January 23, 2013 Volume 27 Issue 2

Transcription

1 January 23, 2013 Volume 27 Issue 2 From the Pastor Half a century ago J. B. Phillips translated the entire New Testament from the original Greek into modern English. The Bible scholar was also a canon in the Church of England. None of his many accomplishments, however, could ever be as important to me as a little book he wrote when I was in college titled Your God Is Too Small. The book s thesis was that much of the skepticism of the 20 th century stemmed from Christians failure to find a God big enough for modern needs. Phillips described some of these inadequate concepts of God - - God as Resident Policeman, Parental Hangover, Grand Old Man, Managing Director, and God-in-a-Box. The book seems a little dated now, but it was a sheer gift to me during some important years. Times have changed, but the various concepts of God in circulation today still tend to be too small. A century ago the poet Sam Walter Foss wrote of a growing boy s expanding perception and as the universe grew great, He dreamed for it a greater God. Often our artists and scientists have far more expansive and mysterious understandings of reality than we do. Others would suggest that we in the 21 st century have such an inflated view of ourselves as humans that we cannot imagine anything greater. The naturalist William Beebe wrote of a ritual he and Theodore Roosevelt had: After an evening talk, perhaps on the fringes of knowledge, we would go out on the lawn, where we took turns in an amusing little astronomical rite. We searched until we found, with or without glasses, the faint heavenly spot of light-mist beyond the lower left-hand corner of the great square of Pegasus, when one of the other of us would recite: That is the Spiral Galaxy of Andromeda. / It is as large as our Milky Way. / It is one of a hundred million galaxies. / It is seven hundred and fifty thousand light-years away. / It consists of one hundred billion suns, / each larger than our sun. After an interval, Colonel Roosevelt would grin at me and say: Now I think we are small enough! Let s go to bed. David Dear members of our Royal Lane family, We would like to thank you for your many kind and generous gifts to the staff. Know that we think of you and pray for you often. We wish the very best for each of you in the New Year. David, Harry, Blake, Shelly, Danny, Janet, Barbara, Mike, Rosa, Garey, Carol, Judy, Minerva, Connie The next issues of The Mosaic are scheduled for February 6 & 20, The deadline for submissions will be 5:00 p.m. Tuesday prior to the date of publication.

2 Coming Events Sunday January 27 Third Sunday after the Epiphany 9:30 am Donuts, Coffee/Juice Family Hall 9:45 am Christian Education Christian Education Classrooms 10:00 am Youth Parents Meeting Library 10:55 am Morning Worship Sanctuary 12:15 pm Program Council Portable 5:00 pm Intercessory Prayer Library Wednesday January 30 5:30 pm Youth Supper & Study Youth Center 5:30 pm Family Supper Bowtie Chicken Pasta, Caesar Salad, Rolls, Italian Cream Cake Family Hall 6:15 pm Children s Choir/Missions Children s Building 6:15 pm Midweek Service Being Church with David Matthews Family Hall 7:15 pm Adult Choir Rehearsal Sanctuary Saturday February 2 6:00 pm Youth Talent Show Family Hall Sunday February 3 Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany The Gathering 9:30 am Donuts, Coffee/Juice Family Hall 9:45 am Christian Education Christian Education Classrooms 10:55 am Morning Worship Holy Communion offered Sanctuary 5:00 pm Intercessory Prayer Library Wednesday BREAKING NEWS! Mission Trip Dates July 13-20, 2013 Destination Watonga & Canton, Oklahoma (See Website & Facebook for more info) The Gathering Sunday, February 3, 2013 February 6 Mosaic 5:30 pm Youth Supper & Study Youth Center 5:30 pm Family Supper Swiss Steak, Rice with Gravy, Maple-Glazed Brussels Sprouts, Roll, Ice Cream Family Hall 6:15 pm Children s Choir/Missions Children s Building 6:15 pm Midweek Service Being Church with David Matthews Family Hall 7:15 pm Understanding Icons with Susan Matthews Room 203 7:15 pm Adult Choir Rehearsal Sanctuary The deadline for the order of service, the Midweek, and the Mosaic is Tuesday, 5:00 p.m. prior to publication. Follow RLBC on Facebook & Twitter. Don t do Facebook? Follow RLBC at Youth Talent Show Saturday, February 2, :00 pm The RLBC Youth Group is organizing a Talent Show to be held on Saturday, February 2nd, at 6pm in Family Hall. The event is a mission project to help raise funds for the Sandy Hook School Support Fund established by the United Way of Western Connecticut (UWWC). The event will be free and open to all, although donations may be made at the door of the event. If you are interested in participating in the event please feel free to Blake Miller at bmiller@royallane.org. Be sure to put it on your calendar and we look forward to seeing you there. Coming in February Understanding Icons Wednesday nights in February, Susan Matthews will lead a series on Icons. This series will follow the regular Bible Study led by David Matthews and will introduce you to a few of the icons that will be utilized in the sanctuary for Easter. (February 6, 13, 20, 26, Room 203) "In today's parlance, the word iconic is used for everything from a rock star or a significant event. The Greek word eikon means a representation or reflection of something living or something in memory, which takes the place of the original subject which is no longer present or accessible." We will look at how icons are made; how they are important in the church - both past and present, and what they might mean for us."

3 Reception for BPFNA & Rev. Dr. Jaime Clark-Soles February 7-9, Royal Lane will be hosting the annual board retreat of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America. Thank you to all those who have stepped forward to provide transportation, meals and other needs for our guests. On February 10, Rev. Dr. Jaime Clark-Soles will be our preacher for the Martha Stearns Marshall Day of Preaching. Please join us on February 8, 6:00-7:30 pm as we welcome the BPFNA Board of Directors & Rev. Dr. Jaime Clark-Soles to RLBC. Martha Stearns Marshall Day of Preaching February 10, 2013 Rev. Dr. Jaime Clark-Soles, Associate Professor of New Testament, Perkins School of Theology, SMU Rev. Dr. Jaime Clark-Soles has taught New Testament at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University since She received her B.A. from Stetson University where she studied Philosophy and Russian Studies. She earned her M.Div. from Yale Divinity School and her Ph.D. in New Testament from Yale University. Her specialties include "The Gospel of John" and "Evil, Suffering, Death, and Afterlife in the New Testament." She is the author of Engaging the Word: The New Testament and the Christian Believer (WJK, 2010), Death and Afterlife in the New Testament (T&T Clark, 2006), and Scripture Cannot Be Broken (E.J. Brill, 2003). Dr. Clark-Soles enjoys speaking widely and writing for both academic and popular audiences. She has contributed articles to preaching resources in print and online (including Feasting on the Word and workingpreacher.org). She also writes and speaks about teaching the Bible effectively (especially using resources from popular culture). Currently, she is writing a book on the Gospel of John as well as a book on Women in the Bible for the Interpretation series (WJK Press). Dr. Clark-Soles appears in the Johannine videos in the Disciple Bible Study series. As an ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Clark-Soles has served in both parish and hospice settings. She is a member at Church in the Cliff in Dallas, TX. Combined Adult Sunday School Class On February 10, 2013, there will be a combined Adult Sunday School class. We will meet in Family Hall and Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America staff will share information about their mission. "The Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America works to gather, equip and mobilize Baptists to build a culture of peace rooted in justice." If you want to know more about this organization and their mission join us on Sunday, February 10 th, at 9:45 am, even if you do not regularly attend a Sunday School class. Ash Wednesday Service 6:30 pm February 13 The season of Lent in the Christian Church begins on Ash Wednesday. The observance of Ash Wednesday became widespread throughout Christendom during the 7 th Century and provides an opportunity for the worshiping community to engage in corporate penitence and confession to prepare for the Season of Lent and to look forward to the hope of Easter. During the Ash Wednesday Service, it is traditional for ashes to be placed on the foreheads of the faithful as the worship leader intones the words from Genesis: Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. In medieval times, it is recorded that a popular sign in public places read, Remember you are dying. It was a reminder of the reality of death, but more than that, a reminder to live fully that day. So, too, is Ash Wednesday a reminder that from ashes we have come and to ashes we return. It provides an opportunity to examine the kind of life that we are leading what is the quality of our lives, what is the quality of our actions, our thoughts, our relationships.

4 Prayer Requests: Betty Beckman, mother of Paul Burnett Stephen Braden, on the death of his sister, Laura King Christina Courtney, daughter of Dot Johnson Thomas Jarvis, brother of Martha Box Michael Knight Donna Ledgerwood Anna Marie Lowe Lynn Miller, on the death of his wife, Terry Miller, friends of Shirley Bohannan & Dorothy Tilden Cara & Judy Mullinax Charles Reeves, father of co-worker of Ryan Agee Emelda Schultz, mother of Laurence Schultz Terry Simmons Doyle Sutton, father of Kevin Sutton Jenny Tilden, granddaughter of Dorothy Tilden Cathy Webb s sister, Jackie Arnold and mother, Wanda Lee Please continue to pray for: Sarah Dews; Bill Ferguson; Lonnie Harris; Lydia Kandol; Zelda Kuhns, aunt of Dorothy Tilden; Annie Levy; Jonathan & Flora Lin, friends, and Phillip Foster, nephew, of Laurence & Janet Schultz; Bruce Lowe; Arlene Lowe; Tom & Rosemary Lynch; Hector & Josefa Mederos; Ruth Moore, mother of Bettie Meachum; Janet Ramirez, daughter, and Lisa Ritchey, niece, of Jack & Judy Mullinax; Tru Pollard, friend of Martha Box; Louis Powers, father of Rebecca Rempert; Bill Prickett; Maebelle Raiza s friend, Delma; Richard Reeves, uncle of Harry Wooten; Joy Ringo, friend of Lyn & Gordon Brown; Ruth Smith; Dorothy Tilden; Jordan Weilage; Clay Williams; Duane & Dee Dee Young Remember the homebound: Kathleen Akin, Dorothy Cantrell; Nadine Francis; LuDean King; Faye Laney; Dorothy Miller; Norman Morris; Libba Studdard; Allyene Wilcox NDSM Call for Volunteers North Dallas Shared Ministries is seeking volunteers. NDSM provides a learn-bywatching-and-doing orientation to get a willing volunteer up to speed quickly - there are no lengthy "training sessions." You come in, see what NDSM does, pick an area of interest and someone will help you become productive. It's that simple. Here are a few current needs that require no specific background or training: English-as-a-second Language Teachers Mornings 9:30-11:30 - Monday-Thursday Contact: trishhouck@aol.com Evenings 6:30-8:00 - Tuesday and Thursday Contact: hjdtennis@aol.com Job Counselors Tuesday morning Thursday morning Friday afternoon Contact: twogoodfridays@yahoo.com Clothes Closet Volunteers Tuesday and Thursday 9:30-2:00 Contact: jebbie@swbell.net Data Entry Volunteers Monday - especially needed - any other day Tuesday- Friday Contact: admin@ndsm.org Pantry Workers and Interviewers Contact: admin@ndsm.org Tax Preparers Monday-Friday - 3:00-7:00 during tax season Contact: ejshan@sbcglobal.net

5 Deacons of the Week January 27 Linda Binder [972] Jeff Hammett [214] February 3 Mike Jones [817] David Doom [214] Midweek Service 6:15 p.m. Wednesday January 30 & February 6 in Family Hall Being Church David Matthews Join us for a Fellowship Meal at 5:30 pm. In the Box-Hawkins Gallery Opening January 26, 2013 Linda McCall Gallery open by appointment 10-4, weekdays, 10-5 Wednesdays To change mail or preferences for The Mosaic, contact Barbara Merry, , ext. 10 or bmerry@royallane.org. Scriptures of the Week January 27 Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-7, 8-10 Psalm 19 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a Luke 4:14-21 February 3 Jeremiah 1:4-10 Psalm 71:1-6 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Luke 4:21-30 Midweek Menu Wednesday, January 30 Bowtie Chicken Pasta, Caesar Salad, Rolls, Italian Cream Cake Wednesday, February 6 Swiss Steak, Rice with Gravy, Maple-Glazed Brussels Sprouts, Roll, Ice Cream Don t do Facebook? See RLBC announcements at Happy Birthday! January Margaret Darden Shirley James Sylvia Turnbull Jim McLean Rhoda Hokanson Aidan Brown Donna Ledgerwood Danny Wesley Ray February Brad Horn... 1 Emily Patterson... 2 Robert Howarth... 3 Christen Cross... 4

6 The Mosaic is published bi-weekly. Royal Lane Baptist Church 6707 Royal Lane Office Hours: Dallas, TX Monday - Friday: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Wednesday Midweek: 6:15 pm Office: [214] Sunday School: 9:45 am Fax: [214] Sunday Worship: 10:55 am Rosa Barrientos, Housekeeping Danny Wesley Ray, Organist Michael Hurder, Facilities Manager Janet Schultz, Administrative Assistant C. David Matthews, Senior Pastor Ray Vickrey, Pastor Emeritus Barbara Merry, Administrative Assistant Shelly Watts, Children s Minister Blake Miller, Minister to Youth Garey Wisdom, Pianist Harry Wooten, Minister of Music and Worship Royal Lane Baptist Church 6707 Royal Lane Dallas, Texas