Our Covenant Connections April, 2017 First Things First As we enter April it seems like Spring may finally be upon us. It continues to amaze me that every year the seasons declare the glory of God, as the death of winter gives way to the new life of spring. It s fitting that Easter is always in the springtime. Easter is the proclamation of God s greatest victory. It is the single-most important event in human history. It is the climax of God s story. It is the ultimate act of love and power. Easter is the reason for our faith. It is the reason for our hope. It is the reason for our love. Easter is our greatest day of celebration. It is God s resounding and definitive answer to the question of pain, suffering and death. It is the triumph of life over death. And, unfortunately, it is all-too-often lost in the busyness of the holiday. If you are anything like me, holidays are some of the most stressful times of the year for you. There is so much to think about, so much to do, so many places to go, so many special things to prepare..so.much.busyness. And the tragedy of this busyness is that it tends to distract us from what is really happening. Or even worse, it can make us dread the holiday. Instead of celebrating our amazing joy and God s great victory, we become wrapped up in our own lives and our own to-do s. We often make the busyness our priority and focus and let the meaning of the day slip into the background. We cannot let this happen. We must keep our priorities in the correct order. We must keep the first things first. In one of His most famous sermons, Jesus addressed this issue. He said, But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Mt. 6:33). During this part of His sermon, Jesus was teaching people not to worry. What s more, He was teaching them not to worry about ESSENTIAL things in their life food, drink and clothing. But instead of worrying about these things, and allowing your thoughts to be consumed with them, instead seek first God s Kingdom and His righteousness and these things will be given to you. The basic message is keep the first things first. Seek what s most important and everything else will work itself out. It is pretty clear what Jesus thought was most important: God s Kingdom and His righteousness. Easter is the day we celebrate the inaugurating and empowering of God s Kingdom in this world. It is the day when we celebrate the triumph of God s righteousness over sin and death. Easter is a day that we celebrate that which should rightly be first in our lives: the risen and reigning Lord, Jesus Christ. This year let s keep the first things first. As the worries of holiday preparation come the dread of loneliness, or the anxiety about planning, orchestrating, hosting, travelling, cooking, eating, cleaning, or anything else may the words of Jesus ring in your ears. Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. May we keep Jesus first this Easter. Pastor Kevin Ministers: The People of the Church Pastor: Kevin Clark FCC associates with sister churches in the Wis. Congregational Association & National Association of Congregational Christian Churches
Church Council / Staff Moderator-Diane Williams... 594-2546 Moderator Elect-Rae-Ellen Preuss... 594-2740 Treasurer-Jean Brocker... 470-9949 Secretary-Joanne Himebauch... 363-8144 Budget & Finance-Prakash Mathew... 436-4025 Property & Grounds-Jim Schuett...414-257-1860 Worship-Tom Rowntree... 534-3213 Congregational Care-Sue Roberts... 378-4695 Missions-Deb Maske... 363-4484 Christian Education-Linda Haeger... 642-7723 Staff Organist/Choir Director - Marni Wiggins... 521-1406 Office Admin. - Judi Weyer...... 363-7249 Pastor Kevin Clark...612-327-0915 Servant Schedule Date Refresh. Ushers Nursery Liturgist Sunday School 4/2 Council Group 3 Glenn K Claire A 4/9 Kay R Group 1 Joanne H 4/16 Easter Group 2 Easter 4/23 Group 3 Claire A 4/30 Women s Fellowship Group 1 Joanne H Notice: Photographs taken at church events are included in the newsletter, on our website and our Facebook page. If you would prefer not to have your photo posted to any of these forums, please contact the church office. Articles for the May Newsletter are due in the office by Friday, April 28 Stewardship @ 3/24/17 Offering 22,961.00 Expenses 25,686.89 Over (Short) 2,725.89 Birthdays This Month Ryan Venema... 4/5 Joanne Himebauch... 4/5 Larry Litwin... 4/19 Janice Beilfuss... 4/19 Karen Mathew... 4/22 Alexis Wilson... 4/23 Merit Venema... 4/27 David J. Beilfuss... 4/28 Wedding Anniversaries This Month Cory & Jess Ballard... 4/21 Bob & Jamie Brandemuehl... 4/29 If you would like your birthday or wedding anniversary to be included here, please drop a note to the office. Thanks! Attendance Feb. 26? March 5 60 March 12 78 March 19 64 CONTACT US First Congregational Church of Mukwonago 231 Roberts Drive Mukwonago, WI 53149 www.fccweb.net Church Office... 262-363-7249 office@fccweb.net Pastor Kevin Clark... 612-327-0915 rev.kevinclark@gmail.com Marni Wiggins Organist/Choir Director... marnilynn@mac.com Prayer Chain... prayer@fccweb.net C.A.R.E. Ministry... care@fccweb.net
Women s Fellowship met on March 21st, all sharing Reuben sandwiches. Bring a sandwich and join us on April 18 th at 12:30 pm. We are pleased to announce new officers for Women s Fellowship: President: Sue Roberts and Treasurer: Shirley Manion. We decorated and filled with Bible verses candy plastic eggs for the Birchrock residents for Easter. Easter bags will be filled and delivered to our area Church family seniors/shut ins. Easter cards will be sent to our out of the area Church family shut ins. We will be making May favors for the Birchrock residents at our April meeting. We ended our meeting with a moment of silence for our Treasurer, Doris Rolfson, who died March 19 th, and closed with a prayer. We wish for our Church family a blessed and happy Easter. submitted by Bonnie Geiser THE PARABLE OF THE SOILS Matthew 13:3-9 A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil and immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root they withered away. Other seeds fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. From the 150 th Anniversary Booklet Backpack Families Easter Gift Pack We are once again offering our Backpack Families an Easter Gift Pack. The families will be given a ham, bag of potatoes, vegetables, canned pineapple, cranberries, and dinner rolls. This has been made possible by the gifts of money given throughout the year. All the money collected has gone to fill in when we were short on food items that were needed and to go for the food that was purchased for our Easter Gift Packs. We have such a generous church. Thank you everyone who has made this extra special for our families. God Bless You!!! submitted by Beth Petersen This has been a busy time. We are in the middle of preparation for Easter and participating in shared Lenten services with several other area churches. On April 2, we welcome the Children s Christian Theater during worship for a presentation. This will be followed by a hot dog lunch. At the end of April we will be gathering in Fox Point for the WCA Leadership Summit. We are beginning to plan for our participation in the cancer walk in May. Summer plans are being formed. And, as I write this we are preparing to gather to celebrate the life of one of our members, Doris Rolfson. It seems busy, but this is always the case in a busy, active church. While busyness is a sign of an active and vibrant church, it is also too easy to get caught up in the busyness of the moment. I love busy times, but I also tend to find that when I am busy, it is too easy to forget to find time alone with God. Don t fall into that trap. Try to set aside some quiet time for prayer, Bible reading or seeking God s will. While this is a good idea every day, it is especially important when you are busy, busy, busy. Besides, it will give you a chance to practice quiet before November when we face the even busier Thanksgiving and Christmas season. In the meantime, I am wishing each of you and your family a blessed Easter. Diane Williams
Spring Cleaning Drive Thank you to those of you who have already brought in cleaning supplies for our spring cleaning drive for the Kitchen Kupboard. We ll continue to collect those items through April 9th. Anything that you like cleaning with, they will like cleaning with. ParkWalk for Cancer Saturday, May 6 @ 10 a.m. We have an FCC team and would love your support! If you d like to donate to our cause, you can make a check out to FCC. Earmark it for the cancer walk, and we will include it in our total giving to help in the fight against cancer. Funds donated will be staying in the Waukesha County area. If you d like to just walk with us on that day, we d love to have you! Missions disbursements this past month: Hope Center $100 Women s Center $100 Hebron House $100 submitted by Linda Garasimowicz I bet that I am the only person still living that got rings made by George Baxter when he shoed horses for the local farmers at the local blacksmith shop. My church membership has been long and few are still part of the memories. Carol Bartholomew, Dorothy June, Donna Greenwald will probably recall our old church with the old characters. Years have passed and we can recall our upstairs classroom, the tiny chairs and the piano and the kitchen. Times and things have changed. We had a large Jr. Pilgrim group of teens. A large Jr. choir. We are still here. We are still First Congregational worshippers. Christ entered our hearts long ago through our parents and teachers. Oh that a child of today will be able to look back at the warmth and friendship of First Congregational as we do. Submitted by Roberta Oehrke Just a reminder that we will be holding a churchwide rummage sale the second weekend in June. This will be in conjunction with the first Maxwell Street Days of the summer. New this year if you have items you would like to donate to the sale, but need to get them out of your house now, we have a place to store them until the sale. Thanks to the generosity of Ken and Mary Ann Cutt, we can store items off-site. Please talk to Ken or Diane Williams prior to bringing items to church so that they can be taken to storage rather than sitting around the church until the sale. At the March Council meeting, the Council: Elected Tom Rowntree to fill the position of Director of Worship. Decided to host a hot dog lunch following the performance of the Children s Christian Theater. Please join us following worship. Approved a proposal from the Nursery Ministry Team to hire an adult worker to work in the nursery. A volunteer will still be needed each week to work with that person. Discussed the upcoming WCA (Wisconsin Congregational Association) Leadership Summit April 28 & 29 at North Shore Congregational Church. We elected Gary Himebauch to be delegate to the Annual Meeting to be held prior to Saturday session. All members of the congregation are invited to attend. (See separate article). Diane Williams Moderator
WCA Leadership Summit The Wisconsin Congregational Association will hold a Leadership Summit April 28 & 29 at North Shore Church in Fox Point. Rev. Tim Roberts, pastor of the Stuart Congregational Church in Stuart, Florida will be the keynote speaker. He has turned a stagnant congregation into a growing vibrant congregation. The general theme of the Summit is How do we keep our churches relevant in the next decade. Rev. Roberts theme is the Adaptive Congregation. In addition, there will be a roundtable discussion by youth and young adults on Friday night. We will hear from Rev. Roberts on Friday night and twice on Saturday. We will also hear from him twice on Saturday. The Saturday sessions will be preceded by the WCA annual business meeting. Additional information and on-line registration is available at wiscongregational.net. Submitted by Diane Williams WCA convention will be held April 28 and the 29. I will be our church delegate and Joanne will be the lay participant. Naturally Kevin will be going, too. If there is anything that you would like me to bring up, any concerns about the state association, or just concerns that you have and want answered, please contact me before that date so that I can relate them to the correct people. I would appreciate your prayers that God will grant us a spiritual, meaningful and loving meeting all in His name! Submitted by Gary Himebauch Out of The Office Pastor Kevin will be out of the office 4/17 4/25 The church secretary will be out of the office 4/17 4/21 April 16 8:30 9:45 am We will have an Easter Breakfast Potluck on Easter Sunday before worship. Please see the signup sheet on the communication table. Hope to see you there! We had a great time celebrating New Member Sunday on February 26th. It is with great pleasure that we welcome Pat Parr and Prakash, Karen and Naomi Mathew as new members to our church. We praise God for bringing us these faithful and dedicated sisters and brother to be a part of this Body! There will be another Easter Egg Hunt for children 10 and under on Easter Sunday. The hunt will start after the Easter Brunch at about 9:15 and will conclude about a half hour later. Children will be looking for eggs containing both candy and noncandy items. Weather permitting the hunt will take place outside. If you would like to help, please contact Erin Tritz.
231 ROBERTS DRIVE MUKWONAGO, WISCONSIN 53149-1129 «Final_Merge Mailing_Labels» «Address» «City», «State» «Zip» «Newsletter_Delivery_Preference» April, 2017 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 9-12 Boy Scouts Grounds Cleanup 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9:00 Bible Study 6:30 Scouts 8:00 Men's Breakfast 7:00 Lenten Service 3:00 Girl Scouts 10:00 Made With Love at Burlington CCT Performing 6:30 Choir 11:00 Hot Dog Lunch 9 Palm Sunday 10 11 12 13 Maundy T hursda14 Good Friday 15 9:00 Bible Study 6:30 Choir 6:30 Quilters 7:00 Honey Creek 7:00 FCC Rochester 6:30 Scouts 11:00 Front Porch 16 Easter 17 18 19 20 21 22 8:30 Breakfast 10:00 Made With Love 6:30 Council 12:30 Women's Fellow. 1:00 Linden Ridge 6:30 Choir Pastor Kevin out of the Office Church Secretary out of the Office 23 24 25 26 27 28 Articles Due 29 No Bible Study 6:30 Scouts 10:00 Made With Love 6:30 Choir 11:00 Front Porch 30 9:00 Bible Study 11:00 Front Porch Pastor Kevin out of the Office