| Update
May 5th, 2006
Dear
Good Shepherd,
Good Morning! Well, here's your Weekly Update
PLEASE
READ IT VERY CAREFULLY. I'm trying not to repeat much of this
on Sunday to cut down on annoucement time.
Enjoy!
Weely
Article
UPDATE
CONTENTS
GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY
NADIA
REPORT
ON THE UPCOMING CONFIRMATION/BAPTISM/RECEPTION
HAVE
YOU…
Second
Notice: SOLEMN/FIRST COMMUNION
HOME
GROUPS
FAMILY
AND FRIENDS SUNDAY
THE
CHICKEN BBQ & RUMMAGE SALE
ADULT
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION: “THE HARD QUESTIONS”
CALLING
THE PASTOR'S HOUSE
FINAL
DATE FOR THE CAMPING TRIP
NEWS:
GOOD
SHEPHERD SUNDAY:
Is this Sunday. Every year Good Shepherd celebrates her founding,
fellowship and mission on the South-side by eating a lot of
food and hanging out. This year will be no different. You
are all invited to join us this Sunday between services for
the Good Shepherd Day Brunch!
It
is traditional for the vestry to make prepare and serve the
brunch for the church, so don't worry about bringing anything
but a good appetite.
What
will we do? Well, we'll eat, we'll visit, and I'll give a
very brief talk about Good Shepherd's history and mission.
This year I've managed to find some very old vestry minutes
from the 19 th century that I'll share and some old photographs
if I can find them. Should be lots of fun. Be sure to come
and invite your friends.
NADIA:
Nadia has led our music
ministry and played piano/organ for a year at Good Shepherd.
She has given her time, her devotion, and her personal warmth
to this church. It is therefore with great sadness that we've
concluded our futures lie
in different directions. Nadia will play
with us for another month and then move onto
new paths. God has definitely blessed Good Shepherd through
Nadia and we are very thankful for her and for the contributions
she has made to the music program at Good Shepherd.
As
for the future, we look forward to finding and meeting the
new musician/choir director God has chosen for us. We don't
have any idea who that will be yet, but we trust that God
does.
Please
pray that God will raise up someone committed to Jesus Christ who
has a specific vision for the music/worship ministry
at Good Shepherd that will take our body of believers
to new heights of worship and praise.
REPORT
ON THE UPCOMING CONFIRMATIONS/BAPTISMS/RECEPTIONS:
As I mentioned last week: “ We are currently negotiating with
our bishop, bishop Adams, to allow bishop Bena from the diocese
of Albany (an Anglican Communion Network diocese) to
visit Good Shepherd for Confirmations. Confirmation is the
time when you, as an adult, publicly profess your faith in
Jesus Christ and have that faith “confirmed” by a bishop,
or overseer, who will lay hands on you and pray for you to
be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
There
are a number of people at Good Shepherd who have not yet been
Confirmed. If you would like to be, please let Anne or me
know. I have some of you already in mind and I will be speaking
to you if you privately.
SO
FAR: Richard
Moat, Michelle White, Carolyn and Darrell Dean, Tina Smith,
Joanne Moat, Elizabeth Finch, Bill Lane, and Lee Bronson have
all agreed to either be confirmed or received. This is great.
There are a few more people I'd like to contact as well.
This
will also be a wonderful opportunity to be Baptized.
SO
FAR: Megan and
Madison (Tina Smith's daughters) are preparing for baptism.
Requirements
for Confirmation, (adult) Baptism, and Reception:
1.
If you are committed to a weekly bible study or come to Christian
Education on a weekly basis then you are prepared for Confirmation.
If not then you will be asked to commit to a bible study or
Sunday morning group.
2.
There two mandatory meetings for everyone hoping to be confirmed/received/baptized.
The first meeting will be to discuss what it means to be confirmed
into the Anglican expression of Christianity and the second
will be to discuss the service itself. I will publish these
dates as soon as I get a better idea of who will be attending.
PS:
We will also be doing lake Baptisms this year at
the Parish Picnic coming up in June at Cole Park so if you
would like to wait until the picnic please feel free, but
if you are participating in the Solemn Communion program,
you will want to be baptized by Bishop Bena or at some point
before Solemn Communion Sunday.
The
date being discussed for bishop Bena's visit is Wednesday
evening, May 24th .
HAVE YOU…. shared
your faith with a friend? The vestry has challenged all of
us to share our faith in Jesus Christ with at least one non-believer
each month. You are, judging by our recent growth, obviously
doing a great job and at that! If we continue at the same
rate God will have added 33 new believers/members to our fellowship
by the end of the year . We're at the end April. Have
you shared your faith?
Second
Notice: SOLEMN/FIRST
COMMUNION: IS COMING THIS WEEK Here is a note from
Anne+
Solemn
Communion is coming up again! For those of you who are new
to Good Shepherd, Solemn Communion is part of Catechesis of
the Good Shepherd, the curriculum we use for elementary Sunday
School. In the evangelical Anglican tradition, children are
invited to receive communion as soon as they are baptized
and reach for the bread and wine at the communion rail. It
is the choice of parents to allow them to receive as infants,
or to wait until they are a little older and have a more mature
understanding of the sacrament. Regardless of when children
receive communion, however, we like them to know what is going
on and so that is what Solemn Communion is all about—deepening
an understanding of the sacrament of holy communion and coming
to a mature faith in Jesus Christ. Solemn Communion is made
up of 5 evening mediations, a retreat day and Solemn Communion
Sunday. The dates and times are listed below. This is a special
and important time for our children and I ask the whole church
to participate in three ways. First, I ask you to pray daily
for those participating. Second, I ask that you invite any
children you know to participate in the program—even going
to so far as to bring them yourself. And third, if you yourself
would like to deepen your relationship with God and understand
more what communion is all about, let me know and I will make
available the meditations and material we are using. This
is a special and important time for the whole church and I
encourage everyone to participate in anyway they can. –Anne
+
Evening
Meditations
6:30-7:30pm
Tuesdays
May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 at the rectory (call 773-4810 for directions)
Retreat
Day
Saturday
9am to 4pm, June 3
At
Good Shepherd
Solemn
Communion Sunday
10:30
am June 4
At
Good Shepherd
HOME
GROUPS:
Since I published last week's Article, many have expressed
interest in home groups. More information will be forthcoming,
but it seems like I already have at least three possibly four
homes and leaders. This is fantastic. As I mentioned in the
article, I'll start training sessions for home group leaders
this Summer, so stay tuned.
FAMILY AND FRIENDS SUNDAY: The next Family
and Friends Sunday will be May 21st , so start thinking and
praying now about someone else to invite.
THE
CHICKEN BBQ & RUMMAGE SALE:
Is this Saturday (the 6 th of May) If you have not signed
up to help yet, you're still welcome to do so or just to show
up. We need all the help we can get.
” THE HARD QUESTIONS”: Our
current Adult Education series is based on the book, “Reason
to Believe” by Dr. RC Sproul . You can find this book
in most bookstores. And I'm almost positive you can find it
at Arrowhead.
Last
week we discussed the question: “Is the bible really infallible?”
We
obviously said “YES”, that it is infallible because it is
the Word of God. We looked at a model for demonstrating the
fact of biblical infallibility without resorting to circular
reasoning and we discussed answers for those who argue that
the bible contradicts itself and is full of fairy tales and
myths.
This
Sunday we'll take breather for the Good Shepherd Sunday
brunch mentioned above. But we'll return the following Sunday
(May 14th ) with a discussion of more hard questions.
CALLING
THE PASTOR'S HOUSE:
Here are a few guidelines for calling the rectory. I hate
to post any guidlines at all but we've been getting so many
calls that it will probably be easier for everyone involved
if we do.
If we
don't answer immediately, please don't hang up. Leave a detailed
message. Here's why:
1.
Since my name and our home number was mistakenly printed in
BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS in the yellow pages
under "clergy", we regularly receive many, many
calls a day from "solicitors" and people trying
to get money for drugs and alcohol.
Thus,
we screen our calls. If your number or name does not come
up on the caller ID we wait to see if we recognize the voice.
If we are out or unable to get to the phone. We will call
you back. But, please leave a message.
2.
Secondly Leave a detailed message : we can get up
to 20 calls a day from parishioners. Seriously, we've counted.
If we returned every call on that very day we would never
have any family time whatsoever. So, sometimes (especially
on our day off, Monday), we don't make calls back until the
next day.
Because
we get so many calls we do triage.
Pastoral
emergencies get called back first, important pastoral business
second, personal chats last.
If
you call and simply say "This is______please call me
back", I hate to say it but you'll probably get
pushed to the back of the triage list. We will call you
back but not before we call those who have detailed their
needs on the machine.
In
other words, not leaving a detailed message garauntees being
placed in the back of the line.
If
you have an urgent need or an emergency, you need to tell
us so on the message machine.
Why?
There
are LOTS of people calling us every day. We want
to be there for you, but because of the volume we
have to categorize calls by need.
We
also have to have family time which means that if it's
not an emergency we may not call you back the day you
call depending on the day.
3.
Read the Update.
If you don't
know where we are. READ
the UPDATE .
That's what it's there for.
I
teach 4 bible studies a week and have a myriad of appointments
during the day. I also have to have time to study and write
sermons and articles.
Anne
is six months pregnant and chases two kids around on top of
being the church secretary.
I
usually let people know our schedule in the Update.
Please Read it. We can't get to everything in one day. We
love you, but we need to pace ourselves.
FINAL
DATE FOR THE CAMPING TRIP: The vestry is planning
for the second annual Good Shepherd Camping Trip. The Final
Date has been set for July 7-9. The cost will be 22$ per night
for Campers, and 16$ per night for tents. For more details
please speak to Fred Moat.
Good
News for the Week
But
if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead,
how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the
dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even
Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised,
our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that,
we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we
have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead.
But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.
For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised
either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile;
you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen
asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope
in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ
has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those
who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man,
the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For
as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
(1 st Corinthians 15:12-22)
Don't forget to....BRING A FRIEND TO CHURCH!
Daily Schedule for the week of Sunday April 30th, 2006
Monday:
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
Tuesday
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
9:00 a.m. Tuesday Morning Bible Study
6:30 p.m. First Light Bible Study: Q and A
6:30
p.m. SOLEMN/FIRST COMMUNION
7:00
p.m. First Light Bible Study: Discussion (Matthew 14)
Wednesday
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
Matt's
writing/study day
Thursday
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
5:30 p.m. Shepherd's Bowl
6:30 p.m. New Beginners Bible Study (Jeremiah 3)
7:30 p.m. Choir Practice
Friday
6:30 a.m. Men's Breakfast/Bible Study
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
Saturday:
10:00 a.m. Women's Bible Study
SUNDAY
MAY 14th , 2006 EASTER V
8:00am Holy Communion II and Sermon
9:15-10:15 a.m. Christian Education for all Ages
10:30 am Holy Communion II, Music and Sermon
God bless you all
In
Christ,
Matt+
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