First Baptist Helps Charlie’s Place, Channel 9 Fight Hunger

MORE PHOTOS & VIDEOS BELOW

More than 30 volunteers pitched in Friday, Aug. 11, to help First Baptist D.C. collect and deliver food to fill the pantry at Charlie’s Place, a partner in caring for people in the Dupont Circle area.

The work began at 5 a.m. in front of the Giant grocery store on Wisconsin Ave., just north of the National Cathedral. By 6:30 p.m., volunteers had collected 3,006 pounds of nonperishable food and filled 70 boxes for delivery to Charlie’s Place.

Charlie’s Place was founded in 1990 as a non-denominational, anti-hunger, homeless ministry of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church on Connecticut Avenue at T Street NW.

The event was the sixth and final food drive hosted this summer by WUSA9 to address food insecurity in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Charlie's Place in DC | Giving Matters | wusa9.com

Channel 9 cameras and reporters covered the event throughout the day, airing three interviews with Pastor Julie Pennington-Russell, including an interview with Chief Meteorologist Topper Shutt during the 6 p.m. newscast.

The importance of the work was underscored in an email from Marie Graves, Director of Development for Charlie’s Place:

Dear First Baptist Family, with a special thanks to Julie and Eric,

I am writing to express my heartfelt gratitude to First Baptist Church for the outstanding effort put forth in organizing the fundraising event for Charlie's Place Food Pantry. Your dedication and commitment to this cause have made a significant impact on our community, and I wanted to take a moment to express our sincere thanks.

The generosity and kindness displayed by the members of First Baptist Church have touched not only the lives of those directly involved with Charlie's Place but also the countless individuals and families who have come to rely on the food pantry's services. Your willingness to come together and support such a noble cause reflects the true spirit of compassion and community.

The food raised through the event will undoubtedly go a long way in ensuring that Charlie's Place can continue its essential work of providing nourishment and support for those in need. In times of uncertainty, your contribution provides not only sustenance but also hope and solace to those facing challenging circumstances.

Your efforts inspire us all to do more for our community, reminding us that a small group of thoughtful and committed individuals can indeed create significant positive change. The collaboration between First Baptist Church and Charlie's Place exemplifies the power of unity, empathy, and the willingness to make a difference.

New EfM (Education for Ministry) Year Starts in September

by Rod Coates, EfM Director

Seminars begin Sept. 12

Do you have questions about your faith? Most people do, and most find it challenging to get answers. Education for Ministry (EfM) was developed by the School of Theology in Sewanee, Tennessee, to provide a mechanism for people to work through those questions. This four-year course of study provides the framework for the group to connect faith to their daily lives through reading and discussion.

By participating in EfM you will learn how to articulate your faith. You will learn how to shape your faith into action. You will become involved in ministries in your community, and you will make a difference.

We will have once-a-week online meetings led by mentors trained to facilitate the experience, you will begin to think theologically, reflect faithfully, and speak civilly when confronted by beliefs and principles in opposition to your own. And that’s something we can all appreciate in today’s world.

Visit Sewanee to learn more.

Registration for FBCDC’s 2023-24 year is now open:

  • Seminars begin Tuesday, September 12

  • Registration fee is $325, payable by check or credit card

  • Books are purchased by each student; some books may be available to borrow for the year

  • Scholarships are available

For more information contact Rod Coates at roderick.coates@gmail.com

Aug 11 - Stuff the Truck for Charlie's Place a Success!

Friends,

You stuffed the truck for Charlie’s Place yesterday!

With more than 30 volunteers and at least 126 volunteer hours, we made a difference. Last night, we delivered 70 boxes, 3,006 poundsof food, and more than $700 in donations to Charlie’s Place (we’re still finalizing some of these numbers!).

This would not have been possible without your help and support. You signed up, turned out, worked to inspire others, and created an awareness of Charlie’s Place and the good it does in our community. Generosity always begets generosity, and your actions proved this yesterday.

With deep gratitude.

+ eric

Stuff the Truck

On Friday, August 11, First Baptist is partnering with the local CBS affiliate station WUSA9 to Stuff the Truck with supplies for one of our mission partners, Charlie's Place. We will be stationed at Giant Food, 3336 Wisconsin Ave. NW, to collect supplies shoppers purchase and donate.

Charlie’s Place Story - Learn more

New Contemplative Group Starts in September

Led by Julie P-R and Leslie Mason

Sign Up Today!

  • Does the velocity at which you are living hinder you from being fully present with the people in your life?

  • Do you long to be more aware of God’s presence in each moment?

  • Do you want to live and act from a more grounded, less anxious place inside yourself?

  • Do you want to deepen your discernment of the Spirit’s movement and leading in your life?

If so, this 9-month contemplative journey may be just the thing for your soul!

SIGN UP NOW

Basics:

  • Group is limited to 7 participants (in addition to Julie and Leslie)

  • Group meets one Saturday morning per month for 2.5 hours, September through May (first gathering lasts a wee bit longer)

  • We gather in group members’ homes (hosting isn’t a requirement to join) and share a light breakfast together

  • Meeting dates are are determined by the group

  • No prior contemplative experience needed, just an open heart, a willingness to commit to the 9-month journey, and a desire to be more fully present with God and your “one wild and precious life” (thanks, Mary Oliver).

Monthly themes include:

  • personal presence in God

  • practicing personal and group discernment

  • addressing conflict prayerfullysacred activism from the contemplative heart

  • and more…

Interested? Contact Pastor Julie at jjpr@firstbaptistdc.org.

Deadline to sign up: August 25.

Bruce Salmon Preaching on July 9

We welcome Bruce to the pulpit while Pastor Julie is away next Sunday. Bruce and Linda Salmon have been members of First Baptist Church since 2018. They began attending after Bruce retired from Village Baptist Church in Bowie, Maryland, where he served as pastor for 33 years. Before that, he served as associate pastor at Montgomery Hills Baptist Church in Silver Spring for almost eight years, from 1977 until 1985.  Both Village and Montgomery Hills are sister congregations to First Baptist in the D.C. Baptist Convention.

Bruce and Linda continue to reside in Bowie. They are the parents of Amy and Marc. Amy lives in Springfield, Illinois where she is a librarian in the Lincoln Public Library. Marc lives in Los Angeles where he is a partner with the international accounting firm EY. Marc is married to Stacey, and they have one daughter, eight-year-old Ford.

A native of Texas, Bruce is a graduate of Baylor University. He received the Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Bowie State University, with a specialization in Clinical Pastoral Counseling. Bruce is the author of seven books, including four in the Spelunking Scripture Bible study series. His latest book is The Barefoot Eulogist.

Bruce writes a monthly blog for his website: http://www.spelunkingscripture.com

American Baptists are Making a Difference in Ukraine

Kristy Engel is a global consultant with a health care focus. She is trained as a pediatric nurse practitioner and served for 12 years in the Dominican Republic leading teams and working with public health issues, as well as in Haiti and Liberia. Last December, Kristy took a small medical team to Ukraine. She recently returned from another months-long trip to help meet medical needs among Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

I returned to Hungary/Ukraine in late January 2023 to serve alongside our partners who provide mobile medical clinics to IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) living in shelters in the far-western regions of Ukraine, near the Hungarian border. 

While there, I was able to help provide care to around twenty different shelters, organize the donated supplies and medicines, consult patients alongside several visiting medical teams, develop a clinic record-keeping system and a cloud-based patient registration, while also visiting patients for follow-up care after our medical clinics. I even held a well-child clinic at a nearby church one evening so that parents could bring their kids, after they finished work. I returned to the U.S. in mid-May.

It has taken me a couple of weeks of rest and digesting all I experienced in Ukraine to be able to begin putting the experience into words. One part of my brain is full of the data…numbers of patients, medicines given, diseases seen, etc. The other part of my brain has taken a lot longer to digest the emotional trauma and suffering that I saw around me daily. These are the things that I WANT to share so more will understand, and yet I find the most difficult to express.

Most days, when we went to a shelter to hold a clinic, we were met by compassionate, helpful and yet traumatized IDPs who weren’t sure what tomorrow would hold for them. Often, the first patients we saw in a clinic would be crying because they had just found out in the last 24-48 hours that a family member had died in the war…a son, a husband, a father, or grandson.

I remember when a woman entered weeping because she had just learned that both her husband and son had been killed.

We saw teenagers who were cutting themselves…marks left on their arms in an attempt to “control” something in their lives.

We met teen orphans who were now in charge of their younger siblings in a facility far from anything they knew as familiar. All they knew was that they were now in charge, and it weighed heavily on them.

I remember telling a woman that she was pregnant and the look of shock on her face, trying to reconcile how to raise another child without the father close by because he was on the front lines. She had three other children with her and had recently arrived to a shelter because it was too dangerous to stay in her home in Eastern Ukraine.

A young man came to see me who was gaunt, pale, and couldn’t stop fidgeting. His eyes darted around the clinic, and he rarely made eye contact. His nails were bitten down and there were dark circles under his eyes. He had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression several months earlier but said the medicine wasn’t working. Even when he was prayed for, he couldn’t close his eyes, but continued to look around, just watching.

I remember counseling a mother who had a child with autism. They were living in a shelter, and she was desperate to find any help for her son. She kept asking me, “What country can I go to where they have good support for us; where my child will get the help he needs?”

I held (and hold) each of these desperate stories (and many more) close to my heart.

I pray for their peace and safety and that the war will end so rebuilding can begin.

I circle in prayer the leaders of Hungarian Baptist Aid and Transcarpathian Baptist Charity, so that they may feel cared for, strengthened, encouraged, and that they may have the resources they need to continue serving others.

I thank so many of you who consistently pray for me and support me, even when you aren’t exactly sure where I’m at in the world!

“Every first Sunday of the month, following communion, we receive a special offering (beyond our regular giving) for those in our church, community and world experiencing critical needs. In March 2022, the Benevolence Offering went to support relief efforts in Ukraine and was shared evenly with American Baptist Churches USA OGHS Emergency Relief Funds to Ukraine - ABCUSA and the European Baptist Federation https://www.ebf.org/prayforpeace.

”
— FBCDC

Rise Against Hunger June 11, 2023

10,000 Meals in Two Hours

On Sunday, June 11, 2023, volunteers packaged 10,000 meals for people facing hunger across the globe. Many thanks to all the adults, teens and children who rallied to serve, and of course the great folk at Rise Against Hunger!

Photos from the Event

Capital Pride 2023

FBC marched with AWAB and other faith communities at Capital Pride 2023.

FBC marched with the greater Washington metro area Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists at Pride 2023. In light of the current rise in hateful speech, actions and state laws targeting LGBTQIA people, those who marched were grateful for the chance to be a visible witness of inclusion, abundant welcome, and the love of God.

Congregation Approves Consultant, Leadership, Spending Plan

Members of First Baptist DC voted Sunday, June 4, to approve leadership and spending for the coming year and to invest in a consulting partnership intended to solidify the church's vitality for many years.

The consulting firm, Ministry Architects, and its founder, Mark Devries, are scheduled to begin an 18-month partnership with First Baptist in August.

The congregation asked that Ministry Architects help the church meet these objectives:

  • Create a unique and clear mission, vision, values and footprint for First Baptist Church of Washington, DC, to provide the reason WHY behind all we do.

  • Define the community beyond the walls of the church so that we can know, serve and engage it in FBC's mission, vision, values and footprint.

  • Maintain and grow FBC's congregation size and involvement, to deepen community with one another and with God.

  • Streamline FBC's governance structure, staffing plan, financial processes, and administrative systems to ensure efficiency, understanding, empowerment and effectiveness for decision-making now and in the future.

After initial assessments of the church's operations, including financial systems, consultants will be on site in September to meet with pastors, lay leaders and congregants.

Most of the lay leaders, including Moderator Rod Coates and other officers, who served in the 2022-2023 church year were re-elected Sunday to one-year terms.

The spending plan approved Sunday for 2023-2024 includes money for two new strategic investments: the first 11 months of work with Ministry Architects and operating reserves. Estimated income for the new fiscal year was adjusted downward, reflecting a year-to-year decline of 8 percent, or $27,000, in contributions to the church's operating budget. As a result, projected spending in several areas was trimmed to reflect these changes.  

To review materials from the June 4 called meeting, see the church email sent on June 1, 2023.

Meet Church Coaching Firm Ministry Architects

Ministry Architects Founder Mark DeVries

After nearly three months of discussion and discernment among Church Council members and a small advisory team, the Council recommended to the congregation on May 7 that First Baptist engage a church consulting and coaching organization, Ministry Architects. The congregation will consider and vote on their proposal at a special called business meeting on Sunday, June 4.

Ministry Architects was founded in 2002 by Mark DeVries. At that time, Mark was serving as the associate pastor for youth and their families at First Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Early in his ministry with First Presbyterian, Mark realized his “seventy-hour plus workweeks” were producing few visible signs of a ministry “off and running”. And he knew change was needed. The results of those changes, Mark’s unique approach to ministry, is how Ministry Architects came to be. Mark is now an internationally known author and speaker on congregational ministry in the twenty-first century.

Ministry Architects help congregations become who God is calling them to be with the proper systems and processes in place to help them execute that calling well. Their company’s core values include: groundedness, responsiveness, playfulness, climate, relationships, innovation, results, theological humility, the poor, and persistence.

Ministry Architects' process begins with a deep listening assessment that involves every individual connected to the congregation. Following the listening assessment, they write a customized blueprint for the congregation with input from key church leadership and staff. Then, they come alongside the congregation for a period of 12-18 months to make sure the work gets done.

Ministry Architects has 1000+ clients that include whole churches, children’s ministries, theological institutions, non-profits, and more and more faith-based organizations every year. You can read more about them and Mark DeVries at this website: https://ministryarchitects.com/who-we-are/.

Senior Pastor Annual Report

This is what Yahweh says:
Stand at the crossroads and look.
Ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies
and walk in it and find rest for your souls.
~ Jeremiah 6:16

In January of this year, Moderator Rod Coates sent me an article published by Religion News Service about trends in church participation as the pandemic neared year three. In the article, Scott Thumma, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research at Hartford International University, said, “What happened in the pandemic is that all of us were huddling in the basement while a tornado was going over our heads. Now everyone has come out of the basement and everything is completely different.”

Thumma observed that during the early days of the pandemic, churches innovated because they had to for survival. Now that the crisis of the pandemic has mostly passed, churches must make long-term adaptations. He said, “The focus should be — How can we become a better church? rather than How do we re-create what we used to have?”

That article, and a subsequent conversation with Rod and Eric Mathis, prompted a question that circulated among all the FBC leaders and teams: “What are you most hoping for in 2023 for First Baptist Church?”

Pastor Eric recorded three pages of responses. Some were aspirational:

  • “I hope to see a qualitative shift/transformation in the lives of FBC folk. I hope to see the Spirit moving in our congregation. Life changes.”

  • “People who show up are looking for something they can't find in the Rotary or another similar club. My hope is that FBC might be trustworthy with their aspirations and their deeply felt needs.”

  • “I hope for an increased longing for personal growth in terms of knowledge of God, scripture, and other areas of our Christian walk and life.”

  • “I hope to see missional initiatives that lead to relationship, as well as endeavors that touch on all four of our missional pillars: justice, compassion, hospitality, and generosity.

Other responses communicated frustration:

  • “It feels like we are surviving day to day. It’s apparent that we are not fulfilling our capacity for what God wants to do and is doing in our neighborhood and in our city.”

  • “Our church feels rudderless right now. We are here, but don’t know where we are going or where we are expending our energy.”

  • “Unless we make or create strategy and make steps to get there, we aren’t going to be the church we want to be.”

  • “Our church has smart people, but we are not responding intelligently to the needs in our community and our world.”

All these responses point to a readiness, or at least a desire, at First Baptist Church for change; for institutional and congregational transformation.

And so, after nearly three months of discussion and discernment among Church Council members and a small advisory team, this year’s Annual Meeting brings with it a recommendation from the council that First Baptist engage a church consulting organization, Ministry Architects, to help us meet four objectives for the health and future of this church:

  • Create a unique and clear mission, vision, values and footprint for First Baptist Church of Washington, DC, to provide the reason WHY behind all we do.

  • Define the community beyond the walls of the church so that we can know, serve and engage it in FBC's mission, vision, values and footprint.

  • Maintain and grow FBC's congregation size and involvement, to deepen community with one another and with God.

  • Streamline FBC's governance structure, staffing plan and administrative systems to ensure efficiency, understanding, empowerment and effectiveness for decision-making and discernment now and in the future.

I am eager to discover with you where the Spirit will lead us. Friends, may First Baptist Church be known as a community rooted in Christ, empowered by the Spirit, and committed to spiritual growth, deep connection, and courageous action.

Blessings,




Pastor Julie

Finding a Home for Beauty

From Pastor Eric

What does it mean that people who love music, worship, and the arts consistently find a home and a space inside FBC's walls?

This is a question I have been asking all Spring as our congregation has hosted musicians and music groups from our community. The most recent opportunity we had to extend hospitality to musicians was last Sunday. We welcomed Sarah McIver on flute and Eliana Schenck on oboe in morning worship. In the afternoon, we welcomed Kimberly Galva and more than a dozen of her violin students for their annual Spring recital - which included Kevin, Rosemary, and Valerie Plovnick.

When I expressed my appreciation to one of our guest musicians her response was, "I should be thanking you for allowing me to play here. This is an amazing space, and this congregation has been so kind to me this morning." After the violin recital Kimberly said, "What a wonderful opportunity for my students to hear themselves play in this space, and to know there are churches that still value not only music but all of the arts." Their words of gratitude echo what I've heard from other musicians who have been in our space this Spring - from the brass players at Easter and the Mariachi band on Palm Sunday to guest organists to Runnymede Singers who rehearse here weekly to the Bucknell University A Cappella Choir to the DC Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

What does it mean that people who love music, worship, and the arts consistently find a home and a space inside FBC's walls?

This question brings me back to the work of sociologist Robert Wuthnow who said a desire to see the arts employed fully in the life of the church represents a profound cultural shift. The shift is a move toward a complete integration of the senses into our daily lives, as well as our spiritual lives.

As we open our doors to musicians and artists in the community, we create opportunities for their work to connect with the work of the Divine. We also create opportunities for our own spiritual lives to be enriched and expanded by the majesty, mystery, and beautiful holiness of God - things which should be, but are not always, most attractive to us. Maybe this is why Saint Augustine said, “My God and my glory, for this reason I say a hymn of praise to you and offer praise to the One who offered sacrifice for me. For the beautiful objects designed by artists’ souls and realized by skilled hands come from that beauty which is higher than souls; after that beauty my soul sighs day and night.”

What does it mean that YOU have found a home and space inside FBC's walls, which happen to be full of music, worship, and the arts?




Pastor Eric

New Organist - Sean Burns

Welcoming Sean Burns

Following a national search led by Pastor Eric and a small advisory team comprised of Lilia Abron, Sarah Hodges-Austin, Aurelio Dominguez, Diane Gardner, Dennis Lambert, and Rosemary Plovnick, we are pleased to announce that Sean Burns has accepted the call to serve as our new organist. His first Sunday on the organ bench will be Sunday, June 4.

Sean is a Philadelphia-area native who relocated to Washington, DC in 2021. He is a recent graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, will be sitting for the bar exam this summer and pursuing a legal career in the DC area.

When asked what drew him to apply for the organist position, Sean said, "After spending my time as a law student working as a substitute organist, I attended an organ recital at First Baptist and was both immediately struck by the sheer scope of the instrument and reminded of how much I love having a regular place to play on Sundays. I resolved to start looking for positions after the new year, and as fate would have it, the very first posting I saw was the position at First Baptist."

Sean completed formal organ study at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ in 2016, where he studied with Alan Morrison and earned a Master of Music in Organ Performance. Before moving to DC, he served as the principal organist first at Corpus Christi Church and later at Abington Presbyterian Church, both in suburban Philadelphia.

Beyond the walls of the church, Sean has used his extensive love and knowledge of opera to serve as an accompanist for young singers who are either pursuing upper-level studies or who are at the forefront of a professional career. At the academic level, Sean has worked with voice students at Westminster as well as Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ. Professionally, he worked at Sarasota Opera House in Florida along with the summer programs CoOPERAtive in Princeton, NJ and Canto in Louisville, Kentucky.

As he looks to begin his tenure at First Baptist, Sean said he is most excited about two things: the opportunity to get to know the people of First Baptist better, and the chance to add to First Baptist’s creative, thoughtful, and extensive use of music in worship. Welcome, Sean!

From Moderator Rod: Spending Plan, Nominations to be voted on at June 4 Meeting

First Baptist will gather this Sunday, May 7, for FBC’s Annual Meeting, which marks the beginning of a new program year. We will hear about many of the highlights from the prior year, talk about hopes for the next, and have some fun between the reports.

Two items of business every year at the Annual Meeting—approval of the spending plan for the coming year and the election of church officers and other lay leaders—will be voted on in a called congregational meeting on June 4, and for a worthy reason:

In last week’s Update, FBC Clerk and Communications Director Christi Harlan reported on the Church Council’s plan to recommend at the Annual Meeting that FBC employ a consulting firm, Ministry Architects, to help First Baptist meet four primary objectives for the health and future of our church.

Because the congregation needs time for prayer and discernment before voting on the consultant recommendation, and since the church’s decision will affect the 2023-2024 spending plan, I am calling a special congregational meeting for June 4 to vote on retaining Ministry Architects and on the annual spending plan. The congregation also will be asked to vote on nominations for church officers and other lay leaders at that meeting.

I look forward to seeing you at that special meeting in June, but first at our Annual Meeting and celebration of the past year with food, fellowship, and fun this Sunday, May 7.

Roderick Coates

Moderator

Spring Forum | Jeff Chu | Sunday, May 21

Save the date for Spring Forum! Sunday, May 21 with guest Jeff Chu. Jeff is a self-described writer, reporter, and editor. He is currently an editor-at-large for Travel+Leisure, teacher in residence at Crosspointe Church, and a Ph.D. student in theology at the University of Stellenbosch. Jeff is an ordinand in the Reformed Church in America (RCA), and lives with his husband and dog, Fozzie, in Michigan. His work at Princeton Theological Seminary's Farminary, a 21-acre experiment in sustainable agriculture that doubles as the world’s best classroom, he learned about the story of life, death, and new life that God has written into creation.

Here is the schedule for Sunday, May 21.

9:15 am | Breakfast in the Fellowship Hall

9:30 am | Spring Forum, presented by Jeff

11:00 am | Worship with Jeff Chu preaching the sermon “Witnesses” based on Psalm 68:4-10, 19-20, Acts 1:6-11, and Luke 24:46-53.

Get to know Jeff Chu

2022
Jeff Chu on Kate Bowler’s podcast, Everything Happens. In this episode, Kate and Jeff discuss: 

  • Navigating certainty and doubt when ambiguity is so uncomfortable

  • Why great resumes sometimes mask lives of pain

  • How Jeff has discovered grace for himself and his family (and others who many have different versions of faithfulness)

Click on the Image below to Listen

2022
Jeff Chu on Evolving Faith, Not Being Defined by Your Title, and Experiencing Healing

2013
Listen to Jeff tell his story as he discusses his first book, "Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian's Pilgrimage in Search of God in America".

2013
Author and journalist Jeff Chu joins Ray Suarez to talk about his personal journey coming to terms with being Christian and gay. In his book, "Does Jesus Really Love Me?", Chu discusses the choices made by gay Christians trying to reconcile their lives, identities and faith.

Church Council to Recommend Outside Consultant for First Baptist

The Church Council agreed Sunday, April 24, to recommend that First Baptist engage an outside consultant, Ministry Architects, to help FBC meet four objectives for the health and future of the church.

The recommendation is the culmination of almost three months of discussion and discernment among council members and a small advisory team. The congregation will hear about the process and objectives at the annual meeting Sunday, May 7, for feedback, concerns and questions.

The council is proposing that the consultant help our congregation meet these objectives:

  1. Create a unique and clear mission, vision, values and footprint for First Baptist Church of Washington, DC, to provide the reason WHY behind all we do.

  2. Define the community beyond the walls of the church so that we can know, serve and engage it in FBC's mission, vision, values and footprint.

  3. Maintain and grow FBC's congregation size and involvement, to deepen community with one another and with God.

  4. Streamline FBC's governance structure, staffing plan and administrative systems to ensure efficiency, understanding, empowerment and effectiveness for decision-making and discernment now and in the future.

The council intends to present a final proposal for a congregational vote at a called congregational meeting Sunday, June 5.

The Consultant Advisory Team was made up of Christi Harlan and Dave Ryder, co-leaders, and young adult representatives Didier Ahimera, Marlan Golden, Wells Thomason and Molly Young, with Moderator Rod Coates and pastors Eric Mathis and Julie Pennington-Russell, serving as ex officio members.

The FBC Church Council is made up of the pastors, church officers and the lay leaders representing ministry and program areas of the church.

Blood Drive on April 25

College basketball player Ashley Owusu credits a blood transfusion with saving her life after a mononucleosis diagnosis while playing for the University of Maryland (she transferred to Virginia Tech this year). Tests revealed Owusu’s iron levels in her blood to be dangerously low. While most people feel better after one transfusion, Owusu’s iron levels were so low that she needed eight transfusions. “I never really knew how much of an impact blood donors can have and how important it is," says Owusu, who now serves as an ambassador for the American Red Cross. Owusu is using her platform as a college athlete by sharing her story in a video promoting the importance of giving blood.

At least 20 FBC donors are needed on April 25. Many thanks to the many who've signed up so far. Please sign up here.

Holy Week 2023 Photos

EASTER SERVICE & RECEPTION

GOOD FRIDAY

MAUNDY THURSDAY

PALM SUNDAY PARADE

Palm Sunday Parade Photos 2023

Easter Sunday April 9

Visit FBC

We’re located at 16th and O Streets NW—in the heart of Washington, a mile north of the White House. We are part of the Dupont Circle and Logan Circle neighborhoods. Need more info? Call us or click below.

COntact FBC

We look forward to greeting you in person. In the meantime, you can request prayer or ask a question by calling or sending an email.

 

GIVE TO & THROUGH FBC

At First Baptist DC, giving is the fuel that powers every congregational expression of hospitality, compassion, generosity and justice. FBC relies on the congregation for regular, sustainable financial support.

The First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, D.C.
1328 16th Street NW Washington, D.C. 20036
(202) 387-2206