On Saturday, November 16 at 6 p.m. in the sanctuary, we will be celebrating a Thanksgiving Night. We will be giving thanks to God for all the great things God has done in our congregation this past year. We recognize it has been a difficult year, but God has blessed us and provided the need and support we needed this past year. The preacher of the night will be Rev. Shakespeare Osorio, Associated Regional Minister, ABCMC and Pastor of the Iglesia Bautista Central.

On Sunday, November 17 at 9:30 a.m. we will have our Celebration Service with a Homecoming. We are inviting everyone who has been member or part of our Hispanic congregation to be present to celebrate what God is doing. It would be a time of rejoicing, praise and celebration. Rev. F. Salvador Orellana, director of Intercultural Ministries; Latino Ministries; and Rebuilding, Restoring, Renewing Puerto Rico for ABHMS, will be bringing the Word of God for the occasion.

At 11 am, we will be cutting our birthday cake with the whole church (Karen, Japanese and English congregations) and at 11:30 a.m. will be having our celebration lunch. It will be a time of blessing and rejoicing.

Be part of the great things that God is doing in our Hispanic congregation and in North Church Baptist Church.

Armando Márquez is a catechist who worked alongside Monsignor Oscar Romero in the base communities of El Salvador. He will be visiting NSBC to offer personal reflections on his relationship with Msgr. Romero and the church's liberating work in El Salvador on Sunday, November 3 at 1:00 pm in Nambu Chapel (after Unity Sunday worship at 10:30 am).  ​

How does Chicago get the funding to pay for all of the services it provides for city residents? Who has a say in how the money is spent? On Sunday, October 13th, join us in the NSBC library for a discussion with ONE Northside about how the budget works and how we can actively participate in the campaign for an equitable city budget that funds mental health clinics, affordable housing, and jobs programs by raising new revenue from corporations and the city’s wealthiest residents.

On Saturday, October 19, ONE Northside will also be hosting a Town Hall with our alderpeople.  Attend this Town Hall to learn about the City budget and make your voice heard! ONE Northside supports a more equitable city budget that addresses the needs of all Chicagoans, especially those who are increasingly locked out of the process. Should the budget address low-income housing and mental health? Who should have the greatest tax burden? Come learn about and help shape the way your money is spent. The Town Hall is from 2:00-4:00 pm at Alternatives Youth Center, 4370 N. Sheridan. 

ONE Northside is a mixed-income, multi-ethnic, intergenerational organization, of which NSBC is a member, that unites our diverse communities. We build collective power to eliminate injustice through bold and innovative community organizing. We accomplish this through developing grassroots leaders and acting together to effect change.  

In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was God. (John 1:1)

What is a word? Vibration. Music. Sound. Creation. In getting in touch with our own voice and the voices of others, we connect to the Divine. What would happen if we let ourselves fully experience the resonance in our bodies when we sing? How does collective, creative sounding affect our connection to our intuition? How does improvisation relate to our capacity for deep listening? What does it mean to be truly open to the moment?

These are some of the questions we will explore together over a period of an hour and a half. You will be led through grounding meditations using your own voice to center and connect you to what is rather than what you think should be. We will then begin to explore our connection to one another as inherently creative beings, using guided vocal improvisation and sounding exercises in a group.

This workshop is NOT only for trained singers! Everyone who can make sound with their throat is invited. Singing is everyone’s birthright, so don’t be shy! This is more about connecting to your own voice and exploring creativity and community than it is to create some kind of “polished sound” or “performance.” Try to wear clothes you feel comfortable lying down in and moving around in. The more at ease we can feel, the better it will be for really letting go into the exercises. And bring with you an open and curious mind

This class is free and open to everyone! It will meet on Saturdays from 10:30 am-12:00 pm in Nambu Chapel. It will start on Saturday, October 19 and run for 8 weeks, excluding Saturday, November 2.

The class will be led by Julia Rahm, who has been the Alto Section Leader with NSBC since spring of 2018.  Julia is an initiate of the Inayati Sufi Order, an interfaith spiritual community of seekers with a rich tradition of using music to tune the heart and help people discover peace and harmony with themselves and others. She has a Master of Music in Voice Performance from Roosevelt University and a Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College in Theater, Music and French. She combines all her interests—music, the voice, meditation and mindfulness, improvisation and creativity— into developing this holistic, exploratory voice practice.

Want to sing more? Check out Hearing in Color Workshop Rehearsals!

Every year, the neighborhood of Lakewood Balmoral has a yard sale the Saturday after Labor Day (September 7). The church will provide hospitality (water and restrooms) and food stands featuring traditional cuisines from our different congregations: pupusas from El Salvador, tacos from Mexico, noodles and tea from Burma/Thailand.

This year, we will again be celebrating the talents of our family, friends, and neighbors by hosting a Crafts & Vendor Fair. Here is a list of this year's vendors:
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Karen Dreasler, handmade pottery smallwares 
Marcia Gohmann, crocheted slippers, towels and dolls 
Dr. Peggy Griffin, self-published vegan cookbook and reflections of the civil rights movement 
Valerie Jackson-Bateman, handmade copper jewelry 
Jo Gertzen, quilted table runners & wall quilts 
Jasmine Perry, handmade beaded & semi-precious stone jewelry 
Dawn Noldan, homemade preserves and handmade fabric totebags 
Dorothy Loving, handmade silver and gold beaded jewelry 
Anita Bonilla, handcrafted gift boxes

If you are a crafter or artisan and would be interested in participating, there is still time! Please review the information in the document below, fill out the included form, and send it to dlnoldan@gmail.com.

By Rev. Kathryn Ray

Grief is a communal process.  

This thought echoed louder and louder through my mind and heart as we toured the museum and memorials in Trujillo, Colombia.  A father and son who had lost family members in the government-sponsored massacre that took place in that community from 1986-1994 guided our small delegation from the Global Baptist Peace Conference. They literally led us along the path this community had taken in search of healing and justice in the face of the unimaginable.  With each step we took, each different monument we visited, I saw new visions of the transformational, defiant power of a community that comes together to grieve, to tell their story, and to refuse to stop telling it. ​

On Saturday, May 18, NSBC celebrated Kate Whitmore as our Daily Disciple at the American Baptist Churches of Metro Chicago Disciples' Dinner. On June 3, we gathered once more to celebrate her life and legacy, after she passed away on May 28.

For the award presentation, this is what we said about Kate:

In a church with four diverse congregations, relatively few members are able to impact the entire church in such a way that causes them to be spoken of with great fondness in four different languages.  In the span of just a few years, Kate Whitmore has become one of those people.   It is small wonder, as she is the kind of person who, in between chemotherapy treatments, once rented a moving van and drove a struggling mother and child from the church community to Missouri so they could start over in a safe environment, supported by family members.
 
As director of the handbell choir, she supported and encouraged ringers from their first time picking up bells to the hundredth time, bringing joyful new music to our services.   As church treasurer, Kate worked tirelessly to make finances more transparent. She reached out across congregational lines to insure that financial information was being effectively communicated in all our different languages.  Finally, she worked diligently to advocate for equitable compensation for all members of the pastoral team.

As a member of the pastoral relations committee, Kate improved the quality of dialogue between church leaders and pastors, helping the whole church articulate a clearer vision of good pastoral leadership.  She empowered clergy and laity alike to ask for what they needed from the church.  In all circumstances, she never failed to advocate for justice and fairness. 
 
In her faithful and tireless service, Kate always brings a kind word of wisdom, a courageous prophetic call, and a razor-sharp wit. She has made NSBC a more loving and just reflection of the kingdom of God, and the church will never be the same.

Well done, good and faithful servant.  Rest in joy.

To learn more about Kate Whitmore and the marvelous life she led, read her obituary here.

NSBC member Paw Say Ku was awarded the Jitsuo Morikawa Award for Relation Christian Faith to Contemporary Life at Saturday's Regional Meeting of the American Baptist Churches of Metro Chicago (ABCMC). This award "celebrates a member of the ABCMC family who breaks open new paths of the Christian life in our time."

The Region writes:
Paw Say Ku works as an activist and a caregiver, advocating for human rights especially for refugee and immigrant communities and for community mental health... She works to empower people to connect and heal together by storytelling, recently contributing some of her funnier stories of life in refugee camps to an experimental improv comedy show aimed at crossing cultural boundaries and educating people about refugee experience. As a leader at North Shore Baptist Church... She helps church members deepen their capacity to hear the stories of others and tell their own. For her work of faith supporting immigrants and refugees succeed in their new home and helping breach all the walls of division that we might become one, we confer on Paw Say Ku the Jitsuo Morikawa Award for Relating Christian Faith to Contemporary Life.

Congratulations to Paw Say Ku, and keep fighting the good fight!