THE WINDOW A publication of First Presbyterian Church Hendersonville, TN July 2017

Transcription

1 THE WINDOW A publication of First Presbyterian Church Hendersonville, TN July 2017 Dear Friends, Eugene Neil of Austin, Texas, decided to rob a pizza restaurant. He wore his motorcycle helmet to conceal his identity. It seemed like a good idea. It had a full face visor with darkened plastic. Nobody would recognize him. Nobody did, but his name was printed on the front of the helmet and he was soon arrested. The old saying was right, "Your sin will find you." There are all kinds of blundered burglary stories. Bank thieves locked themselves into a bank vault in West Covina, California and had to be rescued by the police. And in Kansas, three boys in a stolen car stopped to ask directions. They thought it was a convenience store; but it was a police station. Everyone has done things wrong and wish they could have do-overs. Fights at school, gossiping about a friend, falsely accusing our children (one of my regulars), lying to make ourselves look better, and the list goes on. We got away with some things but other things caught up with us. The person writing Psalm 25 also realizes that sin cannot be hidden from God. The psalmist claims the past and present sins are his greatest concern. Do not remember my sins, Pardon my guilt, Forgive all my sins, and he summarizes his naughty list with Do not let me be put to shame. The reason for this prayer and the reason for this person s pain and suffering are not enemies or hardships, but his own sinfulness. Just like us, the writer has nowhere to run except to God. The Psalm is saturated with statements of trust and hope. O Lord, I lift my soul, O my God, I trust in you, You are the God of my salvation, Guard my life and deliver me. How often do we turn to God with our naughty lists and ask for help with broken hearts? It always seems easier to recognize and point out other people s sins. This Psalm slows us down and calls us to look in the mirror. Take the time to look inside your own heart and see what God sees. Just like the Eugene Neil who robbed the pizza restaurant with his name on the helmet, God sees all our sins and already knows our name. The psalmist mentions four times in this prayer for God to teach him. He wants to know God s truth and God s ways. What does he want to learn about God? He already knows God s perspective on sin. He has preached Fire and brimstone to himself! He wants to learn more about God s grace. Yes, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. He asks God to look at his life, his sin, with compassion and mercy. He asks God to forget his sins, but remember him in love (verses 6-7). His prayer can be our prayer, Do not remember the sins of my youth; according to your steadfast love remember me. As you recognize and confess your sins, remember God s grace in Jesus Christ. Jesus left his throne in heaven to become a human, explaining and demonstrating God s love in a way we can understand. Jesus Christ offers each one of us God s powerful, forgiving, live-changing love. When your sins find you, pray with the psalmist that God will see you through the lens of love. Love and Prayers,

2 Founded in 1983, HomeSafe of Sumner County is a non-profit in the State of Tennessee serving those who are survivors of domestic violence regardless of race, gender, age, religion or ethnic origin. They provide shelter, peer-counseling, legal and social advocacy, referrals and support during one of the more difficult times of domestic violence victims lives. HomeSafe also provides education about healthy and unhealthy relationships to middle and high school students in our county. At this time we need volunteers; volunteer groups to do some maintenance work at the shelter, and individual volunteers to help with receiving, inventorying and organizing donations as well as answering the office phones during the week. The families that we serve can always use paper products, laundry detergent, dish detergent, and cleaning supplies. The shelter needs twin size sheets and pillow cases, bath towels and blankets, as well as pillows. Because it is summer time, children are out of school. It would be great to have fun activity passes for them, like movie passes, McDonalds gift cards, summer camp tuition, Monkey Joe s, Adventure Science Center, paint classes, or anything you think kids would love! YOUTH WORK DAY AT NACOME Ellen, Kaitlynn, Ryan, and Lucas worked at NaCoMe the first day out of school. Pastor Michael took them down for a day-work project. They dug ditches for railroad ties for the archery range and slingshot range. They also weeded the slingshot range, pulling weeds, removing sticks, and digging up small stumps. A wonderful taco lunch was provided. After lunch, we hiked out to a sleeping bag camping sight and added a roofing structure for tarps in case of rain. Fortunately, we had a little time to test the archery and slingshot range. Our high school youth worked hard with dedication and commitment. The Missions Committee would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for supporting the Samaritan Center s Food Bank during the month of May. We were able to restock their shelves with many items that they were in urgent need of. These food items support families in need in our community! Thank you to everyone who attended our graduate reception on May 28th honoring Gracie Davis and Ally Estepp. We are very proud of these young ladies and wish them the best as they head off to college. Gracie will be attending Western Kentucky University and Ally Estepp is headed to the University of Tennessee Knoxville.

3 NaCoMe All Church Family Retreat September 8th 10th If spending some time relaxing, playing, reflecting, and rejuvenating in a beautiful, tranquil outdoor setting with your family sounds like a good way to spend a weekend, keep reading. If you think it sounds nice to sit on a porch, rocking and reading; walk a peaceful trail; eat terrific food that you don t have to cook, clean up after or do anything other than show up to eat; enjoy playing games with your children and friends; watch your children play in a stream; rest while your children enjoy crafts or activities led by others; laugh and fellowship with good friends; sing by a campfire while sharing s mores; study or worship in an outdoor sanctuary you can make lifetime memories for and traditions with your family by joining your church family for this fun-filled weekend. The weekend of September 8-10, is the date of this year s NaCoMe Family Retreat! And we hope as many as possible can join! For those who may not be familiar with it, NaCoMe is a 600+ acre wooded site near Centerville, TN, approximately 90 miles from the church. NaCoMe Camp & Conference Center was once the home of Beaver Dam Springs Resort. The resort was purchased in 1939 by the Synod of the Presbyterian Church and is jointlyowned today by the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee and the Mid-South Presbytery. It is used as a conference center, campground, and meeting place by many churches and other groups. Located on the Western Highland Rim, NaCoMe is home to deep hard wood forests, natural streams and lakes, a host of wildflowers, and of course many wildlife critters. Learn more at The modern cabins are the result of the love and stewardship of churches in our Presbytery. Each cabin has four bedrooms, each bedroom with a private bathroom. Each bedroom consists of 3-4 bunk style beds--one double sized bottom bunk bed and the remaining beds are twins. Families may share a bedroom, or reserve an entire room just for your family. There is a gathering room in the center of each cabin and a porch with rocking chairs! You must make reservations to attend. More details about the retreat, costs and reservation details will be in the Sunday bulletin each week and someone will be available after church to assist you with questions and making your reservations. You can plan to arrive Friday night and stay one or two nights, or Saturday morning and stay one night, or even come just for the day on Saturday or for worship on Sunday. It is your choice! We ll depart NaCoMe after worship and lunch on Sunday. We do need volunteers! We need someone to coordinate the share a pot of soup dinner on Friday night; someone to coordinate activities for the children; and musicians! Please call Kathy Ebbert at or Kathy Campbell at and let us know how you d like to help out! Plan to attend! Make memories for your family, get to know your church family better, relax in a beautiful setting and worship with us on Sunday. Please join us! Ladies Sunday Evening Prayer Group: A little known tradition of the First Presbyterian Church is the Ladies Sunday Evening Prayer Group. This group was founded by Ruth Segers (affectionately known as Ruthie) over two decades ago. We would like to extend an invitation to any of you that would like to join us for this special time. The meetings are the first and third Sunday Evenings at 4:00 p.m. and last approximately 1 ½ hours.

4 Discipleship and Education Ministry Unit Moderators: Billy Dye and Karen Baylor Discipleship is the lifelong pursuit of our faith in Christ, carried out by following His example, studying scripture, joining in fellowship, and spreading His Word. The Discipleship and Education ministry strives to provide our congregation, at every age, with opportunities to learn, share, and grow. Some of the programs of this ministry include: Sunday During the summer you are encouraged to join our multigenerational class to explore topics of faith as a family. In the fall, we will begin new classes for all age groups, children through adults. Vacation Bible This summer s VBS, to be held July 10-14, will have a super hero theme and offer an exciting opportunity for fun and learning. Nursery - Childcare for preschool ages is provided every Sunday morning during the Sunday school and worship hours. Older children are encouraged to attend a Sunday school class and join their families in worship. Donuts (or is it doughnuts? Either way, they re GOOD!) Join us every Sunday morning shortly before Sunday school for fellowship, coffee, and fresh Shipley s. Young at Heart - We have many church-wide outings and events to bring together our children, youth, and, adults for fellowship. We will attend a Nashville Sounds game on Sunday, July 30, at 6:35 pm vs. the Salt Lake Bees. Tickets are $15 each (and we may get a group discount if a large number of us go). If you haven t visited the new ballpark yet, you won t want to miss this! Please RSVP to billy.dye@me.com. Cub Scout and Boy Scout Emblems of Faith Our boys involved in scouting complete six- to eight-week studies, developed by the Presbyterian Church and recognized by the Boy Scouts of America, designed to strengthen their faith. Our scouts have completed the God and Me, God and Family, and God and Church programs, with more to be offered in future years. Graduate Reception To recognize their achievements, a reception is held at the end of every school year to celebrate our members graduating from high school and college. NaCoMe The church awards partial scholarships to go to camp at NaCoMe each summer. Five of our kids attended this year. None of these programs can work without you. Please join us as both a participant and a volunteer in serving Christ through these ministries. Sew Many Blessings will be meeting on Friday, July 14th at 9:30 a.m. in Room 204. They are always looking for new people to join their group. If you are interested, please contact Sandi Martin at The church office will be closed on Tuesday, July 4th in observance of Independence Day!

5 Week Two NaCoMe Summer Camp Participants Included: Sasha Dishman, Ariana Brew, and Isaiah Brew Pastor Michael asked each of them to tell something they learned at camp and their favorite thing at camp. Here are their answers: Sasha s favorite thing was meeting new friends and doing all the activities with them. She learned about Micah 6:8, about justice, mercy, and humility. Ariana s favorite thing was playing GaGa ball and it came down to her and a counselor named Coach and she beat him! She learned that justice means to treat people fairly, mercy is giving people what they don t deserve, and walking humbly with God means you will how kindness to people. Isaiah s favorite thing at camp was playing games. He learned about Micah 6:8 what God requires of us. STAY TUNED NEXT MONTH WE WILL HIGHLIGHT WEEK 3 AT NACOME SUMMER CAMP WITH BEN & JOSEPH DYE!

6 SERMON SCHEDULE July 2 (Communion) What does sanctification mean? Romans 6:12-23 Three-week series on Mental Illness July 9 (VBS week) Struggling with the flesh, Romans 7:15-25 July 16 Learning to accept ourselves, Romans 8:1-11 July 23 God s knows me and loves me anyway, Psalm 139 July 30 In life and death I belong to God, Romans 8:26-39 SESSION HIGHLIGHTS Approved minutes from May meeting Approved Yearout/Delong wedding on 12/9/17 Guest pastor, Leonard Markham Approved Ministry Unit reports Heard a verbal report from Discipleship and Education Discussed Budget and Finance recommendations for investing reserve funds with The Presbyterian Foundation The FPC Handbell Choir again attended the Hand Bell Festival hosted by the Tennessee Baptist Convention (TBC) earlier this year. We met at Victory Baptist Church in Mt. Juliet, TN on February 24-25, 2017, along with several other bell choirs from churches around the Middle Tennessee area. This year, we were excited to find out that we weren t the only Presbyterian church represented! The festival was led by clinician Dan Arterburn this year, who was serving as the Interim Worship/Music Ministry Specialist and is the Hand Bell Specialist for the TBC. We already shared several of the wonderful pieces that we learned in worship back here at FPC. The selections included: Crown Him Lord of All!, Toccata on King s Weston, The Gift of Grace, and Breath of Heaven. We hope to share Breath of Heaven with the congregation during the Advent season later this year. As always, the bell choir is very appreciative of the support FPC gives financially for us to attend this festival every year. We really learn a lot about how to be better individual ringers and a better choir over all. Personally, I learn a lot about being a better director every year as well. I am also very thankful to all of the bell ringers who put in so much hard work in preparation for the festival each year and for our worship services here at FPC. They bless me every week with the beautiful music they provide. As a choir, we hope you always find our music worshipful! Please let us know if you are interested in learning more about or even joining the bell choir. You can speak to any of the ringers or me (Laurie Dishman) at L_dishman@yahoo.com. We will resume our rehearsals after church on Sundays at the beginning of August and would love to have you join us! Financial Update May 2017 Revenue $ 107, Expenses $ 141, Shortfall $ -33, Lucas Bish Terry Harris 2 - Janice Yearout 3 - Karen Carrier Spencer Huddleston Margaret Ewald Ben McCrary 7 - Becca Young Pendergrast 9 - Virginia Duffett Gary Head 11 - Richard Roche 12 - Ellen Getter Brooklyn Young 15 - Elizabeth Ball 16 - Jaxon Settle Luke Batey 18 - Drew Getter 23 - Susan Ferguson 24 - Joyce Smitha 25 - Jim Lind 27 - Helen Hunter 29 - Sandi Martin 30 - Kenny Gugenheim Jerry Gugenheim 31 - John Allen

7 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Meeting 1:00 pm Blood 7:30 pm NA in MH Drive Meeting in MH 10:00 am Worship- Communion 10:00 am Women s Book Group Independence Day Office Closed :00 am Room in the Inn 9:00 am V.B.S. 9:00 am V.B.S. 9:00 am V.B.S. 9:00 am V.B.S. 9:00 am V.B.S. 10:00 am Worship 11:00 am Cong. Care Meeting 6:30 pm Book Club 7:00 pm Budget & Finance Meeting Meeting in MH 9:30 am Sew Many Blessings 7:30 pm NA :00 am Worship 5:30 pm Membership Meeting 7:00 pm Session Meeting 10:30 am Sunshine Ministry Meeting in MH Window Deadline 7:30 pm NA Presbytery Meeting East Brentwood Presbyterian Church :00 am Worship Meeting in MH 7:30 pm NA :00 am Worship 6:35 pm Young at Heart Sounds Baseball Outing Four Cents a Meal Offering Vacation-Linda

8 CHURCH STAFF Michael Davis, Pastor Dr. Anthony Williams, Organist/Choir Director Linda Agee, Church Administrator Chuck Adamson, Building Maintenance Amy Bleich, Nursery Attendant Carolyn McCoy, P.D.S. Director First Presbyterian Church 172 W. Main St. Hendersonville, TN (615) ; Fax (615) Website: linda@hendersonvillefpc.org Sunday 9:00 a.m. Worship Service 10:00 a.m. HENDERSONVILLE COMMUNITY BLOOD DRIVE When: Thursday, July 6th Where: FPC Martin Hall Time: 1:00 6:00 p.m. Visit redcrossblood.org and enter: HendersonvilleCM to schedule an appointment or call DISCOVER YOUR STRENGTH IN GOD! VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL: Children ages 3-12 are invited to soar with us at Hero Central Vacation Bible! This superhero adventure experience includes music that will energize your ears, interactive Bible fun, super science, cool crafts, hands-on mission hero work, delicious snacks, great games, and more. The fun runs from July 10 th through July 14 th from 9:00 11:30 a.m. Bring a friend or two!