Newsletter: Today is Thursday, June 1, 2017

Transcription

1 JOHN CALVIN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH Natural Bridge Road Bridgeton, MO Call Check us out at Newsletter: Today is Thursday, June 1, 2017 We offer our prayers of sympathy to Mark, Matt and Megan Miller. Janet Miller ~ May 31, 2017 We offer our prayers of sympathy to Roy & Jackie Farley. Judith Farley ~ May 28, 2017 POTLUCK AND MEETING FOR WOMEN ON JUNE 3 At Arlene Walters home: /Call the church office for Arlene s address The main dish and dessert will be provided. Pease bring a side dish or salad to share. The PW will be preparing their calendar, planning the July Retreat, the Ice Cream Social and more. Please bring your survey ideas and $25 for the retreat. PENTECOST SUNDAY, JUNE 4 This Sunday, June 4, 2017, Christians around the world will celebrate the Day of Pentecost. It s remembered as the church s birthday. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he promised that the Holy Spirit would come upon those who believed in his resurrection. Three thousand people were gathered in Jerusalem when the Spirit came upon them. To symbolize the tongues, as of fire (Acts 2:30) that came upon the people present at Pentecost, some churches display the color red on Pentecost Sunday. This Sunday marks the last sermon in the series on Crazy Love. It is also Pentecost Sunday. The Protestant Christian Church celebrates three major High Holy Days, Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. Unfortunately both Christmas and Easter have become way too commercialized; however, Pentecost remains pretty much a church day. Of the course they day represents the fulfillment of the promise made by Jesus, that even after his ascension into heaven, Jesus would send a "comforter" or power that would give us the ability to live as Christ called upon us to live. We invite all those attending worship Sunday, to wear red or yellow. The coming of that power is detailed in the Book of Acts. We believe that this same Holy Spirit is at work today in the world and in our individual lives. I have taken the last thoughts about this "Crazy Love" God has for each one of us and I have applied using the power of that Holy Spirit to help us better understand and be in love with God and others. This love allows us to be imitators of Christ. It will be busy Sunday with recognizing graduates, Holy Communion and of course recognizing June Birthdays. See you all this Sunday! ALSO THIS SUNDAY, JUNE 4 WOMEN S MOVIE DISCUSSION GROUP All women are welcome to come to the JCPC Library and participate in the discussion of Hidden Figures, the true story made into a movie of the intellectual contributions of three black women to the success of the NASA program. Each week this discussion group is taking a look at women in the Bible who may be considered hidden figures but who made important contributions. We're familiar with Sarah, Esther, Ruth and others, including the Virgin Mary, but so many others have important stories that have grounded us in our faith for centuries. On topic this week: The Shunammite Woman

2 TUESDAY, JUNE 6 COMMUNITY LAWN 7PM FEATURING: After Hours Community Band GOLDTIMERS PICNIC FRIDAY, JUNE 9 HELLEBUSCH PARK Oak Ave Bridgeton Fried chicken will be provided for everyone. Those attending are asked to please bring a salad, side dish or dessert to share. There is a signup sheet to write your name in the column of the item you will be bringing. SUMMER BIBLE STUDY Experiencing Contagious Joy Tuesdays 6:30-8:00pm In this 12-session Women of Faith study, (that we will do in 7) Experiencing Contagious Joy, you will explore what Scripture has to say about our true source of joy, giving thanks in all circumstances, and having a joy that is truly radiant. You will discover what the Bible says about joy being our strength and how we enter into joy each day. In the end, you will discover how joy is infectious, transmittable, spreadable, and catching - in a word, contagious! (foreword by Patsy Clairmont) 6/3 Corleone Johnson 6/4 Jane Jackson 6/5 Izzie Richmond 6/6 June Allen 6/7 Tracey Robinson 6/13 Ellie Barnum Derek Vogler 6/16 Aaron Wolz 6/17 Kellen Brixey 6/18 Christopher Hardy 6/22 JoAnn Fitterling 6/25 Ron Black Mark Baker 6/30 Kevin Reynolds 6PM- BBQ HOT DOGS 7PM-CONCERT Temple Christian Fellowship Old St. Charles Road BYO LAWN CHAIRS Freewill Offering taken to benefit Community Helping Ministry (CHM) CALL CHM FOR MORE INFORMATION FARMINGTON CHILDREN S HOME TOUR JUNE 16 We are scheduled to go on a tour Friday, June 16 and caravan from the church. We will leave at 9am. It is an hour and half drive to Farmington. The tour will take approximately one hour and then we will have lunch in Farmington. All those interested in going need to sign up and let us know if you would like a ride. We need to know how many will be going so we can make reservations for lunch. Please see Rosalea Vogler for more info. We will meet for 7 weeks on Tuesday evenings, from 6:30 8pm, beginning June 20 and will finish on August 15 (no meeting 7/4 or 7/25). This was a free download but to cover the cost of printing a folder/binder, the cost to each participant will be $7. Contact Lisa Schoonover, , for more information. Please signup beginning this Sunday so we know how many books need to be made. Regular or large print will be available. Please indicate preference when signing up. Examples of each will be available to help you decide. PENTECOST POWER Poet William Blake ( ), who s is described as a passionate, Pentecost kind of person, wrote this poem about the Spirit s power: Unless the eye catch fire, The God will not be seen. Unless the ear catch fire, The God will not be heard. Unless the tongue catch fire, The God will not be named. Unless the heart catch fire, The God will not be loved. Unless the mind catch fire, The God will not be known

3 RETHINKING THE CHILDREN S MESSAGE THOUGHTS FROM PASTOR JOHN In all my years of seminary training, we spent very little time on Children s Time discussions as part of worship. And quite honestly, several of my colleagues were thinking they would be at churches where children were never part of the service, spending that entire time in Sunday School and thus no need for a Children s Message. Of course we do things different here at JCPC. So in previous times, I have scrambled for some cute and often dull object lesson. To be real honest, I spent about 95% of my time on the other parts of worship and the sermon and about 5% of the time throwing something together to get past that dreaded time. I, like many other pastors bought gobs of books on Effective children s messages of which more than half did not seem to me to be that effective. But about a year ago, things started to change and I believe the Spirit was at work to transition our whole approach to Children s Sunday Ministry. We started using a standard Sunday Morning Kid s Lesson, following a four to six week theme. As part of that packet there are sometimes examples to help the children better understand the topic and I have been able to incorporate those into a children s message that serves as a prelude to the class time. Take last Sunday for example The Kid s Club is learning about the topic of why we should listen to God and the theme last week talked about why God s messages are important. I was able to pick up on that theme and with the help of Graeme Robinson and his Rubik Cube abilities and also a slide presentation about Henry Ford and his Model-T, I was able to instruct the children about listening to God. Because God created us, has experienced what we experience, God knows how to fix us. The class, during their time, was then able to expand that message even further. Now I spend three to four times longer each week on a children s message preparation and it has become lots of fun even when an example does not work quite the way I planned! So thank the Spirit for directing our whole Kid s Club Program in new directions to better serve and teach the young disciples of our church. The Bible Doctor will continue to bring important messages each week Amen. SOME DATES COMING UP ON THE JCPC CALENDAR June 13 AHCB practice, 6-10pm, Sanctuary June 20 Summer Bible Study Begins Experiencing Contagious Joy June 25 Ordination and Installation of Church Officers June 26 Session Meeting July 4 VBS Float in the Parade and Italian Ice for sale at the BMAC Fireworks July 9 VBS set up July VBS AT JCPC MAKER FUN FACTORY: Created by God; Built for a Purpose July 18 Ice Cream Social & Concert July Camp at Mound Ridge July 30 JCPC Worship with the Korean Pres. Church September 17 Church Picnic, JCPC and Korean Pres. Church

4 VBS AT JCPC From VBS Director Robin There is a volunteer list on the Signup Table with all the positions that need to be filled. This curriculum is easy to follow, so anyone that is interested in helping with children can do it. The basic requirements are that you enjoy sharing God s love and have a bit of patience with younger children! If there are any parents with teenagers that want to help, please bring them to be your assistant. Moms and Dads are welcome to help. For anyone that can only help for a few of the evenings, we need you too! Just let me know your availability. Please contact Robin: rkinquist@gmail.com or call with questions. LET US KNOW BY SIGNING UP WITH YOUR SIZE INFO IF YOU WANT TO PURCHASE VBS THEME TSHIRTS $7 Child sizes $9 Adult Shirts SM-XL $12 Adult XXL-XXXL I am requesting VBS donations. Some items can be just borrowed will be returned as soon as we are finished with them and others, of course, we would like to keep (markers, tape, glue, food, etc). Please pull off the paper that you can provide, bring in the item with the page filled in, especially if we are borrowing, and we will make sure that they will be returned. For the items that we receive, we would like to give you a personal Thank you from the Kids Club so please include your information. If you would like to furnish a cash donation, put it into an envelope or if check, write VBS, and it will be applied to the VBS account. A NOTE FROM U-KIRK THANK YOU TO JCPC We are thankful for John Calvin helping to take care of us - from your amazing cooking skills to your financial support! The photo below is from the U-Kirk picnic and worship service in Forest Park. LIGHT THE FIRE IN MY WEARY SOUL FAN THE FLAME MAKE MY SPIRIT WHOLE LORD, YOU KNOW JUST WHERE I'VE BEEN SO LIGHT THE FIRE IN MY HEART AGAIN Holy Spirit, blow through our hearts and set us on fire for you! KARA S KORNER Greetings from Denver. I arrived here safe and sound and we have begun both class times and work times. I am working at the Elitch Garden's Amusement Park where, after I get trained on several of the rides, I will be floating around operating each one. Today, we just had our first day off from work, so part of our group (about 50) went and climbed a place called Flat Irons in Boulder, Colorado. We have also had many intensive classes in learning what it is to be a leader in Christ and how to share our faith. We put our knowledge into action by spending Friday Nights walking along 16th street to share with people who are out and about. Our goal is to talk about our religious background and to ultimately share our faith. I am learning so much, I look forward to coming back and sharing what I have learned with the congregation, although to be honest, Denver and Colorado will be a tough place to leave. Peace to all and I look forward to bringing you my next update! Kara

5 Above and Below Photos: The Kid s Club work on a learning actitivity. Above Photo: Very early Sunday morning in the Welcome Area Below: The JCPC Congregation on Sunday, May 28, 2017.

6 Above and Below Photos: Pastor John has an older youth as his assistant during the Children s Message on May 28, This assistant just happens to be JCPC s very own Rubik Cube Master, solving it in mere seconds! Above and Below Photos: The JCPC Choir and Praise Team inspire the congregation with their musical gifts during worship.