Ice Cream Sundar Bar

Sunday July 30

630-730 pm

Join friends for ice cream and tasty toppings!

 

Church Homecoming

*On June 25, we are planning a church homecoming service to continue our 150th Anniversary Celebration. We have invited former pastors to this service. Rev. Baxter (served here 1961-1967) and Pastor Potter (1967-1975) have sent letters saying they are not able to come: see last month’s chimes. Rev. Leroy Haynes (1986-1994) is coming. We have not heard from the Revs. Martha Halls (interim 1995, 1996-1997)  or Connie Peake (1997-2001) yet. We will have a potluck following the church service. We also have plans to have an inflatable set up for the kids. Please invite former members, people that have grown up in this church, or anyone that has a connection with this church to this homecoming service.

*On Saturday, June 24, we have a time to visit scheduled in our church dining hall from 1-3 pm. Refreshments will be served. An inflatable will be set up the kids to enjoy.

*On Friday, June 23, we will have church float in the city parade. Gerry Patten is designing it.

Reminder: Lauren & Julia Prouty are selling 150th Anniversary t-shirts and cups to help raise funds for their band trip to Europe to next summer. They are hoping people will wear these t-shirts during the parade. Order information can be found elsewhere in the chimes. They are giving ten percent of their profits back to the church for missions.

*The 150th Anniversary Committee will meet in the Administrative Assistant’s Office following worship on June 4, to talk about the June Celebration.

The Worst Part Of Skipping Church

We are a culture of convenience, of personalization, of individualism. We have a million ways of customizing our lives to perfectly suit our every preference. When things are difficult, we think little of pulling away from responsibilities, of reorienting our lives away from whatever causes inconvenience. This can even extend to something as good and as central as our commitment to the local church.

All of us who are involved in local churches have seen people waver and wander in their commitment. Most of us have had to extend the call to someone, to urge them back to participation, back to the worship services. When we do this, we often turn to our go-to text, Hebrews 10:24-25, to warn of the danger of “neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some…” We insist that those who neglect to participate in the local church will encounter spiritual temptation, spiritual decline and even spiritual death. And while all of this is true, it is not the emphasis of that passage. In fact, when we use the passage in this way, we are not displaying the divine urgency behind the text, but our own deep-rooted individualism.

Here is what Hebrews 10:24-25 says: “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” This passage does, indeed, warn of the serious consequences of skipping church, but its focus is not what we might expect through our Western, individualized eyes. This passage does not warn us that when we skip church we put ourselves at risk. Rather, it warns us that when we skip church we put other people at risk. The first sin of skipping church is the sin of failing to love others.

Gathering with God’s people is not first about being blessed but about being a blessing. It’s not first about getting but about giving. As we prepare to worship on Sunday morning, our first consideration should be “how to stir up one another to love and good works.” We should approach Sunday deliberately, eager to do good to others, to be a blessing to them. In those times we feel our zeal waning, when we feel the temptation to skip out on a Sunday or withdraw altogether, we should consider our God-given responsibility to encourage “one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” This text is not about us, but about them. This text is not for Christian individuals but Christian communities.

And, of course, our commitment to the local church is far more than a commitment to Sunday morning services. It is a commitment to other people through all of life. It is a commitment to worship with them once or twice a week, then to fellowship with them, to serve them, and to pray for them all throughout the week. It is to bind ourselves together in a covenant in which we promise to do good to them, to make them the special object of our attention and encouragement. It is to promise that we will identify and deploy our spiritual gifts for their benefit so we can serve them, strengthen them, and bless them.

Every Christian has a place within a local church. Every Christian is needed within a local church. Every Christian has responsibilities within a local church. Every Christian is to commit to the members of a local church and to love them, to encourage them, and to stir them up in zeal until the day of Christ’s return. -Tim Challies, Christian Author

 

History and Traditions of Father’s Day

Early History: A customary day for the celebration of fatherhood in Catholic Europe is known to date back to at least the Middle Ages, and it is observed on March 19, as the feast day of Saint Joseph, who is referred to as the fatherly Nutritor Domini (“Nourisher of the Lord”) in Catholicism and “the putative father of Jesus” in southern European tradition. This celebration was brought to the Americans by the Spanish and Portuguese, and in Latin America, Father’s Day is still celebrated on March 19. The Catholic church actively supported the custom of a celebration of fatherhood on St. Joseph’s day from either the last years of the 14th century or from the early 15th century, apparently on the initiative of the Franciscans.

In the Coptic Church, the celebration of fatherhood is also observed on St Joseph’s Day, but the Copts observe this celebration on July 20. This Coptic celebration may date back to the fifth century.

In the US: Father’s Day was not celebrated in the US, outside Catholic traditions, until the 20th century. As a civic celebration in the US, it was inaugurated in the early 20th century to complement Mother’s Day by celebrating fathers and male parenting. After Anna Jarvis‘ successful promotion of Mother’s Day in Grafton, West Virginia, the first observance of a “Father’s Day” was held on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia, in the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, now known as Central United Methodist Church.Grace Golden Clayton was mourning the loss of her father, when in December 1907, the Monongah Mining Disaster in nearby Monongah killed 361 men, 250 of them fathers, leaving around a thousand fatherless children. Clayton suggested that her pastor Robert Thomas Webb honor all those fathers. Clayton’s event did not have repercussions outside Fairmont for several reasons, among them: the city was overwhelmed by other events, the celebration was never promoted outside the town itself and no proclamation of it was made by the city council. Also, two events overshadowed this event: the celebration of Independence Day July 4, 1908, with 12,000 attendants and several shows including a hot air balloon event, which took over the headlines in the following days, and the death of a 16-year-old girl on July 4. The local church and council were overwhelmed and they did not even think of promoting the event, and it was not celebrated again for many years. The original sermon was not reproduced by the press and it was lost. Finally, Clayton was a quiet person, who never promoted the event and never talked to other persons about it.

Failed attempts at establishing a Father’s Day: In 1911, Jane Addams proposed that a citywide Father’s Day celebration be held in Chicago, but she was turned down. In 1912, there was a Father’s Day celebration in Vancouver, Washington, suggested by Methodist pastor J. J. Berringer of the Irvington Methodist Church. They mistakenly believed that they had been the first to celebrate such a day. They followed a 1911 suggestion by the Portland Oregonian. Harry C. Meek, a member of Lions Clubs International, claimed that he had first come up with the idea for Father’s Day in 1915. Meek said that the third Sunday in June was chosen because it was his birthday. The Lions Club has named him the “Originator of Father’s Day”. Meek made many efforts to promote Father’s Day and make it an official holiday.

Establishment of the holiday: On June 19, 1910, a Father’s Day celebration was held at the YMCA in Spokane, Washington by Sonora Smart Dodd. Her father, the civil war veteran William Jackson Smart, was a single parent who raised his six children there. She was also a member of Old Centenary Presbyterian Church (now Knox Presbyterian Church), where she first proposed the idea. After hearing a sermon about Jarvis’ Mother’s Day in 1909 at Central Methodist Episcopal Church, she told her pastor that fathers should have a similar holiday to honor them. Although she initially suggested June 5, her father’s birthday, the pastors did not have enough time to prepare their sermons, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday in June.Several local clergymen accepted the idea, and on June 19, 1910, the first Father’s Day, “sermons honoring fathers were presented throughout the city”. However, in the 1920s, Dodd stopped promoting the celebration because she was studying at the Art Institute of Chicago, and it faded into relative obscurity, even in Spokane. In the 1930s, Dodd returned to Spokane and started promoting the celebration again, raising awareness at a national level. She had the help of those trade groups that would benefit most from the holiday, for example the manufacturers of ties, tobacco pipes, and any traditional present for fathers. By 1938, she had the help of the Father’s Day Council, founded by the New York Associated Men’s Wear Retailers to consolidate and systematize the holiday’s commercial promotion. Americans resisted the holiday for its first few decades, viewing it as nothing more than an attempt by merchants to replicate the commercial success of Mother’s Day, and newspapers frequently featured cynical and sarcastic attacks and jokes.However, the said merchants remained resilient and even incorporated these attacks into their advertisements. By the mid-1980s, the Father’s Day Council wrote, “[Father’s Day] has become a Second Christmas for all the men’s gift-oriented industries.” A bill to accord national recognition of the holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson went to Spokane to speak at a Father’s Day celebration and he wanted to make it an officially recognized federal holiday, but Congress resisted, fearing that it would become commercialized.US President Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924, that the day be observed throughout the entire nation, but he stopped short at issuing a national proclamation. Two earlier attempts to formally recognize the holiday had been defeated by Congress. In 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a Father’s Day proposal accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers, thus “[singling] out just one of our two parents”. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972. In addition to Father’s Day, International Men’s Day is celebrated in many countries on November 19, in honor of men and boys who are not fathers.

Please join us for Easter Morning Worship at 10:15 am!

The History of Easter

Easter is the most important and oldest festival of the Christian Church, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ and held (in the Western Church) between March 21 and April 25, on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the northern spring equinox.

On Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate the resurrection of the Lord, Jesus Christ. It is typically the most well-attended Sunday service of the year for Christian Churches.  Christians believe, according to Scripture, that Jesus came back to life, or was raised from the dead, three days after his death on the cross. As part of the Easter season, the death of Jesus Christ by crucifixion is commemorated on Good Friday, always the Friday just before Easter.

Because of Easter’s pagan origins, and also because of the commercialization of Easter, many Christian churches choose to refer to the Easter holiday as Resurrection Day .

The biblical account of Jesus’ death on the cross, or crucifixion, his burial and his resurrection, or raising from the dead, can be found in the following passages of Scripture: Matthew 27:27-28:8; Mark 15:16-16:19; Luke 23:26-24:35; and John 19:16-20:30.

The word “Easter” does not appear in the Bible and no early church celebrations of Christ’s resurrection are mentioned in Scripture.

Easter, like Christmas, is a tradition that developed later in church history.

Take time to read about Jesus’ trials and tribulations in Scripture leading up to the first Easter or Resurrection Day. This will allow you to celebrate all the more on Easter Sunday realizing how grateful we should be.

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Scott Prouty

The First 150 Years (1867-2017)

We are celebrating our 150th Anniversary all year round but our actual anniversary date is being celebrated on March 26, 10:15 am. Come join us as we are greeted by the Transitional Executive Presbyter of Minnesota Valleys Presbytery, the Rev. Rick Carus of Willmar, the Synod Executive of the Synod of Lakes and Prairies, Ruling Elder Elona Street Stewart of Eagan and the Stated Clerk of General Assembly, the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson of Louisville, Kentucky.
Our Parish Associate, the Rev. Pamela Prouty, who is both the Stated Clerk of Minnesota Valleys Presbytery and the Synod of Lakes and Prairies, our Seminary Student Intern Amy Levinski, our Clerk of Session, Ruling Elder Adrienne Danielson, and Ruling Elder Deb Hess, who is Moderator of Minnesota Valleys Presbytery and I will all be leading morning worship.

We will start worship by having the children, choir and worship leaders proceed into the Sanctuary, the children will sing the introit. The Chancel Choir will be singing later in the service. We will honor those that have been members of our church for fifty years or longer. The Rev. J. Herbert Nelson will give the morning message. He is known to be one of the best preachers in our denomination. Following worship we will take a group photo in the sanctuary. Following the picture, we will have a catered roast beef dinner by Baune’s Cafe at 12:15 pm. The dinner is being paid for funds given by a church member for the anniversary celebration. Please sign up for the meal by March 20, so we have enough food on hand. Following the meal we will have a cake reception from 1:30-3:30 pm, for the public. If able please stay around to have fellowship and greet visitors.

In Christ’s love, Pastor Scott Prouty

Valentine’s Day 

In the United States, about 190 million Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, not including the hundreds of millions of cards school children exchange. Additionally, in recent decades Valentine’s Day has become increasingly commercialized and a popular gift-giving event, with Valentine’s Day themed advertisements encouraging spending on loved ones. In fact, in the United States alone, the average valentine’s spending has increased every year, from $108 a person in 2010 to $131 in 2013. (The Washington Post)

In addition to showing your loved ones that you care about them this year, please take the time to show love to someone that may not get a lot of attention during the year. Call someone you haven’t talked to in a long time. Visit folks in the nursing home. Send Valentine’s cards to people in your neighborhood or homebound people at church. Volunteer to read books at school. Drop off a flower or some candy to someone that you know may be lonely.

Smile, let people go ahead of you in the grocery store line, randomly pay for someone’s meal in restaurant without telling them, bring extra food to the food shelf, silently pray for strangers that walk by you, treat others the way you want to be treated.

Make this your best Valentine’s Day ever, not by what you receive but by what you give to others in your actions and in your words.Let the love of Christ flow through you.Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

~Pastor Scott