The Contributor s Pen: by Jane Els A condensed version of the sermon I delivered a few weeks ago..

Transcription

1 November 2015 Extending God s Grace throughout Northeast Texas The Contributor s Pen: by Jane Els A condensed version of the sermon I delivered a few weeks ago.. I am not one to be intimidated by not having a pastor. In fact, I think the times between having a professionally trained clergy can be a great reminder that pastors come and go; it s the congregation who stay. It is Jesus who stays. It is Jesus who is ultimately in charge. Not having a pastor can be a refreshing reminder of exactly who is in charge of our church. But I understand how it can be unsettling and a little scary. So I like to go to the Hebrews 11 and 12 scripture to make me feel better. Having a Great Cloud of Witnesses cheering me on always makes me feel better. We re probably not going to run up against anything as hard as the folks in Hebrews 11 did. We aren t likely to be stoned or flogged or sawn in half or anything else nearly as bad as that. Our lives today are so much more different than when Jesus lived. We fight an uphill battle to compare our lives with the great cloud of witnesses that Paul writes about. But we have our more current witnesses: We ve had them right here in our congregation. And they lived in hard times. This church was organized in 1871, barely after the Civil War ended. When Johnny came marching home again one of the first thing he wanted to do was go to church. Our congregation started out with 11 members. The original sanctuary was across town on Church St. where the cemetery is now. I m guessing that we are the church that the street was named for. Then in 1907 we moved out here to this location on Myrtle and Chestnut.We bought a school building that was located elsewhere in town and moved it to this site on log rollers pulled by mules. We re sitting in that building. An old school house. Our pews--while refurbished in 2000 when the sanctuary was remodeled--date back to You are sitting in 100 year-old pews. Inside a 100-year old building. You are rubbing elbows with people who were influenced by people who chartered this congregation.the Templeton family are ancestors of Ann Moore. Louise Reid and Whitson Reid, brother and sister who never married and left their entire estates to this church and continue to bless our church with their love. We were blessed with men like Hoodrow Melton, whose hat still hangs in the Narthex. When the church appeared to be dying and had dropped down to 12 members, Hoodrow called the Presbytery and asked for help. The Presbytery sent help. They sent money and a full-time pastor. And together they built the church back up to 85 members, which is about where we stand today. There were saints like Myles and Dorothy Evans, the Boureks, Billie and Roy Bennett, the Agnews---there was a whole group who moved from the First Presbyterian Church in Garland and retired out here. From 12 members when we thought we might have to shut it down to 85 and we haven t stopped. The day John Pflug was installed we had one youth. Today we have 25. We are surrounded by a Great Cloud of Witnesses whose names we remember and who relatives and descendants we know, who still sit in this room with us. There is yet another Great Cloud of Witnesses. And we are surrounded by them. Remember that witnesses, by definition, really don t do much on their own. Even Moses didn t part the Red Sea on his own. He only held up the staff God gave him. God did the heavy lifting, so to speak. Moses merely witnessed the Mighty Acts of God. A witness in a court room only tells what they saw. We are surrounded by witnesses today who can t talk but who have seen it all. Heard it all. Every prayer. Every Hallelujah. Every sob. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who have attended every Sunday worship service since 1907, who have never missed a Christmas Eve service or an Easter Morning, nor a wedding nor a funeral. Who have felt every tear shed and every giggle suppressed. And you are surrounded by them.

2 These witnesses are the pews you are sitting in. The pew surrounds you, supports you. From beneath. From behind. Barbara-Brown Taylor calls these old ones, these veterans-- by a term I fell in love with the minute I heard it: She calls them prayer-soaked pews. I am a great lover of these old style pews. I don t trust the new individual theatre type metal things with cushions.i half-expect to find cup holders. No I like the kind where you have one long plank and share it with a neighbor. I grew up sitting in them at Oak Cliff Presbyterian Church in Dallas, then raised my family in pews like them at the Garland church. These pews remind me of the ones at St Paul s Chapel in New York City. That church stands one block from the World Trade Center. It served as a place of respite for the first responders after the towers fell. If Barbara Brown Taylor wants to see some Prayer Soaked Pews, if she wants to see tear-soaked pews, she can go to St Paul s Chapel. That is where they slept when they weren t on duty. That is where they went to pray. Then, eight months later St Paul s Chapel was back in business as before, as a regular church. Which is what it is doing today, just as it was doing back in 1775 when it began doing just what our sanctuary does. Soaking up prayers. Regular prayers of regular people. Those pews are witnesses. Those are prayer-soaked pews. They had their own job to do. Our pews have their job. They have done it for over 100 years. Let them do their job. To God be the glory. Amen. Presbyterian Women Come to the Waters" PW will be meeting November 2, at 10:00 AM, in the Reid building. We will be looking at lesson 3, Absence of Water Thirst and Longing (Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 42:1-2; 63:1, John 19:28) Join us as we study God s word. See ya then! Noisy Offering November s Noisy offering will go to the American Legion, In Pittsburg for the nursery. December will go to the Winnsboro Resource Center (WRC) Mark your calendars!!! December 7 we will be hosting the Quitman Hand bell choir at 2 PM, in the Sanctuary!

3 From the Desk of Ruth Shelton Adversity: (James 1: 1-27) Murphy s Law affirms: If anything can go wrong it probably will. O Toole s commentary on Murphy s Law alleges that Murphy was an optimist. I have to agree. Things keep going wrong; adversity chases us. We hope that someday life will improve--when we marry, when we get out of school, when we get out of debt, when we retire--but our expectations never coincide with our realizations. Since personal discomfort is inevitable, we ought to make the most of it and learn to suffer successfully. James explained: Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (James 1: 2-4). The supernatural reaction to adversity is joy, a word James used to imply contentment or well-being rather than mirth. When discomfort overtakes us we don t have to take to our beds or a bottle. We re okay. The key to reacting with joy is to know that the pain of life is purposeful. Suffering has meaning, adversity is working for us, producing endurance. Endurance is not mere resignation, tooth-clenched determination to tough it out to the end. That may be Stoic but it isn t Christian. James understood endurance as simple persistence, doing God s will in the face of counter-influences, forgiving slights and unkindness for the four-hundred-and-ninetieth time, staying with a difficult marriage, struggling against enslaving habits. Endurance means choosing purity of mind and body when to do so means lonely days and long nights, keeping one s word despite the pain of keeping it, and obeying God s Word when life is hard and when obedience hurts. But the prospects aren t grim. Endurance yields a product--real men, tested and tough. Suffering makes us what George Fox called established men --stable, dependable, durable, and strong. Unfortunately, our concept of God s goodness is based on the faulty assumption that personal happiness is the highest good. True happiness, however, is something more profound than staying in the comfort zone. There are things to be done about our character that can only be done by suffering. To shield us from this suffering would not be good; it would, in fact, rob us of the highest possible good. And so our Lord permits suffering in order to mold us. Pain puts us on notice that we cannot do without God and pushes us closer to Him; it shatters the illusion that we re adequate in ourselves. It draws us close to God, and in Him we find the resources to face life and its demands. Without suffering we could never make the most of our manhood.

4 That s why God seems careless about pain when it comes to His own. Disappointment, disenchantment, business, domestic, and financial problems are out lot. The way is strenuous, but on ahead is manliness. Dale Martin Stone wrote: When God wants to drill and skill a man; When he wants to mold a man to play the noblest part. When he yearns with all his heart to create so great and bold a man that all the world will be amazed. How he ruthlessly perfects whom he royally selects. How he hammers him and hurts him and with mighty blows converts him into trial shapes of clay which only God can understand. How he bends but never breaks when his good he undertakes. How he uses whom he chooses and with every purpose fuses him; by every act induces him to try his power out. God knows what he s about! David Roper; from The Strength of a Man, Discovery House Publishers; pp *Don t feel left out, ladies, this also applies to you... Here We Grow! NEW ADDRESS: Hannah & Jordan Horstman (Clark) 2403 Ventura Dr. Austin, TX Stevie, Dustin & Cheyene Brown 840 FM 21 Mt. Vernon, TX Attendance: September September October 4 38 October October October Ronald Nelson Pressly January 1, September 30, 2015 Mr. Ronald Nelson Pressly passed away on Wednesday, September, 30, 2015, at the age of 87. He was born on January 1, 1928 to the late Hal Gilbert Pressly and Annie Fredna James Pressly. Mr. Pressly served in the U.S. Navy during WWII and Korean War. He was a past president of the Rotary International in Odessa, TX, served as a Mason, served in Nepal doing missionary work, climbed Mt. Everest to the base camp, member of the First Presbyterian Church in Winnsboro, and was preceded in death by his parents, and one sister, Mary Britton. Survivors include his daughters and sons-in-law, Patricia and John Clark of Winnsboro, Ronda and Jim Wallis of Fairfax, VA; brothers, Kirby Pressly and Jimmy Pressly; four grandchildren, Lauren Wallis, Holly Clark-Porter, Hannah Horstman and Nathan Clark. Memorial service November 27, FPC-Winnsboro.

5 Pastor Session members: Class of 2015 Chris Holloman and Don Kettleson Class of 2016 Jane Els, Larry Pendergrass and James Spurgeon Class of 2017 Al Moore and Bob Kelm Treasurer Jerry Poe Contact us: Tina Hammer, Secretary PO Box S. Walnut St. Winnsboro, TX Office: Fax: Office hours: M-Th, 9-noon FPC Website: Cross and Crown articles: Note: The kitchen has a stack of pans, trays, etc. that do not belong to us. Please claim yours. Brittany Pflug s grandfather (Papaw) Donald Ray Richard Sr., 76, of Austin, Texas passed away on Tuesday, October 20, He was born on July 15, 1939.

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7 Poinsettias for Christmas The Poinsettias that decorate our church for Christmas will be ordered from Lowe s. Each plant is $ If you would like to order one (or more), please fill out the information below and place the sheet in the offering plate with your check made out to Presbyterian Church for the proper amount (please indicate for poinsettias on check), or drop it off at the office. December 2, 2015 will be the last day we accept orders. Given By: In Honor Of: OR In Memory of: Total # Plants Ordered: Total Enclosed: $ Poinsettias may be picked up after Christmas Eve Candlelight service. Saturday, November 7 is the church clean-up day and the youth will be making crafts to sell at Christmas in the Park! Come on out!

8 First Presbyterian Church Birthdays/Anniversaries 1 Daylight Savings Ends COMMUNION Goal cards due Claudia Moore November 2015 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 2 PW 10 am pm Supper & Bible basics-reid 8 CONGREGATIONAL MEETING Camp Gilmont 75 th Anniversary 9 15 Family Lunch 16 Kelly Drennan 10 Rhonda Thomas Bonnie Vander Schaaf 17 6 pm Session budget mtg.-office 11 6 pm Supper & Bible basics pm Kairos Vanessa Spurgeon Daniel Wilson 7 9:30 am Church clean-up & crafts Noon Al-Anon Christmas in the Park 9-3: Camp Gilmont 75 th Anniversary Noon Al-Anon P-Mary Alice Phillips 6 pm Supper & Bible basics Dinah Dennis Noon Al-Anon Cross & Crown articles due by 9 am pm Supper & Bible basics 26 Thanksgiving Office closed 27 Memorial for Ron Pressly 28 Noon Al-Anon Nyla Kettleson 29 Noisy Offering 30 Jane Els P-Jimmy Alford