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The Open Door - January 2015
The Reformed Church of Bushkill
5969 Milford Road, East Stroudsburg, PA 18302
(570) 588-6773 / [email protected] (E-mail)
www.bushkillchurch.org (Website)
“Striving to Do What Christ Tells Us through Scripture”
It’s a Wrap?
At the final youth group event of 2014, one of the games was to gift
wrap some of the participants and see which group could do the best job.
(You could see the pictures on this page.) Beth Brelje, who has been leading the group, has been promoted and her current position conflicts with
continuing to lead youth group well. There are assistants in place, but they
don’t feel like they can take on the leadership.
We’re hoping it’s not a wrap for youth group. Rather, we would
like to wrap up the search for a new youth group leader. Do you, perhaps, have a sense of calling around leading youth group? If you’d like to
explore the idea, please talk to Pastor Sayer (588-6773; [email protected]).
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Dear Friends,
By now you’ve had the chance to digest the
news that we’re ending our time here in Bushkill,
and that God has called me to a new ministry in
New Jersey. I want to say something to you all,
and I’ll be trying to say it several different times
in several different ways.
Here’s the first thing I need to say. This is
the very best church I have ever seen. I’ve said
that a bunch of times before but you may not have
heard it. And it’s not just me trying to be nice…
because, if you know me, you know I don’t care
too much about that. Everything that comes after
this has to be put in the context of this being a
high-functioning, faithful church. We are the best
church I’ve ever seen because we’re consistently
trying to be the people together that God calls us
to be.
There’s no church that does that perfectly.
Even in the New Testament church they couldn’t
pull that one off. But we’re pretty consistent at it.
We feed this community. We try to get together
and grow in our faith and hold each other accountable. We work on prayer and read our Bibles.
We show love in our relationships with each
other.
In the midst of being an admirable church,
we have room to work on a couple issues that will
help us move even farther into God’s will for us.
The first is giving. We give reasonably well as a
percentage of our income. The average Protestant
gives about three percent of their income. I’m
sure we do at least that, and probably a bit more.
The last time we asked people to report on their
practices, we found out we have about a third of
our people who are tithing. So, we’re probably
doing better than average there as well. Yet, we
also have to acknowledge another reality – we’ve
had a full-time pastor for 17 ½ years – in 15 out of
17 years we’ve run significant deficits. Unless
Bill and Melinda Gates join the congregation in
the next week (I’m writing in mid-December),
we’ll run one in 2014 as well, and we’re in line to
run one in 2015. That’s got to get straightened
out. It prevents us from being who God wants us
to be together. We can’t start new initiatives if
they cost money. We can’t staff at the level we
should. We can’t repair and maintain our building.
Getting squared away financially isn’t something that’s going to be hugely problematic for us.
It’s well within our grasp. Here’s what would
help: if you could pledge the next time you have
the opportunity, it would make a big difference. If
you’re pledging but given the same amount for a
few years, maybe you could make a step forward.
And if you’re giving significantly, perhaps you
could move gradually toward tithing. Those
things would allow us to flourish in ways an excellent church like ours should.
The other issue I want to get you to start
thinking about is administering ministry. Rick
Warren talks about people coming to him who
say, “I don’t believe in organized religion.” He
responds, “Oh, you should come to our church.
We’re disorganized religion.” There’s a way in
which that describes us too. It’s amazing that
we’ve been able to do so much because we’re
kind of disorganized in how we go about ministry.
Not all of us have the gift of administration or
leadership. To the extent that any of us have those
gifts, your church needs you. And even those of
you who don’t have those gifts – God needs you
to think through what you’re trying to accomplish,
and be as organized as you can be, to try and bring
about as much of His will as we can.
I’ll mention those issues again, because those
are our biggest challenges, at least in my opinion.
But again, seat those issues in the proper context.
And the proper context is that we do so many
things well – even very well. Of course there are
a few issues we haven’t gotten on top of yet. And
when we get on top of those, there will be a couple other issues that need addressing. That’s the
nature of life. We’re chasing perfection, but we
don’t ever get there. It truly has been a pleasure
and privilege to serve with you all these years.
Grace and peace,
New Members Class January 4
`We have a few folks who have expressed an
interest in joining our church. We will be holding
a new members class on Sunday, January 4,
from 1:30 to 5:30. We’ll talk about what our tradition believes, how we worship and how it’s tied
together. We’ll also talk about the direction our
church is going. This new members class is required for everybody who would like to join our
church. If you are going to attend, please contact
Pastor Sayer at 588-6773 or [email protected].
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Continuity Is Our Theme in
Consistory
This year, for the first time in memory, all our
elders and deacons felt called to return to consistory. They were re-elected at our annual meeting
in the fall. Because they will continue serving,
they don’t need to be installed. We will reintroduce them to you at our worship services on
January 11. The deacons recently re-elected are:
Lisa Baldwin, Jeanne Dunstane, and Mikal Rodriguez-Jackson. The re-elected elders are: Pete Newman and Steve Schoonover.
Articles for the February
edition of the Open Door
are due by Wednesday,
January 14.
You may e-mail them to the church office,
[email protected] or leave them in the
church office mailbox near the conference room.
We’ll hold our monthly
Potluck Luncheon on
Sunday, January 18.
Please bring a side dish or dessert
to share for about 10 people.
Homemade is great but if time is
pressing, a deli-made side or
store-bought dessert will work
just fine!
We Are to Host Family Promise
January 18-25
At Family Promise we (supporting churches,
coordinators, board members, staff, and volunteers)
work together as partners to improve the lives of
struggling families who are in our care. The Monroe County Chapter has various new options to
help even more needy families. Through grants we
can now offer rental assistance for working families who may lose their current residence. We have
hotel vouchers for various reasons such as fire. A
Rapid ReHousing program gives families a fresh
start. We have furniture to offer graduating families thanks to donated storage. At the end of last
year, 2014, we provided service to 68 families….AMEN. Our church’s next week to host is
January 18. Consider preparing an evening meal
or staying overnight at our church as your part in
aiding homeless in the area. There are blessings
and rewards to be had by all involved.
Jennifer Schoonover
Coordinator
ANY TOILETRIES are being collected
throughout the month of JANUARY for
Bushkill Outreach, the local food pantry.
There is a bin in the narthex for you to
place your donations.
Thank you for your generosity to help Bushkill
Outreach continue to serve the community.
Your Discipleship Team
Taking seriously the mission statement of our
church, “Striving to do what Christ tells us through
Scripture”, a team of folks meets once a month and
makes decisions about how we carry out that mission statement. The team specifically concentrates
on Jesus’ request that we, as His body, make disciples. The decision to use The Story for most of our
worship emphasis for one year was the result of
efforts of the team. The prayer retreat on January 3
was another piece of planning by the team. As we
move into an interim period, the needs of our congregation to become better disciples will continue
to occupy the work of this team.
It would be very helpful to have suggestions
from you concerning the areas of faith life in which
you feel encouragement and/or instruction is
needed. Currently Steve Schoonover chairs the
discipleship team and he would appreciate any input that you feel may be needed to bring us, as a
congregation, into a closer relationship with God
and therefore become better disciples. Take a few
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minutes to review the purposes of our church, determine which of those purposes we need to take
more seriously and send Steve an e-mail
([email protected]) or have a conversation with
him in order to have the team be as effective as it
can, with His help, be.
Report from Consistory
As we move toward a time of transition into
pastoral vacancy, the consistory wants to make a
special effort to keep you updated on where we’re
headed. At our December consistory meeting, we
decided that we would move toward having an interim pastor. We envision this being a half-time
person. He/she will preach about half the time, and
the seven trained preachers from our congregation
will preach the other half. That sharing of preaching responsibilities will allow our interim pastor to
develop new sermons that will coordinate with The
Story. We anticipate forming a “lean/mean” search
committee -- relatively small in number -- which
can act quickly to have this person in place as soon
as possible. We may not be able to have an interim
pastor on board by the time Pastor Sayer leaves on
January 25. (It is not unusual that an interim pastor
would not be in place before an installed pastor
leaves.) We would, however, hope to have our interim pastor in place soon thereafter. Steve
Schoonover, Pete Newman and Ken Goble, all
from consistory, have volunteered to be part of this
committee. Michele Baehr and Kris Drake will
also serve. Steve Schoonover has agreed to chair
the committee. We will regularly report the progress of the committee.
Once our interim pastor is here, we will begin
the process of putting together a church profile and
forming a search committee. This is an extended
process and usually takes some place between eight
months at an absolute minimum and a year-and-ahalf. (Although that would be quite a long time in
our situation.)
Wow! That Hit Hard! The Story Sharers
Different reactions, different feelings. Things
are going to be extremely different at our church in
short order.
Deep sadness and a deep, deep sense of loss
were the prominent shared feelings spoken of at the
beginning of the Story Sharers meeting last week.
What can we expect when such a large, healthy
piece of this body will be amputated and we, as the
remaining, somewhat broken body need to figure
out how to build a new life with what we have left?
These things are hard and leave us feeling somewhat shaky as we enter this unknown territory.
As we read, and heard, and learned in our
shared journey through the book of 1 Kings last
week, the people had God Himself as their King,
their Guide, their Leader and Protector, but they
insisted on having a human king. They wanted
what all the other nations had. To their loss, God
gave them the desire of their hearts.
The Story Sharers, despite carrying the pain of
our coming loss, have chosen to take this as an opportunity for our smaller body to trust our God as
our King, our Guide, our Leader and Protector, especially as we go through this uncertain time. We
want the people of our church, the greater body, to
know that we will be holding them in prayer and
committing the entire circumstance and all that that
represents to prayer as well.
Our simple intention for now is to wholeheartedly continue to support the effort of sharing the
rich and wonderful Word of God with the people of
our community.
The Story Sharers will continue to be available to support the leaders of our church in worship
and we will continue to be available to the people
of the congregation in prayerful support as we all
test our ability to rely on our fully able and willing
King.
Preserving the Paint
A few months ago, almost our entire building
was repainted as a result of the unfortunate bursting
of the sprinkler pipe in the sanctuary. We want to
make that paint job last as long as possible. One of
the big culprits in terms of dinging up the paint is
leaning tables and chairs against the walls. If you
could make an effort to keep things away from the
walls, our facility will look a lot nicer a lot longer.
There is room for all our tables and chair in Rottenberg Hall to go in the closet next to the kitchen.
Thanks.
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Financial Report - MaryAnn Conza
11/01/14 to 11/30/14
Income
$17,710.37
Expenses
17,494.57
$ 215.80
01/01/14 to 11/30/14
Income
$182,016.38
Expenses 207,612.67
$ (25,596.29)
The increase in offering income came from
the fifth Sunday in November as well as your
Thanksgiving gifts. That decreased our yearly
deficit by $215.80. Going into December with a
$25,600 year-to-date deficit is troubling. Now
would be a good time to pray for our finances.
Blessings,
MaryAnn
A Note from the Story Sharers to Our
Dear Pastor Steve,
Please carry our love and very great appreciation with you as you travel on from this house. It
has been quite a blessing to have you as our shepherd for so long and it is extremely painful to
watch you go. We will, however reluctantly, support your decision and we send you off with our
benediction of Godspeed over you and your family
as you carry His Word to the people of Harrington
Park.
It is with a voice of one accord that the Story
Sharers say that you have made a difference in our
lives and we will always hold you close and thank
our God for the time you were with us.
With so, so much love,
Lisa, Kris, Wanda, Christine, Mary,
Laura and Kate
Breaking Free - Rob Rozsay
So here I was again, in an argument with my
wife. And as usual, it was a pretty small incident
that started a much bigger fight. If someone had
come to me with the same situation in a session, I
would have easily given them the perfect solution.
In theory, my solution would have been helpful to
my wife and me, and much more Godly than what
actually happened. But in the moment, I was controlled by my insecurities, so I blew it.
We all have so many unanswered questions
about ourselves. Am I really a good person? Am I
truly lovable? Why do I do the things I do? Why
do I feel the way I feel? Why do I continue to
make the same mistakes? Can I change? Will I
ever be fully in control of my life? Why can’t I
handle conflict or stress? We often struggle to answer these questions for ourselves. And it’s difficult to find the answers without a reliable counselor
or coach who knows how to help us examine our
behaviors.
The combination of our arrogance and pride
has kept most of us from realizing that we do need
counseling. Our usual response: “Me? I don’t
need any therapy. I’m not crazy!” And the counseling profession carries stigmas. Freud, Prozac
and all that stuff. All of us need a counselor or a
coach. What athlete would ever think he doesn’t
need a coach anymore? Does anyone ever really
know it all? But thankfully, as Christians, we have
the best counselor of all.
The Bible tells us Jesus sends us His Spirit as
a Counselor. That ought to make our need very
clear. And apparently, we need quite a lot of counseling. The Spirit isn’t just stopping in to give us a
quick tune-up. No. He has come to stay and give
us a complete makeover, from the inside out. Now
we just need to figure out how to “hear” His counsel and quit sabotaging His efforts in our lives.
This next statement might sound blasphemous, but
we need more than the Holy Spirit’s presence. And
so we study the Bible, to help us get out of the
Holy Spirit’s way and so we can begin to partner
with the Great Counselor. This is where a human
counselor, or coach can have a dramatic impact.
There are times when our human needs, when addressed truthfully, will bring to a place of understand that will help you apply the Holy Spirit’s instruction.
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BASIC
I really like that acronym, BASIC, Brothers
And Sisters In Christ. It is one of the fundamental
building blocks of a church. Christ and a congregation are the main things you need for a church.
Even if the messenger changes, Christ’s message
remains constant. We will all miss Pastor Steve.
He was a good and faithful Shepherd to this flock,
and some may ask how can we go on without
him? We can and we will. We have the power of
the Good News and the BASIC will to get things
done. We will survive and thrive.
Some philosopher once said, “the only constant is change”. We know better. The only real
constant is God’s love for us. A fundamental
premise in the Bible is God will not give you anything you can’t handle, so what do we need to
worry about? No matter what we do, God will
send the right person to lead our church in HIS
time, not ours. In the mean time we have the BASIC we need to keep on worshiping, praying, visiting and all the things a vital church does. This
may be the time in our walk that we have to get up
and run. As we say goodbye to Pastor Steve,
thank him for what he has done for us, and thank
him for the opportunity to grow ourselves as we
serve God in the future.
Well this is the Music Notes column. So I
guess I should say something musical. Last year
was a year of big change, this year was a time of
building on that change. We’ve added to our repertoire which now stands at 98 songs with more to
come. We had some change this year with the
addition of Sean Hahn who started on bass, but is
now our drummer. Al Rager who was our drummer has moved to Ohio and we wish him well.
We also had Natasha Sayer with us for a while
helping out on percussion and showing a unique
flair for counting us into a song and Jordan Martini has been helping us on the drums.
As 2015 begins we will experience more
change as Steve leaves us, so we will need to fill
his spot in the band. Anyone interested should
come to a practice on Monday night and we’ll
give it a try. There has also been discussion of
trying to put together a smaller combo for the evening service. We will try for some choir opportunities this year, not just on major holidays, perhaps doing some numbers with the band as special
music. We would also love to have some other
musicians share their talent and play during the
offering. Big thanks to Evan Scarnecchia and
Lisa for handling that.
That’s it for now, hope you and yours had a
great holiday season and let’s look forward and
thrive in 2015.
Bob Ruschke
Congratulations to…….
Michele Baehr, becoming a grandmother and
Laura Capowski, becoming a great grandmother
again on the birth of Hannah Lynn, December 18.
Pulpit Previews
1/4/15
(ch. 12 in The Story)
1 Chronicles 29:1-20
As we give of our time, our energy, our money,
our talents, we’re really offering ourselves to
God—it’s worship.
1/11/15
(ch. 13 in The Story)
2 Chronicles 1:6-12, 2:1, 5:1, 3, 7, 11, 13-14,
6:12, 14-15, 7:1-3, 11-12, 17-22,
1 Kings 11:1-11
We have experienced God and yet we allow other
things to draw us away from God.
1/18/15
(ch. 14 in The Story)
1 Kings 11:26, 28-33, 11:42- 12:17, 20
There are natural consequences to not keeping
God’s rules.
1/25/15
(ch. 15 in The Story)
Amos 5:4-6, 11-15, 21-24
God demands justice of us.
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Dear Congregation,
Warm greetings from the deacons! We
would like to take this opportunity once again to
inform you of our responsibilities and the many
ways we are here to assist you. Below is a passage from 1 Timothy on the expected responsibility of a deacon. Following the passage is an excerpt from the RCA, which describes the guidelines on how deacons are permitted to distribute
funds. We are offering this information due to
recent changes. Starting this month, if you are in
need of any assistance you should contact any of
us directly, in person, via e-mail or by phone. We
are suggesting not speaking to us in open spaces
to make sure that your concerns remain confidential. When using the phone, please be mindful
that home phones might be access by anyone in
the household. Please note that we now need to
make decisions together and we meet on the 3rd
Sunday. If your matter were urgent, we would all
have to meet as such.
1 Timothy 3:8-12
In the same way, deacons are to be worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not
pursuing dishonest gain. They must keep hold of
the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience.
They must first be tested; and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons. In the
same way, the women are to be worthy of respect,
not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy
in everything. A deacon must be faithful to his wife
and must manage his children and household well.
Deacons serve by showing mercy to the
church and to all people. They receive this task in
the early church when the apostles designated special persons for the work of mercy (Acts 6; 2 Cor.
8-9). In Christ’s name the deacons relieve victims
of injustice. By this they show that Christians live
by the Spirit of the kingdom, fervently desiring to
give life the shape of things to come. Deacons are
therefore called to assess needs, promote stewardship and hospitality, collect and disburse resources
for benevolence, and develop programs of assistance. They are also called to speak words of
Christian encouragement. Thus in word as well as
deed they demonstrate the care of the Lord himself.
Deacons are to inspire faithful stewardship in
the congregation. Remembering, “from everyone
who has been given much, much will be demanded” (Luke 12:48b). Deacons are meant to be
merciful, prompt to seize new opportunities to
worship God with offerings of wealth, time, and
ability. Specifically, deacons are called to the
ministry of mercy, service, and outreach. This
includes, but is not limited to: ministries which
care for the building and grounds; provide practical assistance in job-hunting, housing matters,
legal aid, and child care; serve and minister to the
sick, poor, hurt, distressed and helpless; visit and
comfort those in material need; provide aid to the
victims of abuse and disaster; express social concerns of the church; oversee and carry out work
that is concerned with the redemption of creation;
and direct the attention of the church towards service and ministry both in the church and in the
world.
Deacons are to receive and distribute the contributions of the congregation, giving personal
attention and care to the whole benevolence program of the church. They are to have charge of all
gifts and should exercise careful stewardship of all
funds, goods, and properties of the congregation.
In all of their duties, deacons are to exercise their
gifts to prepare all God’s people for the work of
Christian service in order to build up the body of
Christ.
How should deacons’ funds be administered?
Two principles are important in administering a deacons fund: accountability and agility.
Accountability means that a fund dedicated to the
needs of members and/or the community should
be the responsibility of more than one person.
Agility means that such a fund should be administered in a way that the emergency needs of people
can be addressed quickly and efficiently, with a
concern of confidentiality.
Many consistories, pastors, or boards of deacons have designated two or three people to be
responsible for a deacons’ fund. That means a
request for assistance can be handled fairly and
quickly by a small group of people. It also implies that the accounts of the deacons’ fund, the
disbursements and receipts, are available to all -without the names of those who have received aid.
Blessings,
Mikal Jackson