December 2008

The January edition of The Parish Visitor is available on the Newsletter page of the church’s website.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

From the January 2009 edition of The Parish Visitor:

A View From the Pulpit: a New Year Covenant Prayer
Rev. Jennifer Collins

This week marks the beginning of a new calendar year. And if you’re anything like me, it may take you a few weeks to get used to writing 2009 instead of 2008. As with any new thing, it takes time to get used to it. With the new year and the resolutions that often accompany it, we may find ourselves promising to make changes or resolving to do things differently. And more often than not, we tend to make resolutions to take better care of ourselves, whether that is eating better or exercising more or getting rid of some bad habit. A resolution to take better care of ourselves is one way we can be good stewards of God’s good creation.

In the Christian Year, the new year started just over a month ago with the beginning of Advent. The beginning of the Christian Year begins by celebrating the advent, or the coming of Christ as a baby into the world, and looking forward to Christ’s second coming when all things will be put right in the world. During Advent we remembered Mary and Joseph, ordinary people called by God to do extraordinary things. On Christmas Eve we celebrated that the Light has come into the world and the darkness has not overcome it.

In the midst of all of the New Year celebrations, it is fitting that this Sunday Rev. Jack Gregory will be sharing with you what we call, “A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition.” The Covenant Prayer is a prayer we pray to once again commit ourselves to following Christ. It is a prayer that asks God to use us as God’s servants. It is a prayer to affirm our covenant with God. Along with any other resolutions we make this year, may we resolve once again, or perhaps for the first time, to be servants of God. Whether or not you are at worship this Sunday at First UMC, I invite you to join in praying this Covenant Prayer:

“I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.” (UMH 607)

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Our Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols will be different in at least three ways: 1. no mention will be made of the queen; 2. familiar hymns; and 3. the NRSV instead of the KJV.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

A festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, England will be broadcast live today at 9:00 (CST) on 107.5 FM. It is an adapted (perhaps very adapted) version of this service that we will be using this coming Sunday.

Update: You can download a pdf file of the bulletin here.

Link: http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/programs/festival/

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

There is a good article on the hard, messy work of renewing a congregation available from the Albin Institute. My favorite part of the article is the opening sentence:

“If you’ve ever remodeled a house while attempting to live in it, you have a sense of the chaos and complexity of congregational renewal. It will take far longer, cost you more, and prove messier than you ever imagined at the start.”

Link: www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=6850

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Ron Sider has a informative review of Passing the Plate: Why American Christians Don’t Give Away More Money over at Christianity Today. Among other bits of information from the book by Christian Smith, Michael O. Emerson, and Patricia Snell, he shares the findings that 20% of American Christians give nothing to the church and that a mere twenty percent of all Christians give 86.4 percent of the total. I was saddened, but not surprised, at the affirmation of my hunch that higher-income Christians in America give less as a percentage of household income than their poorer counterparts. Near the end of the review, Sider writes:

“A good deal of the problem is that pastors are not leading their congregations to think clearly about this issue. I have often said (without any hard data) that I do not think one American pastor in fifty is talking about God’s concern for the poor as much as the Bible does. … overall, our pastors, seminary professors, and denominational leaders are simply unbiblical in their failure to lead their people into persistent, honest wrestling with faithful Christian stewardship of resources and the way that generosity could advance Christ’s kingdom.”

I myself am guilty as charged, but thankful for the thankful generosity shown by so many of the members at Coffeyville First. The article in its entirety is well worth the read. and I plan to order the book.

Update: I have the book on order.

Link: www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2008/novdec/5.11.html?start=1

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Today I received official notification that my student loans from seminary have finally been paid off. Happy Day!

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Below are pictures of the new baptismal font that Tracy Alban is in the process of making for the sanctuary.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Below is the further revised Advent—Christmas—Epiphany hymn schedule.

Fourth Sunday of Advent (December 21)
240 Hark! the Herald Angels Sing
215 To A Maid Engaged to Joseph
234 O Come, All Ye Faithful
219 What Child is This

Christmas Eve (December 24)
230 O Little Town of Bethlehem
239 Silent Night
246 Joy to the World

First Sunday after Christmas Day (December 28)
217 Away in a Manger
218 It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
224 Good Christian Friends, Rejoice
228 He is Born, the Holy Child
229 Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
237 Sing We Now of Christmas
245 The First Noel
227 The Friendly Beasts
240 Hark the Herald Angels Sing
230 O Little Town of Bethlehem

Epiphany (January 4)
254 We Three Kings
251 Go Tell it on the Mountain
2095 Star Child

{ Comments on this entry are closed }