CHRISTINGLE SUNDAY Our Tradition keeps on growing! On Sunday, December 13 th, holes were cut and poked into oranges to receive candles and toothpicks. Red ribbon was cut to length to go around the oranges. Foil to catch wax and reflect light was cut into squares. Cookies were baked and iced some of them even looked like Christingles. Some of our youth (now) are the first children to have made Christingles and they were amazing helpers! It was a joyous day! VOLUME 19, NUMBER 11 DECEMBER 2015 The orange represents The World. The candle represents Christ. The shiny foil represents us, reflecting God s love. The red ribbon represents Christ s blood. The four toothpicks represent the four seasons. The candy and dried fruits represent the sweet things in each season. Thanks to the Christian Education Committee for their help! Page 2 Circle Bible Study; Music Notes; Lessons and Carols; Ladies Winter Bible Study; Newcomers Social Thank You Page 3 Christian Education Committee; Good Samaritan; Lunch Bunch; Outreach Committee; Youth Progressive Dinner; Worship Service Schedule Page 4 Christmas Eve Service Schedule; Children s Christmas Eve Service Rehearsal; Welcome to New Members Inserts Pastor s Page; Financial Snapshot; Christmas Joy Gift Offering; Congregational Meeting Reminder; December Calendar 1
CIRCLE BIBLE STUDY This month s Women s Circle Bible Study will meet on Tuesday, January 12th at 10:00 AM in the Junior High Room. The group will be studying Horizons Come to the Waters, Lesson Five Stormy Water Faith. Scripture: Matthew 14:22-33. The disciples encountered stormy times in their faith, and so do we. What does it mean to be people of faith? How does our faith sustain us? A SPECIAL THANKS... MUSIC NOTES Mark your calendars for these upcoming events and changes to our normal schedule: No rehearsals or Sunday anthem Dec 21-Jan 4, 2016. Chancel and Bell choir will resume rehearsal on Jan 6, 2016. Wonderful Wednesday program will resume on Jan 13, 2016. The Christmas Eve Candlelight Service will be held on December 24th at 6:30 pm. Prelude music will begin at 6:00 pm, and will be provided by local harpist, Betsy Fitzgerald. Please plan to come early and enjoy the beautiful sounds of the harp. Invite your family and friends to come and enjoy this special evening of music and worship. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, and a Blessed New Year! -Sandy With a grateful heart and gratitude, Thank you to Tom and Karen Jones for hosting the New member/comers Social at their lovely home on Sunday, November 1, 2015. The total attendance was 18 guests and the food was enjoyed by all. Tom & Karen, Thank you for your hospitality. In Christ, Sandra Ridgeway Membership& Commitment Committee LADIES WINTER BIBLE STUDY A Ladies seven week winter Bible study will begin on January 20th at 10:00 AM. We will meet each Wednesday in the Junior High Room through March 9th. Gideon by Pricilla Shirer has a format similar to the Beth Moore studies with a video each week followed by discussion and five days of at-home study. Please inform Isabel Davis or Gail Walker (or mark the blue response sheet in upcoming bulletins) if you are interested so that enough books are ordered and available for the first week of the study. Lessons & Carols... This year, the choirs of the children, adults, and the handbells shared the Christmas story, through music, in the newly enhanced and beautified sanctuary. Acoustically, it is a far better space in which to share music and they took full advantage of it! What a glorious Sunday! 2
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION COMMITEE During the Sunday School hour on December 20 th, all classes are invited to sing the old-time Christmas carols! We will mix and mingle, sing and celebrate, and share our joy together! Just bring three things: YOURSELF! On the Sunday before Christmas, the 20th, we will gather for an old-fashioned hymn sing. Pianist Catherine Wooddy will play as we celebrate the coming of the Christ child with beloved hymns we grew up singing. CANNED FOOD! Please bring canned foods and rice to continue helping to restock the shelves at Loaves and Fishes--and share our good fortune with those Jesus called the "least of these." When we look at our own blessings, how can we not give back? CHILDREN! It will be a special time as children will make their own special Christmas cards for those who may not receive any others. 5:30 PM: Light Supper 6:00 PM: Children s Choir, Handbell Practice, and Bible Study 7:00 PM: Chancel Choir Rehearsal The program will resume on January 13, 2016. YOUTH PROGRESSIVE DINNER The Youth group will participating in a progressive dinner on December 20th at 6:00 PM. They will first travel to the Denny residence for Appetizers, then on to the Putzke s for the Entrée, and finally, to the Maley s for desserts. The youth will need to bring a $20 or less gag gift and can be dropped off at the church at 6:00 PM. The dinner will end at approximately 8:00 PM. OUTREACH COMMITTEE A special thank you to the generous people of Northminster for your gifts helping others less fortunate. We were able to supply gloves for the Homeless Christmas party, provide filled backpacks for our students at Rosa Taylor, and help a family in a Transitional House with Loaves and Fishes have a better Christmas. Also a big thank you for helping restock the food pantry at Loaves and Fishes. In addition, your response to the Alternative Christmas Fair brought in over $3000! You have been a blessing to so many. Taking Down Our Tree We are planning to un-decorate, take down, and prepare our Chrismon tree for storage on January 10th following the Congregational Meeting, which is after the (one) 11:00 AM Worship Service. Thank you to everyone who brought pockets full of coins to help fill the Thornwell Turkeys! GOOD SAM OFFERING Thanks for your continued support for the Good Samaritan Offering. This money is used to help those in need, members and non-members alike. Your contributions to this fund made it possible for us to assist a single lady with her rent. She has very limited income. Thank you for your generous support of the needy people in our community! JANUARY LUNCH BUNCH The Lunch Bunch is a Dutch treat group that gets together on the 1st Tuesday of the month. The group is open to anyone who likes to eat out and have fellowship time with members and friends of the church. The Lunch Bunch will meet Tuesday, January 5th, at Red Lobster on Riverside Drive at 12:30 PM There will be only one Worship Service, at 11:00 AM, on December 27th, January 3rd, and January 10th. 3
CHILDREN S CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE REHEARSAL MONDAY LEADERSHIP EXCHANGE LATE JANUARY On January 31 st, your Pastor and several Elders will go to the Wayside Presbyterian Church as part of the Leadership Exchange. The LE is sometimes called the pulpit swap, but since it is the pastors behind the pulpits that are swapped rather than the pulpits themselves, a different name was sought out. Furthermore, so as to not simply have the preacher be the representative, Flint River Presbytery has taken steps to encourage a passel of Elders to go with the Preacher to make it a more valuable exchange. Barbara Hoffman will preach at Northminster that Sunday. The Congregation would like to extend their warmest welcome to our newest members, Jon and Lou Geerlings and Ms. Judith Herndon. We have had wonderful services for children on Christmas Eve! The past three years, the Children s Service has been structured around the giving of a costume packet to certain children as they arrive. This year, a bit more structure is being sought with a practice on the Monday immediately before Christmas Eve. The Big Idea to have every child involved and to allow every child to bring some additional wardrobe pieces from home, if he or she desires. (The main part of the costume will be provided.) Please join us Monday, December 21st, at 4:00 PM for this rehearsal. Let our Administrative Assistant know if you can attend. 4
The PasTor s Page Having a Great Choir is an Amazing Gift! We are blessed with a great choir here. They have been an amazing resource. On some special occasions. I have asked them, What s the chance that we could try this.? Sure! On a few occasions in South Carolina, I would ask the choir to assist with the teaching of a hymn to the congregation. They also helped me perfect the creation of a few additional verses. And, eventually, they would sing the lyrics of one hymn to the tune of another. (The idea was to make it more singable.) In Albany, we had a great choir, but I was new in ministry and getting the feel of leading worship each Sunday. (I had been in worship all of my life, but it is a different thing to lead worship ask any of the Elders what it is like [especially initially] to be a Worship Assistant! It changes things.) I don t think I asked much of that choir. It is funny how confidence, maturity, growth, attending conferences, keeping the imagination engaged and pondering possibilities can be an impetus for making a request of a choir. Some years ago, The Reverend James Bumpus concluded a sermon just by leaning in, and in his beautiful, clear voice, he simply started singing Leaning On The Everlasting Arms. The African-American tradition has much to offer and can offer up surprises. The person at the keyboards might fall in behind the preacher with some chords in the middle of a sermon. The keyboardist might pick up a portion of a hymn, if it fits in with what the preacher is proclaiming. Another gift of the African-American Church s worship is the joining in of the congregation in a song. It takes no prompt. James Bumpus did not say, Join me. He didn t do a Mick Jagger/ Bruce Springstein pointing the microphone to the audience. He simply started singing, and perhaps, something in his voice, a slight lifting of the eyes, and they we were joining in. A day or two after I was first invited to preach at the Unity Service of Mercer s Paired Clergy project, I was listening to some (non-church choir) music. Club Nouveau, to be specific. And to be more precise, their take on the old Bill Withers classic from the early 70 s Lean on Me. I thought about that song, and James Bumpus leading us into that hymn about leaning, and I wondered what it might be like to end the sermon whatever that would be with one of those songs. I pictured our youth playing and singing sometimes in our lives Our children introduced me to mash-ups. They are musical inter-twinings of several songs. They have been made extremely popular by cheer leader competitions. Perhaps they have been further popularized by surprise dances at a Rehearsal Dinner or Wedding Reception. They are now easily to be found on You- Tube. Enter almost the name of any two songs and there is a good chance you can find a mash-up. So, I started imagining a mash-up of Bill Withers and Showalter/Elisha Hoffman. I pictured Stewart Bowers on the church s Congo drums. Thinking back to our Unity Services, John might have Deborah Russ on the piano. She would give us Bill Wither s chords, nice and slowly. What would be missing is the soulful African-American voice at the beginning. OK, perhaps Caucasians Duffy or Adele could do the quietly powerful, melodic soft groan. I began picturing our youth playing the Congo drums. Could Emma Brown or Abby Smith take the vocals? Would they? Would Annie Putzke be able to take Susan T. McDuffie s classical training and set it aside? Do our kids have rhythm? On Facebook, an African-American Pastor posted that four of his young people were saved. I wrote to him and thanked him for his working to have the young people make expressions of their faith. I also asked him if any or all were musical. When I told him about my imagining the music/end of the sermon, he said, They are probably too young, but let me talk to the college students and see. Long story short, in time, they said yes, practiced, and came in right on cue. They picked up the drum beat, the wail, the piano chords, everything. It was fun watching the feet of the piano player he cut loose and it was amazing. They, then, segued into Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. Again, amazing! I treated them to doughnuts and coffee afterwards amazing young people. It was fun! It rather made me wonder whether the choirs of heaven, especially the traveling choir that went to Bethlehem counted it an honor, or saw it as duty, or thought to themselves That was fun! I am blessed to have had the experience of being with so many great choirs. And yet, I have to realize that all of them, even combined, pale to the mass choir of the skies that night. May you have voices that lift your spirit and praise the birth of our Lord. Peace, Insert 1
FINANCIAL SNAPSHOT DECEMBER December 2015 Newsletter Financial Summary Actual % Budgeted Variance of Budget Revenues (November): Total Pledges & Loose Offerings $41,899 $31,930 $9,969 131.22% Regular Givers - No Pledge $13,105 $5,833 $7,272 224.66% Interest $41 $0 $41 N/A Special Offerings $5,366 $0 $5,366 N/A Total Revenue $60,411 $37,763 $22,648 159.97% Revenues (YTD): Total Pledges & Loose Offerings $334,530 $351,225 -$16,695 95.25% Regular Givers - No Pledge $58,690 $64,167 -$5,477 91.46% Interest $681 $0 $681 N/A Special Offerings $19,822 $0 $19,822 N/A Total Revenue $413,723 $415,391 -$1,668 99.60% Expenses (November): Budgeted Expenses $39,080 $38,032 $1,048 102.76% Special Offerings $3,952 $0 $3,952 N/A Total Expenses $43,031 $38,032 $4,999 113.15% Expenses (YTD): Budgeted Expenses $397,325 $380,318 $17,008 104.47% Special Offerings $16,067 $0 $16,067 N/A Total Expenses $413,392 $380,318 $33,074 108.70% YTD Net $331 We will have complete 2015 Year End numbers and 2016 Budget as soon as December financials are available. The pledges totals for 2016 have brought us to 85% of our budget. Thank you for your faithfulness in giving. There is a Congregational Meeting on January 10th following the (one) 11:00 AM Worship Service. The Christmas Joy Offering will be received on December 20th.