Congregational God Sightings 2011 & Prayers for 2012

Each year at Community Presbyterian's annual meeting we collect God Sightings from the previous year and prayer for the congregation in the year to come. Slightly condensed, these are this year's God Sightings and Prayers.

God Sightings for 2011
Our contributions to local missions
The way the congregation held together spiritually and financially through a year of economic distress
Church on the Road (2)
The three sages in the Christmas Pageant (1)
The energy brought by new members (4)
Craft Fair (4)
Lenten series on prayer
Advent/Christmas activities
Working together on the boiler (7)
Near balance of the budget
Our pastor (3)
Health of family & friends
Having God to guide my life
Thrift Shop ladies
Fellowship activities (2)
My baptism
Meeting and overcoming obstacles
Everyone who helps keep the congregation going
Use of Elders for preaching
Increased number of children in church
Growing partnerships with other congregations on youth ministry

Prayers for 2012
That we continue our good deeds and spread our love (2)
Growth of Little Blessings Preschool (4)
Membership growth(12)
Spiritual growth (2)
Meet the church budget (3)
Continue participation of young families
Continued blessing of the Lord's love
Growth in wisdom & generosity
Build up Sunday School (2)
Continue on as a congregation
Become a more vibrant, exciting pathway to a close relationship with God

We Give Thanks

Last Sunday at CPC we renewed our Thanksgiving Banner, pinning leaves with our own prayers of Thanksgiving up on the large cloth banner reading "Thank you."

Here are some of the prayers of thanks that were offered. Add your own Prayer of Thanksgiving to the comments, or add it to the banner in church next time you are there.

• Family and church
• My family
• Guiding and protecting us through a difficult year
• A new addition to the family
• A loving, wonderful wife
• Every breath I take
• Family, good friends, good health
• Life, family, church
• Food, water, shelter
• Good health & Pastor Fritz's leadership
• For God keeping us strong in tough times and blessing us in good times
• Shepherds who take care of the sheep
• Love of children
• Wife, family & friends - for health & peace in their lives
• A loving family who is there when I need them
• Love, family, health
• The opportunities I have been luckily enough to be given
• Strength and good health to continue caring for my mother-in-law
• Mommy, Papa, Daddy
• That God puts up with me
• Family, friendship, patience, health, happiness
• My little boys & family
• The warm friendship found at CPC
• Amazing family & friends
• Wonderful family
• Health & family
• Church & family
• Wife, daughter, future son-in-law & church
• Wife who picks me up from the train station at 11:30 pm
• Healthy family
  

Church Fair 2011

Many thanks to everyone who helped with this year's church fair and dinner - and a special thanks to those who came and spent money. The fair raised over $5,200 for the church.

Check out the slide show.

The saga of the church doors

Don Neugebauer came by on Tuesday planning to throw a little Rustoleum on the bottom of the church's front doors in preparation for repainting. He took the door down, flipped it up so he could see the bottom, and found the door's bottom partially rusted away. Luckily Don had just brought an angle grinder and our across the street neighbor was throwing away a bunch of treated two-by-fours. A few hours, and several trips home and to the hardware store later, the door had a new bottom.

Earlier Don had noticed that the threshold of the door was not well fastened down. On Wednesday, Don came back, pulled up the threshold and found nothing. The entire floor under the right side of the threshold had rotted away. Don went home.

On Thursday Don returned. The second door came down and received a new bottom. The threshold came back up, and the full extent of the rot accessed. Don pulled up the carpet and cut away 30" into the narthex, pulling up rotted floor boards and laying down treated plywood. He replaced the threshold, hung the second door and went home. Someone else can buy some tile.

A huge thanks to Don, as well as to Bill who lent support.

Caroling 2010

We had a great time caroling last Saturday, sending out two groups. The afternoon group went to visit our friend Gertrude Lewis at Saint Albans NYS Veterans Home and then went on to visit our friend Gloria Pelluso at the Bristol in Lynbrook. The evening group went house to house, having a great time bringing joy to members and friends of the congregation.

Here are some video clips:

O Holy Night at Saint Albans


Jingle Bell Rock at Shirley Hsieh's house


Silent Night at the Bristol


We Wish You a Merry Christmas at Gladys Sutcamp's house

Crop Walk 2009 Report

Many thanks to everyone who showed up for the Crop Walk. Despite a big band competition we still had a bunch of walkers and raised a bunch of money. (I'll edit this post once I talk with Don.) Check out the slide show below!

PC(USA) and Health Care

As the debate around health care gets less and less civil it may be time to step back a bit and think about how our commitments as followers of Jesus Christ informs our thinking regarding this current health care reform debate. To help inform our thinking, I've posted a few links to what our church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), has said about health care. I've also included the full text of a resolution passed by the 2008 General Assembly of the PC(USA).

As Presbyterians we believe that the discernment of God's will comes through discussion and that there is plenty of room for debate. The following are only offered as guidance, not as a doctrinal dictation. Leave your thoughts in the comments. (Please stick to substantive reflections and refrain from name calling, etc. I will delete any comments not in the spirit of Christian dialogue and respect.)

• August 2009 Letter on Health Care by Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons
• Christian Principles for Health Care Reform as outlined by the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program
• Resolution from the 2008 General Assembly supporting a publicly financed, privately provided single payer health care system
• PC(USA) Washington Office - Information on current legislation.

Expanded text of the 2008 General Assembly resolution from the August 2009 letter by Gradye Parsons.

Jesus Christ, who has reconciled us to God, healed all kinds of sickness (Mt. 4:23, par) as a sign of God’s rule. Isaiah speaks God’s word to say “No more shall there be… an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime” (Isa. 65:20a). We, as Reformed Christians, bear witness to Jesus Christ in word, but also in deed. As followers of our Great Physician Jesus, we have a moral imperative to work to assure that everyone has full access to health care.

Our nation is in a crisis in health care, which presents an unprecedented opportunity for our nation to provide health care affordable for all. In this country there is a baby born every fifty-one seconds to a family with no health insurance. In this, the wealthiest nation in the world, our infant mortality rate is second highest in the industrialized world. Forty-seven million Americans are uninsured (50 percent employed; 25 percent children; 20 percent out of labor force as students, disabled, et al.; 5 percent unemployed). The U.S. spends nearly twice as much per capita than any other country on health care, but we rank poorly in the thirty-seven categories of health status measured by the World Health Organization. The rise in childhood obesity, asthma, diabetes, and other chronic diseases indicates that the overall health status of people of this country is declining.

We are warned by the prophets not to heal the wounds of God’s people lightly; yet in 2006 the aggregate profits of the health insurance companies in the United States were $68 billion. During that same year more than 15,000 families were forced into bankruptcy because of medical expenses. Our business employers operate at a competitive disadvantage internationally because health care costs are assumed by the governments of other industrialized nations. The General Assemblies of the PC(USA) and its predecessors since 1971 have called for reform of health delivery systems in the United States to make them accessible to the entire population. Our federal government already operates efficiently and with low overhead the health delivery programs of Medicare and Medicaid; and yet at the same time insurance companies spend nearly one-third of every premium dollar on marketing and other administrative costs and in fact, several such companies spend less than 60 percent of premium dollars they receive on health care services.

The American College of Physicians, the nation’s second largest physician group, has endorsed a single-payer healthcare system. Only a single-payer system of national health care coverage (privately provided; publicly financed; not socialized medicine) can save what is estimated to be $350 billion wasted annually on medical bureaucracy and redirect those funds to expanded coverage.

Sunday's Sermon - Celebrating the End

All summer we've been working down a list of congregational sermon requests. Last week's request was one of those things that all preachers should talk about but never do - how to approach the end of life as faithfully as we seek to live our lives.

Last week's request: Celebrating the End: funerals, cremation, body burial & other end of life concerns

Read the sermon
Read past sermons from this summer
View the schedule

Youth Group Kayak Trip

A few weeks ago CPC youth went kayaking. Here are some picts.

Black Monday

As I got off the train today in Manhattan the mood was grim. Bear Sterns seemed manageable. Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac seemed like a Washington problem that Washington solved. But somehow Lehman Brothers was different. It seemed closer to home, another domino that fell, with AIG waiting in the wings.

While the news cameras showed Lehman Brothers staff cleaning out their offices, my friends were calculating which of their friends would be affected and my organization, The Bowery Mission, were calculating how many of our donors were now broke. It seemed a bad day for the financial sector and a bad day for fundraisers.

And it was a good day to remember that we worship the God who created heaven and earth and not the bronze bull that is firmly anchored on Wall Street. We're taught and acculturated to measure our worth and our security by the size of our pay check, the diversity of our portfolio, the assets invested in our houses and how our cars stack up against our neighbors. Now our lust for that worth, our desire to leverage everything in an attempt to find wealth where there is none, has created a house of cards which is causing much pain and fear as it falls.

"In life and in death we belong to God," begins the PC(USA)'s Brief Statement of Faith. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God," scripture tells us, "and everything else will be granted to you." These are not mere words. Times like these remind us that these are the fundamental truths of life.

Be sure to pray for those whose jobs are gone, whose houses are slipping away, for whom security has been replaced by fear and uncertainty.

Plans & Expectations

The holidays seem like they were months ago, don't they? In reality, New Year's Day was only a week ago.

We come into a new year, a new anything, with plans and expectations--sometimes good, sometimes bad. We'll be more organized this time around. We'll keep that new leaf turned over for good, and maybe turn another one, too. We'll face certain trials and difficulties. Maybe we're filled with fear, whether for ourselves or for loved ones, or both.

I've found that expectations are hardly ever met. I don't need that explanatory speech I've been rehearsing in my head on my way to a meeting, or the leaf doesn't actually stay turned over for more than a week. (My grandmother had a positive spin on this quirk of life. She was a worryer because, she said, nothing she worried about ever happened.)

But I don't advocate worrying (as hard as it is not to do), and I don't put a lot of store in expectations and plans, because they're hardly ever met. I know that no matter what happens to our carefully laid plans, or what happens to us in the absence of plans, God will always be there to see us through. And God is an expert at planning--and changing plans on the fly when we screw things up.

So my plan for this year is to try to live out God's plan.
My expectation is that sometimes I'll succeed, and sometimes I'll screw up.
But I'm not worried, because God's plan can adjust to take me as I am.

New Year's Musings

Resolved: To live our lives as part of the Kingdom of God.

Resolved: To welcome others as we have been welcomed by Jesus Christ.

Resolved: To find the place where our passions meet the needs of our community, and use that passion to meet the needs.

Resolved: To explore our spiritual gifts and the best way to use them.

Resolved: To look at our personal and family finances and support mission instead of consumerism.

Youth Kayak Trip

The youth group went paddling around Garrets Marsh and the Reynolds Channel on Sunday, having a lot of fun while singing the Jesus Loves Me boat chant and contemplating on how the elements of wind and water shape our faith. Check out the pictures.

Sunday School Kick-off BBQ Kids Art

Take a stroll down the church walkway and check out these drawings by CPC kids!

Two Views

The omnipresence of God--God's presense in every corner of creation--has long triggered two opposite reactions: great comfort, and great shame and fear. For some, knowing that God is always with them means that they have constant protection and love. For others, it means that God knows all their shameful secrets.

Check out these two Psalms--one ancient and attributed to King David, the other modern and penned by songwriter Greg Brown. How many of us haven't felt something from each of them at one point or another?

Psalm 139
(excerpts; Today's New International Version, copyright 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved worldwide.)

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
[...]
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
[...]
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
[...]
Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.


Lord, I Have Made You A Place in my Heart
by Greg Brown; copyright 1997 Hacklebarney Music

Oh Lord, I have made you a place in my heart
Among the rags and the bones and the dirt
There's piles of lies and the love gone from her eyes
And old moving boxes full of hurt.
Pull up a chair by the trouble and care
I got whiskey, you're welcome to some.

Oh Lord, I have made you a place in my heart
But I don't reckon you're gonna come.
[...]
Oh Lord, I have made you a place in my heart
So take a good look and then leave.
[...]
Lord if you made me, it's easy to see
Y'all make mistakes up above
But if I open the door
You will know that I'm poor
And my secrets are all that I own.

Oh Lord, I have made you a place in my heart
And I hope that you leave it alone.

(Originally recorded by Greg Brown on "The Poet Game" from Red House Records)

Our faith cycles, from rejoicing in God's presence in our lives to rudely asking God to leave us alone, from echoing David to singing along with the narrator of Greg Brown's song.

Here's the thing though: even if our hearts look like the one described in the modern song, God's hand guides us and holds us fast. After all, "Blessed are the poor in spirit."

Virginia - Money

"Money is the largest idol in American culture," said Scott Schantzenbach during a stewardship seminar. When churches talked about money, he continued, "they are looking into the eyes of the beast."

When we worship money instead of God, we become scared, shallow and slow - all traits of our larger culture, which specializes in often doing too little, too late resulting in frugal, timid, sacrifice free solutions to major problems such as Katrina, poverty, the Iraq war, global warming, education, etc.

Our God is a God of courage, of significance and of nimble response to problems and calls us to be the same. Our God could create a world where there was none, because all the molecules of the world are at his finger tips. Our God could create nations from the wombs of barren women because he has life at his abundance. Our God defeated death and sin because he has love beyond measure.

All these God gives to us. "Be strong and courageous," God tells Joshua as he takes over from Moses. Together let us take the bold step and fix our focus from our wallets (which feel empty no matter how much they contain) to our God of abundance and let ministry in God's name flow from our lives and our community of faith.

Virginia - Stories

Since June 20, I've been at the Summer Collegium in support of small churches at Virginia Theological Seminary in VA.

Stories - For the past two days we've been talking about stories - our own personal stories of faith and the stories of our congregations. And last night we went to see an incredible presentation of the play Peter Pan - more stories.

Last week at coffee hour we put our stories on a great timeline of our congregation. Stories of confirmations, baptisms, weddings, funerals. Stories of pain and victory as a congregation. Stories of personal moments. Stories of faith regained. Put together these stories are, in part, our congregation's story.

"People become part of the congregation," Carl Dudley, our keynote speaker this week, said, "when they share and become part of our congregational story" - when they can tell some of our shared stories, when they contribute to our ongoing story. "Remember your story of faith," Karl, our collegium co-pastor, said," when you are facing difficult times. Your faith story sustains you."

When we live in faith, whether as individuals or as a congregation, we are living in our story. This does not mean that we live in the past. Rather our story is a wave and we are a surfer. We are on the front, breaking edge, moving with the water; but the wave is made up of the millions of memories, millions of experiences of our history and the history of faith. Just as millions of drops of water power a wave, our experience, our story powers our lives.

As I type this, the small congregation arts festival is continuing here on campus. The Hosanna banner from the sanctuary is on the wall, art from our children and Mary Hallam is on the table, all attracting many admirers.

Risky Christianity

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has been touring China and posting a series of columns from his travels. Here are some excerpts from a recent column posted from the North Korea border:

In an archipelago of safe houses [along the China/North Korea border] I met groups of peple who live every moment in sickening fear. These are North Koreans who have escaped to the "free world" - China - and are now at constant risk of being captured by Chinese police who hand these escapees back to North Korea.

Those returned by China are often sentenced to prison for several years, and repeat offenders or Christians can be sent with their entire families to labor camps for life. ne Christian I spoke to had been beaten so badly after his return by China that he tried to commit suicide by swallowing a handful of pins. The prison, not wanting to have to dispose of a corpse, freed him — and he eventually made his way back to China. Christian missionaries in North Korea can face execution.

Read Kristof's entire column. (Must subscribe to Times Select.)

If confessing Jesus Christ meant risking life in a labor camp for you and your entire family would you still confess?

Childhood Lessons are often the Best

A few weeks ago on Heritage Sunday, we sang lots of hymns, and each one was submitted by a congregation member as the first hymn he or she remembers learning.

We've also had several people in our church family, including our extended church family, who have suffered various losses, stresses, worries, or concerns, including the loss of family members; some of our young people preparing to leave home for the larger world (both exciting and stressful!); illnesses; and neighbors, friends, or family members being deployed to various hot spots.

This is the perfect time to remember a song we could easily have sung on Heritage Sunday: "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." It's a simple song, but in case you need a reminder, here's the basic verse:

He's got the whole world in his hands
He's got the whole wide world in his hands
He's got the whole world in his hands
He's got the whole world in his hands

The cool thing is that you can replace "the whole world" with just about anything you want. Some common variations:

• He's got you and me, Sister [or Brother], in his hands
• He's got the itty bitty baby in his hands
• He's got the wind and the rain in his hands

And on and on and on.

Here's another cool thing: The whole world that God has in his hands is way, way bigger than just this little round ball we call Earth. It's the past and the present and the future. It's those who have left us and those yet to come. And yet, even the itty bitty baby isn't too small for God's notice and won't slip through his fingers.

This really simple song has humongous implications, doesn't it? Isn't it amazing that something we learn as children can turn out to be deeply theological?

What verse do you need to sing right now to help you with your losses and stresses? Leave a comment (anonymous or not) with your new words to this old song.

Christ likeness emerges from conflict

I spent the morning with Rev. Joan Gray, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA) at a discussion hosted by the Presbytery of Long Island at the beautiful Sweet Hollow Presbyterian Church in Melville, LI.

A response to a question about the considerable conflict in the Presbyterian Church (USA) struck me as especially poignant and useful for all of us in times of conflict and discord.

"God is trying to lay ahold of us and make us into real Christians, teaching us to love each other as Christ loved us; teaching us to be willing to be with each other in all our sinfulness."

She then went on to talk about how Jesus came down to us despite who we were and loved us despite our sinfulness and gave himself for us - not when we changed but because we couldn't
change.

"We must take the time to know each other," she said, "to know each other's hearts and then give ourselves to each other" out of servant love - not because we share an agenda, not because we like each other, not because giving ourselves to another person gains us anything - but because that is the model that Christ showed us; that is what it is to be Christian.