Calendar
SUNDAY, JULY 25
Summer FUN-Day Evenings | Final Sunday! 5- 7 p.m. Duke Park Picnic Shelter (106 West Knox Street, Durham). Pack a picnic dinner and blanket and head to Duke Park for fellowship, fun and blessing. This evening, Wen Reagan will lead us in a hymn sing!
The Great Escape
Our middle schoolers and leaders appreciate prayer as they attend The Great Escape from July 22-26. Please pray for safety, fun, and growth in relationships with God and each other.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 1
Cancer Support Group | Sunday, August 1, 10 a.m. | Zoom link
Gather for prayer, education and sharing our lives. The group meets monthly over Zoom on the first Sunday of the month at 10 a.m. This is for all cancer survivors, caregivers, and loved ones. Contact: Karen Allen.
Announcements
Blacknall’s Sunday Worship Updates
Some changes have been made regarding how COVID precautions affect Sanctuary Worship Services beginning today, July 25. Please view Blacknall’s COVID policy and Sanctuary Worship FAQ pages to read the full update on how precautions will differ in our two services.
Download a directory
A PDF of Blacknall’s directory is now available on the CCB home page. It’s a great time to match up names and faces after being apart! Need to update your profile picture or other details? Here’s some tips.
Interim Pastor Search
Blacknall is actively seeking an interim pastor to work with the Session, staff, Transition Team (congregation, and other stakeholders through the transition process and to develop a mission study. View Blacknall’s MIF for more details and share the word with qualified candidates. Interested candidates should forward their PIF or resume to: interimpastorsearch@blacknall.org. Contact Stephanie Wheatley, Pastoral Transition Team chair, with questions.
Summer Nursery Volunteers | Sign up
We are inviting fully vaccinated adults and teens in our congregation to partner with the Nursery Ministry in providing childcare during our Sunday 8:30 am worship service.
Ushers needed during both services. | Sign up to receive more details on various ways to serve during worship.
The Music Corner | News and updates about musical life at Blacknall.
New Album from Wen Reagan - Pre-Order Now
Wen Reagan, our director of music and worship, has launched a kickstarter campaign to fund the production of his new album, Come Pilgrim Rest, through pre-orders. If you enjoy our worship music on Sunday mornings and you’d like to support Wen’s music, consider pre-ordering the album here.
Check out our new Blacknall Spotify playlist!
We now have a Spotify playlist for music we’re singing on Sunday mornings at Blacknall. Check it out if you want to listen to the new songs we’re singing or learn more about that song you loved singing on Sunday!
Devotional Resource - Compline: Evening Liturgies for Anxious Souls
Last year our worship and music director Wen Reagan designed and produced an evening prayer service as a podcast for the Center for Worship and the Arts at Samford University. Designed to be listened to on headphones for ten minutes as you wind down for bed, Compline: Evening Liturgies for Anxious Souls sets the tradition of evening prayer (Compline) in a calming and contemplative soundscape. Wen produced several seasons of the podcast so that it covers the entire liturgical year. Check it out on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or the podcast website.
Community
The Center for Christianity and Scholarship is hiring! CCS’ Events and Communications Manager advances CCS’s mission by planning event logistics and driving marketing efforts to maximize the impact of the various CCS events throughout the year. Full job description and application details here.
Prayer
Ministry Partners
National—We pray for Cullen Rodgers-Gates, working with the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). He is completing his first year as Director of Development and Membership. His work involves interacting with NAE board members, individual supporters and member institutions. Developing these relationships has been a highlight of this past year for him. He writes, “Another joy has been writing a case statement for the NAE which is now being used as a central document to guide messaging throughout the organization. Lastly, I've been able to write four different grants, three of which have been awarded, and a fourth is pending. These grants include advocacy for strengthening the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit to help lower income working families, comprehensive immigration reform, and establishing a Center for Evangelical Thought and Engagement (still pending).” Please pray for:
Focus and strong time management to juggle the many different aspects of his role and to prioritize the most critical tasks appropriately.
Effective communication and relational connections with supporters, especially as they begin sharing their case statement with a select group of supporters.
Joy and that “the love of Jesus would be palpable” to all those with whom he is building relationships.
Wisdom and creativity in growing the NAE's membership, particularly to include more communities of color.
International—We pray for Blacknall missionaries Rollin and Wendy Grams, who, in May, wrote, “At present, we are working on how personally to make some changes, but it will mean that Rollin will increase his work with the Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life (while continuing with other mission work). Over the next year, Rollin’s role with OCRPL will be clarified. For the present, though, Rollin is going to go on paid sabbatical, starting July 1st. …. to research and write a book … with a Church historian colleague … about the responses (good and bad!) of God’s people to the universal practice of slavery from ancient times to the present. Wendy has continued in her tutoring for children, involvement in Bible study and women’s groups, and in prayer ministry for our church and churches in the city of Charleston.” Prayer requests: (1) comfort and encouragement for partners in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, whose school had to shut down because of an outbreak of the Delta strand of Covid; (2) daughter-in-law Kasey, who is struggling with an allergic reaction; (3) thanksgiving that grandson Elisha, who has a rare food allergy, has taken a turn for the better in handling more foods; (4) health and energy for Rollin to use his sabbatical from Gordon-Conwell Seminary well: doing research and writing a book on slavery, developing and teaching courses for Ridley Institute, and assisting in the PhD program of the Oxford Center for Religion and Life.
Durham— We pray for Blacknall’s Evangelism Team that seeks to encourage all that we do at Blacknall to have a component of sharing the good news of the gospel with our neighbors. Pray for Ali Shoenfelt and David Dunderdale who give leadership to this team, for new members to be added. Pray for existing programs like Women’s Bible Study, our youth groups, local mission projects, church picnics, etc. to include an invitation to our neighbors to join us. Pray that each one of us would be praying for our own neighbors and looking for opportunities to share with them how good it is to know Jesus. Pray that we would have multiple adult baptisms at Blacknall with stories of how God brought them to faith in Christ through our witness.
Griefs
We pray for Ken & Peggy Kernodle on the death of Ken’s brother, Alfred on June 11th.
We pray for Matt and Sabrina Clawson (and Riley and Gunner) on the death of Matt’s grandmother, Irene Nugara, on July 6.
We pray for Karen Allen and Cheryl Koenig on the death of their mother, Arlys Allen on July 9.
We pray for Rick Every on the one year anniversary of Mimi’s death on Tuesday.
We pray for those who have lost loved ones to the coronavirus.
Joys
We celebrate with Pamela and Madison Perry on the birth of their 6th child and 5th son, Warren Walker Perry, on July 21. The Perrys’ Meal Calendar
We celebrate with Sophia Chen and Jesse Sun on Sophia’s receiving a student visa and being able to attend nursing school while Jesse continue working on his PhD.
Concerns
We pray for Brian Farley, and his wife, Joanne, as Brian recovers from neck surgery.
We pray for Margaret Scearce with a recent diagnosis of breast cancer.
World
We pray for the people of Lebanon (and former Blacknallite, Manal El Tayar living there) during this economic crisis in that country.
We continue to pray for the nation of Haiti and for a cessation of violence and for the establishment of a just and compassionate governing authority.
Life Together
We pray for our Middle Schoolers at The Great Escape this weekend and for safe travels back to Durham on Monday. We pray for the Holy Spirit to be powerfully present and for Tanya Kronstad and the other leaders (Brad & Jamie Turnage, Sarah Solie, Ellen VanTongeren, Dan Kronstad, and Zeke Epps).
We pray for search committees for a new Director of Communication (chair, Lucy Cate) and a Choir Director (chair, Wen Reagan).
We pray for our Transition Team as they begin to interview candidates for the Interim Pastor position.
We pray for a deepening heart for sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with our neighbors. We pray for creativity, imagination, and love for our neighbors as we seek to make Jesus known.