Pastor's Corner
1 Corinthians 1:4-9
4I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge— 6because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. 7Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.
1 Thessalonians 1:2-3
2We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. 3We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Thessalonians 1:3-4
3We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. 4Therefore, among God's churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
Every October churches around the world are encouraged to show appreciation to their pastor. Sometimes this is easier for some churches than for others. This past year you overwhelmed my family and me with not just October appreciation, but a whole year of appreciation. I’ve seen churches just go through the motions of showing this, but you go far beyond that, and we are blessed.
Although I agree with churches encouraging their leadership, for so many do not, I worry that we as leaders miss the opportunity to appreciate our churches. I have never served in a church that I couldn’t find something to appreciate in it. However as I sit with my brothers and sisters in the ministry I find the opposite. We are a bunch of whiners. Don’t get me wrong; there are many valid reasons for many of my friends to be cynical, but I all too often see this as the only thing they are. Leaders need to take more time looking at the positives and less time looking at the negatives.
My Brook Park family, there is nothing I like to do better than to brag about you as a church. I do give thanks daily to God for bringing us to you. Using Paul’s language, you folks have been enriched in every way, because the testimony of Christ is confirmed in you. I’m not just saying this either; this church is special and has so much to offer the community. When most churches say they are a family, it means dysfunctional at best; however, we are functional and healthy. Praise God!
I share all this because you have already done the hard part of church, preparing the soil. The hardest part of ministry in most congregations is getting it right inside the building and with each other, not a problem here. Now what we need to do is go out and invite people in.
We have a good, Godly thing here and we should share it.
My hope for this New Year is that we will be more purposeful about inviting those we know that are without a church family to come and see. That we will witness in this next year an increase of “new people” in our family, and need to have multiple membership classes. You don’t have to be a Biblical scholar to do this; all you have to do is love and invite. I know that you can do what you did with me, and I now I can’t stop talking about you.
Blessings,
Your Pastor
Nuture
We would also like to thank everyone for their help during the holidays. We had Advent readers and Dan’s Christmas Eve Service and decorators. We also had much needed help for un-decorating the church.
We are looking for some materials to make new curtains for the kitchen. If you would like to help purchase some see Pat. We have a volunteer to sew them.
Ash Wednesday Service will be Feb 17th. We are not sure yet if worship will be here or at the United Methodist Church on Smith Rd. We should know next week. Easter services will be following as we traditionally do, Palm Sunday, Love Feast, Good Friday, Sonrise, and Easter Worship.
Cookie Hours continue to be the first Sunday of the month. We will be calling on many of you to help provide cookies and to help set up and clean up. Thank you in advance.
Christian Education
Sunday School attendance continues to be lower than we would like to see. We realize with the cold and snow that it is hard to make it early enough for Sunday School, but we look forward to seeing everyone here sharing and learning together.
This should help; we already have this summer’s VBS materials selected. We will choose a week soon and let you know how you can help that week.
Safe Sanctuary is in place. With the windows in the classroom doors, and the teachers’ paperwork fill out, we are now set to make sure all of the children have their paperwork completed as well.
Stewards
In case you haven’t been able to make it to church, things have changed. Besides the brightness from the new windows, the temperature has also changed, for the better. It is amazing the difference and warmth that the work on the walls provided. The walls need to primed and painted. There will be a pay to vote for the paint color. To contribute to the building fund, there are now envelopes in the pews, or you can use any envelope and mark it accordingly. There will soon be a visual for the building fund to see how we are doing in paying ourselves back for sanctuary work. We are also looking into installing the projector screen onto the front wall. This will eliminate the crowded feeling on the left side of the stage area.
We are also going to create a permanent place for the Praise Band. The pews opposite the choir will not be returned to their place. The floor will be cleaned and the Praise Band will play from there.
Witness
We would like to thank all who helped make this a special holiday for many by donating hats and gloves and other items for food baskets.
There will be a clothing giveaway set up in April after Easter. It will again be on a Saturday. Audrey’s Closet and the building are still on our minds. The building proposal is sitting on the Building Commissioner’s desk at City Hall. We will get it done though. Whatever it takes we are determined to make this a reality which in turn will open the service project to more people on a regular basis. How it will operate and be manned is still in the planning stages, but the formal plan will be in writing soon.
Senior High & Junior High
Winter Rally for Senior High is at the end of this month. We will not be able to go due to transportation difficulties.
Our next dinner will be the SOUP SMORGASBORD. We will be serving on Nov 15th after worship just before the Congregational Business Meeting.
And NYC is almost here. We registered this month and paid our deposit for each of the seven of us going. We will begin booking our flights at the beginning of Feb. The mountains are calling to us! We have worked hard these last three and a half years and we have you all to thank for our financial success. But we are not done. Hoagies will be ready for Super Bowl Sunday, we have Easter Breakfast and perhaps a bake sale to round us off to being done. A BIG THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS YOU ALL.
The Junior High Winter Rally is set for Feb 19/20 also at Inspiration Hills. Calling all Junior High Youth who would like to go!.
Deacons
We are looking to start fellowship meals again as a way to get to know each other better. We see each other in a limited capacity each Sunday when we are hurried and see many for just a few minutes. This will give us the opportunity to share a quiet meal with just a few. We will spread the word soon about the process.
From my desk to you - Karen
So many changes are taking place. For some of us it was hard to watch the sanctuary windows being covered up. I grew up with those windows embracing us on both sides of the church. They were a big part of how I identified the church. I looked up at them and their color every Sunday for 40+ years. I listened to the wind whistle through them every season, and I never thought of them as a sieve to let the cold air in. I always thought of them as a way of hearing God speak to us. That is how I usually look at storms, as a way of hearing His voice through the world around me. I look up now and it is so light and the crosses/windows are beautiful, but the colors are missing. I know that change isn’t all bad; some changes are good. The warmth can be felt now and people are comfortable as they hear the Word, and that is a good thing. The heating bills should reflect this, and that is a good thing. And church is not really about windows, but still I will miss them and the beautiful whistling that came through them…..
