Do you know what the differ-ence is between a chapel and a church? To put it most

simply, a church is a people, and a cha-pel is a place. You have a church when you have people committed to being together as a spiritual family under God and the oversight of a pastor and elders. That’s part of what it means to become a church member, to join that particular family. A chapel, on the other hand, is just a place. It is a place where private religious services are held for people who are passing through an area or temporarily resid-ing there, but who aren’t committed to each other as members of a cov-enant community. The chaplain min-isters to the people, but the people are not a church. That’s why you typically find chapels in institutions like hospi-tals, prisons, schools, and the military.

Even though our church was es-tablished way back in 1824, between 1909 and 1921 attendance fell so much that there really wasn’t much of a church left. The building was the same, but there were hardly any people. In 1921, there were only six church members, including one elder, a very old man named Crine Hook—and no pastor. In July of that year, the church basically stopped meeting

regularly and disbanded.Thankfully that wasn’t the end of

the Monsey Church story. For many years, since there wasn’t an orga-nized, committed, covenant com-munity meeting there any longer—no church—our building was called

simply the Monsey Chapel. Home missionaries (church planters) came to Monsey, the Rev. John Beebe beginning in 1925 and Dick L. Van Halsema beginning in 1948, to try to re-organize and re-establish our historic church. Toward the end of the 1940s a newsletter started to be printed and mailed, and it was called Chapel Chimes, after the sound of the bell in our belfry that would ring out every Sunday morning to call people in Monsey to come worship God.

After lots of time and hard work, much prayer and preaching, our church was re-established on Sep-tember 26, 1952—now 60 years ago.

Today, our building isn’t a chapel any longer but a meeting house for us together, the Monsey Church. Even though this is no longer a church planting effort or a chapel, I have decided to use the name of our old newsletter, Chapel Chimes, because

I want us to think of ourselves as a church that is always calling other people, new people, to join us and to come worship God. Isn’t that what we have been singing in our opening Psalm the last several weeks: “Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth”?

(It is because of church planters like Beebe and Van Halsema that you should give to support our other church planting efforts as part of Mission to North America’s Thanks-giving Offering that we will collect on November 4—see next page.)

—Phillip Dennis

“I want us to think of ourselves as a church that is always calling other people, new people, to join us and to come worship God.”

Pastor ’s Letter

ChimesChapel

The newsletter of New Hope Christian Church, 57 Main Street, Monsey, New York October 2012

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Sunday School BeginsOur fall Sunday School starts up again on October 7 at 10 a.m., meet-ing in the sanctuary. Child care will be provided. For the first 10 weeks, we will go through a video course called Getting to the Heart of Parenting by the well known Christian counselor Paul David Tripp. Each week’s lesson will be about 25 minutes of video fol-lowed by discussion. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have kids! Here’s why:

Many of the heart issues faced by 1. parents are the same heart issues you face in all your relationships.

If you plan to have kids one day, 2. this is a good step toward prepar-ing to be a godly parent. God will honor your efforts to prepare for this important role and work.

This will help you to counsel, 3. advise, and help parents and their children—whether you’re an aunt or an uncle, a grandparent, or a friend to someone with kids.

If you have older kids or adult 4. children and regret how you raised them, you can still have a good influence on them.

Remember that church members 5. promise to help the parents in the church to raise their children to know and love the Lord. We’re all parents (or aunts and uncles) in the church.

Special Year-end OfferingsAt the end of the year, we collect two special offerings that you should know about and plan for in advance on the first Sundays in November and December. In November the benevolence offering will be given as part of the Thanksgiving Offering for Mission to North America, the Presbyterian Church in America’s church planting ministry for the U.S. and Canada. It will be used for urban and mercy ministries:

MNA is concerned with expanding the witness of the PCA and a Reformed understanding of the gospel in all communities of our na-tion. To that end we seek to develop leadership from various minority populations. MNA is also concerned to bring the power of the gospel and the love of Christ through his church to those who are poor. We have an opportunity to plant churches in the inner cities of America, to identify minority leadership as we pursue that goal, and to give them opportunities to train and prepare for ministry. Your gifts help us to do both things at once; to help the poor and to train and develop leaders, some of whom in turn can make an impact in chal-lenged communities. Please help us as we pursue that goal. –Randy Nabors, MNA Urban and Mercy Ministries Coordinator

In December, our benevolence offering will be given as part of the PCA’s Ministerial Relief Christmas Offering. Often our retired pastors, missionar-ies, and, in some cases, their widows have incomes close to or below the Fed-eral Poverty Level. Many served under a low salary structure and were not able to participate adequately in a retirement plan. Your gift to the Ministe-rial Relief Christmas Offering will assist needy retired and disabled pastors, missionaries, church lay workers, their widows and dependent children. Pres-ently, over four hundred potential Relief recipients are being monitored. Ap-plications for assistance from the Ministerial Relief Fund are carefully and confidentially reviewed. Gifts from the Relief Fund are given on the basis of need for a specified time period.

Ella Van Tassel moved to Florida at the end of September, where she is living with her cousin Mae Denny and Mae’s husband, Steve. Her overall condition is still very poor but doesn’t seem to be worsening. Ella’s cell phone number is the same: (845) 746-7562. Her new address is 12106 Meadowbrook Lane, Bayonet Point, FL 34667. I’m sure she would be glad to get a phone call, card, or letter from you.

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Psalm 91From October 14 through November 4 our opening Trinity Psalter selection will be Psalm 91, which begins with these words:

Who with God Most High finds shelterin th’Almighty’s shadow hides.To the LORD I’ll say, “My Refuge!”In my God my trust abides.From the fowler’s snare He’ll save you,from the deadly pestilence;cover you with outspread pinions,make His wings your confidence(vv. 1-4)

The tune is Hyfrydol, which you may know better as the tune for “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” or “Je-sus, What a Friend for Sinners.” It’s a Welsh word that means “cheer-ful,” and the tune was composed by a 20-year-old Rowland Prichard in 1844. The Monsey Church was also 20 years old in 1844!

Prayer NeedsAs of October 3, Katie Hahn’s brother, Jacob, desperately needs the continued prayer of all of us for a health cri-sis. Jacob is in the hospital near home in Ewing, NJ for a neurological condition that the physicians cannot figure out. Please pray for healing for Jacob; insight and skill for the physicians and staff; peace of mind and trust in God for Katie and her parents, Mark and Cinderly.

Also, Mary Stein-Rosales is due to give birth to her and Pablo’s son Calvin any day. Please pray for each of them and the family as a whole.

If you have an urgent prayer request for yourself, a close family member or friend, please call Phillip to put it on the prayer chain for immediate prayer.

October Birthdays 1: Francis Amoako-Poku7: Amber Sweeton12: Ella Van Tassel15: Phillip Dennis18: Elijah19: Bruce Bakker23: Azalea30: Jane Armistead

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Work DaySaturday, October 20 at 9 a.m. is our fall work day. Our main projects will be to remove junk and clutter from the balcony, the kitchen, the supply closet next to the bathrooms, and the storage closet behind the library. We will also need someone to watch chil-dren to free up others to work. If you would like to volunteer to do that, please notify Blake on her cell phone at (917) 362-1050 or by e-mail at blake.dennis@yahoo.com.

• Upcoming Events •

Wednesday, October 31 is Reformation Day, the anniver-sary of Martin Luther’s nailing his 95 Th eses to the wooden doors of the castle church of Wittenberg in Germany. To celebrate God’s work through Luther, John Calvin, and other great leaders of the Reformation, to provide an alter-native to Halloween for parents who want it, and to remind ourselves and teach our children about our Reformation heritage, we are holding a Reformation Day Festival this year—and we hope every year to follow.

Th e Festival will be held at 7 p.m. and end around 8:30. Th e Pastor will give a short talk about the Reformation, and we will sing some Reformation hymns and Psalter settings. Th ere will be treats for kids and adults, as well as games and activities. Kids are encouraged to dress up as people from the Bible or church history, especially the time of the Refor-mation (1517-1648).

If you can lend a hand to organize and execute this year’s Reformation Day Festival, please call Michelle Delmar at (646) 765-2844.

Reformation Day Festival

“The Wonders of Creation” Piano ConcertTuesday, October 23, at 7:30 p.m. Free. Child care will be provided. Hun-garian concert pianists Zsolt Farkas and Andrea Varnagy (husband and wife) will give a four-hand piano concert on the Wonders of Creation, ac-companied by a slide show and nar-rative readings from Genesis 1. Th e one-hour concert will include selec-tions from Beethoven, Saint-Saens, Grieg, Debussy, Liszt, Dvorak, and Ravel. Th e concert is free and open to the public, so invite your friends and family. It will be underwritten by donations collected from a free-will off ering aft er the concert.

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