PRESBYTERY CONNECTION

Transcription

1 PRESBYTERY CONNECTION A Bi-Weekly Newsletter of the Presbyteries of North Central Iowa and Prospect Hill June 21, 2018 To see North Central Iowa s calendar of events, please click here. The Presbytery Connection is a bi-weekly joint newsletter for the Presbyteries of North Central Iowa and Prospect Hill. If you would like to contribute to the Presbytery Connection, please contact Jeannie Stolee in the Presbytery office at or northiowapresby@gmail.com. If you know of someone who would enjoy receiving this communication, please or call Jeannie. Please consider making copies of this newsletter for your Session and running several copies to make available to your congregation. To see Prospect Hill s calendar of events, please click here. Presbytery Office Schedule The Presbytery office will be closed July 2 July 6. The 223 rd General Assembly is being held in St. Louis, Missouri the week of June Representing Prospect Hill are Teaching Elder Rev. Dr. Tim Harmon, Ruling Elder Bill Crawford and Young Adult Advisory Delegate Emma Dau. Representing North Central Iowa are Teaching Elder Rev. Ian McMullen, Ruling Elder Judy Klepfer and Young Adult Advisory Delegate Joanna Wilson. Also in attendance are Rev. Richard Francis, Stated Clerk of the Presbytery of Prospect Hill, Rev. Dr. Glenn Wilson, Stated Clerk of the Presbytery of North Central Iowa, and Rev. David Feltman, Pastor to the Presbytery of North Central Iowa. Photos from the General Assembly can be found on page 3 of this Presbytery Connection. ~ 1 ~

2 Prayers of the Presbytery of North Central Iowa Week of June 24 Week of July 1 Week of July 8 Week of July 15 Week of July 22 First Presbyterian Church, Greene, and First Presbyterian Church, Rudd Rev. Catherine Belles Pray for chaplains in the military First Presbyterian Church, Boone Rev. Denise Group First Presbyterian Church, Lakota Walt Reemtsma, CP and Judy Junkermeier, CP Pray for other Minister members of North Central Iowa: Rev. Barb Huisman, Rev. Ben Acosta Prayers of the Presbytery of Prospect Hill Week of June 24 Week of July 1 Week of July 8 Week of July 15 Week of July 22 First Presbyterian Church, Paullina Rev. Angel de la Cruz Pray for chaplains in the military First Presbyterian Church, Sioux City Rev. Dr. Tom Murray First Presbyterian Church, Alta Rev. Denise Parrello Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, Carnarvon Lue Baker, CP Additional Prayer Concerns Please remember Rev. Dr. Barbara Gaddis in your prayers as Moderator of Committee on Office of General Assembly. Please continue to pray for the Commissioners and other members of both Presbyteries as they carry on business of General Assembly and as they travel back home later this week. Please continue to keep Angie Reemtsma, daughter-in-law of Walt and Jan Reemtsma, in your prayers as she remains hospitalized. Churches and Pastors in Transition The following churches and pastors are in transition: Presbytery of North Central Iowa Collegiate Presbyterian Church, Ames First Presbyterian Church, Toledo ~ 2 ~ Presbytery of Prospect Hill Wheatland Presbyterian Church, Breda Elliott Creek Presbyterian Church, Bronson First Presbyterian Church, Cleghorn Union Church, Lake City Community Presbyterian Church, Lawton First Presbyterian Church, Sac City Lakeside Presbyterian Church, Storm Lake First Presbyterian Church, South Sioux City

3 Photos from General Assembly The Arch welcomed everyone to St. Louis. Rev. Ian McMullen, North Central Iowa s Commissioner. RE Bill Crawford (l) and Teaching Elder Rev. Dr. Tim Harmon (r) taking a song break. Joanna Wilson, NCI s YAAD, sharing about her experiences on the justice march. Members of both Presbyteries, along with some guests, gathered for dinner together Tuesday evening. ~ 3 ~

4 Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, Thoughts of Rev. David Feltman, Pastor to the Presbytery, Presbytery of North Central Iowa I write this while I am at General Assembly, our bi-annual assembly at St. Louis, Missouri. It began last Friday and will adjourn on Saturday, June 23. Ruling Elder Judy Klepfer (Cedar Heights Community Presbyterian Church, Cedar Falls), Rev. Ian McMullen (Maxwell) and Young Adult Advisory Delegate Joanna Wilson (Woden) are our commissioners this year. One of the items which will be acted upon is the request of the First Presbyterian Church, LeRoy, Minnesota to become a part of the Presbytery of North Central Iowa. Twin Cities Area Presbytery, our presbytery and the Synod of Lakes and Prairies approved this change. It takes the action of the General Assembly to redraw the boundaries of our presbytery to include LeRoy township in Minnesota. The action was approved unanimously in committee and will go to the floor of General Assembly before the end of the week. We trust the assembly will follow the lead of the committee and it will be approved. We welcome First Presbyterian, LeRoy. It has been a big week. Today, Wednesday, the President changed direction regarding separating children from their parents at the border. The loud outcry gives me hope that we, as a nation, have not lost our way with the Biblical concept of welcoming the stranger and caring for those in need. Let us continue to pray for our neighbors and the complex immigration issues. I also bring to your attention an article written by Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Bullock, the president of the University of Dubuque, as he addresses the issues and concerns of mental health and illness in our state. iowa/?utm_source=jeff+bullock+blog+subscribers+%26+alumni&utm_campaign=b AUTOMATION_8&utm_medium= &utm_term=0_c72d488c8b-b With Love in Christ, Dave Feltman Poor Richard s Almanac By Richard Francis, Stated Clerk, Presbytery of Prospect Hill If you are at all interested in the 223 rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) meeting this week in St. Louis, Missouri, you are familiar with the news: opening worship with Communion and an offering to a local bail relief program; the election of new Co-Moderators (Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri of the Presbytery of Tropical Florida and the Rev. Cindy Kohlmann of the presbyteries of Boston and Northern New England); the money from the offering delivered during a silent march to the St. Louis City Justice Center; and the hard but necessary work of the standing committees. Prospect Hill s Commissioners, the Rev. Dr. Tim Harmon and Commissioned Pastor Bill Crawford, together with Young Adult Advisory Delegate (YAAD) Emma Dau, have been putting in long hours sifting through many reports and recommendations, and will be voting on those recommendations in the plenary sessions that will continue through Saturday morning. There will be a more comprehensive report, both in the Presbytery Connection and at the July Presbytery meeting. ~ 4 ~

5 Right now, though, I want to ponder a few words from the Ordination Vows taken by all Ministers of the Word and Sacrament, Elders, and Deacons, both when we are ordained and again when we are installed to any subsequent service. Stated Clerk J. Herbert Nelson referred to them in his opening remarks when he told the Commissioners and the rest of those in attendance, You are called to serve with energy, intelligence, and love... and love...and love... Did I leave out a word? As everyone chuckled, he said, the word I left out was imagination. We are called to imagine what the church can be. The day after I heard those words from J. Herbert I attended a workshop on pastoral compensation presented by the Board of Pensions. I learned a lot at that workshop, including some news that has the potential to benefit several churches in our Presbytery (more about that later, too), but what stood out for me was a remark by the leaders that went something like this: We ask our pastors to serve us with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love. What do they need from the congregation to serve with all those things? I admit I hadn t thought of it that way. I had thought, What do I need to do as a pastor to generate energy, intelligence, imagination, and love in myself so I can serve faithfully? and I still think that s a good question, with answers relating to preparation, time management, self-care, etc. But I also know that when I m worried all the time about money, for example, it takes a lot of energy, energy I don t have to give to the congregation, not to mention my family. What I m saying is that we expect a lot from our pastors, and rightly so, but they need a lot from us as well: they need our prayers, our financial support, our emotional support, and our understanding, among other things. When our system is at its best, it is a partnership between leaders and church members in a community of mutual support and encouragement. None of us is strong enough to do it all on our own, and we shouldn t try. The Apostle Paul (or someone writing in his name) puts it pretty well: The gifts [God] gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13 NRS). We are not there yet. But by the grace of God, we are on the way. Blessings, A Word from Donna Gray, Moderator of the Presbytery of Prospect Hill He dipped his hands into the icy water and took a long, cool drink. Fifteen months of hard travel, a seemingly endless string of days of backbreaking upstream slogging had led to this moment. Meriwether Lewis recalled all that he had endured. Nervous nights in a strange land. Mosquitoes galore. A dark, cold winter. Grizzly bears. A month-long portage around an immense waterfall. The death of a companion. ~ 5 ~

6 But he was here. Lewis and a small scouting party had gone ahead of the rest of the corps of Discovery to try to make contact with the Shoshone tribe. They had followed a small trail up a creek and now were at the spring itself. This little trickle was the source of the mighty Missouri River. This water would flow all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. They had found what no person of European descent had before them. And the most challenging obstacle in the journey from what was the United States to the Pacific Ocean was now behind them. Or so he thought.... For Meriwether Lewis, slaking his thirst from that little stream meant that he was about to realize the dream of centuries of pioneers, to fulfill the ambitions of his president and to enter into the pantheon of explorers. His name and his corps would be remembered as the discoverers of the highly prized Northwest Passage. Lewis believed that he would walk up the hill, look down a gentle slope that would take his men a half day to cross with their canoes on their backs, and then they would see the Columbus River. After fifteen months of going upstream they looked forward to letting the current swiftly whisk them to the Pacific Ocean. They would crest the hill, find the stream and coast to the finish line. They could not have been more disappointed. What Lewis actually discovered was that three hundred years of experts had been completely and utterly wrong. In front of him was not a gentle slope down to a navigable river running to the Pacific Ocean but the Rocky Mountains. Stretching out for miles and miles as far as the eye could see was one set of peaks after another. (Pages 14-16) These words are from a leadership book entitled Canoeing the Mountains, Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory by Tod Bolsinger. I was introduced to this book by Bishop Laurie Haller of the Iowa Conference of the United Methodist Church. It s filled with 223 pages of ways to canoe the mountains and includes a study guide for group use. There s no question our church, and all churches, are facing tough times with declining membership as the world around us changes. And so, just as Lewis and Clark had to learn to canoe the mountains to get across the Rockies, we also need to learn to canoe the mountains that surround us. What used to work to attract newcomers to church no longer works the same way. The culture around us is changing and church is becoming increasingly irrelevant. So we need to learn to lead all over again in a different way. The church is at an exciting crossroads. We are entering a new day, new terrain, and a new adventure. The good news is we are not alone as we explore our new ways. The Spirit of God goes before us, ensuring that the mission of Christ will not fail. But to get there we re going to have to go through uncharted territory as we work to reimagine what effective leadership looks like in our rapidly ~ 6 ~

7 changing world. To scale these mountains ahead of us, we re going to need to leave our canoes behind and find new ways to navigate what lies ahead of us. This book is one place to start. I encourage everyone to pick up a copy as we work together to discover where God is leading his church at this time. Blessings, Pastor Donna PRESBYTERIES WORKING TOGETHER Four of the presbyteries in Iowa are involved in conversation about our common ministry; a shared mission concern is mental health/mental illness and the shortage of services available to the citizens of our state. Our churches are on the front lines of meeting the needs of our members and residents of our communities. We are encouraging church leaders to receive training in Mental Health First Aid and will post when this training is offered in our presbyteries. North Central Iowa Mission Partnership Grant Applications REMINDER: August 25, 2018 is the submission deadline for the North Central Iowa Mission Partnership Grant Applications. Applications received after this date will not be accepted. Applications have been sent to all churches in the Presbytery of North Central Iowa. You may also find the application here. Job Postings Collegiate Presbyterian Church, Ames is seeking a Head of Staff. Persons interested in this pastoral position may send their PIF to Selden Spencer at seldenes@gmail.com. ~ 7 ~

8 Women of the Presbyterian Church The Women of the Presbyterian Church invite you to their Summer Program on Wednesday, June 27 th at the 1 st Presbyterian Church at 812 Audubon Street, Sac City, Iowa. We will feature Sammie Bruce as she Tickles the Ivories with some Fun with Musical Notes for our program. We begin the evening at 6:30 pm with a light dessert & drink. This program is open to the public and there will be a free-will offering. Please bring a couple friends with you for a fun-filled evening. This is a night You Will NOT Want to Miss! Please RSVP to ~ 8 ~

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10 Meet the Missionaries Rev. Joshua Heikkila West Africa Josh is the PC(USA) regional liaison for West Africa, where he facilitates partner relationships, implements regional strategies, and supports the work of other mission personnel. When we strive to live together as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, our faith is deepened and strengthened, despite our cultural differences, and we become better disciples of Jesus Christ Josh says. He works with partner churches in Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, and Togo. Home presbytery: Twin Cities E200353, D Janice Heckler Madagascar Jan works with the Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM), facilitating strategic planning and organizational development with a focus on helping the education department. She is deeply involved in helping FJKM s education department implement the Evidenced Based Methods of Instruction program, which has greatly improved students learning. Jan entered mission service in 2012 and brings experience from the fields of education, public health, mental health and social servi8ce. Her background includes service and leadership within nongovernmental organizations devoted to improving education in developing world countries that include Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. Home presbytery: Greater Atlanta E200490, D ~ 10 ~

11 Synod of Lakes and Prairies Racial Ethnic Student Preparation for Leadership Scholarship Fund The Racial Ethnic Scholarship Fund is an educational assistance program designed to encourage Racial Ethnic students in their preparation for service in the Presbyterian Church USA. Funds for this program are provided by the Committee on Racial Ethnic Ministry. Applicants must be: 1. Racial Ethnic students whose permanent residence is within the bounds of the Synod of Lakes and Prairies. 2. Active member in a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA). 3. Enrolled at least half-time and in good academic standing. 4. Making progress toward a degree. 5. Able to demonstrate financial need. Applications will be evaluated and awards selected on the basis of information supplied on this form and the pastor s and teacher s recommendations. Students must be able to demonstrate their preparation for service as a church professional or community leadership role. Winning consideration will focus on personal qualities reflected in school, church and community activities, and academic achievement. are a current student must be completed. It is your responsibility to be sure that all forms, including the required transcript, financial aid statement and letters of recommendation are submitted to our committee by the deadline with your scholarship application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. It is the applicant s responsibility to return a completed application. All applicants will be notified by the committee if they have been chosen as a finalist or not. The scholarship awards may only be used toward educational costs and will be paid directly to the school. The grant is a supplement to any other financial aid received by the student and becomes a part of the total financial aid package. Please direct your questions to: Committee on Racial Ethnic Ministry Synod of Lakes and Prairies 2115 Cliff Drive Eagan, MN Phone: , x 204 or x 202 Fax: mkes@lakesandprairies.org Deadline: September 30, 2018 If you are interested in this scholarship program, all necessary admissions and financial aid forms for the school to which you The Scholarships are made available through funds provided by Committee on Racial Ethnic Ministry, Synod of Lakes and Prairies, Presbyterian Church (USA). If you would like an application, please contact Jeannie in the Presbytery office ( or northiowapresby@gmail.com). ~ 11 ~

12 Being Proactive Rather than Reactive: Planning for the Future Where: Cedar Heights Community Presbyterian Church, Cedar Falls When: Saturday, July 21, :45 a.m. Registration and Coffee 10:00 a.m. 2:00 p.m. (lunch will be provided at no cost) How: Jeannie Stolee at by Monday, July 9, indicating the number attending from your church For more information, please click here. ~ 12 ~

13 Visit to see a full brochure of camps and to register online! The 2018 Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women will be held August 2-5, 2018, in Louisville, Kentucky is also the year that PW celebrates its 30 th anniversary! Advance registration for the Gathering will close on July 7. Register online or by mail! If you re not sure if you can attend or can t convince your friend to join you, no worries! On-site registration will be available, so continue to promote the Gathering and tell your friends they can register there! ~ 13 ~

14 For a summary of the Spring Meeting of the Synod of Lakes and Prairies held at Mount Olivet Conference and Retreat Center in Farmington, Minnesota, April and May 1, 2018, please click here. Please click here for information on Presbytery of North Central Iowa Ruling Elder Cohort led by Dr. Joe Small. Please click here for information on The Academy. ~ 14 ~