December News Letter

Our Community Commons Brook Park Community Church of the Brethern D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 1 Pastor’s Corner: A Message of Change Well I’ve done it now! I’ve crossed the line and there is no coming back now. I’m in so much trouble that I don’t know if I will ever be fully forgiven. I dared to ask the question that might just be the undoing of us all. I asked my Mom if we could change the Christmas Eve tradition to another day so that my family won’t be running from the East side to the West and trying to do a night service at church. Can you hear it? The big explosion of emotion and guilt, that comes when we dare to challenge tradition. We’ve all been there when we get married and have two families to please along with our own new traditions. It isn’t an easy balancing act, and most of us try to do it all until we physically and emotionally are so drained that the Holidays become dreaded. We all want to make everyone happy and in the end we go crazy. Change is hard and it causes us to reevaluate things that maybe we haven’t evaluated in a long long time. So what do we do? Do we continue to do the same things and cause ourselves misery? Or do we dare to try something new? Something that we can do that will both honor the old and the new. Tough questions and tough roads to plow, but necessary non the less. This time of year we are reminded of the birth of Jesus Christ and the message that He brought with Him. It was a message of change, a message that challenges the listener to reconsider their life choices. Jesus says Himself that He didn’t come to change the teachings of old, but to fulfill them. He knows that we need to honor both tradition and change. His message is received well at first, however when He continues to push for change He gets into trouble with the traditionalist. Brothers and Sisters we have seen another year of much change, and we have seen the struggle between the old and the new. I believe that this year will challenge us even more in finding that balance, as there is much change on the horizon. We can choose to fight it and try to derail it, or we could just embrace the movement of the Spirit. One way leads to stagnation and the other to fear. As your Pastor I’m choosing to embrace the change and see where it takes us. God has some great things intended for us and with that we will have to be strong and persistent. Otherwise we will get no where. Please join me this Christmas season in embracing the message of hope and change from the Christ Child. Blessings, Pastor Dan OUR COMMUNITY COMMONS DECEMBER 2011 2 Nurture Commission Cyndi Bova- Chair Jeff Gough Josh Swanson Christmas Tree We hope all are enjoying the new Christmas Tree that was donated by 2 families, we want to thank them for their beautiful gift. We want to encourage anyone to add special bulbs or decorations to the tree this season and we will wrap them up and keep them to place on the tree each coming year. Advent Readers We are excited that we have 5 special readers for Advent: November 27th – Aubrie December 4th – Nick December 11th – Morgan Allen December 18th – Julia December 24th – Mary Hill Christmas Dinner The Christmas Dinner will be Wednesday, December 21st at The Garden in Brook Park. The menu’s will be hung in the vestibule for viewing meals range from $6.45 to $10.00. Please sign the Attendance Sheet on Sunday morning or contact Cyndi, Jeff or Josh to get a reservation. Advent Cookies Advent Cookies hours will be each Sunday through December 18th. There will be no cookie hour on December 25th or January 1st, January 8th will be the first Cookie of 2012. OUR COMMUNITY COMMONS DECEMBER 2011 3 Witness Commission Mary Rohrl, Mark Pollack, Sierea Swanson and Linda Cronan Witness commission has been very busy this year. 1st.We had many fundraisers for the camp scholarship fund. Over $900.00 has been raised this year. We will continue fundraisers so our youth may attend church camp at Inspiration Hills. We were able to sponsored 7 children this last summer for church camp with money left over to start the new year. Our next fundraiser will be a silent auction over the first 2 weeks in December. Witness commission would like to thank you all for your love and support of our youth. 2nd We had many adults and children in the home day parade in July. 3rd Many church members attend the interfaith service for thanksgiving on 11/22 at Mary, Queen of the Apostle Catholic Church. 4th Community garden has another successful year. The community and church members were truly blessed by all those vegetables. Many of the vegetables were given out at the food pantry and the clothing give away. 5th Audrey's Closet had another successful year. We added a few new ministries this year. We started serving community meals in Feb. and so far have served 546 meals with the next meal on 12/17. We also started a kid's lunch program this summer and served 331 lunches. We will continue this lunch program in 2012. We opened our community cupboard to the community and so far we helped over 1069 people with food. We have had 5 clothing give away this year and served over 1000 people. Lastly the helping hands group has been busy this year during small home repairs and building a ramp. The witness commission would like to thank each and every one who has helped with any of these ministries. 6th The outside groups continue to use our church for their meeting place. As of 12/2/11 Brook Park Community Church is the newest member of the Cleveland Food Bank with a $750.00 grant money in our account. Praise Jesus. OUR COMMUNITY COMMONS DECEMBER 2011 4 Stewards Commission Greetings Brother and Sisters, As this year winds down, it brings me to my final year for being on the board. I’ve been reflecting back over the last six years. When I first was asked to serve I said “no, it’s not really something for me.” I didn’t think I was really board material. Eventually I did except, what a life changing experience decision that was. I’ve learned so many new things over this span of time. I’ve grown more as a person; it’s given me a greater respect for life, people, and has brought me spiritually closer. With all the projects that we have done over these six years, it’s helped me to get to know a lot of you. What an awesome experience that has been. I’ve been very blessed working with such great talent. For that I would like to thank all of you for trusting in me and helping the Stewards over the last years in improving our church, supporting our church and supporting all the needs of our church. Truly the stewardship of our church is more than the four members that form this committee. It takes all of us in some way to make this body of Christ work. Holman’s Bible dictionary states stewardship is: “Utilizing and managing all resources God provides for the glory of God and the betterment of His creation.” In the bible it reads: “When Jesus becomes our Lord, He becomes Lord of our time, talents, finances, and everything we posses. We realize that we are not our own, we are bought with a price.” (1 Cor 6:19-20) We often think of stewardship as our money in tithe to the church, but it goes further than that. Such as our talents and gifts. (Acts 11: 27-29; 1 Cor 3:10-17) How about our bodies and minds? (RO 12:1-2) Are we caring for them as God would want us to? Then there is our family. (1 Pe 3:1-7; 1 Ti 5:8; Eph 5:25-31) Are we teaching and shepherding in the way the Lord has set before us? (Eph 6:1-4) I would say I have seen our church family use our talents and gifts the way the Lord wants us to. We care for all the way our Lord asks us to. And I know you have taught and been shepherds to Bailee, Austin, Mayvis, Kristi and me many times over. I’ve been blessed to serve for our church. I look forward to the challenge asked of me. With out your support and love I would never had been able to do this job I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and happy new year. God bless and thank you, Phil Skinner Treasurer’s Report Cynthia Allen • Through November, our Total Offering (Envelopes & Loose Plate) is $87,873. We will need almost $7,700 in December in order to achieve next year's (2012) Total Offering Budget of $95,525. • Through November, our total year-to-date net income is $3,345. Although behind in our giving, we have been able to cut expenses this year, resulting in a positive bottom line. • The approved 2012 Budget, with projected offering of $95,525, shows a projected net loss of almost $4,000. • Our balance in our Audrey's Closet account is $16,322. This includes Audrey's Closet, Community Cupboard, and the Agape Meals. • We have approximately $59k in our Building Fund and have already collected $1,400 for our next Heifer Project ark! • We sent almost $900 to Camp Inspiration Hills in November. • Starting in 2012, please turn in all receipts, even if you'd prefer to donate the items that you have purchased. We will be tracking these as "Non-Monetary Donations" in order to get a better idea as to how much it actually costs to maintain our church and its various ministries. Simply write "Donation" and a description (or Expense Line Item Number) on your receipt and place in your offering envelope. OUR COMMUNITY COMMONS DECEMBER 2011