Dear Kentucky, Love Our Trans Kids

Last week I found myself in the parking garage of our state capitol waiting on an elevator.  I was carrying a sign I made earlier that morning with a fading kingsize sharpie and pastel crayons.  It read "Love our trans kids," and had a heart with stripes of blue and pink to represent the trans flag.  It had taken a long time to come up with a few simple words.  All the words that initially came to mind weren't appropriate for political discourse.

Seeking Clarity on Amendment 2

The following statement concerning Amendment 2 was written by the ministerial staff of Central Baptist Church and has been endorsed by our deacon body.  We honor our Baptist commitment to the separation of church and state and respect each person's right to vote their conscience.  This statement seeks to clarify the intention and implications of this amendment.

Jim Abernathy to Serve as Interim Choral Director

We are happy to report that Rev. Dr. Jim Abernathy, who has served this fall as our Interim Choral Director, has agreed to extend his Interim work with us through the month of April, 2023.  We are so pleased for his leadership and the wonderful presentations we have enjoyed in worship under his direction with the choir and our accompanist Mark DeAlba.  Don’t forget, the traditional "Lessons and Carols" service will be the Fourth Sunday of Advent on December 18th with special poetry additions from “Remembering That It Happened Once,” edited by Dennis Johnson.  It will be a special time to recognize the choir’s hard work and our continued support of this important ministry of our church.  Thank you Jim (and Cindy) for this added time allowing all of us to continue our working together.

Music Minister Search Committee

Central is establishing a search committee to seek the new leader for our music ministry. The search committee’s role is to craft the position description, interview candidates, and ultimately make a recommendation of hire to the Church. The committee will work with current staff, the Personnel Committee, and others to ensure this new hire will meet current and anticipated music ministry needs.

Community Connections with Habitat for Humanity (video)

We recently spoke with Jeremiah Myers, Resource Development Director with Lexington Habitat for Humanity about volunteer opportunities during our summer build.  We also heard from Anny, the homebuyer on this project.  We're grateful to be a part of the good work that Habitat and our congregational partners are doing in our community.

Raleigh Kincaid’s Retirement

Raleigh has announced his retirement as our Minister of Worship on June 12.  We are filled with mixed emotions, happy to celebrate this milestone in Raleigh’s life, grateful for his excellent caring ministry to our congregation for over 3 decades and saddened to anticipate a future without this caring and steady presence.  Raleigh has strongly built upon our reputation as a church offering a high quality of musical excellence respectfully honoring the many forms of gospel, traditional and classical styles that many congregations have more recently forgotten.  While we know replacing Raleigh is an impossibility, the commitment to a continued excellence with our choir and Mark de Alba remains our priority as we seek to plan ahead.

Community Connections with Laura Hartman (video)

We had a great discussion with Laura Hartman, Family Resource Director at Squires Elementary.  We've been working with Laura for several years to help supply food bags to children and families, and we're currently taking food donations to help out with food bags through the end of the year.

April's Book of the Month

For book group this month, please join me in exploring a few short stories by Karen Blixen, who primarily wrote using the nom de plume Isak Dinesen.  We’ll be considering her book Anecdotes of Destiny. I’d love to see what you think. Honestly, I’m curious to see what I think so many years after I first encountered Blixen’s work, and I can’t wait to hear other folks’ viewpoints as we discuss some fantastical, strange, and also dated stories.  That said, I can’t look away.

A Special Pastoral Word

Happy feet like to dance.  Happy hands applaud.  Happy faces wear happy smiles.  But everything over these past two challenging years has not been particularly happy.  A world-impacting pandemic has outfitted us with lead boots and handcuffs.   Even if we felt like smiling, few might notice while we cooperated, as was necessary, with the simple courtesy of wearing a mask during such a time of trial and testing.

Community Connections with Dr. Deborah Alexander (video)

At our first Community Connections meeting, we had an enlightening discussion with Dr. Deborah Alexander about her current work with Afghan refugees in our community.  Dr. Alexander is uniquely qualified from her own experience as one of the first civilians to enter Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks.