On this first Sunday of October we celebrate with Christians around the world for World Communion Sunday and receive the Peace and Global Witness offering. Nancy Siewert will offer the message “Flinging Seeds Everywhere” based on Luke 8: 4-8 https://bit.ly/4eI8beJ and Zechariah 8: 12, 16-17 https://bit.ly/3XQcldd.
Category: Worship
Worship Service September 29, 2024
On this 19th Sunday after Pentecost, Pastor Katie’s reflection is on Switching the Operating System. Our readings are Psalm 1 https://bit.ly/3TOytDi and James 3: 13-4: 3, 7-10 https://bit.ly/4eFRwIJ.
World Communion Sunday and International Food Potluck
Sunday – October 6, 2024
World Communion Sunday began way back in 1930. The PC(USA) has long promoted this occasion with encouragement to its churches to not just offer “communion as usual”, but to explore the use of different breads, global music, and creative liturgy to enter into the spirit of the celebration and allow congregations a taste of the sacrament from our sisters and brothers around the world.
We will celebrate this year with Christian churches around the world as we share the sacrament together on Sunday, October 6th. Each tray passed will offer several different kinds of bread from which to choose, symbolizing different communities around the world who share the sacrament with us. We look forward to a special message in this service from Taylor Wittman, currently serving in the Peace Corps in Albania.
Following our celebration of World Communion on Sunday October 6th, the congregation is invited to a very special potluck lunch in Fellowship Room.
We will continue the global community emphasis by inviting your international food contributions for the potluck—plan to try out a new recipe or bring a favorite from your own ethnic background, but the point is to have a wide variety of foods from around the world as our lunch together. We first tried this last year and had a great time tasting Swedish meatballs, Greek lasagna, Indian curry and more.
Bring a label for your item with ingredients listed or make one with blanks provided here as you drop it off that morning. We want to inform everyone about what they can expect as we enjoy fellowship around the tables and sample foods we may have never tasted before!
Imagine: Picture the Possibilities
The Generosity Team is hard at work designing a creative way to consider the future of our church and the responsibility the whole church has to contribute to that future.
Sundays in our Generosity campaign this year will be October 27th, November 3rd and November 10th. We are grateful to everyone who has answered our request for large empty picture frames—watch for how those will be used in the Sanctuary and Fellowship Room in the coming weeks!
For now, you are simply invited to begin to imagine: imagine what God wants us to look like, imagine what our mission outreach could become, imagine what we could do as a congregation if we had the resources needed to move into our future with faith.
Hope: A User’s Manual – New Bible Study
October 23rd & 24th
When it comes to hope, our culture peddles a lot of cheap knockoffs. But that kind of “hope” falls short when things are bleak—which is exactly when we need hope the most.
This new study centers on a book about real hope—a spiritual counternarrative resilient enough to endure crises and crushing defeats without forsaking the here and now. Author MaryAnn McKibben Dana reflects on what hope is not (optimism, toxic positivity, scripty-font platitudes on Instagram), what hope is (a story we live by), and where to find it in hopeless times (in the messiness of our imperfect, flawed, beautiful human bodies).
This six-week study will be offered on Wednesday evenings at 6:00pm via Zoom and on Thursday mornings at 10:30am in-person at the church. The study will begin October 23rd and 24th and books will be available one week prior at a cost of $10.
Join us as we surround ourselves with hope!
Fall Women’s Retreat – A Recipe for Connection
Women of all ages are invited to join us for a 24-hour retreat this month at Imago Dei Village Retreat Center in Clintonville, less than an hour’s drive from here. We will begin with dinner on Friday night October 25th and conclude after lunch on Saturday, October 26th.
Accommodations are in a lodge with bedrooms for 2 or 3 women and private bathrooms with showers. Cost will be $75 for each participant, and scholarships are available. There is a full kitchen, so we will share cooking duties and include 3 meals: dinner Friday night, then breakfast and lunch on Saturday.
Our theme for this time together is A Recipe For Connection. We will spend the time thinking about food, family, traditions, and the connections we create as women together. We will view the 2009 movie Julie & Julia, which is a wonderful biographical comedy drama written and directed by Nora Ephron starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams in the title roles. The film contrasts the life of chef Julia Child in the early years of her culinary career with the life of young New Yorker Julie Powell, who aspires to cook all 524 recipes in Child’s cookbook in 365 days, a challenge she described on her popular blog, which made her a published author.
We certainly can’t promise to “master the art of French cooking”, (the title of Julia Childs’ cookbooks) but we might attempt a few fun recipes from it together!
Please let Pastor Katie know if you are interested or sign up on the bulletin board at the church.
Worship Service September 22, 2024
On this 18th Sunday after Pentecost, we continue our examination of the letter of James with Pastor Katie’s reflection on “Switching the Operating System” from James 3: 13—4:3, 7-10 https://bit.ly/3XMZz00. We will install a new elder and deacon for our church. And we welcome Micah Zuelke to the organ bench, subbing in for Michael Raught.
Worship Service September 15, 2024
On this 17th Sunday after Pentecost we look forward to more advice and insight from the letter of James with our scripture James 3: 1-12 https://bit.ly/3MEV1lY. Pastor Katie will preach on “Taming Our Tongues”.
Worship Service September 8, 2024
On this Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost we begin our new program year with Blessings of the Backpacks. Our readings are from Proverbs 22: 1-2, 8-9, 22-23 https://bit.ly/4gjAz7V and James 2: 1-10, 14-17 https://bit.ly/4cUNw57. Pastor Katie’s reflection is “Thinking About Our Baggage”.
Worship Service September 1, 2024
On this Labor Day weekend, we conclude our summer sermon series with The Gospel According to Babette’s Feast: Love and Sacrifice. Our text is from 1 John 2: 1-6 https://bit.ly/3YZWqej and our guest in the pulpit is Nancy Siewert.
