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PresbyterianPress
February 2015
A Publication of First Presbyterian Church, Clarksburg WV
TUESDAYS
WEDNESDAYS
Feb 17
Feb 18
(Susan Tustin - Broccoli Cheese)
Feb 24
Feb 25
(Harriett Northey - Vegetable Beef)
Mar 3
Mar 4
(Beth Allen - Bean Soup)
The Lenten Season is upon us!!
This means Lenten Lunch Services will soon be starting
and help is needed. Ash Wednesday is February 18 and
will kick off the series. It takes many hands working
together to make the necessary preparations each week,
making soup, stirring soup, baking cakes, serving, etc.
Please prayerfully consider where you might like to
help. If you are willing to help with the lunches, you can
contact Kandy Atkinson at 304-622-0174 and those
willing to donate cakes can contact Carole Wilburn at
304-842-4623. Thank you for volunteering. Your time,
energy and giving will make the 2015 Lenten Series a
genuine proclamation of God’s good news to
Clarksburg. Listed in the next column are the dates help
is needed to prepare and serve the lunches, as well as
the dates cakes are needed (each Wed. date).
Acts 20:35 ESV
“In all things I have shown you that by working hard in
this way we must help the weak and remember the
words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is
more blessed to give than to receive.’”
Mar 10
Mar 11
(Janet Wilson - Chili)
Mar 17
Mar 18
(Kandy Atkinson - Chicken Rice)
Mar 24
Mar 25
(Pam Mitchell/Donna Smith - White Chili)
Mar 31
Apr 1
(Rita Forsythe - Italian Tomato)
Time Slots: 9am to 11am; 11am to 1pm; Noon until
all cleaned up; All Day
**If you would like to work a
Tuesday evening please
contact the chair person for
that week.
Fun Fridays
Join us Friday, February 13, 2015 to celebrate
faith, family and fellowship together.
In This Issue…
John’s Jottings
pg. 3
Session Notes
pg. 4
Mallory Eckberg Letter
pg. 5
Schedule of Volunteers
pg. 6
Deacon/Parish List
pg. 7
Sunday
Worship
Church
School
9:30 a.m.
Worship
10:45 a.m.
Pizza Dinner - 5:30 to 6:00
Craft Project - 6:00 to 6:20
Lesson & Activity - 6:20 to 6:40
Games - 6:40 to 7:00
(featuring Minute to Win It and Gooey & Gross!)
Fellowship - 7 to 7:30
Office Hours
Worship in February
Monday - Friday
9:00 am to 2:00 pm
FEB 1: 4TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - SACRAMENT OF HOLY COMMUNION
SCRIPTURES: Deut. 18:15-20 *Mark 1:21-28
SERMON TITLE: “Jesus Casts Out Demons”
THEME: We modern people don’t talk much about demon possession
anymore. Instead we speak of: physical illness like cancer or heart disease;
mental illness like depression or anxiety; and spiritual illness like feeling
unnoticed or unloved. We’ve given the demons names, but that doesn’t
mean we control them. We still need Christ to cast them out and help us on
the road to healing and health.
FEB 8: 5TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
SCRIPTURES: Acts 19:1-7 *2 Corinthians 12:1-10
SERMON TITLE: “Golden Repairs”
THEME: There is a Japanese technique for mending valuable pottery which uses
gold dust mixed with resin to put the broken pieces back together. The end
product is a pot with cracks clearly visible, but even more beautiful in its own
way, because now the cracks are filled with gold. In a similar way, when we
submit our broken selves to God, he fills our broken places with the gold of
Christ. God’s strength shows most powerfully and most beautifully through our
weakness and cracks.
FEB 15: 6TH TRANSFIGURATION SUNDAY
SCRIPTURES: Exodus 34:29-35 *Mark 9:2-9
SERMON TITLE: “You Can’t Get There From Here”
THEME: Christianity is a revealed religion. Logic, intuition and human
imagination are not enough to reveal the mysteries of God. Christ had to
come down and reveal the truth to us.
FEB 22: 1ST SUNDAY IN LENT
SCRIPTURE: *Genisis 9:8-17 *1 Peter 3:18-22
SERMON TITLE: “The Original Promise Keeper”
THEME: We all admire people who are willing to keep their promises even
against seemly impossible odds. Yet human beings sometimes fail to keep
their promises for various reasons, some of them beyond their control. The
Genisis account of Noah and the Ark reveals the depth of God’s
determination to keep his promise to us - no matter what.
Activities & Meetings
(* Indicates main scripture referenced in sermon.)
Church Staff
P ASTOR
Rev. John F. Koerner
209 Ohio Avenue
Nutter Fort, WV 26301
Phone: 304-534-2324
[email protected]
SESSION
Beckie Alvaro, Clerk
Mary Beth Paletta, Asst. Clerk
PARISH ASSOCIATE
Rev. Charla Waters Koerner
CHURCH SECRETARY
Sara Hatcher Jones
[email protected]
OFFICE VOLUNTEER
Kathleen Berry
[email protected]
E DUCATION C OORDINATOR
Terra M. Burnett
[email protected]
MINISTER OF MUSIC
Marjorie Faris
ORGANIST
Mary Kay Devono
CHURCH TREASURERS
Wayne J. Northey / Bill Pulling
Richard Riddle / Dave Allman
NURSERY ATTENDANT
Isabella Keller
SEXTON
Gary Scheuvront
DEACONS – Tuesday, February 10 at 5:30 pm
TRUSTEES – Tuesday, February 17 at Noon
SESSION – Tuesday, February 17 at 5:30 pm
C.E. COMMITTEE – TBA
WORSHIP & MUSIC – Thursday, February 19 at 4:00 pm
PRAYER GROUP – Monday at 10:30 am
P.W. BOARD – Monday, February 2 at Noon
BIBLE STUDY – Wednesday evening at 6:30 (Social 6:00)
Book Group – Monday, February 16 at 3:30 pm
COMFORT MAKERS – Wednesday, February 25 at 3 pm
Phone: 304-622-6831
Fax: 304-623-1611
Web: www.clarksburgfpc.org
NET CASH FLOW - JAN
2014
2015
INCOME
182,300
192,376
EXPENSES
210,313
203,231
NET INCOME
-28,013
-10,855
Pastor John’s Jottings . .
.
This fall as a part of our session retreat we did a visioning meeting along with the
deacons and trustees. We prayerfully considered where God is leading us and came up
with several possible goals for our church in 2015. We then put these goals in the
Sunday morning bulletin and asked the congregation to vote for their top three. We did
that because we believe that God not only speaks through the elected leadership of the
church, God also speaks through the individual members of the congregation. Plus
experience has shown us that the congregation must support and own the goals in order
for them to be realized.
Below are the top five goals as voted by you the congregation. I want to lift them up
for you to see and comment briefly on each one of them.
1. Increase our efforts to let the community know about our service programs by creating a
publicity team to notify the media of each program. So many times we pour hours of labor and thought
into our programs and activities and then don’t have anything left over for that important step of publicizing
the event. Several of you said that you would be willing to work on this. We will be calling on you soon to
form a small committee that meets regularly, reviews upcoming events, and plans for how to publicize them.
Even if you are not on the committee, you may still be able to help by passing on your ideas to those who are.
2. Coordinate with the Clarksburg Mission to provide activities for youth four times in the next
year. It gladdens my heart to see such enthusiasm for reaching out to the Mission. While much of the
planning for these events will come through the C.E. committee and Terra, we will also need some adult
help for the actual events. Again we thank those of you who volunteered to make this a reality.
3. Offer a tutoring service once per week, to be evaluated for participation and effectiveness in
12 weeks. Presbyterians have long been big supporters of education. That has been very true of this
congregation over the years. This is a very ambitions undertaking that requires a lot of adult time and energy
week after week. I am so proud of you that you are willing to invest this kind of time and energy in our
community’s children.
4. Host a health fair, perhaps in conjunction with the Fall Festival. We are blessed as a congregation
to have a number of members who work or have worked in the health care field. Eight people volunteered
to help with this caring and important outreach! We look forward to adding this new dimension to our Fall
Festival
5. Increase average attendance for Sunday morning worship by at least 5%. While it may seem
unnecessary to have a goal of increasing worship attendance, this is not something that happens without
focus and effort. There are really only two ways to increase attendance. The first is for those of us who do
attend to attend more often. The second is to encourage and invite new people to attend. Our other goals
help us in this; people are attracted to churches that are actively doing God’s work and making a difference
in the community. Nevertheless, experts tell us that most new people visit a church because they were
personally invited. All the greatest programs and advertizing in the world will have little effect without
church members being willing to go out of their way to invite others to “come and see” for themselves. I
urge you to think of every fellowship event, every outreach program, every time the church doors are open
as one more opportunity to invite others in.
Hope and Confidence,
Pastor John
First Presbyterian Church
Session Highlights
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
5:30 p.m.
- Approved providing office space for the new intake coordinator for Homes for Harrison
The office space in back of the workroom will be made available for this purpose.
- Approved Book shelf /case for Scottish Books and memorabilia to be placed in the church parlor. We
will ask to see a drawing of the plans before giving final approval.
-work camps currently planned include:
-Hopewell, N.J. July 12-17
-June 21 -27
-The 2016 Scottish Heritage preacher will be Rev. Bruce Macbeth
-Approved the chili and potato lunch fund raiser for youth on Feb. 15th before the congregational meeting.
-Jenna Bennett will be our commissioner to Presbytery on Saturday, Feb. 28th First/Charleston.
-voted to support Mallory Eckberg, one of our A.B. choir students, who is going on a mission trip to the
Dominican Republic on March 7-13, 2015. The session voted to send $300 and to invite the congregation to
support Mallory both in prayer and with individual financial support.
-Voted to donate $75 to the Kiwanis Club radiothon in exchange for 5 announcements about the church on the
radio that day.
-Decided to promote the top five goals chosen by the congregation’s vote.
Goals for 2015
1. Increase our efforts to let the community know about our service programs by creating a publicity team
to notify the media of each program
2. Coordinate with the Clarksburg Mission to provide activities for youth four times in the next year.
3. Offer a tutoring service once per week, to be evaluated for participation and effectiveness in 12 weeks.
4. Host a health fair, perhaps in conjunction with the Fall Festival.
5. Increase average attendance for Sunday morning worship by at least 5%.
-Pastor’s Report:
Hospital visits: 7
Other significant Pastoral visits:15
Baptisms: 1-11-15 Glenn Michael Adams, (born 12-29-1958) son of Glenn H. and Maytha Adams.
Wedding: none
Funerals:
12-23-14 Cleo Messenger Hogue Gloss, burial at Flora Hills Memorial Gardens
Sacrament of Communion: Was celebrated on Dec. 24 and Jan. 4. Deacons report 41 served for Christmas
Eve and 52 for the first Sunday in January.
Home Communion was served in January to 3 individuals at Maplewood with the help of Pastor Charla and
Elders Wayne and Harriett Northy and in the home to 3 more with the help of elder Connie Leuliette.
Dear Friends and Family
The reason I am writing to you is to ask for your support as I travel to the Dominican Republic
the week of March 7-13th. I have been asked to help lead the college groups that will be traveling
from North Carolina. I am extremely honored that they have not only allowed me to come but
also asked me to lead.
I will be working with a mission called Mission Emmanuel. I have been serving with this
mission since I was a sophomore in high school and have been blessed to be a part of the amazing
work they do. Mission Emmanuel does most of their work in the villages of Cielo and Nazaret.
They have built schools, churches, medical centers, water purification plants, and multiple homes.
They have spread the gospel to thousands of people and shown them the love of Christ. One of
the greatest examples of a Christ-like love that they show, is when they take us to a leper colony.
Most people will go their whole lives without experiencing leprosy, but in the Dominican Republic
it is still very much a threat. So we as a mission have the opportunity to go and love on those
people and to remind them that they are not forgotten and that God treasures them. This, to me,
is one of the most eye-opening and rewarding experiences I have had the privilege to be a part of.
God has changed and transformed my life in so many ways through my trips to the DR and
I cannot wait to see what he has in store for me next. Anything from you would be wonderful,
whether it is donations, prayer, or encouraging words! I am very excited to do Gods work and
spread his love.
If you do wish to support me financially, you can make your donations to Mission Emmanuel
and put my name on the memo line. If you wish to donate electronically, you can go to https://
secure.accessacs.com/access/oglogin.aspx?sn=156318 and type in the amount you wish to donate,
select UNC as the fund and enter my name in the memo line. If you wish to support me through
prayer or encouraging word, you can send me an email at [email protected]. Thank
you all so much for your love and support throughout the years. It really means the world to me.
God Bless,
Mallory Eckberg
Please send donations to this address:
Mission Emmanuel
PO Box 25246
Winston-Salem, NC 27114
ATTENTION:
CHILDREN’S MOMENTS
Feb 1 Feb 8 Feb 15 Feb 22 -
Charla Waters Koerner
Harriett Northey
Pam Mitchell
Dawn Woodburn
The upcoming congregational
meeting has been scheduled for
Sunday, February 15, 2015
following service.
WORSHIP LEADER
Feb 1 Feb 8 Feb 15 Feb 22 -
Connie Leuliette
Hank Lawrence
Elsa Davis
Dick Ogden
ELDER GREETERS
Feb 1 Feb 8 Feb 15 Feb 22 -
Join us,
before the congregational meeting
for for a chili and baked potato lunch
to raise funds for the youth group.
The cost is simply a donation .
Everyone is welcome and all
support is greatly appreciated! See
you there!
DEACON GREETERS
Feb 1 Feb 8 Feb 15 Feb 22 -
Maria and Micah Morrison
Dottie Rinehart
Harriett Northey
Lauren Byers
Newsletter Deadline is
Thursday, February 19
ACOLYTES
Feb 1 - Cassie Delawder
Megan Strange
Feb 8 - Edna Merriott
Danielle Rinehart
Feb 15 - Ashleigh/Bradley Burnett
Anthony Corsini
Feb 22 - Ashleigh Burnett
Abby Schorr
Start your week with prayer
We invite you to join us on Monday mornings at 10:30 a.m. in the parlor for
prayer. Our group is informal, relaxed and friendly. We voice our praises,
requests for healing and comfort, concerns for church, community and the
world. Please join us for prayer any Monday morning. There is no better way to
start your week!
Wednesday Night Bible Study
Dates still available for this
month and next:
Feb 22; Mar 18 &29
Join us for Wednesday Night Bible Study with Pastor John.
We gather at 6 pm for social time, then the lesson begins at 6:30.
We are currently studying the Book of Acts.
IN OUR THOUGHTS
& PRAYERS...
IN SPECIAL CARE FACILITIES:
Amy Garrett; Rex Kuhens; Roberta Davis
SPECIAL CONCERNS:
3 - Dottie Rinehart
5 - Anne Wadsworth
5 - Dennis McAvey
5 - Wilson Leibering
6 - Susan McElroy
ATKINSON, Denver ***
BANEY, Pam ***
BERRY, Kathleen **
BYERS, Gayle and Wylie ***
CANTARELL, Helen **
CLARK, Peggy ***
DUDLEY, Brian *
GOODWIN, Fred **
HOOD, Robbie **
KENNEDY, Betty ***
MEDINA, Rose ***
MOORE, Family *
MORRIS, Barbara ***
OGDEN, Sally **
PARKER, Bea *
RORICK, Kate *
RUDD, Dianne **
SHIFFRA, Everett **
SHIFFRA, Donna **
SMITH, Missy ***
WARNE, Jerry **
WETZEL, Jennifer *
7 - Betty Workman (95!)
8 - Susan Hollandsworth
11 - Ivy Woodburn
13 - Sally Gray
***REMINDER: Names with 3 asterisks will be taken off the list
the following month unless someone calls to put them back on. To
place someone on the list please call the church office or email Sara
at [email protected]. Thank you for your help!
13 - Micah Plants
14 - Kris Pulling
15 - Megan Strange
17 - Linda Lonsinger
17 - Bradley Burnett
18 - Rev. Joanne Glaser
22 - Elizabeth Moore
23 - Florence Harris
24 - Sarah Weese
26 - Genie Koerner
26 - Brad Nickerson
26 - Nany Jarrett
(Call the Church Office and let us know when your
birthday is so we can add it to the list!)
ST. VALENTINE'S SACRIFICE
Every February 14, we celebrate the loved ones in our lives with
cards, flowers and chocolate. But Valentine’s Day has another meaning
that’s been lost.
First declared a holiday by King Henry VIII of England in 1537, it
commemorates the beheading of St. Valentine on February 14, 270 A.D.
His crime? Performing wedding ceremonies after Roman Emperor
Claudius II had outlawed marriage.
Valentine was martyred for faithfully doing the work God had given
him. Although it’s good to celebrate love and marriage, let’s also
remember the courage of a man who gave his life following his
convictions.
(Published in Newsletter Newsletter: February 2012)