Adopt-A-Family. December 2018

Transcription

1 The Sanctuary will be decorated for the Advent and Christmas Season on Saturday, December 1st, at 9:00 a.m. This a time of great fun and fellowship. Join us! Community Table We serve Community Table on Tuesday, December 4th. This important community ministry provides a weekly meal to our area residents in need. Contact the church office to volunteer. Be a blessing and help out: bake a cake, assist with setup or cleanup, or assist with serving. The O.A.K.S. Christmas Luncheon will be Wednesday, December 5 at 12:00 noon in the church dining room. We will have a delicious meal, the singing of carols, entertainment by the Ludington High School Choir (directed by Elliot Plummer), and great fellowship. It is always nice to have the young people entertain us. I hope all of you will attend. There will be good food, reminiscing and lots of fun. Bring a friend! We must have a count for this event. Call the church office, or make your reservation with Judy Bach at The Annual Cookie Walk is scheduled for Friday, December 7 starting at 11 am. All women of the church are asked to donate homemade Christmas cookies. Please bring your cookies to the Fellowship Hall one day ahead - Thursday - between 9 am and 1 pm, or Friday by 10:00 am. We are also providing cookies for a bank open house, so bake extra! Proceeds from the Cookie Walk will go to missions supported by Christian Women s Fellowship. Adopt-A-Family As we prepare for the upcoming Christmas Season, let us prepare our hearts for the true meaning of Christmas. Christ came as the greatest gift of all from God our Father. We can use this opportunity to bring not only gifts and food into the lives of those less fortunate, but we can bring Christ the greatest gift of all into their homes and hearts. We will be shopping and wrapping on SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8 AND DELIVERING BOTH SATURDAY THE 15 TH AND SUNDAY THE 16 TH. Sign-up sheets are in Fellowship Hall for donations of food and household supplies and to shop, wrap, and deliver. Questions? Call Kathy Bromley We need EVERYONE to make this a Christmas blessing for 8 families. Please keep them in your prayers. 1

2 What About Advent? We all know that Advent is a time of preparation, a time of waiting. So what are we waiting for? Are we just waiting to celebrate the coming of Jesus in Bethlehem? I hope not. I hope Advents is more than remembering, more getting ready to celebrate something that already happened. Don t get me wrong - I look forward every year to celebrating our Savior s birth, to reading the Christmas Story, to singing the songs of praise heralding Jesus coming. But there must be more! And there is. We also prepare during Advent to celebrate Jesus second coming. Advent finds its root in a couple words - the Latin word adventus which finds its root in the Greek word parousia which refers to Jesus Christ s second coming. Often times we lose sight of the fact that Jesus is coming again. Our minds know it, scripture tells us to believe it and prepare for it, but our minds and hearts also say, probably not in my lifetime I would stay that is why we spend so much time preparing for and celebrating Christmas during Advent, we can see picture Jesus in the manger, but struggle with picturing Jesus return. In fact we even struggle with prophecies of the second coming. Come to think of it, God s people (Israel) struggled to comprehend Jesus first coming as much as we struggle to comprehend the second coming. So let us bridge the gap, Advent is a time to prepare to celebrate the past (Jesus birth), the future (Jesus second coming), and the present. Jesus wants to come into our hearts and the hearts of many right now! Jesus wants us to be totally aware every day of the hope, peace, love, and joy He brings to our lives. He wants us to feel hope, peace, joy, and love in our hearts and share all of that with others. I ll leave you with this poem from Alive Now: Let Christ be born in you! Let hope be born, let love be born. Let newness of heart be born in you! Let gentleness be born, let truth be born. Let concern for the poor be born in you! Let prayer be born, Let action be born. Let the faith to take up your cross and follow be born in you! And let it lead you in the ways of our Lord, For the sake of our Lord. Now and always. Amen. God s Blessings, Pastor Brett 2

3 Advent and Christmas Devotional: The Uncluttered Heart We have selected a devotional by Beth Richardson titled The Uncluttered Heart: Making Room for God during Advent and Christmas. It contains daily readings from Sunday, December 2nd (first day of Advent) through January 6th (Epiphany Sunday). The readings are sourced from the Upper Room devotionals and focus on our normal advent weekly theme progression; Hope, Peace, Joy, Love and the Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and then the 12 days of Christmas leading to Epiphany. Small Group: We will meet in the Reflections Room following worship each Sunday for 45 minutes to ask questions and discuss the devotions from the previous week. Grab a cup of coffee and a cookie and head downstairs and we will get started as quickly. Online: I realize many will have Christmas plans on Sunday afternoons so we will also have answer questions and post comments on the website. You will see a menu link on our website ( labeled Blog. As you have questions or comments on a particular reading, please them to Pastor Brett (pastor.communitych@frontier.com) and he will post those on the website. Pastor will also post some of his thoughts and thoughts from the Sunday discussion there as well. This will allow us to have a get-together without being in the same room at the same time. The Uncluttered Heart is titled well, as the readings are designed to take us away for 10 minutes or so each day and place our focus where it really needs to be if we want to properly prepare to meet Jesus at the manger and when He comes again. Start thinking about a time that is good for you each day, when you can sit with a cup of tea or coffee or nothing at all and just read, pray, ponder, and listen for the Holy Spirit speaking to you. 3

4 Sermon Titles and Scriptures for December 2, First Sunday of Advent Managing our Lack of Expectations Psalm 25:1-10 and Matthew 24: Communion Schedule December 2 Intinction December 24 Christmas Eve Intinction December 9, Second Sunday of Advent Peace in Our Hearts Psalm 85 and John 15:15-21, December 16, Third Sunday of Advent Rejoice!! 1 Thessalonians 5:16-20 and Philippians 4:4-9 December 23, Fourth Sunday of Advent Love, No One Said It is Easy Isaiah 9:6-7, John 3:16; and Hebrews 10:1-10 Serving Communion Dec. 2 (Intinction) Betty Hodges Jeff Bowden Terry Grams Pastor Brett Worship Leaders for December: Dec 2 Dec 9 Dec 16 Dec 23 Christmas Eve Dec 30 Don McKay Kathy Bromley Nancy Parker Roger Cochran TBA TBA Bill Wolf 12/03 Russ Miller 12/04 Frank Petersen 12/06 Tonda Cadey 12/09 Dar Carpenter 12/09 James Sisko 12/14 Jack Thiel 12/15 Linda Leibole 12/19 Darlene French 12/21 Diane Swathwood 12/21 Lyle Gunderson 12/22 Ric Cooper 12/28 Margaret Hansen 12/30 Cindy Reader 12/31 Date Monthly Update Attendance Count General Fund Collection Nov 4 70 $3, Nov $2, Nov $2, Nov $3, John & Valerie Stapleton 12/06 Kang & Inja Lee 12/07 Sid & Barb Sytsma 12/23

5 Updated Church Website - Community Church has an updated website! The site updates include changes to navigation, and it works well on both mobile and desktop browsers. The structure is simple, so you ll easily find what you are looking for. One great feature is a blog - a discussion area - that Pastor Brett will utilize. Visit the site today! If you are reading this as an , you can click the link: A Year of Blessings The Thanksgiving holiday may have passed, but Community Church can continue to count many blessings as 2018 draws to a close. We have met and exceeded our Capital Campaign goal. We approved two projects for this year: 1. Air conditioning in the offices and fellowship hall; and 2. Carpeting in the sanctuary, narthex, ramp hallway, and office. Both is these projects were completed and paid for this summer. Thank you to everyone in the congregation for your support of these projects and for the steadfast commitments that were made to fulfilling your pledges. We will be wrapping up this successful Capital Campaign on December 15th. One final end-of-year note: Please make sure that all 2018 donation checks are dated and post marked no later than December 31st. All donations must be received in the church office by Monday, January 7th. Important dates Decorate for Advent, December 1 We serve - Community Table, Dec 4 OAKS Christmas Lunch, December 5 CWF Cookie Walk, December 7 Adopt-A-Family Shopping, December 8 Christmas Eve Service, December 24 Noise Coin Offering, December 30 Pastor s office hours: Mondays: 9 am - 12 noon Tuesdays: 11 am - 1 pm Wednesdays: 11 am - 2 pm Thursdays: 9 am - 1 pm Call church office to arrange an appointment for other times. 5

6 PRAYER NEEDS IMMEDIATE PRAYER NEEDS Amanda, health OUR MISSIONARIES Daryl and Leshia Beltz Jim and Yuri Cerminaro Tony and Connie Johnson Dean and Debbie Lundberg ON-GOING Leslie Miller, health Ruth Fletcher, health Vanessa VanderWall, health & surgery (granddaughter of Teresa VanderWall) Nellie Anderson, healing Jack Burns, continued recovery Laura, health Judy d Anton, health Pat Sabourin, cancer Elaine Earl, health Alice Manor, cancer (Linda Manor s sister) Tonda Cadey, health Bob Ruba, doctor s wisdom and health Danielle Yeager, cancer Dennis and Marla Grams, health Ray Cummins, health Barbara Olmstead Peters, multiple sclerosis Chuck Oleniczak, health Harold Figgins, health Daniel Williams, health, Sandi Steckel s cousin Sherrie Sanders, health NURSING HOME RESIDENTS Autumn Winds - Marylyn Brown Willowbrook - Thelma Bowden Oakview - Gary Miller, Barbara Johnson, Mary Carlson, Sue Sabin, Lynn Olmstead, Dar French Nursing Home Addresses: Willowbrook, 2023 W US 10, Scottville Oakview, 1001 Diana St, Lud. MediLodge, 1000 E Tinkham Ave, Lud. All persons placed on the prayer list will remain there for a period of three weeks. If you have a prayer need that you would like to have the members of the prayer chain pray for, please activate the prayer chain by calling Janet VanEpps at

7 SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT Nov 29 Crossroads Mailing 10 am Nov 30 1 Decorate for Advent, 9 am Vocal Choir 6pm Bell Choir 7pm 2 Worship with Communion, 9:30 am 3 Finance & Personnel, 1 pm 4 Quilters 9am-6pm Ladies Bible Study 9:30 am Community Table 4:30-6pm **WE SERVE** 5 OAKS Christmas Luncheon, noon 6 Vocal Choir 6pm Bell Choir 7pm 7 Cookie Walk, 11 am 8 Adopt-A-Family Shopping Boy Scouts 7pm Worship, 9:30 am Quilters 9am-6pm Ladies Bible Study 9:30 am Missions mtg 1 pm Community Table 4:30-6pm BUM mtg 6 pm Boy Scouts 7pm Vocal Choir 6pm Bell Choir 7pm Adopt-A-Family Delivery (Sat & Sun) Worship, 9:30 am Quilters 9am-8pm Ladies Bible Study 9:30 am Community Table 4:30-6pm Boy Scouts 7pm Crossroads Deadline Council Spalding s Bell Choir 7pm Worship, 9:30 am 30 Christmas Eve Service 7 pm Christmas Day Merry Christmas! Church office closed Quilters 9am-6pm Crossroads Mailing 10am Noisy Coin Offering 7

8 Community Church 109 N. Harrison St. Ludington, MI Phone: CROSSROADS Traditionally CONGREGATIONAL /PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH STAFF Pastor Rev. Brett Spalding Organist/Accompanist Ruthann Kyle Membership/Financial Secretary Lisa Dains Office Hours: Monday through Thursday 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Council of Ministries 3 Year Term, ending 12/31/2020 Jack Thiel Teri Nedderman Judy Bach 3 Year Term, ending 12/31/2019 Darlene Carpenter Maralyn Gable Diane Swathwood Lorrie McKay 3 Year Term, ending 12/31/2018 Ruthann Kyle Don McKay Janet VanEpps 2018 Council of Ministries Officers Moderator Maralyn Gable Vice Moderator Don McKay Treasurer Donna Hallin Secretary Ruthann Kyle Nominating Committee Congregational Members Donna Lee Collins Patti Otto Judy Thiel Scholarship Committee Mike Peterson Carol Cooper Terry Grams Maralyn Gable current moderator Steve Iteen previous moderator 8