Sorry it's been so long since the last post. We've got got 3 events coming up soon, and I wanted to highlight them here.
Derby Party
Call to the post! The Silence family will be hosting our annual Derby party in their home on May 5th starting at 4:15 PM. Bring a salad or side dish or drinks and they will provide the rest. Feel free to dress in Derby attire or casual clothing, whichever you prefer. Adults and children are welcome. The Silences live at 3339 Wood Valley Court, not far from the Tates Creek exit off New Circle. Call Beth or Jay T at 699-8966 if you have any questions.
See Sheena play cornhole with Ben and Ryan at the 2006 Derby Party.
Ultimate Frisbee
Adam is organizing a weekly ultimate frisbee game for the summer. This is a great opportunity to have fun and get some exercise (all of us need both of these things). You don't have to be great at frisbee, or even know how to play ultimate frisbee. I willingly admit that I am terrible at frisbee, but I am going to play anyways. We will be meeting on Monday nights at church, either in the soccer field or the lawn in front of the church (next to Lane Allen Rd). The time is yet to be finalized, but it will probably start each week around 6:45-7:00. We hope to see lots of people there!
Be there at the first game this coming Monday, May 6! We will work off Jay T's Derby pie together!
Wed. night dinner and Bible study
As most of you know, the weekly Wed. night church dinners do not happen during the summer. In addition, a lot of the people in the young adult group are living alone this summer (while spouses are off working in other states or cities). Dan and Rebecca have agreed to host a weekly dinner at their house every Wednesday evening starting on May 30th. We will eat on the picnic table in our backyard (as long as the weather is nice) and follow dinner with a short Bible study. We live about 5 minutes away from Beaumont. If you would like to join us once or weekly, anyone is welcome! Time is yet to be determined. Members of the group will take turns providing either an entree or 1 veggie or 1 fruit. (You don't have to help with the whole meal, just one part of it).
Look for more information coming soon about this weekly fellowship opportunity.
Recruitment
If you see someone at church who looks new to you, introduce yourself! We are always looking for more people to join our group. It would be great for this group to continue to snowball into a huge bottom third of a snowman, if not the entire snowman!
Prayer Requests
1. Bill D., who lost his father recently.
2. Ann, Jason, and Caroline K. 28 weeks and counting! Way to go guys for making it this far!
3. The family of Sima Maiti, one of Rebecca's friends who was killed in a car accident.
4. Robin H. and her mother Rachel S.; Robin is a coworker of Maggie's.
5. Ben's dad's friend passed away several months ago. His name was Jules Delambre. I am sorry I didn't post this up here earlier; I missed the comment Ben left several blogs ago. But as families continue to grieve for a loooong time after they lose their loved one, I am sure your prayers could still do some good.
6. Continued mind-body-soul healing for Les's uncle.
Also please pray about:
The direction and future mission of this group. I feel that God has really been working among our age population at Beaumont. However, I feel that eventually we should evolve into something more than a socialization venue. We originally formed this group out of a wish and desire for friendship and companionship with people in a similar age group. Although that is a great purpose for our group, I also believe that God would like us to grow spiritually together as well. Pray specifically that 1) we can discern our mission, 2) become more organized, and 3) that several leaders will step forth to help guide the growth of the group.
Perhaps one way that we can begin to grow together spiritually is by starting off each social event with a prayer together. We need to keep God at the center of our group; without Him, we can accomplish nothing.
In Him,
Rebecca
3 comments:
I was reading Les's recount of his uncle from several months ago, it made me think again of my friend Heather LaBarbara. Heather's father committed suicide just before our spring break this year so about a month ago now. He also had some mental problems and she and I had almost an identical conversation to your thought-provoking questions, Les. She is having a really hard time dealing with this as is her grandmother, who was the one who found her father after he killed himself in a sort of trance-like sleep that morning.
Please pray for Heather and her family. Her husband, Matt, will be having colon surgery in July. This has been put off for a while first by Matt and then because of the trauma for Heather dealing with her father's death. He is often in much pain and unable to help Heather care for their two young sons. So, pray for healing for them all around.
On a lighter note, Maggie and I will be bringing hat decorating supplies to the Silences derby party, so if you'd like bring a hat to decorate.
I've been thinking about Rebecca’s questions regarding the mission of our group. I have some thoughts, and will bullet some below. I do so with the caveat that I am simply abbreviating my thoughts 'out loud' and haven't refined them yet.
- I feel that the true calling of our group has been, and continues to be, to provide fellowship, support, networking, and social opportunities to those of us within the Beaumont Church community who are in the early adulthood stage of life: those of us dealing with the perils and issues of transitioning into the "real world," whether that's being newly-married, new to the work force, buying first homes, having (or not having) kids, whatever. I think that this is particularly important for our church in light of the people our age who are 'orphans' in the Lexington area; for many of us, this group provides the 'family' we traditionally associate with many church activities.
- I think that all too frequently, people in our stage of life are either disenchanted with church, overlooked in church, or struggling too much with everything else in their lives to find comfort in church. To me, this group of people counters all of those things, simply by being a group of people who support each other, who are welcoming to each other and everyone else, and who don't discourage those who aren't able, or comfortable enough yet, to feel 'committed' to a church or organization.
- I don’t want to isolate the Young Adults from the church-as-a-whole. While I certainly don’t think we are doing that, I think that we could do so unintentionally. I think that as members of Beaumont Church, our mission is that of the church. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I see this group as a network within the larger Beaumont congregation, and that I would like to see our efforts go toward the Church and not toward our small facet of the congregation. Each of us providing support and fellowship to each other within the movements and activities of the larger congregation.
- Along those lines, I really enjoy the fact that, though we all gather and socialize, we work outside of our group so much in the congregation-as-a-whole. We attend different Sunday School classes, we serve on various committees and the session, and serve BPC each to his / her own talents. (Can I re-iterate please how jealous I am of the musically-talented people out there? I wish I was musical, instead of just loud.) I don’t want to take away from that supportive young adult ‘circle’ radiating outward into the rest of the congregation.
- One way I think we ARE growing spiritually is by welcoming and inviting other young people in the community to join us for events & activities, and to join us for church services. What brought ME to the church was the invitation of Ben & Sheena. What kept me coming to church, and led me to becoming a member, was the fact that I was welcomed so strongly by the congregation, without once feeling pressured to be anything other than what I am – a young person learning how to be a grown-up while continuing to learn how to be a Christian. I have never once felt ‘preached at’ by any person at BPC; Chris, Jay T, Tom, or any congregation member. Rather, I’ve been shown by example and interaction how to be loving, how to be supportive, how to be welcoming, all things that Christ calls us to do. That, in turn, makes me want to be more of those things in my life, and it makes me want to be more involved with the church. It makes me grow spiritually, and doesn’t pressure me to do anything outside of my own desire to grow.
- I don’t want people to feel obligated to commit to the Young Adult group, or to feel like they ‘have’ to go to every event or gathering in order to be involved or welcome. We all have too much to do in our lives to feel guilty for missing a potluck or party, and I think feeling that way discourages people from participating in things. (I mean generally, and not specifically our group.) I think it’s very important that we recognize this and re-affirm what we’ve been doing by inviting and welcoming everybody that wants to participate, regardless of whether we’ve seen them in church recently or at an event in the last month or so. If somebody wants to come and fellowship with us once, they’re welcome, and if they can come back sometime, we’d love to have them. If they don’t come back the next time we have something going on, we’ll miss them, but we aren’t going to make them feel guilty for not coming out.
I guess that’s all for right now. I’m sure I’ve said something wrong, and I’ve probably forgotten to say something else, but anyway…
Much love everybody. les
Yes, Sheena, we will certainly keep your friend Heather and her family in our prayers. I will add her name to the Monday prayer group's list as well.
Les, I really appreciate your thoughtful comments. I agree with pretty much everything you said wholeheartedly. The only thing I would add is that I sometimes wish we as a group had more of a spiritual focus in addition to a social focus. I agree with what you said about fellowship and spirituality going together. The fellowship is incredibly important; in fact, it is what has made me and Dan feel like Lexington is our home. We really love all of you guys... we probably wouldn't have friends here if it weren't for all of you!
At the same time, I wonder if our group's spiritual growth and fellowship aren't always in the correct balance. I was struck by some of Tom's comments about the cottage meetings in his letter... "The Christians in ancient Corinth liked each other and they came together to share a common meal..Paul had to address words of correction to them...We don't have to get drunk on alcohol; we can lose our focus and assume that "the more we get together the happier we'll be"-- become inebriated with the wine of our good fellowship. We can lose our reason for gathering as Christians and begin to ignore our real mission."
Some food for thought. Can we enlarge our mission from providing fellowship, social opportunities, networking, and support to one that also includes mutual spiritual growth and reaching out to the community, both at Beaumont and in the larger community? Aside from showing Christ's love in our schools and workplaces, what more can we do? How can we make sure that we don't lose our focus as Christians? How can we make sure that the focus is more than parties and get togethers? Not that we have lost our focus; I believe that we do more than parties...I just don't want to slip into becoming merely a social group. We are, after all, the body of Christ.
Thanks for contributing to the discussion. We are so lucky to have both of you at Beaumont.
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