Historical Events(September, 2015 – August, 2016)
SpencerBaptistChurch, Spindale
We began our new missions year, a new Sunday School year, and a new music year in September. All of our preschool and children’s choirs, GA’s, RA’s, Mission Friends, and Youth on Mission groups resumed on the first Wednesday of September.
Our biggest historical event in September was the calling of our new pastor, Bruce Caldwell. Though Bruce has been serving Spencer as Minister of Youth and Senior Adults for 28 years, he officially became Pastor on the first Sunday of September.
We celebrated Homecoming in September, and hosted Larry Gregg, former interim pastor of Spencer, to be our guest preacher. We enjoyed worshipping with Larry and then having a dinner on the grounds! In conjunction with Homecoming, we celebrated National Back to Church Sunday and began a church series called “I Love Sundays!”
Our Youth “SideKicks” program began two years ago at this time (September, 2013). The program continues to be useful and every youth has the benefit of an adult to mentor them throughout the year.
In October, Spencer participated in the Green River Baptist Association’s “Red Box” Ministry. We collected plain white socks for the women’s prison systems of NC. Also in October, our youth participated in the Rutherford Housing Partnership’s Week of Caring!
Spencer held a Fall Festival of Games night on Sunday, Oct. 27. It was set up like an old-fashioned carnival with games, food, candy, and a hayride.
In November, our WMU participated in the Baptist Women’s Day of Prayer, which our church hosted. . Also in November, Spencer sponsored a SOLE HOPE party. Sole Hope is a ministry based in NC which uses old denim jeans to make shoe pieces for the children in Uganda. At our party, we traced, cut, and labeled the denim. We shipped our denim parts to SOLE HOPE, who in turn, ships the pieces to Uganda to be sewn with a “Shoe Bottom” so that the children do not keep bug infested feet. Ministering to the body is the way this group ministers to the soul!
“In His Glory” came to Spencer during November to present a gospel concert. This was a wonderful time of music and worship.
Our annual Thanksgiving Lovefeast was on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. This banquet is an annual event in which we fellowship, eat and worship together as we give thanks to God for the many blessings of the year. Earlier that day, our youth assembled and then delivered fruit baskets to our Homebound Members.
To help children at Christmas this year, we asked our church members to bring toys for us to distribute. Our members brought so many toys, that we already have a head start on next year’s Christmas project. We were able to help a lot of children with Christmas! It was a huge blessing to all involved.
Throughout the year, our RA’s have continued to sponsor a recycling campaign and have been encouraging our members to bring all of their aluminum cans to the church. When they turned them in for money, they had enough to purchase Christmas dinners for 14 families. The boys met and packed the food for each family who otherwise would not have enjoyed a holiday meal.
The rest of the Advent season was full of activity around our church. Our decorating committee did a wonderful job creating a worship space for us during this season. There were many special presentations throughout the Advent season. Our preschool and children’s choirs presented Christmas music program “Shepherds are Seeking”and The Adult Choir presented the cantata “Breath of Heaven”. Our church family also gathered to go caroling to our Homebound Members during this month. We held a service at the Spindale House to “light” the town tree. We also held a “carols, cookies, and cocoa” night for our families. During this event, we decorated Christmas cookies and drank hot cocoa then took hayrides around the streets of Spindale, while singing Christmas carols. The season was concluded as we gathered for a Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at 9PM on Dec. 24th.
We received the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering/Global Mission Offering through the month of December. Several special events helped us work up to our goal. During this time for adults, the WMU hosted an International Missions Study to educate us on the needs of others. Dr. David Jendrey came and spoke with us during this study about is missions experiences and the need for our continued prayers and gifts to International Missions. The youth once again sponsored the Missions Post Office allowing members to send Christmas Cards to other members (with all money being raised for missions)
For about a year, we have been raising money for our “Build the Wall” project which was completed this fall! Finally, our brick on the side of the education building is properly attached and we were able to remove the boards covering our nursery windows. It was an exciting time.
Our Youth were supposed to go on an annual Winter Retreat January in Boone, NC. However, the snow and ice that we received in Rutherford County postponed that trip. So several weeks later, Thirty-five youth and adults participated in this weekend time together at the Covington Lodge.
January was “Men’s Month” and February was “Women’s Month” at Spencer. We asked the congregation to complete a survey about favorite male and female Biblical characters for the months of January and February. Out pastor used the survey results to decide which of the Biblical figures to preach on. We learned a lot about so not so popular men and women of the Bible!
In February, the youth led us in participating in the “Souper Bowl of Caring” project to help feed the hungry/homeless in our area. As attendees left the worship service on Feb 1, our youth held soup pots, collecting dollars for this ministry. Also after morning worship, a soup lunch was held in the FamilyLifeCenter to raise additional money. The total we received for hunger for hunger ministries was over $700 in just one day.
Focus on WMU was held during the month of February. We invited Rev. Carol Dalton, chaplain for the Swannanoa Women’s Correctional Center to be our pulpit guest.
Our children participated in “Children’s Ministry Day” in February as well. We gathered in the Family Life Center and made goodie bags for our nursing home residents and other homebound members. After we made the bags, we delivered them to several of the nursing homes in the area. The children had a wonderful time visiting with our homebound church members!
Our Handbell Choir, “The Bells of Praise” attended the NC Baptist State Handbell Festival in Shelby, NC.
Several times through the year, our church worked the New Soup Beginnings Soup Kitchen. We also held monthly church lunches to raise money for children and youth attending summer camps.
Our church held our Annual Easter Egg Hunt for children the Saturday before Easter. The Adult Choir presented the cantata “We Were There” during Palm Sunday worship services. On Easter Sunday, sunrise services were held on the front steps of the church, and a special Resurrection worship service was held at our normal time of 10:55 AM. During the month of April, we observed our Week of Prayer of North American Missions and received the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering/Global Mission Offering.
Our biggest event of the year was our 90th Anniversary Celebration. We held a 3 day celebration of Spencer’s 90 years of ministry. Leading the weekend was one of our former youth who is now pastor of a church in Hartsville, Bill Perry.
Special services in May included our preschool and children’s choir end of year worship presentation. This was combined with our end of year RA and GA presentation. The children sang, shared from their mission groups, and received recognition for the projects completed. In May, we also had a worship service with specialrecognition for high school and college graduates. Sunday Nights in May were full as we began hosting Movie Nights, Dessert Fellowships, and other special events.
Promotion Sunday was held during the first week of June. Rising 1st graders and rising 7th graders were presented with age appropriate Bibles
Over the summer, our church hosted a special community event for our church and community. This event was held at the Spindale House and we had games, hot dogs, sno-cones, etc. The purpose was to register children and adults for VacationBibleSchool. The event was a huge success and helped our community understand that SpencerBaptistChurch cares about the people of Spindale and surrounding areas! Vacation Bible School was held in June. We also held “Marvelous Mondays” throughout the summer for children in grades 1-5. Participating children went to the movies, Water Park, and more.
Fourteen of our children and chaperones went to Centri-Kid in June. This was our fourth year to experience camp with our older children and we had a great week together learning about God’s work in our lives.
Fifteen of our youth and adults traveled to Tennessee to join with FBC, Maiden, NC on mission. This is the second year that our groups have participated together in this ministry. While there in Johnson City, the mission team held VBS with the sponsor church, and hosted a block party for the community. It was a wonderful week of witnessing for our youth and adults.
Also, over 50 young people and chaperones attended Youth Week at Caswell in July. Our youth/adults continued their participation with the Kentucky Mission Efforts, making numerous trips to KY throughout the rest of the year to deliver clothes, household supplies, and other items collected by Spencer.
Our WMU sponsored Christmas In August throughout the month of August by collecting items for Operation Christmas Child Shoebox ministry.
All year long, our Senior Adults were active in holding monthly meetings, trips, and outreach events. They enjoy the fellowship together, but also enjoy sharing the love of Christ with those they encounter as they travel.
There is not enough space to record all of the other events and opportunities brought by our congregation and to our congregation. But all of our people know and understand that it is all done for God, to share the love of Jesus with others near and far. Thanks be to God.