“You are the salt of the earth . . . You are the light of the world.” — Jesus (Matthew 5:13-14) The Salt Shaker The Salt Shaker The Salt Shaker F EB R UARY 2019 OUR MISSION Parkville Presbyterian Church is a community of believers following Jesus Christ by sharing God’s Word, serving and welcoming all. Parkville Presbyterian Church Where Everyone is Loved, Where Everyone Belongs IN THIS ISSUE : 2. Board of Deacons; Hillcrest Graduate 3. Pastor’s Perspective 5. Pastor’s Confirmation Class 6. Good News from the Capital Campaign 7. Developing Leadership Skills 8. Building and Grounds; Adult Sunday School Classes 9. February Calendar God’s Mission for Us : To accept, embrace, and love all people, through Christ who loves us! Soup is Good, Wintertime Hot Food! And Feb. 3rd is SOUP -er Bowl Sunday! Do you recognize this scene? Most of us don’t—because it dates back to 1932. It is a Depression-era Soup Line. All these decades later, there are still many peo- ple who would welcome a hot bowl of soup on a cold winter day — and we can make that happen by bringing a can of soup (or as many as you “can”) to church on Sunday, Feb. 3. Drop your soup donation in the Narthex container for the team you hope will win the day’s SOUP-er football event — N. E. Patriots or L. A. Rams. And if you’re still feeling glum about the KC Chiefs being out of the con- test, feel free to drop a whole case of soup into the SPEAC food pantry cart! It will make you feel better! Remember that this Sunday is also our regular SPEAC food pantry Sunday; see the list of current pantry needs on page 2.
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Transcript
“You are the salt of the earth . . .
You are the light of the world.” — Jesus (Matthew 5:13-14)
The Salt ShakerThe Salt ShakerThe Salt Shaker
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 9
OUR MISSION
Parkville Presbyterian Church is a community of believers
following
Jesus Christ by sharing God’s Word,
serving and
welcoming all.
Parkville
Presbyterian
Church
Where Everyone is
Loved,
Where Everyone
Belongs
I N TH I S I S S U E :
2. Board of Deacons;
Hillcrest Graduate
3. Pastor’s Perspective
5. Pastor’s Confirmation
Class
6. Good News from the
Capital Campaign
7. Developing Leadership
Skills
8. Building and Grounds;
Adult Sunday School
Classes
9. February Calendar
God’s Mission
for Us:
To accept,
embrace, and
love all people,
through Christ
who loves us!
Soup is Good, Wintertime Hot Food!
And Feb. 3rd is SOUP-er Bowl Sunday!
Do you recognize this scene? Most of us don’t—because it dates back to 1932.
It is a Depression-era Soup Line. All these decades later, there are still many peo-
ple who would welcome a hot bowl of soup on a cold winter day — and we can
make that happen by bringing a can of soup (or as many as you “can”) to church
on Sunday, Feb. 3. Drop your soup donation in the Narthex container for the team
you hope will win the day’s SOUP-er football event — N. E. Patriots or L. A.
Rams. And if you’re still feeling glum about the KC Chiefs being out of the con-
test, feel free to drop a whole case of soup into the SPEAC food pantry cart!
It will make you feel better! Remember that this Sunday is also our regular
SPEAC food pantry Sunday; see the list of current pantry needs on page 2.
Sunday, Feb. 3, is
Food Pantry
Sunday! Special
needs at this time
include:
Pancake mix
Syrup
Jelly
Cake mix
Shampoo
Soups
Kleenex
Hamburger Helper
Spaghetti
Egg noodles
FEBRUARY
Food Pantry
Needs
Please extend happy birthday wishes to the
following members of our
church family:
2/2 Alan Grimes
2/4 Chris Davis
2/6 Russell Jones
2/7 Marianne Sportsman
2/8 Liliana Dixon
2/16 Gerry Lowery
2/17 Martha Allen
2/18 Gary Blanck
2/19 Ernestine Claycomb, Glenda Craig
2/23 Malcolm Andrews, Jill Ballou
2/26 Nancy Ebberts
The Board of Deacons - 2019
The Board of Deacons is comprised of in-dividuals ordained to lead the congrega-tion in its ministries of compassion, sym-pathy, witness and service. Deacons serve in many areas of the church‟s life, but they place particular emphasis on visiting con-gregants with limited mobility, assisting in worship, and helping people in need of home repairs.
Our current Board of Deacons' mission is to foster connection and community within our congregation. Please reach out to a deacon if you are in need of spiritual or practical support.
Left to right in photo: Kay Jackson, Susan Zimmerman, Nancy Stifter, Carol Lehman, Kathy Plack and Doug Walker. Not pictured: Susan Heim-Davis and Pam-ela Godlove.
Hillcrest Transitional Housing News
Congratulations to Matt who reached his goal and successfully completed the
Hillcrest program! Several PPC members joined Matt for his graduation cere-
mony on January 15 at Platte Woods United Methodist Church. Matt plans to
move out of the PPC Hillcrest apartment on January 31. We pray for continued
success for Matt in the future.
T H E S A L T S H A K E R
Pastoral Perspective ~ Rev. Steve Andrews
Churches are resilient, and ours is especially so.
We stand on the shoulders of nineteenth-century pioneers
who could see the outlines of a church in the dust kicked
up by the horses on the dirt roads. We stand on the shoul-
ders of those early set-
tlers, and especially Colo-
nel George Park, who
cleared the land and built
the town and built a
church to keep it focused
on God as it grew. We
stand with former pastors
Elisha Sherwood and
John McAffee, who
founded Park College to
train teachers and preach-
ers for the frontier.
In the pioneer days and
afterward, throughout
the 174 year history of PPC, there have been joys and strug-
gles, moments of triumph and moments of uncertainty.
There have been budget shortfalls. There has been insur-
mountable debt. There have been fires and floods and
changes no one could have seen coming.
But churches are resilient, and ours is especially so. That‟s
how God made us—when the Lord formed us to be the
body of Christ—when the Lord chose us to be the “living
stones” with which his church would be built (1 Peter 2:4-
5).
On January 20th, we held a congregational meeting where
we celebrated the triumph of our capital campaign and
explored the challenges of the 2019 budget. If you were not
able to attend that meeting, I‟m glad to share the most sig-
nificant information our session conveyed.
First, we have experienced extraordinary success with our
capital campaign. We have reached our $300,000 goal a
year early, and when we submit our next payment to our
lender in April (they accept payments quarterly), they will
offer the final part of their $150,000 match. When I became
your pastor in October 2014, the principal of our mortgage
stood at $2.8 million and it felt like there was no end in
sight. Today, the principal is approaching $1.3 million and
there are ten years left on the loan.
For your extravagant, extraordinary generosity, thanks be
to God!
But even as we celebrate this burst of holy inspiration, our
projections for the 2019 budget are much lower than we
expected. As you may recall, we
began 2018 with a „deficit‟
budget, where income was pro-
jected to be $15,000 less than ex-
penses, but we had a plan to
close that deficit. By the time
2018 closed, we had received
$25,000 more than projected and
spent $15,000 more than pro-
jected.
The overall picture is that we
closed the year with about $5,000
less than we started, but that still
puts us in a strong position for
the beginning of the year and
our needs for ministry. For those of you who like charts,
here‟s a summary of that information:
Money Spent for Missions, Ministry,
Projected 2018 Actual 2018
Operations of PPC $461,670.00 $475,480.23
Total Contributions, Gifts and Other
Money Received $446,275.00 $470,094.19
And here‟s a summary of where we are for 2019: we have
not yet set a budget of projected expenses because there are
too many uncertainties. The church‟s ministries will require
fewer financial resources this year than last because there
won‟t be an overlap between two office managers, and be-
cause other steps are being taken to reduce expenses. How-
ever, I believe that in order to avoid any major structural
changes (cuts in mission spending, reducing staff or staff
hours, or reamortizing the mortgage, for example), we will
need around $450,000 for mission and ministry in 2019.
Unfortunately, our projected income currently stands at
$360,000.
But we are going to be okay. Churches are resilient, and
ours is especially so. That‟s simply how God made us when
he built PPC out of living stones—out of you and me.
P A G E 3
Cont’d on next page
T H E S A L T S H A K E R
Pastor’s Perspective—Rev. Steve Andrews, cont. from previous page
Here are the steps being taken:
Leaders in the church are contacting anyone who has an outstanding pledge to the capital cam-paign. Since the campaign has met its goal, we are asking those who still have gifts to give to offer them to the church‟s general fund instead of the campaign. Through the general fund, those gifts will help us make regular payments on our mort-gage and keep our mo-mentum going, both in paying off the loan and maintaining our momen-tum in ministry.
All those who may be able to offer additional gifts, perhaps because they can repeat a sacrificial gift that was given to the campaign in previous years, or simply because they feel called to sup-port the church in this moment, are encouraged to do so.
The leadership team of the church, our deacons and elders, met together on January 26th for their leaders‟ retreat. They have developed a strong plan for growth that leverages the strongest gift
God has given us, our warmth and hospitality, to not only put on great events—but to build rela-tionships with new people through great follow-up and support.
For this year, once all our giving is resettled and recal-
culated, we‟ll make our best effort to construct a
budget that involves no major
cuts and does not draw on the
church‟s reserves. This will be
a careful effort that attempts
to maintain the momentum,
energy, and growth we have,
build for the future, and take good care of the gifts
being given in the present.
Of course, there may be some painful budget cuts in
the future, and this whole effort will be challenging,
but I have no doubt about the power of God working
in us. Churches are resilient, and ours is especially so.
That‟s simply how God made us when he built PPC
out of living stones—when he formed a church from
people made in his image.
Churches are resilient,
and ours is especially so.
How grateful we are for our choral interns and young adult singers who add so much to worship!
Pastor Steve and this year‟s confirmation class work through statements of faith based on their understanding of The Apostle‟s Creed and The Book of Confession. Complicated questions are coming from our youth as our pastor guides the discussion.
Pastor’s Confirmation Class
Photos for a New Church Directory
We‟ll have the opportunity and equipment to take pic-tures for the new church directory on the first three Sundays in February. There will be a camera on a tri-pod and our Outreach Ministry team will be available with a laptop between services to make directory in-formation updates.
Note: if you have a good, individual/family picture that you would like to use, it is not necessary to take a new one. Just send it to [email protected]. Pictures need to be in either .jpg or .png format and not larger than 2mb. We are not able to re-use pictures from the old directory because we do not have the originals and the directory pictures would be blurry in a new publication.
We also need you to update your personal or fam-ily information (name, address, phone number, emails, and birthdays)—and mail this to the email address above.
Sunday Snacks and Hospitality
We need volunteers to sign up for bringing Snacks between services, and to provide the monthly coffee (sign up for monthly Coffee donations sign up sheet is on inside of door above coffee machine).
To sign up for providing and hosting (setting up/cleaning up) Sunday snacks, you can go to the church website www.parkvillepreby.org, then select MEMBERS at the top or bottom. Enter password—which is johncalvin — and navigate to menu choice: Sunday morning Snack Signup. Here you may choose one of the available dates. We welcome cookies, fruit, bagels, or similar snack foods.
Help us Locate Lost Items
We‟re looking for a 36” round, white, foldable table to use in narthex that was in storage, and also for one of our two microwave ovens. If you know where these have been moved to, please contact Building and Grounds Chair Steve Walker. Thanks!
We have had an amazing two years of success with the Capital Campaign, so much so that we will have reached our goal and had our lender-matches com-pleted upon submitting our April payment. As a result, we only have 10 years left on the length of the loan! As we discussed in our congregational meeting a couple weeks ago, because we are struggling with meeting our expenses for 2019, we are hoping that those of you who still have remaining amounts on your Capital Campaign pledge will consider redirecting that remaining amount (or more!) toward the General Fund this year. In addition to your regular gifts for the church‟s operations, redirecting the remaining amount on your CC pledge will help tremendously this year. If
you would like to help in this way, please contact the church office, or send Capital Campaign chair Steve Walker a note at [email protected]. If you are uncertain about how much is outstanding on your CC pledge, please reach out to Janet Walker ([email protected]) and she can help you.
Capital Campaign Good News and Progress
Something to Look Forward to in April! “Little Big Band” will
Some of our PPC Youth—Intermediate Sunday School Class. Clockwise, around the table, start-ing at left: Xander Raines, Serenity Pederson, Sarah Listrom, Marlee Flores, Jack Listrom.
Those who wish to develop skills as leaders at church, work, and home, are invited to join us for Lead in Love, on February 11th, 18th, and 25th--three successive Mondays at 7pm. Facilitated by Pastor Steve, this burst of spiritual formation is designed to shape how we pray, how we discern God‟ will, and how we shape people and places--through the words we use and the examples we live. For more information or to RSVP, contact Pastor Steve at [email protected].
Greetings from the Building and Grounds Ministry—2019
Beginning this year, Steve Walker will be taking on leading the ministry that cares for our building and grounds. It is a big job and requires as much help as we can get.
For those of you who feel a special calling to help out with occasional jobs related to plumbing, electri-cal, miscellaneous repairs, outside work, etc, please contact Steve Walker so he can keep a list of people and call on them when needs arise.
Steve can be reached at 816-289-3735 or by email at [email protected]. Or you can let Jolene know and she can forward the information to Steve.
Many thanks to all those who have been so helpful in the past, and we look forward to your help in 2019 and beyond
T H E S A L T S H A K E R
Adult Christian Education
Opportunities
Sojourners Class Begins New Study
Beginning the first Sunday in Feb-ruary, the Sojourners‟ Class will be “Following Jesus‟ Ministry in Gali-lee,” facilitated by Rev. John Bren-tlinger. We will be focusing on sig-nificant events in the life of Jesus during his second year of ministry; this begins with his entry into
Galilee where he is proclaiming that the kingdom of God is drawing near. We will examine historical and geo-graphical settings of each event to help illuminate their meaning for our faith. Each class is a stand-alone lesson that will have a combination of presentation, bible study and class discussion. We encourage anyone who is want-ing to learn more about Jesus‟ teachings and ministry through the gospels to join us—9:40 Sunday mornings, just to the left of the Coffee service.
Faith and Families Class
Our other adult class, Faith and Families, is exploring “Effective Parenting in a Defective World.” How can we help our children deal with peer pressure and other challenges of the world they live in? We invite you to join us at 9:40 Sunday mornings as we use scriptures to consider our concerns. This class may be of special inter-est to those who are dating , married, or dealing with parenting issues. But all are welcome!
Thank You!
On behalf of the Leavenworth VA E Kansas HCS patients and staff, we would like to extend our ap-preciation for your church‟s donation of 412 Christ-mas cards. It is through the efforts of community partners like you that allow us to continue the quality care and services that we seek to provide our deserving Veterans. We look forward to the opportunity to work with you again for future events. Thank you for your continued support. Sincerely, Charles Ramey Voluntary Service Specialist
The Mission Team delivered 18 bags to Park Uni-versity to welcome the incoming international students for the 2019 spring semester. A huge thank you to everyone who donated items, assem-bled the bags and helped with the delivery. This ministry would not be possible without the help of the congrega-tion and the SPEAC food pan-try, so again thank you! Park U is very grateful for our partnership.