Life At FBCStarkville

Clifton Curtis

ASSOCIATE PASTOR OF PASTORAL CARE & FACILITY ADMIN

The pastoral care part of my ministry has changed in many ways because of COVID-19. Interacting with people is a big part of my ministry here at FBC. When people are sick in the hospital or having surgeries, being there with them to pray with them is a big part of my ministry. Because of COVID-19, there are no hospital visits, so being with them personally is not an option. The only option now is to encourage them and pray with them over the phone or by text message.

Being with families that have lost loved ones is another important part of my ministry. Normally when a church member passes away, we, the church staff, meet with them to plan their loved one’s memorial service. Most church families choose to have the memorial services and visitation at the church or funeral home, but during the pandemic, only 10 people can attend a graveside service and 2 of the 10 must be from the funeral home. Because of social distancing, we can only call or write family members to extend our condolences. It has been difficult not to be with families during their time of grief.

Being a part of the body of believers that we call FBC Starkville has always been important to me. I love to fellowship with our congregation, and I find great encouragement each and every Sunday as we worship together. I miss those in-person times of fellowship on Sundays and Wednesdays, but I find encouragement through worshiping online and meeting with people via Zoom.

A bright spot of doing ministry now is with my cell phone, I can reach any member of the church at almost any time of the day because everyone is at home due to the shelter in place order. I have had so many opportunities to talk with members that I would not normally call during the week and to pray with them personally over the phone. It has been exciting for me to see FBC members out in the community doing random acts of kindness for their neighbors and friends. The deacon ministry really impressed me by delivering Easter meals to many FBC members who were celebrating Easter alone in their homes. These meals were prepared by Vicki, Rob, and Veronica Leach, with help from Kyle Hickey. Seventy meals were delivered to 45 different homes.

I have been truly blessed these past few weeks as I have been spending time reading from Psalms. The psalms have encouraged me as I seek the Lord during this stressful time for us all. One benefit of the shelter in place order is that life has slowed down for our three boys, and Cathy and I have been able to see them a little more than usual.

My vision for the church for the future is for us to keep our priorities intact: loving God, serving each other, and sharing the Gospel. My prayer is that we will be flexible in our methods to meet the spiritual needs of our church and community and that the staff and leadership of the church will continue to work together, as we will surely face many new challenges while we seek to lead FBC in the future.

Dr. Tom Jenkins

ASSOCIATE PASTOR OF MUSIC & MEDIA

My life’s mission has always been to lead God’s people in worship. That hasn’t changed during this global pandemic. Perhaps its more important than ever that we continue to ‘turn our eyes upon Jesus’. My mission hasn’t changed, but the methods are different! We will continue to develop, plan, and work to find ways to fulfill that mission. And we have the benefit of technology to assist us and the blessing of people that know how to use it.

How we maintain the music & media ministry of FBC Starkville, and how we move forward is the challenge. We have always been a church to include many people in music ministry: choir, orchestra, vocal teams, tech teams, etc. We now reassess our focus. In the past, our online presence has been a side operation, beneficial to those who could not come to church. Now it’s our entire focus. What can we do to make the online experience the best we know how to do? Yes, the same worship planning goes into each service. We continue to carefully consider the music, the flow, the theme in coordination with the message. But now we consider the flow of an online service; video recording, audio mixing, intros and outros, cuts from one section to another.

Obviously, before COVID-19, we utilized as many musicians and volunteers as possible. The variety of volunteers in the music ministry is one of our church distinctives. Now we only use a small group of musicians and vocalists. We keep the communication lines open, and I’m working with various vocalists on making some special video appearances. I’ve been communicating with all our music ministry in multiple ways. Although email is easy to use, many students are back in their hometowns and reconnected with

their home churches. I continue to work behind the scenes in bringing people together to serve as worship leaders safely.

In the midst of this pandemic, God is showing me what He has so often in the past: With what shall I come before the LORD, And bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, With calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, Ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6-8)

With this in mind, I’m more deliberate with my daily devotion. I’m more deliberate in my prayers. I’m more deliberate in my communication with others. I don’t have the luxury of seeing everyone at choir rehearsal next Wednesday. I know the Lord has never been satisfied with empty offerings of grand gestures, so I search for the paths where He leads me to walk humbly with Him.

As the pandemic plays out, our church situation will be dramatically different for months yet to come. The challenges we face now will be with us much longer than we care to think. Working with the other Associate Pastors of our church, I’m reading, praying, and engaged in many conversations about how to ‘reopen’ our church. There are many concerns in future decisions as we lean on other churches, our state and city officials, and our Lord for guidance.

Jason Duran

ASSOCIATE PASTOR OF FAMILY MINISTRY & DISCIPLESHIP

This time of ministry looks really different. The rooms of the church building are really, really empty. It’s easy at this time to lose touch with people and we have to be very intentional about reaching out to them. As little as a month ago, a majority of people had no clue what Zoom was and now senior adults have called me asking for help to get their community group on Zoom. If anyone would have told me that would be something I would be doing in ministry, I would have said that’s completely crazy.

The rooms of the church may be empty but lots of ministry is still taking place. I have heard many stories of how community groups are taking advantage of new ways to connect. Connecting online has provided opportunities to connect at different times as well as more often for some groups. It was great to see families dress up for Easter and worship together at home. It has been such a joy to see leaders step up during this time to reach their people and meet needs.

The different areas of the family team have found ways to help people continue to have their regular church involvement in a home setting.

We have had more church members request to be added to our RightNow Media platform, which provides excellent bible study tools and videos for at-home study. It is great to see people wanting to study God’s word.

I think our society will be different after these days of quarantine. I think we will come away with more of an appreciation for community and how important it is to have a church family. It is my prayer that we don’t stop being creative in the ways we reach our community with the Gospel and do whatever it takes. This time has taught me we all can slow down a little. We do have enough time in the day to get everything done and still focus on others. When we can get outside our four walls, I hope we do everything we can to not wall ourselves right back in.

“When we can get outside our four walls, I hope we do everything we can to not wall ourselves right back in.”

Nathan Taylor

UNIVERSITY & MISSIONS MINISTER

When I returned from the Victoria trip, knowing that classes would be online through the spring semester, I wondered what a college minister in Starkville would do without college students in Starkville. Spending time with students is life-giving to me, whether that is at our main weekly meeting on Sunday mornings, in a D/Group with college guys, or having a crew over to eat at our house.

With community being a part of our relational DNA, I knew that we had to continue to connect in various ways even if face-to-face was not available. Fortunately, we live in a time when technology allows us to continue meeting. We can have our Sunday morning University Bible Study via Zoom and we usually average around 75 people in those meetings.

We also follow that time with small groups that allow discussion in a smaller setting. University D/Groups have continued, and we have even added a new group.

We have a worship night planned, and students have even gathered for lunchtime hangouts via Zoom. Not being able to stand beside our students during this time has been a frustrating challenge. Very rarely would I call a student since that is not their preferred method of communication, but during this season, I have utilized phone calls more often since they offer a more personal connection. Whether it is a Zoom meeting for a guys’ lunch, one of my D/Groups, or our Sunday morning small group, I have relished the opportunity to “gather” with our students in these settings. Those times make me feel at home.

Neil Tullos

YOUTH MINISTER

Our youth ministry has been consistently meeting each Sunday morning and Wednesday night. The first two weeks we used Instagram Live for our Wednesday night service, but have since switched to Zoom for Sundays and Wednesdays. Zoom allows us to see one another and provides a better reminder that we are a community of believers going through this together. Zoom also offers breakout rooms which we are using for our Community Groups.

On Sunday mornings, we have about 85 teens and leaders participate. We will have a game or some type of ice-breaker at the start, a prayer time where teens volunteer to pray for one another, a master/teacher style message, and then we divide into breakout rooms for discussion. On Wednesday nights, we’ll have a longer big group meeting time and then split into guys and girls groups for discussion and hangout time.

Many of our D/Groups have also continued meeting. It’s easier for them to meet since they are typically groups of 3-5 participants. Daily devotionals on Instagram and Bible reading plans through the Bible app are a couple of other ways we are helping to point teens to Jesus. I have also been utilizing our youth parents group on Facebook to pass along resources that they can use during this time, as well as guides to help parents have conversations with their teens about their anxiety and dealing with all the changes. At first it seemed easy to just meet online (no rooms to set up, no band rehearsals, not worrying about teens not having a ride home after church, etc), but the reality is that meeting online has its own difficulty. When I am teaching teens in the Warehouse, I can quickly tell if I am connecting with them, but that’s much more difficult when I am in an online meeting. It’s also more challenging to offer a variety of teaching styles in order to engage teens who have a variety of learning styles. The biggest challenge though is discovering how to make true connections with teens during this time. We can see each other online and can skim through each other’s social media content, but that’s not the same as sitting in a circle together for a Bible study, praying for one another or giving a high five, handshake, or hug when we see one another.

As we approach the summer months and the possibility of not being able to offer our typical mission trips and retreats, there will be significant hurdles for us. Mission trips provide an excellent classroom for teens to learn to serve like Jesus. Those events also go a long way in developing our ministry’s culture. Teens that are in different grades and come from different schools are able to build bonds with one another, which creates a strong network of relationships in our ministry. The relationships forged through these summer events help us to build unity across our ministry. Learning how to accomplish the same goals without being able to travel or meet in large groups is a significant challenge for us.

There are a few things that have been positive through this ordeal. One is we are all learning how vital interpersonal relationships are to us. Our social well- being is a vital part of who we are, and not having daily interactions is teaching us that God designed us for community with one another.

It has also been exciting to see how quickly teens and our adult leaders have learned to adapt. Our adult leaders are very committed to discipling teens, but none of them committed to doing it through online groups. However, they have stepped up and have been very consistent in meeting with their groups. It is also exciting to see the durability of relationships that have been built over the years and how they are surviving this transition. Amanda and I lead our high school seniors each Sunday morning and the six years we have spent with them have helped to provide a relational bridge where we can still encourage and challenge them to follow Jesus. While we deeply miss our “normal” lives, Amanda and I have immensely enjoyed the unhurried time we have with one another. We have spent more time talking, laughing, and working together than at any other point in our nearly 18 years of married life. It has been very enjoyable to have time to deepen our relationship during this time.

The “big C” Church has a singular mission established by Jesus, we are to go and make disciples of all nations. That mission has taken all different forms ever since Jesus gave the Great Commission. Technology has spurred on kingdom growth throughout history and I expect this one to be no different. Just as the invention of the printing press made Scripture accessible to the masses and led to the Protestant Reformation, I believe we will see video conferencing and other advancements be used for further gospel advancement. For our local church family, I do not see our vision changing during this time. We are still a church intent on gathering, growing, giving, and going. If anything it has heightened our need to be the church for one another, our community, and the world.

Blaire Johnston

DIRECTOR OF CHILDREN’S MINISTRY

Ministry has looked so different for elementary kids. Most do not have access to social media accounts, and we have had to talk through what ministering to children and their parents will look like. I have challenged my Sunday school teachers to step up during this time, and they have truly stepped up to the plate. We have been using the Lifeway online curriculum that they have given us access to, and leaders have been sending that information to parents. Some leaders are doing video chat with their kids as well, checking in on them once a week. We also do a live short lesson on Wednesdays in our Facebook group to connect with the kids.

Doing ministry without getting to physically see the kids is very difficult. Just as teachers feel during this time, not being able to hug my kids and check in on them weekly is extremely difficult. Trying to check in with families and connect with kids on Facebook Live has been the best way to keep in touch with them and minister in the best way that I can.

Probably the most exciting part of having to take a step back during this time has been getting to watch families grow closer together during this time of seclusion at home. Families have told me countless times that they have thoroughly enjoyed time together as a family, to be able to slow down and be together during what is normally a chaotic, crazy time of life. I have also loved that families are stepping up and teaching their kids at home, both educationally and spiritually. I love hearing that parents are going through Sunday material with their kids as well as just having more time to have those spiritual conversations together.

On a personal, real, and honest level, this time has been extremely challenging for me, and has truly pushed my buttons of doubt, sadness, and just feeling very down at times. My husband is a natural introvert, so being held up in a house does not have that much of an effect on him. I, however, LOVE being around people, being relational, hugging my kids, and just having those in-person conversations. I have struggled a lot not getting to see my Wednesday night college leaders and check in on their crazy lives and watch as they love my kids so well. I have struggled not getting to see my Sunday morning leaders faithfully showing up week after week to love on kids and share the Gospel with them. I miss my kids running up to me and greeting me with giant hugs. I didn’t get to see my side of the family for Easter; not seeing them in over a month now has been so hard. There have been many struggles for me mentally. But I think Easter weekend was when the Lord was so gracious to remind me that we have the means to see people, check in on them, ask how we can pray for them, even if it’s not what we’re accustomed to. I was also reminded Easter weekend that times have changed, 100 percent. But the message and hope that we have in Christ remains the same. I look to the fact that the grave is empty, and that in itself reminds me that my joy and hope is not found in anything other than Jesus Christ alone.

We are trying to figure out what summer will look like for us. I think moving forward, when we are finally all able to meet back together in person, I hope that a new fire will ignite in our ministries to serve together as a body of Christ and as a family. I pray that we will be quick to listen and be involved in our community to display the love of Christ boldly.

Charity Gwaltney

DIRECTOR OF PRESCHOOL MINISTRY

I have been mailing out Bible study activity pages and Bible story cards to all of my preschool children so that they can have them to do at home. Each Sunday, I post the Gospel Project Bible story video on the FBC Starkville Kids Facebook page, along with several Bible-learning activities that families can do together at home to reinforce the story points. I have also mailed postcards to preschool families because kids love getting mail.

Preschool Ministry is very much a hands-on ministry. Little children are very face-to-face and relational. They take in information and learn through their senses and they need constant contact and quality time to form bonds. When they come into the Preschool Department they need to see familiar faces and to have a familiar routine — that is crucial for learning. So there are definitely challenges to not seeing them, nor having them in the church building on Sundays and Wednesdays. Because they are young children who don’t really have phones or computers, I have to come up with other ways to reach them and reassure them that “Mrs. Charity” still cares for them. Other age groups can use Facebook Live and Zoom to meet with their kiddos, but with preschoolers, I am pretty sure that mass chaos would ensue so I have to come up with other, less-technical ways to communicate with them. I have sent out tons of letters and postcards to them over the past few weeks. I greeted them through car windows at the Easter Drive-Thru event. I am trying to read a book to them each week and to post that reading electronically so that my face is in front of them.

This has certainly been a challenging time with opportunities for extreme creativity.

It’s good to be stretched once in a while and to have to come up with unique and creative ways to achieve a goal. But it has also been a time to share some of my other interests with others. I love to read to children and being able to do that and to post those videos for FBC’s parents to show their young children is a way that I can share myself with them. As the Preschool Ministries Director, I am usually doing more administration and less story-telling. I am also a curriculum writer for Lifeway. It has been fun for me to come up with and to share ways on my Facebook page that parents can teach about God’s love with their children at home. This is another part of me that doesn’t get to be shared much with preschoolers and their families. I am spending a lot of quality time with my husband Steve. We cook a lot and have been working on some projects around the house. We both have to work from home, but it has been a much more relaxed time. We have watched movies together, taken a lot of walks around the neighborhood, tackled some much-needed home projects, and are enjoying a less structured routine.

My prayer is that parents get a vision of, and fully embrace what it means to be your own child’s primary source for learning about God. Before the pandemic, I have often thought to myself: how would our children know about God if everything church-wise was stripped away? If church buildings, elaborate ministry programs, and big-budget events were suddenly gone, how would our kids learn about God’s love for them? How would our faith endure through the generations? How would we teach our children? In a very real sense, this is what has happened. I pray that parents see just how important it is for them to take the lead in pointing their children to Christ.