernard Fuller’s 30th year in missions and ministry. The church is offering a 20-page full color “pictography” book celebrating the anniversary for $20.
Susquehanna Association
First Church, Perryville, planned and coordinated seven days of training in January for 40 local believers from various locations in a West African country in how to use oral Bible story sets to start listening groups that might become churches. Western missionaries and national pastors also received training that week in how to craft Bible stories themselves.
The training took place in three African and two Western languages. Each evening the trainees practiced what they had learned by going into the city, finding people who spoke their language, and gathering them to listen to God’s Word being shared in oral story form.
A two-day strategy session for leaders followed the training. Sleeping on the ground and eating meals cooked over a wood fire might be considered primitive to American believers, but it was just business as usual to most of the trainees.
Two trainers came from “Storyrunners,” an arm of Campus Crusade for Christ that specializes in oral story transmission. Two other trainers were former International Mission Board (IMB) journeymen who crafted oral Bible story sets and translated them into a local language, a two- to three-year task. The support team came from First Church, Perryville.
In planning, the Perryville team consulted with IMB missionaries about the many details involved in a task of this size and complexity. Because of their experience in working with multiple languages for African worship, it was the Perryville team that suggested that multiple people groups be trained at the same time. With terrorist groups to the north and Islamic extremists to the south, it seemed unwise to train just one group and hope the window of opportunity would open again in a later year for the other people groups.
Relationships built over five years of short-term teams meeting local Muslims, believers, and missionaries was the reason Perryville was asked to plan the training. According to John Gauger, pastor at Perryville, the unprecedented simultaneous training in multiple languages to literate and oral learners, new believers, pastors, and missionaries shows two things. God is mighty! He can use small churches (128 members) to do great things. And partnership is critical to international missions work. We can do much more together than we could ever accomplish separately.
Western Association
Volunteers from Deep Creek Church, Pleasant View Church, Oakland, and Grace Church, Cumberland, sang Christmas carols and gave away hand warmers at the Wisp’s outdoor skating rink and concession stand from 5-7 p.m. on Christmas Eve at the request of the Wisp resort. Guests responded favorably and thanked the volunteers.
Wisp representatives asked Deep Creek Lake Resort missionary (DCLRM), Julie DuVall, if churches could provide carolers for this event. WBA director of missions, Kenny Heath, said the request is one of the products of a year of Duvall and DCLRM volunteers bringing free doughnuts over for the staff, and seeking other ways in which to minister to them.
AssociationLIFE comes primarily from church and association newsletters, bulletins, websites, blogs, and written reports on events that are sent to BaptistLIFE. Due to space restrictions, articles received may be edited. You may feel free to fax news to us at (410) 290-6627, call at (443) 285-9772 or e-mail to smager@bcmd.org.
Obituaries
Edward C. Baker
Reverend Edward C. Baker died on Dec. 31, 2010. He is survived by his wife, Mary Anne, two children, six grandchildren and two great grandchildren. The Reverend Baker ministered at First Church, Upper Marlboro, Dunkirk Church and Oxon Hill Church.
Memorial Services were held on Saturday, Jan. 8 at Calvary Fellowship Homes, Lancaster, Pa. In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be sent to Mary Anne at 3 Calvary Drive, Lancaster, PA 17601.
B. Steven McNeely
B. Steven McNeely died Friday, Jan. 7. The Rev. McNeely, a former pastor of Columbia Fellowship, is survived by his wife, Suzanne, a son, Adam McNeely and his wife Lieu, a daughter Carol McNeely and three brothers and their families.
The Rev. McNeely was a native of Oxford, Mississippi. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Mississippi and his master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Ky. He served in ministry for over 36 years in Kentucky, Mississippi, Virginia and Maryland. The last nine years he was pastor of Peakland Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be sent to Peakland Baptist Church, 4018 Peakland Place, Lynchburg, VA 24503, or The Mercy Care Centre Foundation, P.O. Box 186, Forest, VA 24551.