Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
1
Church Chat —"Graduations”--John Swisher, Part-Time Pastor, Presbyterian Disciples Church
Graduations are on everyone's minds this spring again. I have a “young'un” walking across the stage at
NWMSU in Maryville. But I wanted to talk about graduations in general.
In the video sent to all the prison employees, by our Department of Corrections Director Lombardi, he talked
about the 3000th Dog “Graduation” in the Puppies for Parole program, and how helpful that’s been to dog and offenders. Well, I noticed one of the dogs walked across the stage at their graduation in a mortarboard hat, the
traditional graduation hat with the flat top and the tassel hanging down. We don't know how the dog felt about
it, probably just excited to be the center of attention, but I saw a couple of inmates laughing. More and more it seems, the graduation exercise has become universalized, with high school graduations as important as that of
college, graduations of middle school, elementary school, and even pre-school student common-place.
Well, why not, we're proud of our children and of how smart, clever, and just in general, how excellent they are, right?
Garrison Keillor has a fantasy community in Northern Minnesota, “Lake Woe-Be-Gone”, he talks about each week on his “Prairie Home Companion” Radio Show on public radio. In this fictional community, “All the men
are good-looking, all the women are strong, and all the children are above average”.
Well, would it surprise you to know the “mortarboard” cap is given that name because it looks like the board
used by the bricklayers? And just like the mortar which has to be spread upon the gaps in between the stones,
the honors of academia are given again and again, before they are acknowledged by those who made the
achievements, much less by the society in general. We always seem to act like those who have good ideas, intel-ligent notions, and otherwise just plain wise practices, are somehow lacking in social graces, or just plain “un-
cool”, and certainly why would we want to change?
But this spring, why not think about how some otherwise insignificant scientific or technological or cultural
change has affected our lives, for example the blood transfusion, the interstate highway, or racially integrated
public services. We haven't seen many of these changes gradually, we have seen them as “graduates”, walking
right across the stage to a new life, and now we experience them every day. What a life and what a life change. What do you think?
Chapel Chuckle: An old Nun who was living in a convent next to a construction site, and noticed the coarse lan-guage of the workers and decided to spend some time with them to correct their ways. And so she decided she
would take her lunch and sit with the workers. She put her sandwich in a brown bag and walked to the spot
where the men were eating. Sporting a big smile, she walked up to the group and asked: “And do you men know Jesus Christ?” They shook their heads and looked at each other very confused. One of the workers looked up
into the steelworks and yelled out, “Anybody up there know Jesus Christ?” One of the steelworkers yelled down:
“Why?”
The worker yelled back, “Cause his Mom's here with his lunch.”
Newsletter Presbyterian Disciples Church
May 2015
John Swisher 1064 Redman, Marshall, Missouri
660-202-3318 [email protected]
2
Board will meet again on Sunday, May 17th following worship.
Lectionary Readings for May 03 — Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 22:25-31; 1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8
10 – Acts 10:44-48; Psalm 98; 1 John 5:1-6; John 15:9-17
17 – Acts 1:15-17, 21-26; Psalm 1; 1 John 5:9-13; John 17:6-19
24 — Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:24-34; Romans 8:22-27; John 15:26-27, 16:4-15 31 — Isaiah 6:1-8; Psalm 29; Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-17
It is time to start thinking about Community Vacation Bible School. We are the host
church this year and will need all hands on
deck to get the church ready for the active
and busy halls that come with VBS. VBS is planned for Sunday, July 19th to Thursday,
July 23rd. The theme this year is Everest.
The next planning meeting will be Tuesday, May 5th at 6:00pm. Contact Candy Myers
with any questions at 660-232-0303 or
Upcoming Community Events
Dinner & Dance
05-02-2015
Location: Lexington Moose Lodge
Dinner 5:30 Dance 7-11pm
Annual Tourism Dinner
05-07-2015
Location: Victorian Peddler
VFW Breakfast
05-16-2015
Location: Lexington VFW
Live! in Lexington - "Savannah Jack"
05-12-2016
Location: Wentworth Military Academy 7:30 PM
Dinner & Dance
06-06-2015
Location: Lexington Moose Lodge
Dinner 5:30 Dance 7-11pm
City Wide Garage Sale
06-06-2015
Location: Lexington
Relay for Life
06-12-2015
Location: Higginville
In the park - 5:00pm to Midnight
Summer Block Party
06-19-2015
Location: Downtown Lexington
Late Night Pool Party
06-19-2015
Location: Lexington Pool
VFW Breakfast
06-20-2015 Location: Lexington VFW
Father's Day 06-21-2015
It ‘s that time of year again to start planning for Church Camp. The available camps can be
found online at www.heartlandcenter.org.
Please see the office if you are wanting to go
to camp this year or want information about volunteering.
Lexington High School will have their Baccalaureate on Wednesday, May 13th at 7pm at LHS. Gradua-
tion Ceremony will be held on Sunday, May 17th at
3pm in the High School Gymnasium.
Discovery Room Preschool’s Last day of classes will be Thursday,
May 14th and the Graduation Cer-
emony will be held Tuesday, May
19th at 7pm in the sanctuary with a cupcake reception following in the
Fellowship Hall.
Wentworth Mili-tary Academy will
celebrate their
Graduation Cere-
mony beginning at 9am on Saturday,
May 16th.
Graduation Breakfast will be held on Sunday, May 10th at 9:30am. Please bring a breakfast dish to share
with your church family and friends and celebrate with
our graduates.
Ian Swisher-Northwest Missouri State University Brittany Maze-Wentworth Junior College
Brock Maze-Lexington High School
Dustin Shaner-Lexington High School Skyler Wrisinger-Lexington High School
Pat Redden-Odessa 8th Grade
Camden Goodloe-Discovery Room Preschool Anthony Hager-Discovery Room Preschool
Ainsley Hamacher-Early Childhood Center
Brody Neece-Early Childhood Center
Please pray for safety for Lexington High
School students on Saturday, May 2nd as
they have their annual prom.
Lexington School District will not
have classes on Monday, May 4th for a
Teacher Inservice Day.
Board will meet after
worship on Sunday,
May 17th.
3
Lexington United Methodist Church is pleased to offer a preventive health event. Life Line
Screen-ing, a leading provider of community-
based preven-tive health screenings, will host
their affordable, non -invasive and painless health screenings on 6/8/2015. Five screenings
will be offered that scan for potential health
problems related to: blocked arteries which is a leading cause of stroke; abdominal aortic aneu-
rysms which can lead to a ruptured aorta; hard-
ening of the arteries in the legs which is a strong predictor of heart disease; atrial fibrilla-
tion or irregular heart beat which is closely tied
to stroke risk; and a bone density screening, for
men and women, used to assess the risk of os-teo-porosis. Register for a Wellness Package
which in-cludes 4 vascular tests and osteoporo-
sis screening from $149 ($139 with our mem-ber discount). All five screenings take 60-90
minutes to complete. In order to register for this
event and to receive a $10 discount off any package priced above $129, please call 1-888-
653-6441 or visit www.lifelinescreening.com/
community-partners.
MAY BIRTHDAYS 02 – Kyle Oetting
04 – Brady Jobe, Amanda Woodward
05 – Blake Dickmeyer, Brody Neece
10 – Wilma Sellers 15 – Bob Smith
16 – Kendra Redden, Miranda Braden, Virginia Roach, Jim Ahrens
19 – Taegan Morgan 20 - Joe Peterson
25- John Giorza
28 – Beryl Myatt 30—David Starke
31– Zade Myers
MAY ANNIVERSARIES 22-Sheri Jo and Clint Hager
Our Servicemen: Nathan Wrisinger, Bobby Maze,
Brittany Maze, Bo Maze, Derek
Morgan, Eric Morgan, MJ Myers,
Mark Brubeck, Aaron Bryant, Ryland Sims, Johnathan Lefholz,
Jimmy Register, Shily Peck
Ministerial Alliance Me-teting will be held, Tuesday
May 5th at 6:30pm at the
First Baptist Church.
To keep up to date on current events and to see what visitors are seeing when they check out our
town on the internet, go to the following websites:
www.lexingtonmo.com
www.historiclexington.com www.visitlexingtonmo.com
www.lafayettecountymo.com
Please Keep These Individuals in Your Prayers:
Mary Williams Alma Richter, Do-
ris Bradley, Anne Brubeck, Linda
& John Marchetti, Lois Wood, Rick Failing, Paul Williams, Bob
Smith, Chris & Stephanie Chris-
tenson, Ronnie Barker, Becky Clariday, Regina Purcell, Jan
Wrisinger, Phil Garrison
To keep connected with the Northwest Ar-ea Disciples of Christ, please contact Rev.
Bill Rose-Heim at [email protected] or
(816) 632-2237.
Please be in prayer for safe travel for Pastor John and his
son Ian as they travel to New
York the week of May 4th.
National Day of Prayer will be observed on Thursday, May 7th
at 12pm at the Margret Gray
Senior Citizens Center.
Lexington Ministerial Alliance Food Pantry is asking for volunteers to help with the
Commodities and Food Pantry programs.
They are asking each church in the commu-
nity to provide volunteers to help out for one month out of the year. Jan Wright is in
charge of the Food Pantry and Ann Coen is
in charge of the Commodities program. Please call Jan Wright at 259-9148 for ad-
ditional information. Thank you in ad-
vance for giving your time to provide this
special ministry to the people of Lexington.
Please Pray for The Families of Those
that Have Passed:
Vonnie Farlow, Claudine Trent, Lauar
Heggestead, Kim Hulver, Edith Tretter,
Bobby Johnson, Daniel Ingram, Gerald Gordon, Flo Frerking, Elsie Dorsch
4
Overcoming Temptation
Only he who flings himself upward when the pull
comes to drag him down can hope to break the
force of temptation. Temptation may be an invi-
tation to hell, but much more is it an opportunity to reach heaven. At the moment of temptation,
sin and righteousness are both very near the
Christian; but, of the two, the latter is the nearer.
—Charles H. Brent
Advice for Grads
The purpose of life is not
to be happy. It is to be use-
ful, to be honorable, to be
compassionate, to have it make some difference that
you have lived and lived
well.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
North Star People
In Scribbling in the Sand (InterVarsity Press), Christian
musician Michael Card notes that the north sky is relative-
ly dark at night. Polaris, or the North Star, is a great frame
of reference, but when most people see the North Star for the first time, they’re surprised it isn’t brighter.
Card recommends that we strive to become North Star
people, rather than attention-seeking stars that burn out
quickly.
“Seldom will people point their telescopes at us. And
when they do, they will no doubt respond, ‘Oh, I thought
she was brighter than that.’ But as North Star people, we
can serve a deeper purpose. When people need us, we can
be there for them, pointing [to] the Way. While the world
is spinning at a dizzying pace, we can remain grounded to the same spot, less dazzling but unmovable.
“After all, Jesus was a North Star person. There was noth-
ing in his appearance that seemed especially brilliant, ac-
cording to Isaiah. In his time there were far more dazzling
messianic stars who came and went with a flash. But Jesus
has always remained there, rooted to the same place in the
universe, unmovable. He constantly calls out to us to turn
around and behold the dazzling dimness of his light, as it
shines in this present world — to find our way to it, and
then to find our way by it.”
A Hymn for Pentecost
Eighteenth-century brothers John and Charles
Wesley, co-founders of the Methodist Church,
were prolific hymn writers. At one point, they
made a concerted effort to increase the number of Pentecost-related hymns available to worshipers.
Use Charles Wesley’s hymn “O Thou Who Cam-
est From Above” as a prayer that the Holy Spirit
will burn brightly in your heart and life today:
O Thou who camest from above,
the pure celestial fire to impart,
kindle a flame of sacred love
upon the mean altar of my heart.
There let it for thy glory burn with inextinguishable blaze,
and trembling to its source return
in humble prayer and fervent praise.
Jesus, confirm my heart’s desire
to work and speak and think for Thee;
still let me guard the holy fire,
and still stir up thy gift in me.
Sweetest Sounds
The sweetest sounds
to mortals given
are heard in Mother,
Home and Heaven.
—William Goldsmith Brown
+Christian Symbol+
Vine
A vine symbolizes Christ, the foundation of
life and nourishment of all people, who, in
turn, are like branches. When separate from the vine, we branches can't survive — at
least not spiritually. "Apart from me," says
Jesus, "you can do nothing" (John 15:5,
NIV). But as God the gardener tends this
relationship, we branches grow stronger and
more mature in Jesus and alongside one
another.
Removing the Dread
Kara Tippetts, a 38-year-old mother of four, inspired
readers while facing the “hard.” In The Hardest Peace
(David C. Cook), she described her family’s 2012 move
to Colorado Springs to plant a church — only to have a fire destroy 346 homes in their new neighborhood 10
days later. Soon afterward, she was diagnosed with
breast cancer, which spread throughout her body.
While discussing these trials with her oldest daughter,
Tippetts read Proverbs 1:33 — “Those who listen to me
will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of dis-
aster” (NRSV).
Tippetts wrote, “It does not say [God] removes the disas-
ter. But the dread of disaster. … The dread and fear are
what so often steal our peace and leave us on the edges of our moments exhausted. We meet the scary of life and
forget to turn to God and listen and know his peace. …
Dread exposes my fear and weak faith and failure to trust
where my eternal security rests.”
Together, Tippetts and her daughter prayed “to live pre-
sent in the gifts and callings of today without dread of
tomorrow.”
Come, Holy Spirit
As the blood of Christ is the fountain of all merit, so the Holy
Spirit is the fountain of all spiritual life; and until he quickens
us, imparts the principle of divine life to our souls, we can put
forth no vital act of faith to lay hold upon Jesus Christ. —John Flavel
5
At The Starting Gate “There’s a good reason they call these ceremonies
‘commencement exercises,’” Utah Senator Orrin
Hatch once said. “Graduation is not the end; it’s the
beginning.” The same is true of baptism. Both events are often approached as an end point reached
with relief: “Well, at least that’s done!” With the
degree — or salvation — in hand, some people feel no further need for education — or spiritual growth.
Just remember: You’re at the starting gate, not the finish line. Well-wishers encourage new grads,
“Don’t stop now; you’re on a roll. Even greater
things are ahead!” And Hebrews 12:1 (NRSV) urges
the baptized, “Run with perseverance the race that is set before [you].” While a diploma bears the seal of
the graduate’s school, Christians themselves are
sealed with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13; 4:30) and the cross of Christ. To take full advantage of
each, we must continue learning and growing.
“Memorial Day” Is it enough to think today
Of all our brave, then put away
The thought until a year has sped?
Is this full honor for our dead?
Is it enough to sing a song
And deck a grave; and all year long Forget the brave who died that we
Might keep our great land proud and free?
Full service needs a greater toll,
That we who live give heart and soul
To keep the land they died to save,
And be ourselves, in turn, the brave!
—Annette Wynne
Word + Spirit We must not be content to have the Spirit without the Word or
the Word without the Spirit. Our lives must travel along these
two, as the locomotive travels along parallel rails. It is only by
our devout contact with the Bible that we shall be able to detect the Holy Spirit’s voice. It is by the Word that the Spirit will
enter our hearts, as the heat of the sun passes into our homes
when its beams of light enter the open windows. —F.B. Meyer
Glimpsing God? A December 2014 New York Times article pro-
filed Alberto Cairo, an Italian man who for 25
years has run orthopedic centers in Afghanistan.
Woven throughout was the story of a chrysanthe-mum bouquet in Cairo’s office. He told the report-
er that his dearest friend, Sergio, had recently
died. “His birthday was a few days ago,” Cairo shared. Had he been in Italy, he would’ve placed
yellow mums, his friend’s favorite, at the grave.
Instead, that very day, an Afghan staff member had brought yellow flowers to Cairo, saying, “I
thought you might need these.”
Cairo said, “[He] had never come to my office before, knew nothing about Sergio, and … I have
never seen these flowers in Afghanistan before.”
He concluded, “I believe that when the dead are dead, they’re dead. But what am I supposed to
think about this?”
I’ll never know whether Cairo comes to believe in
life beyond death, but coincidence is said to be
God remaining anonymous. Maybe he’s at work
— through yellow mums.
—Heidi Mann
A Prayer For Mom
A young boy had been misbehaving, so
his mother sent him to his room. Some-
time later, he came out and told his mom
he’d prayed about the matter. “That’s good,” she replied. “If you ask God for
help to not misbehave, he’ll help you.”
“Oh, I didn’t pray for help behaving,”
said the boy. “I prayed for God to help
you put up with me.”
Walking In Faith
In What Are You Afraid Of? Facing Down
Your Fears With Faith (Tyndale House), David
Jeremiah describes Englishman John Pounds
(1755-1839) as an example of facing debilita-tion with faith. While working at the docks as a
teen, Pounds fell from a ship’s mast. Recovery
took two years. Out of boredom while bedrid-
den, he began reading the Bible and soon ac-
cepted Christ.
Once well enough, Pounds worked for a cob-
bler and later bought his own shop, making
orthopedic shoes for disabled children. His own
body had healed crookedly, resulting in con-
stant pain, so he could identify with the people
he served. Pounds also fed homeless children, taught them to read and told them about Jesus.
“What might John Pounds have become had he
not been severely injured?” Jeremiah asks. Our
struggles often enable us to empathize with and
help people we wouldn’t have met otherwise.
Through our weakness, God can minister to
others (2 Corinthians 12:9).
6
Bible Quiz According to Acts 2, on Pentecost some people accused
the disciples of being drunk. Why?
A. Because they were still asleep at 9 in the morning.
B. Because all the wine was gone. C. Because they were all speaking in foreign languages.
D. All of the above.
Answer: See Acts 2:4, 13
7
MAY 2015 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1
9-11 Food Pantry
10-2 Baby GraceUMC
Friendship Day
2
10am Al-Anon UMC
3 4 5
6pm VBS Mtg
7pm Ministerial
Alliance Mtg-First
Baptist Church
6
7pm Choir Rehearsal
7
National Day of
Prayer
8
9-11 Food Pantry
9
10am Al-Anon UMC
10
9:30am Graduation
Breakfast
10am Choir Practice
Mother’s Day
11 12 13
7pm LHS Baccalaureate
14
Discovery Room
Preschool Last Day
Ascension of the
Lord
15
10-2 Baby Grace Pick
Up UMC
1-3 Food Pantry
16
9am WMA Com-
mencement
10am Al-Anon UMC
17
12pm Board Mtg
3pm LHS Graduation
18 19
Lexington Last Day
of School
7pm Discovery
Room Preschool
Graduation
20
8:30-11:30 60+
Commodities
21 22
9-11 Food Pantry
23
10am Al-Anon UMC
24
Day of Pentecost
25
Memorial Day
26 27
9am FP Delivery
28
8:30-11;30 Commodities
29
9-11 Food Pantry
30
10am Al-Anon UMC
31
8
Worship Service 10:45am - 12:00pm
Childrens Church 11:00am-12:00pm
All Are Welcome
Minister- Rev. John Swisher Organist- Matthew Neil
Secretary- Candy Myers/Matthew Neil Treasurer-Janice Peterson/Candy Myers
Custodian- MJ Myers Children's Church-Volunteers
Presbyterian Disciples Church
914 Franklin Ave., PO Box 28
Lexington, MO 64067
660-259-2102
Rev. Jonh Swisher
