We are a church of rich heritage and warm hospitality which follows Christ into worship shares with Christ in fellowship and serves Christ both within and beyond our doors
Our Core Values are faith in God and Jesus Christ love for neighbors both near and far and a burning desire to bring hope, wholeness and joy to all peoples in all stations of life
From the Pastor's Desk. . .From the Pastor’s Desk Crank it up again! Our Wednesday night program begins again on February 1 and will run each Wednesday until May 2, 2012. The semester will run 13 weeks, except for April 11 which is spring break (the Wednesday after Easter). Each Wednesday evening begins at 5:00 pm with our children’s choirs and then dinner at 5:30 until 6:30 pm. We averaged 65 to 70 people each week and the dinners, although catered, were consistently good. We will continue to have them catered until we settle on a new Kitchen Coordinator (cost will be between $5 and $6 for adults, $3.50-$4.00 for children under 12, depending on the caterer). Our Fellowship Committee hosts each Wednesday night with the preparation and the cleanup of each meal and are always looking for additional volunteers to work a week in the future. (If you are willing to assist, contact committee chair Tammy Black to be scheduled for a particular week.) Our course offerings will be expanding this semester. First let me share with you the new teachers. Mike Sears will lead young adults in a course study every other week on the theme Faith in Film. They will be exploring different faith issues illustrated in a variety of movies. During those weeks we plan to have a class for elementary students as we provided last fall around the curriculum called One Room School House. There will also be a nursery for the children of these parents who will be attending this course with Mike. During the weeks that Mike is not working with the Young Adults, he will be meeting with the middle school youth (who will meet the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays at the Tron House). An exciting new offering will be available to adults this semester by our own artist, Teri Bastian. She will teach a hands-on course that encourages participants to try their own hands at creativity, entitled “Drawing, Sketching, and Journaling. ” For additional information about Teri’s class, please see her article in this edition of the newsletter. Back by popular demand this semester, our own Jim Cockerham will continue his study on the book of Acts and then explore a different New Testament book, this time the Gospel of Mark. Biblical scholars widely recognize that the Gospel of Mark was the first gospel written down and has served as a source for parts of Luke and Matthew. His course last fall was well attended, and Jim is widely recognized as being a solid biblical scholar and a strong teacher. Kevin Frederick: I will be teaching a brand new course this semester called, Men in the Mirror, Modeling our Masculinity on Jesus Christ. It is a course that I have written this past year for men and is designed to help us sift through the many conflicting cultural messages regarding masculinity and how we express our masculinity within the context of our private and public relationships. This course will identify both positive and negative messages that our society has taught us regarding how we express masculinity, and each week we will look to Jesus Christ and many examples of his exemplary relational skills expressed throughout the gospels. I want to encourage every man of all ages to consider being part of this course. I also encourage our men to invite other men from outside our church community to participate in this course. A draft of this course is being reviewed by the General Assembly Christian Education office and has also been identified as very useful with HIV/Aids work in Africa, as well as Masculinity work in the US and Hispanic cultures around the world. I will know within the next few months if this is funded for publication and our class this winter/spring will help me modify it for publication. As you can see we have several great options to build on and our hopes we will continue to build a vibrant program for all ages for two semesters a year. - Kevin Frederick Site for Christians of All Ages I recently came across a new resource for devotional life that I want to share with everyone, I have been using it and have found it very helpful and meaningful and it also sends a daily reminder to my computer to ask if I have read the devotional for the day. It is available free at d365.org and is put out by mainline Christian denominations including the Presbyterians with meditative music in the background, if you would like to have it, or you can silence the music. It offers a thematic thought for the day, followed by a reading of the Bible, a reflection and prayer and a benediction- and is very well done. How nice to know that my computer is going to remind me daily to stay with this discipline when so often I will likely forget and miss a few days without the reminder. - Kevin Frederick |
