E-Link Online -- News of the American Baptist Churches of Michigan

Come Christians,
join to sing!

Come pastors, worship leaders, lay people, everyone. You're invited to gather at First Baptist Church of Cadillac (125 Stimson St.) for worship, Friday, October 19 at 7:30pm. The Rev. Dr. James Perkins, pastor of Greater Christ for over 25 years, will be preaching. Dr. Perkins, a nationally recognized preacher, will bring a powerful word from God. The music of talented musician Carl Clendenning, willl lift us into God's holy presence. Whether you are registered for the Annual Equipping Event or not, everyone is invited to worship! So, come one - come all - come Christians join to sing! Alleluia! Amen.

If you are not yet registered for the Annual Equipping Event, you may do so by going to www.abc-mi.org and downloading the registration forms. You will not want to miss this exciting event of vibrant worship!

Arrivals, Departures, Celebrations, Concerns

§ Installation of Dr. Linnea Berg as Friendship House Executive Director will take place on Sunday, October 14, 5 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Detroit in Southfield. Members of the Board of Directors will also be installed. A spaghetti dinner will be provided by Carole and Harvey Curley. A free will offering will be taken to cover costs. Martin Suarez, an outstanding pianist from Illinois, will present a program of both classical and sacred selections. Please RSVP by October 8 by email (myfriendshiphous@comcast.net) or call 313-871-7443. There's a one page announcement: http://abc-mi.org/elink/installlinnea.pdf.

Featured Musician at Annual Event: Carl Clendenning

by Pat Hernandez

If you have not yet registered for the upcoming ABC-MI Annual Equipping Event, do so today! You will not want to miss the talents of renowned musician and Music Minister Carl Clendenning who will lead us in exploring the many facets of music as part of creating vibrant worship.

As a talented musician and gifted vocalist, Carl has held numerous choir chairs and has served as organist and/or music director in Protestant, Roman Catholic and Reformed Jewish congregations, broadening his Baptist roots of growing up at Second Baptist Church in Detroit where Rev. Kevin Turman currently serves as minister and has referred to Carl as one of the best musicians he knows.

Mr. Clendenning currently serves as Minister of Music for the Archdiocese of Detroit as well as full-time pastoral musician at Church of the Gesu, a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and multi-cultural community. Serving such a diverse community, Mr. Clendenning has become adept at using music in stylistically diverse ways with an emphasis on engaging congregational participation in the overall design of an enriching, multi-sensory worship experience.

During his sessions, Mr. Clendenning will explore how to:

‡ introduce new music and develop a varied repertoire
‡ adapt music to different contexts
‡ use music to amplify and enhance the scriptural message as well as the sermon
‡ challenge the worshipping community musically and textually

Mr. Clendenning will be leading workshop sessions on Friday as well as on Saturday. Plan to attend to explore worship as a transforming encounter with God!

FREE LUNCH!

by Pat Hernandez

So, who says there's no such thing as a free lunch? Okay, okay, so lunch isn't free. But better than a free lunch is having the opportunity to attend a workshop with the Rev. Scott Hoezee, Director of the Center for Excellence in Preaching, Friday, Oct. 19, 1:30 - 3pm at no additional cost to your Friday registration of the Annual Equipping Event. If you have not yet registered, you may download the form at www.abc-mi.org.

After serving in pastoral ministry for 15 years, including time spent as Pastor-in-Residence at the Pastor-Theologian program sponsored by the Center for Theological Inquiry, Rev. Scott Hoezee was selected to be the first director for the Center for Excellence in Preaching. The Center for Excellence in Preaching is a Lilly funded project housed at Calvin Theological Seminary and dedicated to supporting pastoral excellence by advancing excellence in preaching (http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/).

The Center defines excellent preaching as "biblical, authentic, contextual, and life-changing. By the power of the Holy Spirit, preaching moves from the text through the preacher into a specific situation toward the gospel's goal."

Says the Rev. Hoezee, "If you talk to just about anyone in any part of the church world, one thing you will hear over and again is a desire to hear fine preaching in our congregations. At the Center for Excellence in Preaching we hope to do anything and everything we can to provide pastors with all the ideas, resources, and direction we can think of in order to help them in the always-difficult, yet utterly vital, task of proclaiming the Word of God to a world starving for the gospel's good news."

Hoezee is the author of a number of books including The Riddle of Grace, Flourishing in the Land, Remember Creation, and, most recently, Proclaim the Wonder: Preaching Science on Sunday. Join us Friday, October 19, 1:30 - 3pm in exploring becoming a more excellent communicator of God's Word!

The Parish Paper Now Available Free

Herb Miller, editor of the The Parish Paper - Ideas and Insights for Active Congregations, recently advised Dr. Michael Williams that ABC Regions, including ABC-MI, now have copyright permission to distribute the newsletter electronically to clergy and congregations. The May Issue, which focuses on stewardship, may be viewed, downloaded, and saved: http://abc-mi.org/elink/parishpaper507.pdf.

Annual World Mission Offering

"Like living stones, let yourself be built into a spiritual house..." I Peter 2:5

The World Mission Offering gives your church an opportunity to partner with International Ministries to deeply touch the lives of thousands of people all over the world. Every gift given by your church to WMO goes 100% to help people come to Christ, grow in Christ and change their world with Christ. Those blessed by your generosity include Rosa: a 36-year-old widow and mother of six who lives in Pueblo Nuevo Sitala in Chiapas, Mexico. Sacrificially share your resources to be a blessing. Support the vital work of over 1800 missionaries and international partners of International Ministries around the world.

Live Generously!

"From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view..." -- 2 Corinthians 5:16

World Mission Offering Speakers Available

Time is of the essence! October is here and we still have several openings during the week of Oct. 21-28, 2007, to hear Wendy Bernhard speak about her teaching experiences in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. If you would like an opportunity to learn about how your mission support dollars are being used on the mission field, please contact Debbie Hart at 800.632.2953 or dhart@abc-mi.org. Thank you.

National Youth Gathering in July

More Than A Week, the National Gathering of American Baptist Youth, will take place July 5-11, 2008, at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado. A website called www.morethanaweek.com lists the speakers, bands, registration information and much else.

Youth Convention November 9-11 in Lansing

The American Baptist Youth of Michigan Annual Senior High Convention will be held November 9-11, 2007 at the Holiday Inn-South, Lansing. Registration packets and convention posters were sent to all abc of michigan churches about three weeks ago. If you have not received a packet and wish to have one please contact Jim Davis at jimdavis@camplael.com or call 1.800.636.8452.

Jason Raitz, youth minister at Willow Creek is the guest speaker. Music is by "God Made the Stars." Theme is "Make Your Mark" and theme scripture is Ephesians 2:10: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do"

Registration deadline is October 27.

New Pastor Orientation

The ABC-MI will be sponsoring an Orientation for New Professional Church Leaders at the Region office in East Lansing on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. According to the Rev. Tucker Gunneman, ABC-MI Transitional Ministry Consultant, "This event will provide new pastors and associate pastors with an opportunity to meet the ABC-MI staff and also to learn about the exciting ministries the Region has to offer as we seek to fulfill our vision of Growing Healthy Churches. This will also be a great opportunity to become acquainted with other professional church leaders who also are new to their ministry settings." There is no cost for this event. If you would like to attend, please notify Debbie Hart at the Region office by phone at (800) 632-2953 x 221 or email dhart@abc-mi.org.

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Short Notices

The Center for Excellence in Preaching at Calvin Seminary is holding its Fall Preaching Conference: The Lively Sermon: Refining Skills for Embodying the Word, on Thursday, October 11, 2007, at Calvin Theological Seminary Chapel. This conference will help preachers refine the non-verbal skills that enliven the preaching moment. Guest speaker for the day, Dr. Todd Farley, is a highly trained communications expert who has studied both homiletics and drama. Among his many skills, Dr. Farley is also a professionally trained mime who once studied in Paris under the well-known mime, Marcel Marceau. For this conference, Dr. Farley will help preachers review and hone a number of very basic practices of movement, gesture, and posture as well as some more advanced communication skills all of which make preaching eventful as the preacher embodies the Word of God. Register now at http://www.regonline.com/141898.

First Baptist/The Church on Main Street in Royal Oak Proudly Presents Saving Marion Saturday, October 27, 8- 10 p.m. Tickets: $10.00; advanced sales of 4 or more: $5.00 each. Special Guests: Kevin Hollavar, guitar and Garth Moser, drums. For more information or to order tickets, call (248) 543-7454. From Country Music Television, The Gibson Showcase in Nashville, and Good Morning American, Joel Moore made his way to Michigan where he met Katelyn Davidson, a 2007 graduate of The Arts Academy in the Woods in Fraser. Together they became Saving Marion in the belief that God had called them to use their talents for Him. Their heartfelt commitment is to offer their music to a generation struggling to believe. Their 2-hour concert in Royal Oak on Saturday, October 27, is geared for youth and young adults. It features amazing vocals, killer guitar work, and some intimate piano. Come expecting to hear great music and be ready to worship and to rock!

The Fifth Annual Metro Detroit Fall Dinner for ABC Men and Women of Southeastern Michigan will be held Saturday, November 3, 2007. Details are in this flyer: http://abc-mi.org/elink/http://abc-mi.org/elink/mdafalldinner.pdf. For the latest Metro Update check here: http://abc-mi.org/elink/mdaseptupdate.pdf

The Ministers Council -- ABCUSA now has a monthly newsletter. Read it at http://abc-usa.org/documents/MC_newsltr.pdf.

Read the latest issue of International Ministries Prayer Call: http://abc-mi.org/elink/prayer-call.pdf.

The Friendship House Newsletter is now provided in both PDF and DOC formats. The DOC format is a much smaller file and will take much less time to acquire on slow dialup connections. Read it in PDF at http://abc-mi.org/elink/fh.pdf or in DOC format at http:abc-mi.org/fh.doc.

The latest Friendship House Virtual Family Shop newsletter is here: http://abc-mi.org/elink/vfs.pdf.

The next issue of E-Link Online will be published on October 22. Please send news items and notices to the Editor (editor@abc-mi.org) by October 18.

Editor's Trips

Disclaimer: listing of these references does not imply endorsement of positions or policies advocated in them by either the American Baptist Churches of Michigan or the editor of E-Link Online. Caveat lector.

The Editor

§  Separation of Church and State -- the Great Protector of Religion -- http://tinyurl.com/34mxzz (Excerpt from very important new book, plus a radio interview with author Garry Wills)
§  Update on Situation of Burmese Christians -- http://tinyurl.com/ys8uhd
§  Defending the Poor and the Prisoner -- http://tinyurl.com/2cd8ak (article by Dr. Aidsand Wright-Riggins, head of ABC National Ministries)
§  The Power of Leaderless Organizations -- http://tinyurl.com/2pqvxd
§  Fundamentals of Environmental Stewardship -- http://tinyurl.com/2qm6qf -- a Sightings article by Martin Marty
§  Lifestyles of the Rich and Religious -- http://tinyurl.com/yrfxsq (satire)
§  Wittenburg Door interview with Rob Bell -- http://tinyurl.com/2bqo6s

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