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2010 -- Calling all volunteers to help with the Chancel Redesign!
We need skilled and unskilled folks to help us redesign our worship space to make room for more of G-d's gifts. Come visit and see how much has been accomplished in just a few days -- and all by volunteers. Please thank: Shane Stange, TJ Johnson, Jodi Schoen, Greg Bryant, Jason Bastar, Steve Bohm and John Bastar. Also - a shout out to Dan at Schneider Monuments who helped us safely move the communion table.
If you would like to help, contact Ed Grys at 853.9333 or email.
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More details for our 7th Annual Martin Luther King Community Celebration -- Jan 18th
Sunday Worship Celebration, Jan 17th @ 10:30 AM with Joyful Noise
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Join us for breakfast @ 9:30 on Nov 1st
as we tell our faith stories as a community of faith and consider how God is leading us into 2010.
Light a candle for the ones' you love! Nov 1st is All Saints Day.
We give thanks for all those who journey with us in faith. We will celebrate communion as well.
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World Communion Sunday -- Oct 4th
Agape Meal (light lunch) will be served as part of our worship experience. An agape meal traces its roots to the first century practice of breaking bread in community and sharing in God's gifts. All are welcome!
Chancel Redesign Congregational Conversations
with Drawings or Written Descriptions of the Chancel Redesign
...are in the narthex (outside the sanctuary) for you to explore. We have placed a box next to the proposal with sheets for your recommendations. It will be very helpful to us if you will include the reasons for your suggestions as well. The committee is also looking forward to the next round of congregational conversations on Oct 4th and 7th (following worship) before final recommendations
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Fall Kick-Off Sunday Sept 13th Church School for all ages @ 9AM, Worship @ 10:30
Youngest children in room 1, Mid-sized kids in rotation classes, Youth in the Lounge and Adults in the library. Breakfast will be served on the 13th and everyone will get a chance to get better acquainted with their teachers.
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This Sunday, July 19th – Worship with “Proclaim” worship band from Christus Lutheran Church in Clintonville & Celebration of Baptism at 10 AM with picnic to follow.
Come sing, eat and play with friends, new and old!
click here for a map
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Living the Questions -- Wednesday evenings this summer @ 6:30
Living The Questions is a series of conversations for those who are interested in exploring Christianity in the 21st century. LtQ is an open-minded alternative to studies that attempt to give participants all the answers and instead strives to create an environment where participants can interact with one another in exploring what's next for Christianity.
The DVD-based programs emphasize questions, open-minded discussion and journeying together to explore the insights offered by contemporary theologians interacting with current culture and politics. We will meet Wednesday evenings at 6:30 following worship starting June 3rd.
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Thanks everyone who helped make our Third Earth Day Community Celebration such a great day!
Music, food, resource information, free stuff, answered prayers, welcomed guests, new firends, IMAX Sturgeon movie, international musicians, kids, crafts & the Spirit caring for all creation!
Thank you and blessings all!
Sundays throughout Lent we will prayerfully consider what spiritual gifts we have each been given and listen for how God would have us use those gifts in ministry. If we are to grow as disciples, we need a better sense of how how deep joy meets the world's deep hunger. Join us Sundays, March 1st through Palm Sunday, April 5th to learn how you might offer your gifts and walk closer with Jesus toward Jerusalem.
Wednesdays throughout Lent we will journey together toward Holy Week, exploring again the lessons Jesus teaches and witnessing the faith of the disciples. Will you journey with us?
Earth Day Community Celebration planning is underway. Our next meeting is March 17th at 6:00 pm. Everyone is welcome to come share ideas and help us care for God's creation. Send an email if you are interested.
Joyful Noise! Our new worship team lead the Ash Wednesday service and we were faithful. We will lead worship again on Sunday, March 22. If you are interested in singing or playing, let us know, pick up music in the library and join us for rehearsals after worship on March 8 & 15. May God be praised!
Dance Choir -- Sunday, March 29th Let us worship God with our whole selves!
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Ash Wednesday begin the church season of Lent, a season of spiritual preparation leading to Holy Week as we journey together with Jesus and the disciples toward Jerusalem.
Join us Wednesday, February 25th at 5:30 for music, confession, reflection and prayer.
Our new Joyful Noise Worship Team will be leading this service! Thank you, God, for musical gifts given and shared.
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Happy 2009! Where is God leading you in this new year?
That is the question we will be considering on Wednesdays at our 5:30 Worship Celebrations. Together as a community of faith, a gathering of disciples, sisters and brothers on the way, we will ask ourselves to consider who we are, how God is moving in the world, how we might be a part of that movement, what gifts enable us to help do faithful work and envision where all of this might lead. Sure, you could choose to say, "These are heavy questions." Or you could decide that there must be something on TV to watch on Wednesdays. But waht better way to start a new year that having the conversations, doing the reflection, growing in spirit in ways that make life more meaningful, richer, deeper. Join us on the journey and see where God is leading you!
Martin Luther King Community Celebration
Monday, January 19th We had our largest crowd ever gather for this celebration and you were beautiful! Thanks to Gina Washinawatok, Dean Simon, the "Seven Up" Choir, Anthony Gauthier and the students, teachers and staff of Lincoln, Olga Brener and Sacred Heart elementary schools for your great artwork and your visions shared.
If you would like to help plan MLK 2010, please Click for more information.
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Prepare the way of the Lord. Prepare the way of the Lord and all people will see the salvation of our God!
On Wednesdays in December, we will not make ourselves crazy with all the to do lists of the Christmas holiday. Instead, we will make ourselves available to the Spirit of the Advent season as we await the Christmas holy day. We will seek to prepare our bodies as we wait with Mary for the birth of Jesus. We will seek to prepare our hearts as we wonder with shepherds and learn to trust more deeply with Joseph. We will seek to prepare our minds as we follow with the wise ones, choosing to believe holy promises are being fulfilled.
Join us on Wednesday evenings @ 5:30 as we prepare the way within ourselves.
Sundays in December
Come celebrate the reason for the season with us at First Presbyterian Church!
We move from lament and hope to peace, joy and love of God in the birth of a little one, the messiah, the gift of God for the world. Join us on Sunday mornings at 10:30 for worship celebrations meant to touch, connect, inspire and empower you to follow where God is leading you! Join us for Holy Communion on December 7th. We will go caroling on the afternoon of December 14th (leaving church at 4:00) with Luigi's to follow. Our Christmas Pageant will be December 21st.
Exploring the Belhar Confession: South Africa's Witness of Faith
--Worship Wednesdays beginning October 8th, 5:30pm
The practice of apartheid began in the exclusionary practices of the church’s
worship in South Africa. You will learn how injustice emerged from distorted
understandings of the sacraments and the unity of the church. Baptismal unity
was shattered at the Lord’s Table and racial injustice was the consequence.
You will be called into worship with texts relating to the subject. During the
Confession of Sin you will have time to examine your own circumstances and
discuss the injustices you see in your community or in your own life. There will be
time for silent confession and the receiving God’s gracious pardon. The Hearing
of the Word of God will consist of readings from scripture and the Belhar
Confession and discussions about those readings. During the Response to the
Word of God, you will be able to talk about steps you and your congregation
could take as you move toward a more just community and world. Your time will
end with The Sending, as you pray that God’s Holy Spirit will send you into the
world as part of the One Church, bearing witness to God’s justice, mercy and
reconciling love.
Our time together will be very participatory. It will be fruitful if you read the
Belhar Confession and its Accompanying Letter before each worship celebration.
Each Wednesday evening we gather for music, community, prayer, scripture & ritual.
Bring a friend, neighbor, family member or come by yourself and make new friends.
Everyone is welcome to join us on the journey and share your spiritual explorations.
Reflections
The Rev. Diego Higuita, Executive Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia, visitied the Shawano area Thursday, Oct 9th.
Diego is a Pastor, International Peacemaker and Executive Secretary of the Iglesia Presbiteriana de Colombia (Presbyterian Church of Colombia). A story about his work in Colombia is available at: www.winnebagopresbytery.org/
Diego was here a year ago to receive fire fighting gear from the Cecil and Gresam Volunteer Fire Departments and visited First Presbyterian Church in Shawano two years ago as part of an on-going partnership between Winnebago Presbytery in northeast WI and Uraba Presbytery in northwest Colombia.
If is an honor for us to receive such a distinguished and prophetically faithful guest. Our churches have a great deal to learn from our sisters and brothers in other parts of the world.
218th General Assembly – San Jose, California
Being a General Assembly Commissioner has been exhausting -- incredibly long days. But it has also been a renewing and reassuring experience. I have been touched by the friendship and collaboration even between folks who disagree on deeply held beliefs. I served on the Theological Issues & Institutions Committee which debated restoring the Heidelberg Catechism to a more accurate translation and commended the Belhar Confession for study and possible inclusion in our Book of Confessions. Both received faith-filled and sincere conversation and no small amount of intense debate. Both were recommended by the General Assembly for consideration by Presbyteries.
I am particularly excited about studying the Belhar Confession with church members. This confession of faith was written by Reformed Churches in South Africa as an expression of the good news of the gospel in the face of racism and apartheid. This brief statement of faith recenters those who read it in a biblical understanding of ourselves and each other as indispensable parts of the Body of Christ, made in the image of God and gifted by the Holy Spirit. If the Belhar Confession is added to out Book of Confessions (at the earliest in 2012), it will be the first from the southern hemisphere and only the second that is not from Western civilization. I look forward to learning from our sisters and brothers from South Africa about how we might be more faithful disciples.
Thank you Winnebago Presbytery for electing me as one of your commissioners.
It was a blessing for me to share this experience of God's church.
Peace,
Susan
Spirit Poured Out
“…suddenly form heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind…divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them,…all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit…’In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy’…” – from Acts 2
Pentecost may be the holy day of the church year that is most foreign to many of us. However, we may not be anymore surprised by the elements of the story than were those visiting Jerusalem for the Jewish celebration of Pentecost at the time the story told in Acts 2 occurred. Jewish folks in Luke’s recounting in Acts had gathered from all over the Mediterranean world to commemorate God’s giving of the Torah, the law, the Ten Commandments to the people of Israel on Mt.Sinai. As God had given the law, so now God gives the Spirit. The gifts of the Spirit though "amazed and astonished” those who witnessed them – some were perplexed, some sneered.
I think we are also surprised by the images and meaning of Pentecost. The symbols and languages, the unexpected and the beyond-our-control, of this day can make us uneasy. I think that is good—it means we are paying attention. A member of our congregation recently shared a piece of T. S. Eliot’s poetry about Pentecost with me that reflects the amazing and astonishing movement of the Spirit. “Eliot believed his finest achievement was writing the broadly religious poem "Four Quartets" (1943). It deals with the themes of incarnation, time and eternity, spiritual insight and revelation, culminating in an allusion to Pentecost”:
(Wikipedia)
“The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre of pyre—
To be redeemed from fire by fire.
Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.”
--Section IV, Little Gidding, “Four Quartets”, T. S. Eliot
On Sunday, May 11th, we will celebrate Pentecost. You are invited to come be surprised and encouraged to be open to how the Spirit is gifting you and moving among you. Invite friends and neighbors to join you. Please consider wearing red on that day!
May the Spirit burn within you as a light for those around you.
Blessings, Pastor Susan
Caring for God's Good Creation
“Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O LORD.” --Psalm 36:5-6
On April 20, you are invited to attend a Community Celebration of Earth Day at First Presbyterian Church in Shawano. We are hosting this day in part to thank G-d for the astonishing gift of creation. We are hosting this gathering in part to help learn how we can care for G-d’s good gift. We are hosting this celebration because we believe that together as friends and neighbors we can do more to make a difference is preserving our natural resources.
Earth Day is an excellent celebration for Wisconsin because our own late great Senator Gaylord Nelson was its founder when it was first celebrated in 1970. It is great to celebrate this day in Shawano because folks in this area truly treasure our forests, lakes, rivers as natural resources for birding, hiking, camping, hunting, fishing and enjoying with our families. We are natural conservationists because we know our forests and waterways have to be protected if we want to continue so many wonderful Wisconsin outdoor traditions.
Earth Day is also a great day for people of faith to celebrate. We know from Genesis that G-d has given creation into our keeping – we are to be good stewards of the earth, water, air and creatures. I know that “dominion over” is the phrase typically used to describe what G-d has given to humanity in creation, but I’m pretty clear that G-d is not saying “exploit my good creation for your own selfish ends.” In fact Scripture in other places makes it clear that creation worships G-d and, as in Psalm 36 quoted above, G-d’s salvation extends to animals, earth, sea and sky. John’s gospel describes poetically the idea of everything that exists being created through “the Word.” Christian Scriptures written by the apostle Paul make the claim that Jesus’ redemption is not only for humanity, but for all of creation (e.g. Rom 8:21). Therefore, our actions to protect and preserve the resources of creation can be understood as acts of faith which honor the Holy One. Thanks be to G-d for the gifts of creation and for the honor of tending them.
Hunger and Thirst – Satisfied!
In John, chapter 4, Jesus says to the Samaritan woman at the well, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water…The water that I give will become…a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” When the disciples offer Jesus food, he responds, “I have food to eat that you do not know about…My food is to do the will of the One who sent me.”
I have been quite taken with the spiritual notions of eating and drinking in John’s gospel. When we are surrounded by an abundance of food and an overabundance of unhealthy food, the story of holy food and drink stands in sharp contrast. I am moved by the idea that our thirst is quenched by the gifts of God poured out. And not only is our thirst quenched, but living water from God gushes up in us to eternal life. Our thirst is quenched by God’s grace and spills over. Others’ thirst can be satisfied by the grace we share.
The parallel that Jesus draws is that the food that sustains us is to do God’s will. Jesus, in this story, is fed by his conversation and interaction with the Samaritan woman. Her testimony, her storytelling, to her friends and neighbors about meeting Jesus, feeds her soul and those around her. She is met graciously by Jesus and those who hear her story graciously extend hospitality to Jesus to stay on with them and he does.
So, do you recognize the thirst in your own life for God’s presence? Sometimes we seem to feel spiritually dehydrated, but neglect to replenish ourselves with what God offers. We can’t drink without opening our mouths. We can’t take in holy sustenance without opening our hearts.
Opening ourselves is one of the things that happens when we gather with the community of faith. We give ourselves over to holy time where the Spirit can move in us. We also meet others in the community space who are in need of our service to God or from whom each of us needs care. Church is one place today that is like the well of Jesus’ time. This is where we meet God, in each other, in worship, in telling our faith stories, in service. In relationship with one another we encounter the Holy and our hunger is filled and our thirst slaked.
No amount of junk food, soft drinks or info-tainment will fulfill our spiritual thirst or hunger. We are only fulfilled by what God gives so generously to us and by how we generously live for God.
May your hunger and thirst be fulfilled on our journey through Lent and into Holy Week. Join in this community’s sharing of spiritual gifts!
Blessings,
Pastor Susan
Temptations & Spiritual Disciplines
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God...Do not put the Lord your God to the test…Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”-- Mathew 4:1-4, 7b, 10b
It seems that modern life is full of temptations. The world has options readily available to anyone who might be even slightly vulnerable to a suggestive offer. Many times throughout a given day, we are approached with suggestions marketed to niches of our personal interests: online, through direct mailing, commercials, text messages. Many of these offers or suggestions play on our weaknesses and insecurities – much the same way the devil played on Jesus’ hunger by suggesting turning stones to bread. We know that food is necessary to sustain us. It would be easy to explain Jesus changing rocks into life-giving sustenance. Sometimes it seems quite easy to rationalize our choices, even when they are not faithful ones.
In Matthew’s gospel, the tempter is challenging Jesus to prove himself, or to challenge God, or to lay claim to power that some would say was already rightfully his. But Jesus responds to the lures by maintaining his spiritual practices and by leaning on Scripture. We can respond to the lures in our lives in the same way, if we do the work of tending our spiritual well-being. This may be a challenge for us, but a worthy one.
We know we should eat a healthy diet and get a decent amount of exercise. We know that by continuing to learn and using our minds, we will stay mentally sharper longer. Spiritual nutrition and activity is no different. If we don’t read the Bible, the wisdom of Scriptures will not be in our hearts when we need them. If we do not practice prayer, we will struggle in the midst of crisis because we don’t know how. If we are not invested in a community of faith, we do not have relationships to sustain us when we are in need.
Lent is a season of preparation – a time for learning and growing for what lies ahead. Our season of Lent remembers Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness following his baptism – his season of preparation for the ministry ahead. During this season, I invite you to join me on Wednesday evenings (Feb 13 – March 12) 5:30-6:00 for a time of learning about spiritual practices that may help you grow closer to God and to one another. We will consider the practices of keeping Sabbath, prayer, fasting, biblical study and serving others. These are but a few of the many spiritual traditions available to us. But this is a beginning point as we prepare for the challenges of Holy Week and our everyday lives.
This is an opportunity for us to take responsibility for our spiritual well-being. We deserve time. We deserve care. We grow when we give ourselves time with the Holy. When we are spiritually well, we are often better able to care for the other aspects of our lives. We can respond to our temptations more faithfully.
Some days we feel famished for God. Some days we thirst for meaningfulness. Some days we fall to temptations when we vulnerable. Let us then give ourselves a bit of time to feed our souls, drink from living waters and find ourselves sustained by the presence of our living God in the midst of faithful community.
Blessings on the Lenten Journey,
Pastor Susan
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