Getting To Know You…

“So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.”
-1 Thessalonians 2:8 NRSV

Getting to know you, Getting to know all about you. Getting to like you, Getting to hope you like me.
-Julie Andrews in The King and I

As I was doing my devotional reading this week, I encountered the above words from the Apostle Paul found in his first letter to the Church at Thessalonica. These words, coupled with the refrain sung by Julie Andrews in The King and I, have been resonating deeply within me. First Baptist Church Family, I love and care for you deeply. I have poured that love into sermon preparation and delivery, Bible study preparation and facilitation, and even into these Pastor’s Pen entries. But while I have had moments of sharing with a handful of disciples, I am determined to know and be known by each member of the congregation. I believe that in order to Move Forward Together, we have to know those with whom we share the journey.

You already know that I am a wife to a true gentleman and mother to two amazing daughters, but you may not know that when the sillies get a hold of us, our laughter is contagious. You know that I love music, but you may not know that Hymns and Hip-Hop are my two favorite genres. You know that I am a nerd, but you may not know that I was a contestant and winner on a Nickelodeon game show, “Make the Grade” in 1989. This is just the tip of the iceberg. I am determined to know you, all of you. Please stop by the office sometime or make an appointment so we can spend some time together.

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Donna Owusu-Ansah

Divine Determination and Discernment

Today concludes our series, Moving Forward Together, examining the book of Ruth. We have been invited to name the losses we’ve experienced, personally, and as a congregation, so that we may grieve as the first act of moving forward into the amazing future that God has for our lives and for this church. We stand at a crossroads— will we choose despair or will we forge ahead with divine determination as we discern the voice and activity of God? I have already witnessed through the disciples of this church that First Baptist Church is choosing to move with divine determination and discernment. Hallelujah! Yet we recognize that the roads won’t always be easy to traverse, so we pray for fortitude, friends for the journey, and the favor of God to rest on our church. Graced with fortitude, friends, and favor, we are in the place where the rubber of ministry hits the road of our faith. This is where God challenged us, myself included, to identify where we are in ministry, imagine ways to do ministry with excellence, to be holy instigators, and to be industrious as we move from COVID era inertia to an invigorated ministry. It’s time for the doers to rise up, to be good stewards of the gifts and graces that God has given you, and to work the works of Him to called you out of darkness into His marvelous light! Moving forward together is possible with the power and presence of Almighty God!

I invite each of us to meditate on this series and ask God: What losses do I need to grieve? What decisions do I need to make? What do I need to go the distance? What particular ministry or ministries is God calling me to? How can I rely on God’s power so that I can do my part in moving forward together?

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Donna Owusu-Ansah

How ARE you being FBC?

Last week, I wrote about what the WE in We are FBC means as it relates to our theme Moving Forward Together, and how WE need YOU in order to be everything God has destined for us to be!

This week I am thinking about the verb ARE as God continues to speak to us and beckon us to Move Forward Together. The verb ARE is the first person singular and second and third person plural of the present tense of the verb "to be." It speaks to the existence of a thing--right here and right now. We are FBC!

Notice, we don't say, "We were FBC!" While First Baptist Church has a rich and impactful past in this community, this county, our state and national conventions, and across this world for the cause of Christ, the church is not defined by or confined by her past. We also do not say, "We will be FBC!" In other words, while we are vision and future oriented, we recognize that we are not waiting on the not yet in order to be who and what God has called us to be.

But right here and right now, our worship, our ministry, and our service within and beyond these walls testifies that We are FBC! And I believe as we ARE being FBC, that God shaping our future before our very eyes. So the question is, how ARE you being FBC here and now?

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Donna Owusu-Ansah

The Meaning of “WE”

Last week I wrote about what We are FBC means to me as I immerse myself in the life of the First Baptist Church of Englewood. Since then, I have been thinking about how We are FBC relates to our theme Moving Forward Together, and what it means from a biblical and theological point of view. 

I’ve been meditating on the WE in We are FBC. We is a first person plural pronoun. We signifies a group. We signifies togetherness. We signifies interdependence. From Creation when God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone” to God creating and covenanting with the nation of Israel to the Apostle Paul’s metaphor of the Church “joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love,” God has always been concerned about WE.

If God is concerned about WE, then we should also be concerned about our interdependence and togetherness as a church. As you move through the week, interrogate your relationship with WE. If you find yourself isolated, disconnected, or otherwise functioning outside of WE, ask God for a supernatural connection and immersion in the life of FBC because if We are FBC, then we need YOU!

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Donna Owusu-Ansah

“WE ARE FBC!”

There is something quite powerful that happens when people join their voices together. When one voice joins another and another and another and all of a sudden the many voices become one. This sonic event is felt at basketball games when the away team has the ball and the home crowd chants “Defense! Defense!” This is also felt at parties, when the DJ is playing Frankie Beverly and Maze’s “Before I Let Go” and turns down the volume at just the right time so all the partygoers can belt out, “Before I let you go––––oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh.” This is also felt in church sanctuaries when the congregation lifts their voices together in acts of worship. I especially notice this on Sundays when Sis. Roland or Deacon Zachary ends the announcements and the congregation joins them saying, “WE ARE FBC!” 

We are FBC speaks to a shared identity and common mission as followers of Jesus Christ and the particularity of ministry to which God has called the First Baptist Church of Englewood. I have been thinking about what it means when we say, “We are FBC!” As my family and I settle in, for me it evokes a sense of family, hospitality, and pride. I also think of an arrow, which has a clear starting point and a future in the direction of endless possibilities. 

What does it mean to you when we say, “We are FBC!” What stories and images come to mind? What qualities and characteristics stand out? What keeps you coming back Sunday after Sunday? I invite you to think on these things and so that together, with pride and joy, we can shout, “WE ARE FBC!”

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Donna Owusu-Ansah

You Are God’s Field

I recently became a plant mom. I have twelve plants in my home—fiddle leaf figs, monsteras, and more—that I have been tending. I also became a novice gardener. Last year I planted herbs and vegetables. I’m hoping that we will feast on cucumbers, peppers, spinach, tomatoes, and cantaloupe this year.

God has used my house plants and garden to teach me vital lessons about church ministry. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that everything grows at its own rate. I started my tomatoes, cucumbers, mint, and cilantro in window boxes at the same time. The cucumbers and tomatoes grew at the same pace, the mint grew wild and wonderfully, however the cilantro wasn’t growing. I checked the window boxes daily and saw the same thing. At one point I was ready to toss the cilantro. There were a few days where I didn’t check the seedlings. When I finally went to tend to them, the cilantro had sprouted and was taller than the others. 

This reminds of the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth… For we are God’s coworkers, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.” Family, if each of us continues to do what we are called to do, worship, pray, study the Bible, evangelize, and share our testimony, I have no doubt that God will continue to grow First Baptist Church spiritually and exponentially!

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Donna Owusu-Ansah

You and All This People

First Baptist Church Family, today marks a shift into an intentional thematic focus for the remainder of 2023: Moving Forward Together. God impressed this theme on my heart after I received confirmation of the call to be your Pastor. God’s voice was clear. God has an incredible future ahead for First Baptist and will use this church to do great and mighty works for the cause of Christ, however we must be prepared and willing to MOVE.  This is not any kind of movement, rather it is communal and aimed in a particular direction. 

Our theme comes from the first chapter of the book of Joshua where Joshua assumes leadership after the death of Moses. In this critical time in the life of Israel, God says to Joshua, “Now proceed to cross the Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the Israelites.”

Proceed. God is not calling us to keep time by marching in place. God is also not calling us to move backwards. God is calling us to move forward. You and all this people. This forward movement is predicated on unity, oneness, and interdependence in the church. So for the remainder of this year, our preaching and teaching will steer us in this direction, Moving Forward Together, the direction that God has for this great church! We are FBC and we are Moving Forward Together!

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Donna Owusu-Ansah

New Things Are Coming

Jesus crucified was an unparalleled ending. Its violent haunt so great it prompted atmospheric shifts, where the sun ceased shining, and left in its wake the anguished souls of those who followed Jesus and put their hope in him. But, as Craig D. Lounsbrough wrote, “The size of an ending will never offset the inevitability of a beginning.” Whereas Good Friday marks a significant ending, the God we serve does not stop at endings, but has a beginning for every ending experienced. Resurrection Sunday—with its rolled away stone, empty tomb, and Risen Christ—is about the inevitability of beginnings!

As we reflect on beginnings, we thank God for the new beginnings in our spiritual lives, inaugurated by the Resurrection of Jesus the Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Church at Corinth, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!” And as the old spiritual goes, “I looked at my hands and they looked new. I looked at my feet and they did, too!” In Christ, newness is within and around us.

However, I would invite us to extend our gaze. In this season, I sense that in Christ, new things are coming into being at the First Baptist Church of Englewood!  If we look closely,  we will see new opportunities, new possibilities, new disciples, new initiatives, new energy, new life, and new hope! So as we celebrate Resurrection Sunday and move into Eastertide, I invite us to embrace God’s new thing at FBC!

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Donna Owusu-Ansah

Passion Week Begins

Today is Palm Sunday which marks the beginning of Passion Week. Today we commemorate Jesus’ triumphal, yet humble, entry into Jerusalem. Today we join the ancient multitudes by waving our palm branches and raising our voices with shouts of, “Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord’ Hosanna in the highest!” Today is a day of celebration!

But how quickly celebration shifts to crucifixion. Before the reverb of “Hosanna” had gone silent, our Lord was betrayed, arrested, denied, and tried on unfounded charges. Victorious shouts of “Hosanna” became violent cries of “Crucify Him” and Jesus was mocked, severely beaten, and nailed to a wooden cross—a Roman method of capital punishment for the vilest of criminals. The scene brings to mind Billie Holiday’s lyrics, “Southern trees bear strange fruit. Blood on the leaves and blood at the root. Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze. Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

While I know that we see life with a Post-Resurrection view, I would invite all of us to sit in the strangeness of the crucifixion—Jesus’ broken and bruised body. Allow yourself to feel the weight of Friday—the confusion, despair, and hopelessness of the moment—with the recognition that no one took Jesus’ life, but that all He endured, He did for you and for me.

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Donna Owusu-Ansah

Let Us Pray Together

The Apostle Paul writes to the church at Ephesus, “I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason, I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers… ” Here Paul provides a poignant paradigm for pastoral prayer.

First Baptist Family, from the day I received the pastoral vacancy announcement to now, I have remembered you in my prayers. God placed a burden for you in my heart, so I prayed for you individually, I prayed for this ministry, I prayed for God to keep you through COVID-19, and I prayed for the surrounding community. I took seriously Paul’s witness that pastoral leaders pray for their church

When we survey the book of Acts, we learn that Paul prayed for the church and with the church. Prayer is a foundational spiritual discipline for God’s people. In prayer, we connect and commune with God. Through prayer, we are guided, inspired, and strengthened by God; Incredible things happen when God’s people pray together.

Since we are looking for God to do incredible things, we need your presence in prayer every Wednesday from 6:30pm to 7:15pm. We are excited to resume in-person prayer starting on Wednesday, April 12, 2023. For those unable to attend in-person, we will continue to use the dial-in service. Whether you join in person or by phone, we trust that God will hear our prayers and grant us grace.

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Donna Owusu-Ansah

To Our Youth Leaders…

My first meaningful introduction to church was as a fourteen-year-old girl; My best friend at the time, Courtney, invited me to attend youth group at her church— the Bethesda Baptist Church of New Rochelle, NY—where Rev. Dr. Allen Paul Weaver, Jr was (and is still) the Senior Pastor. I loved going to youth group. Yes, we learned about Jesus and studied the Bible, but what I loved most was the embodiment of God’s love and joy. Our youth leaders were committed saints who loved God and loved young people. They created an atmosphere where we could be ourselves, laugh heartily, play games, and enjoy each other’s company as we grew in our faith. Soon, I was attending and participating in Sunday morning worship, Tuesday choir rehearsal, bus trips to youth workshops at Baptist association meetings, and other special services and programs. Through youth ministry, I was being shaped into a leader. I was young, but my presence was valued, my gifts were developed, and my voice was being heard. 

For this reason, young people, as your Pastor, I am committed to valuing your unique and authentic presence, creating an atmosphere where your gifts are developed and utilized for the advancement of the Kingdom of God, and listening to your voices because there is so much that you can teach me (and us) about the world and how we can share Christ and minister effectively to your generation. Thank you for leading us in worship, and being leaders in your schools, communities, and this world!

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Donna Owusu-Ansah

Moving Forward Together

Last Sunday was incredible! God showed up and showed out in worship! If that wasn't enough, you all showed up and showed out in your reception of our family! From the sign as we pulled up to the church, to your words of welcome and hugs, to the fellowship meal, and so much more, we felt welcomed. Thank you First Baptist Family!

Today marks the beginning of Daylight Savings time, when we Spring Forward, moving our clocks ahead an hour to take advantage of the daylight. As much as we enjoy the longer days-especially leaving work while the sun is still shining-if we are honest, the transition takes time and a toll on our routines. It is fitting that Daylight Savings time aligns with the beginning of our journey together. Where our clocks are springing forward, I hear God calling us as a body of believers to "Move Forward Together" so we can take full advantage of the daylight because, as John 9:4 recounts, "the night is coming when no one can work." To that end, on Resurrection morning, we will begin a sermon series, "Moving Forward Together" to begin thinking about the transitions in the ways we do ministry. And just like watching a sunset at 8:00pm on a June evening, it will be better than good, because God's divine hand will guide us every step of the way.

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Donna Owusu-Ansah

Let Us Rejoice and Be Glad In It!

Psalm 118:24 says, "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Today-March 5, 2023-is the day that the Lord ordained for Rev. Donna Owusu-Ansah and the First Baptist Church of Englewood to begin our journey together as Pastor and Congregation. I must confess that I am delighted, glad, and elated so much so that I plan to rejoice, praise, and clap my hands as a response to what God has done and will do in our midst. I pray that you will join me in high praise for what God is doing TODAY!

While gladness is the order of the day, some of you may be nervous about the pronunciation of our last name. The surname Owusu-Ansah is of Ghanaian origin. If you pronounce it like an English word you've never seen before, I guarantee you'll get it. If that doesn't work, you could be like my mom. In the weeks prior to getting married, she walked around rehearsing our name using a flashcard with the phonetic pronunciation written OH-WOO-SUE AHN-SAH, perfecting it before we walked down the aisle. If that doesn't work, feel free to call me "Pastor O" or "Pastor Donna" and know that above all, I appreciate every time you try.

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Donna Owusu-Ansah

To God be the Glory!

To God be the glory for the great things God has done! First Baptist Church Family, we are over the moon excited that God has joined us together as Pastor and Congregation! I am inspired by the depth and breadth of FBC's ministry through almost 130 years and I am invigorated by the Holy Spirit and expecting God to do great things in and through our church and community as we move forward together in ministry. Special thanks to Sis. Reeves and the Search Committee, Deacon Addison and the Diaconate, Rev. Ponton, Sis. Roland and the Transition Team, and Minister Barbara Backous for all of their efforts in getting us here and settled in the church and community at large. Joseph, Afia, Adjoa and I are looking forward to meeting and getting to know each of you in the coming weeks. Don't be surprised If I ask to take a picture. #Iloveagoodselfie #wearefbc #socialmediaministry

I am grateful to God for the leadership of FB's Interim Pastors Rev. Dorian H. Schenck and Rev. Kevin Jones through pastoral transition and a global pandemic. May God bless them richly for the ministry they provided to FBC.

In Christ's Love,

Pastor Donna Owusu-Ansah