Armand: Man of Compassion and of Music

When I came to be the pastor of New Hope I was surprised by the amazing talent of our accompanist, Armand Melnbardis. I had never heard anyone play the keyboard with such a flare for making it sound joyful and relaxing. Before long, I also saw something even more important about Armand. He is a man of compassion who enjoys learning about how to have healthy and loving relationships.

Armand attracted friends to his concerts. Occasionally they would come to hear him play the keyboard and the violin in New Hope worship services. And then I saw him begin to attract friends to our Real Love Groups. He gave his time and attention to people who wanted to learn how God ‘s grace flows thought people when they are able to receive and give unconditional love.

Sindy Young was also from Latvia, died of cancer almost 5 years ago. Her’s was the first funeral I conducted at New Hope. Erma Dreas tells me that she remembers a time when Armand called and asked, “Will you take care of Sindy’s baby while we try to encourage her and bring her out of serious depression. He recruited help, offered his friendship and did what he could in a desperate situation.

The longer I have known Armand, the more I have developed respect for his compassion. When I started the first Real Love group at New Hope, Armand was there from the first meeting. Over the years I have seen him grow spiritually and emotionally.

Go with God, Armand. We will keep you in our hearts and pray for you to find a great church, people through whom God’s love will flow to you, and many opportunities to serve God by loving others unconditionally.

Parents and Church Promising to Bring up Children in the Faith

Because bringing up children to know that God is love and to be loving is so important to us at New Hope, I decided to post the responsive reading of promises that our parents and congregation made on Sunday, October 2, 2011. It was a beautiful Parent/Child Dedication.

Parent-Child Dedication: Stepanie and TJ Pullin Dedicate Finley. Dusti and Drew Heil Dedicate Andrew and Ashton.

Children learn from their parents to place a high value on the Church, the Bible, and living in the unconditional love of God. TJ and Stephanie, Drew and Dusti, as you dedicate your children to Christ, will you covenant with God and New Hope Baptist Church to teach your children the Christian faith, how to love without condition, and how to live as responsible children of God?

We will.

In Deuteronomy 6 the Bible instructs parents: “Talk about the commandments of God wherever you are, sitting at home or walking along your way; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning until you fall into bed at night.” This is the challenge and the glory of parenting. Will you teach the commandments of God by your unconditional love, your words, and the way you live your lives? Will you love and teach, love and teach, love and teach, then, love and teach again?

We will.

The Bible counsels us to fill our “minds with and meditate on things true, noble, reputable, compelling, gracious – the best not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.” Will you teach your children to fill their minds with such things and find joy in the life God is giving them?

We will.

Church family, will you give your love, encouragement and prayers to these parents? Will you, by gifts of your love that will include time, energy, and money keep on providing a church family, a place of worship, and Bible teaching for Finley, Ashton, and Andrew so that they may know the love of God, grow up in the church, and bear the fruit of the Spirit?

We will. Drew and Dusti, TJ and Stephanie, you have our support and our prayers as you teach your children to love God, love people, and be responsible.

Here are God’s words about being good parents: “A refusal to correct is a refusal to love; love your children by disciplining them. Do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

Do you dedicate yourselves today to the task of learning to fill yourselves with God’s unconditional, real love so that you will be able to discipline your children without anger and love them unconditionally?

With God as the source and this church as a channel of love and forgiveness, we will.

Armand's Farewell Concert, October 16

We are facing a change at New Hope. Armand, our Instrumentalist for 15 years, has announced that his last Sunday will be October 16. We pray that God will give him success in his new life as a musical artist, performer, and teacher. We have been fortunate for all these years to be blessed by his music. Now we are preparing ourselves to say farewell and give him our encouragement as he makes this huge transition in his life.

Change brings some feelings of anxiety, because we are stepping into the unknown, Armand much more than the rest of us. However, we here at New Hope will need to trust God for the future of our worship services and our life together.

Plan now to attend Armand’s farewell concert on the afternoon of Sunday, October 16 at 5 o’clock in our sanctuary.

Today we are giving our special offering to help World Vision provide food and supplies in the Horn of Africa where 13 million people are in need of emergency assistance. Every $100 we give could potentially provide 1,700 meals. World Vision not only provides emergency food, they also provide seeds, supplies and training to establish sustainable food sources. We want to open our hearts of compassion as Jesus teaches and do what we can to respond to this great crisis. If you want to give by check, make it out to New Hope Baptist Church and put on the notation line “Horn of Africa.”

Why We Have an Offering in Worship

I have never in my life attended a Sunday morning worship service that did not have and offering in it. Somewhere along the way the plates always got passed. We never have a Sunday morning service at New Hope without an offering. Why is that?

Worship is about feeling awe and wonder. I love the hymn “How Great Thou Art” because it stirs up my awe and wonder. I love walking on the beach at night for the same reason. A famous Jewish mystical writer named Abraham Heschel said that a basic issue in religion is what to do with our feelings of awe and wonder. He wrote, “Endless wonder unlocks an innate sense of indebtedness. Within our awe we only know that all we own we owe.” When I see how great God is and how small I am, I know that I don’t have anything that was not given to me. That is why it is good and even necessary to have a time in every worship service to give money as a way of acknowledging that we owe God for everything we own.

A writer named Alan Storey reflects on Jesus’ words, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21) when he says we have an offering in worship in order to relocate our hearts. “Do you see why we have an offering in worship? We do not have an offering to keep the lights on. We do not have an offering to pay the pastor. We have an offering because God knows that it is the one thing that can relocate our hearts. When we have an offering we give people an opportunity to relocate their hearts. Where our treasure is, there is our heart!”

When the plate is passed to you and you pass it on to the person beside you, remember:

We have an offering to respond to our awe and wonder.

We have an offering to relocate our hearts.

New Hope's Past and Future

On Wednesday evening after dinner at the church I sat across from Sarah, a guest, who said, “Tell me about this church’s history and it’s plans for the future.” Here is how I responded.

New Hope came out of South Daytona Baptist Church 15 years ago: August 4, 1996. They met at Spruce Creek Elementary School, then bought the A-frame and worshipped in it until they built the current sanctuary. Armand became the accompanist early on and has been with New Hope for most of its 15 years. Dennis (who was sitting beside me) has been minister of music for 10 years. Fleda and I came 5 years ago this month.

Part of the strength of New Hope is the people who have been members since the beginning. They form a loving core. They know each other well and care about each other deeply but remain concerned to reach out. When I talked to the Pastor Search Committee of New Hope five years ago, I asked them, “What are your hopes for the church?” They responded, “We want to reach younger families.”

I said, “If we are going to reach younger families, we have to prepare for and care for their children.” That is what we are working on for the future.

New Hope has always been a different kind of Baptist church, I said to Sarah. We are not a Southern Baptist church. We have always given our mission money to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which began in 1991 as an alternative to the SBC. We take the Bible seriously and want it to shape our lives and our church, but we try to understand the Bible in historical and cultural context. We differ with the SBC on how to interpret Paul’s words, “Wives are to graciously submit to their husbands,” (Ephesians 5:22). Nor do we say, as is now in the Baptist Faith and Message Statement of 2000, “The office of pastor is limited to men as taught by the Bible.” We believe God’s will for today is reflected in the fact that women are educated and taking leadership roles in every area of life.

Our young guest seemed to respond very positively to what I told her about us. She stayed for Bible study and talked to me afterward about how a church might reach young adults. Her daughter, Madison, a first-grader, was participating in our children’s program, and I believe they will be back.

Extravagant Hope

The prophet Jeremiah says God has extravagant possibilities for you and me. Every once in a while we feel the Spirit pulling us to do something new, something rare, something good. There’s a relentless spontaneity about it. Every once in a while we should act on impulse with just the faintest impression that we heard God say, “I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Brett Younger writes, “No day is without the possibility of a unique opportunity. If we keep asking, ‘What peculiar thing might God want from me?’ we’ll find ways to adore God.

“Try telling God,” Younger says, “that you want to live an out of the ordinary day. Pray more than an ordinary prayer. Pray that God will empty you of everything that isn’t love. Speak an extravagant word of grace to someone. Look for words so lavish that their face and yours will turn red. Read the Bible. Do something for your church that you’ve never done. Pick something that frightens you. Stir things up. Be the one who mentions Jesus during deacons’ meetings.

“Speak to someone to whom you’ve gotten used to not speaking. Sell something and give the money to feed hungry children. Give more than a reasonable amount. Be open to all kinds of extravagant possibilities. God may invite you to go beyond what’s reasonable. God will lead us to become better thinkers, better ministers, better Christians, to love the church, love Christ.”

These words about living on extravagant hope are for you, my New Hope family. Our church came into being 15 years ago this month. The God who called us into being wants to give us “a future with hope.”

Learning American History in Boston

When we toured Boston last week I learned some things about the history of our nation that I should have learned in school, had I been paying attention. Fortunately, Fleda and I had our granddaughter Madison with us as we walked the “Freedom Trail”. Madison has been paying attention to her history lessons. In addition, we had our daughter-in-law Tamara leading the way to some good restaurants when she was finished with the training she was taking at Lesley University. The lobster roll at the Union Oyster House was good but even better was the pasta we ate at Mother Anna’s in “The North End,” Boston’s neighborhood of more than 90 Italian restaurants.

On the Freedom Trail we saw Paul Revere’s House, the Old North Church, Park Street Church, and the USS Constitution. The enduring fame of the Old North Church “began on the evening of April 18, 1775, when the church sexton climbed the steeple and held high two lanterns as a signal from Paul Revere that the British were marching to Lexington and Concord by sea and not by land. This fateful event ignited the American Revolution.”

Park Street Church, right across the street from the Boston Common, is known as the Evangelical Church of "firsts.” It is the location of the first Sunday school in 1818 and the first prison ministry in 1824. On July 4, 1829, William Lloyd Garrison gave his first public anti-slavery speech there. "My Country 'Tis of Thee,” was sung for the first time by the church children's choir on July 4, 1831, thanks to the leadership of Lowell Mason, Park Street’s Minister of Music. Among Mason’s more popular hymns were “Joy to the World”, “Nearer my God to Thee”, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”, and “My Faith Looks Up to Thee”.