UCC Daily Devotional and Christ Church New Members.

I subscribe to the UCC Daily Devotional.  Today's Devotion reminded me of Sunday when we welcomed new members and "hired" Rev Caroline Dean as the youth minister.  The devotion says that youth will remember the church that they went to when young even when they stray from the church, possibly in the college years.  They will come back home when they settle down.I remember the youth group in the congregational church that I went to as a teenager.  It was run by a man who was a church member He would pile all of us in his station wagon after the meeting to go to the "ice cream parlor". The ice cream palor was owned by a member of the church. This was "homemade" ice cream and oh so good.  This was before the days of seat belts so we would all be sitting in the back of the wagon on top of each other.  It was fun.
.Jeannette.____________________________________________________

October 22, 2010

Coming Back to Church as a Grown Up

Excerpt from 2 Timothy 3:10-15 

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed,
knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known

the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith

in Christ Jesus.” 

Reflection by

Lillian Daniel 

These days, very few people who join our church were raised in the UCC. Most

of them were raised in other forms of Christianity, and they may have some

negative feelings about the church of their childhood. And so they drifted from

church and sought to go it alone, without a faith community.  

But eventually, they hit something that is bigger than private, self-created

spirituality. Perhaps it is the death of a parent, the birth of a child, a

friend’s illness, a lonely patch in life, but suddenly they find themselves

remembering some of those childhood Bible lessons. They find themselves recalling

the blessings of the Christian faith, and they search for a church, but they do

so very tentatively, not knowing what they will find, and afraid of being

hurt.  

When they do find us, they have the same reaction that so many people do

when they discover the UCC. “This is the church I always wanted to find but

didn’t know existed.” But our church isn’t perfect any more than the churches

they left are all bad. And a miraculous thing happens to grown ups on a faith

journey. We come to appreciate moments from our past, like the Sunday school

teacher who taught us the “sacred writings” in our childhood.  

That is why when people join the church, we always say, “We give thanks for

every community that has ever been your spiritual home.”   

As the scripture tells us today, we realize that there is a connection

between who we were raised to be and who we are now. It might not be a straight

line, but you can connect the dots.  

Prayer 

Today I give thanks for the small and tender blessings of every place that

has ever been my spiritual home. Amen. 

<><><> <><><> 

<><><>    <><><>   <><><>   <><><>              About the Author     Lillian Daniel is the senior minister of the First Congregational Church,     UCC, Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Her new book, This     Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers,     co-authored with Martin B. Copenhaver, has just been published.

Why so many people applied for the Music Director Job

Today Penny spoke about the progress towards the hiring of a new music director and said that more than 50 applications had been received for the post!  Besides the fact that Christ Church is a very unusual place and has a very diverse and warm congregation there are other reasons why so many people applied which may not have to do with economics, but that may be one reason.
I remembered an article that I read last year in the Star Ledger about a new organist that was hired by Grace Church in Newark.  I  found the article again and here is the link to the article.  It is titled; Julliard-trained organist brings passion for pipes to Grace Church in Newark. http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/juilliard-trained_organist_bri.html
The article is about a young organist who was hired by Grace Church in Newark.  What is so special is that that the article says;"Classical musicians such as Arndt, who attained a master's degree in music from Juilliard and has performed in Cambridge, England, are hired less often by churches these days as houses of worship cater to Americans' growing tastes for popular "praise and worship" music at Christian services, said Martin Knoblauch of the Church Music Association of America. Plus, as churches struggle through the recession, full-time music directors are often considered a luxury"
Christ Church has a wonderful pipe organ, actually as our emeritis music director Wayne Bradford told me it is two organs!  The organ is actually too big for the church but that is OK.  We also have a traditional music program with a great choir and bell choir.  And as the article says churches are getting rid of their music programs and may not have a pipe organ.  I spoke to a woman who told me that her church disbanded the choir!  So we are lucky.
The article goes on to explain about the mechanics of the organ an why it needs an advocate.  The organ has to be played well and the our search committee is only presenting candidates to us that have that skill.  I hear most of the candidates are experienced organists.  The article says that many people are no longer studying the organ which is why the American Guild of Organists has a program to introduce the organ to young people.
So Christ Church will hire an excellent new music director if the two that have already auditioned are any indication.  Both persons that we met were excellent and my intitial idea was to hire them both!
Jeannette

Oprah Winfrey Mayor Booker Gov Christe and Education?

I have been following the news about public education and the movie "Waiting for Superman".  The United Church of Christ has a minister, Jan Resseger  whose full time job is to support public education.  I am going to attach a copy of the e-mail which she just sent me about what people are saying about this. 
I am glad that people are talking about public education and I suggest that Christ Church have a group who will go see the movie "Waiting for Superman" as a group or individually and then meet to discuss it.  One member of Christ Church has already seen the movie in a private showing at NJPAC and she is in favor of the discussion.  I know that some people get through the system inspite of poor schools but I worry about our "throw away chilren" who drop out and who could have become doctors, or scientists or teachers or lawyers or financial experts.
Here is what Jan says:

I send links to two blog posts this morning.  Both are thoughtful
reflections after the hoopla in the media this past week on the opening of the
film, “Waiting for Superman,” and the special coverage on NBC, “Education
Nation.” 

Both writers are well respected and extremely thoughtful generally, but their
comments yesterday explore two subjects that have been skimmed over with
virtually no attention that I can see this past week. 

The first is from Valerie Strauss, “Answer Sheet” blog in the Washington Post: “The
Poverty Gap: There Are Always Exceptions, But They Make Bad Policy.”  http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/school-turnaroundsreform/obama-and-the-elephant-part-2.html#more
  What does it mean for public schools that in Washington, DC,
“Among black children… childhood poverty shot up to
43 percent, from 36 percent in 2008 and 31 percent in 2007”?  Most
particularly what do such statistics mean for schools?  Of course all
children can learn, but how can we realistically consider the impact of
children’s lives outside school on their academic achievement and address those
children’s needs---to ensure the children can learn?

The second is from Anthony Cody’s very thoughtful Education Week blog,
“Living in Dialogue.”  Yesterday’s post is entitled: “Teachers: Must We Be
Saints or Sinners?”  http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2010/10/teachers_must_we_be_saints_or.html
.  Cody is a public school teacher.  In this blog he reflects on what
society expects of school teachers and wrestles with how such expectations can
be met and at what cost.

These  columns explore deep and important issues the media has ignored.  I hope
you will read and think about them.

In peace

-Jan

Ms. Jan Resseger

Minister for Public Education and Witness
Justice and Witness Ministries

700 Prospect, Cleveland, Ohio44115

216-736-3711
http://www.ucc.org/justice/public-education

"That all citizens will be given an equal start
through a sound education is one of the most basic, promised rights of our
democracy.  Our chronic refusal as a nation to guarantee that right for
all children.... is rooted in a kind of moral blindness, or at least a failure
of moral imagination....  It is a failure which threatens our future as a
nation of citizens called to a common purpose... tied to one another by a
common bond."   —Senator Paul Wellstone, March 31, 2000 Jeannette Brown