Newsletter - First Presbyterian Church

Steve's Scratchings

In a recent column, I asked, "How are we doing?" In this column, written on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, I want to take this question a bit deeper.

For many in the Roman Catholic tradition, one of the hallmarks of Lent has been the "examen" based on the spirituality of St. Ignatius, the examen involves a careful, prayerful reflection on the events of the day. In particular, it involves identifying and reflecting on the day’s low points and the high points. As one writer has said,

St. Ignatius wrote The Spiritual Exercises, which have guided retreatants for centuries. The exercises begin by recommending that everyone be taught the examen… [which] is what changed him from a wild soldier to a pilgrim walking barefoot to Jerusalem. He expected that God would speak through our deepest feelings and yearnings, what he
called "consolation" and "desolation." For us, consolation is whatever helps us connect with ourselves, others, God, and the universe. Desolation is whatever disconnects us. Ignatius recommended returning to our deepest moments of consolation and desolation….

As some of you can attest, the Ignatian examen can be a powerful tool for individual spiritual growth, as it helps one see how God is present in everyday life. And Lent is traditionally a time for individual spiritual reflection, repentance, and growth toward God.

This lent, however, our church will be beginning a "church-wide examen," if you will. Rather than focusing on our individual spiritual lives, and the ways we as individuals are (or are not) following the call of Christ, we will focus on our life as a congregation. And rather than reflecting on our congregational experiences of "consolation" and "desolation" (though 2003 brought both!), we are beginning a process known as the Complete Ministry Audit. As described elsewhere in this newsletter, this will have four phases: 1) information gathering, 2) meeting with a consultant, 3) receiving the consultant’s report, and 4) deciding on and taking the appropriate actions.

The need for this type of in-depth "church-wide examen" has been apparent to me and to some of our elders for a while. As you have heard me say repeatedly, we live in a changed and changing community and context, and we need to be strategic in our ministry and mission if we are to have a healthy future. And if our church seems to be working well internally, it is not yet thriving or growing. It is not reaching many new people with the good news of the gospel. Thus, we need some congregational examen.

However, as with individual examen, the heart of our congregation’s health and future is not in planning and statistics and information; it is in our relationship with God and our following of Christ. We will be a strong and healthy church only to the extent that our relationship to Christ is strong and healthy.

Thus, whatever involvement or interest you may or may not have in our Ministry Audit process, we need your prayers. Pray that we may grow closer to Christ, that we may discern the mission and ministry to which He is leading us, and that we may have the courage and faith to follow Him.

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"The Cup of Our Life"
Women's Retreat

Grab that favorite coffee mug or tea cup, a journal, Bible, and comfortable clothes and join with other women for a one-day Lenten retreat. Just walk away from it all for one day and walk deeper into your relationship with your Creator. Give yourself about seven hours, the company of women, a camp in the woods, and set your intent on growing with God.

Marge Braden will lead this retreat using our favorite "cup" as a focal point for exploring and nurturing our walk with God. At times our life is like a cup over-flowing with blessings, other times our cup is drained from demands from every direction. And still other times we see our lives chipped, cracked, or even broken by life’s events. Set aside this one day in Lent and recharge your batteries with a CUP of spiritual JAVA.

Don’t forget to bring a favorite cup or mug along for meditations.
The retreat will be held:

Date: Saturday, March 20
Time: 10:15 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Registration: $20.00 (includes lunch)
Deadline: March 14

Bring a friend. It may be just what she needs right now!
See Kathleen O’Connell to sign-up, or look for the retreat brochure in the hallway literature racks.

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Confirmation Retreat

This year’s Confirmation Retreat, sponsored by Geneva Center, will be the weekend of March 19-21. The retreat is open to students in the confirmation program—generally 7th and 8th graders. Confirmation students are asked to attend at least once, in either their 7th or 8th grade year. You may attend both years if you wish!!

You’ll be receiving registration details in the mail soon. Please mark these dates on your calendar now!!! If you are in 7th or 8th grade, and are not currently active in confirmation - and would like to be - please talk with Kathleen O’Connell.

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Church School Classes.

Sunday Morning at 9:45 a.m.

Sonshine Kids class for pre-schoolers in Room 106.

JAM Time for elementary age children upstairs. Bible stories are learned and experienced in creative ways using the Workshop Rotation multi-sensory model.

New Horizons ongoing class for youth and adults with special needs. This is taught by special education teacher, Cheri Lea, and is held in Room 108.

Choices: Ministry in the 21st Century - Steve Braden will lead this video-based discussion of new paradigms and challenges for churches in the 21st century. Some of the material presented will be used in our upcoming church consultation.
This class meets in the Reception Room. Topics include:

March 7: Post-modern Pilgrims: Generations & Technology
March 14: Guess Who’s Coming to the Table: Cultural Differences
March 21: The New Spiritual Yearning
March 28: New-paradigm Churches: How some are responding.

Discover Jesus - Throughout Lent, come discover Jesus—the healer, teacher, story-teller,
miracle worker, and Savior. Led by Kathleen O’Connell in Room 100, beginning Sunday, March 7

The Passion...Have you seen, or are you planning to see, Mel Gibson’s film The Passion?
If you’d like to share reactions and perspectives, come on Wednesday night, March 10, at 7:00 p.m.
Steve Braden will lead the discussion. More sessions may be scheduled if desired.

The Purpose Driven Life - It's not too late to join our discussion of this book by Rick Warren.
Join us after The Bridge and dinner for a look at God’s purpose for your life.
Also our weekly Bible Study with Pastor Kathleen resumed February 29.

Children & Spirituality: Live As Children of Light
In the spring issue of Hungry Hearts, Carol Wehrheim, former APCE Educator of the Year, presents a
compelling charge to the church regarding its nurture of the spiritual life of children. She offers a series of
practices appropriate for both family life and the younger among us. You can find Hungry Hearts on line
at www.pcusa.org/spiritualformation/hungryhearts

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The Complete Ministry Audit is Coming

In March we begin gathering information for the Complete Ministry Audit. This tool, developed by well-known church consultant Bill Easum, seeks to assess many aspects of our worship. A seven person steering team, under the leadership of Stu Barb, will coordinate the process. Here’s is how it will work:

Information-Gathering:
In March, the team will gather a variety of information from our staff, elected officers (elders, trustees, and deacons), other congregational leaders, and from worship attenders. Information gathered will include a worship survey conducted on each of the four Sundays in March. The steering committee will also gather demographic information from Percept, the leading church demographics firm, as well as information from knowledgeable local individuals. The results will be tabulated and forwarded to our church consultant.

Church Consultant Visit:
Jeff Patton, of Easum-Bandy Associates, an experienced consultant, will review the information and visit us for three days in April (22-25) to meet personally with staff, leaders, and members. Following his visit he will give us a detailed report on his findings and recommendations.

Reflection and Action:
Upon receiving the Complete Ministry Audit report, the steering committee will lead us in reflecting on what actions to take.

A more detailed schedule is as follows:
Week of:

2/29 (Leap Day service) steering team organizational meeting; leadership survey distributed
3/7 worship survey; staff & steering team begin compiling data
3/14 worship survey; survey collected from elders
3/21 worship survey
3/28 worship survey; materials assembled & mailed to Jeff Patton
4/4 (Palm Sunday / holy week / spring break)
4/11 (Easter)
4/18 (Youth Sunday); Jeff Patton here 4/22-25
4/25 Jeff Patton here

Questions & Answers:

Do we know this will work?
Nothing is certain. But other churches have had a good experience with Jeff Patton’s consultation, and we believe that we will, also. At the minimum, this process will help us highlight some of the important decisions we must face and some of the changes we must make for a healthy future. It is important to realize, however, that at best a consultant is like an Old Testament prophet: he can point out reality in ways we might miss, but he can’t "fix" anything. The hard work of any decisions and necessary changes will be up to us.

Do we have some examples?
For some online examples of Complete Ministry Audit reports, see: http://www.kumconline.org/vtf.PDF
or http://gbgmchurches.gbgm-umc.org/christ-pa/audit.

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Didn’t we just do this?
In 2001 we conducted a vision discernment process. This was very helpful in uncovering some of our core values and basic beliefs and giving us some general direction. However, it was not meant to result in a more detailed plan of action, and it did not do so. This is a natural next step in our effort to prepare for a healthy and growing future.

Who is Jeff Patton, our consultant?
The Rev. Jeffrey H. Patton has served congregations for twenty-eight years: first as a director of youth ministries; then as a member of a contemporary praise band; as an ordained United Methodist pastor; and currently as a church growth consultant and director of Christian Counseling Clinic, Inc. He has pastored five congregations, all of which grew under his leadership. Most recently, he pastored First United Methodist in Williamsport, PA, which grew from 267 in worship (658 members) to 500+ in worship (635 members) in three years. First Church recently completed a 4.2 million dollar Christian Life Center.

Jeff attended Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where he graduated with honors in 1976. He received his Master of Divinity (M.Div.) in 1980 from Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1983 he received a Master of Theology in Pastoral Counseling (Th.M.) from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia. In 1986 he completed the residency portion of the Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D.) in Personality and Pastoral Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. He has published numerous articles and a book, If It Could Happen Here… (Abingdon Press, March, 2002). He is certified to conduct The Easum Ministry Audit and Tom
Bandy’s assessment tool, Facing Reality.

How much will this cost?
The total cost is estimated to be about $6,000. The Presbytery of Wabash Valley has given us a grant of $3,000 to cover half the cost. The balance will be covered by a grant from the Presbyterian Foundation and/or individual donors.

When can we expect the results?
Jeff Patton will give us a detailed report of his findings and recommendations within a month after the consultation. He is available for questions and advice for a year beyond the consultation, and will conduct a return visit approximately six months after the consultation. The real results of the consultation — making the decisions and changes necessary for a healthy future — will, of
course, depend entirely on us.

How can we as individuals participate?
You will have opportunities for input at various points. In addition, please pray for the process — for the steering committee, for Jeff, for the church staff and officers, as we seek to discern God’s call and purpose for our congregation.

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National Youth Triennium

Summer seems a long way away, but it will be here before we know it. This summer (July 20-25) presents an opportunity for youth between the ages of 15 and 19 years of age that will not be available again until 2007.

Imagine - a gathering of 7,000 Presbyterian young people from all across the nation and the world - right here in Indiana! What a fantastic opportunity for our youth to meet other Presbyterian youth and participate - in exciting worship opportunities and strengthen the connections with other young people!

The theme, "No Longer Strangers" (Ephesians 2:14-19) will be developed throughout the week through daily presentations, worship, workshops, recreation, and small groups. Wabash Valley Presbytery has been assigned 70 delegate spaces, which will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. So........ get your registrations in early!

Registration forms can be downloaded from the PYT website: www.presbyterianyouthtriennium.org
Kathleen O’Connell is handling registrations from our church. See Kathleen or Tim for further information.

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Brown Bag Book Bunch

The Book Bunch is reading some great books! If you're a reader, come join us! Our next meeting is March 1, 2004, at 11:30 am. Our list of books for 2004 is almost complete, but we can always make room for more. If you have a book to suggest, please do so. We'll see you next year!

March One Thousand White Women, by Jim Fergus
When President Grant is asked to trade 1,000 white women to a tribe of Indians for 1,000 horses, he of course refuses publicly. Secretly, however, the government asks for "volunteers" to live with the Indians and "civilize" them. The diary of one woman tells the story of one small group of women who respond to the challenge.

March	One Thousand White Women, by Jim Fergus
April	The Bonesetter's Daughter, by Amy Tan
May	Hidden Power: presidential marriages that shaped our recent history, by Kati Marton
June	East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
July	Angle of Repose, by Wallace Erle Stegner
August	A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving
September	The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown
October	Probable Future, by Alice Hoffman
November	Leap of Faith, by Queen Noor

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This 'n' That

Worship Schedule