​Crown Point in Strafford, NH  is looking for  a pianist or other musician. They are hoping to find one for the long term; however, if some one could fill in for a little while, that would also be a lot of help.  For more information, please contact Doug Carlson at ​pastordougc@yahoo.com.

Greetings and Happy New Year from Camp Sentinel!

Sentinel Summer Camp registration is now open and capacity in cabins will be limited.  Be sure to sign up today with a $100 deposit to reserve a space.  Register HERE!

“As they stepped off the map into uncharted territory, Meriwether Lewis discovered that what was in front of him was nothing like what was behind him, and that what had brought him to this point in the journey would take him no farther.  Lewis faced a daunting decision: What would he do now? Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery were looking for a water route, but now had run out of water. How do you canoe over mountains?”   Canoeing the Mountains by Tod Bolsinger

This past year has been uncharted territory. What is in front of us is nothing like what was behind us, yet the mission at Camp Sentinel continues strong. This past summer, we were open for day and family camping in the fresh air of Sentinel’s 629 acres.  In the fall, Sentinel Lodge opened for Student Care, a place of guided learning for local school children while parents are at work. Sentinel Student Care continues in 2021. Sentinel offers a place for personal and spiritual growth and reaches out to meet the needs of the local community. This is how we stay missional by applying God's unchanging Truth in love to a changing world.

Our 2021 theme is “Steadfast”. Firm in belief. Determined. Firmly fixed in place. Immovable.  

"The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23

Camp provides a place where we can take unhurried moments to focus on the steadfast love of our unchanging God. At camp, we are reminded of how immovable God is by spending time in the quiet, gazing at the bright stars at night. Our faith deepens as we are reminded that the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases…great is Thy faithfulness. 

Thank you for being a mission partner. For more information and updates about Sentinel, please click here.

Hope to see you soon on the mountaintop,

Kevin Van Brunt “Pk”
Executive Director, Camp Sentinel

The purpose of Camp Sentinel is to create a welcoming environment for Christian relationship building and spiritual renewal. Within the stillness of God’s creation and through the guidance of the staff, people are moved from discovery into authentic relationships with others and with Jesus Christ.

29 Sentinel Lodge Road, Center Tuftonboro, NH 03816
campsentinel.org
603.539.4839

Kimo Baker will be serving as the Lead Pastor at The Bridge Community Church in Milford, NH.

Kimo Baker grew up in the loving home of Jim and Sandra Baker who were missionaries for Open Doors with his brother Andrew the first years of his life. Growing up in a home with missionaries as parents, he received a great understanding of the importance of the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the world. After high school, Kimo received a scholarship to play baseball for a college in Los Angeles, but the Lord had other plans for his life. Two weeks before the baseball season was to start, he injured his shoulder, preventing him from playing baseball and catapulting him into full-time ministry, of which he has been since 1996.

In 2000 he met his wife Kristin who was attending a Christian performing arts school in Pasadena, California. That year he also received the call from the Lord to enter into pastoral ministry. In July of 2001 Kimo and Kristin were married in Laconia, New Hampshire, and in November of 2001 made their first move from California to New Hampshire where Kimo grew a great love for New England. In 2003 the Lord gifted Kimo and Kristin with their daughter Kayla who was born in Concord, New Hampshire, and in 2008 the Lord gifted the Bakers again with their son Keone who was born in Arcadia, California. In 2012 Kimo and Kristin moved back to New England, and during that time Kimo finished his Master's degree in pastoral ministry. In 2013 he became the pastor of Nextgen NH, a restart church in Northwood, New Hampshire that was a part of the ABC VNH.

Kristin has been blessed with the amazing gift of teaching, writing, and evangelism making the Baker team a double threat to the enemy. Her passion for the Lord, her training she has received, and her ability to present the Gospel clearly has made her a sought after speaker in New England

The Bakers have been in Cape Cod since 2015 and are excited to get back to New Hampshire to continue to do the work of which they have been called. The Bakers have a great love to reach all people with compassion through soul care, through the preaching of the Gospel in the Word, and through partnering with the local community to meet the needs of those who are hurting and lost.

During the fall of 2019 the governing board of IFL voted to call Ron has their new director.  The board then requested that Ron become a member of the region staff, and be accountable to the region executive minister. After further discussion, it was decided that Ron would serve as the Associate Executive Minister of Leadership Development and Discipleship, which would include being the director of the new LifeTree School of Ministry. This was voted in the affirmative (unanimously) by ABCVNH’s trustee at their November 2019 meeting.  

Two events delayed the promotion of Ron’s new role and the new LifeTree School of Ministry.  The self-evident issue was the arrival of COVID.  The second was Ron’s retirement from pastoral ministry was delayed. Consequently, entering 2021, with Ron retired from the Bridge Community Church of Milford, NH, yet remaining an adjunct professor in the pastoral ministry department at Gordon-Conwell, it is now time to re-introduce Ron and the LifeTree School of Ministry. Ron is actively recruiting students for this new program.  Despite COVID, we offered a well attended course in church renewal taught by Ron at the First Baptist Church of Haverhill. This was a new opportunity to partner with the ABC of Massachusetts and Gordon-Conwell. This was the first time three entities: ABCVNH, TABCOM, and GCTS, had a cooperated class. This success encourages us for the continued development of the program.

As Ron now has more time, he will continue offering groups for new pastors and hopes to start a new pastors group in Vermont. He will be facilitating groups for region pastors to explore new ways of doing ministry. Ron is also available for church consultation on church renewal, which he has done in the past and for general pulpit supply.  Ron will be also be available to visit churches to explain the LifeTree School of Ministy. 
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If any pastor or church would like to contact Ron, please email him at ron.bouthillette@abcvnh.org or call him at 603-769-1810. He can also be reached via the region office.  

Hymon epieikes gnostoheto pasin, ho kyrios engys 

“Let your gentleness be known to all. The Lord is near” Philippians 4:5 

I have been thinking and praying a lot about how do I as a Christian, a member of Christ’s body, and a leader within that body, navigate what looks to be an unpredictable, tumultuous chapter in history. I  keep going back, examining by own character, and asking Christ that His presence would form my character as the means of navigating the future. I read the New Testament letters and see the issues facing the early church. I read both church history and contemporary writers. All this reading causes me to lean into the Anabaptist side of my Baptist thought. 

I write this morning after witnessing the events of yesterday, January 6, in the nation’s capital. One short verse settled into a grieving heart: Philippians 4:5. As a prisoner of the state, Paul writes both a thank you note and plea for peace to the church at Philippi. The Spirit chooses the word “epieikes,” meaning gentleness, but also meaning reasonableness, moderation, fairness, fortitude, and mildness. Paul plainly addresses Christian character that is meant to be known or apparent (gnostoheto) to all people (pasin). This epieikes Paul speaks of reflects the presence of Christ and maturing Christian character as reflecting Christ. It really sounds so simple and so difficult. We as individuals and Christ’s body are meant to have a radically different character in this world of evils. As followers of Christ, in  confidence we can be gentle, reasonable, and good, because in the next short sentence we read “God is near.” Because God is near, we can have confidence, even peace, in allowing ourselves as individuals and Christ’s Body to be “epieikes” to all. This counter-culturally Holy Spirit formed character is part of our timeless foundation, or compass, that directs our future. 

For maybe a decade now, I have worried, knowing I shouldn’t worry, that too often in our current history, the Christian “voice” devolves into being just another angry voice in a pluralistic sea of angry voices, no different from the myriad of angry, even raging, voices around us. And this witness of Christian character, “epieikes” is lost. Somehow rather than being a counter-culture, we assimilate into a prevailing culture, and Christians become undistinguishable in a culture of chaos, anger, injustice, and immorality. But I hear Christ saying you can be “gentle”, be really different, because I am near. You can hold this current context lightly and faithfully, because I (meaning Christ) have “overcome the world.” 

I worry when I hear many Christians speak about political things. My worries run across the political spectrum, so I offer no partisan observation, but observe that Christians spanning different political ideologies, often end up using similar theocratic language to describe our nation. Although a nation state can be moral and just and work for the common good, reflecting the character of the Kingdom, it  will never be the Kingdom that stands beyond all time and history, encompassing all who kneel at Christ's throne.  

Maybe when we confuse the two, nation and Kingdom, our Christian character is compromised or eclipsed or takes flight. We possibly mistake that engaging in the bad, and even in the good, is salvation itself. Rather than doing good as reflecting the reign of Christ, we believe political ends in and of themselves are salvific rather than a potential reflection of the Christ we know; the Savior we desire to make apparent via our whole character to a bent and broken world. 

“Let your gentleness be known to all.” But how??? Because God is near. 

In Jesus name,  
Dale