Stewardship Emphasis in July

Associate Executive Minister of ABC IN-KY, Don Scott, will be present with us during our education time on July 11,18, and 25 to share some thoughts on Stewardship. He writes:

While we often think of "stewardship" as being connected to money, the truth is that stewardship is much broader. In fact, stewardship is often equated with discipleship since it pertains to all of life. Please join us in Sunday School for a three week emphasis, starting July 11, as we focus on the stewardship of relationships, the Gospel, and, yes, money.

All adults and youth (grades 6-12) are welcome to come and join us for this thought provoking and life changing series during this time as we meet in the Fellowship Hall.

Vacation Bible School

Vacation Bible School for Crooked Creek Baptist will be from Monday June 28 and run through Thursday, July 1 from 9 a.m. til 12 noon! We will be using curriculum from Gospel Light called SonQuest Rainforest and it will have a rainforest motif. The mission project for this week will be connected with the Penny Project, a mission designed to help raise awareness of poverty in America by American Baptist Churches. The Penny Project seeks to raise awareness of the extent of child poverty throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, and support for programs and ministries responding to the needs of children in poverty. Inspired by the example of the youth of First Baptist Church in New London, N.H.—who raised 60,000 pennies to represent the number of children living in poverty in their state—National Ministries is encouraging the youth of American Baptist Churches USA to raise 14 million pennies to represent the number of children living in poverty in the United States and Puerto Rico. The link to the site is: http://www.nationalministries.org/penny_project/

In the city of Indianapolis, the 2008 population is given as 798,382. Of that number, 16.5% live at or below poverty. 24% of these unfortunate are under the age of 18. This means that in the city of Indianapolis, 31,616 children live at or below poverty. And so our goal at Vacation Bible School this year is to collect one penny for each of these children. Our goal then is collect 31,616 pennies. We will track this collection and let you know as we reach toward our goal of raising awareness of poverty in Indianapolis, and of our attempt to take action to change these statistics.

Rev. Joy Amick Bio

Rev. Joy Witek Amick was born in Wayne, NJ and attended the Preakness Baptist Church. She attended Presbyterian-related Muskingum College (now University), New Concord, OH, earning a BA degree in elementary education with a minor in sociology. She spent 13 years teaching elementary school in OH and NJ, part of that with the Dept. of Corrections, teaching GED and life skills to high school students.
When she felt God calling her to the ministry, she attended Drew Theological Seminary - a Methodist school in Madison, NJ, graduating with an MDiv (Master of Divinity), and pastoring the Upper Freehold Baptist Church in Imlaystown, NJ for almost 10 years before moving to Kirklin, IN to be with her newly married husband, John. (John and Joy met at a singles conference for pastors at Green Lake, Wisconsin, our American Baptist Assembly grounds.) For several years, John and Joy resided in the Hudson Valley area of New York state, where Joy was the interim pastor of First Baptist Church of Middletown, NY.
Recently, they moved to Noblesville, IN to be closer to family (Cathy Lynn and Alan Peacock) and grandchildren (David and Evan Peacock). John’s son and daughter-in-law, David and Amber Amick, live in Nebraska, with Dylan, 7, and Dawson, 3, and our newest addition, our first granddaughter, born 5/25, Abigail Renee.
Joy is enjoying decorating her first “home” with turtles, garden flags, flowers, and family pictures, and making the house a comfortable and inviting home.
She continues to search for God’s guidance in pastoral placement, and is also working toward an MLIS (library science) degree online at Rutgers University, expecting to become a theological or academic librarian upon graduation in 2012.


Rev Joy Amick will be our featured guest speaker on Sunday, June 13. Joy has recently begun a ladies Bible study that meets every Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. here at Crooked Creek Baptist

An Inviting Church Community

At our last Leadership Council meeting I spoke to the Council about our activity as an inviting church. Since becoming the pastor here at Crooked Creek I have been involved in several local community theater productions around the city. Aside from absorbing a lot of my free evenings it has presented an opportunity to minister to a community of people who I believe are being overlooked by too many faith communities. Listening to my fellow cast-mates I have been overwhelmed as the stories they have shared of neglect, abuse, racism, intolerance, and out right dismissal. They have been treated harshly, ridiculed, threatened, and ignored.
And they have been very wary of local churches. Afraid of being judged, condemned, or rejected most of these people would never consider that part of the answer to their life struggles could be found in a loving relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I have been amazed at how quickly they have responded to a simple showing of love, care, or affection and believe that these simple offerings have led to positive changes and adjustments in their life.
It is truly a humbling experience to attempt to share this Love of God for another person to discover how quickly and thoroughly some can cling to this small hope of grace and acceptance. I am excited to see how this acceptance is leading these same people to take great strides in their own personal lives and in their relationship with Christ.
And it leads me to wonder what others are doing to help establish God's Kingdom...what are doing to share this love and acceptance. To whom are we reaching out? And are we reaching out with the desire to communicate God's love or with a desire to fill the pews at our church?

LOST and the Church

The television show LOST has captured the interest of many viewers over the past six years. The series finale, which aired on May 23rd, has polarized fans. The Sunday school class I teach at Crooked Creek Baptist Church hasn't focused specifically on LOST (yet!). But we certainly have focused on issues which have polarized Christians every bit as much as the LOST finale has polarized fans. And some of those topics are ones that LOST itself has explored: the meaning of existence, the nature of good and evil, the relationship of Christianity to other religions, and the afterlife.

I thus thought it appropriate to post on this topic, both to invite LOST fans in the Indianapolis area to a church that makes room for those sorts of conversations, and to share with friends at church (as well as anyone else who is interested) links to things I have written and interviews in which I am quoted commenting about LOST.

USA Today: "God, the Devil and TV's 'Lost'"
MTV News: "'Lost' Finale: Experts Talk Impact Of Religion On The Island."
E! Online: "Can the Lost Finale Satisfy the Fans?"
Journal Sentinel: "To The End, Fans Lost in TV's 'Lost'" and "Lost Theories Revealed" 

I have also blogged extensively about LOST for the past several years on my own personal blog, Exploring Our Matrix.

Whether you are a LOST fan or not, Crooked Creek Baptist Church welcomes you to join us for worship, and for conversation about interesting and important topics!

Special Guest Speaker for June 6 service

Crooked Creek Baptist Church welcomes special guest speaker, Rev. John R Amick. A graduate of Western Carolina University, NC, in 1969, John earned his Master of Divinity from Southern Baptist Seminary, KY, in 1973. Active in American Baptist Churches USA ministry since 1972 in Indiana and New York, John has served as Area minister in NY 2003-2009. John has been married to Joy Witek Amick since 1997.
John is the father of 2 children, Cathy and David, grandfather of four healthy little boys and a new baby grand daughter as of May 25. John and his wife Joy, are both members of Crooked Creek Baptist.

Sunday School Discussion Starters on Immigration

On Sunday May 30th, Rev. John Amick will be leading Dr. McGrath's Sunday school class. The topic will be immigration, and to provide a starting point for discussion, Rev. Amick has provided links to relevant documents which may provide a starting point for conversation on this topic.

Letter Addressing Immigration and Immigration Reform (American Baptist Churches USA)

Immigration 2009 (National Association of Evangelicals)

A Bipartisan Call for Immigration Reform (Evangelicals for Social Action)

Immigration Reform (Church World Service)

Immigration Reform Agenda (America's Voice)

Christians For Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Articles on Immigration at Ethics Daily (Baptist Center for Ethics)