First Baptist Church holds family conference
f By FELECIA P. McMlLLAN
j 'COMMUNITY CORRESPONDENT
?
!? The women's and men's min
; istries of First Baptist Church col
? laborated on sponsoring the
! church's first Family Conference
| May 28-30. The theme for the con
? Terence was "As for Me and My
' ;House, We Will Serve the Lord,"
I from Joshua 24: 15. According to
; the Rev. Wendell A. Johnson, the
; pastor, all of the church ministries
? "focus on building the body of
Christ, enabling each member, and
^equipping the entire body for
? ^holistic ministry. "
The Women's Ministry coordi
nator, Deacon Shirley F. Mani
?Igault, said, "We have to minister
' Jo families, equip them in the word
!j)f God so they can be strong."
|lAlthough this is the first confer
ence focused on the family, church
Ijnembers are already making plans
I-for the next one. "We really think
jlhe issues were timely, and many of
?Jhe sessions will be repeated,"
'?Manigault Said.
?- . Trustee Benjamin Carson, the
- Men's Ministry coordinator, wel
"tomed the audience to the First
Baptist 1999 Family Conference.
"Our hope is that you will be
=? touched by God's word, enlight
' ened by our workshops, and
' encouraged by the spirit of com
munity - all of which will nurture
;our souls for Christ," he said.
According to Manigault, the
1 bold statement of theme that
Joshua puts forth is "a bold state
ment of faith in God, born of his
' fear of God and his knowledge of
Him. Today, on the verge of a new
century and a new millennium and
' in a time when the family is under
severe attack, we too must stand
and boldly confess, 'As for me and
my house, we will serve the Lord.'"
Johnson opened his first ses
sion, titled "Family Issues - Fac
ing a New Millennium," following
the singing of the theme song
'?"The Family Prayer Song,"
recorded by singer Morris Chap
man. His workshop was very inter
active,''as he called upon various
persons in the audience to give a
definition of family. Johnson
i
focused on the different configura
tions of the family.
"When we think of family, we
must not be limited to only the
nuclear family comprised of moth
er, father and children," he said.
Johnson said the current church
must be able to meet the needs of
single parents and grandparents
who head families and other
extended family structures that
may be present in the church body.
Johnson did not pass judgment
on which configuration is best, but
he identified some of the issues all
families confront such as financial
difficulties, divorce, stress, drugs
and raising children. Serving the
Lord and studying his work can
offer guidance in facing any of
these issues, he noted.
The focus of Session II was
"Health and Wellness in the
African American Church." The
Rev. Edwin Hamilton, M.D.,
D.D., the minister of health and
wellness at Mt. Bethel Baptist
Church of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.,
conducted this workshop. He
practices general surgery and med
icine in the Ft. Lauderdale and
Pompano Beach, Fla., areas. He
has received numerous awards for
workshops on topics such as
"Spirituality and Medicine: A
Physician's/Theologian's Perspec
tive," "Faith and Medicine" and
"Breast Cancer and Prostate Can
cer."
During the convention, Hamil
ton drew a parallel between the
human body and a sacred temple.
His focus was on prostate cancer
and breast cancer, two maladies
that tend to inflict African Ameri
cans. "We should all be careful
about what we put into our bodies.
We need to stay away from red
meat or only eat it in moderation
because the fat from it causes
hypertension and other ailments,"
he said. He encouraged the listen
ers to "eat foods that come from
the earth such as leafy vegetables
and fruits." He tied this discussion
to the diet described in the book of
Deuteronomy, which corroborates
this kind of diet.
Regarding prostate cancer, he
encouraged men over 40 to add the
PCA test and the rectal exam to
their overall physicals each year.
Regarding breast cancer, he
encouraged all women over 35 to
begin getting a baseline mammo
gram and those 40 and over to get
a mammogram each year in addi
tion to a complete physical.
Hamilton also admonished
churches to work in collaboration
with the American Cancer Society
and the local health department to
have health resources to draw
upon. His slide presentation
included statistics about cancer,
and he used a video that highlight
ed women with cancer.
Another workshop that gener
ated a great deal of discussion dur
ing Session III was "Building,
Buying & Real Estate" by Clement
Little and James Allison. Little is
the general manager of East
Pointe Developers, LLC and East
Pbinte Realty Group, LLC, over
seeing the daily operations for the
company. East Pointe is owned by
partners Ernie Pitt and Tom
Trollinger. Little pointed out vari
ous developments around the city
that he has helped to build such as
the new development near Carver
Glen called Lansing Ridge, a sub
division that will consist of 41 new
homes. They held open house this
past Sunday.
Allison is the broker and owner
of Millennium Brokerage &
Investment Group. His company
? provides real estate consulting ser
vices primarily to buyers and sell
ers in the sales market in Winston
Salem and the surrounding Triad
area. He spoke about how an indi
. vidual can build credit in order to
secure a loan. He pointed out
common mistakes that home buy
ers make when they are trying to
secure a loan.
Many of them fail to make
plans about the type of home they
want to invest in and the price they
can afford. They often carry a lot
of baggage when they invest in
"high ticket items" such as cars,
living room furniture and the like
at the same time they want to buy
a home. Allison warned buyers to
wait until they have secured a loan
before they take on more debt. He
admonished buyers to build credit
options by paying their debts on
time. When a person pays bills 30
60 days late, this can work against
his or her securing a loan.
Minnie Lucas and Annie Dor
ris attended this workshop. They
both found it to be very informa
tive.
Two other workshops took
place during Session III. Rev
erends Frederick Davis and Edwin
Hamilton spoke on "Empowering
the Black Male." Davis is the pas
tor of First Calvary Baptist
Church in Durham. The discus
sion leaders noted that the empow
erment of the black male starts
with the family. The Rev. Carla
Lightfoot spoke about "Youth
Empowerment." She is the assis
tant to the pastor and youth min
ister at Moore Street Baptist
Church in Richmond, Va.
More than 90 people attended
the first annual family conference
at First Baptist Church. Minnie
Lucas, a member of the church,
said, " I really enjoyed the confer
ence. Even the worship services
were very sacred. 1 particularly
learned a lot from the health work
. shop. It was really good."
The Chronicle
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Culture Jam of 1999
Coca-Cola and the City of Winston-Salem Parks & Recreation
will present its first "Culture Jam" of 1999
SATURDAY ? ? ? 4:00 PM ? ? ? JUNE 12?
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This event is FREE and open to the public.
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All performances must be clean and participants must provide their own music.
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