The “Fun Fridays” events continue, thanks to the work of the deacon board. The idea of “Fun Fridays” is to create ways for the congregation to get together (and even invite friends and family along for the fun). In June, we had a variety of events (ice cream social, game nights, potlucks, and even an evening of gospel music) that have provided something easy going for our church family to enjoy. In July, we continue the series with opportunities to get together and have some outings to congregant homes. We hope that you will participate in these events as we create more opportunities for fellowship.

Vacation Bible School will happen in a new format: a one-weekend event. Held over the weekend of August 8-10, 2008, this format will allow children to participate in the great adventure of VBS while allowing families more flexibility with the ever-shortening summertime available. Rhonda Harmon and Dawn Bushey will be co-chairing this event, so please help them in creating the “Beach Party” VBS for our kids!

First Baptist’s community calendar has been busy as well. In June, we hosted two well-attended events for other organizations (PAVE and the Bennington County Choral Society). On Sunday evening, August 17, a.k.a. same day as the annual “Battle Day” parade), Rabbi Bob Alper, a stand-up comedian well-known in this area, and a young Muslim comedian join together to perform their stand-up routines. You can see a bit of the fun online via a story reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) a year ago. See the streaming video online via: http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/2007/09/091607_4.html

In web-related news, First Baptist continues on with its website, which launched two years ago. Keep visiting our website as we continue to develop it! Right now, we are in the process of upload video clips to help visitors learn more about our congregation. In the future, we hope to have portions of our worship service uploaded on a regular basis. If you have interest in helping develop our website, please get in touch! You can find First Baptist also on Youtube.com! Look for “First Baptist” “Bennington”, on the Youtube search engine, and you will find a few videos helping folks learn about our congregation’s ministry. Visit www.fbcbennington.org often!

The two-story lift proposed by the trustees and approved by the congregation is moving apace. We hope to have this lift operational by late summer with a dedicatory blessing for the lift as well as our recently installed handicap accessible bathroom. We are hopeful that the rest of 2008 will bring some good things for 2009 around First Baptist with the hope of renting part of the underutilized second floor to non-profit organizations. Keep Cindy Watson, our building coordinator, and the trustees in prayer as they work on these “big picture” issues. The additional revenue will be quite helpful to First Baptist, especially as we anticipate rising fuel costs.

The trustees are also working on a personnel manual, a “first” for First Baptist. This manual will help with personnel policies, evaluation, and management. Grace Becker-Wilson has given time in compiling the initial draft, and the trustees are now in the process of reviewing the documents and checking out the necessary revisions. While not something readily apparent as the installation of a new lift, this manual represents part of the “behind the scenes” work that has been ongoing these past two years to help strengthen the ministry of First Baptist.

The board of mission has some exciting opportunities coming up to celebrate and empower the mission work of our congregation. A school supply drive similar to last year will be undertaken in the coming weeks. Look in upcoming bulletins for the wish list or contact the church office. “Back to school” sales will be starting soon where you can buy all manner of school supplies quite inexpensively but make a huge investment in our area school children!

One reminder: Later in July, I will be out of town from July 19 through July 31, 2008. The first half of the trip will be attending the Baptist World Alliance meetings in Prague (July 21-25) on behalf of our denomination. These meetings gather together a variety of Baptists from around the world to build cooperation, mission, theological reflection, and advocacy for human rights and religious freedom. The other half of the time will be spent traveling around for a few days of sightseeing with Kerry. I note this personal leave at the end of this sharing of “things to do this summer” as I am becoming more aware (thanks especially to the encouragement by congregants, the pastoral relations committee, and my spouse holding a 2X4) that I need to remember that “sabbath” needs to be practiced, especially by the minister!

Grace and peace, the Rev. Jerrod H. Hugenot, intentional interim minister

“Building Ministry”

When you think of First Baptist, rightfully you think of the people first. Each congregant brings something unique and diverse to our church and its ministries, and together we live out the faith as American Baptists, committed to the continuing story of the First Baptist Church of Bennington, Vermont. At the same time, when we think of “First Baptist”, we also bring to mind the physical edifice that sits on the corner of Valentine and Main Street. Indeed, we are graced with a beautiful building where our worship and spiritual life take place week to week.

As we think about the church in a time of transitional ministry, we should take note of the good things that have been happening with our building since the congregation entered into a three-year interim period. The trustees have brought about several improvements to the aesthetics of the building with new floor tile in the hallways, a beautifully renovated church lounge, new paint here and there, a handicap accessible bathroom, and a facelift for the church office area.

[On this latter count, let me extend gratitude for the redesign of the pastor’s office. The new ceiling, better lighting, a good size closet and storage space, and the reconfiguration of my workspace is quite helpful. The pastor’s desk no longer dwarfs the useable floor space, so it has been wonderful to welcome people into my office for conversations and meetings. I am working on making the pastor’s office more as the pastor’s study, less of a place geared toward an administrator’s office, and more a place where you can sit down and talk about the life of faith. I still have files and spreadsheets and committee notes piled here and there, but it is starting to feel more like a place where I can tend souls. I hope you will visit me in “the pastor’s study” and we’ll talk a spell.]

Another way that the building is changing can be noticed when you look at the “master calendar”. We have events, meetings, and other opportunities for the community to utilize our building, quite different from where we were a couple of years ago. First Baptist is becoming a great place for groups to meet, and Cindy Watson (in her role as building coordinator) is fielding phone calls to rent out space for events to community groups. This summer, we will be the site for three community events: June 7 is the annual Chocolate Festival and Play benefiting PAVE (The Project Against Violent Encounters). June 21 and 22 will be the Bennington County Chorale Society’s last concert of the season. We are working right now on arranging an evening in August featuring a rabbi and a Muslim who perform stand-up comedy that will be a riotous evening of interfaith mirth.

In May, the congregation voted affirmatively to install a lift to make our second floor accessible to all persons. The capital improvement (project cost: $32,000) will answer a long-standing problem with the Nichols Educational Wing, allowing everyone to access the great space we have upstairs. (Did you know that the second floor has more useable space and more bathrooms than downstairs?) While we are looking at this improvement as a necessary improvement to allow more use (and we hope more building rental income) for First Baptist’s space, I find the handicap accessibility that the lift and the new first floor bathroom symbolize as good theology at work. We are making “all persons” welcome, and when we complete the lift installation later this summer, we will take an opportunity to give thanks and bless these new and accessible additions to our physical space as sign and symbol of our increasing ministry of hospitality.

I also take joy in seeing how our space is allowing other groups to flourish. For the last several months, PAVE has offered a multi-week parenting course through its Family Time program. Families are encouraged to learn various skills to build healthy communication and relationships, and the program is growing as word of its helpfulness is getting around town. PAVE hopes to expand the program so they can keep up with the list of folks wanting to take this course. Your building is helping make these things possible!

Sometimes when we think of First Baptist, we think of the church building as the place we go Sunday to Sunday to receive the spiritual nourishment to get us through the week. Perhaps during the week, we might pop in for an event, a committee meeting, or something else that causes us to drop by the church. Know that as the congregation is rethinking its ministries and we are working together to bring about a new day, your building is also doing new things as well. Indeed, the tenets of faith are being lived out as we share our space and allow many good things to flourish through partnerships with community groups looking to improve the social, cultural, economic, and spiritual life of Bennington through time spent at that wonderful place we call “First Baptist”.

Keep our ongoing efforts in your prayers as well as the staff of the congregation as they help coordinate this work. Say a word of thanks to the hardworking trustee board, and give yourselves a pat on the back, too! Our desire to share the building is doing great things. It is indeed building ministry!

A few years ago, I discovered a delightful addition to my New Testament vocabulary. The word is philoxenia (pronounced as if you are saying feel-o-zeen-ee-ah), and we translate the word into English as “hospitality”. Literally, philoxenia means “love of strangers”.

In its everyday use, the word hospitality gets tamed down as sort of a nice thing you do for others, and mostly, we tend toward doing so for folks you know best. To practice hospitality in its most profound way as “love of strangers”, Ana Maria Pineda writes, “The stranger at our door can be both gift and challenge, human and divine. All Christians are called to the practice of hospitality.” (Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching People, 42)

In times when xenophobia (“fear of strangers”) drives our culture in subtle and overt ways, the Church has some experience with modeling hospitality to those in need or those who have been marginalized or forgotten. And, yes, the Church has been party to xenophobic habits as well! We should not forget that Christianity has been (and continues to be in parts of the Church) party to some very lamentable and exclusionary times in its history. Nonetheless, by the grace of God, the history of Christianity is enriched by a number of figures, quiet and charismatic alike, offering their hands, hearts, and minds over to efforts to include and tend persons who are often treated as “other”.

In the New Testament, Paul offers advice to the earliest Christian churches emerging across the Roman Empire. One of his most memorable words of instruction is quite easy to remember: “Share with God’s people in need. Practice hospitality” (Romans 12:13, NIV) From the pages of church history, we learn of how Saint Francis embraced a leper, one of the ostracized people of medieval times. Soon after, Francis realizes that in doing so, he had embraced Christ Himself! In contemporary times, Jean Vanier started an international movement of caregivers who live in community with the disabled. (Learn about Vanier’s “L’arche” movement via: http://larcheusa.org/) More recent is the story of a gathering of Christians who live in Durham, NC. The Rutba House model their community around a semi-monastic way of life, and they deliberately live in poor and underprivileged neighborhoods so they can be a presence of hospitality in “abandoned places”. (Learn about “Rutba House” and its work via http://www.newmonasticism.org/)

To practice hospitality, Christians are asked to look very carefully at the various “scripts” spoken and unspoken that we harbor within ourselves. It can be a battle at times learning how to embrace someone that represents something that you do not know how to handle. Learning how to reorient one’s heart is a difficult task, however, the authenticity of being hospitable toward “the other” is crucial. The ambient anxiety of our day keeps us on edge, wondering about terrors seen and unseen. By practicing hospitality, we find ourselves rewriting a lot of things about our perspective on the world. I believe that the truly hospitable person becomes a much wiser and gracious person along the way. Hospitality stretches us, but it also loosens us so that we have the capacity to love and tend more abundantly.

This month, First Baptist is in the midst of practicing hospitality. A few dozen kits are being sent via Church World Service to help those in need around our country. On Mother’s Day, we present money for blankets to provide for those in need of warmth and shelter. Three persons travel down to Baton Rouge, LA, to build homes for Hurricane Katrina-affected families. Our trustees installed a handicapped accessible bathroom, making our facility more sensitive to the needs of all persons. Along with other religious groups, the mission board is planning an effort later in the year to help local school students in need. This summer, the deacons launch a “Fridays with First Baptist” effort, somewhat in part to help “us” get together, somewhat in hope that “us” will invite others to join in our times of fellowship and fun. Other efforts will take root and flourish with our individual investment of time, creativity, and yes, vulnerability to meet the needs of others, including the stranger.

Ana Maria Pineda observes, “What is important [about hospitality as a practice or way of life] is that each community discover how to practice hospitality in ways that are relevant to its own situation.” I would gather from the past few months of work and what is in development, we are learning well. May we continue to be a gathered people of God, always open to the pain of the world and moving in the midst of those in need of love and care.

Grace and peace,

The Rev. Jerrod H. Hugenot

I write these words just after our Easter service, so there are a few alleluias still ringing in my ears from our hymns, prayers, and proclamation. Easter is the “center” of the Christian year, and the celebration of resurrection and new life is the constant rhythm underlying all of our religious observances. We are a people shaped by great hope!

Sometimes, though, that great hope seems a bit distant. We live in the midst of a challenging time as North American Christian congregations are largely in decline. Nevertheless, First Baptist has a unique opportunity to “practice resurrection” (poet Wendell Berry’s provocative phrase). Indeed, there are congregations just like First Baptist who are experiencing new life, even though the trends and experts would say otherwise. In part, this change is due to a willingness to look out at the unknown and start rowing towards it.

Last year, Ron Carlson from National Ministries introduced us to the concept of the missional church. Missional churches are congregations willing to look at their ministry with new eyes. “Mission work” becomes less of a line item in an annual budget for ministry in places elsewhere (global or national, but not “right here”) or the occasional provision of emergency benevolence funds or assistance when persons are in crisis. “Missional churches” are contrary minded enough to know that the measure of a congregation’s health is not attendance numbers at a service on Sunday morning. Rather, a congregation flourishes when the persons who are part of the congregation become involved in the issues and needs of the community where they are located. We become the “hands and feet” of Christ in the world.

Such congregations also realize that they do not need to depend on their own resources and people alone. Partnerships and creative networking will move a congregation forward when they want to get involved in their community. Congregations who become “missional” in their outlook begin to find themselves proclaiming the faith in a new way. Not just through Sunday morning worship or occasional acts of benevolence, but in ever deepening and creative ways.

Bits of this way of thinking are already showing fruit in the life of the congregation. This winter, the deacon board heard of the need in area schools for warm socks. Many children in our schools go through the winter without “winter weather appropriate” socks. A school nurse mentioned this, and the deacons began working on finding quantities of socks. In the end, shrewd shopping netted enough socks that three schools, rather than just one, received socks for children.

A missional approach to this scenario might look like this: congregants from First Baptist agree to learn more about the school children’s needs in Bennington area schools. They meet with school officials to learn what sorts of needs can be met (one early learning: school nurses need underwear as well as socks for children). Talking with social service agencies in town will build partnerships, so that whatever First Baptist helps coordinate is not redundant to already existing efforts. Congregants invite others that they know who would be interested in joining the effort: persons from other religious groups as well as persons who are not necessarily religious but feel some “common ground” or affinity with this project. The project becomes more organic than institutional: an effort began by First Baptist multiplies far more broadly than if just left to our own resources.

Missional ways also enhance the way that we share the gospel with other people. St. Francis of Assisi wisely said, “Preach the gospel always. Use words when necessary.” We still worship each Sunday to the glory and praise of God. The missional way, however, allows us to connect the faith we proclaim to the world in ways that will be as diverse as they are many.

Grace and Peace,

The Rev. Jerrod Hugenot

fbpastor@sover.net

Three Dates to Note

The Rev. Jerrod H. Hugenot

Midway through seminary, students are required to complete two units of field education as part of training for ministry. At Central Baptist Theological Seminary (the alma mater of Kerry and myself), some students split their field work between a unit of hospital chaplaincy and service to a congregation. Others, already called into ministry, completed their ministry work with their employing congregation. I found myself at this time in seminary thinking, “I want to do something really different!”

I grew up in a congregation that had a long-time pastorate (1971-2001), and I felt like I was well acquainted with congregations enjoying a long and fruitful season of ministry thanks to my years as a congregant. So I set out to find a church that was experiencing transition.

Little did I know that years later, I would be writing this column sitting in Vermont, called to serve a congregation as part of a three-year intentional interim ministry period.

What did I learn seven years ago that still serves me well in the practice of ministry here at FBC Bennington?

The church that I served as an intern had gone through a difficult church split. A theologically progressive Baptist congregation in the Kansas City area, the church nonetheless encountered some impasses that resulted in a decision of some folks (about 180) to leave and reform a congregation elsewhere after things became untenable. The church found its own voice and footing over the next few years, thanks to a wise intentional interim minister and a group of very dedicated lay leaders. Some folks thought that the “new” congregation would struggle to make it, but little by little, healing, grace, and more than a little hard work created a viable core group who birthed a new church.

(2)  Transition means that loose ends can be tied up, and you can untie knots more easily.

The intentional interim minister was able to engage the congregation around some key questions of identity, purpose, and vision, while helping put the unfortunate and painful recent history into appropriate context. The church took the opportunity to relearn and redefine its basic understanding while also allowing new voices, ideas, and thoughts to add to the mix. (Also, more than a few skeletons were cleaned out of the closet, and a herd of elephants tromping around the middle of the room were able to be discussed freely and frankly.)

(3)  The more we talk of change, the more change happens.

When I look over the church newsletters and various mementoes from that internship period, I see more clearly that the leadership of the congregation was able to keep “change” at the forefront of the discussion. While other questions needed to be tackled (where do we meet after the current rental agreement runs out? How do we throw a good potluck? What Sunday school curriculum do we utilize?), the congregation kept asking itself questions that kept “the big picture” in front of them rather than just off to the side of the radar screen.

(4) “Congregationally led” is a beautiful and very good phrase for a bunch of Baptists to toss around in their conversation and planning for a new chapter in ministry.

The church split happened largely over a long history of allowing only one (or a few) voice set the agenda. In this case, the congregation allowed a minister to wield more power than prudent. The result for those who split and went to this other group was a common mantra: “We want to be congregationally led”. This was shorthand for acknowledging a very dear and essential bit of Baptist congregational identity and authority. The strongest Baptist congregation is one that is led by lay leadership. A pastor serves as the equipper of the saints and skilled shepherd of the flock, but the “tone” and “voice” of the congregation is set by the congregation working together, especially through key lay leaders trusted and called forth to discern wisely where the congregation’s ministry and mission can be best utilized.

I offer these thoughts as we prepare for the 2008 annual meeting. While the context and situation of our church differs from the one I served as an intern, I think what I learned along the way might be of use to us as well. Let me know your thoughts and responses to these reflections!

The Rev. Jerrod H. Hugenot

The season of Advent is about expectation, which can seem a bit foiled when living in consumerist North America. By early October, the goblins of Halloween were nestled beside the Christmas trees in early October this year down at K-Mart. Fliers for items “perfect for Christmas” started appearing in the newspapers and mail this past week. Indeed, the Christian season of Advent to wait and watch for the coming Christ child is a contrary-minded practice.

I encourage you to take the time over the weeks leading up to Advent to spend time in prayer, attending worship, and reading the scripture texts that help shape our reflections on this sacred season. May we find in the midst of “X number of shopping days till Christmas” the expectant joy of a sacred season given to awaiting the babe born in Bethlehem.

Great News to Note
At the annual meeting of the Better Bennington Corporation, awards were given to various persons, businesses, and organizations for their commitment this past year to improving our downtown business district. I am honored to be one of those recognized for such commitment however, I wish to note that this award is really one best shared alongside First Baptist. It has been YOUR commitment as a congregation to acknowledge your unique opportunity as a downtown area church in a new way after years of being perhaps “less visible” in the life of Bennington. At the outset of this interim ministry period, you affirmed that you wanted to be more involved, and we have grown in our community presence. Congratulations to you, First Baptist!

What Gilliam did not anticipate was a host of problems, including locations and equipment getting flooded and his Quixote (an elder French actor) developing serious health problems only after a few days of filming. Beaten by these bizarre odds, Gilliam gave up filming and the production shut down.

The one thing that these terrible circumstances did not take away from Gilliam was his devotion to the idea of making a film about Don Quixote. While the project did not happen at that time, Gilliam still intends to make this film someday. Why? Gilliam has a vision that cannot be swayed.

Over the past year and a half, I have been waiting for First Baptist to say with confidence, “This is our vision for ministry.” Part of my calling as your intentional interim minister is to help you address this critical piece of your transitional journey. Over the “middle” two Sunday mornings of November (November 12 and 19), we will hold two one-hour sessions that help us find the words that help articulate a vision for the congregation’s ministry.

From this vision process, we will start working on bringing First Baptist more closely in line with this vision. There is a temptation to let past history (filled in recent decades with good and not-so good memories alike) continue to guide us and provide the script that we tend to live by (which some days might sound like “We aren’t what we used to be” or

“We don’t have what we used to have”). As we go through this process, we will endeavor to let new words guide us, words like: “First Baptist: Same Old Hope, New View of the Future”, “FBC: Daring, Risking, Living Anew” “FBC: not just for in it for ourselves, but for the healing of the nations”.

Vision statements can be the “life-giving” that congregations seek when they give themselves permission to take this word and run with it. A congregation of my acquaintance had its big anniversary year, and they adopted a statement about “building bridges” with the community. One old-timer told me that they ought to put the statement on a sign out on the street so everybody could see it as they drove by. Another wise saint said, “We could just start building those bridges, y’know….”

What does it mean for First Baptist to discern a new vision? It may mean that some projects get put on hold, and that others start up. It may mean that old ways give way to new ones. Change has happened in the past year and a half. Now it’s time to let more change happen in our midst.

The vision process that waits in the wings for mid-November 2007 will be hopefully a mile stone in a history that is yet to unfold, but one that we hope our vision statement helps create as a bigger, more vibrant era of First Baptist just getting underway.

As part of the transitional journey of First Baptist, you are engaged in asking a number of big picture questions about the ministry of the congregation. One of the critical questions, however, must be “how does First Baptist empower the whole people of God to the work of ministry?”

You can have one person in the pulpit preaching and teaching and caring, but if you do not ask yourselves “what about the rest of us? How does God call me to the work of ministry?”, you will find that not much will get done, and a lot of potential will go untapped. No one person or handful of people can accomplish “communicating the Gospel in word and deep, gifts of serving, gifts of guiding and following, gifts of inspiration and vision.” That takes everybody to see things come about!

First Baptist is thriving due to its people, not any one person (especially not any one parson). Each person indeed is gifted with “diverse and complementary gifts” kindled by the Holy Spirit. As a contemporary hymn puts it, “Let us bring the gifts that differ in splendid, varied ways!”

On Sunday, October 14, we will celebrate YOUR work as a congregant at First Baptist by hosting a blessing of the lay ministry of the congregation. You are invited to prepare for this worship service by thinking about what your gifts for ministry are and how you put them to use in service to First Baptist. Then look for something that symbolizes your gifts. It could be a hammer for the gift of helps, a quill pen or a computer keyboard for your gift of writing, a stuffed toy for your work in the nursery, and the list can go on and on and on. During the service, we will ask you to bring this gift to the altar and we will bless the assembled people and your gifts that you bring to strengthen and further the ministry and mission of First Baptist.

First Baptist has come a great distance in the past two years, thanks to persons living out “ministers….everyone”. Let the whole people say, “AMEN!”, which means, “Let it be so!”

As this fall gets underway, First Baptist will have further opportunities to explore and redefine itself. September marks the return of Sunday school for all ages. On Sunday mornings, we expand our religious education to include children and adults in a variety of classes during the 11 o’clock hour. As we prepare for 2008 (yes, now is the time!), we will experience a new type of stewardship emphasis over a series of Sunday mornings, led by Cindy Watson, Mary Harrington, and Darcy Oakes. New choral activities are being offered for children and adults on Wednesday afternoon and evenings. You may not think of “stewardship” or “choir” as a way that churches experience transition, but indeed, these are signs that the congregation is experiencing redevelopment. Each of these things is indeed “change” at work!

When discussing the experience of transition, the authors of Temporary Shepherds: A Congregational Handbook for Interim Ministry draw upon a line from a play by Marc Connelly called Green Pastures. Spoken by an old deacon, the line goes like this: “Everything nailed down is bustin’ loose!” Then the authors make the following observation:

“Congregations tend to think that they do not change over time, but nothing is further from the truth. Congregations change significantly as they respond to different pastoral leaders, to changes in their societal context, and to alterations in their internal circumstances.” (p. 8)

Two years ago this month, your last minister departed, and you began a search process in the form of a three-year season of interim ministry. Think about where First Baptist has been since you began talking of transition in the fall of 2005. What do you believe has changed or “bust[ed] loose”? What still seems “nailed down”?

I believe it is critical to the health of any congregation, whether an active membership of 20 or 200, that care is given to dealing with the inevitability of change. Most often, a change in pastor is the most visible, but the changes that occur when one’s ministry setting, or context, changes is equally important. Bennington has changed greatly over the past fifty years. How well do the congregation and its ministries connect with the community? Do we know our community well?

Attending the Children in Poverty study conducted this September and October will be an excellent opportunity for the adult congregants to reflect together on the realities of social and economic conditions in our community. I hope that the sessions will encourage some critical and careful thought about how First Baptist reinterprets its mission, vision, and identity.

After the Children in Poverty study concludes in mid-October, a series of workshops on “Vision” will be offered over the course of four Sunday school sessions for our adults. During this time, a team of lay leaders will lead the adults through a time of reflecting upon and dreaming about a vision for First Baptist. Too often, congregations in transition just settle for the minister setting the tone, and in the case of interim ministry periods, the congregation is even more tempted just “to wait until the real minister gets here” before getting too excited about much of anything.

Obviously, the past two years have not been just about waiting around. First Baptist has addressed some short-term and long overdue issues during this time. The reality, however, is that the work of transitioning the church into a new chapter of ministry is still underway. We need lay members and lay leaders to wrestle about “what’s busted loose” and “what’s still nailed down” in the ministry of the church. As we get closer to Thanksgiving, perhaps we can celebrate the autumnal harvest with a vision that brings us ever closer to being the healthy, intentional, and engaged congregation that you started yearning for two years ago.