Calling all Shutterbugs

Everyone who attended the Christmas Pageant on Sunday is invited to email their favorite photos to Rose Cowden. These photos might be shared with the kids during Sunday school, the church newsletter, website, or posted on the bulletin board in the lobby. Please include a note if you prefer that the photo remain private.

Looking Ahead to 2008

Greetings,

I share with you that the decision has been made by those involved to discontinue the 9:15 contemporary service. The last Son-Day Morning Live service will be held on Sunday, December 30th. Over the years, this service has been a blessing to those who have committed so much of their time, energy and passion to make it happen, as well as, a blessing to those who have attended. Many of the persons who helped start the service are no longer involved, and for a variety of reasons, some of those still involved are unable to commit the time and energy needed to continue to plan and participate in the service. There simply are not enough people involved to carry on at this time. The decision to end the service has been a painful one for many people. I give thanks for each participant's commitment and desire for the church to reach out beyond the local congregation through this service.

What will the new year bring for all of us at Shepherd Church? My hope is that there will opportunities to explore and dialogue together about what it means to be the church: people called together to worship, to grow in faith and understanding, to be inclusive in offering hospitality, to care for one another, and to reach out to others in our local community and beyond. My hope is that we will continue to support vital ministries that are taking place; let go of those that have served their purposes well, but are no longer viable; and find new ways to be in ministry to the glory of God. My hope is that more people will find a place to become involved. And I hope that we will continue to find ways to come together in small groups and as a whole congregation to enjoy good fellowship (and probably good food) in a variety of settings. These are just a few of my hopes for the new year.

Looking ahead: Easter is early this year, March 23, which means Ash Wednesday is early as well, February 6. We will observe Ash Wednesday that evening with a service at 7:00 p.m. We will gather to hear the invitation to observe a holy Lent, to join in the Psalm (51:1-17) of confession, and to receive the sign of the cross made with ashes on our foreheads, a sign of our repentance and mortality.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, that 40 day period of growth through self-examination, prayer, fasting, study and repentance prior to Easter. We will observe the six Sundays in Lent, the last being Palm Sunday, in our worship services. I plan to offer a Lenten study, probably on Sunday afternoons. More information will be communicated about the specifics of the study at a later date.

There is a possibility that you might receive this newsletter before Christmas. I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a very joyful and blessed Christmas and a happy and healthy 2008!

May God bless you and keep you,

Pastor Kathy

My review of the Christmas Pageant

I wanted to congratulate Pam and Shelly on an excellent Christmas Pageant this past Sunday. As a former member of the cast (I was a wiseman) and the Living Out Loud Sunday School program (I'm a teacher) I have to confess that I am slightly biased when I say that the pageant went very well.

I'm amazed by how much progress we made since our first practice in November. This was thanks to Shelly and Pam's patience and flexibility. Obviously, when you are planning for a live performance its important to remember that things will not go perfectly, plus kids always add an element of unpredictability to any activity.

The pageant followed a very clever storytelling structure. As a family of six sits down after Christmas dinner the kids begin to ask their father (Joel) about his favorite part of Christmas. When he answers that it is the sacrifice that God made, the kids prompt him to explain why. Thus, the discussion segues into the Story of Christmas. Key moments are dramatized in center stage as the family carries on their conversation.

Although the parents, especially the father character, helped to drive the family discussion, it was reassuring to hear the kids share their own knowledge. This kept the father's lines from sounding too . . . well, for a lack of a better word . . . preachy.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to help out with this year's Christmas pageant. My kids especially had a good time being sheep.

My Thoughts on the Elimination of the Contemporary Service

I was sad to read in this month's newsletter that the contemporary service will be eliminated from the Sunday schedule of services after the start of the new year. On the other hand, I am aware of the split it had created in the church and the fact that attendance had been waning over the last few months. Although I supported the existence of the contemporary service I hadn't been able to attend because of my involvement with Sunday School.

It should be noted that the contemporary service was an effective recruiting tool. After all, it worked on me! Two years ago when the kids and I attended our first service at the Shepherd United Methodist Church I came because I was curious to find out what Son-day Morning Live! was all about. Unfortunately for us the church had just gone through a schedule change leading us to miss the contemporary service, so we sat in on the traditional service instead.

I had attended church semi-regularly as a youth, so a large part of the traditional service felt very familiar to me. We returned for another Sunday to attend a contemporary service. I enjoyed being able to read the words for the hymns we sang off of the projector screen. I had found during my time with the Church of Christ Men's Fellowship group that I could project my voice farther if I was looking straight ahead instead of looking down into a hymnal. The words on the projector relieved me of another hassle I had never liked: flipping through the pages quickly to find the next song. It may seem silly, but when I was younger it was a bit of a pet peeve. Surrounded by all of this technology, I felt comfortable reading bible passages off of my PDA.

Over the last year I've had numerous conversations with my brother-in-law, Jerry, about the value of using projectors and multimedia equipment during church services. He's a Lutheran minister so he spoke with a great deal of authority on this subject. He's not against their use, but warned against relying on them too much. After all, we are in church to worship god but not to watch movies.

I know that there were similar discussions within our church which were never really resolved. The end of the contemporary service shouldn't be looked at as a sign that it was always an idea doomed to fail or that it should never be attempted again. It just didn't fit in with the church's current direction.

Although I'm going to miss some parts of the contemporary service I'm really looking forward to the change in January and some of their benefits. For starters, I'm going to be able to teach Sunday School starting at 9:30 a.m. and still attend the worship service at 11 a.m. As I mentioned above, this is something that I haven't been able to do since the summer months. The change in schedule will also hopefully make more church members available to help out with the Living Out Loud Sunday School program. This benefits everyone, starting of course with the kids. And, no matter how much I liked attending a service with a projection system or listening to sermons with a multimedia touch, there will always be a part of me that will find comfort in the style of a traditional service.

And, the convenience of being able to quickly lookup bible passages on my PDA.

Make a Photo Cube

I found a fun website yesterday which helps you create a personalized photo cube.

Simply go to http://www.tabblo.com/studio (Tabblo), register an account, and then upload five of your favorite photos. The site will next arrange the photos into place and then generate a PDF that you can then download and print. All that's left is to cut out the cube and then follow the included instructions as you fold it together.

I've created a couple of photo cubes but haven't been able to print them out or fold them into shape quite yet. You can view one of them here.

A photo cube like this would make a great gift or it could be something fun to display around your house or even the church. I was hoping that other members of the SUMC might try out the website and then use their photos of the Christmas pageant to build photo cubes for the church to display in the lobby.