Unity. Church. Christian Reformed

Transcription

1 CURRENT COUNCIL ADMINISTRATIVE BOARD Jason Ver Steeg, Administrative Elder Joe Ulferts, Administrative Elder Steve Zondervan, Administrative Deacon David Brouwer, Administrative Deacon Wilson Brouwer, Administrator Steve Zwart, Pastor - Non-voting Tim Starkenburg, Treasurer - Non-voting SHEPHERDING ELDERS Perry Breems, Chuck Leininger, Larry Groen, Steve Blom, Trapper Swierenga, Pastor Steve SERVICE DEACONS Mike Borstad, Stephen Vogel, Eric Grannes, Dan Brouwer Unity Christian Reformed Church Unity Church Staff Pastor Steve Zwart ( ucrc@frontiernet.net) Administrator Wilson Brouwer Solid Rock Youth Director Dan Sterk ( / solidrockym@gmail.com) Secretary and Administrative Assistant April Swierenga (unitycrcoffice@gmail.com) Treasurer Tim Starkenburg (tstarken@hotmail.com) Custodians Doug & Joyce Marcus & Hilary Boonstra Lawn Care Luke Vander Beek Snow Removal Trapper Swierenga Contact Information Unity Christian Reformed Church 510 6th St P.O. Box 266 Prinsburg, MN phone: unitycrcoffice@gmail.com web: DECEMBER 27, 2015

2 SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2015 MORNING WORSHIP Guest Speaker Ms. Carol Veldman Rudie Offering Unity Ministries Lead Worshipper Jason Ver Steeg Welcome to Unity Church! Glory to God in the Highest! We have come to worship Christ the newborn King. He is the promised Messiah. He is God with us, and he is here in this place. We open our eyes to see him and lift our hearts to worship him. We have come to exalt the name of Jesus, our Savior and King, and to bring glory to God the Father. A special welcome to Ms. Carol Veldman Rudie as she brings the word today. Carol is a member at Calvary Christian Reformed Church in Edina, and is a licensed exhorter in Classis Lake Superior. May God bless you richly as you minister among us today! Pastor Steve and family are spending the weekend with family to celebrate Christmas. Sunday School Announcement Parents: There is NO Sunday school or Children s Church today, Sunday, December 27th or Next Sunday, January 3rd. Annual Men s Retreat! Advance Notice: MEN S RETREAT January 22-24, 2016 George Lake, Spicer, Minnesota Men of God: Live and In-Person Being Real, Being Present, Being Christ. Registration forms will be available soon! Watch for more details to come! THE WEEKLY CALENDAR Today: (4th Sunday) No Sunday School 9:30am: Worship Celebration No Children s Church Thursday: New Year s Eve 7:00pm: Family Friendly New Year s Eve Celebration Friday: New Year s Day Office Closed Thank You! On behalf of the entire Unity Church family we say THANK YOU to Tim Starkenburg who has served as our treasurer for the last 6+ years! Tim has worked extensively with our bookkeeping system to bring necessary updates and helped streamlined a number of our bookkeeping needs. He also helped set up the online giving portal through our website and has assisted in numerous other administrative areas during his time as treasurer. Tim stepped down from his position in November to focus his time and energy to help continue to coordinate the Family Promise ministry here at Unity and he, along with his wife and their small group, are also coordinating the Global Leadership Summit simulcast that will be taking place at Unity next summer. Tim continues to help in the office as we transition to our new treasurer, Jennifer Breems. Thank you, Tim, for your hard work and servant heart over these years and we look forward to the ministry work you are continuing here at Unity! New treasurer We want to welcome Jennifer Breems as our new treasurer! Jennifer is currently employed with Prinsco, Inc. in Prinsburg. She brings great management skills and also a servant heart to the position, as well as having served as a Deacon at Unity. Thank you, Jennifer, for stepping to the plate to help serve in this way! GREETERS SERVERS USHERS LOBBY MONITOR LIBRARY INFANT TODDLER Ministry Information THIS SUNDAY December 27, 2015 Eric & Mindy Grannes Mike & Bev Mulder Roger & Linda Ulferts Gregg Duininck Pete Van Der Puy Larry Groen Heather Nett Pat Groen Floater: Angela Miedema Jill Blom Carlie Swart Elle Plowman To be a body of Spirit-filled believers who are rooted in God s Word, growing in God s grace, and committed to reaching others for Jesus Christ. GREETERS SERVERS USHERS LOBBY MONITOR LIBRARY INFANT TODDLER NEXT SUNDAY January 3, 2016 Jamie & Jenny Groen Carl & Shirley Marcus John & Carole Negen Dave Ammermann Aaron Zwart Eric Grannes Katrina Miedema Tracy Borstad Floater: Natalie Vander Beek Mike Borstad Alnora Bruin Matt Pederson CHILDREN S CHURCH 3 - Pre-K This Sunday (December 27, 2015) No Children s Church **Christmas Break Next Sunday (January 3, 2016) No Children s Church **Christmas Break & Up to Bat

3 OUR UNITY FAMILY Our Unity & Community Family ~ We express our love and sympathy to Michelle and Dan Zimmer in the passing of Michelle s dad, Michael Sharp, Sr. A tribute service was held yesterday at the Living Word Church in New London. May God surround you and your family with His strength and peace. ~ James Brouwer is home!! Praise the Lord! We thank God for His steadfast hand of healing that has strengthened James enough to be home. There still remains days and weeks of follow up appointments and continued strengthening for James. Please pray that he is able to remain strong and that his lungs heal completely! ~ Please pray for Brandon VanderPuy who was injured in a work-related accident this past week. He is recovering at home. He experienced hot liquid burns to his hand/wrist areas and some to his face after a hose burst. We are grateful that the injuries were not worse, thanks to some of the protective gear in place. Pray for quick healing of these burns so that he may be able to resume his work. ~ Congratulations to Hub and Marilyn Wieberdink with the birth of a new granddaughter Emerson Kay Slagter born to Ryan and Cassie (Wieberdink) Slagter this past Monday evening. She weighed 8lbs. 6oz. ~ Congratulations to Chuck and Sandy Leininger with the birth of a new granddaughter Anna (Annie) Jordan Leininger born to John and Jenny (of Nashville, TN.) this past Monday morning. She weighed 6lbs. 14oz. ~ Jeff Brown was transferred this week to Bethesda Hospital in St Paul. It's an LTACH (long term acute care hospital) that specializes in stroke and brain injury rehab. Continue to pray for daily strengthening for Jeff and a favorable response to the therapy care. Pray also for the Sheryl, his wife, and their family as minister along side him. Reminder: If you have an item for the Unity Family or community sections of our bulletin, please contact the office by Thursday of a the given week to include the bulletin. We love to pray for you and to celebrate with you. Drop us a note give us a call. Altoids Mint Tins The Prinsburg GEMS needs your empty Altoids Mint Tins. Please drop them off at the First or Unity Church offices. Thank you. Rock of Life CRC Men s Event Rock of Life CRC in Willmar is excited to be hosting their 4th annual Men s event Take Root, on Saturday, February 6th. Reserve the date and invite a friend! For more information please contact Rock of Life CRC at

4 JANUARY SERIES This live, world-renown, award-winning lecture series will be beamed live via the web into our church each weekday, January 6th - 26th, starting promptly at 11:30am and ending by 12:30pm. Make plans to join us for your noon hour breaks in a warm, inviting setting. A lite lunch is being planned for each day following the lecture to encourage fellowship and conversation about the series. Please invite your friends and neighbors to this great series! Here are the upcoming speakers! Mark your calendar! Wednesday, January 6 Stephen Ritz Harvesting Hope and Cultivating Minds: Stories from the South Bronx Thursday, January 7 Marsden, Mouw, Plantinga & Wolterstorff The Renaissance of Christian Thought Friday, January 8 Laurie Garrett Health and the Changing World Monday, January 11 Eboo Patel Interfaith Leadership: Engaging Religious and Philosophical Diversity in the 21st Century Tuesday, January 12 Bethany Haley Williams The Color of Grace: Healing and Hope for Child Survivors of War Wednesday, January 13 David Brooks The Road to Character Thursday, January 14 Jill Dougherty Russia: Past, Present and Future Friday, January 15 Ron Suskind Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes and Autism Monday, January 18 Leroy Barber Race, Stories and Justice: A Call for Diversity in Christian Missions Tuesday, January 19 William Close and the Earth Harp Collective Wednesday, January 20 Jere L. Krakow National Parks: America s Greatest Treasure Thursday, January 21 Gabriel and Jeanette Salguero How Latino Churches are Changing America Friday, January 22 Kurt VerBeek Reframing Justice: Models from Honduras Monday, January 25 Eric O Neill Cyber Security in a Shrinking World Tuesday, January 26 Mitri Raheb A Tough Calling: The Joys and Struggles of Pastoring in Palestine For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11

5 THE GENERAL FUND UPDATE & SPECIAL OFFERINGS UPDATE We are entering the last week of the calendar year here at Unity! Thank you for your stewardship of gifts and generosity to help meet several goals before December 31! The Global Giving Drive wraps up this week! We have raised nearly $8,500 of the $14,000. A couple of the specific global giving drive goals still need some of your help to reach their goal. Consider a year-end gift to help meet those goals! Also, we would love to meet our giving goal for the first six months of our fiscal year for our general ministries budget! This allows us to meet our commitments to missionaries and local service providers and staff in a timely manner without drawing on the line of credit. While we are grateful that our overall expenditures are lower than anticipated, helping bridge some of that gap, we sincerely desire to reach January 1 in the black in order to start the next six months on solid footing. Would you consider an additional tithe or gift to help us meet that goal? Thank you! We are blessed with a beautiful facility to celebrate and gather in each week. We are now in our 7th year of our building addition and there s no better time than the present to help finish paying down and paying off the note. A year-end gift helps us to meet the principal and interest payment that is due on January 1. Thank you for your generosity, pledges, and attention to meeting this need! Stewardship Corner God comes right out and tells us why he gives us more money than we need. It's not so we can find more ways to spend it. It's not so we can indulge ourselves and spoil our children. It's not so we can insulate ourselves from needing God's provision. It's so we can give and give generously (2 Corinthians 8:14; 9:11) Abundance isn't God's provision for me to live in luxury. It's his provision for me to help others live. God entrusts me with his money not to build my kingdom on earth, but to build his kingdom in heaven. Randy Alcorn, Money, Possessions and Eternity Budgeted Actual +/- Need General Fund Weekly Giving Weekly Giving November 29 $6, $4, $1, December 6 $6, $5, $ December 13 $6, $5, $ December 20 $6, $6, $41.75 December 27 $6, Monthly Totals (as of 12/20) $18, $17, $1, YTD Totals (as of 12/20) $150, $129, $21,054.17

6 Family Friendly New Year s Eve Get Together KIDS CORNER You are invited to a family friendly new years eve party starting at 7:00pm on Thursday, December 31st here at Unity. This is open to everyone. Bring your favorite snack and games to share. There will be movies, open nursery for younger ones to play in, and lots of great food and conversation. Let s ring in the new year and enjoy some time together as family and friends.