1 We are seeing the winds of change begin to blow. I pre- dict that what seems excit- ing at first will soon meet with ferocious resistance. This is the way of all sys- tems. All systems resist change. The church, and our church, is a large system that consists of many small- er and interconnecting sys- tems. People have them- selves invested in these systems. When these sys- tems large or small are threatened, people resist. This is neither right nor wrong, it simply is. That is the way we are. The prob- lem is, things that do not change and grow or systems that are not flexible enough to adapt quickly enough, like the dinosaurs, die out leaving their scattered fossil remains for the future to stare at. Right now the great Gothic cathedrals and the down town churches of America stand empty or nearly so. At the same time warehouses full of chanting, screaming, jumping, and, get this, quietly listening people, by the tens of thou- sands, gather every Sunday to Worship, God, not them- selves. These people changed, and are changed people. Once upon a time the Jews of ancient Israel only wor- shiped at the Temple in Jerusalem. They followed prescribed rules precisely. To do otherwise was to die. Then, as the world around them flexed and contorted into new social structures and they became a more scattered people, they be- gan to worship in local build- ings, gathering once a week. The early Christians moved out of these buildings called syna- gogues and began meeting in homes. This quickly morphed, over the next few hundred years, into the church services we hold onto today, well, not quite. We trace our worship heritage from the time of the Reformation, the early 1500's on. At first we sang the Psalms with no instruments, then we added piano and organ, those pagan and evil instruments that introduced all sorts of diabolical elements into the worship service. Next was or- chestras, few of us remember that era, then drums and that most evil of all instruments, the electric guitar, Satan's strings, burning with the fires of Hell. Each of these came with struggle and backlash and membership changes. I once attended a church that tried to overcome this. They had a Capella Psalm singing, a piano, an organ, a small or- chestra, and mics and drums and guitars. They did not have liturgical dance, yet. I think they were fighting about the color paint in the unused nursery though. Every change of musical style brought with it resistance. That's the way we are. Here's a truth for you, two truths actually, which depend on each other. Look around the church, at the communion table, at the pulpit, at the or- gan, at the pews, at the choir. Every single one of these at one time did not exist in the church. The pulpit was intro- duced as a tool from Roman and Greek orators. You will not Seeking God’s Vision for His Church Inside this issue: Thank you / PW / Dea- con’s 2 Joint Session Meeting/ Congregational Life 3 Seasons of Hope 4 Deacon Minutes 5 Session Minutes 6 Minutes from the Con- gregational Meeting 7 Santa’s Breakfast/ Faith in Action 8 Christmas Joy Offer- ing /Spaghetti Dinner 9 Spaghetti Dinner 10 December Calendar 11 Christmas Services 12 The Ranger DECEMBER 2012 THE RANGER Poke Run Presbyterian Church find "pulpit" in the Bible. We did not always do weddings and fu- nerals. Every one of the things you see in the church came in at one point or another as some- thing new, and of course, huge battles were fought over it. Any- thing now in place once upon a time threatened the entrenched systems of the current church; it was a heresy. Every new idea was at one time a terrible idea, and resisted. That 's the first truth. The second is like onto it. Every innovation will only last so long. At some point they become use- less, or boring or maybe even heretical, again. So it looks like we are stuck with both change and resistance to change. What about ways around this. If you had a perfect solution to the change/conflict dichotomy every corporation in America and the world would be offering you more money than you could spend or count. There is no perfect solu- tion. We are after all human and run on predictable patterns; pow- er and control issues are one of our deepest psychological struc- tures. Change will come and we will resist it. We can be on the side pushing for change. Or we can be on the side resisting change. We can fight each other. Or we can realize that conflict is inevitable and prepare for it somewhat graciously, not by com- promise but by Vision. A shared vision is the place to begin, not talking about the ne- cessity of change, which gets us nowhere, but by defining our vi- sion together. Once a vision is formed steps can then be taken towards it, but the vision must come first. We need a vision that we can speak in one sentence. What will be our vision, to- gether, to be the church Christ calls us to be, towards which God will lead us by His Spirit, and towards which we, as humans, will stumble and fumble? Blessings, Rev. Pete
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Transcript
1
We are seeing the winds of
change begin to blow. I pre-
dict that what seems excit-
ing at first will soon meet
with ferocious resistance.
This is the way of all sys-
tems. All systems resist
change. The church, and our
church, is a large system
that consists of many small-
er and interconnecting sys-
tems. People have them-
selves invested in these
systems. When these sys-
tems large or small are
threatened, people resist.
This is neither right nor
wrong, it simply is. That is
the way we are. The prob-
lem is, things that do not
change and grow or systems
that are not flexible enough
to adapt quickly enough,
like the dinosaurs, die out
leaving their scattered fossil
remains for the future to
stare at. Right now the great
Gothic cathedrals and the
down town churches of
America stand empty or
nearly so. At the same time
warehouses full of chanting,
screaming, jumping, and,
get this, quietly listening
people, by the tens of thou-
sands, gather every Sunday
to Worship, God, not them-
selves. These people
changed, and are changed
people.
Once upon a time the Jews
of ancient Israel only wor-
shiped at the Temple in
Jerusalem. They followed
prescribed rules precisely.
To do otherwise was to die.
Then, as the world around
them flexed and contorted
into new social structures
and they became a more
scattered people, they be-
gan to worship in local build-
ings, gathering once a week.
The early Christians moved out
of these buildings called syna-
gogues and began meeting in
homes. This quickly morphed,
over the next few hundred
years, into the church services
we hold onto today, well, not
quite. We trace our worship
heritage from the time of the
Reformation, the early 1500's
on. At first we sang the Psalms
with no instruments, then we
added piano and organ, those
pagan and evil instruments
that introduced all sorts of
diabolical elements into the
worship service. Next was or-
chestras, few of us remember
that era, then drums and that
most evil of all instruments,
the electric guitar, Satan's
strings, burning with the fires
of Hell. Each of these came
with struggle and backlash
and membership changes. I
once attended a church that
tried to overcome this. They
had a Capella Psalm singing, a
piano, an organ, a small or-
chestra, and mics and drums
and guitars. They did not have
liturgical dance, yet. I think
they were fighting about the
color paint in the unused
nursery though. Every change
of musical style brought with it
resistance. That's the way we
are.
Here's a truth for you, two
truths actually, which depend
on each other. Look around
the church, at the communion
table, at the pulpit, at the or-
gan, at the pews, at the choir.
Every single one of these at
one time did not exist in the
church. The pulpit was intro-
duced as a tool from Roman
and Greek orators. You will not
Seeking God’s Vision for His Church
Inside this issue:
Thank you / PW / Dea-
con’s
2
Joint Session Meeting/
Congregational Life
3
Seasons of Hope 4
Deacon Minutes 5
Session Minutes 6
Minutes from the Con-
gregational Meeting
7
Santa’s Breakfast/
Faith in Action
8
Christmas Joy Offer-
ing /Spaghetti Dinner 9
Spaghetti Dinner 10
December Calendar 11
Christmas Services 12
The Ranger
DECEMBER 2012
THE RANGER Poke Run Presbyterian Church
find "pulpit" in the Bible. We did
not always do weddings and fu-
nerals. Every one of the things
you see in the church came in at
one point or another as some-
thing new, and of course, huge
battles were fought over it. Any-
thing now in place once upon a
time threatened the entrenched
systems of the current church; it
was a heresy. Every new idea was
at one time a terrible idea, and
resisted. That 's the first truth.
The second is like onto it. Every
innovation will only last so long.
At some point they become use-
less, or boring or maybe even
heretical, again. So it looks like
we are stuck with both change
and resistance to change.
What about ways around this. If
you had a perfect solution to the
change/conflict dichotomy every
corporation in America and the
world would be offering you more
money than you could spend or
count. There is no perfect solu-
tion. We are after all human and
run on predictable patterns; pow-
er and control issues are one of
our deepest psychological struc-
tures. Change will come and we
will resist it. We can be on the
side pushing for change. Or we
can be on the side resisting
change. We can fight each other.
Or we can realize that conflict is
inevitable and prepare for it
somewhat graciously, not by com-
promise but by Vision.
A shared vision is the place to
begin, not talking about the ne-
cessity of change, which gets us
nowhere, but by defining our vi-
sion together. Once a vision is
formed steps can then be taken
towards it, but the vision must
come first. We need a vision that
we can speak in one sentence.
What will be our vision, to-
gether, to be the church
Christ calls us to be, towards
which God will lead us by His
Spirit, and towards which we,
as humans, will stumble and
fumble?
Blessings,
Rev. Pete
2
Thank you to our November Lectors: Don Lengau-
er, Eleanor Zerbini, Cliff Dupill and Debbie Seighman.
Thank you to our November Greeters: Dave and
Janet Thomas, Freda Bowman, Edyth Elwood, Ruth
O’Connor, Cindy Brooks, Bob and Margaret McBride
and Jack and Eleanor Zerbini.
PW
The PW Quarterly Meeting will be on Tuesday, December 4 at 7:00pm in Fellowship Hall. The hostess
and program will be Circle 2. All ladies are welcome.
Circle 4 will meet on Thursday, December 13 at 12:00pm. The hostess is Emma Dunmire.
Circle 2 will meet on Thursday, December 13 at 7:30pm. The hostess will be Amy Wilkinson
Giving Tree Be sure and stop by and take a tag from the tree and purchase a gift for a boy or girl. Helpful shopping in-
formation will be listed on each tag. The deadline for the gifts is Sunday, December 16th.
Food Basket Deadline is December 12th If you know of someone who is in need of a food basket call Laurie Powers. The deadline for orders will
be December 12. Food basket pickup will be December 15 at 9am.
Caroling The Deacon’s will be going caroling on Sunday, December 16th. If you know of
anyone who would enjoy this please let us know. Also please come and join us
we would love to have you. We will have a lite lunch after the 11:00 AM service
and then depart in various groups.
3
Session Invites all the New Officers to the December 11th Meeting
The Ranger
The Session will be meeting on Tuesday, December 11th at 7:00pm. All the
Elders, Deacons, and Trustees elected for service beginning 2013 are invited to
attend this joint meeting of all the Poke Run Elders, Deacon’s and Trustees.
Information Needed
Please notify the church office if you have had any name changes,
address changes, a change in your phone number or a change in your email address. You may call the office at 724-327-5563 or email your in-formation to [email protected] Thank you.
Congregational Life
The Congregational Life Committee was very pleased with the turn out at the
luncheon in October after the Congregational Meeting. The vegetable soup,
Bar-b-q sandwiches, fruit salad and cookies seemed to be a big hit with every-
one. Thanks to all who stayed. Also a special thanks to all who helped in the
clean-up afterwards.
4
The Bash-Nied Funeral Home family invites you and your family to be a part of our
Attendance: Jan Fitzgerald, Laurie Powers, Cindy Brooks, Ruthie O’Connor, Erin Bruce, Sheree Wagner, Tammy Kelley, Karen Stay-mates, Pastor Pete and Heidi Hileman
Treasury Report: $5084.35
Next Meeting: November 5, 2012 – 7:00 pm
Pete opened w/prayer and devotions
Strawberry Festival was a success.
Mums have been ordered. Laurie would like to ask to use them for the Community Dinner tables. We agreed to use the flowers for the tables.
Watkins - Books are out to everyone. Orders due October 21st.
Ruthie will have breads ready for World Wide Communion Sunday.
Christmas Caroling will be Sunday Dec 16th. – bring 2 dozen cookies.
We will do an ornament “In Honor” and “In Memory” for Christmas. The money will go to the food bank.
Thanksgiving food baskets – Deadline 11/14/12. Pick up 11/17/12
Christmas food baskets – Deadline 12/12/12. Pick up 12/15/12/
We will do mini poinsettias for our Poke Run friends.
Laurie will talk to Linda Moorehead about the Giving Tree tags.
We will do “Treats for the Troops”. Our goal is 200 dozen. Will package on 11/3/12. Each deacon should do at least 10 dozen. We will announce in church.
We will ask the daycare to make cards to go with the cookies.
We need a secretary to replace Heidi Hileman and Tammy Kelley. Tammy Kelley is the Correspondence Secretary.
Deacons that are done with service this year are Tammy Kelley, Linda Moorehead, Heidi Hileman and Erin Bruce.
We reviewed our email list.
Closed in prayer.
Respectfully yours,
Heidi Hileman, Secretary
6
Poke Run Presbyterian Church Session Minutes October 09, 2012
The scheduled meeting of the Session met in the Sunday School rooms @ 7:00 pm. A quorum was present and, Rev. Peter Goetschius,
Moderator, opened the meeting with prayer and devotions.
Elders present: Rev. Peter Goetschius- Moderator, Connie Cauvel - Clerk, Glenn Ross – Assist. Clerk, Bob Thompson, Tim Martin, Cindy
McQuaide, Meri Slaugenhaupt, and Elizabeth Wilkinson
Elders excused: Bob Bierer, Linda Chicka, Grace Hartman
MSC: To approve the Session Minutes of September 11, 2012
MSC: To accept the Deacon Minutes of 9.10.12
MSC: To accept the Trustee Minutes off 8.23.12
Treasurer report: Amy Wilkinson
Spending has been kept very modest and we have made back almost half of what we borrowed. Congregation has given $35,000 more
this year than at the same time last year. Thank you for your generosity! Finances are fiscally healthy - What is God calling us to do?
Budget & Finance: Tim reviewed the 2013 Budget.
Mission and Stewardship: Linda Chicka
MSC: to accept the 2013 Mission and Benevolence Budget
Congregational Life: Glenn Ross – will prepare a lunch after congregational meeting on October. 21.
Technology: Proceeding with new website design.
Nominating Committee - Connie Cauvel & Glenn Ross: The 2013 slate of officers, prepared by the Committee,
were approved, and it will be presented at the Congregational Meeting.
Pastor Pete’s report: Pete gave a short verbal report to update us on everything concerning his position
and activities.
New Business:
MSC: To accept Callie Spalding resignation as our Youth Director with regret.
MSC: To accept the proposed 2013 budget with one “no” vote.
MSC: To approve the 2013 Slate of officers
MSC: To change the date of the November Session Meeting to Monday November 19, 2012
Pete asked us to consider: Where do we want to be as a Church in 5 years? How are we going to reach out and
to whom?
Close with prayer: Meri Slaugenhaupt Adjourn: 9 P.M.
Respectfully Submitted: Approved: 11.19.12
7
Poke Run Presbyterian Church Congregational Meeting – October 21, 2012
With a quorum present the meeting was held in the Church Sanctuary at 11:00am and opened with prayer by the Moderator Rev. Peter M.
Goetschius.
MSC: to dispense with the reading of the minutes of the last meeting of the congregation.
Ecclesiastical business:
The chairperson of the nominating committee presented the slate of proposed Session members as follows.
Bob Thompson, Ron Hileman, Sandy Chappell, and Josh Poterfield – Youth with one year term.
Nominations from the floor were opened and with no additional nominations it was
MSC to close the nominations.
Proposed member to the Board of Deacons:
Nikki McQuaide, Deborah Ross and Abby Ballas – youth with one year term
Nominations from the floor were opened and with no additional nominations it was MSC to close the nominations.
The nominations for Nominating Committee for the year 2012 were opened with the following being nominated:
Linda Moorhead, Laurie Martin, Bill Fazi, Chad McCutcheon, Jeffery Wilkinson.
MSC: to close nominations.
Corporate business;
The chairperson of the nominating committee presented the slate of proposed persons to the Board of Trustees:
Bob Wilson, Vince Goodiski and Dave Wilkinson
Nominations from the floor were opened and with no additional nominations it was MSC to close the nominations.
Nominations for Auditor, a four year term, was opened and Rick Slaugenhaupt was nominated and with no additional nomination it was
MSC to close the nominations.
The Budget for the Year 2012 was presented by the chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee:
MSC: to approve the Pastoral Term of Call.
MSC: to adjourn the meeting at 11:50am and was closed with prayer by the Rev. Goetschius.
Congregation was invited to enjoy a meal prepared by the Congregational Life Committee in Fellowship Hall.
Connie Cauvel Clerk of Session Approved: 11.19.12
8
Santa's Coming For Breakfast
The Christian Education Committee is sponsoring their annual “"Breakfast
With Santa"“ Saturday, December 1 from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Not only
will you be able to get a great breakfast at a great price, but you can also get
that special picture of your little one on Santa's knee Tickets are available at
the door. Tickets for adults and children ages 11 and over are $5.00 each, chil-
dren ages 3 to 10 are $2.00, and children ages 2 and under eat free! Breakfast
includes pancakes and syrup, sausages, and your choice of beverages. Each
digital photo with Santa costs only $1.00 and is mounted for you in a specially designed card by one of San-
ta's elves. Picture processing take about 30 minutes so plan to get your pictures taken with Santa prior to
eating or shopping at Santa’s Store. You’ll find some great Christmas decorating ideas and gift giving items
at this year’s store. Included among the store's many items will be miniature poinsettias, ornaments, can-
dles, Christmas novelties, knick-knacks, and much, much more! Children and adults alike will have a great
time shopping for just the right items on their shopping lists! Everything is available at reasonable, season-
able prices! So plan to go out for breakfast on December 1, and spend your morning with some great
Christian Fellowship at Poke Run Church! Proceeds benefit the Christian Education Programs
Volunteers Needed for Faith in Action
During this season of giving, the Mission and Stewardship Committee would like to remind you of a won-
derful opportunity to give of your time through the voluntary assistance program called “Faith In Action.”
This Westmoreland and Fayette County program is devoted to helping older adults (age 60 and older) live
more safely and independently in their own homes for as long as possible. The program recruits and trains
community volunteers to provide a variety of free, non-medical services for older adults. These services
may include such things as appointment escorts, handyman minor repairs, telephone reassurance calls,
caregiver relief, yard work/gardening, errands/shopping, referral assistance, supportive visits and home
safety checks.
Volunteers are essential to the success of Faith in Action. The program is expanding its service to the Poke
Run area, but before services can be provided to those that need them, the program must be assured of a
pool of volunteers. Volunteer opportunities are flexible and can be scheduled around work and other com-
mitments. A short training is provided to all volunteers so that they can easily carry out the services. The
volunteers can work as much or as little as they desire, and they can change their commitments at any time.
If you would like to volunteer for, or find out more about this wonderful program, please contact Linda
Chicka or Bob Wilson about your interest. When we have ten or twelve interested individuals, Joanne Ret-
ter, Program Director of Alle-Kiski Faith in Action, will provide us with the necessary volunteer training.
For more information, you may contact Joanne at 724-224-3199 or by email at [email protected].
You can also speak to Linda Chicka, Bob Wilson, or Rev. Pete for more details.