Three Things You Need to Know from Church Council

Church Council met on Monday night, March 16, 2009. Here are the three things you need to know from that meeting.

1) The Budget has been constructed and Cindy will lead the Budget Presentation on Sunday March 22nd immediately following the worship service. Given the loss of income from the building rental to the Academy (now that they have officially closed) and the current economic situation it is going to be a challenging budget, but with faith in God and the commitment of the church we can make it happen!

2) The Stewardship Letter is being workshopped and will be mailed following the Budget Presentation. As such, Loyalty Sunday (when we turn in our pledge cards) was officially set for April 19th. Service will be followed by an ice-cream social that day. So bring your pledge card and get an ice-cream sundae!

3) The nominating committee was (more or less) finalized and will have their first meeting on Sunday March 29th after the worship service. You can look forward to hearing from them in the coming weeks!

Three Things You Need to Know from Trustees

The Trustees met on Monday evening, March 16, 2009. Here are the three things you need to know from that meeting.

1) We had an in depth conversation about the state of the finances at the Encanto Community Church, including our financial future now that the Academy is no longer renting the building, the hit our carry-over balance from 2008 has taken in the first two months of 2009, and plans for the future financial health of the congregation.

2) Discussed the "Finances" page of the new wedding guidelines including the difference in fees for members versus non-members.

3) A new paint color has picked for Fellowship Hall (note: in the meantime since the meeting the stage has been reclaimed, flooding the Fellowship Hall with natural light from the three re-exposed windows; helping to make our refurbishment of Fellowship Hall that much more eye popping).

Deacons Three Things You Should Know

The Diaconate Board met on Sunday March15. Here are the three things you should know from that meeting:

1) April 5th will be Palm/Passion Sunday. We will walk through the entire story of Mark's telling of the Passion of Christ. PLEASE NOTE: Even though this is a first Sunday we will not be celebrating communion during worship, but will instead break bread together on...

2) ...Maundy Thursday. Our Maundy Thursday events will include the Soup Supper at 6PM (organized by the Church Council, see the sign-up sheet in the Fellowship Hall) and Tenebrae Worship Service at 7PM which will include a full service of communion.

3) Easter Sunday is April 12th and the Deacons will provide an Easter Breakfast here at the church starting at 8:30 AM that morning, leading us to the celebration of Christ's Resurrection and God's gift of life with worship at 10AM.

RE's Three Things You Should Know

The Religious Education Board met on Sunday March 15. Here are the three things you should know from that meeting:

1) The Yard Sale is coming up Saturday April 4th. This is the major fundraiser for our youth group, and we need your gently used donatable items to sell! The sale will run from 7AM to 3PM.

2) The Easter Egg Hunt will take place during Church School on Easter Sunday, April 12th. Please bring your non-chocolate (it melts) candy donations to help us stuff our Easter Eggs for our church school kids.

3) The Ice Cream Social will be April 19th immediately following the worship service. Come cool off with your friends at the Encanto Community Church, and enjoy some delicious icecream while you are at it!

Getting Angry Wordle

Another sermon preached, another Wordle document on the blog!

Here is a Wordle of March 15's sermon. Remember, you can see the fullsize image by clicking on the picture, or you can read the entire sermon by clicking on this link.

I’ve Been Thinking about...

...One Great Hour of Sharing.

It is our annual special offering on behalf of the UCC to carry out God’s mission of love and hope throughout the world. We will receive our OGHS offering next Sunday. Here is what their website has to say about OGHS...

Through One Great Hour of Sharing, United Church of Christ members reach out in the name of Christ to:

* Build sustainable communities. OGHS supports self-help programs in more than 80 nations to build sustainable communities that enable people and communities to stand against and rise above hunger, disease, illiteracy, and other forces of injustice that deny and destroy dignity.

* Respond to disasters. OGHS provides emergency and long-term assistance to people in the aftermath of hurricanes, tornados, storms, floods, tidal waves, fires, explosions, technological disasters, civil strife, war, or other natural or human-caused events. On average, OGHS responds to a disaster once every 2.5 days.

* Minister to refugees. OGHS responds with advocacy and help, hope and hospitality for people who have been uprooted from their home of origin. More than 30 million of the world's people are uprooted at any given time.

Thanks for your support of this special offering!

Yours in the journey, Rev. Brian

Clean-up day!

My thanks to everyone who helped make our most recent All Church Clean-up Day so successful. From the basement to the upstairs to the cradle corner and everywhere in between folks were working hard to reclaim our space!

Now that the Academy has moved out of our Education Wing, we have the ENTIRE building back, and are busy making the space our own again. How exciting! Here are a couple of photos of just a little bit of the work that went on:

Carolyn and Ruthann scrub down the back nursery.

Ted and Matthew do some heavy lifting in the old playground.

Jill and Cindy scrape up glue and debris from the newly de-carpeted basement floor.

I've been thinking about...

...Texas.

Round Rock, Texas and Dallas, Texas to be more geographically precise.

I’ve been in Texas this past week on vacation; visiting family, seeing old friends, and enjoying some time away to recharge and rest up.

It has me thinking about how thankful I am for the many blessings God has rained down upon me. Here are three:

I am thankful to the congregation for granting me this time away...especially this particular week. My niece Julia celebrated her third birthday and her baby brother Daniel celebrated his first. I am so glad that Susan, Henry, and I were able to celebrate it with them!

I am also thankful for the Rev. Skip Hughes who will be bringing the word this morning, and preaching the gospel from the pulpit.

I am also thankful for Lyle Riley who led our Tuesday Prayer Group. It does my heart well to know that the ministries of this church are shared and fulfilled by so many gifted and willing saints of God.

I will be returning late in the afternoon on Monday, around 5PM if all things go as planned and we don’t run into unexpected delays. I’ll be leading the Tuesday Prayer Group and preaching next Sunday’s sermon. I hope to see you then, if not before!

Yours in the journey, Rev. Brian

Remember Your Baptism Wordle

I'm doing some catching up after a week's vacation in Texas. It means this sermon is about 2 weeks getting up on the web. Sorry for the delay.

Here is a Wordle of March 1's sermon. Remember, you can see the fullsize image by clicking on the picture, or you can read the entire sermon by clicking on this link.

I've been thinking about...

...My Wii Fit.

Don’t know what that is? It is a videogame system. Yes, that is right, your Interim Minister is thinking about Video Games. And don’t worry, it doesn’t mean that I don’t have plenty of other things to think about or that I don’t have plenty of work here in our interim time together to keep busy.

You see, the Wii Fit is a particular kind of video game system….one that actually uses your own body’s movements to control the characters on the tv screen as much as (honestly, more than) the mashing of buttons on some handheld controller.

It is the latest craze, and it is a lot of fun, and what’s more, it actually does what the name implies: It helps to keep you fit. As in, in shape and exercising. Which is just what I need, because I’m using this space to publicly commit to my own Lenten Devotional for the these next 40-days — I’m going to give up a significant chunk of my time every single day in order to workout. And the Wii Fit is going to help me!

Lenten Devotions are not a new thing. The tradition derives from Christ’s time of prayer and preparation in the wilderness before the start of his public ministry. But a more modern twist on the practice has been actually taking on something that is good for you over the forty days rather than just giving up a vice that is bad. Personally, I rotate year-by-year, giving up something one year and taking on something new the next year. This is a “taking on something new” year and I’ve decided it is going to be exercising every single day.

So what are you committed to for Lent? What will you be giving up, taking on, or working on during the next 40-days that you too might be prepared for the joyous celebration of Easter Sunday?

Yours in the Journey, Rev. Brian