The Youth Choir of Buffalo Presbyterian will be part of a “Call to Action,” Sunday May 18 at Buffalo High School Performing Arts Center. Sponsored by the Save Darfur Student Action Group of Buffalo High School Cost $5 Adults; $3 Children. All proceeds will go to savedarfur.org. For more information call, (763) 682-8048.
The following is a report submitted to the Presbytery by Sandra Hawley and Manley Olson, the Chairs of the Committee on Local Arrangements for the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to be held in Minneapolis July 3-10, 2010. The Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area will be the host presbytery for the event.
Report of the Committee on Local Arrangements (COLA) 219th General Assembly
May 13, 2008
The next major activity of COLA will be to have a booth and to make a presentation at the 218th General Assembly in San Jose, June 20-28. We have a great booth location but are looking for help in staffing it. COLA committee members will provide major coverage but since we will be also spending time looking at all aspects of the Assembly we need to find some volunteers to help us in the booth.
We are not asking our elected commissioners; we have both served in that role and know that there is no free time. But we would like to identify other folks who are planning to attend such as family members, alternate commissioners or visitors. If you could give us a few hours of your time we would be grateful.
There will be handouts about the 219th General Assembly and about the Twin Cities area in the booth. We expect that most of the questions would be about the Twin Cities with perhaps a few about the presbytery and its mission. It is not a difficult job but we do need to have the booth staffed while the assembly is in session. We would like folks who could do two hour shifts. If you can help us, please contact Manley. We know that folks will not have any firm ideas about their schedules until they get to San Jose. A that time we will make specific assignments. Thanks for your help. For those who cannot be at San Jose to help us, keep us and out commissioners in your prayers.
Sandy Hawley
Manley Olson, (651) 644-2848 or manleyolson@gmail.com
Note: I'm at Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina for the Presbyterian Communicators Network Regional Conference. I was tapped to be the worship leader for the event. Wow, they trusted a Disciple to do their worship...
Anyway, it's been a good time. Here was the sermon I gave for the afternoon worship.
“Watch Me Pull A Rabbit Out of My Hat!”
Acts 1:1-11
May 1, 2008 (Ascension Day)
Montreat Conference Center
Presbyterian Communicators Network Montreat, NC
For some reason, it took me a while to get to learn how to ride a bike without the training wheels. The first bike that I can remember was a green JC Penny bike with training wheels. My friend Quentin, who was younger than I was, had started riding without his training wheels and my mother thought it was about time for me to do the same.
So, she took off the wheels. I think she might have given me a push or something and I can remember pedaling and then falling down. Now, most mothers might have considered picking me up and starting over again. Not my mother. She went and sat down on the front porch and told me to try again. So I did, wondering what kind of mother would do this. I started pedaling and fell again. She didn't move. I tried again. Fell again. And again. And again. Mom just sat there and said try again.
After a while I started to pedal and pedal and pedal and I didn't fall down. I was estatic. I had finally learned to ride a bike without those training wheels.
At the time, I thought Mom was just being mean, but she was trying to help me to do this on my own and not expect that she was going to do it for me.
My experience learning to ride a bike is related to what we read in today's text from Acts. Today in the church calendar, is the Day of Ascension, the day Jesus concludes his earthly ministry and returns to heaven. He tells his disciples to stay in Jerusalem and wait for God's promise, to wait for the Holy Spirit.
The disciples, in a classic example of not listening, ask him if he is going to restore the kingdom of Israel. Jesus tells them not to worry about such things, but to know that they will be empowered by the Holy Spirit and will be his witnesses in Jerusalem until the ends of the earth.
For some reason, this scene is somewhat comical. Jesus is getting them ready for their own ministry, and they are wondering what he is going to do with the current political situation. It reminds me of a scene from the “Rocky and Bullwinkle Show,” where Bullwinkle tells Rocky that he's going to pull a rabbit out of hat. If you remember, he doesn't pull out a rabbit, but a lion. In some way, the disciples wanted Jesus to do things for them. They didn't get what was going on. Jesus' ministry was done, but the ministry wasn't done. It would carry on with the disciples, but they didn't see that. They were more interested in Jesus pulling a rabbit out of his hat, help them with their issues.
The thing is, the disciples aren't the only ones missing the boat. Sometimes God is speaking to us, right here and now and we fail to listen to what God has to say. We look at our shrinking churches, along with their shrinking budgets and wonder, what is God going to do about this.
I wonder at times, if God is looking at us and saying, “Don't worry about that. You will receive power from the Holy Spirit and you will be my witnesses, from Louisville, to Montreat to the ends of the earth.”
“And you will be my witnesses.” That's the theme of this conference. Jesus is telling his disciples and he is telling us today, that we are to tell the story, the story of salvation to the ends of the earth. Tell the story of a God of love, who came to earth to be one with us. Share that message, and share it again and again.
I sometimes think God gets the this whole new communications revolution better than we do. God wants to reach out into the world, making connections and telling encountering people along the way. I think sometimes the church wants to have a pair of soupcans connecting ourselves to God.
But the fact is, God wants us to connect with the world and tell the story. To do that, we have to be willing to let the Spirit lead us, to have an inquistive mind to see what God is up to in the wider world.
Whether we are communicators at the church, presbytery, synod or General Assembly level, this is our charge: to find out what God is up to in the world, to be empowered by the Spirit to tell the story of healing and love to a world that desparately needs to hear it.
Let me share an example. A middle aged man recently joined the congregation I attend in Minneapolis. Before he joined our church, he visited another congregation. It was not welcoming to him and the congregation's website had outdated information. He once invited his relatives to the church and found out that the worship time had moved but wasn't reflected on the church website. He came to an emptying church where no one welcomed him. He never returned.
That congregation was not empowered by the Spirit. They were offline, not connected to the wider world and seemingly not interested in seeing what God might be doing in this man's life.
It's hard to take those first steps out of our comfort zones. But we can take heart that the Spirit is with us, that God has not left us alone in the world. God is with us every step of the way in the same way God was with the disciples as they spread the Good News throughout the known world.
Looking back, I have to thank Mom for her “tough love” approach in regards to riding a bike. In the end, she was there and I wasn't alone as I struggled to ride without the aide of training wheels.
And so it is with God. When we communicate our story, THE story, God is with us, giving us power and taking us on an unimaginable journey.
I want to end with a hymn by the hymnwriter Brian Wren. I saw this hymn as we were preparing for worship this morning. It's called “Here Am I,” and it goes like this:
Here am I, where underneath the bridges in our winter cities homeless people sleep. Here am I, where in decaying houses little children shiver, crying at the cold. Where are you?
Here am I, with people in the line-up, anxious for a handout, aching for a job. Here am I, where pensioners and strikers sing and march together, wanting something new. Where are you?
Here am I, where two or three are gathered, ready to be altered, sharing wine and bread, Here am I, where those who hear the preaching change their way of living, find the way to life. Where are you?
Where are we? Are we still looking up wondering where Jesus is going or are we seeing where God is at work in the world?
So, don't look up like the disciples, as Jesus dissappears. Look around you and see where God is acting in the world. Amen.
Note: The photo above is of Lake Susan at Montreat. Taken by my cell phone camera.
As many of you know, our Interim Executive Presbyter Bob Cuthill has started his own blog. He has a good post about how connected we are in the 21st century.
Note: Dennis Sanders, the Communications Specialist for the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area, is in Montreat, North Carolina for the Regional Conference of the Presbyterian Communicators Network from April 30 to May 2. He will be occasionally be blogging about his experiences.
I'm at the Presbyterian Communicators Network Regional Conference at Montreat in North Carolina. Duane Sweep, the Associate for Communications for the Synod of Lakes and Prairies and I flew down here today and the drove up from Charlotte to Montreat. Unfortunately, we weren't able to go to any of today's workshops or plenaries. Shawn Coons, a pastor from Houston gave a talk called "Communicating Faith in a Web 2.0 World." Luckily, someone live blogged his talk, so I (and all of you) can see what he said.
I did have a good conversation over dinner with Shawn and Mindy Marchal from General Assembly about communications in this day and age. I've been having some good talks about communications with persons from all ages and backgrounds and it has given me something to think about.
Tomorrow, I will be leading the worship services and giving a sermon. I hope learn more about how to help myself be a better communicator and help all of you back in the PTCA as well. More thoughts to come!
PS: You might want to checkout Shawn's podcast, "Decently and In Order."
InVocation Spring Benefit Concert Series 2008: “Love is in the Air (…and so is Pollen… and MUSIC!)”
“What’s in a name? That which we call a concert By any other name would sound as sweet.” — William Shakespeare (more or less)
We may have left the “rose” out of that quote, but we’re giving it plenty of play at our Spring Benefit Concerts! Roses, daffodils, daisies… and love — lots of love! God’s love for us, our love for God, and (of course) the oldest story in the world: Shepherd meets Shepherdess, Shepherd gets Shepherdess, Shepherd loses Shepherdess…
Seriously, though, we’ll be singing the music of English and American composers: Benjamin Britten, Gustav Holst, William Billings, P.D.Q. Bach, John Rutter, our own Daniel Pederson, and more… Madrigals, jazz, and (inevitably) jazz madrigals — all set to lovely texts by poets as diverse as Gerard Manley Hopkins, Peter Schickele, King David, and (naturally) William Shakespeare.
Admission is free, but a freewill offering will benefit Feed My Starving Children, a locally-based charity whose volunteers pack nutritious meals that are distributed to malnourished children worldwide. Come and celebrate spring with us — and help feed hungry children across the globe!
Additional information about the concert series, InVocation, and Feed My Starving Children can be found at www.invocationsingers.org.
Note: Kim Goodman, a minister member of the Presbytery and a chaplain in St. Paul, is a member of InVocation along with her husband, John.
The Following events will be taking place at Presbyterian Church of the Way in Shoreview during the month of May:
Sunday Forum AND Family and Faith Class* Sundays, 6:30 p.m., Ling Hall
BEGINNING MAY 4: “Our Marriages and Relationships: Helping Something Good Be Even Better,” A three-week Sunday a.m. combined Adult Forum and Faith and Family Class, led by Anita & Russ Cummings in Ling Hall. This class will explore the challenges and benefits of healthy marriage relationships. How can we let go of the ideal, “And they lived happily ever after,” and instead view our most intimate relationships as the fertile ground for God to enhance both love and growth? What are the expectations that trip us up, and what are healthy patterns to develop that ease the flash points of any intimate relationship? We will be open to any long-term relationship as a place to consider the issues.
Anita and Russ Cummings have been married for 44+ years, some of them a bit rocky (their words)! But they have been blessed with the grace of God, good counseling, faithful family and friends, and insights that have even helped others as Anita worked with couples of all sorts in her years as pastor in several congregations.
Wednesday Forum * Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m., Ling Hall April 9 to May 14: “Human Rights: Past and Present,” led by Dr. Chris Gerhz, Assistant Professor of History, Bethel University. This six-week course surveys the history and theory of human rights, starting with the roots of "rights talk" in the Enlightenment and moving up through the present day.
May 7: Case Study: Genocide in the 20th Century Even as the 20th century saw the explosion of human rights documents and courts, it also witnessed the birth of a new form of "radical evil:" genocide. As we consider events ranging from the slaughter of Armenians during World War I to the Holocaust to the killing fields of Cambodia to ethnic cleansing in the Balkans and Africa, we must ask: can human rights be said to exist if entire populations can be deprived of the right to their very existence?
May 14: Human Rights Today: Issues and Action To close the course, we will introduce several contemporary issues in human rights and consider how individuals can respond. Topics may include Darfur, human trafficking, women's rights, torture, political asylum-seeking, and labor rights. We will also survey the Twin Cities' many human rights organizations. (For this session Dr. Gerhz may invite 2-3 students from my Bethel human rights course to give brief presentations on their ongoing service projects.)
Dr. Chris Gehrz is an Assistant Professor of History at Bethel University where he has taught since 2003. He earned his doctorate from Yale University, with an emphasis on modern European and diplomatic history. In recent years his research and teaching interests have expanded to include church history, human rights, and educational theory. Chris lives in Roseville with his wife Katie, and attends Salem Covenant Church in New Brighton.
Child care is available for the classes marked with asterisks ( * ), so consider this your invitation to join us whenever you can!
SILENT AUCTION & DINNER BENEFITTING MISSION TRIP 2007 Saturday, May 17, 5:30 p.m., PCOTW
Auction items include:
Make your RSVPs today by calling the PCOTW office at (651) 484-3346! Deadline is May 12! $5 / person, $18 / family max. Would you like to donate something for the Silent Auction? Please contact Kathryn Nichols, Pastoral Intern and Youth Coordinator, at (651) 484-3346, ext. 101, or at kathryn@pcow.org.
Earth Day is Tuesday April 22. Several PTCA churches are hosting events that remind us to treat gently on God's creation:
From the Minnesota Council of Churches:
Rural Churches: Ecumenical Community Service and Ministry
May 14 & 15 in Paynesville, MN OR May 21 & 22 in Madelia, MN
Pastors and church leadership are encouraged to attend a 2-day workshop designed to energize ecumenical work to meet community needs through shared service and ministry. Please tell member churches in your judicatory. For more information contact Lynne Holman at (612) 230-3211, lynne.holman@mnchurches.org
"Coloring Outside the Lines," the theme for this year's Synod School, is a look at how the church might move beyond timidity and try new things. The Rev. Scott Nesbitt , pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Clinton, Iowa, will challenge those at Synod School to become like little children who can paint a picture with bold colors and call it beautiful even though almost every boundary has been completely disregarded. The week is designed for laity and clergy, individuals and families. Classes and activities are available for adults, youth and children - some separately, some are intergenerational - to stretch the mind and nurture the soul. As one individual noted after last summer's Synod School, "I didn't know Presbyterians could gather together and have fun." Another described Synod School as "an unexpected spiritual awakening - wow!" The Synod School catalog and registration forms are posted online at www.lakesandprairies.org/school.html.
