Nov 26, 2019
Dodge Center SDB Church, MN
The Dodge Center Seventh Day Baptist Church celebrated the 160th Anniversary of their legal organization on June 29, 2019, by celebrating their past and looking forward to the future life and ministry of this body. The morning worship included hymns “O Worship the King” and “At Calvary;” a saxophone solo by Althea Rood accompanied by Jacinta Robinson on the piano; and Burt Bonser singing a song he wrote, “On My Knees Again.” The message, “Covenant Connections,” was given by Pastor Bill Shobe using Jeremiah 31:30-34 and 1 Samuel 18:3-5 focusing on the central doctrine of Seventh Day Baptists being a relational people instead of doctrinal people. It was followed by communion and covenant signing renewal.
The time together included the monthly fellowship dinner with a special decorated cake. The afternoon concluded with a DC SDB trivia game created by Althea Rood and moderated by Pastor Bill. There were two teams of adults and children vying to answer such categories as: Who Did It? What Ministry? Interesting Practice, When Did it Happen? How Much? How Many? Some questions were: “What was the annual salary of the first janitor?” ($7.00 probably in 1866). “What was the cost of the first church building in 1865?” ($800). “How many different names has our church had?” Points were given for each correctly answered name (3). The starting question was: “Who were the two founding families of the church?” Four options were given as Babcocks/Bonds/Greenes/Tappans. The comment had been made that we still had one member descended from the founding families. Amid some good laughter it was learned that there are at least eight families of direct descendants and the one was a relative descendant. (Never forget the contribution of women to the growth of generations!) The final trivia scores were separated by 20 points. The afternoon finished with each one attending having an opportunity to share about the influence the Church had on their lives.
August 18-22 was our Vacation Bible School, “Rolling River Rampage.” There were 16 children in attendance, but over 20 volunteers participating as teachers, snack servers, activity leaders or participants in skits and music. Everyone benefited from the excitement and involvement in the week-long times of fellowship and learning. The final program was held Sabbath night, August 24, with parents invited. Throughout the week the mission focus was on the need for Bibles for the Seventh Day Baptist Conference in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The offerings from the week allowed us to send funds for 17 Bibles to the pastors there. One of the best evaluations of the week was by a community mom of three saying of all the VBS programs her girls had been to this summer, this one was the one they liked the best.
Faith Seventh Day Baptist Church of the Bronx, NY
Here at Faith Church, we have embarked on an endeavor to revitalize our Sabbath school involvement. We want our members and friends to value studying the Word and sharing with each other. 1 Timothy tells us that we should study to show ourselves approved.
Recently, our Sabbath school superintendent (Hope Miller-West) painted beautiful artwork for some of our younger members as an incentive for good attendance. The pieces were beautiful and were well received. Who knew we had an artist among us?
In August, to round out the summer in fellowship, we spent the day at F.D.R. State Park. We enjoyed the time playing games and having fun at the pool together. Our children were able to bond with each other and we were able to relax and enjoy the great outdoors. We look forward to more events in fellowship and sharpening our knowledge of the Word together.
We’re interested in hearing about some of your strategies for engaging your members in Sabbath school and Bible study. Do you have any tips for more enthusiastic teaching? Do you use incentives to encourage participation? Let’s share together and build strong, empowered, and knowledgeable Christ-followers.