From The Pastor

Brothers and sisters,
November is a unique time of the year—in my opinion. It’s a month that so often gets overshadowed by its neighbors. October dominates the beginning of fall with fairs and football and, of course, Halloween. December then dominates the end of the year with, obviously, Christ-mas taking up a tremendous amount of our attention before ceding some ground to New Year’s Eve. November does have Thanksgiving, but if you put Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas in a popularity contest—I couldn’t tell you who’d win first, but I could tell you who’d win third.

That being said, November offers this interesting opportunity for us all to rest. It feels almost like taking a deep breath. The mischief and mayhem of Halloween has passed. The joyful busyness of Christmas has yet to set in. And in between those two is this month where the temperatures begin to drop more consistently, the sun goes down earlier, and we’re all encouraged to begin settling in for a cozy, comfy winter. I like the change of pace November offers.

A couple of Illuminators ago, I argued that part of the reason we were putting on something like the Fall Festival was because God exists in a state of joy and celebration. I believe that. But I also believe that God recognizes the limitations we human beings have. We cannot constantly celebrate. We cannot constantly go from party to party. Nor can we constantly go from mission to mission to mission. Instead, we have to take time to rest, to be with the people who fill us up, to do the things that give us life. There’s scripture to back that.

Remember that in Mark’s gospel, Jesus sent his disciples out two by two in order to spread the good news of the gospel. He gave them authority that they might heal the people they met. After that ministry came to an end, the disciples gathered around Jesus and began to tell them all about what they’d done. Jesus, hearing it all, says this to the disciples, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile” (Mark 6:31). Jesus recognized that the disciples needed a moment to catch their breath, to recharge their batteries. They needed time to just be together.

So, this November, do the things that bring you life. Meet up with the people that fill you up. Take some time to rest and enjoy this time of the year. The temperatures will be pleasant. The leaves will be beautiful. The football will be good. And in all of it, give thanks to God.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

The month of October has been a busy month here at Hope Valley Baptist Church, hasn’t it? Between missions projects, church events, and the day-to-day life of church, we’ve done a lot over the last month. So for this week’s article, I just wanted to run through some of what we’ve done.

While it technically started in September, our commitment to Scarlette Jasper’s Christmas Box ministry in Kentucky and other parts of Appalachia has been a constant theme here at HVBC. The Missions Team initially set a goal of 40 boxes and you all quickly passed that goal, prompting the team to add 5 more boxes to the mix. All in all, our church will be sending 45 boxes to Scarlette and to the folks in her community, allowing them to have Christ-mas and remember how much God loves them.

Kentucky was not the only part of Appalachia our church has helped this month. In the wake of Hurricane Helene, I kept getting questions from folks, asking, “What are we going to do to help those folks? How can we address this disaster?” We decided to do two things: create disaster relief buckets through CBF and send funds to the Baptists on Mission. On short notice, you all contributed over $3,200, allowing us to send 16 disaster relief buckets out west and nearly $2,000 to Baptists on Mission.

But we weren’t done there. Shortly thereafter, Jonathan Herring reached out and asked us to partner with some of his friends in Clyde, NC. Colder temperatures have already become a regular thing in the mountains, so Jonathan asked us to bring coats, mittens, sweaters, and other warm things to help the people and you all responded. When he and Toby Bowen pulled out of HVBC for Clyde, the bed of Jonathan’s truck was full of your donations.

But we weren’t done there either! Jonathan had found a partnership with a factory out of Thomasville that was willing to send bed pads out west for every sleeping bag we collected. And so we sent out the word for donations of sleeping bags and other things to help fight the cold—space heaters being particularly important. Again, you all responded, filling several boxes full of supplies for the folks in western North Carolina.

As if that wasn’t enough going on, we also came together to put on our annual Fall Festival, with games and candy and prizes and food. We were able to reach out to our community here in Durham and remind them that there is a group of Christians who love them and wish them nothing but joy. In the midst of challenging times, it can be an act of holy resistance to say, “We will carve out space for joy and celebration.” Because of that, 56 people were able to come and have a great time!

Finally, through all of this, each Sunday we took the time to examine spooky passages in the scriptures and ask ourselves good, faithful questions. How do I want to spend my life? How do I want to treat the people around me? What does it mean to seek and abide in God’s presence? And, of course, our handbells came through with beautiful music this past Sunday to uplift us and focus our eyes on the beauty of God. It has been a busy month here at HVBC; it has been a good month here at HVBC.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

As I’m writing this article, we are just ten days away from our church’s annual Fall Festival on Saturday, October 26th from 4:30-6:30 pm! This year promises to be another wonderful opportunity to reach out to our neighborhood and remind them how much God loves them and how deeply we love them too.

This year, we are going to have several different areas for local children and parents to engage with. We will have our usual area for Trunk-or-Treat, with church members decorating the trunks of their cars and passing out candy to children. Trunks are always fun to do be-cause you get to interact with the kids and parents as they are coming through. And man do kids love to show off their costumes! In addition to that, we will be having our usual Best Trunk competition, as voted on by our guests—so if you sign up, be sure to bring your A game!

In addition to the trunks, we will have an area dedicated specifically to crafts. Frances Smith has a bunch of unique fall-related crafts for the kids to make, with all of them reminding the kids that God loves them very much and/or that we have so much to be thankful for! There will also be small pumpkins for the kids to decorate using markers if they’d like to!
Beyond that, we are going to have several carnival-style games set up for kids to play—ring toss, mini putt-putt, and more! Kids will win tickets that they can then bring over to our Prize Table and trade in for all kinds of prizes (or even more candy). The prize table can get hectic, but it can be fun to haggle with a kid, i.e., “Ok. You’ve got 12 tickets left. Let’s think about our options here.” Here again, you get to interact with the kids and see their personalities shine.

Finally, we are providing a meal for anyone who comes through. It’s a simple meal, but so many parents told us last year that it was perfect. They were able to come out, have a good time with their family, and not have to worry about supper that night. And after every-thing was said and done, several volunteers told me last year, “It was nice to work really hard together and then end the night sharing a meal as a church family.”

For all these things, we need volunteers. We need folks to decorate their trunks. We need folks to help Frances with crafts. We need folks to run games and work the prize table. If you can help that night, please sign up on the Volunteer Sign-Up Sheet in the vestibule this Sunday, October 20th. If you’re not going to be here this Sunday, but you would like to volunteer at Fall Festival, shoot me an email ([email protected]) and let me know. If there’s a specific area you’d like to help in, let me know.

In my mind, events like this one are important for two main reasons. The first is simply to remind the community of our presence and of our love for them. The second is something C. S. Lewis alludes to throughout his Narnia series—that God is always looking for moments to celebrate. The church, then, is called to be an institution that is looking for any reason to be joyful. Events like Fall Festival are moments like that. In a world of constant worry and tension, we can be a place that says, “Come away from all that and spend some time with us, celebrating!”

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,
I’m excited about our upcoming sermon series. I love this time of the year. College football is back. The State Fair is coming up. Our church’s Fall Festival is quickly approaching. And, of course, we end the month with Halloween, one of my favorite holidays of the year. In the spirit of Halloween and all the interesting ideas it raises, I thought we could do a sermon series on a few passages within the scriptures that are not your typical passages.

You all know that I value and appreciate the lectionary—the three-year cycle of scripture passages that most preachers preach from and/or draw Calls to Worship from—but the lectionary definitely has some blind spots. In particular, the lectionary does not typically pick up on passages that are a little, shall we say, spookier. It tends to avoid passages where ghosts or demons or witches are mentioned. While I understand why it does this—these are not always the easiest pas-sages to preach on—I think that we miss out on some really interesting lessons when we avoid those stories.

I want to take the month of October to talk about four passages where something supernatural happens. I want to take a look at the ways in which the people respond to the crazy things they’re seeing. And I want to look at how God is found in each of those moments. So, we’ll start with a classic—Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones. We’ll move on to the story that gives us the phrase “the writing’s on the wall.” We’ll also spend a Sunday talking about some wannabe exorcists in the book of Acts. And the Sunday before Halloween, we’ll take a look at Saul and the witch of Endor.

I’m excited for this series because these passages have the ability to push us in ways we may not necessarily be used to. They will ask us hard questions about what our faith should look like and how we should express it. They will ask us how deeply we truly believe. But this series will end on November 3rd with a familiar passage from the Gospel that reminds us that in everything, spooky or not, God is with us. Happy Spooky Season, y’all!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

P.S. When I told the church council about this series months ago, I prefaced the discussion by saying, “I think y’all know this already, but I love Halloween.” I’d barely gotten the sentence out of my mouth before someone on the council chuckled and said, “We know.” When I paused to look at them, they said, “I mean, you went to Salem the weekend before Halloween. Who does that unless they love Halloween!” And, you know, they weren’t wrong!

Brothers and sisters,

In some ways, I feel like I write some version of this same article at least once a year. Regardless, I’m going to write it again. Two weekends ago, I rode down to Goldsboro to see my dad and my brother. Dad and I had bought tickets to one of the last home games for the Down East Wood Ducks, the minor league baseball team in nearby Kinston, for Friday night.

Because the weather was so nice, Dad and I decided to take his convertible, put the top down, and drive to Kinston using backroads, meaning we drove by lots and lots of fields. Now, they may not seem like much to look at—after all, a field is just flat ground—but to someone born and raised in Eastern NC, the fields were beautiful. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but deep greens and vibrant yellows. The trees lining the backroads to Kinston frame everything so perfectly that you get these picturesque scenes of fields and farmhouses and barns and sky. It’s wonderful!

I say all that not just to convince you to go for a drive sometime when it’s pretty out, but just to remind you that there is such beauty in God’s creation that is all around us. This is the time of year to go eat supper on the porch. It’s the time to pack a picnic and have lunch in Duke Gardens. One of my favorites—and it will only get better as the leaves turn—is UNC’s campus, particularly the Arboretum and the quad between Franklin Street and the Old Well.

Days like these are reminders, to me at least, of the special care that God took in making the earth. It is a place that can provide us with such tender beauty. It is a place where we can feel at peace, knowing that we belong here. God’s creation can speak to us in ways that can be familiar, but can also stir something deep within our souls. The fields of Eastern NC are not just pretty; they connect me to a place that feels like home, to a God that deeply loves me and all of Creation.

So, again, I feel like I write this article a lot, but go have supper on the porch tonight or go for a walk around the neighborhood and breathe in God’s love and creativity.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

In a little over a week, we will be having another Deacon Ordination service here at Hope Valley Baptist Church. Marie Bush was elected as one of our new members on the diaconate — her first time serving! Because of that, we get to come alongside her as her brothers and sisters in Christ and affirm the call God has placed on her.

The office of deacon can be traced back to various passages within the scriptures. Within the Old Testament, an argument can be made that the judges Moses appointed to help him settle disputes were similar to deacons. Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, saw how Moses was exhausting himself in his efforts to help the people. He gave Moses great advice, telling him that if he continued this way, he would wear out himself and the people. He told Moses to appoint good honest folks to help him care for God’s people. Moses did that and the judges came alongside him and helped him. In the same way, deacons are called to come alongside the pastor of their church and help him/her care for the people God has entrusted to them.

In the New Testament, you can read about some of the earliest deacons within the church in Acts 6:1-6. There was a dispute within the early church about whose widows were being cared for and whose weren’t. The twelve apostles then called the church together and appointed seven people “full of the Spirit and of wisdom” to care for the widows. Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus were chosen. The twelve apostles prayed over them and laid their hands on them. The first deacons had been ordained!

Paul also constantly lists deacons that helped him throughout his own ministry, with one of the most famous deacons mentioned being Phoebe in Rome. Paul says of her, “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchrae, so that you may welcome her in the Lord, as is fitting for the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor of many and of myself as well” (Romans 16:1-2). Paul understood that the work of God’s kingdom is never limited to one person. It takes a community of people to serve the Lord.

On September 15th, we will come together as a community to honor the work that Marie has been called to. We will pray over her and lay hands on her, the same way the apostles did in Acts. She will serve alongside myself and the other deacons as we do our best to care for the people here at Hope Valley. And she will contribute to the work of God’s kingdom here on earth.

I’m looking forward to the 15th!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

I just wanted to follow-up with you all about our fellowship event with World Relief Durham (WRD) last Wednesday night. What a wonderful time it was! Twenty-seven church members came out to spend time with us learning about World Relief Durham and the work they do. The food was good. The fellowship was great. And the meeting itself was informative and inspirational.

For those that were not able to join us, Adam Clark, the Executive Director of WRD, talked with us about exactly how ministries like Hope House factor into how they help refugees. He mentioned that Hope House and other houses in the Welcome House Network enable WRD to say, “Yes,” to refugees because WRD knows those refugees will have a safe place to stay once they reach America. He talked about the way that Hope House has inspired other churches in the area to look into creating their own temporary housing for refugees. He talked about the ways that each individual can get involved on behalf of refugees—through donations, through advocacy, and through prayer.

Then, John, one of the first people to stay in Hope House, stood up and told our church about the positive impact Hope House had on his life. He talked about how deeply loved he and his family felt by this church. He said that every year he and his family go over the blessings in their lives and every year they mention Hope Valley Baptist Church and, in particular, Bill Bigger. John also told us about his plans to become a nurse and his dream of working with refugees. He also informed us that he loves North Carolina, but that our weather has taken some getting used to!

At the end, Garry Crites, their new Church and Community Engagement Manager, had set up a table with mate-rials for all of us to take home that further explained the work WRD does. One of the things he had was a bookmark with “40 Days of Scripture & Prayer.” Basically, it was 40 passages to read and pray over on behalf of refugees. I’ll leave you with one of those passages, “When a foreigner re-sides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:33-34, NIV).

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

Earlier this summer I had an opportunity to meet with a couple of the leaders over at World Relief Durham (WRD). The reason for the meeting was simple. WRD had a new Development Specialist, Megan Wylie, and she was interested in learning about how our church partners with WRD to help refugees.

We set up a time to meet—myself, Megan, and the director of WRD, Adam Clark—and went to get coffee at Joe Van Gogh. Over the course of an hour, the three of us sat and chatted with each other about all kinds of things. We talked about how Hope House came to be. We talked about Megan’s recent move to NC and about sports. Then we talked about some of the broader things happening at Hope Valley, with our main topic of discussion being Super Saturday Adventures.

Then, she asked, “Is there anything that we can plan to do together—Hope Valley and WRD?” To which I said, “I’d love to get some kind of fellowship event planned with y’all. A night where you all can come to Hope Valley and talk about the work you do with refugees. And, of course, since it’s a Baptist church we’d have something to eat!” Megan and Adam liked the idea and mentioned that one of our former Hope House residents would be in town in August. They asked if he could come and be a part of this event as well. I happily agreed.

Within the last week, those plans have finally come together. On this coming Wednesday night, August 14th, we will be having a fellowship event with World Relief Durham starting at 6:30 pm over in the Fellowship Hall. We will be serving hors d’oeuvres and small desserts and offering a time of fellowship. Then, World Relief Durham will give a presentation on their work and how they help refugees here in the Triangle. We will also hear testimony from John (Odette’s son) whose family stayed with us in Hope House for over a year. Finally, time-permitting, WRD is open to a time of questions and answers, wrapping up around 7:20 pm.

I think this will be a wonderful night of fellowship together as a church, but also a wonderful opportunity for us to meet with one of our strongest community partners. Also, having talked some with John this past Saturday, I think his testimony about how Hope House helped set him up for success will be uplifting for us all. I hope you will make plans to join us on the 14th!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

It is that time of the year again — time to nominate and elect Deacons! You’ll notice that the Deacon nomination form has been included in this week’s Illuminator. I would encourage everyone to take some time to think and pray about who you would like to nominate to serve as a Deacon here at Hope Valley. Consider the people you know at our church and how their gifts line up with the mission of the Deacon Board – to provide pastoral care and leadership to the members of our church.

At its best, church is about all of us coming together to care for one another, walk alongside each other, pray for each other, and build community together. Church is never about any one person doing everything. It has always been and should always be a collaboration among all of us. We see several places throughout the scripture where various leaders of our faith realize they cannot go it alone. Jethro encourages Moses to appoint judges (Exodus 18:13-23). The apostle realize they need help in order to preach the gospel and take care of the people (Acts 6:1-6). In his various letters, Paul makes mention of deacons serving the people of the church faithfully, with perhaps the most famous one being Phoebe in Cenchreae (Romans 16:1-2). These leaders of our faith looked to others as partners as they sought to faithfully follow God’s will.

That is the primary function of the Deacons — to partner with the Pastor and other leaders within the church to care for our congregation and help us faithfully follow God’s will. If you know of someone who you think would do a good job leading and serving in this way, I would encourage you to speak to them, tell them the gifts you see in them, and see if they would be willing to be nominated for a position as a Deacon. Or if you yourself feel God calling you to step into this leadership role, I would encourage you to speak to another church member about that and see if they would be willing to nominate you. As always, I would counsel everyone to listen for God’s voice in this process and seek to follow God’s will.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

That’s not a typo. Have you ever “fallen down a rabbit hole” on the Internet? What I mean by that is, have you ever
been on the Internet—reading an article, a story, or watching a video—and you get really interested in it, so you keep clicking more and more links related to it? Eventually, you look
up and an hour or two has gone by and you think, “How on earth did I get here? And where did the time go?!”

I recently “fell down a rabbit hole” while on Google Maps. The thing that prompted it was a very simple question, “Where do people actually live in Greenland?” A whop-
ping 75% of the country’s land mass is covered by a think sheet of ice. The only habitable places are along the coastlines. Even there, life is harsh for most of the year. Because
of that harsh climate, there aren’t many people living in Greenland. Nuuk, the nation’s capital and most populated city, has only 19,872 people, but that makes up a third of the
entire country’s population. Their most populated city has fewer people than Elizabeth City, NC. Chapel Hill has more people than all of Greenland!

But that’s not what I wanted to write about this week. See, if you take some time to browse the Street View images in some of the little villages on the western coast of Greenland, you will see some stunning images. Greenland is a
harsh climate, yes, but my goodness is it beautiful! You can actually get a “Street View” from a boat that has motored out into the bay near the town of Kangerluk, allowing you to see snowcapped mountains all around. Or, if you go to the town of Qaanaaq, you can plop the little Google Maps guy on the beachfront and look out over a bay of glaciers.

Qaanaaq, by the way, holds the distinction of being the northernmost “major town” in Greenland—a bustling metropolis of 646 people. It is the fifth northernmost “public settlement” in the world. Most of the folks in the
town make their living either through hunting or fishing (narwhals, walruses, seals, etc.), with Qaanaaq being so isolated the people have to use every part of any animal they kill. They also deal with “midnight suns”—that is, twenty-
four hours of sunlight—from the middle of April until the end of August. And their average temperature for the entire year is 16 degrees!

In going down this “rabbit hole,” I kept thinking to myself, “My goodness, this is just a whole other world! It’s beautiful but it seems so unforgiving.” And I sat back and marveled at how different life must be in a place like Qaanaaq. I marveled at the creativity of God, the beauty of everything I saw. But, I felt so disconnected—until…

If you go to Google Maps and you go to Qaanaaq, you’ll see that there’s one supermarket in town. If you click on that supermarket’s name, Google will offer to show you sixteen pictures of the inside of the market. If you do that, you can see what they sell. And would you like to know what hot sauce the Qaanaaq Supermarket sells? The pride of North Carolina—Texas Pete! Y’all, we are far more connected than we could ever imagine. The people of Qaanaaq, Greenland live very different lives from you and me. Yet, the same God created them. The same God loves them. And I hope that the next time you reach for some Texas Pete to spice up your dinner, you’ll remember your brothers and sisters in Qaanaaq and the God that connects us all.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben