Dear Antioch Church Family,
I hope this finds you well. With all that has been going on since Christmas, I am running a little late on our 2022 newsletter. I hope you and your families had a great Christmas and New Year celebration! What a joy it was to have our Christmas program this year along with our party afterward!
During this winter, we have still been visited by Covid, albeit mild cases along with the flu, and just general colds. I am thankful that we are for the most part out of the woods with Covid compared to where we were only a few years ago!
I say it all the time that God is at work in Antioch, and 2022 was another exceptional year for our church! Despite all of the bad news we see on television… the good news is that the fruit of the Spirit is evident in Antioch! This is clear through us reaching our 250th year of serving the Lord in the Yale, Sussex and Southampton County Communities and we’re quickly heading to 251! What a celebration it was and how blessed we were to have 230+/- people attend! God is good… all the time!
We were able to do a lot of things as a church this past year. Most noteworthy were:
Joyner UMC hosted us for Easter sunrise service and breakfast, followed by regular Easter worship service. I am looking forward to us hosting Joyner this year for sunrise service and breakfast and I am excited that we will be having an Easter Cantata!
Speaking of the upcoming Easter Cantata, how awesome is it that our choir has been singing every other Sunday and on occasions more! Please thank those folks and Pam when you have a moment.
We continued to use our FM transmitter to share our church service with those who remained in the parking low and beyond. I often wonder how many people in the community we are reaching with our transmitter? I often think at times we should turn it off since Covid is over, but then again it is still a valuable lifeline to minister to folks.
We continue to make good use of our projectors and AV equipment during special events. This equipment was invaluable to our 250th Anniversary Celebration and allowed for overflow because the sanctuary was full. We had funerals for Nettie Lou and Charles Kitchen. We also used this equipment during worship services, bible school, and the Christmas program.
We added Wi-Fi to our church which has allowed us to stream Sunday School messages and other things in the church, and gives us the opportunity to expand our ministry beyond Yale. We are also exploring moving the phone lines over to Wi-Fi, which will be a cost savings.
Samantha graciously agreed to serve as our first-ever webmaster and built a beautiful church website which is being used by folks to explore our church before they make a decision to visit. This will be an invaluable tool moving forward. I encourage you to visit our webpage and let Samantha know if there’s anything you’d like to add and let her know how great it turned out!
We sold our parsonage! While this was a big decision, it made sense because the return on investment was not there and the likelihood of a pastor and his family living there in the near future was low. We were spending a significant amount of money and resources to maintain the property while only charging $600 in rent. Through selling, we made a significant profit, and that money can be used to update our church. Some ideas include adding ADA accommodations for those with disabilities, eventually adding a wheelchair ramp from the social hall to the sanctuary. There are other ways we can invest in our church building that are much needed, such as updating the wiring in the sanctuary which is from the 1940s.
This year was a huge year for baptisms! We have 8 new believers baptized. Five in May and three in October: Eli, Reagan, Brody, Ethan, Lyla, Reese, Kiley and Alisha! I am excited to see God move in these folks. I am honored beyond measure to be their pastor, and I look forward to what He has in store on their journey with Him! God is surely at work here and all we must do is to be faithful!
Lastly, our youth have had such a wonderfully busy year with events that are also fun, meaningful and bring with them growth in faith, service, and comradely among our youth and those adults who work with them. Our youth and young adults are our future, and we need to do all we can to nurture them to allow them to grow! Thank you to our awesome youth committee and to Wanda & Jim, and Jacob & Samantha who work so diligently to make sure our young folks have meaningful events that grow them spiritually as well. God bless each one.
In December we started celebrating Advent and several families and members participated in the lighting of the advent candles in a meaningful and memorable way.
Lastly, as we have entered the new year, we cannot help but look back at the many blessings God has bestowed upon us which again include:
- Increased attendance and new people attending
- My second full year as your Pastor, but really my third when we count the actual time I have been blessed to serve. To say I am honored is an understatement. Serving the Lord alongside you is such a blessing and a wonderful journey. I love you all and I look forward to the coming year together!
- We had 8 baptisms!
- We averaged between 50 and 60 in attendance on many Sundays and during our fellowship meals and special events we had in the 80s! We also experienced great Sunday School attendance in 2022!
- Sadly, we lost two members of our beloved church family and while we miss and love them dearly, we know they are celebrating with the Lord, and they are together with their loved ones, and we will surely see them again: Charles and Nettie Lou Kitchen.
- Our most seasoned member celebrated her 97th birthday! (Mrs. Ruth Harrup)
Again, while I am sure I may have missed a few things, it is abundantly clear to see how absolutely blessed we are in so many ways. The Lord is surely at work in and through Antioch Baptist Church! All we need to remind ourselves to do is stay out of God’s way and He will surely do a mighty work through us, in the lives of those in Yale, Sussex and Southampton communities, and in Christ’s greater church. Thank you for ALL you do, and for just being YOU!
“May the Lord bless you and keep you; May the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26)
I love each of you and your families dearly, and my family and I love our Antioch church family. We are thankful to be serving the Lord together and walking our walk with Christ – with each of you!
In Christian Love,
Pastor Tom Guess
Antioch Baptist Church 