Old Greenbrier Baptist ChurchPO Box 456

Alderson, WV 24910STAFFPastor: Bill Bryan(304) 646-8631 - cell(304) 645-1934 - homeMinisters of Music:Dell & Nancy WoodCarolyn Holliday Treasurer:Charlotte MeltonCongregational Visitor:Peggy BollenbachOfficial Board, ChairCarolyn KnappStreet Address:301 North Monroe St.

Church Phone: (304) 445-7854

Old GreenbriER

Baptist News2016

Non-ProfitPostage PermitNo. 32

Volume XVIII No. I

Church website: http://oldgreenbrierbaptistchurch.typepad.com/

Forwarding Service Requested

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S HEARTFor those who may not have yet heard, the church at our annual meeting on December 9 voted in favor of keeping me as bi-vocational pastor beginning on January 1, 2016. I will work 15 hours per week for the church. This time will be spent in preparation and delivery of a weekly sermon on Sunday, a Bible study on Wednesday, and pastoral care ministry to our membership and community.

My bi-vocational job will be Director of Operations for Greenbrier Technology and Electric in Lewisburg. I will report to the CEO and will be responsible for business operations of this growing company. I look forward to this opportunity and am thankful that it will enable me to stay in the area and continue my ministry with you.

Mrs. Carolyn Knapp was elected by our 2016 Official Board members to serve as our Board Chairperson this year. Carolyn is a long-time member of our church and is a gifted and experienced leader who has served us well as Board Chairperson in the past.

As our church faces changes in leadership roles in the new year, everyone must look for ways to support the ministry of our church. The administrative duties which I have done for the past several years will now need to be picked up by volunteers. These duties include preparation of the weekly bulletin and monthly newsletter. There are also many other duties to be covered. I am working with Carolyn to identify all of these needs which will be communicated to the church body in the near future. Please be in prayer concerning ways God calls you to step up and take your place of service in our local body of Christ.

Remember that God is always at work to his glory in the midst of change as we look to him in faith and act in faith as he guides us. God will glorify himself in all changes, if we receive him and allow him to work his wonders in us both individually and as the body of Christ. May we have a happy and blessed new year as we serve Christ together.

1New

Year’s Day

2Men’s BkfstOGBC ~8a

3Communion Sunday

S School ~ 9:45aWorship ~ 11a

4 5 6Bible Study~ 6:30pChoir ~ 7:30p

7Ruth Thurmond Circle ~ 1p

8 9

10S School ~ 9:45aWorship ~ 11a

Official Bd. ~ noon

11 12 13Bible Study~ 6:30pChoir ~ 7:30p

14 15 16

17S School ~ 9:45aWorship ~ 11a

18 19 20Bible Study~ 6:30pChoir ~ 7:30p

Committee Reports Due to Board Chair

21Pack Food Pantry ~9a

22Food Pantry~9a

23

24S School ~ 9:45 aWorship ~ 11 a

25 26 27Bible Study~ 6:30pChoir ~ 7:30p

28 29 30

31S School ~ 9:45 aWorship ~ 11 a

Annual Meeting – Part II ~ noon

Annual Meeting – Part II

The February Men’s Community Prayer Breakfast will be held on Saturday, February 6 at 8am at Johnson Memorial United Methodist Church.

The church is called into the second half of our annual business meeting on January 31, 2016. The purpose of the meeting is to receive our year end 2015 financial report and the annual report from all church committees and organizations. Other church business may be included as needed.

All committee chairpersons should have their written reports submitted to the Chairperson of the Official Board no later than Wednesday, January 20 so that all reports may be included in the annual report.

INCLEMENT WEATHER CANCELLATION POLICY 3 – Alice Clark 5 – Heather Craft Dwayne Rider 7 – Joseph Alderson Peggy Bollenbach Theresa Massey

Riley Ward 10 – Michelle Huffman 11 – Greg Dotson 12 – Kelly Parker 13 – Anne Parker 16 – Zachary Butler 20 – Nancy Feamster Tiara Henson Shawn Parker 26 – Virginia Surgeon 27 – Jeffrey Harrah 30 – Nola Craig

State has the General body seen their efforts and disbursements operate with more decided success.571

The Civil War and Its AftermathThe Issue of Slavery

157. Benedict, 674.

This month and next usually bring the worst winter weather for us.

The decision to cancel services and activities will be made by the pastor in consultation with the Official Board. Deacons and deaconesses will be notified by phone of the decision to cancel. They in turn will contact the members of their care clusters by phone.

If you have questions about the cancellation of services, please contact your deacon or deaconess. If they are unavailable, please feel free to contact the pastor or Official Board chairperson.

As always we want you to be safe in your travel to and from the church for services and activities. Please use your good judgment during times of inclement weather concerning your participation.

The Civil War was a traumatic experience for all Americans. Its effects on the ministry and affiliations of both Greenbrier Church and Greenbrier Association were dramatic. The division between the North and the South began well before the commencement of hostilities in 1861. Southern Baptists, meeting in Augusta, Georgia in May 1845, formed the Southern Baptist Convention. H. Leon McBeth cogently summarizes the issues leading to the great divide between Baptists in the North and the South. “At least three factors led to that fateful schism: disagreements on methods of organization, problems in home mission work, and the slavery controversy. While each of these played an important role, they were not of equal weight; slavery was the final and most decisive factor which led Southern Baptists to form their own convention.”582

Both the Greenbrier Church and the Greenbrier Association had grown as arms of Baptist work in Virginia. They associated themselves with the Southern states and had similar interests and loyalties. The issue of slavery was a matter of interest and discussion in the Ketocton Association as early as 1786. The minutes of Greenbrier Church record, “The Association having requested an answer or advice respecting slavery from the churches they personate, we believe it to be an evil in keeping them in bondage for life. Our church having but few in their possession, we hope our brethren will not think it hard if we lie neuter in this matter.”593 It appears that slave holding was not as important to those living west of the mountains as it was to those with larger plantations in eastern Virginia and the South. Greenbrier Church hoped to maintain neutrality on this sensitive issue. However, it is clear in the church records that there was a clear distinction between slave and free within the church membership.

Around the time of the formation of Greenbrier Association, the church minutes of Greenbrier Church clearly address the division between slave and free members. “It is thought Expedient that if any of our Negro Brethern [sic] or Sisters should Join this Church by letter or Experience they must Expect to be treated as in the Character of Servants.”604 In the list of members in the earliest church minutes, slaves are listed simply by their first names beside which the names of their respective owners appear in parentheses.

While Greenbrier Church and her association of churches hoped to remain neutral, by the beginning of the Civil War the sympathies of Greenbrier Church and most of the churches of Greenbrier Association clearly lay with the South. However, there were also voices of restraint such as that of Reverend J. S. Marshall. At a Union meeting at Lick Creek Baptist Church in 1860, Marshall argued that the election of President Lincoln was not “. . . a sufficient cause to desolve [sic] the Union.”615

To Be Continued . . .

“BAPTIST BEGINNINGS AND EXPANSION IN SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA”

What follows is the sixth excerpt of an article written by Pastor Bill for the American Baptist Quarterly in honor of the 150 th anniversary of the West Virginia Baptist Convention. The entire article is available in American Baptist Quarterly XXXIII, no. 1 (Spring 2014): 25-44. It has been published over the past several months as a feature article in the Old Greenbrier Baptist News.

Greenbrier Baptist Association

Missions

In regard to missions, Greenbrier Church and the Greenbrier Association were from their beginnings strongly supportive of missions. In 1911 as part of the 130 th anniversary celebration of Greenbrier Church, Reverend Robert B. McDanel, the church’s pastor at that time, concluded, “This church has had the unique distinction of contributing to missions through the old Triennial Convention, the Boards of the Southern Baptist Convention, and now the missionary societies connected with the Northern Baptist Convention. The first foreign mission society of American Baptists was the Triennial Convention organized in 1814, just after Judson went to Burma as a Congregational missionary but become [sic] a Baptist on the voyage through his study of the New Testament.”536

The formation of the General Missionary Board by Luther Rice in 1814 precipitated a great debate among Baptists in regard to missions. Rice made an unannounced visit to the 1816 Greenbrier Association meeting at Indian Creek Church. At that meeting “Elder Alderson met him with a joy that can not [sic] be expressed . . . .”547 More details about this important visit by Rice and its impact on Greenbrier Association can be found in another article within this volume.

In 1833 Greenbrier Association openly declared her support for Sunday schools as well as temperance, Bible, tract, and missionary societies. The Association concluded that these organizations were “. . . calculated to do much good” and called on her member churches to “. . . create and sustain such operations.”558 Most of the Greenbrier Association churches followed this course in support of missions and missions organizations. However, Indian Creek Church, one of the charter members of Greenbrier Association, withdrew during this period and became a leading church among Primitive, Anti-missionary Baptists in southern West Virginia. Benedict provides the following conclusion regarding the early and strong missionary focus of Greenbrier Association.

This Association very early became identified with missionary operations; first with the Triennial Convention, and next with the General Association of Virginia,

while as yet the whole region of country was considered missionary ground. A

258. H. Leon McBeth, The Baptist Heritage: Four Centuries of Baptist Witness (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1987), 381.359. Minutes 1781-1835, June the 24th 1786.460. Ibid., September the 27th 1801.561. Otis, 255.653. Robert B. McDanel, “One Hundred and Thirtieth Anniversary Sermon: Preached by the Pastor, Rev. Robert B. McDanel, Sunday Morning, November 26, 1911,” in One Hundred and Thirtieth Anniversary Old Greenbrier Baptist Church (n.p.: n.p.,

1911), 6-7.754. Joseph Alderson, Historical Sketch of the Greenbrier Baptist Association (n.p.: n.p., 1842), 2.855. Records of the Greenbrier Association of Baptists [1825-1868], 97. A copy of this document is available in the archives of the West Virginia Baptist Historical Society at Parchment Valley, WV.

reciprocity of feeling and action has long been maintained between this well regulated branch, and the General Association, and probably in few parts of the

Our Finance Team meets on a regular basis to monitor our church budget and spending. Thank you for your regular tithes and special offerings. Each month, we want to present an overview of where we are financially.

General Fund for the Month Ended November 30, 2015Beginning Balance $ - 17,256.09 + Income $ 9,256.94

− Expenses $ 9,778.92Ending Balance $ - 17,778.07

Budget Needs * Actual Need Difference

Giving thru November: $ 98,432 $ 127,632 - $ 29,200December 6, 13, 20: $ 9,749 $ 7,977 $ 1,772

Total 2015 Giving: $108,181 $ 135,609 - $ 27,428

* These numbers represent actual giving versus budget. We do not spend money we don’t have. So, some budget items are not fully funded. The Treasurer and Finance Team closely monitor spending.

What if we took our lengthy lists of changes we want to make in the new year and narrowed them down? Rather than making a half dozen or more commitments that we’re unlikely to keep, how about zeroing in on a single statement that captures the essence of what the LORD wants us to achieve or to become in 2016?

The mission of Old Greenbrier Baptist Church is to sow the seed of Jesus Christ in the world so that people become His fully devoted followers.

Prayer Needs as of December 20

Dorothy Taylor familyKenny Ford familySaeed AbdeniGlenna Adams (Mary Godby’s sis-in-law)Sarah AldersonHope Aliff (friend of Anne Parker)Pat AyersBedford BakerKaren Baker (sister of L. Carter)Lisa Ballard (Curtis & Bev Pauley’s daughter)Jim Belcher (friend of Anne Parker)George BoggessMax Bowyer (friend of Anne Parker)Barbara BradleyNathan BradleyJoanna CallaghanDreama CarterBill Cayard (friend of Pastor Bill & Deborah)Darius Christian (Charlotte Grimmett brother)Nathan Clay (friend of Anne Parker)Cody (Alice Clark’s grandson)Miriam Cole

Cheryl Copeland (Mary Godby’s sis-in-law)Libby Copeland (Mary Godby’s great-niece)Gary DowdyJean Dodson (friend of Anne Parker)Donna EskinsLinda Fitzwater (Friend of Anne Parker)Shirley FreemanRachel GoodallBetty HighlanderAnita & Don Hill (friend of Mary Godby)Dickie & Ora HonakerRed Honaker (friend of Anne Parker)Shawna Hopkins (C. Smith’s granddaughter)Lorene HouseLynn Hutchinson (friend of Lawrence Lewis)Jesse Hylton (friend of Dolphis Wood)Matthew Jarvis (friend of Mary Godby)Scott KadleJody KarnesDale Kidd (friend of Anne Parker)Rodney KnappTerry Kwakalski (Donna Akers’s nephew)Bob LaRueDavid Lesher (friend of Irene Chowdhury)Levi LevisayBetty Linkenhoker (C. Grimmett’s sister)Lori Loggins (A. Parker)John Mace (friend of Lawrence Lewis)

Sarah& Neal McClung (friends of Jo Honaker)Michael Canterbury (Anne Parker’’s nephew)Vicky Maddy (Jo Honaker’s sister)Russell Meadows (friend of Anne Parker)Peggy McKenzie (friend of Curtis Pauley)Virginia Miller (sister of Charlotte Grimmett)Charles Mitchell (friend of Mary Godby)Melody Moss (A. Parker)Sharon Mullins (C. Holliday’s sister)Eva Nichols (friend of Anne Parker)Danny ParkerLee PattersonJoe Price (friend of Jason Ward)Levi Pugliani (Bob & Gayle LaRue’s grandson)Rebecca Rexroad (Jewell Smith’s grand-daughter)Marsha RayHeather RichmondChuck & Lisa ShaverLibby, Stephanie, G.W. Richmond (C. Smith)Isaac RobinetteMargie SimmonsBeth Sisiani (Chad McCallister’s aunt)Christine SmithDavid Smith (Jewell Smith’s son)Eddie Smith (friend of Mary Godby)Lucy May SmithNoah SmithShirley Taylor

Our New Year’s Resolution

Art Tyrell (A. Penfield’s brother-in-law)Melinda UtterbackSammy Walker (friend of C. McCallister)Theda Wallace (friend of Anne Parker)Larry Wickline (Jack Taylor’s uncle)Jeanie Zopp (friend of Theresa Massey)

ALL TROOPS In Our Armed ForcesRandy Fleshman (home)Joseph Garcia (New Jersey)Katie Hunter (home)Jess Phillips (classified)Brent Taylor (home)Ernie Tincher (Afghanistan)

Church Family Shut-inMary Lou Bowden Clara HardestyFrances Canterbury Earnestine LightHarriett Dancy Louise UtterbackBill Gadd

Government Officials Heads of State

Students: Jonathan Bradley, Bethany Burdette, Hannah Griffin, Rhys Rogers, Kari Still, Kelsey Still, Stephanie Willis, Keith Wiseman, Brennan Wood

EMMA ALDERSON CHRISTIAN ACADEMY

Note: Please notify church office 304 445-7854 to delete or add to prayer list.

With the new year there is the new hope of growing our academy and planning for the future. The first half of our first year is almost behind us. Our students are growing and blossoming. We never cease to be amazed by what God has done.

We hope you enjoyed our first Christmas program. We combined with the Children’s Church and it was wonderful for our stage to be filled with the excitement of children (ages 2-

18) for the first time in a while. We have already begun our planning for next Christmas. Below are some photos of this year’s program.

The month of January will find us discovering and experimenting with snow and ice; hopefully not too much of the real stuff.

We thank you all

so much for the snack donations. They have been very much appreciated. Please keep them coming throughout the school year. A new donation box has been placed in the church kitchen and items can also be left by the back door of the preschool.

We still have a need for volunteers. Even if you can only help once in a while,

please come and play with us. Something exciting is always happening and the more the merrier.

Lots of love, peace and blessings to all at this new year and always.