PEI Baptist Association
Unique Missions, Shared Work
The Worldwide Plague of Racism
Image Credit: Global Issues
Let’s Start Local…
For the past few months, I’ve been thinking about the overt racism that seems to have found increased acceptance in our society. Let’s not kid ourselves — there was always racism in our society, but it was generally more covert. At least, that is my privileged perspective as a white woman who lives on an island that, until very recently, was populated almost exclusively by white people. Most of my exposure to people of other races was on TV and in movies — and we’re probably all aware of just how biased and full of stereotypes those can be!
I’m quite sure that visible minorities across Canada would quickly tell me that they have experienced and continue to experience overt racism on a regular basis. Atlantic Canadians don’t have to go very far find clear evidence of racism. Even the United Nations has noted Nova Scotia’s track record of systemic racism against African-Canadians in a recent report.
I have been very disturbed by the unapologetic racist sentiments we are seeing with greater frequency in the news and on social media. I am pleased to say that I am not the only one. At Oasis 2017, our Atlantic Baptist family approved the following statement that was recently released to all of our churches and to the public:
The Ideal Team Player
Image Credit: GreatSchools
I just finished reading The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni. He was one of the speakers at the Global Leadership Summit 2016 organized by Willow Creek Association (for more information about the annual Global Leadership Summit, click here). Lencioni is founder of The Table Group, a consulting firm that specializes in leadership, teamwork, and organizational health.
As I was reading the book, I was thinking about how the Church needs ideal team players. As the Body of Christ, the Church is made up of many different parts that work together (1 Corinthians 12:12-26). If those parts don’t work together as a team, the Body starts to malfunction and becomes an ineffective witness to Christ’s saving power. Read More
An Evangelism Reading List
Image Credit: Christianity Today
PEI is having a real focus on evangelism in 2017. ALPHA will be rolled out all across the Island in the fall and Will Graham’s Celebration of Hope will be held in Charlottetown in early November. As part of my personal preparations for these events, I’ve been reading up on evangelism. Here are some interesting evangelism-related blog posts I found this week:
- Rethinking Evangelism (reading time: 2.5 minutes)
- Toward a National Renewal of Evangelism Through the Local Church in Our Day (reading time: 2.5 minutes)
- When Church Plants Fail (reading time: 3 minutes)
- Kids and Kingdom Growth (reading time: 3.5 minutes)
- 5 Important Ways Evangelism is Shifting in Our Post-Christian World (reading time: 4.5 minutes)
- Is God Reviving Europe Through Refugees? (reading time: 6 minutes)
To borrow from the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada’s vision, how are you preparing to “join God in changing [PEI] one neighbourhood at a time”? Have you read any interesting evangelism blog posts or seen any evangelism-related videos you’d like to share?
“Go… I Am With You Always”
Image Credit: The Pastor’s Pages
This post is based on a sermon I preached at Murray River Baptist Church on July 10, 2016.
In Deuteronomy 1:6-46, Moses recounts the Israelites’ first attempt at occupying the land God had promised them. Israel’s rebellion prevented them from occupying the land the first time. God punished the Israelites by making them wander in the wilderness for 40 years until the entire generation that had rebelled had died (with the exception of Joshua and Caleb).
We, both individually and as the Church, are like Israel in many ways. We regularly rebel against God and forget what God has done for us. We sometimes place our faith in people and things rather than in the Creator. In the New Testament, Paul tells us to learn from Israel’s rebellion so we can avoid the same pitfalls and temptations (1 Corinthians 10:1-13). The writer of Hebrews tells us the same thing in Hebrews 3:1-4:13. Jude 1:5 says, “So I want to remind you, though you already know these things, that Jesus first rescued the nation of Israel from Egypt, but later he destroyed those who did not remain faithful“, referencing the very history recounted by Moses in Deuteronomy 1. With this in mind, we can learn a few things from Israel’s experience. Read More
The World is Watching
Image Credit: Know Your Meme
Wow! We’ve seen some pretty bad public relations missteps in the past week or so:
- First, it was the Pepsi ad that, amazingly, united the Internet in mockery and hatred of the ad to the point that Pepsi issued an apology and pulled it the day after it was released.
- Next, it was United Airlines forcibly removing an already-seated passenger from an airplane to make room for airline employees who were due to work at the flight’s destination the next day. The Internet responded again, calling for boycotts and smearing the airline’s image with snide memes and advertising slogans. The day after the incident, United’s CEO issued a public statement apologizing “for having to re-accommodate these customers” and an internal memo that defended the actions taken by employees, which was promptly leaked to the media. Backlash became even more heated and the resulting drop in United’s share price finally elicited a proper apology from the CEO a day later. Ironically, this is the same CEO who was dubbed Communicator of the Year by PRWeek only weeks ago.
- To top it all off, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer made a major gaffe on Tuesday by saying that, unlike Syria’s Assad, Hitler at least had enough decency not to use gas on his own people. It seems Spicer’s knowledge of history isn’t very strong considering Hitler made regular use of gas chambers during his extermination of German Jews (and other “undesirables” plucked from Germany’s citizenry). The only thing more stunning than the statement itself was its timing — the week leading up to Passover, a major Jewish holiday — and the number of follow-up statements it took for Spicer to issue a satisfactory apology for his inaccurate and insensitive comparison.
2017 Easter Events at PEI Baptist Churches
Image Credit: Happy Easter 2017
Palm Sunday, April 9:
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9:30 am at First Baptist Church, 235 Prince Street, Charlottetown
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11:00 am at First Baptist Church, 235 Prince Street, Charlottetown
April 11-13:
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Self-guided “Journey to Easter” interactive stations at First Baptist Church, 235 Prince Street, Charlottetown; please call the church office at 902-628-2111 to book a time for you or your group
Maundy Thursday, April 13:
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2:30 pm at Lady Slipper Villa, 490 Main Street, O’Leary
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5:30 pm at First Baptist Church, 235 Prince Street, Charlottetown: Faith @ Home
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6:30-8:00 pm at First Baptist Church, 235 Prince Street, Charlottetown: Quiet meditation and communion
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7:00 pm at Cornerstone Baptist Church, 9 Cornerstone Drive, Cornwall
Good Friday, April 14:
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10:00 am at Cornerstone Baptist Church, 9 Cornerstone Drive, Cornwall
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10:00 am at Cornerstone Baptist Church, 295 Shakespeare Drive, Stratford
- 10:00 am at South Lake Christian Church, 31 Elmira Road, Souris: Drama presentation with lunch to follow
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10:30 am at Summerside Baptist Church, 219 Church Street, Summerside
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11:00 am at First Baptist Church, 235 Prince Street, Charlottetown
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7:00 pm at Alexandra Baptist Church, 1140 Pownal Road, Alexandra
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7:00 pm at Springfield West-O’Leary Baptist Church, 473 Main Street, O’Leary
Easter Sunday, April 16:
- 6:15 am at Alberton Baptist Church, 327 Church Street, Alberton: Breakfast included
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8:00 am at Murray Harbour Baptist Church, 1414 Cape Bear Road, Murray Harbour: Breakfast included
- 8:15 am at Kingsboro Baptist Church, 3055 East Point Road, Souris: Breakfast
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9:00 am at Cornerstone Baptist Church, 9 Cornerstone Drive, Cornwall
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9:30 am at First Baptist Church, 235 Prince Street, Charlottetown
- 9:30 am at Kingsboro Baptist Church, 3055 East Point Road, Souris
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9:30 am at Springfield West-O’Leary Baptist Church, 473 Main Street, O’Leary
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9:30 am at Summerside Baptist Church, 219 Church Street, Summerside
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10:00 am at Cornerstone Baptist Church, 26 Brook Street, Montague: Easter egg hunt to follow
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10:00 am at Cornerstone Baptist Church, 295 Shakespeare Drive, Stratford
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10:30 am at Alexandra Baptist Church, 1140 Pownal Road, Alexandra
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10:30 am at First Baptist Church, 235 Prince Street, Charlottetown: Special Easter cafe
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10:45 am at Cornerstone Baptist Church, 9 Cornerstone Drive, Cornwall
- 11:00 am at Alberton Baptist Church, 327 Church Street, Alberton
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11:00 am at First Baptist Church, 235 Prince Street, Charlottetown
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11:00 am at Murray Harbour Baptist Church, 1414 Cape Bear Road, Murray Harbour
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11:00 am at Springfield West-O’Leary Baptist Church, 473 Main Street, O’Leary
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11:00 am at Summerside Baptist Church, 219 Church Street, Summerside
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11:00 am at Tryon-Westmoreland Baptist Church, 21274 Trans Canada Highway, Tryon
- 6:30 pm at Alberton Baptist Church, 327 Church Street, Alberton
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7:00 pm at Clyde River Baptist Church, 726 Clyde River Road, Clyde River: Gospel music concert
Image Credit: Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and the Environment
I’m a bit of a superhero movie nerd. I watch them over and over. I watched Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man so many times that the VHS tape wore out. I own Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy and the Iron Man trilogy and have watched both several times. With the advent of Netflix, I can binge-watch movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe as many times as I want without even leaving my chair to switch from one movie to the next (assuming I can find the remote).
X-Men: Days of Future Past
One of the more prolific movie series based on Marvel comics is the X-Men series. There are currently ten X-Men movies and related spin-offs and there are five other X-Men-related films in development. One of my favourites from the X-Men series is X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Image Credit: Comic Vine
In the movie, Wolverine (pictured in the centre) goes back in time to try to prevent an assassination that will trigger the creation of highly sophisticated robotic weapons that target mutants and humans that carry the mutant gene, eventually leading to the annihilation of both mutants and humans. I don’t think I’m spoiling the movie too much to say that the X-Men are successful in their quest. I’ll let you watch the movie to find out how everything worked out in the end. Read More
About Those “20 Minutes of Action”
Image Credit: Global News
I will not disgrace myself or this website by mentioning the name of the so-called man who was recently convicted of sexually assaulting a woman on Stanford University’s campus in January 2015. I will not mention the name of the judge who handed down an extremely lenient sentence of six months in county jail and three years of probation when the recommended sentence for such a conviction is between eight and twenty years in state prison. I will not mention the names of those who have callously denied the seriousness of the crime by insisting that the attacker should not receive the recommended punishment; they believe the attacker is really a good kid who doesn’t deserve to experience the full consequences of his actions because it would ruin his potential. All of these people are already receiving more than enough attention.
Image Credit: Special Broadcasting Service
I will, however, name and honour the two Swedish men, Carl-Fredrik Arndt and Peter Jonsson (pictured above), who saved the woman from further harm at the hand of her attacker. They are the male heroes of this story. I will also honour the female hero of this story – the woman herself, who continues to bravely face the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual consequences brought about when someone broke the 10th commandment and coveted his neighbour’s body. Read More
CABC Alpha Workshop
In case you weren’t able to get to the CABC Alpha Workshops or join our livestream earlier this month, we recorded one and have it available for you here. The workshops were hosted by hr CABC and Alpha Canada led by Greg Jones (CABC) & Shaila Visser (National Director, Alpha Canada). This workshop was recorded at Bridgewater Baptist Church, Bridgewater, NS on April 5, 2016.
Trouble viewing video? Click here: https://vimeo.com/atlanticbaptist/cabc-alpha
More info on how your church can use Alpha and the new materials being released, go to http://www.alphacanada.org.
How You and Your Church Can Give Everyone What They Want
Image Source: LG Elite
It can be difficult to know how to serve everyone in a church setting. Children have different needs than youth, who have different needs than young adults, who have different needs than older adults, who have different needs than seniors. There is even a wide range within each age category – differing genders, marital statuses, employment statuses, educational backgrounds, hobbies, interests, musical preferences. How can the church serve all of these people well? Read More
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