Central Baptist Church
115 Elm Street
Westfield, MA 01085
Phone: 413-568-0429
Email: Click Here
Pastor; Reverend Linda Shaw,
M. Div., M.Ed.
Sunday Schedule:
9:15 A.M. Children's Choir Practice
9:30 A.M. Sunday School
for ages 2 to adult
10:45 A.M. Worship Service
Wednesday Schedule:
11:00 A.M. Bible Study Fellowship
7:00 P.M. Vocal Choir
7:30 P.M. AA Meeting
Thursday Schedule:
10:00 A.M. W.I.T.S Meeting
For more detailed events check our
Calendar & Newsletter!
Handicap accessible
more info
Transporation available
more info
Coffee Hour more info
Nursery Care more info
TABCOM Camping
† Youth and family
Christian summer camps
and retreat weekends.
Grotonwood
Oceanwood
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† Pastor's Autobiography
by Rev. Linda Shaw, M.Div., M.Ed.
After being laid up by surgery for a long time, I saw an
appeal for hospital volunteers in the church bulletin. I was
a deaconess at the time and I had some limited experience
in pastoral care so I applied. I don’t think I knew the
significance of responding to God’s call in such a familiar
setting again at this time, but through the encouragement
and inspiration of my pastor, it became clear that it was a
very important step. It seems God had taken away my
queasy stomach and made it possible for me to be fully present with people who were
suffering physically. This volunteer position at the hospital involved my time and my heart
more and more until the Chaplain Manager suggested that I take a unit of Clinical Pastoral
Education.
In 1997 I recognized the call to ministry in the context of the CPE experience as real. It
was as familiar, as if it were a call to become a Missionary Doctor to Paraguay, but this time
I felt it was a clear call into Interfaith Chaplaincy. Our pastor gave me a new title at the
church: Pastoral Care Assistant and I began to try to share what I had learned by
implementing a Lay Care Program in the church. I visited many beloved church members in
hospitals, nursing homes and in their own homes. These were the places where I found the
Holy Spirit to be most present for me.
I began to be disinterested in the box business when I compared it to the meaning and
fulfillment I was finding in my part time jobs as Hospital/Hospice Chaplain and in my classes
at Hartford Seminary. Jack encouraged me to follow God’s leading and to continue seeking
the Kingdom of God in this way, so I did. I found myself at a crossroad where I needed to let
go of material security and reach out for the richness of meaning, purpose and joy in serving
the Living God. This turned out to be the next step in my faith journey and in recognizing my
call to ministry. I quit the box company in 1999 without knowing what was to be next in my
life, but I had an inner peace and understanding that God was still working all things together
for good in my life. God had given me the gifts I needed to serve God’s people in chaplaincy,
but I never suspected the journey would be even more exciting than that!
Just as I transferred to Andover Newton Theological School in Boston to finish my M. Div.,
I was called to parish ministry. No one was more surprised than I, but I felt as if I had come
home the very first time I stepped over the threshold of Morningside Baptist Church. It was
only after a great deal of prayer and discernment that I recognized and answered God’s call
through the call from that church. But wait! My call was not to one church, but to two
struggling American Baptist Churches in the beautiful Berkshires!
I fell head over heels in love with a new church family who shared my theology and vision
for a healed world in God’s Kingdom. Sharing joy and sadness with them was more
meaningful than anything I could have imagined. We had an opportunity to process the
horrors of 9/11 as a family, and we knew we truly were family then. It was during this time
that I studied Theraputic Touch and Reike in an effort to integrate my theology and my
practice of ministry. I came to another place of reflection and turning toward God as I finished
my academic course and sought ordination.
The day of my ordination was the best day of my life when family and friends became one
in the celebration. The two churches I served in the Berkshires rented a bus for everyone to
go to my home church, Church in the Acres, for my ordination service and celebration.
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