THE MESSENGER St. John Wood River, Illinois 2016 No matter who you are… or where you are on life’s journey, YOU are welcome here. May 15: Pentecost Wear Red or Orange to church that day. May 22: Graduation Sunday at 9:30 Messy Church 4-6pm We will honor our graduates at the 9:30am service. If you have a high school or college graduate, please let us know by May 1. May 29: Worship at Belk Park Our 9:30am service will be held at the Lions Club Pavilion at Belk Park. Immediately after, we’ll fire up the grills for our All Church Picnic! Swings & Jungle Gym for the kids, Games for everyone, Maybe some Messy Church activities Access to the lake for some fishing And a time of fellowship and relaxation! Bring your hamburgers, hot dogs, brats or chicken (or whatever you want to grill). Grills and charcoal provided. We’ll have iced tea and lemonade, plates and tableware. Everything else is pot luck! What’s Inside Kids Klips Birthdays Manna Money April & May Calendar April 30 Plant and Bake Sale May 15: Pentecost May 22: Graduation Sunday Save the dates: VBS is coming! July 25-28
Transcript
THE MESSENGER St. John
Wood River, Illinois
2016
No matter who you are…
or where you are on life’s journey,
YOU are welcome here.
May 15: Pentecost Wear Red or Orange to church that day.
May 22: Graduation Sunday at 9:30 Messy Church 4-6pm
We will honor our graduates at the 9:30am service. If you have a high school or college graduate, please let us know
by May 1.
May 29: Worship at Belk Park
Our 9:30am service will be held at the Lions Club Pavilion at Belk Park. Immediately after, we’ll fire up the
grills for our All Church Picnic!
Swings & Jungle Gym for the kids, Games for everyone,
Maybe some Messy Church activities Access to the lake for some fishing
And a time of fellowship and relaxation! Bring your hamburgers, hot dogs, brats or chicken (or whatever
you want to grill). Grills and charcoal provided. We’ll have iced tea and lemonade, plates and tableware.
Everything else is pot luck!
What’s Inside
Kids Klips
Birthdays
Manna Money
April & May Calendar
April 30 Plant and Bake Sale
May 15: Pentecost
May 22: Graduation Sunday
Save the dates: VBS is coming!
July 25-28
Connect with other Messy Church folks: https://www.facebook.com/Messy-Church-USA-112696642225770/
www.messychurch.org.uk
Strengthen the Church
All Church Offering On Pentecost, May 15
Building new churches, revitalizing declining churches, Continuing education and leadership development for
Church and it is time to reflect a bit on how it is
going. Folks are
starting to see that
Messy Church is
more than just a new
way of doing things
or a new “program”
for one Sunday a
month. It is a
different philosophy
of doing and being the
church.
I was describing it
to some colleagues who were wonderfully curious
and enthusiastic about it when one of them who had
spent quite a bit of time in South America and the
Holy Land said it sounded like worship in those
places.
In the churches in South America, the services
last a few hours. The children wander back and forth
between some activity tables where they have simple
games, clay for modelling, small looms to make
simple clothes and other activities/craft items to keep
them busy.
The adults in the congregation have snacks for
the children when they need them. The hymns,
however, draw everyone back together, the kids pick
up their gourds, bells and shakers to keep time with
the music, they dance and sway to the music together
and the congregation holds hands. They might sing 2
or more songs in a row. The church is simple, some
have walls open to the outdoors—not much more than
a covered area we might see at a park in our area.
Of Messy Church, my friend said, “It sounds
wonderful. Those were the most joyful worship
services I have ever been in. If you can capture just a
part of that we could transform the churches in this
country to become so much more.”
Messy Church envisions a congregation of
members walking with and encouraging one another
on their own spiritual journeys. We see the gifts in
each other, explore the scriptures with each other and
practice our faith together in mission and ministry.
In all aspects of our life together, the Messy
Church model invites us into an experience of Christ
among us as we study, pray, worship and minister
together. We become less “academically” focused
and more relationship centered.
So, when we see the children in the Crayon
Corner in worship—what piques their curiosity, when
do they take notice of a hymn or prayer?
If you are ushering, you are also mentoring
and modelling Christian work. When a child
approaches you to help, welcome them, thank
them, encourage them and show them how to
navigate the pews. You are the image of Christ to
them at that moment.
The same applies if you are the Greeter or the
person handing out the bulletins—when a child
approaches you to help, welcome that help with
enthusiasm. And be on the lookout for the kids
coming to do that. They want to help!
One of the benefits of being the pastor here is
that I get to read through the resources, the blogs,
comments and other reports from “Messy Churches”
all around the world. We are part of an international
movement that is transforming the church in at least 7
different countries. The first international gathering
of Messy Churches is happening in May. While not
able to attend it in England, I will be getting regular
updates on social media, ideas, encouraging stories
and testimonials from people who reconnected with
their faith by visiting a Messy Church event.
We are the first church in Illinois I am aware
of that has joined the Messy Church movement—and
certainly the first UCC church in our Conference.
Worship, telling the story, acting out the story,
engaging in conversation about the story,
experiencing the story through all of our senses and
coming together over a fellowship meal all sounds
very “early church” like. Families exploring their
faith together and then eating a meal together as a
church family is how the church grew for the first few
hundred years of its existence.
I do not know if we will transform the church.
I am certain, however, that our Messy Church life
together can transform our lives and our faith as we
live into it.
Social media, the internet and so many other
technologies help us tell the story and connect to one
another in new and wonderful ways. Messy Church
uses all of that and holds on to the tried and true core
of our being as a church—worship and fellowship
together, as families and as a church family.
This is an exciting time to be the church as we
reach a new generation who will have experiences we
could not even have dreamt possible. Messy Church
helps us to journey together into God’s exciting
future.
Happy and joyful Eastertide!
Upcoming Special Events
Think spring! St. John’s Annual Plant & Bake Sale Saturday, April 30
9am to 2pm. Come early for the best selection of pots, flats, ferns and flowers. The hanging baskets go quickly and so
do the cookies and brownies. Tell your friends, get your flower beds ready and choose from the best plants around anywhere. Local nurseries supply this popular sale every year, come see what’s new this year.
Sorting and Packing
At St. Louis Food Bank Tuesday, May 31, 4-7pm (leave church at 2:45pm) Sign up in Berry Parlor
A Cancellation Please note: our April 29 trip to make dinner at Ronald McDonald House has been cancelled. The house continues to undergo some remodeling which will not be completed in the time originally expected. They will notify us when they expect to complete construction and resume the dinners program. We’ll sign up again as soon as we can.
Find more Dave Nelson comics, subscribe or order books at
www.findingelim.com. Used by permission.
Save the Date: Hoyleton Ministries
Open House At our new Offices
in Fairview Heights May 25
Hoyleton Ministries is combining offices, debuting a new logo and celebrating their expanding community based ministries at an open house the afternoon of May 25. Expanded rooms for foster care family visits, evaluations, classes and counseling. Administrative services under one roof—and a roof that doesn’t leak. Convenient location right off the Interstate and near bus lines. More information coming in the Sunday Messenger and on Facebook.
Please hold in prayer: Hospitalized since the last
Messenger or continuing health
concerns:
Hospitalized/Health Concerns Marie Bantz, Lin Cox Judy Hanfelder Carol Tweedy Beryl Shoemaker Jim Sutton Betty Wiegand Jonah Woelfel Bob Hall Staying Close to Home Lucille Aubin Margaret Rowden Bob Hall Don Schueler Ginny Mitchell Judy Hanfelder Betty Wiegand In Nursing Homes Ed Hamlin Margaret Hinkle, Hitz Home Jim Jones, Morningside Serving in the Military Dustin & Ashley Richards, Caleb Roberts, Blake Sabolo and Brandon Southcombe Overseas Teacher/Diplomatic: Leigh-Ellen Kichline Amy Tohill Child Sponsored by St. John: Vimbai Dziya, Mt. Selinda Mission, Zimbabwe
Manna Money Remember graduations, weddings and other Spring events coming up. A little planning ahead and you can
really help St. John UCC by purchasing gift cards for those special events!
The retailers know this is a big time of year for our Gift Card sales and some of them offer special bonuses
where we make a few extra dollars. You get the same great benefits—ease of use, sticking to your budget,
secure on line shopping without risking your personal account numbers or information and supporting your
church while stocking up on essentials or buying or ordering that special gift.
Gift cards make great gifts for Showers, Weddings, Birthdays and Graduations!
A special announcement from our Manny Money Team: Starting Saturday, April 9, we will have a limited number of special small denomination
gift cards available for order, perfect for teacher gifts and grad parties! These cards will only be available while supplies last, so don't wait to place your orders. The following
cards will be available:
Amazon.com Gift Cards $10 AMC Theatres® $10
Barnes & Noble $5
Meijer $10 Outback $10
Regal Entertainment Group $10 Starbucks $5
Supervalu (aka Shop n Save) $10 Target $10
These low denomination gift cards make great gifts for the special people in your life.
Order them on April 10 for delivery/pick up on April 17! Order early, supplies are limited and usually sell out quickly!
A “Messy Church” Blankets+ Sunday
Make a Canvas “Love Quilt” for the Church And piece it together on
Mothers’ Day, May 8
Comfort and Care for Mothers and Children in Distress
Through our Blankets+ offering for CWS
This year we are combining our Blankets and Tools
Offerings for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day to our
Blankets+ offering.
Church World Service provides blankets at shelters after fires, floods,
earthquakes and other natural disasters. They provide blankets and tents
at refugee camps around the world and those thick, grey blankets at
warming centers for the homeless in our own cities during frigid winters.
$10 supplies one of those blankets.
This year, we ask you to please honor or remember someone you love by donating
$10 and creating a square for our Love Quilt.
We will have Color Me™ Quilt canvas squares for you to paint or
color here—or take one home and paint it, use an iron on transfer,
embroidery or needle point—to make a tribute to your mother,
father or someone else and let’s Blanket the Church & the world in
love!! Each square is about 8” and has cuts in each corner so that
we can tie them together when you finish them.
We’ll have fabric paints and markers on the table on the landing for you or you can take
it home and get even more creative. Just bring it back for our Blankets+ Sunday
celebration on May 8.
And pick up a special Blankets+ Mothers’ Day card to celebrate your gift.
The Messenger is a monthly publication of St. John United Church of Christ, 228 N. Sixth St., Wood River, IL 62095; phone 618 254-6682. E-mail @[email protected] Access our home page at www.stjohnucc.net. Worship is at 9:30 a.m. Our Pastor is Rev. Mike Southcombe, cell phone (618) 558-5014 The Messenger editorial staff includes, Evalena O’dell and Marlene O’dell.
All guests are welcome.
“always caring, always sharing”
St. John United Church of Christ 228 N. Sixth St. Wood River, IL 62095 Return Service Requested
Mission Statement for St. John UCC
St. John United Church of Christ, Wood River, Illinois is a Christian Community:
Worshiping the Triune God
Claiming the historic faith of the church
Sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ
Nurturing for Christian discipleship
Ministering to one another through fellowship and caring
Serving our community and the world
Connecting with other Christians for witness and service
Graduation Sunday On May 22 We will honor our 2016 Graduates. If you know of any graduates, please contact the church office. On a related note: applications for the Hellrung-Jacobs Scholarship are available in the church office, due by July 1.
