May God Bless you in the New Year
We look at our new calendar and wonder what each day may bring.
Our prayer is for health and safety, for goodness and joy.
Our prayer is for hopes to be fulfilled and life to be enjoyed.
We look at each blank date and wonder what life might bring us in the space of
that day.
June 7? October 21? March 17? December 2?
We know that life may not
always be an easy road each day. We know
that some will be filled with unspeakable joy and others with unexpected
sadness. We know that a date that seems
unimportant now, may be the day our life changes forever. We know that some of those changes will be
great joys and other will bring challenges.
We know this, yet we still hope and we still pray each day.
May we come to know, more and more, that whatever each day, each week or each month brings, that God is with us. May we know that Jesus comes to save and forgive. May we know that the Holy Spirit will be there to comfort and to encouragement. May we know that we are loved by a loving God, more than we will ever understand. May God bless you in the new year.
Pastor Allan
Malcolm Detwiler
New Beginnings
“Praise be to the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth
into a living hope through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Peter 1:3).
I am very thankful to have been awarded the
high honor of serving the people of Baldwin Community United Methodist
Church and its community. It is not because of anything I have
accomplished or done but because of His great love and mercy. I am amazed by His calling and I am thrilled
to be a part of Baldwin Community. I am
grateful to be received into your church family and humbled by your warmth and
kindness. It is my sincere desire to
represent you well.
I have been doing youth ministry for the
better part of my professional career – and there is nothing else I’d rather be
doing. I have come to fully appreciate
the joy and challenges associated with the job and I take the responsibility
very seriously. Each member is important
and it is my honor to avail myself for the betterment of the body. It is my prayer that collectively we come to
understand what it means to “deny ourselves and take up our cross and
follow Him” (Luke 9:23).
I believe that the central responsibility of
a Christians is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your mind…and to Love your neighbor as yourself”
(Matthew 22:37-39). It is with this
purpose that I move ahead in developing a youth ministry.
I want us to be more than a group of kids who
gather for fun. I want us to be a body
of believers who yearn to worship Him and know His purpose and carry out His
divine will.
Some people doubt that teen agers are capable
of deep spiritual maturity. Yet the
Apostle Paul tells a young Timothy “Don’t let anyone look down on you because
you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in
love, in faith and in purity (I Timothy 4:12.)
You will never convince me that kids can’t
understand; as I accepted Christ into my life in the second grade. I can still feel His grip on my little hand
as I made my way down the aisle during the altar call. I can’t wait to see which kids He touches
next.
As the New Year begins we must “Forget what
is behind and strain toward what is ahead… to press on toward the goal to win
the prize for which God has called us in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3: 14). If I can ever encourage, pray or help in any
way – that would be my joy.
In His Grip,
Malcom
Join us for Worship
Saturday Night Worship in Chapel Sat. 5:30 p.m.
Worship and relax in our chapel with a "small church" feeling and communion each week.
Early Morning Worship in Sanctuary Sun. 8:30 a.m.
Come early and quietly worshp in our sanctuary in an abbreviated time.
Asbury Alternative Worship in Asbury Hall Sun. 9:15 a.m.
Worship is an uplifting and energetic experience with the Asbury Alternative Band and communion each week.
Sanctuary Classic Worship in Sanctuary Sun. 11:00 am.
Worship in our beautiful sanctuary surrounded by organ and choir music in a traditional setting.