Upcoming Sundays

Worship on Sunday morning will be a kickoff for our REACH and RENEW capital campaign. Our preaching text focuses on Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount: You are the light of the world…. Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to God in heaven. The anthem is a prayer that God will use our lives in faithful service. Communion will also be served, and the Deacons will be serving home Communion to shut-in members in the afternoon.

We will also participate in a REACH and RENEW luncheon in the dining room downstairs on Sunday morning. We will have pasta bar choices for lunch: stuffed manicotti, noodles with marinara sauce, or noodles with alfredo sauce. Annette Ellstrom, our campaign coordinator, will share some thoughts with us about giving to the campaign; and there will be videotaped presentations from other church members about why they are giving to the campaign. This is a day not to be missed.

Sunday, October 9 – Open and Affirming Sunday and Second Church Tour

It has been our church’s tradition that the second Sunday in October is the day we celebrate our decision 19 years ago to be an Open and Affirming church. In the sermon that day, I will talk about my own, personal journey toward an open and affirming, fully accepting position toward gay and lesbian people, and how much I still have to learn. (I will not, however, begin as my predecessor at a small, rural Iowa church began a sermon there many years ago: Sex, sex, sex, that’s all anybody talks about these days. An elderly woman in the congregation fainted and worship was disrupted and never got back on track. It was one of his last Sundays at that church.)

Immediately following worship this morning, Don DeBruin will give us a tour of the main musical instruments of the church – the organ and the piano. We will have time to ask any questions we want about them, and we will leave much better informed about those wonderful pieces. We will also learn where they need to be repaired.

Sunday, October 16 – Church Tour III before Worship

On this day, members of the Effective Space Utilization committee will lead a tour of areas of the church which we are hoping to renovate if we reach our challenge goal in the REACH and RENEW campaign. We will meet in the Sanctuary before worship, at 9am. Also, the Outreach Board will sponsor Bread for the World letter-writing before and after worship that day. And people participating in the Madison-area CROP Walk will begin gathering in our sanctuary almost as soon as we all leave the building.

Sunday, October 23 – Dedication of Prayer Shawls in Worship

We will be dedicating Prayer Shawls during worship on October 23. If you have a completed shawl, please drop it off at the church for Eldonna.

Curt Anderson