PASTOR S CORNER. Introducing Andy Herman, Youth Ministries Director We are excited to introduce

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1 November 2016 Happy Thanksgiving! Look What s Inside! Nov 6&13.Town Hall Meeting... p9 Nov 6... Shoebox Sunday (OCC)...p11 Nov OCC Collections End...p11 Nov Knitters & Crocheters... p9 Nov Christmastime Choir... p6 Nov Campus Life 5K... p2 Nov Stewardship Sunday... p10 Nov Youth Communion Class.. p6 Nov Jesse Tree... p6 Nov Advent Begins... p12 Dec 3... Knitters & Crocheters... p9 Dec 3... Yankee Swap... p9 Dec 4... Poinsettia Orders Due... p7 Dec... Giving Tree... p10 Dec... World Vision... p9 The next issue of Neelsville News will be the combined December/ January edition. Article submissions should be sent to neelsvillenewsletter@gmail.com by Tuesday, November 15 th. Pastor Pete PASTOR S CORNER Introducing Andy Herman, Youth Ministries Director We are excited to introduce our new Youth Ministries Director, Andy Herman, and his wife, Tamara, to Neelsville this month! Welcome to Neelsville, Andy. Will you share some of your personal story and testimony? I grew up in a home of nominal Christians. What I mean by that is that we went to church here and there and we considered ourselves Christian but it didn t ever seem to be something we took seriously outside of church. When I got a little older, as family issues worsened at home, I started to resent authority and the entire traditional establishment that went with it including Christianity. I thought that Christianity was pure evil and was a false religion designed to control my behavior. By 8 th grade I had declared myself an atheist. I resented Christianity in any form. At the same time as I officially made my break from God my life was deteriorating in other ways, too. Family issues reached their climax and the apparent meaningless of life engulfed me in depression. The guy who had been my best friend for my whole life was a Christian and unbeknownst to me he had been praying for me for months on end. One day, with no reason that was apparent to me (since I still hated Christianity), I asked him to explain his beliefs to me a little more. In retrospect I can clearly see that this was nothing less than an act of pure grace from God. We had a few conversations that lasted for several hours each and finally, two minutes before the beginning of Easter 2011, I prayed to God asking for forgiveness and acknowledging Christ as my Lord. I started going to a small group with my friend and eventually going to his youth group where I met my wife and first felt called to ministry. When did you sense God s call to go into ministry as a vocation? God s call to ministry came to me slowly, in pieces. Through my whole life I ve had a love for music and for some time in high school I thought I wanted to be a worship leader. I felt God calling me to serve the Church vocationally but I couldn t fathom doing anything other than music at the time. As I started to look into colleges God pushed me towards biblical studies and with this finally revealed to me that He was calling me to pastoral ministry. I felt like I could go along with this at first and even committed to attend a school but at the last minute I panicked and tried to escape. I convinced my parents to let me take a gap year instead to play with a band that was trying to make it big. I did this for about 6 months and then everything collapsed. God was telling me something. I finally decided to go to the school after all ending my gap year after only a semester. I majored in Biblical stud- CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

2 CAMPUS LIFE 5K (WALK OR RUN) AT BUTLER S ORCHARD The 5 th annual 5K trail race will be held on Saturday, November 19 th at 10:30am followed by a FREE family fun run (about a quarter mile). Join us for a great walk / run through the orchard as we help raise money for Campus Life! All 5K participants will receive a long sleeve shirt and race packet. Prizes will be awarded based on gender and age brackets. Cost is $30 through November 1 st, $40 thereafter and on race day. Register the entire family today at www. campuslife5korchardrun.org. Contact Heather Hagberg (Neelsville Youth for Christ liaison) at for more information. Karen Clark LOCAL MISSIONS OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE The Lancaster (Amish) Market in Germantown very generously donates food to the St. Martin s Lord s Table Soup Kitchen on Saturdays when they close. Several groups of volunteers from NPC as well as other churches pick up the food at the market and drive it over to St. Martin of Tours Church in Gaithersburg where it is unloaded. More volunteers are needed to collect the food and load it into cars. Drivers may or may not be needed. If you are able to give an hour and a half on Saturdays once every 6 to 8 weeks please consider this most needed service opportunity. Please contact Merilee at librianmaster@hotmail.com if you are able to help with this worthy cause! NEW MEMBER CLASSES New member classes will be held on Sunday, November 6 th and 13 th from 6:00pm -7:30pm in the Welcome Center. Please call the office or office@neelsville.org to sign up! Frederick Road Germantown, MD You can reach the Office at office@neelsville.org TEL: (301) FAX: (301) Senior Pastor Rev. Dr. Peter Della Santina pete@neelsville.org Parish Associate ECO Ordination Candidate Rev. Derek Longbrake Paul Kim dereklongbrake@gmail.com paulkimjr@gmail.com Children & Family Ministry Jamie Swope neelsvillekids@gmail.com Youth Ministries Director Andy Herman amichaelherman@gmail.com Treasurer Choir Director Wendy Coulliard Steve Kim treasurernpc@gmail.com kieunstevekim@gmail.com Neelsville News is published by Neelsville Presbyterian Church. Submit Word files and photos by the 15 th of each month to neelsvillenewsletter@gmail.com. Sherrie Cardea, Melissa Blount FINANCIAL SNAPSHOT FINANCIAL UPDATE General Operating Fund: Through September, our Operating Income was $449,820 and Operating Expense was $430,805. This reflects an excess of income over expense, driven partially by reduction in staff over the summer. With recent hire activity however, we expect staffing expense to normalize over the coming months. Building Fund: Building Fund Income through September was $25,464, while the Mortgage Expense was $24,960. The Budget Committee thanks you for your generous and faithful giving. Year To Date Operating Income Received $449,820 Total Operating Expenses $430,805 Building Funds Received $25,464 Total Building Fund Expenses $24,960 Page 2 NEELSVILLE NEWS NOVEMBER 2016

3 PASTOR S CORNER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 ies, but convinced myself that I wasn t going into ministry and I was still going to be a musician. This resulted in me leaving that school after only one semester convinced that I was not doing the right thing for my musical career. When I came back to my hometown, I started going to a weekly Bible study with some other young adults. We started going through the book of Ecclesiastes. There was one night in particular that I will never forget, when the pastor leading the study hit us with this point; God isn t concerned with your happiness. It finally clicked. I was pursuing music because I thought that would make me happy. I was being extremely selfish. I knew where God was calling me, and whether I liked it or not that was what I needed to do. The young adult pastor at my church had taken an interest in me and began mentoring me very intensely helping to set me on the right path. Of course, now that I have accepted God s call I can t imagine doing anything else. What was it about the opportunity to serve at Neelsville, moving from New Mexico to Maryland, that peaked your interest? The main thing that peaked my interest is that Neelsville is a church that seeks to be Gospel-centered. I have grown tired of seeing churches whose primary concern is entertaining the attendees and having the biggest, flashiest service possible. I come from a background with a very large, attractional church where I worked for the past year after volunteering for several years before that. Working at that church I learned some really great things and I also learned a lot of things that don t work. The way they were able to bring students in was amazing, but it was all too easy to lose focus in the midst of the hype. Seeing a church that relies on the power of the Gospel as the strength of its ministry is incredibly refreshing (and biblical). Of course, no church is perfect but I believe that I have seen in Neelsville an amazing potential and a genuine heart for the glory of Christ. Becoming a part of this community is so exciting, made even more so by the fact that from the very first we received from Neelsville, Tamara and I have felt certain that God was calling us to serve here. practical ways (that I won t get into here for the sake of brevity). I also believe that it is crucial that I, alongside other leaders, are pouring into individual students in very personal ways. Students must be able to come in to our lives and see what following Christ looks like outside of Bible studies and service projects. What are some of your and Tamara s hobbies, interests and pastimes you enjoy? For me, reading takes up the majority of my free time. I love to study theology and Christian living. In addition, I also love watching hockey and playing the drums. Tam likes to cook, read, run and hike. Together, Tam and I like to go on road trips, go to concerts, try new restaurants, and play board games. How can we be specifically praying and supporting you two during the move and settling in here? We would love prayer for God to lead us as we arrive and start to work on the future of the ministry. That is one of the biggest ways you can help us. Also, one of the big things for us when we move will be getting to know people. We want to meet as many people as possible so when we get there please introduce yourselves! Youth Ministries Director Andy Herman and his wife Tamara As a young disciple of Jesus yourself, and with your experience so far in youth ministry, what do you think is most important in effective ministry and discipleship to middle and high school students? There are two things that come to mind for this question. The first is that Christ has to be at the heart of everything we do. Youth ministry cannot simply be an attempt to teach students to be moral. Effective youth ministry can be nothing less than us seeking to shine the light of the Gospel into the lives of these students every day. This is more than just rhetoric; it plays out in many extremely NEELSVILLE NEWS NOVEMBER 2016 Page 3

4 GREETINGS FROM ECO AND THE EAST CENTRAL PRESBYTERY You will find much information on ECO s website at www. eco-pres.org. Read the story of how ECO began, delve into the Essential Tenets, and peruse the resources available to churches in the denomination. I would like to share a little bit of a personal look at ECO. My church, Crestwood Presbyterian Church, in Richmond, Virginia, officially became a member of ECO in February of this year. Ours was a long journey but we now live in our new denominational home. While our day to day existence may not look much different, our missional core has become even stronger. The mission of ECO is to build flourishing churches that make disciples of Jesus Christ. The ECO motto, high trust, low control gives us the freedom to explore where we want to go as a congregation as we seek to serve Jesus and make disciples. At our presbytery meetings, time is allotted to Elders in Leadership training or ELI. This is teaching designed to help move us from the boardroom to the upper room. It is exciting to spend time with our brothers and sisters in ECO learning to be more missional. We are held accountable to our ECO family in our theology and are challenged to live out the mission of Christ for his church. ECO is a great place to put down new roots and begin to flourish. Ellen Cross, Ministry Partnership Team of the East Central Presbytery, ECO A COVENANT ORDER OF EVANGELICAL PRESBYTERIANS Our Mission: To build flourishing churches that make disciples of Jesus Christ. Our Core Values: Jesusshaped Identity: We believe Jesus Christ must be at the center of our lives and making disciples of Jesus at the core of our ministry. Biblical Integrity: We believe the Bible is the unique and authoritative Word of God, which teaches all that is necessary for faith and life. The prominence of God s Word DENOMINATION AND DISCERNMENT over our lives shapes our priorities, and the unrivaled authority of the Bible directs our actions to be in concert with Christ s very best for our lives. Thoughtful Theology: We believe in theological education, constant learning, and the life of the mind, and celebrate this as one of the treasures of our Reformed heritage. Accountable Community: We believe guidance is a corporate spiritual experience. We want to connect leaders to one another in healthy relationships of accountability, synergy, and care. Egalitarian Ministry: We believe in unleashing the ministry gifts of women, men, and every ethnic group. Missional Centrality: We believe in living out the whole of the Great Commission including evangelism, spiritual formation, compassion, and redemptive justice in our communities and around the world. Center-focused Spirituality: We believe in calling people to the core of what it means to be followers of Jesus what mere Christianity is and does and not fixate on the boundaries. Leadership Velocity: We believe identifying and developing gospel-centered leaders is critical for the church, and a great leadership culture is risk-taking, innovative, and organic. Kingdom Vitality: We believe congregations should vigorously reproduce new missional communities to expand the Kingdom of God. As a professing Christian growing up in a reformed presbyterian home, I knew I wanted to join an evangelical presbyterian denomination. However when my core values and beliefs of faith were challenged by postmodernism, it was helpful to go back to Scripture and start from beginning and that s exactly what I did. I went back to the Word of God and reexamined my belief and faith in Him and decided to join a new presbyterian denomination: ECO where I can fully express my faith in God joyfully with no doubt in my spirit. The name of denomination is self explanatory as it speaks its core commitments, ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterian. This is why I am thrilled to join ECO. Paul Kim, Jr. our candidate for ordination in ECO Page 4 NEELSVILLE NEWS NOVEMBER 2016

5 Hello Neelsville Family! Wow, it s hard to believe it has been two years since God called me to Indiana, PA! Our time in Indiana has been wonderful. While we greatly miss our friends and family at Neelsville, it is clear that God had plans for our family up here in this season of life. (I ve attached some pictures of our church, our house, and our family.) In that time, I ve gotten to know my new church, our new Presbytery, and our new denominational home in the EPC. My hope in this letter is to give a little info about the EPC and why I m overjoyed and proud to be a Teaching Elder in the EPC. For me, the EPC had familiarity in its function and structure but clarity and movement in its mission and ministry. The EPC boomed in the last 8 years with ex-pcusa congregations, and it is exciting to see how God is leading churches who wrestled for years with discouragement in the PCUSA into fruitful, Gospel-centered ministry. The denomination is at a sweet size of being large enough to do some powerful ministry yet small enough that every church can participate in one of these major efforts. Denominational connection is one of the most beautiful things about Presbyterian polity. With all of these exciting moves I ve seen in the EPC, I keep thinking to myself, I hope Neelsville can be a part of this! I can think of several exciting and low cost ways Neelsville could get on board with these exciting initiatives in the EPC. From a few conversations I ve had with Elders at Ryan, Elliott, and Lauren Mowen DENOMINATION AND DISCERNMENT Neelsville, the biggest concern about the EPC may be centered on women in ministry. How can egalitarian and complementarian churches coexist? I can only speak from my experience. They exist quite well when they are united around a love for Christ and truly have love for one another. I ve never seen an issue raised about women in ministry. Graystone is passionately egalitarian and we share presbyteries with a founding EPC church that is not. Our relationship is strong and we love partnering together in ministry. In summary, the EPC truly lives out the motto, In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity. Inside the denomination, conversations of non-essentials happen with charity, love, and liberty. As mentioned before, many ex-pcusa congregations have joined the EPC. There are many more egalitarian churches than complementarian ones. In closing, the EPC has a lot of growing pains, but the good kind. They are praying that God will bring in churches equipped to do gospel ministry and bring renewal and revival into communities through clear preaching of the Word, right administration of the sacraments, and church discipline (gospel-centered accountability and restoration). Ryan Mowen, Associate Pastor Graystone Evangelical Church Graystone Church (Ryan s New Church) Ryan and Lauren s House Inside Graystone Church NEELSVILLE NEWS NOVEMBER 2016 Page 5

6 COMMUNION CLASS Children age second grade and up are welcome to join us for a special Communion Class with Pastor Pete and Jamie Sunday after second service from 12:00-1:30pm November 20 th. RSVP to neelsvillekids@gmail.com. A pizza lunch will be served. T E A C H encourage instruct MENTOR Praise influence GUIDE INSPIRE CALLING ALL SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS... YES, YOU! Do you love children and have a heart to show them Christ? We are in big need of several teachers for Sunday School. It would require teaching once to twice a month. Please Jamie at neelsvillkids@gmail.com to learn more. KIDS & FAMILY MINISTRY JESSE TREE ORNAMENT EXCHANGE Neelsville Family Ministry is hosting a special Jesse Tree Ornament Exchange. The Jesse Tree represents the family tree, or genealogy, of Jesus Christ. It tells the story of God s salvation plan, beginning with creation and continuing through the Old Testament to the coming of the Messiah. The name Jesse Tree comes from Isaiah 11:1, Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. (NASB) Each day of Advent a homemade ornament is added to the Jesse Tree a small tree made of evergreen branches or any creative materials you choose to use. The symbolic ornaments each represent a prophecy foretelling of Christ. Spots are limited for this exchange. The exchange event is tentatively set for Monday, November 21 st, but attendance is not mandatory to participate. Please Jamie at neelsvillkids@gmail.com to sign-up to make of one type of ornament no later than November 10 th. CHILDREN S CHRISTMASTIME CHOIR Children, join us for a special choir and singing opportunity for the Christmas season! Rehearsals will start Sunday, November 13 th from 9:00-9:25am before Sunday School in Room 1. We will be performing December 18 th at Sunday services and at the Saturday evening Family Christmas Eve Service on December 24 th at 5:00pm. Children can participate if they can make at least one of those performance times. Please Jamie at neelsvillekids@gmail.com to sign up. TRUNK-OR-TREAT THANKS! Thank you to all who made this year s Trunk-or-Treat event a successful outreach with your awesome trunks, generous hearts, and assistance with games. Special thanks to the Nelsons, Swopes and Macris who served on the leadership team for this event. NPC s Page 6 NEELSVILLE NEWS NOVEMBER 2016

7 COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS; NAME THEM ONE BY ONE! Christmas Poinsettia Order Form Help decorate the sanctuary this Christmas season by ordering red or white poinsettias! Each plant is only $10 and can either be picked up after the Christmas Eve service or be donated for NPC Deacons to deliver to someone over the Christmas holiday. Please turn in your order by Sunday, December 4 th. Your Name Your Phone or Number of Plants Color: Red White Amount Enclosed (number of plants x $10.00) (Make checks payable to N.P.C. with Christmas Poinsettia in the memo section.) I will pick up my flowers after the last Christmas service. Brighten someone else s day with my flowers. Optional: In honor of In memory of NEELSVILLE NEWS NOVEMBER 2016 Page 7

8 WHERE TO LOOK IN WORSHIP Look Up Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3: 2-3) Worship is about God, not about us. So if something is distracting you on any particular Sunday morning from this focus, commit yourself to guide your thoughts to the excellency of Jesus. It is your job to... take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10: 5 No one and no thing can prevent you from fulfilling this responsibility. Look In Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139: 23-24) As we gather in worship and are reminded of the greatness of who God is and what he has done for us, we cannot help but come to a better understanding of ourselves. When we speak and sing about God s holiness, justice, goodness, and truth, and meditate on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we are challenged to examine our own hearts. Have I addressed my own sin? What must I grab hold of by faith? What is God challenging me to do? In worship, the Holy Spirit moves to convict us. Of what must I repent? What truth do I need to believe and delight in? Look Around... addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. (Ephesians 5:19 Worship is primarily about God and our vertical relationship to him. But there is a horizontal dimension as well. The people around us are part of God s family, our brothers and sisters. Do I know them? Serve them? Pray for and encourage them? Have I realized that God is calling me to do these things, and not just on Sunday morning? Worship should help us grow in affection for one another. Our congregation is wonderfully diverse in age, ethnicity and background. We often have different preferences for styles of worship, but we submit our personal inclinations to the joy of joining together in freedom to praise and honor God and to hear his word proclaimed. Look Back I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds. (Psalm 77: 12) What happens after the worship service when you are heading home? Make a choice to look back to what you WORSHIP sang, prayed, and heard. Talk about it with other people so that God s truth may be driven further into your own heart. Continue preaching the message to yourself. Consider what God may desire to do in and through you. If you have ever felt that you got nothing out of a worship service, perhaps it is because you came expecting nothing, then left all that you heard behind you. God intends that we take his message with us wherever we go. Come to worship with EXPECTATION. God is going to speak! Will we listen? God is present. Will we be seeking him? Ideas from an article in Tabletalk magazine by Rev. Joe Thorn, August 2016 WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE ADVENT WREATH? The Advent wreath visually marks the time leading up to Christmas and symbolizes the increasing light as Christ draws near to us. The use of such wreaths began as a family devotional practice in German homes in the 1600s. Widespread liturgical use only dates back to the middle of the 20 th century. Each of the four candles around the periphery of the wreath marks one of the Sundays in Advent; the white Christ candle in the center is lit on Christmas Eve. There are three purple candles. Purple symbolizes royalty and the sovereignty of Christ and reminds us that Jesus comes as our King. Our Advent wreath also includes a pink candle symbolizing Joy. Over the years, some have attached particular interpretations to individual candles, such as shepherds, angels, wise men and Mary; or hope, peace, joy and love. Far more important than any correlation of a candle to a special meaning, is the growing intensity of our celebration of Jesus first coming more than 2,000 years ago, and our anticipation of Christ s coming again in glory. faq-signssymbols/ Page 8 NEELSVILLE NEWS NOVEMBER 2016

9 FELLOWSHIP KNITTERS AND CROCHETERS The knitting and crocheting group will meet the second Saturday of November, on November 12 th, from 10:00am-12:00pm in the Conference Room next to the Library. Come update your skills and meet other knitters and crocheters who enjoy making things for others. Questions? Contact Marilyn Splete at D&D CORNER CONGREGATIONAL TOWN HALL MEETINGS ANNUAL CHRISTMAS PARTY AND YANKEE SWAP All adults are invited to this year s Christmas Party and Yankee Swap, which will be held on Saturday, December 3 rd at 6:00pm in the Fellowship Hall. The event will start with a potluck dinner, music, a devotion, and ends with the traditional gift swap. Come join in the fun there are always surprises! The Yankee Swap began as the Christmas event of the adult fellowship group many, many years ago. Some of us remember attending our first Yankee Swap in the 1980 s and it is still going strong! Please bring a potluck dish to share and a wrapped inexpensive gift to swap one gift per couple or single attending. Gifts can be new, recycled, funny, serious, food anything goes! We have had some very creative gifts in the past. RSVPs will make our planning easier. You can let us know if you are coming by contacting Mary Esther Michels at michelsme@verizon.net, or Volunteers for set-up and cleanup are always welcomed and appreciated! Sunday, November 6 th and 13 th, 4:00pm - 5:30pm The Presbytery s Discernment Task Force, which has previously met with our Session, is calling these meetings for the purpose of discerning the will of the congregation with regard to the status of Neelsville as a member of the PC(USA). (For those who can t attend on November 6 th, a second option is Thursday, November 10 th, 7:00pm - 8:30pm.) 500 YEARS OF PROTESTANT REFORMATION Reformation Day, October 31 st, marks the anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his Ninety-five Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. Historians and theologians recognize that audacious act by a Catholic monk as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. The theological debate they began is the beginning of Lutheran, Anabaptist and Reformed theology within the Christian religion. As an expression of his displeasure with the church, Luther nailed this document to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Luther s primary concerns surrounded indulgences- a pardon for certain types of sin- that the Roman Catholic Church was selling as a fundraiser for renovations of St. Peter s Basilica. Luther felt it wrong that penance for sin had become a commer- cial transaction rather than a change of heart. The Ninety-five Theses was Luther s outline of what he planned to discuss in a lecture at the University of Wittenberg that aimed to expose what he felt was a fraud to the people. According to theologian R.C. Sproul, the true catalyst of the Reformation was not merely that one act, but an understanding. The doctrine of Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) was the true cause of the Protestant Reformation. Through the study of God s Word, Martin Luther and others like him became convinced that Scripture alone was sufficient for salvation and sanctification; that the teaching and traditions of the Catholic Church were actually impediments to truly knowing and loving the Lord. NEELSVILLE NEWS NOVEMBER 2016 Page 9

10 LOCAL MISSIONS THE 2016 GIVING TREE MINISTRY As the leaves start to turn and the days grow shorter we realize the holidays are quickly upon us. To that end please start looking for information about our 2016 Giving Tree Ministry. For those who may not have heard about our Giving Tree in the past, our Local Mission Committee has helped needy families in the area with food and gifts during the Christmas season. Last year we were able to help 12 families and 8 foster children with gifts of food, clothing and toys for the kids. You are asked to provide a gift for a child or bake a homemade goodie for the family. If you would like to help with this mission project we could use your time and talents. Please feel free to contact Jim Hensley directly at (703) All the details will be in the December newsletter and weekly bulletin announcements. Please consider helping with the Giving Tree with your thoughts, prayers and action to provide for others. Look for the Giving Tree in the Narthex! TRUSTEE NEWS OPEN HOUSE STYLE CHURCH WORK DAY Thank you to everyone who came out to help with our open house style Church Work Day on in October! We accomplished many homeowner-type repairs, maintenance, cleaning and gardening! There are always projects on our to do list so contact Sandy Hutto if you didn t make it but would like to help out at your convenience. Many hands make light work! NPC Trustees SESSION NOTES NOTES FROM THE OCTOBER MEETING Session met on October 20 th, with 7 of 10 elders and Pastor Pete present. Pastor Pete opened the meeting with prayer. Pastor Pete reported on an upcoming baptism and a new members class starting in November. He also gave an update on the status of the projector and screen installation in the sanctuary, which is waiting on contractor bids. The Session, which had met with the Presbytery s Neelsville Discernment team at the September meeting, discussed the Town Hall Meetings which were subsequently scheduled in November, including how Session can help the congregation prepare for these meetings. Session also: Discussed the Small Group Training led by Paul Kim, Jr., which has had its initial meeting. Addressed a request for additional financial assistance for a Global Mission ministry. Discussed the annual Stewardship campaign. November 20 th is Stewardship Sunday. Provided the Trustees guidance on building use issues. Page 10 NEELSVILLE NEWS NOVEMBER 2016 LIBRARY NEWS NEW BOOKS IN OUR CHURCH LIBRARY The Bible in History and Literature, by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools The Daniel Plan, and The Daniel Plan Cookbook, by Rich Warren and others Handbells, by Trevor S. Jennings A Love Worth Giving: Living in the Overflow of God s Love, by Max Lucado The Top 100 Women of the Christian Faith, by Jewell Johnson

11 GLOBAL MISSIONS November 6 th is Shoebox Sunday! Neelsville will be collecting shoeboxes filled with small gifts to send to children in underprivileged countries to brighten their day and provide them with information about Jesus love. Last year NPC members provided 68 shoeboxes for OCC! Can we fill 75 or 100 this year? If you haven t picked up a pre-printed shoebox yet, please see the display in the Narthex, or provide your own shoebox with wrapping paper (lid is wrapped separately). Plastic containers work wonderfully, too. OCC is a Christian program run by Samaritan s Purse. A small shoebox can teach a child about God s love, lead him or her to faith in Jesus, inspire pastors and plant churches. What goes into the box is fun, but what comes out is eternal! We are adding a new challenge this year as a Sunday School service project for Pre-school through 12 th grade classes. In addition to family-filled shoeboxes, the Sunday School students are donating individual items to fill shoeboxes, as well. A shoebox packing party will be held on Sunday, November 6 th at 9:00am in the Fellowship Hall (light goodies will be provided). Adult Sunday School classes can participate, too, by sponsoring the $7.00 shipping fee for each shoebox prepared by the children s classes. Your filled shoeboxes will be collected between November 6 th 13 th. If you have any questions or are interested in assisting with this wonderful global missions project, please contact Sue Green at suegreen0302@verizon.net. Look for additional information, labels and ideas for items to include in the shoeboxes in the Narthex. Look for labels like these in the Narthex! Need Christmas gift ideas for your loved ones? Pick up a copy of World Vision s Gift Catalog and purchase a life changing gift! Order by mail, phone or online. An amazing 84% of every gift goes to programs helping children and families overcome poverty in nearly 100 countries. Catalogs will be available in the Narthex and Welcome Center. Art and Music Instruction-$20 Child Survival Kit-$42 1 Duck-$35 1 Rabbit-$19 2 Chickens-$25...and there s LOTS more! Water for one person-$50 2 Soccer Balls-$16 Share of a deep well-$100 NEELSVILLE NEWS NOVEMBER 2016 Page 11

12 Non-Profit Organization Frederick Road Germantown, MD US Postage PAID Suburban, MD Permit No ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED Worship,Grow,Go and Celebrate Changed Life! a Advent Season b The Season of Advent begins Sunday, November 27 th. We will be looking for individuals and families to read Advent Candle Devotions at both 9:30am and 11:00am services for all four Sundays of Advent. Christmas Eve Services... Saturday, December 24 th (no Communion) 5:00pm 7:00pm 9:00pm Family Friendly Service A Candlelight Service of Lessons and Carols including music from Chancel Choir, Praise Team, Handbells and Instrumentalists Candlelight Service Christmas Day Service... Sunday, December 25 th (with Communion) 11:00am Only service of the day New Year s Day Service... Sunday, January 1 st 11:00am Only service of the day January Communion Service... Sunday, January 8 th 9:30am Service with Communion and Sunday School 11:00 am Service with Communion