Instead of having Vacation Bible School this summer, we will host a program for our children from 11:30am-12:30pm on the following Sundays: July 30, August 11, August 18, and August 25. Each week, we will explore a different North Shore mission trip through pictures, games, and crafts. We will learn about Salamanca in Spain, the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, and the peacemaking efforts of the Baptist Peace Fellowship in Toluca, Mexico.
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By Cheryl Johnson
The week after Easter, North Shore sent a mission team (Celia Rodriguez, Holale Azondjagni, Viola Mayol, and myself) to serve and to learn alongside CMF International’s Globalscope campus ministry in Salamanca, Spain. Thank you for your prayers, your finances, and your gifts of time, which enabled us to represent North Shore in Salamanca. We continue to move forward in our search for a new English Language Pastor. As we put together our church profile, we have spent the past month soliciting feedback from various groups and individuals in the church. The Search Committee put out a survey at the Annual Meeting and facilitated conversations with Sunday School classes, with participants from preschool age through adulthood. We asked various questions, including “What are the strengths of the church?” “What are your expectations of the church?” “What qualities do you look for in a pastor?” We will also ask for information from community partners and members of our wider American Baptist Churches of Metro Chicago family.
Through this listening process, we hope to get insight about who we are as a church right now and where we hope to go in the future. We will use this information to develop a profile to send to prospective pastoral candidates. Throughout this time of transition, our Interim English Language Pastor, Rev. David Gregg, continues to provide thoughtful leadership and caring support. Every Wednesday at 6:00, this small group gathers at Jerry's Sandwiches (5149 N. Clark St. in Andersonville) for physical and spiritual refreshment, conversation, and libation. We are currently working our way through 40-Day Journey with Maya Angelou, which invites us to reflect on various excerpts from the writings of the luminary poet, singer, and thinker. Newcomers are most welcome-no need to have read in advance!
Join us for a celebration of the end of the school year on June 11 after English and Spanish worship! We will celebrate our graduates, honor our teachers, see what our Adventures in Learning classes have been up to this year, and eat cake.
by Rev. David Gregg
… suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. There is a certain kind of Christianity that gets labeled “pentecostal.” This branch of Christianity focuses on the presence of God’s Spirit at work in the church, and often features worship practices like speaking in tongues, faith healing, lively contemporary worship music, and even being slain in the spirt. Some of the members of North Shore have experienced this style of Christianity, and others haven’t. For some, it might seem foreign and unknown; for others, it is familiar and spiritually enriching. There are lots of different kinds of spiritual backgrounds here at North Shore — it’s one of our strengths! By Rev. Rony Reyes
Easter is a reflection not of the Easter bunny, although our church kids enjoy egg hunting. Nor is it a meditation on a joyful series of events that concluded in a risen Christ. It is preferable to believe in the all-conquering Christ, which depicts the image of a victorious God. One tends to stay away, not to believe in a Christ that becomes the Suffering Servant. There is a painful journey to get to the event of the resurrection (Luke 24). Christ went through agony at the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-46), a crown of thorns (John 19:2), a spear went through his side (John 19:34), culminating with the event of dying fixed to a cross (Mark 15:33-34), which is equivalent nowadays to dying in the electric chair. Christ endured these awful harmful acts in his emotional and bodily being. Yet there is the tendency to shy away from these topics, because they are not pleasant to reflect on. Por Rev. Rony Reyes
La Pascua no es una reflexión del conejito de Pascua, aunque los niños de la iglesia disfrutan de la búsqueda de huevos. Tampoco es una meditación sobre una serie de eventos que concluyen en un Cristo resucitado. Es preferible creer en el Cristo conquistador, que representa la imagen de un Dios victorioso. Uno prefiere permanecer lejos de la idea de un Cristo que se convierte en el Siervo Sufriente. Hay un viaje doloroso, para llegar al evento de la resurrección (Lucas 24). Cristo pasó por la agonía en el jardín de Getsemaní (Mateo 26: 36-46), una corona de espinas (Juan 19: 2); una lanza atravesó su costado (Juan 19:34), culminando el suceso de morir colgado en una cruz (Marcos 15: 33-34), lo que equivale hoy en día a morir en la silla eléctrica. Destacando estos horribles actos dañinos que Cristo soportó en su ser emocional y físico, surge la tendencia de alejarse de estos temas, porque no son agradables para reflexionar. At a specially called meeting on February 5, the Congregation voted to appoint a search committee for the permanent English Language Pastor. The committee is: Maura Galarza, Yanira Silva, Eh Kler, Cecilia Poenyunt, Sachiko Kano, Jay Shimotake, George Figueroa, Peggy Griffin, Becca HartmanPickerill, Barbara Lehman, Agnes Palmejar-Takaki, Scott Turner, Nick Fong, and the four settled pastors, Pastor Kathryn Ray, Pastor Rony Reyes, Pastor Roger Poenyunt, and Pastor Yuki Scroggins. Our English Congregation Interim, Pastor David Gregg will serve as a resource to the committee in the early part of the search.
With the beginning of Lent on March 1, North Shore Baptist Church again entered a period of introspection and spiritual preparation for the celebration of the Resurrection. Some of the activities include:
• Lenten themed worship, with a sermon series in the English Language Service on “Faith for the Sojourners.” Preachers will be: Rev Kathryn Ray, Mr Madison McClendon, Rev David Gregg, Rev Holale Azondjgani, and Rev Dr Chakravarthy Zadda. • Shared study book, “40-Day Journey with Parker Palmer”; there will be weekly discussions of how the devotional book has revealed in our journey. You have two choices for this Lenten study: these will meet Wednesdays at 7 pm (starting 3/8) or Thursdays at 1 pm (starting 3/9). You are invited to join any of these activities that draw you. This spiritual season of Sojourn is one we can share, learning from each other and giving each other strength for the journey. |
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