Christianity Explored

Christianity Explored

Further to our post below outlining the details of our Christianity Explored course, we can now provide some details about the dates.

We will be running the course beginning on Sunday evening October 16 from 6:00 - 8:00.  Our last class will be November 27.  We will be serving drinks and dessert and childcare will be available.

Have you ever looked at a Christian friend and wondered what made them so...different?  Have you wondered exactly what is involved in being a Christian? Do you have any idea what goes on behind the doors of that church down the street?

There is no mystery involved in serving the Lord.  It's not a secret what sets the Christian population apart from other people.   We love and serve a wonderful God who died so we could live eternally.  That's all.  And that can be for you too.

We would love to invite you to participate in an 8 week study about the basics of being a Christian.  We won't put you on the spot.  We won't ask you to sing or to pray.  We will serve you coffee and some desserts and share with you the basics of our faith because we want you to have what we have - the joy of the Lord who gives us eternal life.

We invite you to come join us at Bethel Baptist on Sunday evenings from 6 - 8 p.m. in October and November.  The exact start date is yet to be settled on so keep watching but we will not meet on Thanksgiving Sunday.

If you are curious about what the Christianity Explored course is all about, here are some links to help you out: 

       http://www.ceministries.org/Groups/276315/Home/CE_ORG/CE_ORG.aspx  


      http://www.ceministries.org/Groups/276318/Home/CE_ORG/Real_Life_Stories/Real_Life_Stories.aspx

Please feel free to call our office at 831-6775 if you have any questions or if you would like to register.  There is absolutely no cost to join us.

What's Going on at Bethel This Fall

We hope you all had a great summer and have returned eager to renew your faith and your commitment to the Lord and to your church. We will begin our fall worship times on Sunday September 11.  Here are the times:

10:00 - the church will be open if you would like a quiet place to pray and reflect

10:30 - coffee will be available during a time of fellowship

11:00 - our worship service begins as usual, with Junior Church for the young children (ages 5-10)

A Critical Meeting Regarding the Future of Children's Ministry at Bethel

We have reached a point at Bethel where we no longer have the children or the volunteers to support a traditional Sunday School.  However, we do not want to forget about the spiritual health of our kids.  We need to have some programs in place that will teach our children about the Lord and help them to continue to grow spiritually.  At the moment, though, we don't know what that will look like.

Therefore we will be having a meeting on Sunday August 29th immediately following the service to discuss the future of our children at Bethel.  Pizza and childcare will be provided.

If you are the parent of a child at Bethel it is vital that you attend this meeting.  You are directly affected by the choices we make.  This includes people with college ad career aged children (OR those teens/young adults themselves are encouraged to come).

If you have ever been involved in children's ministry at Bethel in any capacity we would like to hear your opinions on things.  This includes teaching Sunday School or Junior Church, working in the toddler room, running an Awana group, heading up youth group, etc.

If you have no children and have never been involved in children's ministry we still encourage you to come if you have been convicted by the Lord to become involved.  If the closing down of Sunday School has upset you, perhaps you would be willing to step up and help our children in another capacity. If so please join us.

If you are coming to the meeting on the 28th please rsvp to Kathy at office.bethelbaptist@gmail.com with your name and your favorite kind of pizza.

Have you been cleaning out your closets and have a bunch of toys that your children no longer play with? If so, please consider donating them to our church. We are helping out the Grand Rapids daycare who is desperately in need of toys for young children. Please call the church at 831-6775 and leave a message if you can help out.

Our New Fundraising Venture:

You may have already heard but we have taken on a fundraiser to help us raise some money to repair our flat roof when the time come. We have paired up with the people who run the Bomber Stadium to supply 5 people for every event to help run the parking lot in front of the soccer complex (the building directly west of the stadium). That means all Bomber home games, The two NHL games that will be held there in October, and any concerts that may be held at the stadium. The job requires that you be at the stadium two hours before the games begin, and you must remain there until all the cars in the lot are gone. 

Here are the dates that we know so far as well as the times you need to arrive at the parking lot:

Thursday July 14                              5:30
Thursday July 21                              5:30
Wednesday August 3                         5:30
Saturday September 10                    1:00
Saturday September 17                    11:00
Friday September 30                        5:30
Saturday October 8                          1:00
Saturday October 22                        12:00 (undetermined -NHL Classic)
Sunday October 23                          12:00 (undetermined - NHL Classic)
Saturday October 29                        1:00

To make it easier for everyone involved, an online sign up form has been created. To sign up to work a game, please go to:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090c48acaa2aaaf58-bomber/

and follow the instructions.

This is a great opportunity for our church to be proactive and involved actively in raising money to supplement what will be a very expensive project in the coming years. However, it does require participation from as many people as possible to make it work. We really encourage you to help out when you can. We are not asking for you to work every game but if we all did one single game they would all be covered and it wouldn't be a lot of work on any one person's part

Some Upcoming Activities at Bethel

Here is a list of some of the things that are going on around the church this spring:

May 15th:  We are honored and excited to have Pastor Martin Chamah and his wife Edith with us all the way from Kisumu, Kenya.  The Chamah's have been looking after the orphans at the Bethel Children's Home that was established by our very own beloved missionaries Sieg & Ursula Grafe and we consider them to be family. Please come out and hear what they have to say about all that is going on with the kids in Kenya.  Bring a potluck dish and stay afterward to fellowship with them.

May 27 - 29:  Stephen Mailloux has arranged an opportunity for any men who are interested to head out to Pioneer Camp in beautiful Lake of the Woods to do some fishing and some camp maintenance.

June 4: Because of the men's camp weekend, we have had to reschedule our Congregational Business Meeting. This will now take place June 4th at 6:30 sharp. Please be a few minutes early to establish a quorum.

June 18:  We will be having a church cleaning bee this day. It's been a couple of years since our last cleaning bee and we have a bit of work to do so grab your gloves and knee pads and come help us spruce up the church. Even if you can't climb a ladder to clean windows or bend down to do yard work doesn't mean we can't find a job for you. There are a number of less strenuous jobs that require less effort and more sitting.  Cleaning commences at 9:30.

June 19:  Father's Day will be our last regular day of Sunday School.

June 26:  Our annual service in the Park to be held at Bourkevale Park at the end of Ferry Road.  A bbq will follow the service. Service starts at 10:00.
July 3: We revert to our usual summer routine: No Sunday School and our worship service will begin at 10:00 Sunday mornings.

Easter Services

Our Easter Services will be as follows:

Good Friday:  We will have a Good Friday service and communion, beginning at 10:30.

Easter Sunday:  We will have our traditional pancake breakfast from 9:30 to 10:30 on Easter Sunday.  This will be followed by a special time of singing in the sanctuary from 10:45 - 11:00 and then we will have our Easter Sunday service at 11:00.

There will be NO SUNDAY SCHOOL on Easter Sunday.

If you would like to help cook the pancake breakfast or can help with set up or cleanup,  please sign the sheet at the back of the sanctuary.

Don't Forget to Spring Ahead

Just a reminder that Daylight Savings Time begins in the early morning hours of March 13th so don't forget to set your clocks ahead an hour before you go to bed on the evening of the 12th.

Baptism

We are planning to have a baptismal ceremony on Easter Sunday (March 27th). If you are a Christian who has not yet followed Christ's example of baptism and would like to, or if you have questions about baptism and all that it entails, please speak to Pastor Arden as soon as possible.  We will be running a course on it leading up to the ceremony.

Valentine's Day

We are not holding any special events for Valentine's Day this year but we do encourage all married couples to check out the special Focus on the Family event being held at Church of the Rock on Monday February 15th from 7:30 - 9:30. Hosted by speaker Gary Thomas, this event is entitled "Building a Lifelong Love." The cost is $15 and tickets can be purchased online at info@funandfaith.ca, www.focusonthefamily.ca under the events sidebar, or you can call 519-342-6492.