First Presbyterian Church, Las Cruces, NM November 2012

Transcription

1 First Presbyterian Church, Las Cruces, NM November 2012

2 RENEWAL4WOMEN Ann Velia and Donna Curtis Women from many communities including carpools from Corona and Deming -- and from many denominations gathered at FPC on Saturday, October 20. The Renewal4Women hosted 125 women, and marked a rebirth of the Annual Women s Retreats held at FPC from 1980 to Renewal chairwoman Mariann Novack, who regularly decorates the sanctuary for worship services, transformed the platform into "a woman's place," with wicker garden chairs, an arbor, and massive arrangements of flowers. Following opening prayer by Rev. Norm Story, Sharon Meier read a letter from Vera Seelig, founder of the original retreats (see next article). Before the room was entirely turned over to women, a skit created by Greg Sherman took the stage. Young Will Schroeder prompted the audience to clap in rhythm to the opening music. In "Idiosyncrasy," Greg and Molly Schroeder portrayed British rock star wannabes Paul Tall and Moll Doll. Their theme song was Girls Just Want to Have Fun -- Even Presbyterians! Interviewer Dyna Mitre, played by Martha Mitchell, revealed the singers' selfish ambitions and English butler/reluctant harpsichordist Saul Tall (Neil Moe) contributed to the fun until the conflict was resolved with the moral: "It's okay to be the first to ask forgiveness." Classical pianist Lela Fields York, who played at the 1997 Annual Women s Retreat, provided background and transitional music, and accompanied composer Karen Lafferty in contemporary songs to build an atmosphere of praise. Then Mariann introduced speaker Sue Rueb of Huntington Beach, California. Sue is CEO of B.R.A.I.N. (Brain Rehabilitation and Injury Network), an organization she co-founded with her husband, Pastor Jerry Rueb of Cornerstone Church in Long Beach. Sue's program included stunning stories from her personal life and her work at B.R.A.I.N., mingled with scripture. Her talk centered on the mind and its role as a target of the Holy Spirit's transformation of lives. The morning session culminated with breakout sessions where participants discussed questions like What brought you to this day of renewal and what do you hope to take home? Describe God s character. What is He like? What are some attributes of God? What do you do when you are in need of encouragement? and Read Philippians 4:13 as a group and then tell the group what this scripture means to you. Lunch in Watkins Hall, served by men from the church, featured chicken croissant sandwiches and delicious accompaniments prepared under the direction of Annual Women's Retreats veteran Jacque Parks and her committee. Mariann Novack's artistry topped the dining tables with colorful tablecloths and 2

3 bold sprays of bright flowers flanking wrapped and ribboned boxes representing "The Gift," the logo used as the day's theme: The gift of the Holy Spirit. Lela York and Karen Lafferty added a bit of "dinner music" and a short program. During the lunch break, women could shop for Sue's book, Who's Crazy Now?, Karen's music CDs, and a selection of retail books offered by Revival Fire Bookstore. Cheri McMillan was book table chairman and she and Janet McPherson handled transactions. Sue's book is still available for purchase in the church office at the discounted price of $ More praiseful music followed lunch, and Sue's message wrapped up with a challenge to commit or recommit to a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. A number of responses were evident, and other needs were brought to the team of prayer counselors headed by Gracia Class at the end of the program. Mariann Novack was key not only in providing the speaker, but in designing a website and printed materials to promote the event, and leading the committee of remarkable women who handled prayer teams, registration, finance, set-up and take-down, evaluations, publicity, outreach to churches, and the myriad tasks involved in presenting a daylong meeting. As quickly as specific tasks were defined, other women took them on. Music liaison Janet Loman, who was a college classmate of Karen Lafferty and a longtime friend of Lela York as well, secured the featured musicians. Margie Rankin, with help of committee administrator Nora Yaryan, hosted a preevent dinner at her home to enable committee workers to meet the visiting presenters and celebrate a long day of final preparations. Eddie Armendariz volunteered his time to help with set-up, clean-up and anything that needed to be done during the day. Mike McClanahan provided security. Mark Hellman was also on hand to provide technical assistance and other tasks as needed. Behind the scenes help came in many forms from Linda Ramirez, Patti Knowles, Larry Felhauer, Alex Burr, Steve Loman, Don Rhodes, and, of course, Pastor Norm and Kathy Story. October 20, 2012 is now a page in the history of First Presbyterian Church. Renewal4Women grew out of prayer when, in September 2011, two women began asking God to increase joy and enthusiasm in the church. God gently led their thoughts to the women s retreats held from 1980 until The idea was presented to the Jennie Curry Bible study group led by Mariann Novack. Mariann stepped forward to lead the committee, and immediately proposed Sue Rueb as keynote speaker. Sue Rueb suggested Romans 12:2 as the theme for the day, a theme confirmed by many prayer requests that surfaced over the months of preparation 3

4 for mental issues ranging from ADHD to Alzheimer's. The Renewal4Women mission was to reach out across denominational boundaries to the surrounding community in a spirit of enthusiastic joy, unity and love for Jesus. By verbal accounts and by way of attendee evaluations, the day was a success and a testimony to the power of prayer. A Letter from Vera Seelig (wife of former FPC pastor Keith Seelig) Greetings to all of my sisters in Christ, I was so delighted when I learned of your plans to again have a community-wide retreat for women at First Pres. I wish that I could be with you today but be assured I am with you in spirit. I know that it is going to be a wonderful day of spiritual renewal and refreshment for all of you. Is it possible that it was over thirty years ago, soon after we arrived in Las Cruces, that it all began? It seems like it was just yesterday that I asked Kathy Hazlett, president of the Women s Organization, to come to my house for lunch. The Lord had laid a burden on my heart and I wanted to share it with her I told her that I felt that God was leading me to organize a fall retreat for the women of the church and I needed to know how she would feel about that. Kathy asked me what that would involve. When I explained what I had in mind she thought about it a minute and then she said: Well, we ve never had anything like that before but I think it sounds great! Let s do it! That first fall retreat became an annual retreat and that was the beginning of other wonderful women s ministries. From then on, whenever suggestions were made for Bible studies, luncheons with special speakers, overnight retreats to Christ Community Church in Tucson, Three Thursdays in May classes, sending invitations to retreat speakers from New York to California the response was always: Let s do it! You all were such a blessing to me. Thank you so much for giving me the privilege of ministering to you. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, making mention of you always in my prayers. In Christian love, Vera Seelig Presbytery of Sierra Blanca Alex Burr Saturday, October 27, represented an important day in the life of the Presbytery of Sierra Blanca. Presbyteries are the basic blocks on which the national church is built, and the one to which we belong changed its structure significantly on that day. The Presbytery will no longer have an office. It will no longer have a Presbytery executive. It will no longer have any full-time employees. It will no longer have as many Presbytery-wide meetings. Instead there will be a leadership team and the existing 4

5 Presbytery committees will have more responsibilities for their existing tasks. There will be four regional clusters of churches, each with its own moderator, to ensure that all needs are met and that the concerns of the individual churches are addressed. Change on this scale is rarely undertaken without a strong driving force. In this case that force is money. Our Presbytery has long received support from Synod and the national church. This support will go away soon. One response to this state of affairs was a joint Presbytery Executive with the Presbytery of Santa Fe. This solution was still costly and resulted in less attention to our concerns. The choice was to significantly increase the per capita assessments or to try something new. Mindful of the great hardship that a significantly larger per capital assessment would create, Rev. Story and some others came up with the something new. A presbytery does much more than vote on constitutional amendments and send delegates to higher bodies. Perhaps the most important task has to do with pastors. The Presbytery helps recruit people for the ministry. They direct, counsel, and encourage individuals preparing for he ministry. They help congregations obtain pastors. They help new pastors solve problems and provide mentoring. They check the qualifications of new pastors. Through the review of session records, they ensure a measure of uniformity across the denomination. The new rules have been carefully crafted to ensure that all the responsibilities of the Presbytery are covered,, that the operating expenses (the per capita assessment) are kept low, and that the interactions of pastors with each other are enhanced. The new plan is flexible enough that changes can be made if experience suggests better ways of doing things. Our local church will see little change. We are in the western cluster along with Deming, Santa Teresa, the campus ministry at NMSU, and Iglesia del Pueblo. It is hoped that our church members will become more familiar with the members of those groups. Details of the new operating system were worked out during the summer and the first draft appeared in September. The October meeting was expected to approve the final proposal with a minimum of discussion. And it did so. Several people asked questions and pointed out small changes which should be made, including correcting the spelling of Iglesia del Pueblo, which were done. Everybody's concerns were addressed and in less than an hour the final plan was unanimously adopted. Several related items were also passed with relatively little discussion. The new operating manual (before some of the minor changes) of the Presbytery can be viewed on our web site at the URL 5

6 THE SESSION OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO RECOGNIZES REVEREND DR. MARCUS L. BURR AS PARISH ASSOCIATE PASTOR EMERITUS IN GRATEFUL APPRECIATION FOR FOURTEEN YEARS OF FAITHFUL SERVICE APRIL 25, 1998 OCTOBER 27, 2012 For a short biographical sketch see URL 6

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8 World Communion Sunday The communion service on October 7 was particularly noteworthy this year. It was World Communion Sunday, the peacekeeping offering was collected, our Spanish sister congregation took part, and the Deacon's Hamburger Fry was held. World Communion Sunday is a service which emphasizes the fact that, despite differences. we all recognize one Lord in Jesus Christ. Our congregation is a bit more diverse than some so the theme is particularly appropriate. This year the Iglesia del Pueblo congregation was especially invited to participate. Their pastor, the Rev. Hawkins, preached and some of the hymns were sung in Spanish. One of the hymns had each of its verses sung in a different language including sign, Korean, Spanish, German, and Navajo, as well as English. After the service, the congregation retired to Watkins Hall for the annual Deacon's Hamburger Fry which featured hamburgers along with cheese, hot dogs, and all the fixings. Don Behnke Bedding Ministry A large number of donations from the congregation for the FPC Bedding Ministry have been received to date. In addition, a large donation of blankets, sheets, towels and wash cloths has been received from Memorial Medical Center. These items were clean but some items had stains or were worn but are still usable for the bedding ministry but were no longer usable in a hospital setting. Volunteers from the Iglesia del Pueblo congregation are handling the distribution of these bedding items to families living in poverty in Las Cruces. Many hundreds of families will benefit from these bedding donations as colder weather approaches. The FPC bedding Ministry will continue to collect bedding donations on continuing basis all year long. The Deacons Committee thanks the congregation and Memorial Medical Center for their support of this ministry. 8

9 First Presbyterian Church 200 East Boutz Road Las Cruces, NM Tel (575) Web URL Rev. Dr. Norman Story, Pastor In-Betweeners Soup Night This month the In-Betweeners held their monthly meeting on Thursday, October 25 because the youth were using the facilities on Friday. Judith Ames started decorating the hall in striking fall colors at 2 PM. The soups started to arrive about 5:30. The three main soups, chicken and cheese, lentil, and wild rice amply fed the over 40 people who came. The program was varied. Arnold McMillan sang two songs, Mel Parish provided two humorous sketches on football and politics, Julie Hellman played two violin pieces and Don and Kim Lytton, whom we have partially supported for years as missionaries in China spoke. Don told of their future plans and Kim sang some of the songs she had written in both Chinese and English. Notes and Announcements The office will be closed November 12, 22, and 23. Linda will be out of the office on November 13, 14, 26, and 27. Communion Join us for communion on November 4 and December 2. Attendance Sundays Oct Oct Oct Oct The Cover The cover is of the large window at the front of the sanctuary in the First Presbyterian Church in Ruidoso. Much of the window is clear glass through which one can see the tree covered side of a mountain. The church also has a Prayer Garden which features a wooden cross. Photographs by Alex Burr and Robert McPherson The The Lantern Lantern is a monthly is a monthly publication publication of First of First Pres- Presbyterian Church, Las Cruces, NM. NM. Articles and and photos, photos, preferably preferably in computer in computer readable readable form are form welcome, are and welcome, will be used and at will the be discretion used at the of the discretion publisher. of the For further information For further call (575) information call or send or to publisher. send fpc1@zianet.com. to fpc1@zianet.com. Editor: Editor: Alex Alex Burr Burr Production: Linda Linda Ramirez Ramirez 9

10 P FIRST E S B Y T E R I A N 200 E. Boutz Rd. Las Cruces, NM Stewardship Sunday November 11 Mission Mission Statement Statement for To emulate minister the to the work, members the word, of and our Church the way and of Jesus prepare Christ them in ministering for Christian to Outreach the needs of members and preparing them for Christian outreach to people within and outside the Church of Jesus Christ. Vision Objectives To clearly and courageously communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ Our to Vision all within Objectives our reach. for are: To create develop spiritual leadership from within that recognizes our congregation and ministers to recognize those and in need. minister to members in need. To develop and maintain specific ways for members to reach out and draw the community into our fellowship. To create a God-centered atmosphere for for worship that will attract and bind individuals, families, and and youth youth to our into church. Christian commu- to nity. 10