Upcoming Events in September as we Reimagine Church
Dinner/Dessert:
If you weren’t available in August for dinner/dessert and you’d like to participate let us know, we’d (Synthea & I) would love to get together with you in September or whenever your available.
September 11th – Rally Sunday
Choir: This month marks the 100th anniversary of FCC’s first choir – we’re looking to put a choir together for the September 11th worship service as we kick of fall activities. Please let me know if you’d like to sing, my thought is to practice September 4th and 11th before church.
Sunday School: Thank you to Jeannie Z. and Helen R. for volunteering to help Gwen with Children’s Church the second and forth Sundays of the month. I’d like to get as many volunteers as possible to not only be available for Sunday School but also childcare when families with young kids visit our church. The end goal is to have paid staff for childcare…one step at a time.
Bring a friend to church: In the spring many of you brought a friend to church, let’s do it again, who will wear the crown of bringing the most friends to church… by hook or crook.
Breakfast/Brunch: Following the worship service, we’ll have wonderful food and fellowship, my parents still talk about the spread put on by the church following my installation in May.
September 25th – Sports Theme Sunday
Wearing your favorite team gear Sunday morning. The Bears play the Texans at noon we can watch the game in fellowship hall on the big screen, let me know if you’re interested. Cheering or yelling at the screen is allowed. Go Bears.
Blessings,
Pastor Michael
Labor Day, September 5, 2022
Patriot Day, September 11, 2022
National Grandparents Day, September 11, 2022
First day of Autumn, September 22, 2022
Labor Day Laughs
Take a break and enjoy this work-related humor!
My first job was in an orange juice factory. I got canned because I couldn’t concentrate.
When I couldn’t hack it as a lumberjack, I got the ax.
I wasn’t suited to being a tailor.
Working in the muffler factory was too exhausting.
I was a banker … until I lost interest.
I realized there was no future in being a historian.
Any way I sliced it, I couldn’t cut the mustard at the deli.
I studied to become a doctor but had no patients.
My job at the coffee shop was always the same old grind.
When I worked as a plumber, the tasks were too draining.
I was hired at a gym but wasn’t fit for the job.
Finally, I got a job at a bakery; I kneaded dough!
The Beauty of Learning
There is divine beauty in learning. … To learn means to accept the postulate that life did not begin at my birth. Others have been here before me, and I walk in their footsteps. The books I have read were composed by generations of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, teachers and disciples. I am the sum total of their experiences, their quests. And so are you.—Elie Wiesel
It Only Takes a Spark
Love is the spark that kindles the fire of compassion. Compassion is the fire that flames the candle of service. Service is the candle that ignites the torch of hope. Hope is the torch that lights the beacon of faith. Faith is the beacon that reflects the power of God. God is the power that creates the miracle of love. —William Arthur Ward
Pursuing Peace
The 2021 book Love, Loss and Endurance: A 9/11 Story of Resilience and Hope in an Age of Anxiety explores the dangers of extremism, both religious and political. Author Bill Tammeus, whose nephew died on 9/11, suggests three ways to be peacemakers. First, we can become more religiously literate, because “our human tendency is to fear what we don’t know or understand.” Second, we can deepen our knowledge of history, because “shock waves” from past events often spark modern-day unrest.
Finally, we can spend time with people who are facing profound grief. “This is the emotional equivalent of walking a mile in someone else’s shoes,” Tammeus writes. “It can open our eyes to the countless ways that death — particularly unexpected, violent death — can affect almost every aspect of the lives of survivors. … At the very least, go to funerals of people whose families you know, even of people who died of old age or of some illness late in life. Be present. Hear their stories.” —adapted from The Wired Word
Always Room in God’s Kingdom
Jesus told a parable about a man who invited his friends and neighbors to a banquet, but they declined. So he told his servants to go find anyone who was hungry or lonely or in need. Still there was room. “Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in,” the host said, “so that my house will be full” (Luke 14:23, NIV).
In Searching for Sunday, Rachel Held Evans retells this story and writes: “This is what God’s kingdom is like: a bunch of outcasts and oddballs gathered at a table, not because they are rich or worthy or good, but because they are hungry, because they said yes. And there’s always room for more.”
We’re all “outcasts and oddballs” in one way or another! May we know that God warmly invites us to his banquet — for no reason but that we’re hungry.
Change of Season – Fall
In the northern hemisphere, summer is turning to fall. Creator of all good things, I thank you for your steadfastness when things around me change.
