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1 CPC SEPTEMBER 2009 A monthly publication for the members and friends of Christ Presbyterian Church THE FALL GUIDE TO THE HAPPENINGS AT CPC
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CPC SEPTEMBER 2009
A monthly publication for the members and friends of Christ Presbyterian Church
THE FALL GUIDE
TO THE HAPPENINGS
AT CPC
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Dr. Randy Working, Pastor
Bob Russell Jr., Director, Contemporary Worship
Jennifer Congdon, Director, Children’s Ministries
Andrea Milnar, Director, Youth Ministries
Jason Monsman, Evangelism Director
Jessica Paradise, Office Manager
Sue Congdon, Organist, Web Administrator
Jerry Gibson, Custodian
Karen Perko, Children & Youth Assistant
Chimes Editor
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Table of Contents
4. Pastor‟s Page By Dr. Randy Working
6. Children‟s Ministries
8. Youth Ministries
10. Worship/Evangelism
12. Prayers & Events
13. Session Highlights
14. Christian Growth
15. Adult Ministries
Worship Times
Traditional: 9:30 am
Contemporary: 11:00 am
Contact Information
Christ Presbyterian Church
12419 Chillicothe Rd.
Chesterland, OH 44026
(440) 729-1688
Website
www.christpcusa.org
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Pastor‟s Page
Dear friends,
God has given us so much, from provision for our physical needs, to the freedom we enjoy, to the friendship and support in our family of faith. In fact, from the beginning un-til the end of time, all of God‟s work is a blessing, because all that he does is right
and true.
The Bible records many words of blessing.
One of these instances is related in the book of Numbers:
May the LORD bless you, and keep you;
May the LORD make his face shine to upon you,
and be gracious to you;
May the LORD turn his countenance to you and
grant you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)
One of God‟s great blessings is the way he speaks to us in his Word. The Scripture is how we meet God, and it tells us that God always takes the initiative in reaching out to contentious and sinful human beings who are nevertheless deeply loved. It tells us that God‟s love is so great he pre-ferred to come to earth in the person of Jesus and to die rather than to lose us. In light of that great love, let me leave you with this blessing, my prayer for you this season. It is a benediction, slightly modified, from the Reverend Darrell Johnson, Professor of Preaching at Regent College in Vancouver, and soon to be installed as pastor of First
Baptist Church there.
Whenever you open the Bible, may you do so ask-ing of the text, “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”, and may you experience the text leading
you beyond the words to the Word himself.
By Dr. Randy Working, Pastor
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doer of the Word and not
just a hearer.
May your experience of Jesus be as wide and long and high and deep as that of the apostle Paul (“to me, the least of all saints, this grace was
given, to preach the unfathomable
riches of Christ.”)
May you live in the power of the Holy Spirit, and
may you always have the confidence that when you read God‟s Word, he speaks to you, and that when God speaks, some-
thing always happens.
And in that something, may you be surprised by
joy!
With love for you in Christ,
Pastor Randy
May Jesus meet you and give his life to you, caus-ing you to live out “the obedience of faith” to which the text calls you. Like Jacob who became Israel, may you wrestle with not only the text, but with the God
of the text.
As you read the Bible, may you be filled with the disci-pline of Matthew, with the spontaneous enthusiasm of Mark, with the prayerful compassion of Luke, and with the intimacy and adoring wonder of John—so that you too can only call yourself, “the disciple
whom Jesus loved.”
May you live out the prac-tical wisdom of James, because you, too, are a
Join us in worship
this fall as Randy
Working continues
teaching on the
Book of Matthew.
One of God’s greatest
blessings is the way He
speaks to us in His Word.
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Keys for Kids
A children’s devotional
Read:
Psalm 37:30-31
The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks what is just. The law of his God is in his heart; his feet
do not slip.
Matthew 12:34-35
You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in
him.
With his books scattered all around, Austin hunched over the library table. "May I sit here?" asked his sister Shelly. Austin nodded and kept reading. "Isn't this rain yukky?" Shelly whis-
pered, looking out the window.
Austin jumped as a clap of thun-der startled him. "Uh huh," he muttered. "Now leave me
alone."
"This rain will ruin our family re-union," Shelly complained. "We'll be stuck inside listening to Uncle
George's stupid jokes. We . . ."
"Will you shut up?" Austin de-manded loudly. The librarian gave him a stern look. "Can't you see I'm working?" continued Austin, speaking softer, but with
a threatening glare.
At the supper table that evening, Shelly's complaining increased. She listed all the problems the rain caused her. "I wish it never
rained!" she declared.
"Places where it never rains are
called deserts,
dum-dum," Austin told her. "That's what my report is about. Deserts are so dry that hardly any plants can grow there. The mesquite tree sometimes sends its roots hundreds of feet into the ground to search for water. When it does rain, the barrel cactus swells with water and then shrinks again as it uses the
water. And the ..."
"Austin told me to shut up at the library," tattled Shelly, interrupt-ing her brother. Austin kicked
her under the table.
"Austin! You know better than to
talk like that!" scolded Mom.
"Well, she's always a pest,"
grumbled Austin.
Mom frowned. "Watch your tongue, Austin," she said. "I've noticed that you've been having
trouble with it lately."
"Austin, maybe you need to be more like that mesquite tree and barrel cactus you told us about, maybe you need to 'drink' more deeply from God's Word," sug-gested Dad. "In fact, we should all have a thirst for His Word. It would be nice if we were as mo-tivated to read the Bible as those desert plants are to get water. If we were swelling up with God's Word, good words would be coming out of our
mouths and we'd have a desire
to get along with one another."
HOW ABOUT YOU?
What kind of words come from your mouth? Your words reflect what's in your heart. Read God's Word, think about it, and ask Him to help you understand and obey it. As His Word fills your heart, good thoughts, words, and actions will come out.
Children’s Ministries
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Summer Sunday School 2009
And our experiences
During the month of July we did a study on Moses‟ life.
We started when he was a baby and was rescued
from the hands of Pharaoh all the way to when he led
his people out of captivity to the Promised Land. On
August 9th and 16th the kids enjoyed watching a movie
on the life of Moses…and, of course, you can‟t watch
a movie without popcorn!!!
Movie Comments:
“Look Ms. Jen the golden calf!”
“There is when God parted the sea!”
“They are being so mean to those people!” (talking about when the Israelites had Moses‟ people as
slaves).
“Why did they have to put blood on their door?”
“They were in the desert for 40 years?”
God was really
at work here!
Jen Congdon
Children‟s Ministries Director
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YOUTH Andrea Milnar
Youth Ministries Director
Love God. Love People. Serve the World.
Youth Group Style.
“God is good, all the time.” This famous quote could not have been truer than when the youth groups headed to Whea-ton College, IL for mission camp. On July 20, six teens, Joel and Melissa Gear, Matt Levine, Krista Lupas, Eric McCaslin, and Jonathan Moritz along with three adults, Andi Levine, Eric Milnar, and my-self, loaded into a 12 passen-ger van and headed out to mission camp. All we knew of our “mission” was that it would be with 22 kids ranging in age from 5 to 12 years old at a low income housing apartment. We would be with them for three days. Little did we know that those three days would
change our lives.
On the first day we arrived at the Marion Park apartments it was completely chaotic. We had planned a VBS day with a lunch break. Through a crazy name game we quickly learned their names and ages and split them into two groups. This is where the relationships began to blossom. In the after-noon we shared the story of Jonah and the whale complete
our trip to the county fair.
On day two we joined the camp on a bus and headed out to the DuPage county fair. During the ride, Melissa heard two young kids talking. A 7 year old named Aziza asked 5 year old Heaven if she be-lieved in God. Aziza was con-cerned because another girl had told her God wasn‟t real. Before Melissa could jump in Heaven began evangelizing saying “God is real and He loves us! Don‟t listen to Ce-lina. God loves you!” WOW! Melissa was blown away by the thought that this little girl would share her faith to an older girl. What a life lesson. When Melissa told us this story all I could think was how many of us shy away from sharing our faith with people above us whether in age or at work. God calls us to have faith like little Heaven and share it no matter what others may think. The rest of day two was all about building relation-ships with these kids and we had a great time. Krista said she felt like a proud mama as she watched her “kids” ride the
rides at the fair.
Day three, which was our last day with the kids, was bitter-sweet. On the schedule was a
with a craft leftover from one of our VBS‟s many years ago. We also got to share the birth story of Jesus and a few of the miracles he performed. I asked the kids to raise their hands if they had ever heard of Jesus and only about 5 kids did so. The kids were then split into 6 groups led by each of our stu-dents to pray. The first day ended with the kids making salvation bracelets, coloring pictures of Jesus, and enjoying personal pictures of Jesus‟ life drawn by Pastor Randy
Working.
“What is church?”
That evening after the worship and message we had our “church time”. It‟s a time to dis-cuss the day, pray, and review the next day‟s schedule. It was then that some of the students mentioned that the kids they prayed with said that they were Muslim. I was shocked. This explained why so few raised their hands in response to knowing Jesus. We then prayed for all the students and
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When Taha, one of the five year olds, asked me “What is church?” I didn‟t know what to say. I still don‟t know if my answer made any sense. What I do know is that the love we shared with him and the other children will not be forgotten. The gifts we gave them for school will be a constant mem-ory of that love. The Bibles
they took home to share with their families will tell the stories they heard. The popsicle picture frames and group picture we gave
them will be an image they can look at to see Christ among them. So if asked again “what is church?” this time I think I would answer, we are the church; the hands and feet of Christ Jesus who show His love to the people of this world by our words and ac-
tions.
half day VBS and then we would head out to a commu-nity pool. We spent a lot of time in prayer because this would be the day we shared the gift Jesus is for us and what a faith in Him truly means. Unfortunately only half the kids came that day due to different conflicts. The nice part was we were able to spend more one on one time with the kids. I shared the story of Christ as the Son of God and we handed out New Testament Bibles to each of them. Each student was paired with one or two kids and we all looked up John 3:16 and we read it. We sang “Jesus Loves Me” and prayed with them. The students then spent some quality time with them before we left for the pool. We planted a small seed with the hope that the Holy Spirit is just beginning in their
lives.
So during this week we loved God through corporate wor-ship, quiet times, service, and prayer. We loved people by hanging out with kids that needed love and friendship. We served the world by shar-ing the love of Christ with kids who had never even heard of
Jesus before.
“I loved all the
’God time’.”
Matt Levine
Focus on the Cross
Follow-up
On Saturday August 8th we attended Focus on the cross. The event had 120 teens from 15 local churches joining together to praise God, study His Word, and lift up prayers as one body. Thank you to all our prayer warriors who prayed and sup-ported this event. CPC was on the ground floor for planning and prepara-tion this year and we are looking for an even bigger event next year! Praise
God!
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Worship What is Missional, and How
does it Impact Worship?
No doubt, when we hear unfamiliar words, we all get a little nervous. When changes happen that we feel are somehow attached to these strange words, many of us are understandably fearful. I have been hearing (and over-hearing) a number of things that, as the Elder of Worship and the Director of Evangel-ism/Outreach, I feel this article
will address.
Not too long ago, as we began the search for a new pastor, our church conducted a Mission Study. That study helped the congregation iden-tify the areas we felt were our strengths and our weak-nesses. One of our great con-cerns was the attraction and retention of younger families. It was with this, and a number of other ideas, that our Pastor Nominating Committee began its journey. A journey which ultimately led Christ Presbyte-rian Church extending a call to Dr. Randy Working to be its
next Pastor and Head-of-Staff.
At his arrival, Pastor Randy introduced a new term to the vocabulary of this con-gregation: Missional. The Presbyterian Global Fellow-ship website defines “missional church” this way: “In short, the phrase „missional
church‟ refers to the fact that „mission‟ is not a program of the church but rather the very reason for the church‟s exis-tence: as the church, we are who we are because we have been called and sent by God in the power of the Spirit to be witnesses to Jesus Christ in all that we do (John 20:21; Acts 1:8). We exist as a result of and for the sake of God‟s mis-sion to redeem humanity and manifest the reign of Jesus Christ in all creation. The church doesn‟t exist for itself. Rather, it exists for God‟s
Kingdom mission!”
In short, this is evangelism, or reaching out (outreach) to our local community. This very much fits with the “attracting” aspect of the Mission Study‟s findings and, I believe, if we are attracting young families (and people in general) to CPC, we will see an increase in retention of our current friends and family. Dr. Working had given us a word to de-scribe something previous leadership had identified as an area we wanted to improve, prior to his joining us on our
mission.
The position I now hold, that of Director of Evangelism/Outreach, which was sug-gested by Rev. Dick Shipley, has another unfamiliar term attached to it; perhaps two
Continued on page 16
strange terms. “Evangelism” is sharing the Gospel with people who are non-believers, or who may have never heard of Christ and His atoning work on the Cross. “Outreach,” al-though not as specific, is a functional synonym of evan-gelism, yet it is far less threat-ening to those who would benefit from being evangel-ized. Outreach, from a busi-ness stand-point, is getting your “product” in front of peo-ple in a way that raises their opinion of your company. Us-ing those terms, evangelism is offering the gift of Christ and the everlasting life that comes with accepting Him in a way that reflects His love to them,
even in their unbelief.
The creation of this po-sition, and my hiring to it, by the Personnel Committee, re-flected their agreement with the congregation that we wanted to reach outside of our property and offer rescue to people who are lost and hurt-ing; people who need JESUS! Evangelism, or outreach, is at the very heart of the missional concept. We reach out, we are evangelistic, and we are mis-sional, that we might “be wit-nesses to Jesus Christ in all
that we do.”
It is at this point that be-
ing missional, or being an out
Jason Monsman
Worship Elder
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“Love God. Love People.
Serve the World.” – Love
God.
(Part 2 of a 4 part series from July/August issue of
“Chimes”)
“One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, „Of all the commandments,
which is the most important?‟
‘The most important one,‟ answered Jesus, „is this: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.‟”” -Mark 12:28-
30 (NIV)
“Love the Lord your God…” seems pretty simple and straight-forward, doesn‟t it? Have you ever stopped to consider, however, the depth of what Christ is telling us in this passage? All of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our strength. Is this simply shorthand for “give it all you‟ve got,” or is there something more to Je-sus‟ inclusion of each of these four aspects in His re-sponse (which is, inciden-tally, a quote from Deuteron-
omy 6)?
In the paraphrased ver-sion of the Bible, the Message, the four aspects of the com-mandment are rendered a little differently. These slight vari-ances, I think, give us a little deeper insight into the subtle implications of what Jesus
means in His response.
The first aspect, as it is translated by the NIV is to love God with all our heart. The Message says to love God with all our passion. When I read this, it makes me think of the part of me that has an emotional love, or affection, for God. This is the “feeling” part of loving God. Loving God in this way includes recognizing that He meets outside needs that cannot be met anyone or anything else. It is this type of love that moves us to lavish praises upon Him. Loving God with all of our hearts, with all of our passions, is what inspires us to write and sing hymns. It is this type of love that leads to worship, desiring to be in his
presence.
Next, Christ calls us to love God with all our spirit. “Prayer” is the word used in the Message. Once we are in the presence of God, drawn there by the love within our hearts, our passions, we begin to realize things that stir our spirits. We are, once showing
affection for god, able to rec-ognize how holy He is, and our own falling short of that holiness. At this point, we show our love through our prayer. We bring to God the needs we, in our hearts, have realized only he can satisfy. Loving God with our spirit, our prayer, implies communica-tion. We are to love him in a way that allows us to lay our-selves bare without fear of
rejection.
Being able to love God without being afraid of ridicule or rejection opens us up to lov-ing God with all our minds, all of our intelligence. We can let God use our minds, the intel-lect He created. Engaging with His Word, Scripture. Reading it and doing our best to understand it, knowing we need not be embarrassed of our lack. If we come wanting to be filled with the knowledge of God, He is faithful to provide the filling. Loving God with all of our mind finds strong ex-pression in 1 Peter 3:15, “... Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” Our preparation to give the reason for our hope is the act of loving God, with all of our intelli-
gence.
Loving God with all your
Continued on Page 17
Jason Monsman
Evangelism Director
[email protected] Evangelism
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Pig Roast... 3:00-7:00pm
Sept. 13
Covenant Players... 9:30am
& 7:30 Sept.13
Meeting… 9:15am Monday,
Sept. 14
Sunday School ...
begins..9:30am September 20
Sunday School ...
begins...September 20
See You at the Pole... Sep-
tember 23 at 7:30am at your
local schools.
Cleveland Indians Game...
with YFC September 26
Youth Group...Mondays @
7:00pm
Prayerfully Consider:
OUTREACH:
CHILDREN’S MINISTRIES: YOUTH MINISTRIES:
Session/Deacons...7:00pm
Wednesday, Sept. 16
Contemporary Wor-
ship...Tues./Thurs. @ 6:30pm
& 9:00am Saturdays
Pastor’s Bible
Study...Wednesdays New
Time! @10:30am. Begins
Sept. 16
Chapel Circle...11:00am
Wednesday, Sept.16
Women’s Bible Study...Beth
Moore‟s study of Esther. Tues-day 10:30am & Thursday at
6:45pm. Beginning Sept.15
Men’s Fellowship Group...Wednesdays 6:30am
@ Arabica in Chesterland &
8:00 am Saturdays
BIBLE STUDY:
Leadership
FUTURE OUTREACH
EVENTS:
-City Mission trip
-"How to Start Spiritual
Conversations" and Christ-
mas Movie Night (Late No-
vember/Advent)
-Off-Campus Outreach Bible
Study
-"What is Missional?" class
for members/friends of CPC
-serving other off-site meals
-Football and Valentine-
related events
-Small Group and Commu-
nity growth
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Our next meeting will be our annual joint Elders/Deacons meeting on Septem-
ber 16, 2009 at 6:00 PM.
Respectfully submitted
Alan Lupas
Clerk of Session
College Student Address
Changes
If your college student is head-ing out for their first year, has graduated from college or is heading to graduate school, please notify us so we may update our current list. As many of you know, all under graduate college students receive a $10.00 gift card for Halloween and Valentine‟s Day. Birthday cards are currently sent to all college students. We want to let them know that although they cannot be with us each Sunday, we still hold them
close in our hearts.
Contact: Beth Bouchek
440-338-1926
games, inflatable playroom, and the Euclid Beach Rocket Car for families to enjoy. We hope it will be a great way to reach out to the Chesterland commu-nity at large to let them know about CPC and our mission. We thank Jason Monsman and Pastor Randy for their leadership to make this to hap-pen. Come out and help sup-port CPC. We will need volun-teers to help with set-up, park-ing, clean-up, and other activi-ties. Please contact Jason for
more information.
Jason Monsman gave us an update on what‟s been happening with our Worship Committee. We‟re very excited with where we are going as a church. Jason said major ac-complishments this past year included getting the new clavinova piano, getting new software to help in worship services, and our Fourth of July prayer service. We are also looking to get new
hymnals in the near future.
We talked about some upcoming events. On October 9- 11, 2009, we are looking to bring in John McWilliams from Campus Crusade for Christ for a potluck dinner, bible study seminar and a special worship service. More details will be
out soon.
Our session met on July 15 to discuss various pro-grams and upcoming events in the life of our church. Pastor Randy continued our Bible study from “The Emerging
Church”.
A motion was passed to create a task force to complete the information transfer for the on-line membership directory. This will make it easier for members to be in touch with each other for various church activities. We are looking to protect confidential information like birthdays, anniversaries, etc. that may be published on the web site. We thank Sue Congdon for all of the great work she does on our web
site.
We are very sad to say goodbye to Trish Lawrence as our Choir Director. Trish is re-tiring as of 8/9/09 and we wish her the best. We are planning a celebration of her talent and leadership over many years with our traditional worship service between services on 8/9/09. Please join us to thank Trish. We will be looking to find an interim director
immediately.
The first annual CPC Chesterland Cook-Out is on! We will be hosting this com-munity outreach event. There will be great food, live bands,
Session highlights
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Christian Growth
Chapel Circle
“Small Women’s Bible
Study”
What: Study of Romans
When: 11:00am September,
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Call the church for details:
440-729-1688
Please join us!
A Path for Prayer
Did you know we have a wonderful new place to spend time with God on our church campus? West Geauga High School senior Jason Puruczky has completed his project, a renovation of our church‟s outdoor prayer path, toward the requirements for the Eagle Scout rank. Jason himself approached us with the idea, and with the concurrence of our appropriate elders, planned, developed, and directed others in completing the pro-ject. The path begins in the woods adjacent to the parking lot and recycling bin. Jason‟s work included surveying the wooded site, sketching alternative routes, soliciting a local landscaping busi-ness for donations of tanbark, recruiting volunteers, and direct-ing the physical labor, which included cutting overgrown branches, removing organic debris, placing logs for borders, repairing and painting benches, digging holes and placing markers, and spreading tanbark across the approximately 300 yards of pathway. As a finishing touch, Jason landscaped and planted flowers to mark the entrance to the path. He labored on the project for some six weeks for an average of five to eight hours a week. Jason demonstrated a great degree of initiative, creativity, and courtesy as he progressed with this project. In addition, he ac-complished for us a project of great interest, helping us restore what many others had established in years past. We‟re grateful for Jason‟s generosity toward us by helping make space for God. Why not spend a few moments in prayer as you walk the path?
Women’s Bible Study
The women of CPC will have another opportunity to study Beth Moore‟s video Bible Study on the book of Esther. There will be two sessions, the Tuesday Morning Bible Study Group facilitated by Barb Albrecht at 10:30m, and a new Thursday Evening Bible Study Group at 6:45pm led by Andrea Milnar. Classes will run simultaneously. Sign-up in the Fellowship Hall. If you need a study book or childcare please indicate such on the sign-up form.
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John McWilliams from Campus Crusade will be at Christ Presbyterian Church October 9 to 11 for a special teaching event, open to all. John is an ordained PC(USA) minister; he pastored two Presbyterian Churches in the North-east for 21 years before moving into full-time mission work. John and his wife Barbara both serve with New Life Bible College in Moscow to train pastors and Christian leaders. John has also taught in various Bible colleges of Campus Crusade in Latin America and elsewhere. He is collaborating with Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina to create afford-able media for the training of pastors and Christian leaders worldwide. The event is free for members and friends of the church. Come learn how to grow in your faith and make a difference in your life! Sign up in the fellowship hall after services, or by calling Jessica in the church office.
Schedule:
Friday: 6:00 P. M. Dinner 7:00 P. M. Seminar 1: "What Does It Really Mean To Forgive?" Saturday: 9:00 A. M. Continental breakfast 9:45 A. M. Seminar 2: "How Do I Share My Faith?" 10:45 A. M. Break 11:00 A. M. Seminar 3: "What In The World Is God Doing?" AFTERNOON BREAK 6:00 P. M. Dinner 7:00 P. M. Seminar 4: "Faith: Small Word/Huge Results." Sunday: Preaching at both Services.
Adult Ministries
Adult Ministries
Do you wish we offered a class or study that is more specific to your
needs? Or maybe you're interested in
hosting a class here at CPC.
Then Please contact Lori Battles
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the Clavinova electric piano to our sanctuary has already brought a higher beauty to the Traditional Service, and con-tinues to do so as Sue Cong-don‟s skillful hands discover new functions and uses. One way we are hoping to increase the excellence in worship at our Traditional Service is by selecting a new hymnal to re-place our current, ragged or missing books. These hymnals will include more hymns (while preserving our old favorites) in arrangements that are appro-priate for the wide variety of voices in our congregation. We are also very hopeful that we will add to the number of mem-bers who are participating in the choir. This will not only lift the sound of the choir, but also make us a more attractive community to those yet to join our family, as they see our membership joyfully participat-ing in the worship of the God
we proclaim.
So, with a definition of “missional” that shows it re-flecting our desire to reach out and attract people to accepting the good news of Christ, we show that it does have an im-pact on our worship. Being missional inspires us to wor-ship at the highest standards conceivable. Our family is blessed to have two, diverse, expressions of worship by which to praise God, and that increases our ability to attract new believers into His arms. Being missional does not, however, dictate the style in
which we worship. Worship style flows from the congrega-tion, and what they feel best expresses their love for God. If we are good leaders and stew-ards of God‟s people, this will
continue.
reach church, impacts the worship life here at CPC. We want to be witnesses to Christ in every aspect of our church life. We want to give testimony to the beauty of Christ, the Glory of the Lord, and the Wonder of the work He has accomplished, in eve-rything, but most desperately in our worship! It is with that understanding that the Wor-ship Committee has taken many actions to raise the level of excellence in both worship services CPC offers. Services we offer to reflect the diversity of expressions within the wider
Body of Christ.
The steps we have taken to raise the excellence in the Contemporary Service in-clude integrating the use of multimedia (which includes the purchase and use of MediaSh-out presentation software) to display song lyrics and convey the Gospel in new ways. It also includes evaluating the repertoire of the Praise Team; retaining songs that are time-less and done well, and adding songs that are theologically rich and can be presented with the level of excellence we ex-pect. Perhaps the largest step taken to ensure the quality of worship in the Contemporary Service was the provision for retaining a certified audio tech-nician, who ensures that the individual voices and instru-ments blend in the most beau-
tiful way possible.
The recent addition of
From page 10
17
This oneness with God, the
wholeness of that bond, leads
us into the idea and practice of
the second phrase of our new
slogan: “Love People.” We will
dig deeper into that next
month. It will deal with how be-
ing an outreach oriented
church, should cause us to
care more for each other as
the family of God."
energy, or strength, flows from
loving Him with all of your
mind. Once we have loved the
Lord with all our minds and
have prepared ourselves to
give reasons for our hope, we
can then set out to share those
reasons. Loving God with all of
our strength is, perhaps, the
most outward expression of
our love for Him. Whether it is
physical or mental expenditure
of energy, or strength, this is
when we do things, out of love
for God, to bring glory to Him.
It is at this point, in lov-
ing God with all our energy,
where we come full circle in
the four aspects of Jesus‟
command to love God with
every aspect of our being. In
the most basic sense, the
Lord‟s restating of Deuteron-
omy 6:4-5, is a call to love God
with everything we‟ve got. In
order to do that, however, we
must understand all of the fac-
ets that comprise that love.
Once we open ourselves to
loving God in all four of these
ways and begin using them
together, our love for Him will
find a new depth. In this depth
of love for God, we find a one-
ness with Him; we begin to
have His strength, His mind,
His Spirit, and His heart.
From page 11
Next Chimes articles due
September 20
Karen Perko
Prayer requests
Dee Eichele
(440) 729-9973
What is Christ Presbyterian
Church?
We are a family called to share
the Good News of Jesus
Christ. We do this through call-
ing others to personal faith in
Christ, equipping them as His
disciples, and inviting them
into loving relationships. In all
we say and do, we seek to
demonstrate the love of God.
Find out more about us
We warmly invite you to join
our church family and hope
you will let us know how we
can support you. Please call
the church office, or indicate
your desire on the blue atten-
dance pad on Sundays.
How to contact us
Church office hours are
9:00am-4:30pm Mondays
through Thursdays
(Office):
(440) 729-1688
www.christpcusa.org
(Fax):
(440) 729-3733
Birthday & Anniversary announcements
Copies available in church Fellowship Hall
18
For Trish
For many years you’ve led the choir.
With talent, skill and grace.
Your joy in leading singers
Is revealed upon your face.
You encourage us to focus
On God’s spirit as we sing,
For delivering His message
Is the most important thing.
You’ve been our guide, our teacher,
Our inspiration, and our boss.
We’re sad that you are leaving …
The church will feel the loss.
Wherever God may lead you,
Remember this small wish:
May music fill your heart and soul
With God’s rich blessings, Trish.
Sue Congdon August 9, 2009
19
Love God,
Love People.
Serve the World.
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