Chanticleer. Volume 90, Issue 6

Transcription

1 Chanticleer Volume 90, Issue 6 Dear Friends, Pentecost is the birthday of the church. The story in the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles tells of the coming of the Holy Spirit. It comes with gifts for ministry, allowing the church to continue the work of liberation and good news that began in Jesus Christ. The gifts of the Spirit all share a common trait: they are given for the sake of taking care of other people and building up community. The Spirit is known when we see how it blossoms and flourishes, by its fruit in biblical language: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. When we see these, the Spirit is present! Pentecost means fifty days. Fifty days after the first Easter, the Holy Spirit made a spectacular appearance. Tongues of fire appeared above the heads of Jesus followers, and they spoke. They told the story of the Good News of Jesus. And everyone who was visiting Jerusalem from all over the place understood them in their own language, in the way that they got it. Today, our technologies for communication change rapidly. Some folks still resist . Others use Facebook, Twitter, texting, messaging, Snapchat, Instagram, or more. By the time you read this, perhaps there will be more and some of these will seem obsolete. My point is not that everyone must use the same technology. However, if the church is going to be and share good news with our neighbors (and our members) we need to do so in the ways that they will read, hear, or otherwise get it. We do a fairly good job of getting the word our via bulletin, Chanticleer, worship announcements, , website, and Facebook. Is there room for improvement? Always. And even with all these, some people still do not get the message. Getting the message to church folks is one thing; getting it to people outside the church is another. Articles in the local paper, on the website, or published on Facebook help. We are exploring other options as well. A special thank you to everyone who shares and likes things on our Facebook page. Sharing things is the number one way to help more people know what is going on! Of course, this is also true in conversations in the real world. Word of mouth is still the most powerful tool the church has. Help us share good news and church events. Let people know about a place where we so often see, and try to live in to, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Tell people about the church! Grace and Peace, Phil

2 Advisory Update **Home and Business EXPO-Thanks to everyone who helped make this a success. We had conversations with many folks who were especially interested in our Be the Church banner. We also gave away over 250 yummy treats. **We had a report from Terry Davis on the Bylaws committee. Please be sure to take time to give your feedback on boards and committees on which you have served. This will guide us as we move forward. Watch for a short survey in the Chanticleer and bulletin. **Lots of things are happening and are about to happen. Please watch for the latest information in the bulletins, the church webpage and our Facebook page. As always, if you have questions, concerns, or just want to see what happens you are invited to come to the Advisory meetings. The next meeting will be July 20 at 6:30 in the large Annex meeting room. Amy Frost, Moderator Upcoming Church Activities June 4 6:30 pm - Movie Night - Lounge June 7 Choir Concert June 8 6:30 pm - By-Laws Review Mtg. A/Lib June 12 6:30 pm Blanche Moyer Circle Lounge June 19 6:30 pm Summer Story Hour Annex June 25 3:30 pm to 5 pm at the Eagles Community Dinner July 2 6:30 pm - Movie Night Lounge August 6 6:30 pm Movie Night - Lounge August 9 3:30 to 5 pm at the Eagles Community Dinner August 30 3:30 to 5 pm at the Eagles Community Dinner September 3 6:30 pm Movie Night L September 20 3:30 to 5 pm at the Eagles Community Dinner October 2 6:30 pm Movie Night - L October 15 Noon to 2 pm - Harvest Feast October 25 3:30 to 5 Eagles - Community Dinner Nov 3&4 Bazaar Nov 5 6:30 pm Movie Night - L Nov 24&25 Festival of Trees Dec 2 9 am - Hanging of the Greens Dec 3 6:30 pm Movie Night L Dec 13 3:30 5 pm Eagles - Community Dinner

3 Been thinking of providing an altar arrangement but haven t got to it yet----well here s your chance since there are still openings for the upcoming months. Maybe you even have flowers blooming in your yard you d like to share. Check the Flower Chart to see what dates are available and let Sher know what you want in the Sunday bulletin. This church has a very long history of having flowers on the altar each week. It is something we can be proud of as many churches do not have this tradition. Movie Night June 4 th! Save the date for our next movie night: Sunday, June 4th at 6:30 PM in the lounge. Join us as we watch the inspiring and powerful drama, The Butler. Inspired by a true story, Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker stars as Cecil Gaines, the devoted husband, father and White House butler who served seven presidents during some of the most tumultuous and defining moments of the 20 th century. Oprah Winfrey co-stars with a stellar supporting cast that includes John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding, Jr, Terrance Howard, Lenny Kravitz, James Marsden, David Oyelowo, Alan Rickman and Robin Williams. Summer Junior Church This year's regular Sunday School will end on June 11th. We will offer Sunday activities for children twice a month during the summer. If you could read a book and share an activity (all materials provided) with our children, please sign up in the Bess Fulton room, or contact Judy Thank you from the CE Board!!

4 From the Trustees, Approved Financial Figures as of April 30, 2017 (General Budget Only, NOT restricted accounts) Month of April 2017 Income: $20, Expense: $12, Loss: $ 8, January 1 thru April 30, 2017 Income: $74, Expense: $64, Gain: $ 9, Board of Trustees - Sunday Counters June 4 Maria Davis & Judi Cates June 11 Lisa Jackson & Davis Frost June 18 Maria Davis & Don Johnson June 25 Ron Field & Bill Rinckey July 2 Maria Davis & Judi Cates

5 In Concert! Senior Choir and Celestial Bell Choir Wed, June 7 th at 7 PM Church Sanctuary Refreshments to follow Please join our choirs as they perform favorite anthems and bell pieces from the last year. It will be a wonderful evening of beautiful and uplifting music, yummy treats, and quality time spent with our church family!

6 Congratulations to our Graduates! Larry Taylor & Peggy Retzloff are proud to announce that Frankie Taylor will be graduating from Charlotte High School in Frankie will be attending Michigan Tech (way up north) starting this fall. Her choice of study is Chemical Engineering. We pray for her and her parents on Frankie s next journey. Cydne Caroline Johnson will graduate from Charlotte High School. She is the granddaughter of Leonard & Donna Mae Johnson. Cydne will be attending Western this fall. Lucas Carson-Shawn Reist is the son of Arthur Reist and Lachelle Plue and the grandson of Chris Reist. Lucas has maintained a 4.0 GPA throughout the past four school years. He has split his time between Olivet High School and the Battle Creek Area Mathematics and Science Center. He is a member of the National Honors Society Chapter of Olivet High School, helped with community dinners, Easter dinners and Mobile Meals. Lucas will be studying Biochemistry at the College of Literature, Sciences and the Arts at the University of Michigan. Pham Nguyen, son of Deanna Rendel and Thuc Nguyen and grandson of David and Neola Rendel, graduated from Michigan State University with a Bachelor of Science in Astrophysics. His future plans include graduate school. Le Nguyen graduated from Holt High School. He will be attending Lansing Community College next year then plans on transferring to University of Michigan. Luke Slot is the son of Matt & Amy Slot and will be graduating Charlotte High School. Luke will be attending Central Michigan for Geology. Danielle Erin Chapin graduated on May 7, 2017 from Michigan State University in Art Education and Art History She will be interning in teaching art in the mid-michigan area next year. Danielle is the daughter of Kevin and Lisa Lehman Chapin and granddaughter of Jerry and Dyna Lehman. Brianne Lea Edgar will be graduating on June 9, 2017 from Wayzata High School in Medina, Minnesota. Brianne will be perusing a career in the arts. She is the daughter of Ron and Raelee Lehman Edgar and granddaughter of Jerry and Dyna Lehman. Kara (Lowe) Peterson, daughter of Brent & Tammy and granddaughter of Doug & Jan, graduated May 6 th with an Associate Degree of Nursing from Colorado Mountain College. She will finish her Bachelor of Nursing in January Trent Lowe, son of Brent & Tammy and grandson of Doug & Jan Lowe has been honored to have been accepted to the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business class of 2019.

7 This article should be short and sweet this month. Outreach did not meet in May due to the revisioning meeting the 3 rd Sunday. We meet again June 18. We had a community dinner May 3. Served about 60 plus the servers. Had a nice ham dinner using the leftovers from the Easter dinner. Chris Reist has agreed to do 4 more dinners this year using the money people gave at the Easter dinner. The concert on the square that we are sponsoring is August 10. That is all I know right now. When I hear which band is going to be there, I will let you all know. Our presence at the Home and Business Expo was a success. Many people liked our Be The Church banner and engaged in conversation with those manning the table. I believe 2 people have come to services at the church since. We completed our yard cleanups. We did 3 this year. This hangs in my home. It s by Mother Teresa People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway. Stay tuned. Mary Normand. chair

8 Revision of First Congregational Church UCC Bylaws One of the major concerns expressed about our bylaws is that 72 people are needed to have a full complement on all of our boards and committees. We currently have 30-36% of our board seats empty. Also, after careful review of the bylaws, it is obvious that our board structure and responsibilities have morphed into something a bit different than what the bylaws dictate. In some of the initial discussions with various members of the congregation it has been determined that there are people that are very concerned with the concept of signing up for a board for a three-year period. There s also been concern expressed that people feel that they cannot be involved with projects on which a particular board is working unless they are actually voting members of that board. Therefore, Advisory Council decided to start the process of revising those bylaws to make a few things clearer and to see if there was any way to streamline some of the boards. Advisory authorized a small committee at their January meeting to discuss revising or redoing the current bylaws. This group consists of Amy Frost, Helen Schneider, Bill Anderson, Kathie Cook, Terry Davis and Phil Hobson. This group has met twice and has determined a general direction in which we want to focus our efforts. At this point, it is important to us, to get some feedback from the congregation. It would be of great value to us if you could take a little time to answer the following questions. As much as you wish to say or as little as you d like to say would be helpful. Feel free to meet one-on-one with one of the individuals listed above. Also feel free to answer these questions anonymously. Please scratch down on a piece of paper your thoughts about the following questions and leave it in the church office or put in the offering plate or return it to one of the folks listed above, or me at the address listed below. 1) Do you have or have access to a current copy of the First Congregational Church Bylaws and the 2013 Policies and Procedures booklet? 2) On which boards have you served and what was your impression of what that/those boards were supposed to do? 3) Were those boards effective in what you perceived to have been their mission?

9 4) How could those boards have been changed to run more effectively? 5) Were there too many or not enough people on the board? How many should be on them? 6) Were activities of the board voted on by all the members? 7) Were there or could there be a place to participate with those boards with regard to people who are in Charlotte only part of the year or who only want to be involved in parts of the mission of that board? Thank you very much for your feedback. It will be invaluable to the bylaws revision group. Terry Davis 5/17/2017 tdavis@msu.edu The new stove and refrigerator are here. Please check them out if you have not seen them yet. They are beautiful! Thank you to Women s Fellowship for funding the majority of this project and to the Trustees for approving the purchase of the stove and refrigerator, and for approving using Capital Campaign funds to pay the remaining costs. For those of you who may not be aware, the stove was becoming too unreliable and the refrigerator was leaking coolant in areas that could not be reached for repair. Mary Normand

10 NOTES FROM THE ARCHIVES By Auntie Archive I ve been snooping in the files again and I ran across several cookbooks from the early days of this church. It is so much fun reading through these items and considering how things have changed in our prep times and measuring methods. Here are some excerpts from some of these treasures: Vegetable Soup Take a shank of beef and let boil until the meat is tender; take out meat and strain, then add to the broth two potatoes, one onion, a piece of cabbage the size of a tea cup, one small turnip, two stalks of celery and a cup of canned tomatoes. Chop this as fine as you would meat hash, pepper and salt to taste, let boil an hour. (None of the older recipes tell how many servings the dish would serve) Wedding Cake One pound of sugar, one pound of butter, one pound of flour, ten eggs beaten separately, five pounds of raisins stoned and chopped, three pounds of currants carefully cleaned, one pound of citron cut in strips, quarter ounce each of cinnamon, mace, allspice and cloves. Rub butter and sugar together, add the yolks of eggs and part of the flour, then the spice and fruit, the remainder of the flour and last the whites of the eggs beaten stiff; bake three or four hours in a slow oven. (Yikes!!! sure is a lot easier to order a pretty decorated cake from a bakery!!) Hop Yeast Rolls Take out medium sized potatoes, cook well done, mash them fine, take one pint of flour, scald well with boiling water; add one quart of cold water and flour to make a sponge thick as you can stir with a spoon; stir well, when milk warm add one-half cup of hop yeast. Stir well and keep warm for a few hours and let it stand overnight; in the morning add a scant tablespoon of salt, one-half cup lard, one-half cup butter; knead in flour to make a loaf (not too hard); knead for about twenty-five minutes, let rise again, then make out in biscuit, let rise again; rub these over with butter gently and bake in a well heated oven for thirty minutes. Take out, cover well so as to sweat. (Egad!! So if you are planning on rolls for dinner, make sure to block out about a day and a half! These items were from the 1893 cookbook. After you read these recipes you will thank your lucky stars for our modern conveniences and local shopping.. See you next month! Auntie

11 Music Notes Ramona Kime, Music Director You are invited to our Yearly Choir Concert What: Choir Concert Who: the choirs, of course! When: Wed, June 7 th at 7 PM Where: Church Sanctuary Why: To hear beautiful music, eat yummy treats afterward, and hang out with a wonderful church family! Both the Senior Choir and the Celestial Bell Choir will be performing in the concert this year. The bell choir will be playing the well-known and inspiring You Raise Me Up and then The Lion Sleeps Tonight, just for something completely different! The senior choir will be singing many of their favorite pieces from this past year. Christmas songs will include the upbeat Run, Shepherds and a beautiful arrangement of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen sung by the tenors and basses of the choir. The sopranos and altos will also have their own showcase piece, and the choir will sing a couple Lenten and Easter anthems. There will also be several spirituals, including Didn t My Lord Deliver Daniel?, Wade in the Water, and arrangements of Down to the River to Pray and Amazing Grace to round out the concert. It will be a fun evening with a variety of music something to please everyone! And as the school year and choir year come to a close, I want to thank all the hard-working and talented musicians in both choirs. You folks are amazing and so giving of your time and talent. Thank you so much for sharing your gift of music with the congregation and the community. And a big thank you goes out to our church family. You are a most caring and generous group of people, and the choir s thank you for all of your support throughout the years. And finally, the choir s last Sunday will be June 11 th, and then they ll take a much-needed break! For our Message in Music through the summer, we re asking all of you closet singers to come out of the closet, and closet instrumentalists to dust off your instrument! Please see me if you d like to share your musical gift with your supportive church family!

12 Minister: Every Member Minister of Worship and Congregational Life Phil Hobson Director of Music Ramona Kime Moderator Amy Frost Vice Moderator Curt Scott Board of Deacons Matt Slot Board of Trustees Judi Cates Board of Christian Education Amy Slot Outreach Board Mary Normand Church Clerk Barbara Anderson Financial Secretary Don Johnson Treasurer Eric Crandall Staff: Office Manager Sher Brown Custodian Rex Todd The Chanticleer is a monthly newsletter, distributed to members and friends of First Congregational Church. We welcome most comments and articles. Chanticleer article deadline is the 18 th of each month. address: fcuc@sbcglobal.net Website address: ucccharlotte.org Mission Statement of First Congregational Church Our church will provide a place and direction for joining with God, healing the broken, and education for youth and adults. We will be challenged by our faith to reach out to our congregants, our community and world family, and to offer opportunities for spiritual growth and renewal. We welcome others into our Christian Family. Sunday Worship: 10:00 a.m., Children s Sunday School: 10 a.m. Adult Bible Studies: Sunday 8:15 a.m., Tuesday at 6:30 pm Men s Group: Saturday 8:00 a.m. Senior Choir meets each Wednesday at 7 pm in the Lounge Board of Trustees meet the third Monday of the 6:30 pm in the Annex Library Advisory board meets the third Thursday of the 6:30 pm in the Annex Small Meeting Room Women s Prayer Circle Women of the church are welcome the 1 st & 3 rd Thursday of each month at 10:30 am in the Annex Library. Blanche Moyer Circle June19th At 6:30 pm in the Lounge Church Office: Hours: Tuesday thru Friday from 9 am to 3 pm Phone Number: Prayer Shawl Ministry meets The 1 st & 3 rd Saturdays at 9:00 am. Love to knit or crochet? Don t know how? We ll teach you! Come & join us we would love to have you!