News & Notes 12/31/09
Dear St. John’s Church Family,
It’s been a quiet week around Lake Wobegon . . . er, St. John’s Church! It’s been a much needed respite from the detailed preparations for Christmas Eve and the Sunday afterward! But just as much of the world marks the passage of time this evening, with New Year’s Eve revelry, the Church marks the passage of time, too. While we won’t have a New Year’s Eve worship service at St. John’s, on Sunday, we WILL begin the new year in worship that calls us to the serious work of renewing our covenant with God.
This next article comes from the website of the General Board of Discipleship of the UMC, and speaks about the focus of our worship this Sunday: “Covenant making: At the heart of Christian devotion is a sense that we are not our own, but that through God’s claim upon us in Christ through baptism, we are God’s servants. From time to time, Christians need to make a solemn renewal of the covenant, lest we hold back from God what we once gave to God but over time have hoarded for ourselves. The early Methodists adopted a form of covenant renewal and found that New Year’s Eve or Day [or in our case, the first Sunday of the new year] was a very suitable time for this. . . [It will be] a service that has roots in a time when sin was taken seriously, as was the atonement, and is potent in Christ’s call to obedience and discipleship. Such services are the meats that demand good spiritual teeth and a hearty constitution rooted in disciplined living.”
I hope you will make every effort to be in worship with your sisters and brothers this Sunday! But, speaking of this Sunday, I have heard that there is a chance of snow. In the event that the storm is significant enough - or lasts long enough - that we need to cancel worship, the announcements to that effect will be called into WOKQ-97.5 FM and WMUR (Channel 9) television. I will also post the notice on the church’s website. Even if the services are not canceled, please make your own judgment relative to driving under whatever conditions we have.
Next Friday, January 9th, we will hold the first Red Cross Blood Drive of 2010 - from 1 till 6 PM. Jinny told me that she has all the volunteers she needs, but that she would LOVE to have donations of goodies and/or food. So, if you’re so inclined . . . . .
Then on Saturday, January 9th, at 9:30 AM, the Worship Committee will gather to de-decorate the sanctuary. They would really LOVE to have your help with this task! It always seems to be a more difficult job to put things away than to bring them out!! Won’t you give a hand? It’ll only take an hour or so!!
Want to have a hand in setting the schedule of events for the year? Well the Church Council is sponsoring our annual Calendaring meeting on Sunday, January 10th, right after the second service. We put in all the “regular” events - set dates for “special” events - and negotiate dates for “conflicting” events. This helps us do planning - in every area of the church. The Church Council members are all encouraged to attend, but everyone in the church in invited. It shouldn’t take more than an hour to an hour and a half.
The next time we bless Prayer Shawls in worship will be January 10th. Do you have anyone that you would like to receive a Shawl? Please let me know soon. Thanks.
The Community Martin Luther King, Jr. Service will take place on Sunday, January 17th, at 7 PM, at First Parish Church in Dover. The Dover High School Chorus will be singing . . . and I’m forgetting who the speaker will be right now. But I hope you’ll take advantage of this service.
Our Office Manager, Sandy, has just told me that IT LOOKS LIKE we will end 2009 in the black - with all bills and obligations to the Conference paid in full! Now, let’s affirm that this is possible because we withdrew $30,000 from our invested funds back in the summertime! But at the time, we weren’t entirely sure that this amount would carry us through to the end of the year. Well, as Sandy says, it looks like it did - with some to spare. I think the discussions in the Church Council have been that any extra in the current expense checking account at the end of the year will be reinvested. At this point Sandy and our Treasurer, Dave Perry, don’t know how much that will be.
Sandy has also told me that we received $2,094.81 toward the “Christmas Eve Offering” - which will be divided evenly ($523.71 each) between the Somersworth Food Cupboard, the Dover Cooperative Ministries Food Pantry, the Rochester SHARE Fund,, and the Dover SHARE Fund. Wow! That’s wonderful!!
Relative to both of these last two articles, I thank you for your faithfulness, and your sacrificial giving!
Let’s end the year with a few more puns:
*Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the
other, ‘You stay here; I’ll go on a head.’
*I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
*A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: ‘Keep off the Grass.’
*A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. His mother
phoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, ‘No change yet.’
*A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
Heck! Who am I trying to kid? We’re going to start the new year with puns, too! Have an enjoyable (and safe) evening - and in whatever you do, may the witness of your words and actions bring glory to God! See you in church! Peace, Mark