Thursday Notes

Dear Good Shepherd,

Here are your Thursday Notes...

Missions Sunday: Missions Sunday will be held on September 13th, 2009. For those of you who are new to Good Shepherd, Missions Sunday is the day set aside to learn and think about the mission and ministry of Good Shepherd and to step forward to either recommit or volunteer to serve in the ministries, mission, and/or programs of the church that are open to volunteers. One essential part of being a member of a visible body of Christ is using your divinely given gifts, skills and talents to build up your brothers and sisters and the congregation and Church as a whole.

There are lots of things going on at Good Shepherd that you've probably never heard of or about that need your support.

This missions Sunday will be a little bit different than last year's. In the past various ministries, especially those needing volunteer help, set out booths in the parish hall and between services we all sort of milled around and signed up. This year, we'll still have the booths and sign up sheets but given that this takes place between services, during the time usually set aside for Christian ed, we'll use the opportunity to present and discuss the overall mission and purpose of Good Shepherd, the one year mission goals that will, by then, have been set by the vestry, and how the various ministries, programs and missions of the church contribute both to our larger mission and to the specific fall 2009-spring 2010 goals.

In the past we have not been great at following up with those who have volunteered and plugging them into various programs. That's been due to the lack of extra manpower to help with the logistics and my own business. This year we think we have all the kinks ironed out so please don't hesitate to sign up.

I hope you will make a point of joining us for this important occassion and that if you are not presently serving in any way in the church that you will prayerfully consider doing so.

Missions Sunday is held between services on September 13th. There will be homemade sweetrolls and other good things to eat.

Men's Bible Study and Breakfast: Nobody is scheduled to cook tomorrow since a lot of people are out of town. If you would like to volunteer, please let me know. We start serving and studying at 6:30am every Friday. All men are welcome and invited

Worship/search Committee: Ife Ojewato was commissioned last Sunday as youth minister and we prayed over Micah and sent him on his way--there are details about his wedding ceremony below. Meanwhile, we need to find a new music director. We're in the process of establishing a worship/search committee to think through the way we worship and to find the music director God has already chosen to take the music program at Good Shepherd forward. The committee will report their recommendations to me and to the vestry and, with God's help, we'll be able to hire a new music director very soon. Please pray for the work of the committee. I'll let you know who is on it as soon as the full number of committee members are appointed.

RUMMAGE SALE 2: August 29, 2009 9am to 1pm. We will be having a Rummage Sale to sell the balance of the items from the Yard Sale and to try to raise some additional money for Rectory upgrades. If you have items you would like to donate, please leave them on the tables in the hall downstairs.

Please volunteer to help us out with this sale. A sign up sheet is available in the hall. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask Cookie.

Thank you to all who helped with the first Yard Sale last week. It was amazing to see how much we did with so many on vacation and only a small core of faithful people. You were appreciated! in addition to earning almost $1,000, we gave out 62 backpacks and 100 school supply packets and lots of ice cream.

Micah's Wedding: will take place THIS SATURDAY at Red Barn in Deposit, NY. The address:

18 Kelsey Rd
Deposit, NY 13754-4218

Mapquest directions
The wedding begins at 6pm and there will be a reception at Red Barn after. If you are still interested in helping with regards to food, please talk to Carrie ASAP. Red Barn is about 40-50 minutes away, so make sure you give yourself enough time! Micah will print out directions for you if you cannot look them up for yourself online.

Micah Wedding Help: There are a few opportunities to serve Micah this week as he prepares to get married. Three ways you could help:

1. Bake cookies! It is up to you what kind. If you could make 2 dozen and either drop them off at the church by Saturday morning or bring them with you to the wedding, that would be great.

2. Chopping skills -- Saturday morning, from 9am-12pm, we will be in the church cutting fruit and vegetables and assembling food trays. Your help would be greatly appreciated!

3. Some of you can't be there but would love to help. You may prefer to serve Micah and Jillian by contributing financially to this part of their wedding.Carrie Moorhead is taking care of all of these details. If you are interested in helping in any of the above ways, send her an email or give her a call at 607-221-0820 or Carrie.Moorhead@gmail.com.

Baptism: Since February we've gained over 25 new members and/or regular attenders. God has certainly blessed us. Jennifer Austin and her children Aydia, Raven, and Jaden and Jennifer are among them. On Sunday August 3oth, Aydia, Raven and Jaden will be baptized at the 10:3oam service and welcomed into the visible Body of Christ. Please be there to help celebrate this great day.

Christian Education: Anglican Worship and Sacraments. Last week we looked at some of the Old Testament imagery associated with the Lord's Supper. This week we'll move to the New Testament and ground the Anglican understanding of Communion in the teaching of the Apostles.

The Shepherd's Bowl: There have been a number of questions about the Shepherd's Bowl that I wanted to answer and I don't have the time to write an article today, so if you've got questions about it,please watch and listen.

Systematic Theology: The Trinity If you are taking the Systematic Theology course, I wanted to give you a heads up for this Saturday. We may have to cut class short due to Micah's wedding but we will meet and we'll start into a discussion of the Trinity. If you want to read ahead, you can read chapter 14 in Grudem's book which is pretty long but very good. Looking forward to seeing you at 3:30 this saturday. In September we will return to meeting every Saturday.
You can watch the most recent class here.Acolyte Practice: Acolytes will meet This Sunday, the 23rd of August after the 10:30am service.

Theology of Preaching: John Macarthur started a new series this week on the purpose and place of preaching/teaching in the church. A lot of Christians wrongly confuse preaching with public speaking and rate it accordingly. Image, charisma, video, symbol and performance are easy and digestible. Expository preaching is difficult to do and difficult to hear. It requires attention and study both on the part of the preacher and the congregation. In short it requires a full bodied commitment and attention to the word. So it is neglected. But it is through preaching, the proclamation of his word, that God shapes, moves, rebukes, nourishes, corrects and builds up his people and brings a congregation to maturity. Macarthur provides a good corrective to the contemporary tendency to discount preaching and along the way gets to the heart of what a church is supposed to be about. You can listen to the first sermon in his series by following this link

Podcast: Last Week's sermon entitled: The Sacrifice of the Son. You can listen to that here. That sermon represented a one Sunday break from our series on congregational unity based in Ephesians 4:1-3. This week we'll go back to that series and talk about the necessity of patience and bearing with one another in love. Womens Bible Study: There will be women's bible study this Saturday. All women are welcome and invited!

Well that's all for now...