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Summer |
A Quest for Engagement with the World
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A couple of months ago I was given the wonderful privilege of attending the Emmaus Project – an opportunity for a select group of Presbyterians from all across the country to come together to seek God and a future for the church with “open eyes and burning hearts.” (See Luke 24:13-35) The Presbyterian Church invited three key leaders, called “companions,” for the journey. They were Bill Easum, a noted church consultant, Diana Butler Bass, a church historian who has focused in recent years on emerging growth trends in mainline churches and Don Posterski a Canadian Christian researcher who specializes in social trends. It was an amazing time. I came away, I feel, with a much better understanding of the challenges facing the church today and how we can respond to them. One point that particularly stood out for me was the thought that what most people are looking for today is to experience the presence of Jesus. They are not particularly interested in having things explained to them or having truths communicated to them. They want to experience the truth for themselves. This is obviously making me rethink my own approach to preaching. Another point that came out was the idea that the church needs to focus more on talking and ministering to people outside of it doors. This pushed me even harder about how I prepare my sermons. I preach – and am obviously supposed to preach – to my congregation and need to address its concerns.
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A Few Riddles
Q. What kind of man was Boaz before he married?
Q. Which Bible character had no parents?
Q. Who was the greatest financier in the Bible?
A. Ruthless.
A. Joshua, son of Nun.
A. Noah. He was floating his stock while everyone else was in liquidation.
Welcome to the Knoscars
We are in our fabulous fourth year of the Knox Players. This year has been marked by some fantastic performance by our talented actors and actresses as well as some great writing and directing efforts by Becky Lashmar. We felt that all of this talent needed to be recognized and celebrated and so we have created the Presbyterian Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science. This Academy will give out special awards that are nicknamed the Knoscars. (They got this nickname because they resemble a famous statue of John Knox that is found in Scotland.) The Knoscars will be given out this year at a gala celebration on Sunday, June 13, 2010 at 11 am in Knox Hall.
A special Knoscar edition of the Knox Players Season 4 commemorative DVD is also now available. This contains all the episodes of the 2009-10 season including the very special three part Christmas episode, Goodnight Clara, written and directed by Becky. A few extras like bloopers and out takes will also be included. You can order your DVD by emailing scottmcandless@sympatico.ca, calling the office or signing up on the sheet at the church. There is no cost for the DVD, but donations to cover the cost of production are certainly welcome.
Summer Guest Preachers
The minister will be away for a few weeks of vacation this summer. We are very pleased to have some really excellent guest preachers lined up.
Andy Brndjar will be with us on July 18 and 25. He is a retired Pentecostal minister but over the years since he has retired he has helped many churches of different denominations through interims and seasons of change. Andy helped out quite often during a rather long interim prior to the arrival of our present minister and has always kept a soft spot for the people of Knox. He is always eager to return and reconnect with old friends in this congregation.
Marlene Morris will be with us on August 15. She is an administrator at Ridgetown College, the agricultural college of the University of Guelph. She is also a mother of young children. Despite being a very busy young woman, Marlene has developed her skills as a lay preacher who is well respected. We have tried for several years to get her out to speak to us at Knox, but the timing has never worked out. We are very pleased to have her this year.
Ted Nelson will join us on August 22. He is a retired Presbyterian preacher from Amherstburg. Ted has been with us several times since his retirement. His wit and wisdom has always been very well received and appreciated and we are very glad that his schedule permitted him to come again.
Book Report
The session has just finished reading and discussing a book together. The book is called “Who Stole my Church” and it was written by Gordon MacDonald. It tells the story of a fictional group of people in a fictional church in New England and the pastor that helps them to deal with changes they are struggling with in the life of their church.
The book has been a very helpful way to get the session to talk about the kinds of changes that might be facing the church in the future. The format of the book – a story of a fictional community whose members have problems with which you can identify – raised issues in a non-threatening way and it offered many openings to positive discussion. The elders all seemed to grow through the experience.
We would certainly encourage others in the congregation to read this book. All of our elders have copies that they have finished reading and perhaps one of them would be willing to pass his/her copy on to you!
Another Parable of a Vineyard
At the Emmaus Project, one of the companions, Bill Easum, told a parable from his book, Dancing with Dinosaurs. He thought it illustrated the dilemma faced by the church today. What do you think?
There once was a woman who owned the finest winery in all the land. Everything about the winery was superb. The fertile land yielded some of the finest grapes to be found. The large wooden vats that nurtured the crushed grapes until maturity produced the world’s most exquisite wine. For more than two centuries people came from all over the world to visit the winery and drink the famous wine.
One day the wine developed a bitter taste. No one could explain why. Nothing had changed. The wine was still made exactly as it had been made the last two centuries. Winery visitors and customers began to decline. In desperation, the woman hired consultants from all over the world to discover the reason for the wine’s sudden bitter taste. After days of study, each expert arrived at the same diagnosis – the vats had outlived their usefulness. They were old and sour with no way of being cleaned and restored. The consultants concluded that the woman’s only option was to replace the old vats.
She was outraged. The beautiful vats had been in her family longer than she had. To the woman, family traditions were more important than the decline of her winery. She made desperate attempts to improve her wine. She tried different fertilizers, changed the acidity of the ground, designed new labels on the bottles, and even hired a new overseer of the grapes. But she continued to put the wine into the old wooden vats. And the finest grapes in the world continued to produce bitter wine. The number of the winery’s visitors and customers continued to diminish until the day arrived when no one came to taste or buy the wine. The only remaining customers were the faithful members of the family for whom family traditions were more important than making satisfying wine.
Jesus said, “Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” (Mt 9:17)
Events to Put on Your Calendar
Summer is a wonderful time at Knox because we have the opportunity to experience many musical guests as well as some guest preachers.
We haven’t worked out the full summer schedule yet, but here are some things that you can look forward to over the coming months:
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Date
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Time
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Event
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| Sun. June 13, 2010 | 11:00 am | The Knoscars followed by a congregational picnic |
| Sun. June 20, 2010 | 11:00 am | Musical guest: Dale Butler |
| Sun. June 27, 2010 | 11:00 am | Musical guests: Trina Hoekstra, Dale Butler, Harlan Nash, Steve McDowell |
| Sun. July 11, 2010 | 11:00 am | Musical guest: Lisa Willms |
| Sun. July 18, 2010 | 11:00 am | Preacher: Andy Brndjar, Musical guest: John Vezina |
| Sun. July 25, 2010 | 11:00 am | Preacher: Andy Brndjar, Musical guests: Marvin & Gail Mogdan |
| Thur. Aug1, 2010 | 11:00 am | Musical guest: Blanche Rabideau |
| Fri. Aug 8, 2010 | 11:00 am | Communion and Sunday lunch |
| Sun. Aug 15, 2010 | 11:00 am | Preacher: Marlene Morris, Musical guests: Trina Hoekstra and Steve McDowell |
| Sun. Aug 22, 2010 | 11:00 am | Preacher: Ted Nelson, Musical guests: Blanche Rabideau and John Cats |
| Sun. Aug. 29, 2010 | 11:00 am | Musical guests: Blanche Rabideau, Dana Romualdi & Dale Butler |
| Sun. Sept 12, 2010 | 11:00 am | Sunday Lunch. Musical guests: Gloria White & Harlan Nash |
Acts 2:38
An elderly woman had just returned to her home from an evening
religious service when she was startled by an intruder.
As she caught the man in the act of robbing her home of its valuables, she yelled,
“Stop – Acts 2:38!” (Which reads: “Turn from your sin”).
The burglar stopped dead in his tracks. The woman calmly called the police and
explained what she had done.
As the officer cuffed the man to take him in, he asked the burglar, “Why did
you just stand there? All she did was yell a scripture to you.”
“Scripture?” replied the burglar, “She said she had an axe and two 38’s!”
A Summer
Word Find Puzzle AIRCONDITIONED
BRNDJAR
CHURCH
COMMUNION
FELLOWSHIP
FRIENDLY
KNOSCARS
KNOX
KNOXKNOTES
LEAMINGTON
MARLENE
MORRIS
MUSICIANS
NELSON
PICNIC
PLAYERS
PRAISING
PRAYING
PREACHERS
PRESBYTERIAN
REFLECTION
SANDWICHES
SERMONS
SHARING
SINGING
VACATION
VISITORS
WELCOME
WORSHIP
YOUTUBE