Thoughts and Musings from My Faith Journey
Given Jenny’s sermon on Sunday, it was perhaps inevitable that the question would arise as to whether or not we have inside information that we’ll be moving this year. We don’t. We’ve requested to stay. The Pastor-Parish Relations Committee, acting on your behalf, has requested that we stay. But as Jenny mentioned in the sermon, the anxiety inducing fact is that all appointments are for the term of one year. The bishop and the cabinet would appreciate your prayers.
Posted from my iPod.
Dave Larimore informs me that the pew ends should be arriving this week. I’m hoping they arrive on Wednesday afternoon when I’ve committed to take Elizabeth and two friends down to the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks.
Last Wednesday, the Vision Team voted to expand our commitment to the careful stewardship of God’s good creation by enlarging our recycling program to include used dry-cell batteries. We’re going to go with a kit from batteryrecycling.com. According to the website
Materials accepted include all types of dry-cell batteries including AA, AAA, C, D, power tool, laptop, cellphone, camera batteries and others, plus all handheld electronics such cellphones, iPods, PDAs and more.
Batteries to be recycled will need to be taken to the office (it’s a lot easier to get 55 pounds of batteries down the stairs than up the stairs). Special thanks to Bill Jones for doing the background research for this program.
We’re happy to announce that Mark Frank has agreed to direct the reading of the passion in parts (reader’s theater style) for Palm/Passion Sunday. We’re looking for volunteers to read at both services. Let Mark, Jenny, or me know if you’re interested.
The Coffeyville Community College Relay for Life team will be hosting another chicken and noodle dinner from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm tomorrow in the Fellowship Hall. As always the noodles are homemade.
P.S. I always seem to refer to this as a chicken and noodle dinner, but I think that perhaps it should be chicken and noodles. Does anyone have a definitive answer?
Last Sunday’s sermon didn’t get recorded during the second worship service but I’ve smoothed out my notes and I’m posting them below in PDF format if you’re interested in taking a look.
“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”
— Flannery O’Connor
Hat Tip: Sojourners
The Pastor-Parish Relations Committee (PPRC) met this evening at 5:15. The most significant action taken was the approval of six weeks of paid maternity leave for our choir director, Nikki Kirk. We’ll miss Nikki but we celebrate with her and Jeremy as they prepare for the birth of the first child. I’m also happy that the church took this opportunity to be pro-family not only in word but also in deed.
For several months now, I’ve been pondering what to do for a lenten study. In preparation for tomorrow’s sermon, I had to get out my copy of To Love as God Loves by Roberta Bondi and was reminded of what a great, easily accessible book it is. It’s a relatively short book with six chapters. I think it will be great for a six week lenten study beginning Thursday, March 10, 2011 (the day after Ash Wednesday) at 6:30 pm. In the book Bondi explores Christian love and our relationship with God and other people from a biblical perspective that is informed by the holy men and women of the early church. I heartily recommend it whether you can attend the study or not. The book is available from amazon.com for $13.85 in paperback and $9.99 in the Kindle edition. I’ll be calling Cokesbury on Monday to see if I can get it any cheaper. You can order your own or let us know you want us to order one for you when you sign up. I’ll pass around a sign-up sheet tomorrow and the following Sunday. I’m working on getting an online form, but for now you can just shoot me an email at johnandjenny@revcollins.com.
For those of you who watch for such things (and I know that I’m speaking to a small audience now, I now plan to have a quote from/reference to the movie, The Princess Bride, in this weeks sermon.
The list of prayer concerns has again gotten to the point where we’re having a hard time fitting it in the Announcement Insert. We’re also concerned that there may be folks on the list who need to be removed. For that reason I asked members and friends to fill out a yellow prayer concern insert (on the back of the attendance insert) this past Sunday with the names of those who need to be left on the prayer concerns list. I’ll be making the same request this Sunday.
This past Sunday we presented five Bibles to 3rd and 4th graders and informally celebrated having 13 kids 10 and under in the second worship service. Ten of those were in Sunday School. All of them were a blessing.