Jan 2009 Newsletter

The

Family

Times

January 2009

From Pastor Kelly

Reflections Well, it has been a year since I started as pastor at Family of God. One year ago, we hardly knew each other; I was the new pastor, and you were the new congregation. We are still getting to know one another, but I believe we have built a strong foundation for future ministry together. I look forward to all the ways God will use us. But before we look forward, it is sometimes helpful to look back and reflect on what we have learned; to think about where we have experienced God, and where God may have seemed to be absent. In this article, I take the opportunity to share some of my reflections; I would love to have you share yours. Where have I seen God active in the last year? I have seen God very active in so many ways there are too many to list. So, rather than list them all, I have chosen some representative samples. First, let me share where I have seen God active in unexpected blessings by individuals: when I watched a brother comfort his sibling during the opening activities of Sunday School; as I have listened to so many of the prayers written and offered by our worship assistants; when individuals have shared God-sightings, and their own insights on discipleship, I have known God was present. When I have seen adults go well above and beyond to make others feel welcome; the times when I have seen people pray with and for others have been countless acts of kindness and generosity. I have seen a commitment to our mission that is quite humbling. I have witnessed an active care and concern for others that is so touching, people reaching out to support others in times of distress just because they care. I have been personally touched by many acts of kindness, some large, some small, all important. All for the sake of Christ. God is present at Family of God. But there are also so many times when I have seen us work as a family and glorify God. I am not just thinking about our corporate worship and our Sunday School, although certainly here, too, but I can think of so many times when we have made a communal witness for Christ. Certainly the Soup & Sandwich ministry comes to mind. One person brings bologna and bread. Others gather to

The Family of God Lutheran Church 4770 Route 202 Buckingham, PA 18912 phone: 215.794.5973 Email:

Our Mission: Hearing, Speaking, and Doing God’s Word. Our Core Values: Faith, Love, Family, Prayer

STAFF MEMBERS Pastor…………………...Rev. Bernard Kelly Interim Dir. Of Ensembles……… .….Michael Hillegas Dir. Of Youth Ministry...Scott Nugent Admin. Assistant……….Suzanne Fernandez Family Times Editors…..Michele Koch and Katie Lekich

Congregational Officers President………………...Jane Ellen Nugent Vice President…………..Glenn Gracey Secretary………………...Brett Hauber Treasurer………………..Ken Canham Financial Secretary……..Dave Robertson

Council-Committee Liaison Assignments Christian Ed…………….Nancy Routhier Evangelization……… ….Maury Drum Finance…………………..Brett Hauber Men’s Ministry………….Terry Andree Mutual/Staff Support…...Jane Ellen Nugent Parish Life………………Karen Skillman and Terry Andree Property…………………Glenn Gracey Outreach Ministry……...Nancy Routhier Stewardship……………..Dawn Irwin Women’s Ministry……...Jane Ellen Nugent Worship and Music…….Amy Fell Youth……………………Karen Skillman

The Family Times

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Family of God Lutheran Church Our Mission... Hearing, Speaking, And Doing God’s Word

Our Core Values... Faith, Love, Family, and Prayer

Our Vision for Mission... We believe God is calling us to be a church where: • Vital, vibrant worship inspires people to live out their faith. • People work together to meet community needs in the name of Jesus Christ. • People of all ages are spiritually nurtured and grow in the Word. • Youth are encouraged, supported, challenged and appreciated. • People joyfully invite others to know the Lord and His church. • People are open to the stirrings of the Holy Spirit.

assemble the sandwiches. Others still pack them all up and take them to St. Mary’s in Philadelphia to feed the homeless. Aid-for-Friends is another group miracle. A group of folks get together (sometimes in their own kitchens) and they prepare simple, healthy meals. We stick them in the freezer in the boiler room. Then miraculously, off they go to feed those who can no longer prepare their own meals. Certainly Workcamp and VBS fall into the category of sharing God in a communal way. In order to make sure these ministries happen, persons work throughout the year and then in one or two big weeks, it all comes to fruition and lives are touched for the sake of Jesus. We must also remember the scores of persons who gather in our home each week to battle the evil of addiction: the seventy-something man so tired of his wife’s alcoholism; the thirty-something mother of two who has been sober now for five years but every day remains a struggle; the 20-something couple who committed to “beat speed” together. All these folks and more gather in God’s house here in Buckingham, because we invite them in for the sake of Jesus. God is active at Family of God. But, there are also times when God has seemed absent in our work together. Times when we have been uncharitable with others. Times when we have allowed the failings or faults of others to diminish our relationship. Sometimes, this is most obvious when we say things that are hurtful. More often than not, however, I observe this when we are not direct with each other. When Leroy complains to Morris about something that Penelope does. Or when Martha criticizes Jasper to the pastor, without telling Jasper to his face. There is certainly nothing wrong with sharing our challenges with each other, and seeking support, as long as we can also be direct in our conflicts and disagreements. Sadly, I have seen this with children, youth and adults. I know I have done this, too. God is not glorified in this. God has seemed shut out to me when fear rules our hearts. When we feel called to mission, but can only see the risks and so we don’t move forward, God is not glorified here. Finally, I don’t believe God is glorified when we allow ourselves to be complacent. Over and over I have used the image of the church being a rescue boat, sent out to help the ones who are drowning. Certainly, we have been able to help those who “swim to our boat,” but I think we need to be more proactive in rowing out to where others are. Our God is not a complacent God. Our God is an active, missional, on-the-move God. Having said all this, there is no value in sitting with our chin in our hands and lamenting that we are not perfect. Only Christ is. There is no value in comparing ourselves to other congregations, or to our own past. There is value, however, in actively deciding to move forward to do more of the things that share God’s presence and

January 2009

(continued from previous page) less of the things that don’t. Years ago, I decided to change counselors. I had been seeing one man for many years, but we both felt we had gone about as far as we could. So, on a recommendation from a close and faithful friend, I engaged Rev. Paul Brownback as my spiritual guide. In our first encounter, I went into his office, introduced myself, and sat down. He asked, “So, what do you want to talk about?” I responded with a twenty minute summary of all that I had learned in my previous years of counseling: my relationship with my parents; my relationship with Karen and Josh, and my siblings; my shattered hopes and dreams; my frustrations and my hurts. When I finally took a breath, he said, “If you want to come here each week and talk about how you got to where you are, I am not interested in that conversation. But, if you would like to talk about how given all that, you can go forward as a Godly man, I would like to be a part of that.” I was awestruck. I want to be a part of a God-bearing future with Family of God. I want us to recognize and celebrate our successes, and acknowledge and mourn our failures. But I want us to move forward being a place where people experience the transformative presence and power of God in Christ Jesus. Won’t you join me?

55+/- Gang The 55+/- Gang will meet on Wednesday, January 7th at 11:30 at the church. We will be serving hot dogs, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, dessert, coffee and tea at a cost of $2.50 per person. Following lunch we will play board games, so please feel free to bring along your favorite game. For more information call Karen Papandrea at 215-598-3457.

Worship Services in January January 4

January 11

January 18

Prayer Chain January 25

Time for Children every Sunday at both services. Invite friends and neighbors to worship with you at Family of God!

The Family of God Prayer Chain invites your requests. Praying for one another is a vital ministry of care and support. To add a name or concern, please contact Nancy Routhier at 215.672.7919 or [email protected].

The Family Times

Thank you.... For your gifts to Silver SpringsMartin Luther School! Your donations have given the children at Silver Springs the opportunity to share the magic of Christmas. For your coat donations and to Karen Skillman for delivering the coats along with the soup and sandwiches to St. Mary's in Philadelphia. To the members of our Property Committee for putting up the Christmas tree and to all who helped decorate the tree and the church. To the Property Committee and their helpers for our clean-up day. To the wreath maker for donating two wreaths for our front doors. To Glenn Gracey and his crew at Gracey Plastering for painting the hallways of the church. To Scott Nugent for the two new wireless microphones and rechargeable batteries. To Joan Gracey and Parish life for coordinating Advent Family Night.

Sunday School Scoop Happy New Year to all of you! December was a wonderful month at Family of God with First Holy Communion for all of our 5th graders, the Christmas Pageant, and especially the wonderful Christmas Eve services. We hope that this Christmas season brought you the magic of the birth of Jesus. We are excited to begin January 2009 with our 5th Rotation for 3 year olds through 6th graders: “Teach Us To Pray”. Did you know that there is no wrong way to pray? Did you know that there is no wrong place to pray? We’ll learn all about one of our most precious gifts from God: our ability to talk directly to Him and Jesus through prayer. Be sure to join us for Sunday School as often as you can at 9:15.

Calendar of Events for January 2009 January 4th 9:15 to 10:15 January 11th 9:15 to 10:15 January 18th 9:15 to 10:15 January 25th

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Week 1 “Teach Us To Pray” Week 2 Week 3 No Sunday School (One Service & Congregational Meeting)

Looking Ahead… We will begin February with our 6th Rotation “Life In Bible Times” Please do your part and sign up to help out as either a teacher or an assistant for one of the rotations. If you would like to be a part of this wonderful ministry please contact Joella Grube (215) 230-4555 [email protected] or Marilyn Boucher (215) 489-2764 [email protected] or sign up on the bulletin board in the back of the Narthex.

January 2009

We Welcome the following New Members who joined in 2008: Rev. Bernard and Karen Kelly, Barbara Kelly, The McCabe Family (Tim, Kathy, Emily and Kaila), Caroline Wagner, Dennis Casile, Susan Lyle, Joan Whitworth, Irene Kennedy, The Bawduniak Family (Michael, Karen, Zachary and Nathan), The Kistler Family (Chris, Liz, Meghan and Stefanie), The Klokner Family (Jim, Laine, Julian, Gus and Eva) and The Hofer Family (Barry, Lynn, Rae, Alec and Lance).

2009 Annual Meeting January 25th at 10:45 a.m. Family of God's 2009 Annual Meeting has been set for January 25th, 2009. Please mark your calendars and join us for this important event. There will be a single worship service at 9:00 a.m. followed by brunch and the meeting at 10:45 a.m. Please bring a brunch item to share. Drinks will be provided. Sign up on the bulletin board in the narthex. See you there!

Church Staff Says Thanks! to Family of God for the Christmas Gifts Our church staff would like to express our sincere appreciation to the congregation for the wonderful Christmas gifts. We are blessed to serve such a caring and supportive congregation.

Dear Friends, Karen and I want to thank you for the VERY generous gift you presented to us at the Advent Family Night. We were truly touched by your kindness, your support and of course, your generosity. 2008 has been a difficult year for us financially and your gift helped to make our holidays even more joyous. Each and every one of you, and Family of God as whole, bring blessing upon blessing into our lives. We are so very grateful. May God bless you all. Again, thank you.

The Family Times

Would you like to

The Intern’s Corner

Buy/Order or Support… Bulletin Board Check out the bulletin board in the back hallway across from the bathrooms. The idea of this bulletin board is to allow members of FOG to complete outside fundraising, for example, girl scout cookies, wrapping paper, pizza orders, and even Lutheran Charities Bike ride sponsors. The idea is to limit the face-to-face selling on Sunday mornings but also allow for these important fundraisers to have a place at FOG. Any member who is selling something can place an order sheet on the bulletin board. And anyone wanting to purchase or support that organization can simply place their order on the form.

From Don Gleiter, Intern First, I would like to wish everyone all the blessings of the Christmas season. This month, since you should have time to do some reading over the holidays, I decided to give everybody my Christmas present to you via the newsletter. The following is the text of a temple talk I delivered Dec. 7 on our understanding of communion as it relates to our new ministry of communion for the homebound. Many of you may have been there to hear the temple talk, but didn’t really catch everything I said, or would like to think about it some more. And for those who were not there, this will be something new. We use several different terms to describe the sacrament of bread and wine that unites us with the presence of the body and blood of Christ. The traditional term we use for this sacrament is the Lord’s Supper, which emphasizes the nourishment of faith that each of us receives during the meal of the risen Lord with His church. It is a supper which each of us eats, and which nourishes each of us individually. Another term we use is the Eucharist, which comes from the Greek word eukaristos, which means grateful. When we refer to this sacrament as the Eucharist, we are moving beyond the perspective of individual nourishment, and emphasizing the joyful thanksgiving of all the people of God for the wonders of creation and redemption that we celebrate through this sacrament. A third way we describe this sacrament is to call it Holy Communion, which comes from the Greek word koinonia, which means community. When we say Holy Communion, we are lifting up the holy community, which is the body of Christ into which each of us is incorporated through faith. Each time we gather together as a community of believers to celebrate Holy Communion, there are some members of our community who are not with us. Some choose not to join us, for one reason or another, but there are others who are unable due to disease or infirmity to join us at the table. It is these homebound members that our new ministry is designed to serve. Members of our congregation who have been called to this ministry, and who have been properly trained, will be authorized to distribute the consecrated bread and wine from our table following Sunday services. This is part of the Lutheran concept of the priesthood of all believers, which tells us we are all empowered to minister to each other. Only a called and ordained pastor can consecrate the bread and wine, but authorized lay members of the congregation can assist in

January 2009

(continued from previous page) the distribution, both here in our sanctuary, and also outside the church, in the homes of our homebound members. The practice of lay homebound communion was encouraged by the predecessors to the ELCA, the American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church in America, back in 1978. This practice was reaffirmed in 1997 when the ELCA adopted a resolution titled “The Use of the Means of Grace”, which says, in part: “As an extension of the Sunday worship, the servers of Communion take the elements to those unable to attend.” This extension of our shared communion, to those unable to attend, is a reaching out to those who would otherwise be excluded and denied the life-giving creative and redemptive action of God that flows from the heart of the Trinity through this sacrament. This reaching out to others in our community binds us together as one, for as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:17: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” So I just wanted you all to know that our new ministry of lay home communion for the homebound is not some crazy idea dreamed up by your wacky intern. It is an ancient tradition in our church, practiced since at least the second century, when the deacons of the congregation would carry bread and wine from the assembly’s table to share with the ill and imprisoned. We ask all members of the congregation to consider joining us in the re-establishment of this ancient tradition. All who participate will be blessed, both those who give and those who receive.

Family of God Website Although it is still under construction, consider making <www.familyofgodpa.org> your home page. Then you can easily watch it develop, be informed as soon as things are added, be encouraged to add your own ministry content and read the Daily Devotion. If you are not sure how to do this, contact Pastor Kelly or Ken Gish at .

Martin Luther King Holiday Service Event Monday, January 19th In addition to the church service planned here at FOG, we will have the opportunity to send a group of interested participants to Cradles to Crayons to sort items. Cradles to Crayons, located in Horsham, is a new nonprofit organization that collects and distributes gently used and new items for youth ages 0 to 16. Items are given to families and individuals within Bucks, Chester, Philadelphia, Montgomery, and Chester counties through the 115 different agencies Cradles to Crayons works together with. We will work in the warehouse from 1 until 3 p.m. It takes approximately 30-40 minutes to get there. We would like volunteers and volunteer drivers. We would love to make this an intergenerational activity. If you are under 18, you must have a specific form completed by a parent or guardian. See the sign-up board in the narthex for forms. If you are unable to attend to work, please consider going through your attic or basement or closets and bringing to church your gently used kids clothing, toys or craft items to church by January 18th. You can look online at www.cradlestocrayons.org for pictures or more specific information. They collect the following: clothing sizes 0-16, shoes, books, new arts and crafts, new school supplies, baby supplies, equipment and toys. Contact Lisa Pitts if you have any questions.

Happy New Year!

LOOK INSIDE FOR… Sunday School Scoop • 2009 Annual Meeting Info MLK Service Event • The Intern’s Corner For even more news visit our website at www.familyofgodpa.org