THREE – Highland Church eNewsletter – July 5, 2012
THREE
Highland Presbyterian Church eNewsletter
July 5, 2012
God . . .
Are you there?
We’ve been taught
and told we ought
to pray.
But the doubt
won’t go away
yet neither
will our longing to be heard
Our souls sigh
too deep for words.
Do you hear me?
God . . .
are you there?
Are you where love is?
We don’t love well,
or often,
anything
or anyone.
But when we do,
when we take the risk,
there’s a sudden awareness
of all we have missed;
and it’s good,
it’s singing good.
For a moment
life seems as it should.
But, we forget, so busy soon,
that it was,
or what
or whom.
Help us!
God . . .
Are you there?
~ adapted from Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle by Ted Loder
SUNDAY, July 8, 2012
9:30 a.m. – Adult Christian Education – “When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box” – John Ortberg DVD Series
9:30 a.m. – Traditional Service – Rev.Dr. Roger Rabey leading worship - (See below for details of children’s programming)
Samaritan Center Rose Ceremony will take place at this service. A rose is presented to Highland from the Samaritan Center annually as a symbol of the relationship between the Center and Highland. Highland continues to provide the facility as well as supporting the Center in many other ways.
10:45 a.m. – Contemporary Service - Rev. Dr. Roger Rabey leading worship (See below for details of children’s programming)
10:45 a.m. – Faith Café – “The Wired Word” Upper Room – Tom Whitworth
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION for ADULTS
• John Ortberg DVD series When The Game Is Over It All Goes Back In The Box beginning Sunday mornings at 9:30 a.m. in the Upper Room
• “The Wired Word” facilitated by Tom Whitworth has moved to the Upper Room at 10:45 a.m.
CHILDREN’S CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
SUMMER SCHEDULE
• 9:30 am Service – All children still begin in the service. When dismissed, they will to go to the following: (Incoming) Age 4-Grade 1 – Word & Worship *(Room 101). (Incoming) Grades 2-5– SonRise National Park *(Room 103). Miss Parker will be teaching this age group!
• 10:45 am Service – All children will begin in the service. When dismissed, all children Age 4-Grade 5 will go to SonRise National Park *(Room 103). *Parents please pick your children up after the service in these classrooms.
“TAKE FOUR" - Highland's 2012 Vacation Bible School at 6:30 p.m. Two remaining dates: July 8 and July 15. Contact Allison Brown at 569-2651 or allisonbrown@highlandpc.org if your child would like to attend either of the two remaining evening sessions.
CONGREGATIONAL LIFE
WOMEN’S MINISTRY
PRESBYTERIAN WOMEN BIBLE STUDY 2012-2013
HORIZONS BIBLE STUDY—Dispatches to God’s Household :The General Epistles
The six books of the New Testament are explored in this study— 1 and 2 Peter, 1–3 John, and Jude—teach us what it means to live in community—what it means to belong to the household of God. To learn more about this Bible study join Highland’s Presbyterian Women for a Bible Study preview on Monday, August 27 at 10:00 a.m. in Room 204. Barbara Droz will lead an overview of the study. Please call the church office to sign up for the preview so sufficient informational packets are prepared.
Bible Study books are now available at the church office at the cost of $8.00. An envelope is provided with each copy for payment. Please return the payment to the church office or place in Beverly Geib’s mailbox.
PW BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
Books have been selected for 2012-2013.The books have been assigned for the first four months.
September 26 – The Greater Journey – David McCollough
October 24 - Killing Lincoln – Bill O’Reilly
November 14 – Year of Wonders – Geraldine Brooks
December 19 - Miss Julia Renews Her Vows – Ann B. Ross
The remaining books have been selected for the year; however, the month in which a book is to be discussed will be finalized in September:
Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen – Susan Gregg Gilmore
The House at Riverton – Kate Morton
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee & Scout, Atticus and Boo – Mary McDonagh Murphy
Little Bee – Chris Cleve
The Widower’s Tale – Julia Glass
Dreams of Joy – Lisa See
SINGLES AND SENIOR MINISTRY
HIGHLAND TRIP
Tuesday, July 12—Michener Museum and Bucks County Breakfast has been cancelled.
CARE AND COMPASSION
PRAY FOR OUR MILITARY MEMBERS, FAMILY AND FRIENDS-
Airman First Class Joshua S. Wylie -grandson of Mary Louise and John Wylie, Edwards AFB, California;1C Jason Neiss, son of Jill Reitz
– McConnell A.F.B.; CPL Drew D. Smith- USA; Captain Megan K. (Wood) Lippert - USAF,T-1 flight instructor, Laughlin AFB, TX,; Captain Royce M. Lippert – USAF, T-6 flight instructor, Laughlin AFB, TX; Lt. James Hitch, Bagdad, Iraq-field artillery; Lt. JG Laura Dogger-USS Mitcher DDG.57, Navigator stationed in Norfolk, VA; Staff Sgt. Corey R. Pierce-Willow Grove; LCPL Donald Oatman, Jr., US Marines-Quantico, VA; Sgt. Michael Belliveau, grandson of Ray and Sandy Belliveau, Special Forces- Washington State; Mohammad Mohebbi; Lance Corporal Clay Johnson, Afghanistan; Captain Jesse A. Dunn, U.S. Army Aviation, Apache Helicopter Pilot, Commander – D Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Division, Ft. Hood Texas; Cadet 3/C Ethan Dewart, U.S. Military Academy, Midshipman 2/C Josh Sindorf, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy; and Midshipman 3/C Elizabeth Hoerner, U.S. Naval Academy. Capt. Ryan Lippert, USAF –F15 E pilot, Seymour- Johnson, AFB, NC , Capt. Shannon Lippert, - USAF, F15E pilot, Seymour- Johnson, AFB, NC.
If you have updates on the location of a service member or if he/she has had a change in rank, please call the church office with the information or email the information to: Linda Crosswell at lindacrosswell@highlandpc.org
MUSIC
2012 Lemonade Concert Series presented by the OperaLancaster Associates
7:30PM Thursday Evenings
Highland Pre
sbyterian Church, Lancaster, PA
NOTE: These concerts are FREE; however, a free-will offering will be taken.
Donations support the annual OLA Vocal Competition & Scholarships
JULY 12
Broadway & Berlin
JULY 19
Erwin Chandler - Piano & French Horn
JULY 26
John Darrenkamp & Kristin Sims
AUGUST 2
VoCe: Voices of Cecilia
AUGUST 9
Silent Film Soundtrack
by Tom & Laurie Reese
Laurice Simmons Kennel, Soprano
AUGUST 16
Graceful & Charming
Sandy Crellin & Parker Kenyon
(Guitar, Saxophone, & Recorder)
AUGUST 23
Bon Appetit - Julia Child Opera Terri Mastrobuono, mime artist - Ellen Fritz, soprano
MISSIONS/MISSION TRIPS
LANCASTER COUNTY MISSION TRIP—August 22-25
Highland’s Global Mission Committee is sponsoring a mission trip in August to help repair the homes in Manheim that were damaged by Hurricane Irene in September 2011. The cost of the trip is $90 per person which covers building supplies and some meals. We are hoping to stay overnight at Highland but folks are welcome to stay in their own homes as well. Sign up is required by Sunday, June 10 and payment due by Sunday, July 15. Please sign up by calling Ted Mingle at 569-2651 or emailing him at tedmingle@highlandpc.org
YOUTH
SHINE ON!
A Vacation Bible School for middle school youth is coming to Highland on August 6-8. This 3-day VBS runs from 9:00am to 4:00pm. For more information contact Kate Mobley at 627-3306 or katemobley@hotmail.com or Matt Wilcox at 569-2651 or mattwilcox@highlandpc.org.
McMONDAYS in the SUMMER!
IF IT’S SUMMER . . . IT’S TIME FOR McMONDAYS!. . . BUT NOT THIS WEEK!
No McMonday this week (July 9) since Matt will be away on the middle school mission trip to Philadelphia. He'll see you next week!
PANCAKES = OPPORTUNITY! Tickets for the pancake breakfast being held on Sunday, July 15 at 8:30 a.m. are being sold in the Narthex on Sunday between services. Tickets are $5 and support the Mars Hill mission trip. Buy your tickets today!
GENERAL INFORMATION
Rev. Ann Osborne’s sermon on July 1, 2012 had “Paul's Top Ten List for How to Live in Freedom!” Many people have asked for the “Top Ten List.” Here is the sermon with the “List” in context.
On Tuesday, a strong contingent of Highland Teaching and Ruling Elders attended the Presbytery Meeting at Cedar Grove Presbyterian Church. We were introduced to the term, Adaptive Change, which is the newest way individuals and organizations, including churches, are now dealing with the up-to-the minute changes that are assaulting all aspects of our lives.
We are all familiar with Technical Change because that is how decisions have been made for the past two centuries. This is where we apply our current knowledge, skills and tools to resolve a situation or make a decision. Highland Church utilized this type of decision-making when the congregation decided to help pay the debt on our new construction by selling 22 acres of land to Presbyterian Senior Living to build the 55+ rental community next door.
Adaptive Change is called for when the situation or challenge cannot be solved with one’s existing knowledge and skill set. Such change requires people to make a shift in their values, expectations, attitudes or habits of behavior. Each day every one of us makes decisions unconsciously using the Adaptive Change process. Life is changing at a pace that is so fast that it sometimes alarms us. The challenges that have consumed our national leaders for the past thirty years are still being debated: national debt, economic vitality, health care, education, poverty, immigration, national safety, and sustainable environmental responses.
We ourselves now, more than ever, lie awake at night worrying about how we face the future. Whether we are in elementary school, middle or high school, college, or young adult-hood, if we are single, married, divorced or in second marriages, regardless of our stage in life: young, mid-career or third stage, we are concerned about what is next for our tried and true institutions, national and local leadership, technological, social, and bio-ethical policy decisions, and how we as the member of Highland Church engage in evangelism, outreach and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with folks who have never ever been inside a church before.
Certainly we have options. We can Opt-in and decide to make a difference. We can choose to show up and to become part of the process. We can engage with a particular issue, take a stand and be active in something that makes a difference. This involves energy, being willing to set aside some hours of our week to engage in joining relationally with other people to take action, reach out to create coalitions and networks, or simply pray diligently for a particular issue or concern that ignites our passion and creative thinking. St. Augustine is credited with saying that the call God gives to each of us is determined by where our greatest sense of delight meets and intersects with our sense of the world’s greatest point of need.
We can decide to Opt-out by becoming apathetic, unresponsive, or deny that there is any need to participate. Withdrawal, refusal to serve in any volunteer capacity, being unwilling to read the newspaper or listen to the news are ways that people choose to refuse to participate in the fullness of living.
When we don’t agree with decisions being made, or feel out of control about what is happening around us, it is a natural response to get angry, make harsh judgments on others or to blame one another. By denigrating other people we make it possible to exalt ourselves, so as to lift ourselves above other individuals without our having to undertake anything or make any decisions ourselves.
We can relate to Paul’s situation with the Church in Philippi. Dissention and disagreement between two leaders who have worked side by side threatens to divide the relationships of the entire community, affecting the whole body of Christ. Paul reminds the entire congregation of how to live together as Christian Community being relational, supportive, non-judgmental, living in harmony all the while rubbing against each other and learning from each one’s giftedness, differences and diversity.
Paul’s prescription for living in freedom seems pretty simple. If we were to put his ideas into a David Letterman top ten list, it might read like this:
10. Celebrate God. Not just on Sunday mornings here in the sanctuary/fellowship hall. Celebrate God all day, every day. Celebrate God unceasingly; When you are at a stoplight Celebrate God’s activity in Your Life. When you walk the dog at night and see the sparkling shimmering lights of the fire flies, Celebrate the God of all Creation! When you are made to wait longer than you planned at the Doctor’s office, Celebrate God and the extra space in your day to recognize God’s activity in your life.
9. Rejoice in the Lord Always! Revel in God’s activity in each breath you take. Party hearty, raise the roof, go on the town, paint the town red – exclaim and shout out to others in exuberance and excitement for all the God is doing in you and in the world. Be enthusiastic, living with energy and cheerfulness that God is ever-present, always with you in the good and the not so good times of life!
8. Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you are on their side – standing as an advocate in love and support of who they are as beloved and special children of God! Don’t work against other people. Help each person that crosses your path to see God – present and active in all parts of life!
7. Keep on with your everyday works of gentleness and prayerful living. Bake a pan of brownies for the woman down the street whose husband just died. Take a bag of groceries to the food pantry. Visit a church member in the nursing home. Call or text a person who crosses your mind to let them know you are thinking of them. Such seemingly ordinary acts bear extraordinary gifts of God’s love.
6. Don’t fret or worry. Choose to reframe the situation, looking for what can be learned or experienced as the silver lining to the cloud. Worry is a mindset. We can choose to wake each morning in anxiety, fussing over troubles or things for which we have no control. Or, as a Spiritual Director friend of mine suggested, we can awake and immediately focus upon three things for which we are thankful—even before we roll out of bed!
5. Pray. Whenever we feel impelled to worry, change the language to – “Loving God, I place this concern into Your hands.” When we let God know each concern we have, we can stop carrying the burdens on our shoulders and within our innermost thoughts. We can give them up and let God take the responsibility to resolve what bothers us.
4. Look for God’s wholeness, the realization that everything – even the most bothersome or difficult circumstances – are coming together for good. God’s peace and wholeness will come and settle us down when we ‘let go and let God’ take over our worries and concerns.
3. Fill your minds with the best not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly, things to praise, not things to curse. We each make choices for how we focus our attention and the ways we engage in living our lives. What is the best, the beautiful, the things that excite you, enliven you and empower you to use the gifts that God has bestowed upon you? What delights you and creates a sense of wonder and awe for all that God continues to do in your life and the lives of others?
2. Put into practice all that you have learned about Jesus, his love and compassion, his welcome and joy filled embrace of all the people as he walks with you in each aspect of your living.
1. God, who makes everything work together, will work you into God’s excellent peace, harmony and freedom from strife. In God, you are free to live life in love and abundance! In Celebrating God’s presence and action in our lives, we are freed us to live in Joy.
Sharing of the Lord’s Supper is the tangible way we affirm and demonstrate our confidence in God’s action in our lives. Just as Jesus celebrated the Passover Meal with his disciples, we celebrate the Communion Meal together as the Body of Christ.
Jesus took the most hallowed of all Jewish Celebrations, the Seder Meal, and renewed it for his disciples as a meal of hope and confidence in God’s power to transform all of life itself. Jesus did not know what God was going to do with his life that evening. Perhaps he suspected that he was walking a path that would end in death. How could any of us have known that God would take the worst of what humanity could do to God’s own Son and transform this killing action into the very best that God could do for all of humanity – resurrection and the overcoming of sin and death to offer us full relationship with God.
The meal that we celebrate this morning calls us to claim the amazing freedom we find in God’s power. Through the obedience and gracious acts of Jesus, his life, death and resurrection, the power of evil is conquered, death is defeated and abundant and eternal life is given to each person who fully trusts in the saving love of Jesus Christ. It is this love and grace, this opportunity to connect in relationship with God’s power that we affirm and celebrate when we share in the communion meal together as the Body of Christ.
We here together are called as the beloved and uniquely gifted Children of God with whom God delights and desires to be in full relationship. We are called to live in freedom and to celebrate what God is continually doing in our lives. We are to be exuberant and imaginative in sharing how to live in God’s freedom with each person we encounter. Do we need to fear adaptive change? With God on our side – Who can be against us? Thanks be to God!
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
HOMELESS STUDENT — Camp Donegal Project
The first group of nine campers enjoyed a week at Camp from June 17 to June 22. In spite of some very warm days, the campers had a wonderful time and all asked if they could return again next year! Several mentioned that their favorite time was at the campfire, singing praise to the Lord. The next group leaves for Camp today, and returns on July 13. Please keep these campers- and the Camp counselors - in your prayers. A huge “thank you” to all who helped to make this project a reality for the ninth consecutive year – the shoppers, the drivers, those who offered their financial support and prayers. This is a group effort, which cannot happen without your support. The children truly appreciate it.
LABELS FOR EDUCATION—PLEASE KEEP CLIPPING!
For many years the Presbyterian Women have collected Campbell Soup Labels for Education for two Lancaster City elementary schools. Boxtops for Education are now also being collected. If you have made donations in the past, please continue. If you would like to begin donating, clip your Campbell’s UPC codes with points or the Boxtops labels and place them in the Campbell’s receptacle on the Food Cupboard. If you are interested in obtaining a complete list of eligible products, visit the: Campbell’s web site at labelsforeducation.com or Boxtops web site at boxtopsforeducation.com
ALPHA
Alpha will begin on Wednesday, September 12 from 6:00-8:30 p.m. with dinner, video and small group discussion. Mark your calendar NOW!
TWO WAYS YOU CAN HELP DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTER!
DVS is one of the many organizations Highland supports through Local Outreach. On Monday, July 9, Highland members are invited to assist the DVS staff by providing an activity for the children of the shelter while their moms attend counseling sessions. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Barbara Kurtz at 471-8252 or at rinkbus@comcast.net. DVS is also in need of pillowcases for both boys and girls. The pillowcases are used to wrap small gifts for the children as they leave the shelter and begin their new life. The pillowcases should be new or in very good condition. A collection box will be located next to the Food Cupboard.
SUMMER SCHEDULE FOR THREE PUBLICATION:
THREE will be issued twice a month. The dates are:
July 19
August 9 and 23
Thursday, September 6 weekly issues will begin once again.
DONATIONS, DONATIONS, DONATIONS! BOOKS, DVDs and CDs
In anticipation of our late summer book sale, we are now accepting donations of books, DVDs and CDs. Please place them in the crates inside the library door. All funds raised by the book sale are used to purchase items for our library. The book sale is a fun time for all and everyone benefits. As you look for items to donate, please check for books, etc., that you may have checked out and forgot to return to our library.
LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER!
Summer Academy at Lancaster Theological Seminary (LTS) July 9 - 13, 2012.Plan to attend and enjoy morning classes, afternoon workshops and evening classes. This is an opportunity for lay people to continue learning and growing with Seminary students. Brochures are available at the Church office or the Welcome Center. For more information, contact April Bupp at 290-8758 or abupp@lancasterseminary.edu or Sandy Cross at 672-0860.
HIGHLAND PRESCHOOL
The Preschool is presently registering children for the fall of 2012 school year. Children who are Ages 2 to 5 are eligible. The classes meet from 9:00- 11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. Number of days of attendance depends on the age of the child. If interested, please call Frances Flinn at 569.3699.
HELP BUY OFFICE SUPPLIES for Highland by donating used printer cartridges. Look for the "green" box on the signup table in the office lobby. Please do not place cartridges in the “cell phone” box.
Highland’s Session has divided all programs and committees into the following councils: Worship, Congregational Life, Christian Education, Care and Compassion, and Mission. THREE has been arranged by categories corresponding to these councils. Other categories that have been added to THREE are Youth and General Information.