November 2016 Parent XP Night On November 6, we will be having our 2nd annual Parent XP Night from 6pm - 8pm. This is a night for the parents of Junior High and High School students to come for a time of rest and for the chance to connect with the adult leaders who lead your students every week. Roger & Jan Dial will be facilitating the evening so you won t want to miss it! Light snacks will be served. Please contact the church office to RSVP or if you have any questions. We look forward to this event and hope to see you there! Volume 58 Issue 11
As we enter the month where the Thanksgiving holiday is celebrated, let me share this month with, what, and whom I am personally thankful for: I m thankful for the blessings of small town central Illinois! I had the opportunity to visit Chicago a couple of times in the past month, and while I love the Windy City, I m so thankful for Clinton and Chestnut and small town living right here in central Illinois. I love the safety I love friendly conversations I love being a central Illinois guy! I m thankful for the upcoming free elections in our country! I realize many of us are SICK of the commercials and the debates and cannot wait for November 8 to get here. Some are even saying they might not vote! I couldn t disagree more with that thought process we are crazy-blessed to live in the greatest country on the face of the earth and have the opportunity to elect those who govern us. Perfect system? No! Great blessing to live in the land of the free? You betcha! I m thankful for an incredible staff to serve along side of at FCC! Karen. Mandi. Jeannine. Kelly. Karen. Adam. Cody. Allison. Samuel. Cassandra. These are special people who make me better and love our church and community. It is a joy to serve along side each and every one of them! Please take time and thank our staff for all they do for FCC and the Kingdom! I m thankful for a wonderful family! I know I m biased but I really believe I have the best family in the world. I m thankful for a mother and in-laws who love me unconditionally and have helped me so much through the years. My children Jordan and Peyton are such a blessing I am so proud of both of them and look forward to seeing what God will do with their lives. And Marla she is simply the best I would be lost without her my cup overflows!
I m thankful for an exceptional church to serve Clinton FCC! It s hard to believe ten years have passed since our first Sunday at FCC in early October 2006. I love our church, and while it is certainly not a perfect church, I m so thankful to serve here! I m honored to minister in the shadow of giants of Christian ministry past like Kent Hickerson, Winston Zastrow, Billy Junkins, Harry Wheaton and others! I m thankful for the blessing of God s word! This doesn t need to be qualified with words we are so blessed to have the Bible as a source of authority for our lives as Christ Followers! I m thankful MOST OF ALL for God s greatest gift Jesus Christ! God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21. I need a savior and if you get to know me very well, that will become obvious! And so do you. And we have one Jesus Christ, God s greatest gift! Have a great month be thankful! GT Upcoming at Clinton FCC on Sundays: October 30 Mission Emphasis Sunday Dave Upchurch from LCU preaching November 6 Jesus for President? What in the world is a Christian supposed to do? November 13 Orphan Sunday November 20 Thanksgiving Sunday November 27 Jacob Vangen from North Pointe CC in Rhode Island preaching December 4 Christmas Hymn Sing at 3pm
BLOOD PRESSURE CHECK FCC will be offering free blood pressure checks Sunday, November 6 Where: Church Library When: 9 am - 9:30 am 11:45am - 12:30pm *This is not a diagnosis, just a measuring & recording of your blood pressure. Fall is here which means Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Every year our Benevolence Ministry gives out Thanksgiving boxes to those who may not be able to afford food for their Thanksgiving dinner. Forms are available in the office and at the information booth to turn in the name of a family in need. The final date to turn in a form is November 1st. Please consider suggesting a family who could be blessed by this ministry! Mobile FoodPantry November 12 10am - 11:30am at the American Legion Clients do not need an ID, but will need to sign for the food. To pick up food for another person, you will need a proxy form. Call 217-328- 3663 for more information. On November 2 in the Clinton High School Auditorium at 7pm, The DeWitt County Mental Health Board, in cooperation with The DeWitt County Substance Abuse Coalition and Clinton School District, would like to invite you to spend an evening with Tim Ryan of A Man in Recovery. Tim will share his story of success, drug abuse, incarceration and recovery. Please join us for what will be a very informative, eye-opening evening.
November 1st at 6pm Proverbs 31 will be cooking in the upstairs kitchen. Please consider helping this wonderful ministry! Are you looking to spend some time for a purpose? The food pantry is in need of volunteers to cover the fall and winter months. We have openings on Monday afternoon 12:45-3pm and Thursday afternoons 12:45-3pm. Please contact Barb Baker at 309-928-2996 or 217-493- 8978 or come by the food pantry on Monday or Thursday and we will show you around. Mark your calendars for Saturday, December 10! Our 8th annual Grab N Go where we serve our neighbors here in the DeWitt County area by recycling and giving what we no longer have need of in our own homes to others who may be in need. Please watch for more info in the coming months! NEEDED: We d love to have a person lead our Furniture Donation area of GNG. If you feel the Lord speaking to your heart, call Marcia Wise, 217-521 -5504, for more information. Diaper Drive for Grab N Go is happening again!! Your help is needed this year for families with little ones! We need all sizes of diapers and wipes. Please place in the crib in foyer during the month of November. If you would prefer to give a monetary donation, please place in offering with notation Diaper Drive in the memo. Thank you for your past support and giving this year!
IF:Table November 10 at 6:30pm in the Family Life Center. Please come and join other women in Christcentered fellowship! Also, mark your calendars for Feb 3 &4 for our 2nd annual IF:Clinton gathering! More information to follow. The Men s Ministry RELOAD November 1 & 15 at 6am in the Cable Building. Please join us for a great morning of food and fellowship! Any questions, contact Adam Brucker. Moms & Tots Playgroup November 4th from 10am-11:30am at FCC in the First Kids Area. Mom s Coffee Break November 18, 10am-11:30am in The Edge. For more info about this ministry, call the office. Hope to see you and your little kiddos there! Area Men s Fellowship Texas Christian Church Tuesday, November 1 at 7pm We hope you will join us for a great night of fellowship! We are set to have a great speaker and a wonderful meal. If you are interested in riding the church shuttle please contact the church office for more information, 935-3139 CAMA Thanksgiving Service will be on Sunday November 20 at 6pm at the Clinton Church of God. Adam Brucker will be preaching. Please join us for a great service!
Embrace The Journey Life. Movement. Change. Our entire existence flows from one point to the next, ceaselessly moving through events and experiences, relationships and milestones, mountains and valleys. We are constantly changing. We choose to change, and life changes us. We are not the same as we were ten years ago, nor will we be the same ten years from now. Change is life. Life means change. We fail to see it in the mundane because we move too fast to be attentive to the slow but steady pace of transformation acting on our lives. So the question is not whether change happens, but rather how does change happen? And what kind of change is happening? Is it good? Are we embracing change or ignoring it? The river of change flows freely in each of our hearts and nothing can stop it, but are we fighting the course of the river or are we learning to master its waters? When we fail to navigate change, we risk losing our way and drowning in its river. This brings us to some difficult questions we all must face: How has my faith changed? Is my view of God the same as it was when I first believed? Do I know Jesus better than I used to? Do I trust Him more? Is my life surrendered more fully to Him? Do I live and love more like Jesus every day? Has my faith changed me, and is it continuing to do so? We are all on a journey, and the scenery changes with the seasons, but are we moving forward? Are we growing? Are we journeying towards our Father? Or have we headed the wrong way or given up on the journey because we ve made it? The harsh truth is that if you are not intentionally seeking growth and navigating change in the wisdom of the Spirit then you will change but you will not become more like Jesus. Change is passive, but God has given us an active part in the journey towards him. Embrace this journey, and if you aren t becoming more like Jesus, change that. The church is here to help.
Celebrating Members In Their 90 s Donna Baker Nov. 15th 90years 1002 E Main St Clinton, IL 61727 We rejoice with & congratulate: Rachel & Kyle Suzewits, 3354 Leasdale Ave, Decatur, IL 62521, on the birth of their son, Dawson Wyatt, born on October 5, 2016. Proud grandparents are Kevin & Sherry Peterson, Lisa Pavetto and Robert Suzewits. Proud greatgrandparent is Jim Peterson. Open House Wedding Reception for Cody Monkman & Emilee Houchin November 13 from 4pm - 7pm in the Family Life Center Light refreshments will be provided. Please RSVP to the office. Cody & Emilee are looking forward to celebrating their marriage with their church family and local community. Hope to see you there! Send a card to help celebrate a birthday, birth of a new baby, a marriage or send a note to others on the nursing home list. You will make their day!!
October 9 was our Small Group XP for the fall semester. I love these Sundays. One of the many goals we have in Reveal Student Ministries is to surround each student with as many Christian voices that can speak God's Truths into their life. Part of that means developing platforms for these Christian voices to speak from. Small Group XP Sundays are one of those times where instead of me or Ben Dial leading the charge, we cue other student ministry leaders to take the lead. What this looks like is each Sunday School Class and Community Group do something together where they simply have fun, community, and make memories together. It is these special moments and memories that provide that platform to then speak from! And the great thing is that Ben and I are able to partake in making these memories without always having to stress over the details of programming. Special moments and memories can be made outside of programming? Absolutely! And it is quite beautiful to see and experience! SMALL IS in fact BIG. You can visit www.revealstumin.com/blog to see some of the memories that were captured on camera. I'm so grateful for our student ministry team that has developed since my time at FCC. It has taken some time, but we have such a great team of 13 JH Ministry Leaders and 12 HS Ministry leaders that I get to partner with. I also have to give a shoutout to our office staff that do some of the behind the scenes stuff that make Sundays like this possible. Lastly...November 6 and 13 from 930AM-1030AM in the main room of The Edge, we will be doing a 2-week workshop called Abide: A Life Worth Living. If you are a student, or you know of a student who has been thinking about baptism and surrendering your life to Jesus, this will be the perfect opportunity for you to learn more about baptism and the life Jesus modeled Christians to live.
November 2nd, we will be at American Legion for a sit-down meal and the silent auction for the Angel Tree Program. Sowing and reaping is another spiritual law which we see operating in the earth, but it also operated in the spirit realm. We sow material seed, and we reap material blessing of all kinds. Words are also seeds. We sow word seeds and reap according to what we have sown. - Joyce Meyer. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things now I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them. Isaiah 42:9 AMPC This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 NASB. Our annual Branson trip is on November 15,16, &17. Please contact me or the church office to get more information or to sign up. We have lots of fun things planned so it will definitely be a great time! If God had to give a woman wrinkles, He might at least have put them on the soles of her feet. -Ninon De Lenclos...put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, and against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Ephesians 6:11-13 NIV
Out of town Aspen Ridge Care Center 2530 N. Monroe, Decatur, IL 62526 Shirley Thompson Good Samaritan 20705 W 151st St Room 106 Olathe, KS 66061 June Cheatham Evenglow Lodge 215 E Washington Pontiac, IL 61764 Bob Adcock Brookdale Desert Ridge 4050 E Bluefield Ave, Room Phoenix, AZ 85032 Colleen Stephens Woodside at Friendship Village 1390 N Drake Rd Kalamazoo, MI 49006 Dody Thomason Heartland Healthcare Center 520 Broadway Room 192B Normal, IL 61761 Terry Havlin Local Manor Ct/Liberty Village 1 Park Lane Clinton, IL 61727 Theda Adams Donna Arnold Thomas E Bray Tom Bundy Betty Burris Larry Chapman Marie Jackson Gene Jones Betty Kyle Eleanor Mears Wilma Mestinek David Mosley Lura Murphy Margaret Murphy Al Perring Helen Polley Helen Shelton Georgia Sobolewski Shirley Utterback Allan Webb Hawthorne Inn/Liberty Village (Supportive Living) 1 Park Lane Clinton, IL 61727 Mary Burton Audrey Fields Norma Hollibaugh Mildred Meeks Ernest Thorp Helen Thorp
Contact Information Phone (217) 935-3139 Fax (217) 935-3130 Email office@clintonfcc.com Office Hours 8am-4:30pm Monday Thursday Greg Taylor Minister of Preaching & Teaching greg@clintonfcc.com 217-853-3196 Adam Brucker Associate Minister adam@clintonfcc.com Samuel Green Minister of Modern Worship & Spiritual Formation samuel@clintonfcc.com Cody Monkman Student Minister cody@clintonfcc.com Cassandra Benton Children s Ministry Administrator cassandra@clintonfcc.com Allison Hitchings Children s Ministry Program Director allison@clintonfcc.com Karen Rice Office Manager karen@clintonfcc.com Mandi Ries Administrative Assistant mandi@clintonfcc.com Jeannine Wylder Financial Secretary financial@clintonfcc.com First Christian Church THE KARUSOGRAPH (USPS 536-250) is published monthly by Corner of W. Main & N. Jackson FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 100 N. Jackson St., Clinton, Illinois 61727. 100 N. Jackson St. Periodicals postage paid at Clinton, IL. Postmaster: Send address changes to: Clinton, IL 61727 The Karusograph First Christian Church, 100 N. Jackson St., Clinton, IL 61727