CloseUP November 2008

A Magazine of Christ Community United Methodist Church

CHRIST COMMUNITY CLOSE-UP

On the web at: ChristCommunityUMC.com Volume 5, Issue 7

Christ Community Staff Pastor: Rev. Dr. B.J. Norrix 457-9382 (church) 345-5604 (cell) [email protected]* Church Secretary: Dona Dalton 457-9382 (church) Director of Adult Ministries : Roger Parker 635-5266 (home) [email protected]* Director of Christian

Education : Julie Valeski 457-9382 (church) [email protected]* Pastoral Care: Rev. George Craik 487-5227 (home) [email protected]* Music Director: Phill Sterling 638-4956 (home) [email protected]* Associate Music Director: Denise Weeks-Bush 635-7175 (home) [email protected]* Ministry Assistant & Close-

Up Editor: Heather Claver 468-6811 (home) [email protected]* * All email addresses are @ChristCommunityUMC.com

The volume increases following Halloween. The trappings are up, the drum beat have already begun and the volume increases following Halloween. The drum beat is the enticement to enter into the secular, commercial observance of an event corporately known as “ t h e H o l id ays . ” Th e “Holidays” extend from Thanksgiving through the observance of the change of calendar we call “New Years!” They now include Hanukkah, Kwanza, Solstice and an event called by many names (i.e., Yuletide, X-Mas) but is usually known as Christmas.

It is chic and popular to d e c r y t h e “Commercial ization of Christmas”. But I have come to observe that most of us give our annual lip service to how commercial Christmas has become; we wag our heads we make those tsk tsk noises, we even vow to not “get sucked in;” but, in truth, very few of us do anything about it. Knowing there is a problem and doing nothing about it is to choose to simply be a part of what we hate. In the Celebration of Discipline study group we have just studied the discipline of “simplicity.” In the interest of “simplicity” here are some “do’s” and three “don’ts” I would suggest to help us reframing

the “Holidays.” 1. Unplug: The Holiday

drum beat pounds us down. Radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, internet, stores, malls and cities and towns are all blaring out the same commercial message. BUY, BUY, BUY!!! Your children will be miserable if you don’t give them the biggest, latest and best. You won’t LOVE your family unless you buy, buy, buy! UNPLUG the noise making machine. Give you family a media respite. Take an evening and play some board games together, spend a day at home without the noise. Unplug.

2. Set Limits: Do this now before the noise gets too loud. Set a reasonable limit on what you will spend for gifts—better yet, make

November 2008

Christ Community United Methodist Church 3474 Stiles Road Syracuse, NY 13209 (315) 457-9382

Entering the Crazy Season A message from Rev. Dr. B. J. Norrix, Senior Pastor

some space and time and create something unique and give them as gifts. Set a reasonable limit on the time you will spend at parties, gatherings, extra outings, shopping, etc. Set a reasonable limit on the extra activity. Christ Community will have ONE Sunday School program (on December 14). We will offer a variety of Christmas Eve celebrations to fit your schedule (December 21; December 24 at 5, 7, and 11).

3. Refocus: Here’s how: • Choose to have fun. Rather than the miserable, worn out, I hate the holiday’s attitude that many of us adopt, why not choose to have fun.

continued on page 8

Holiday Worship Celebrations Thanksgiving Eve: November 26 at 7:00 pm

Children's Christmas Program: Dec. 14 at 7:00

Early Christmas: December 21 at 7:00 pm

Christmas Eve: December 24, 2008

5:00 pm Birthday Party

7:00 pm Candles and Carols

11:00 pm Candles, Carols and Communion

CHRIST COMMUNITY CLOSE-UP VOLUME 5 , ISSUE 7

The Mission Team would like to thank all the people who stepped up to "adopt a mission" for our church. We as a team, are so grateful for your willingness to serve and look forward to working with you.

Here is the list of adopted missions: • Refugee Clothing Drive Saturday, November 22nd Amy & Brent Kremenek

Thank you for all the donations and helpers! We helped over 80 families with warm winter clothing.

• CROP Walk, October Patti Marvin

Thank you to all of walkers! Our church raised over $700 this year and I think we can raise over $1,000 next year, don't you!?

• Paige's Butterfly Run Pam Youngs-Maher Look for information in May! • Rada Knife Sales Fundraiser

for youth mission trip to W.V. Joyce Trinkley-Wolfson Many of our senior high students will be venturing to West Virginia on a mission trip this summer. In order to fund this trip, they will be selling products from RADA Cutlery. This sale will go through the middle of December, in case

CCUMC Mission Team News Mark Cavanaugh & Cathy Cronk, Mission Team Co-Chairs

you would like to order Christmas gifts. For those of you not familiar with RADA, they make high quality and reasonably priced cutlery products. They also offer many other kitchen utensils as well as cookbooks, stoneware for baking, dip, soup and sauce mixes that you only require you to add water or a few ingredients.

There are 2 ways to order: The first way is the good old fashioned way: in person at church. There will be youth at a table between services and after 2nd service. There are some catalogs for you to take and get orders from friends, family or co-workers! Your support of the youth is appreciated.

The second way to order is on line. Go to the Rada web site: www.helpourfundraiser.com enter our customer #: 501685, enter our password: seniorhigh (all lower case, no spaces), click on "browse" at the top to see the products. The products you order will be available at the church the week of Dec. 15th. Thank you again for supporting our youth!

• BONTON Fundraiser Heather Claver Thank you to all who bought a coupon books.

• Bulletin Board Committee- We need help in this area. If you are creative, crafty and would like to help keep our Mission Bulletin board updated periodically please see Mark or Cathy

Upcoming Mission Trips: • Zimbabwe in July 2009. A thank

you goes out to all those who decided to dine at the Pizzaria UNO last Sunday for the Zimbabwe Fundraiser. The figures have not yet been released, but the folks at the restaurant said that there was a significant turnout for the event. The team will be continuing to fundraise through next July as we look for ways to bring the travel costs down to a reasonable level.

• Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia- July 12-17 2009 The youth of our church will travel to Delbarton, West Virginia with a population of 470. We will focus on two primary areas of ministry: children and home improvement. Our work with children consists of a hands-on afternoon program led by the youth. Work projects include minor home repair and painting projects. The cost is $258 per youth. We have room for 14 kids, 9th-12th grade.

There are millions of words in the English language, none seem to measure up to the Weeks family's im-mense gratitude for the efforts of CCUMC and Tawn Maries boosters that made the Heather Weeks memo-rial celebration possible. Most of the 500 in attendance sensed the love and service that this group demon-strated; showing they are living the biblical principal of the Good Samari-

tan. This hard to find, small church on a dead end street, reached out to the community asking: Are you sad, broken-hearted, questioning

how this event fits into God’s plan? Come in, let us rearrange our

house so you are comfortable, There are 350 others here, and

our rooms are filled to capacity, Come in, you are welcome, we

will find room for your sorrow. Are you hungry, thirsty, tired

from your long journey? Sit down and allow us serve you

as you grieve. Stay as long as you need to, eat

and drink until you are satisfied God’s word teaches us to love our

neighbors in need. 500 witnessed a profound demon-

stration of Christian love and God’s promise to provide what is needed, with some to spare, if required, from 5 loaves and 2 fishes. How could one mortal truly, fully, completely thank you? I pray each of you will feel the warmth of God’s proud smile.

Heather Weeks Memorial Celebration Gary Weeks


Every so often we sometimes get a reality check. You know, the kind that makes you stop and think to yourself…I’ve never considered that before. Or…wow, I had forgotten that! I had one of those types of mo-ments not long ago at a Zimbabwe 2009 Mission Team dinner meeting with Dr. Immanuel and Florence Me-for, heads of the hospital at the Mu-tambara United Methodist Mission in Mutambara, Zimbabwe.

The Mefors were at Christ Commu-nity because of our church’s partici-pation in the 2006 Mission Trip, the 2007 Container Project (which benefited them substantially), the on-going child sponsor-ship program spear-headed by Cathy Cronk, and the 2009 Mission Trip. While they were having din-ner with us, the con-versation centered on ways in which we could positively impact them and those they care for while we are with them in July.

Some of their needs include repairing their current water delivery service so that they can ac-tually get water during the periods when there is no electricity. Since they only receive power from about 1 to 7 in the morning, this leaves the other 18 hours a day with little or no water. They felt (reasonably enough) that being able to get water into the hospital and school buildings would be helpful in their efforts to treat patients and feed pregnant mothers and school kids.

Other needs included renovation of the housing used by expecting moth-ers. Because of the economic col-lapse, it is almost impossible for the average Zimbabwean to afford public transportation. It costs more to take a bus into town than they take home in a week. Because of this, women who are deemed at-risk or in the

Coordination Station Roger Parker, Adult Ministries Director

later stages of pregnancy are encour-aged to come to Mutambara Mission to wait for their delivery time so that they can be assured of being able to actually reach the hospital when they needed to be there.

It seems that the original building was set up to hold 25 mothers. It now regularly holds 50 or more. We are not talking about taking large rooms and adding another bed here. We are talking taking an already small room and making it 50 percent smaller. Fortunately, the women can make room on the floor to sleep.

Unfortunately, that does not get them out of the way of leaky roofs, nor does it make the toilets work prop-erly. I share all of this be-cause one of my favor-ite holidays is right around the corner–Thanksgiving Day. The reason I love it is simply because I have so very many things to be thankful for, that it actually requires a separate holiday just

to hold them all. In addition to the standard family, friends, health, job, freedom of religious worship, etc, are many, many ones that never used to crop up.

Like a roof that does not leak. Like a toilet that flushes, and is comfortably located within the con-fines of my home. Like varied food on the table. Like a long hot shower whenever I feel like it. Like not wor-rying about getting physically beaten by my elected officials just because. Like not having 8 out of 10 of my family and friends unem-ployed. Like not having 1 out of 4 of my family and friends dying from AIDS. Like electricity that is avail-able when I flick a switch. Like a hospital to go to when I am sick that actually has medicine to treat me with, and water with which to bathe

in and drink. Like a home I do not have to share with 4 other families at the same time. I literally could go on and on.

One of the benefits of traveling to other places (West Virginia, Costa Rica, Zimbabwe, Israel) is that it solidifies your understanding of just how blessed you really are. Are there things in my life that are not optimal? Sure. Do they really mat-ter that much in the bigger picture? Not so much. At the end of the day, I really have to fall on my knees and thank God for his exuberant abun-dance of blessings on me, my family, my country, etc.

Not because I deserve them. But simply because He has. And while I thank Him from whom all blessings flow, I remember my friends who have less, and pray that they, too, will be blessed. The ultimate bless-ing? Knowing God through Jesus Christ and getting to live each day in relationship with Him as He con-tinues to mold and change me, to grow and mature me, to encourage and move me. He also provides me with reality checks to help me be-come and remain grounded in my understanding of the way things are.

Thanksgiving…what are you thankful for this year? Don’t forget to tell God THANKS!

Here are some of the things going on at church:

The Men’s Ministry: will feature a number of upcoming events, so be sure to keep an eye out for specific dates and details regarding these opportunities:

• Snowshoeing at Beaver Lake Nature Center

• Men’s Movie Night • Family (Crunch) Hockey Night • New Zealand Promise Keepers

Event Webcast WOW: We continue to work on

improving and enlarging our Wor-ship-On-Wednesdays program. We have added several classes and are looking to add several more in the very near future, including Men’s and Women’s Bible Study groups.


A great big THANK YOU for all of your generosity in helping make our CM Birthday Party such a great success! The classes and Sunday School closet are now well stocked for the kids! A great big kiss and hug to all of you from all of us!

Here are some of the recent and upcoming events:

On November 16th we had the first of three bring your parent or grandparent to Sunday School class. We are doing three of these days for all of you who have more than one or two kids. That way you get a chance to see all of your children’s classes. It’s only fair! You will get a chance to see what your child is learning and doing in class and carry it over in your home. Sounds like fun!

November 23rd was Sunday School Mission Sunday. The Sunday School classes made prayer bears for missions teams from our church to take with them wherever they go. These bears will then be handed out to children and adults in those areas to let them know that we care and Jesus loves them! I can’t think of a better way for our Sunday School to help connect with our Missions Teams and their awesome work!

November 29th is our annual Craft Advent Day from 1-4pm.

Hi from Children’s Ministries! Julie Valeski, Director of Christian Education

Children will be able to make a few gifts for their family members, watch a movie and have some snacks. There are sign up sheets on the Sunday School table in Fellowship Hall if you would like to help organize and run this event, donate food and drink or sign up your children. The cost is FREE, so have them bring their friends and plan a few hours of shopping or relax time!

A couple of other notes: We are still in need of some more teachers/helpers for second service. Even if you can’t commit to every Sunday, we can still use your gifts and talents! We need someone to help with our special needs kids, update

the bulletin board, stock the fellowship activity bags, fill in for teachers, etc. Let me or a coordinator know if you can help!

We still have empty spaces on our snack sign up sheets for both services. If you could take a look and sign up to bring the listed items, it would be much appreciated! Also, if you sign up for a specific snack, please make sure that you bring all of the items listed! Otherwise, some of the classes don’t get their scheduled snack. Thank You!

A heartfelt THANK YOU from me to all of the teachers, coordinators, leaders, advisors and everyone else that makes our Sunday School such a great blessing! You are all deeply loved and appreciated!

A faithful volunteer teaching to our 9:00 am one-room Sunday School class

We are looking for several adults who would be interested in choosing to make Wednesday Evening child care a Ministry project that they could be a part of. With additional children’s groups on the horizon, this is both a vital and necessary ministry on Wednesday nights. If you are interested and God has called you to work in this area please speak with Julie Valeski or Roger Parker regarding this.

PAGE 5 CHRIST COMMUNITY CLOSE-UP VOLUME 5 , ISSUE 7

Advent Craft Day Saturday, November 29

1:00-4:00 pm

Children make Christmas gifts for family and friends, and watch a Christmas

movie and have snacks.

Sign Up sheets are out on the Sunday School table for craft day helpers, food

donations and children attending. Please stop by and sign up. Thank You!!!!

Children’s Ministry Team

Julie Valeski: 635-9516, [email protected]

Susan Rayo: 635-8937, [email protected]

Karen Woodside: 695-4514, [email protected]

Deb Crouch: 452-0273, [email protected]

Amy Tyler: 672-5184, [email protected]

2008 Sunday School Christmas Play

Sunday, Dec, 14, 7:00 pm

“The Twelve Days of Christmas and How!”

Written and directed by Rick Woodside. We can use some help with materials for

the set and costumes, plus some help with manual labor. See Rick for more

information.

Apple pie

Bread

Corn

Cranberries

Dressing

Giblets

Gravy

Green beans

Ham

Peas

Potatoes

Pumpkin pie

Rolls

Salad

Stuffing

Sweet potatoes

Turkey

yams

Christ Community Worship Times Sunday Morning Celebrations

9:00 a.m. Worship and praise with the CCUMC Adult Choir and acoustic sound

10:45 a.m. Worship with our praise band “Sanctified” and the CCUMC Praise Choir Sunday Evening Grace & Healing Celebration

7:00 p.m. Praise & Worship, and Healing Prayer with our worship band “Grace Alone” Sunday School, K-12

9:00 am and 10:45 am Wednesday Worship beings with light supper at 5:30 pm

Did you ever get to Wednesday, hoping that tomorrow was Saturday?! We can help you out. Join us on Wednesday’s for a light supper followed by a special worship time. Bridge the gap between Sundays and be fed physically and spiritually. Good food, good conversation and a chance to refresh and renew your spirit await you!


Worship Teams at Christ Community Church Our 9:00 Choir practices the 1st, 2nd & 4th Thursday of the month at 7:00 pm. New members are always welcome. See Phill Sterling

The Praise Choir meets the 3rd Thursday of the month at 7:00 pm and we sing at the 10:45 service the following Sunday.

New members are always welcome. See Denise Weeks-Bush .

Cloverleaf Children’s Choir rehearses Sunday mornings from 10:15 to 10:45 in the choir room. We sing for the church approximately once a month. Please contact Linda Prell or Denise Weeks-Bush if you have questions.

The CCUMC Drama Team provides dramas for worship. This group needs not only actors but also writers, artists,

technicians and directors. It is open to all, Contact Betty Kline for more information or to join.

Inspired Expressions Dance Team meets Thursdays from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. This ministry is open to everyone. New members are always welcome...just come on Thursday or email Chris Haskins at [email protected] for more information.

HEALTH MINISTRY MEDICAL SUPPLIES

CHRIST COMMUNITY UMC has a plethora of medical equipment and supplies to loan to members, and people in our community, who are in need of these items. The list includes:

• crutches • canes (all types) • knee braces • walkers (with and without

seats) • raised toilet seats • bedpans • wheelchairs • footbaths • towels • Depends (adult diapers) • latex gloves • shower chairs • plastic sitting pillows.

There is a note book to sign the item out, date taken & your name. Contact Lois Cole or Frank Walter, if you have questions.



Now that I have your attention—you should know that God has a plan for you and for Christ Community UMC and He will provide the resources

necessary to carry out that plan if we are faithful to Him and His purpose, regardless of what happens on Wall Street. As I embark on my mission as Finance Committee Chairperson, everything I do will—or should if I am faithful—revolve around that theme.

For those who do not know me, my name is Ken Prell. I have been attending Christ Community since 2001 together with my wife Linda and daughter Rachel. We also have a recently (June) married daughter, Sandra, who lives and teaches music in Cincinnati.

I agreed to accept the Finance Committee Chair because after much prayer I believe that God desires the use of my talents to serve His Church in this capacity. It took me a while to realize this, but I needed to be sure that my motivation and my calling were to serve Him and not merely to fill a position because I was asked, or to serve the church or the congregation. However, through faithful service to God these all occur —the position is filled and the church and the congregation are served. The fact that this position had remained unfilled while I prayed and pondered at glacial speed was not lost on me either.

My educational background is in math and business and my occupation is a Corporate Retirement Plan Consultant. For many years I have worked along side accountants, actuaries, bankers, investment managers, stock brokers and the like. I am by no means a financial genius but I do consider myself relatively financially astute, and if I don’t know something I will first admit it and then try to find the answer through personal research or asking a colleague with that particular

Life Beyond the Stock Market Ken Prell, Finance Team Chair

expertise. My charge, as I understand it from

the Book of Discipline, is to bring leadership and oversight to the financial functions of Christ Community as carried out by the Finance Committee, which reports to and acts under the direction of the Church Council. My focus will be on stewardship, fundraising, budgeting, financial controls, and fiscal responsibility. I expect this all to be very challenging—but God didn’t promise easy. This position that He has placed me in requires that I challenge the congregation to be good stewards of the resources He has provided you, and to support His Church faithfully. It also requires that I challenge the Christ Community leadership to be fiscally responsible stewards of the resources that you have provided to us to carry out God’s mission for Christ Community—to put your resources to work effectively and efficiently.

In a paraphrase from the parable of the talents in Matthew 25: those who are responsible with their resources shall be given more and those who are not responsible shall have their resources taken away. “God will provide” does not mean “spend freely” and sometimes we (both the leaders of our households and the leaders of our church) need to realize that maybe God has already provided and maybe we weren’t responsible and faithful with what He gave us so we aren’t getting any more for a while until we can manage what we have—now there’s a sermon and Economics 101 course rolled into one. My goal is not to be the “Finance Nazi” and go around saying to different groups “no money for you!” but rather to approach the Finance function from the perspective of wants—God’s, not ours, and needs—the needs of His people. When our missions and ministries in His name succeed, we are

worshipping God and giving Him the glory. Therefore, if we are faithful to His wants in fulfilling the needs of His people, God will provide the resources—the people, money, time, and whatever else is necessary —however, we must be responsible stewards of those resources if we expect them to continue.

In my opening statement I mentioned “resources” which people equate with money. However, the most important resources available to Christ Community, those which we already have in abundance, are our people. You are the most important resources that God has provided to carry out His plan for Christ Community. You have been invested by Jesus to generate a rate of return for the kingdom of God— how glorious a thought is that? Please continue to be a valuable resource for Christ and His people on earth and please pray for me as I acclimate myself to this new position, but most importantly, pray for discernment for the best use of your individual talents and resources in serving God and our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. It is exciting to be part of God’s plan! Thank you, amen.

... do more than belong... Participate. ... do more than care... Help. ... do more than believe... Practice. ... do more than be fair... Be kind. ... do more than forgive... Forget. .. do more than dream... Work. ... do more than teach... Inspire. ... do more than live... Grow. ... do more than be friendly... Be a friend... do more than give... Serve.

Pastoral Care by Pastor George Craik led by Jim Karins. Try it; you’ll love it.

T h e f a s t - a p p r o a c h i n g Christmas date reminds me of the age old question about the season that still remains a mystery: does Santa Claus sleep with his whiskers over or under the sheets.

Meantime before we get to the memorable event of our Lord laying aside his glory to come among us as a little baby do have a joyful Thanksgiving with family and friends.

Love, as always and always in Christ.

of saints within our church family who had gone on to their reward was touching and the pictorial display of them and many adjunct folks was a glorious remembrance.

Now it’s back to the grindstone. Actually, things have been pretty quiet of late but I keep in touch with our shut-ins whether in homes or at home. Mainly I am continuing to drag Linda Prell around with me in my pastoral activities which has been my main focus of late.

My Bible study class ( the letters and travels of the apostle Paul c o n t i n u e s e a c h Wednesday evening a t 7 : 0 0 o’clock. Currently we are looking at 1 Thessalonians if you would like to join us. An added bonus happens beforehand when we participate in an hour of worship

Hi folks. Want you to know I’ve n e v e r b e e n better. Some of you heard I had collapsed while serving beans at

o u r C h i c k e n B a r b e q u e supper. Actually, I just got tired of serving so I laid down on the floor. Beans usually affect me but not the way they did on that fateful evening. It was the first time in my life that I had spent an overnight in a hospital and that was more difficult to survive than bean-serving but I want to thank all of you who prayed, sent cards and e-mailed me to let me know of their concern.

So here I am, right as rain, and back in the harness again. Happily, during B.J.’s absence I was not called upon for any pastoral emergencies (God is good) but I did have the privilege of conducting the morning worship services on All Saints Sunday. The reminder


Entering the Crazy Season continued from page 1 Celebrate the sparkle, revel in the differences, and be playful and creative. Let your inner child out to play! • Choose to focus on relationships. Instead of form letters, make a phone call. Instead of formal greetings, meet a friend for coffee. Instead of material things give the gift of time, of fellowship, of relationships. • Choose worship. I could expound on the reason for the season and all that other trivial and common expressions that are popular this time of year but the truth is the celebration of Jesus birth is all intermixed with all the gift giving, party making, and overindulging that make up the holidays. What matters is what will I choose? Will I make it all about the material, the funny foods, and the external trappings of the season? Or, will I make it all about remembering that the savior of the world has arrived, born in Bethlehem to a young mother named Mary. Adeste Fideles (O Come all ye Faithful) has my favorite refrain of all the Christmas songs. It puts it best: Venite adoremus, Venite Adoremus, Venite Adoremus, dominum—O Come let us adore him, O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord. I Love you all, BJ

CloseUP November 2008

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