Arundel Association
John Lovelady, pastor of New Beginnings Church, Pasadena, is resigning effective Mar. 8. He is being called to pastor a church in Florida.
New Beginnings members are collecting hygiene items for the Inner Harbor Ministry’s feeding program.
New Hope Church, Curtis Bay, will have a “Free Market” in Curtis Bay on Mar. 14. Church members will bring gently used items to give to those who attend. The event, which will precede a Sports Camp for children in the area, is an opportunity to provide for those in need and to build relationships. New Hope started “New Hope North,” a Curtis Bay church campus, in December.
The men’s ministry of North Arundel Church (NAC), Glen Burnie, will take a group of men to “The Power of One” men’s conference in Charlotte. N.C., Mar. 20-21.
NAC’s monthly coffeehouse will feature the Scott Day Band on Mar. 21 and Seven Love on April 18. Doors open at 7 p.m. and refreshments are provided.
Severna Park Church will have an Italian dinner on Mar. 15 to raise money for their youth to attend Acquire the Fire, a large youth event at the Baltimore Arena.
Baltimore Association
Colonial Church, Reisterstown, will have its annual missions conference Mar. 8-10. The keynote speaker will be Kenneth Ellis, team leader for people/interfaith evangelism team for the North American Mission Board.
The church will host Answers in Genesis conference on April 5 and 6. The guest speaker will be speaker, author and “father of AIG’s website,” Carl Kerby. Topics include “Is Genesis relevant to today’s culture;” “Fossils: friend or foe;” “Today’s answers to racism;” “Jurassic Park or Jesus: who knows more?;” “What is the ‘best’ evidence God created?;” and a question and answer time.
Ladies young and old will don their old dresses from proms, weddings or other fancy wear, top them with hats and pearls and anything else preferred to make it special for a ladies’ luncheon tea on Mar. 14 at Woodbrook Church
Graceway Church, Woodlawn, will have a video game night on Mar. 14 for youth ages 9-18. Church members loan the televisions and systems for the night and the church buys used video games. Refreshments are available.
Video Game Night at Graceway Church, Woodlawn, Md.
The church has a modular building on campus that will serve as the tournament area. Gamers waiting for their turn to compete will be in the sanctuary where they can practice games on a large projector screen.
This year’s top prize is an Xbox 360. Second and third place prizes will also be awarded as well as lots of door prizes.
Last year’s event brought over 30 gamers and the church hopes for more this year. Graceway hosts the event as an outreach to kids throughout the Baltimore area.
Registration is $15 and is limited to 50 contestants. For more information email: info@mygraceway.org or call (410 ) 944-4056.
Blue Ridge Association
First Church, Frederick, started a new service called “Refuge” at 7 p.m. on Sunday evenings. Services are geared for “twenty-somethings” and feature acoustic music in an intimate setting.
Larry Eubanks, pastor of First Church, preaches the same message he gives on Sunday morning, but there is a question and answer time afterwards.
Delaware Association
It’s getting to be cookie time in the Delaware Association (DBA) as the DBA gears up for this year’s raceway ministry in May. Each year the DBA gets cookie donations from churches throughout the convention. The raceway volunteers use the cookies as an outreach tool as they engage people in conversation, offer to pray for them and give them information about Delaware churches. Cookies must be homemade and layered in tins or packaged in boxes. DBA volunteers sort the cookies so they’re providing a mixed batch in each give-away. For more information about a church cookie drive, or details, call the DBA office, (302) 741-2488.
Eastern Association
First Church, Easton, is planning a mission trip to Turkey May 28-June 6 and Oct. 15-24. They’re also planning a mission trip to Mexico Aug. 8-15.
Lynnhaven Church is planning a mission trip to Cambodia in July.
The church has a Celebrate Recovery group for women on Tuesday evenings.
Ocean City Church has a ministry to the deaf. Several members of the church are deaf and serve as deacons, lead in special music, participate in planning committees and lead sign language classes for hearing members. The church is sensitive to this group’s needs and provides signers at the 11 a.m. worship service in addition to sermon outlines and video projectors and subtitles for the music.
Mid-Maryland Association
The AWANAs at Covenant Church, Ellicott City, will sponsor a family skating night from 4:30-6:30 p.m. at Laurel Roller Rink on Mar. 1.
CrossLife Community Church, Elkridge, is accepting registration now for its summer track and field camp June 22-26. Activities will include high jump, discus, javelin, long jump, sprints, shot put and long distance running.
The women of Mount Airy Church will head to Hershey, Pa., on April 24-25 for a “Chocolate Boutique” retreat, “A women’s retreat where women taste and see that the Lord is good!”
On Feb. 14, the men of Rolling Hills Church wanted to do something special to model Jesus’ selfless love. Since Valentines Day came on a Saturday this year, at their normal Men’s Prayer Breakfast time, they instead decided to invite all the ladies and many friends in the community to come to a special Brunch. They cooked a wonderful array of food and gave all the ladies roses. A lady from Iran attended who had been Muslim her whole life, and had never attended an event like this where the men treat the ladies so specially and serve them. God used the men’s efforts for His glory! www.rollinghillsbaptistchurch.org.
On Mar. 20, Rolling Hills will be having a community “Garden Party” to reach out to the community with God’s goodness on the first day of Spring. It will be a catered event with special “get acquainted” activities for all to enjoy. www.rollinghillsbaptistchurch.org.
Montgomery Association
Seven Locks Church, Potomac, registered 40 students in their English as a Second Language program for this semester. Students heard about the program purely by word-of-mouth.
The church did advertise their collection of goods for Afghanistan children to the public in January. They received a great response and were able to fill six boxes, each about 50 pounds, to send to U.S. military to distribute to the children.
Bill Robertson, director, Pastoral Leadership Team, Louisiana Convention, will be the guest speaker at Upper Seneca Church’s spring revival at 7:30 p.m. nightly from Mar. 29-April 1.
Robertson was the speaker at the Jena revival that began in a small church in Louisiana that averaged 100 in Sunday school. The Holy Spirit fell on that revival. So many people came they had to move to a local high school drawing 1,000 people on the fourth night, over one-third of the town’s population. The revival was scheduled for four days but continued for nine weeks.
Amazingly, Jena was a hotbed of turmoil and in the news because of racial disputes and the “Jenna six.” (For more information on this story see www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=27604)
The church had planned for Robertson to be the guest speaker at last Fall’s association-wide revival, but he was unable to due to the impact of Hurricane Gustav on Louisiana and the necessity of his helping to coordinate relief efforts there.
“As it turned out, God had a different plan for us,” Gayle Clifton, pastor of Upper Seneca said. “We were truly blessed, as local Montgomery Association preachers shared God’s Word in each service and eleven different congregations participated. It was the first time, in my twenty-nine years as a pastor in our association, that I could ever recall our coming together like that, just to worship God and to hear from Him. When the services concluded, everyone said, ‘We must do this again!’”
Potomac Association
Bayside Church, Chesapeake Beach, began Wednesday family discipleship nights in January and 100 people have been coming.
Leonardtown Church will have disaster relief training on May 16.
Marbury Church is participating with the warm nights programs, providing lodging, meals and other ministries for the homeless of Charles County.
Potomac Association will have a men’s retreat on Mar. 27-28 at Camp Wabanna, Edgewater, titled, “How to fireproof your marriage.”
Prince George’s Association
Landover Hills Church is having a photo contest for its members. Categories include interior and exterior photos of the church, church events and black and white photography only. Prizes will be awarded. The contest is for fun, but also to generate pictures for the church website.
Oxon Hill Church will have a night of music at 6:30 p.m. on Mar. 29.
Susquehanna Association
Calvary Church, Bel Air, said goodbye to its interim pastor, David Jackson in December and welcomed their new pastor, Ralph Green. Green was installed at a special combined worship service on Jan. 11 followed by a carry-in dinner.
Green served as associate pastor of Faith Family Church in Houston, Texas. He has also served as church planter/pastor in New Hampshire. Before being called into pastoral ministry, Green worked as a sergeant of internal affairs for the McAllen Texas Police Department and in sales jobs in Texas and North Carolina.
He earned his Master of Divinity degree in North American church planting at Southeastern Seminary. The new pastor and his wife, Cheryl, have five children, Rachel, Ginny, Bethany, Ralph IV and Garrett.
Green, who made what he dubbed “Texas chili,” was the winner of the church’s annual men’s chili cook-off on Feb. 8. Each year the men’s ministry hosts the event. Men bring their entries and the congregation votes on best traditional, non-traditional, thickest, most beans, ugliest, wimpiest and best overall. It’s also an opportunity for men to learn about the men’s ministry opportunities.
BaptistLIFE recently reported an incorrect date of when Allen Carter, Calvary’s pastor for 20 years, retired. Carter retired in December 2007. BL regrets the error.
Western Association
Second Church, Cumberland, had a New Orleans style “meals for missions” last month featuring jambalaya, gumbo, coleslaw and cornbread. Proceeds were used to support sending a ten-person team from Second Church on a mission trip to New Orleans, Feb. 14-22.
Obituary
Daniel “Neil” Craig died on Jan. 16, 2009. Craig was born April 30, 1921 in Patrick County, Va.
Craig served as pastor of churches in Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland including Whitehall Church, Accokeek, and Kent Church, Hyattsville. He retired from Whitehall Church in 1985 and returned to Patrick County, Va., where he served as interim pastor for many churches. After retirement, he and his wife Dorothy also took two mission trips to Brazil.
Dorothy said she and Craig had some exciting ministry years. She remembers a two-week revival at Kent Church that led to over 60 people making confessions of faith. Kent, she said, at that time, was one of the fastest growing churches in the area.
Daniel Craig also served with state conventions and associations in all three states, working with missions, as moderator and with cooperative ministries.
Dorothy said ministry was her husband’s life. In his spare time he enjoyed gardening.
“He was a real soul winner,” Rick Anderson, pastor of Pleasantview Church, Patrick Springs, Va., said of Craig.