The Salt Shaker. Getting to Know PPC. Sunday, August 14. You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world. Jesus (Matthew 5:13-14)

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1 The Salt Shaker You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world. Jesus (Matthew 5:13-14) A U G U S T OUR MISSION Parkville Presbyterian Church is a community of believers following Jesus Christ by sharing God s Word, serving and welcoming all. I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E : Capital Campaign Update Four Weeks in Corinth 3 Pastoral Visit 4 Parkville Days General Assembly Little Dresses for Africa Fuller Center Sunday, August 14 One worship service at 10:30am at English Landing Park with picnic Pot Luck Worship in the Park Theme - Caring for Nature Shall we gather at the river? On Sunday, August 14th our worship will be held out in God s sanctuary... or at least the portion we call English Landing Park. Together, in this space God created and proclaimed as good, we will give thanks to God in song and prayer and learn how God calls us to partner with him in the care for the earth: Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. (Genesis 1) A few things to keep in mind in preparing for this special day of worship, fellowship and feast: The church service begins at 10:30, so please plan to gather together about 10:15. There will be both BLANKET SEATING and CHAIR SEATING areas provided. Please bring your blanket and/or chair of choice, or sit on some of the metal folding chairs the church will be providing. Transportation help is available! Simply gather at the church s Main Street entrance around 10. Leave your car here and let us drive you right up to park for worship. (see below if you can be a transportation volunteer) For the feast to follow, the church is providing Fried chicken, drinks, plates and silverware. Please bring a salad, side dish or dessert to share. Invite others! Reach out to old friends of Parkville Presbyterian and bring along new ones who may have never joined us for worship. The park will be beautiful, the worship will be causal and very guest friendly, and the feast a glorious Family picnic around the biggest table in the world, God's table... right here in Parkville. Transportation help is needed for Worship in the Park on August 14th. That Sunday we will hold a single worship service at English Landing Park at 10:30 (weather permitting, of course), with a picnic afterward. Congregational News August Calendar 10 Why transportation help? To assist those for whom walking from the parking lots at the park to the reserved shelters is a challenge. What do we need: It would be great to have 3 folks ready in the church parking lot by 10:10. We will also want to assist those folks needing a ride back to their cars following the service and/or the picnic. Getting to Know PPC Sat. Aug. 13, 9-11:30am Get acquainted, ask the questions you have about PPC. Child-care available on request. Notify Pastor Steve.

2 Transforming Lives An update and Celebration from the Capital Campaign Committee Brothers and sisters, An important and exciting milestone in the life of our church has been achieved. As you recall, Pastor Steve announced last Sunday that we are having a congregational meeting and celebration on Aug. 7 related to our mortgage from the building addition that happened 10 years ago. The meeting will ask the congregation to approve new loan terms that make our monthly payments significantly lower. The good news is that these lowered monthly payments will not be associated a longer loan life! How is this possible? This is the result of three events that have occurred over the last several months. First, the holder of our loan, the Church Development Corporation (CDC), is getting out of the loan business and needs to transfer our loan to the Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program (PILP). In order to help make this happen, they have offered incentives for us to rapidly reduce the principal. Their initial incentive is $200,000 in debt forgiveness if we can raise $400,000 which, thanks be to God, we have already done! $240,000 came from selling the lease on a cell phone tower Verizon built here in 2013, while the rest came from the incredible generosity of nine giving families in the church. Last week, this money was sent to PILP, and as a result, our loan principal was reduced to approximately $2.030 million dollars, down from about $2.630 million just a few short weeks ago. So how does this affect our monthly payment and give us additional operating funds? As a result of the principal now being closer to $2 million than $2.630 million, PILP can refinance this amount at the same initial interest rate and over only 17 years as opposed to the nearly 20 years we had remaining on our loan before this large pay down. The new payment terms will result in a monthly savings of approximately $2,700 or about $32,400 annually. Assuming our annual pledges toward our operating budget do not decrease, this provides extra money each year for additional ministries. What can we do with nearly $35,000 extra available to our budget? This is an exciting opportunity and options are currently being discussed by the Session and our ministry teams. As we move toward the fall, you will be hearing about more opportunities and needs based on yet further levels of forgiveness from CDC and PILP that are being offered. In fact, to take full advantage of the opportunities ahead, a Capital Campaign committee has been formed and is planning a pledge drive that will kick off in October. Moving toward the formal kick-off of the Capital Campaign, let us pause and celebrate our good fortune, the incredible generosity of so many within our congregation, and the promise of things yet to come in the life of our church. We are continually reminded of how generous this congregation has always been over many generations. We thank God for your presence, your energy, and the sturdy foundation you have laid. Come and celebrate with us on the 7 th of August, and look forward to more information on the Capital Campaign later this fall. Blessings from an excited Capital Campaign Committee! T H E S A L T S H A K E R

3 August Food Pantry Needs Thank you for all you do to bless our neighbors! Place shared items in the grocery cart outside the Sanctuary. Special needs at this time are listed below. Flour Ramen noodles Rice Saltine crackers Single pack toothbrushes Instant potatoes Feminine hygiene products Items are welcome throughout the month! Earbuds for Back to School Fair P AGE 3 With funds received over the last two weeks we were able to purchase 15 more earbuds today, in addition to 6 sets which were purchased by others. Currently we have 206 sets of earbuds; our goal is so we are 44 short of our goal. We can accept donations and will continue to purchase earbuds until the end of the day on August 3 - and then the Back to School Fair will be the following day, Thursday - August 4. Thank you for your consideration and support of this vital program for local school-age children! Four Weeks in Corinth... Book a summer Sunday get-away to Greece with this 4-week class beginning Aug. 7! Trip highlights include a visit to the ruins of ancient Corinth, engagement with the religion and culture of the city, and most importantly a chance to excavate the text of Paul s first letter to the Corinthians. Bring your favorite bible because we ll have to dig through a lot of history and tradition to get to our theological treasures. But don t worry about the weather. It should be just fine in our classroom this time of year. The trip cost is unbelievably low! Tour Guide: John Brentlinger.

4 Pastoral Visit In this month s Salt Shaker, you ll hear about an exciting moment in the life of the church: from the beginning of April until the end of July, we were blessed to raise $600,000 to draw down the principle of our mortgage. Of that amount, $200,000 came in the form of a matching grant from our lender, and this fall, we ll be launching a capital campaign to take advantage of an additional matching grant. You ll learn more details about all this through our congregational meeting on August 7 th, future announcements in worship and letters to the congregation, and future issues of the Salt Shaker. But I mention these few details here to introduce another exciting, important conversation: a conversation about vision. On May 15 th, during our Pentecost worship, I asked our young folks to answer Scripture s call to see visions, and our slightly older folks to dream dreams (Acts 2:17), by writing down a vision you were having for the future of the congregation. This month, I d like to share some of those visions with you, and talk about the future to which God is calling PPC. In your responses, many of you focused on themes of family and community, lifting up our church s strong sense of togetherness, love for one another, and commitment to serving others. Building on those strengths, we see visions of extending the love and warmth of the church to others; two of us saw a church that is all-inclusive, as Jesus was and still is; others saw opportunities for involvement and presence, in and with the wider community. Several folks felt a call to serve the homeless, reduce homelessness, and get more involved at Cherith Brook. One member saw a vision of a new ministry reaching out to wayward youth. Others used the word family to talk about growth for the church, with one member seeing a vision like a big family, and of course finding new T H E S A L T S H A K E R family members, which goes along with another member s vision of strong youth groups. Others dreamed dreams of inclusive growth that brings healing and change, and more outreach to the community that involves more members. word, and table. Still others saw visions involving worship, including a desire for unified worship services bringing the 8:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. services together, dreams of informal, nontraditional, non-sunday worship activities, and a yearning to continue making worship beautiful and meaningful in music, prayer, Each of your visions was powerful and meaningful, and it was a joy for me to read them all. What follows here is how I made sense of what I heard and read. 1) I see a congregation that has a strong sense of family and community. We are families of all shapes and sizes, serving families of all shapes and sizes, coming together to be God s family a group of people who know each other well and serve God s world as best we can. 2) I see how some of these specific visions are already becoming a reality. When it comes to worship, we will have joint services on August 14 th at English Landing Park, on September 25 th as guest preacher Mike Graves teaches us about communion, and on Christmas Day, December 25 th. I would also like to offer joint worship services on the fifth Sundays of the month in In addition, efforts are being made to create new, less formal, more contemporary worship offerings, sometime other than Sunday morning. Our own Glenda Craig has stepped forward to lead the music in these services, and I m looking forward to opportunities to be more experimental in crafting an offering for God. 3) Also, while some of us feel busy and overburdened, others yearn for more opportunities to serve the community, especially the homeless. This is being Cont. next page

5 Pastoral Visit, cont. lived out in our commitment to Hillcrest Transitional Housing, Family Promise, and the Fuller Center, but we are also expanding these opportunities, as the Risk -Taking Mission team continues its efforts to start a new community meal. Other opportunities for service might include additional partnership with Cherith Brook, which is always looking for people and groups to help with weekday breakfasts, Thursday evening meals, Saturday workdays, and more. In addition, our church can partner with a more urban church, like Grandview Park Presbyterian, whose La Paz House outreach to wayward youth we are already supporting through our Pentecost offering. 4) I see that the youth movement is going strong at PPC! As you may know, I have been meeting mostly-weekly with a group of upper elementary and middle school students since the beginning of I initially called them a protoyouth group, but after a year and a half of praying together, playing together, and working together (raising over $1,500 for the work of the Fuller Center Global Builders in Nepal, for example), they are now a full-fledged Middle School Youth Group. In addition, there are now enough high schoolers in the church s orbit to begin building a High School Youth Group, thanks to new families joining our community and the specific outreach of our choral internship program. Also, so many of our third graders were intrigued by the proto-youth group that they want to join in, too, and I m considering starting a monthly offering just for them. 5) Finally, I see a church that s growing in faith, vitality, excitement, and new people. One of the things you ll see this fall is the outline of a plan for growth the session and I have been working on. One of its central components is a small group curriculum called Unbinding the Gospel, with groups launching at the beginning of Help become the blueprint that will become the structure of the church P A G E 5 Unbinding the Gospel was designed for churches like ours, based on research about what helps churches like ours grow, and it s borne significant results in congregations that have committed to living it out. Of course, God is the ultimate determiner of whether a church can spread the Word to new people, but these small groups can enhance our strong sense of togetherness, prepare us to share our stories and reach out to others in powerful ways, and help us do what we need to do to prepare for new people to come with all their ideas, desires, warts, and wonders. When everything is taken together, what we have is a vision of a vital church, with passionate and diverse offerings in worship, that is committed to growing closer to one another, reaching out to its community even more, and growing in faith and vitality. I m pleased to say that we are already taking significant steps toward living into this vision, and that the best is yet to come. In fact, if you d like to be involved in bringing this vision to life, consider serving on the Risk-Taking Mission team or another ministry team. Help form the blueprints that will become the structure of the church. Or volunteer as a Sunday School teacher or a youth worker be one of the people whose simple presence and involvement makes a difference in the lives of kids. And finally, get involved in Unbinding the Gospel. This fall, I ll be leading a small group through the curriculum so that they, in turn, can lead others. I will invite some particular people to be a part of this gathering, but if you re already feeling the call to be one of them, let me know. Finally, you can help make all this happen by continuing to give financially, supporting the annual budget of the church in 2016 and 2017, and shaping its future by giving to the upcoming capital campaign. You know, one of our Pentecost visioners simply wrote the words debt free on their piece of paper. This year, we will take important steps toward making that vision and all of these visions a reality.

6 P AGE 6 Parkville Days Friday, August 19 Sunday, August 21, 2016 English Landing Park on the Missouri River One of downtown Parkville s biggest festivals, the annual Parkville Days offers great family entertainment and fun in historic downtown Parkville. This year s event offers something for everyone! Browse and enjoy dozens of art, craft, and food and specialty booths. The Evans Midland Empire Carnival is here all weekend starting Friday at 6 pm. Admission is free and guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs to enjoy a relaxing day at English Landing Park. Everyone is encouraged to use the free parking at Park University and English Landing Center. T HE SA LT SHAK ER

7 2016 General Assembly Commissioner s Report Submitted by Teresa Clark, Ruling Elder from Parkville Presbyterian Church P A G E 7 The 2016 PCUSA General Assembly was an exhilarating, exhausting and introspective adventure in faith, discernment and worship. From the beginning of each day and continuing throughout the day, we celebrated God s presence with prayer, worship, sermons, Communion and music. Both in committee and in plenary session, a lot of our work embraced how we, as a church, love our neighbor, welcome strangers, and celebrate God s presence outside of the church walls through clarifying, identifying and proclaiming the church s position on a broad spectrum of environmental, immigration, racial justice and social justice issues. In the first part of the week, I served on the Peacemaking and International Issues Committee (excluding the Middle East). As examples, my committee supported and the PCUSA plenary then passed an overture affirming the ministry of providing sanctuary for all refugees and immigrants threatened with deportation, including advocacy to end family detention and stop the criminalization of immigrants and an overture celebrating the continued ecclesial relationship between PCUSA and the Cuban Presbyterian Church, and supporting certain policies concerning our country s financial, governmental, military and immigration relationship with Cuba. The most celebrated decision of the week was final approval of the Belhar Confession, a statement of unity, justice, and reconciliation which will be added to our Book of Confessions. It seemed a defining moment of grace and inclusion. It was hard work, requiring much preparation beforehand and long hours every day. There was extensive debate and discussion so that we could make thoughtful, fully informed, God-driven decisions. Not surprisingly, everyone did not agree with every decision. There was a strong debate over an overture seeking to limit Communion to only those who have been baptized. The final vote rejected this limitation and continued our current practice of sharing Communion with those who seek the presence of Jesus Christ. It was an extraordinary and humbling opportunity to participate in General Assembly and to share this week with so many persons who have devoted a lifetime in service to our Lord and to the Presbyterian church. July 29 Final Friday Concert Children who participated in VBS shared songs and enthusiasm in worship.

8 P AGE Little Dresses for Africa 8 We re not just sending dresses; we re sending hope! The Parkville Pres Little Dresses for Africa group will meet Friday, August 5, from 1:00 to 5:00 PM in Whipple Hall, where it is very, very cool :) Please come when you can and leave when you must, or drop by to pick up a packet of materials to work on at home. All skill sets are needed and welcome at this work session. Currently we need volunteers to select fabric to make dresses and shorts cut out patterns (rotary cutters are available) make preassembled kits for home sewing do basic machine sewing. We have two donated sewing machines for our use if you would rather not tote your own machine around. If you would like to help by sewing at home, there are packets of fabric and supplies available to make dresses and shorts. Or, you can select materials from our stash of donated fabric to personalize homemade garments. Thank you for your interest in this important ministry. Karen Murray T HE SA LT SHAK ER

9 Cool Lemonade on the Lawn on Hot June Sundays! P A G E 9 You re Invited! Attend our 7th Annual BBQ Benefit and Celebration! Friday, August 26, Join us for Pulled Pork, BBQ Ribs, Chicken, Potato Salad, Cole Slaw and BBQ Beans. Drinks are included; there will also be an Open Bar. Friday, August 26, :00 pm 8:30 pm Gladstone Community Center 6901 N. Holmes, Gladstone, MO Our next Volunteer Work Day is Saturday, August 13 If you can join us (and no particular skills are required) please sign up at the kiosk in the Narthex or contact Graham Houston at graham@fullercenterkc.org

10 With our Family of Faith... Liberty Jayne Ritter, daughter of Leah and Brandan, was recently baptized as was Blair Walker. P A G E 10 Thank you all for your generous response to my SOS recently. Y'all are fantastic! It s especially impressive as we have so many ministries going on presently, with VBS, Family Promise, Back-to-School Fair and Park U. With your help, Linda Tillinghast and I managed to pack 55 generously-filled welcome kits for this semester s new international students at Park University. The photo at right shows how generous you all are... that shopping cart is laden with just the items received in the last two days of collection! Again, many thanks for your assistance; you are what makes this ministry work. Special thanks to Peggy for acting as our collector on Tuesday and Wednesday and to Jeni for her smart shopping tip on the gift bags! PPC Family, I want to express my gratitude for the prayers, messages, cards and flowers during my Dad s cancer treatment and following his death. I am fortunate and find comfort to be surrounded by such a caring community of faith. Gary Blanck Sympathy is extended to Greg Smith and family at the recent death of his father, after an extended illness. PPC Community dinner Thanks to everyone who filled out the survey regarding the Community Dinner initiative that your Risk-Taking Mission Team has been considering. After reviewing the input given on the survey, we feel starting out slow is the best way to go. Most felt holding a community dinner once a quarter would be a good starting point as we test the waters. Our first dinner will be held sometime this fall and we are looking some dates that might work best. Many people thought this was a good way to meet and greet the community while serving their needs as well. We had many say they would support the dinners by donations and/or volunteering their time to help make and serve the dinner. Look for communication coming in the near future about the fall dinner and how you can help. Have you been wondering how you might contribute to Fuller Center though your skill set includes a glue gun rather than a hammer? We have an opportunity to do so by creating gift baskets which would be auctioned off at the Fuller Center fundraiser BBQ on Friday Aug 26. Each of the supporting churches to this ministry has been asked to contribute five centerpieces (gift baskets) which would then be included in a silent auction where the minimum bid would be $15. If you would like to contribute in this way, please contact Graham Houston, Linda Tillinghast or Jill Sikkema for ideas and further details. VBS just couldn t happen without a faithful flotilla of teachers and adult and older youth helpers as well as parental support! Thank you all for making VBS a meaningful experience for our children! T H E S A L T S H A K E R

11 Parkville Presbyterian Church Au gust 2016 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 2 ELECTION :00 p.m. Pastor 4 5 1:00 p.m. Little Dresses for Africa. 6:00 p.m. Bible Study, Room 307 6:00 p.m. Cub Scouts 205/206/208 7:00 p.m. Boy Scouts 6:30 p.m. Cubs/rooms 205/206/208/215 7:00 p.m. Chancel Choir Rehearsal 7:00 p.m. Right Side of the Tracks/Room 205/ :30 a.m. Worship followed by Celebration Reception 9:45 a.m. Church School 11:00 a.m. Worship followed by Congregational Meeting & Celebration Reception 4:00 p.m. Upper Elementary & Youth group 8 1:00 p.m. Pastor 6:00 p.m. Bible Study, Room 307 6:00 p.m. Cub Scouts 205/206/208 7:00 p.m. Boy Scouts Whipple Hall 9 2:00 p.m. SPEAC Board Meeting, Room 307 6:30 p.m. Cubs/rooms 205/206/208/ :00 p.m. Chancel Choir Rehearsal 11 Ministry Night 2:00 p.m. Quilting Group, Room 307 7:00 p.m. Ministry Team Meetings 7:00 p.m. Right Side of the Tracks/Room :00-11:30 a.m. Getting to Know PPC, Room 307 PPC Volunteer Day Fuller Center Build 14 9:00 a.m. Adult Church School Class, Room :30a.m. Worship in the Park 4:00 p.m. Upper Elementary & Youth 15 1:00 p.m. Pastor 6:00 p.m. Bible Study, Room 307 6:00 p.m. Cub Scouts 205/206/208 6:30 p.m Capital Campaign Meeting 7:00 p.m. Boy Scouts 16 6:30 p.m. Cub Scout Recruitment night 7:00 p.m. Board of Deacons, Room :00 p.m. Chancel Choir Rehearsal 18 7:00 p.m. Right Side of the Tracks/Room 205/ Parkville Days 20 9:00 a.m. Worship Team 9:00 a.m. Stewards Training, Youth Room 10:00 a.m. Girl Scouts 10:00 a.m. Parkville Days Parade 21 8:30 a.m. Worship 9:45 a.m. Church School 11:00 a.m. Worship 22 1:00 p.m. Pastor 6:00 p.m. Bible Study, Room :00 p.m. Upper Elementary & Youth group 6:00 p.m. Cub Scouts 205/206/208 7:00 p.m. Boy Scouts 6:30 p.m. Cubs/rooms 205/206/208/215 7:00 p.m. Chancel Choir Rehearsal 7:00 p.m. Right Side of the Tracks/Room 205/208 7:00 p.m. Final Friday Community Concert 28 Newsletter Deadline, 12:00 noon :30 a.m. Worship 9:45 a.m. Church School 11:00 a.m. Worship 3:30 p.m. N/A Meeting, Room 208 4:00 p.m. Upper Elementary & Youth group 6:00 p.m. Bible Study, Room 307 6:00 p.m. Cub Scouts 205/206/208 7:00 p.m. Boy Scouts Whipple Hall 6:30 p.m. Cub Pack Meeting/Whipple Hall 7:00 p.m. Chancel Choir Rehearsal

12 Parkville Presbyterian Church 819 Main Street Parkville, MO Office: Fax: PPC has a Facebook page! Like us at Parkville Presbyterian Church Forward the Salt Shaker to a Friend Sunday Worship 8:30 & 11:00 a.m. Church School: 9:45 a.m. Wednesday Morning Prayers: 7:30 a.m. Church Office: Church Fax: church@parkvillepresby.org Salt Shaker published monthly by Parkville Presbyterian Church The Rev. Steven Andrews, Pastor Paul Erickson, Director of Music and Arts & Organist Peggy Pape, Office Manager News Deadline is NOON Last Sunday of Month T H E S A L T S H A K E R