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| Christian Spirituality Book Group |
Deepen your knowledge and your practice.
Join others seeking wisdom from both ancient and new sources.
We meet 2nd and 4th Wednesdays, 7 pm, at the Blossom Hill Barnes & Noble. Pastor Elane leads.
July's book: Hearing God, by Dallas Willard
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Brothers and sisters,
In June, I had the extraordinary privilege of spending 10 days, 10 hours a day, learning from Dallas Willard, Keith Matthews, and 20 colleagues in ministry. Pastors, youth leaders, church planters, students, and college staff came from all over the world to learn from one of the great theologians of our time. We even had a Lutheran bishop from Zimbabwe! It was supposed to be a doctoral course, but for most of us it was instead an infusion of the Holy Spirit, renovating our hearts, and transforming our ministries.
Dr. Willard's theology is immensely practical and deeply thoughtful (and sometimes hard to read), but let me give you a sound bite: Following Jesus means becoming Christlike, because you can't seriously undertake his commandments of love or fully live in the kingdom of God, otherwise. And, becoming Christlike requires daily practice -- a conscious re-forming of your soul through your own efforts and the grace of God.
We know this. Many of our message series and small group courses have centered on that truth: Strengthen Your Core, Grow, Taking the Road of Faith, and of course, the Six Marks of Discipleship. In my life, there's a lot of difference between knowing that truth and living it. I get busy. Distracted. Selfish. Lazy. Cynical. You name the demon, it's hung out in my heart. So it takes a course correction, a conscious and deliberate re-aligning of my priorities and my practice, to make me fall in line behind Jesus again.
The single most obvious trait of those who profess Christ but do not
grow into Christ-Likeness is their refusal to take the reasonable and
time-tested measures for spiritual growth. (D. Willard)
This August, I'm going to use my five years of accumulated vacation to take some time aligning. Bran and I will celebrate ten years of marriage, and will vacation a bit with our baby. Then, for whatever time is left, I want to sit in the presence of Christ, practice what he practiced, learn the scripture he knew inside out, and gaze at the glory of his father and mine.
And yours.
Loving and following,
Pastor Elane
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Things I Wish Jesus Hadn't Said and the Gospel of John
 Ever read the Bible and thought "Oh, I wish Jesus hadn't said that!"? You're not alone, and you're not wrong for thinking that: Jesus said a whole bunch of difficult things. So from June 22 - July 27, our Sunday message addresses the Things I Wish Jesus Hadn't Said.
We are also studying the Gospel of John in small groups. John is the source for a lot of those Things, so we're reading through John together. Of all the gospels, John is the one that expresses an entire view of the kingdom of God and Jesus' purpose.
No sign-up necessary - just show up!
- Sunday at 6:00 PM in the Fireside Room (for women)
- Tuesday at 6:30 PM at Pastor Elane's home (for all)
- Wednesday at 7:00 PM at Starbuck's on the Alameda (for all)
In August, we'll be hearing testimonies of hope addressing the question Am I too far gone?
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Consecration to Ministry and Gifts of Thanks
This Sunday, July 6
During Worship this Sunday, we will welcome and consecrate new Council members Debi Cosentino and Nora Menke. We will also thank outgoing Moderator Ken True and departing Council member Bob O'Connor for their hard work and devotion.
Our Ministry Coach, Bran Scott, has resigned his position to focus on supporting his wife, Pastor Elane, and their new daughter, Elisabeth, as they develop their life together with God. Pastor Bran has been an extraordinary asset to Campbell UCC, inspiring and support Ministry Team Leaders and lending his gifts and his love of Jesus to all of us..
Please join us Sunday as we share our thanks and our blessings with all these fine servants of Christ.
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Service and Fellowship Opportunities
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Relay For Life with Campbell UCC
July 12 - 13, 2008Whether it's a friend, a family member, or the neighbor down the
street, we all know someone whose life has been affected by cancer. Many of us
are concerned about this disease and want to do something to make a
difference. The American Cancer Society Relay For Life® is an
event that brings together the whole community and helps raise funds
for the fight against this disease. Campbell UCC will be sponsoring at team at the Campbell edition of Relay
for Life on July 12-13, 2008. Teresa Lewis is our Team Leader -- contact her to volunteer at our booth or to walk with us.
To
raise funds for this important outreach event, the Sunday evening women's ministry Faithful Followers is putting
together a cookbook of church community members' favorite recipes. The cookbook will be on sale at the Relay for Life and also available
through the church; price is to be determined. The team is also looking for donations for raffle prizes. They would like items connected with nutrition and fitness, such as jump ropes, exercise balls, juice machines, Whole Food gift cards, etc. Contact Teresa if you have something you can donate -- or know a sporting goods store that would donate a gift certificate!
Youth Group Lock-In
July 12 at 8 pm - July 13 at noon
In conjunction with Relay for Life, Campbell UCC's youth group is getting locked into Fireside Room Saturday night, and walking in the Relay in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Kids between 12 and 16 are welcome to attend -- and if you're over 18, we need you to chaperone all or part of the night! We'll be playing games, watching movies, eating. There may be some sleeping involved too, and everyone will be attending Worship together. To enroll your youth, or to volunteer to hang out with great kids, contact Pastor Elane |
Mark Your Calendars
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E-Waste Recycling Event - July 19
 On the heels of last April's hugely successful E-Waste recycling event, we're doing another one! On Saturday, July 19th from 9:00 AM until 2:00 PM, collection boxes for hard to recycle, re-use items and e-waste will be available in the church parking lot. To
expand your creation care, invite your friends, neighbors and
co-workers to recycle their waste, too.
We will not be able to accept hazardous household waste at this event.
Acceptable items include: televisions and computer monitors, CPUs, laptop
computers, external computer hard drives, computer keyboards,
computer mice, computer printers, DVDs and VCRs.
Don't bring these this time: Household used motor oil and oil filters, household water based paints, fluorescent tubes and
bulbs and other mercury containing lamps, mercury gauges, mercury added novelties, mercury thermostats
and non-empty aerosol cans that contained hazardous materials, etc.
You can always bring your
old batteries (up to size 'D'), CDs, DVDs, cell phones, printer
cartridges, and laptop and cell phone batteries to the church office
for recycling. |
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Hats'n'Chat Knitting Party - July 28, 7 p.m.
 If your stitches always line up neatly on the
needle and your yarn never tangles, you might feel out of place at the Hats'n'Chat
group -- but you're welcome anyway!
The purpose of this group is to make hats for the Montgomery Street
Ministry -- our Christmas gifts and party for the homeless men living
at the Montgomery Street Inn in San Jose.
Hats'n'Chat is the fourth Monday of the month,
7-9 in the Fireside Room. Materials, tools and instruction are always available. Childcare is possible with notice. Contact Susan Hough or at
737-8192 |
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Dive! into Family Worship -
Wednesday, August 6, 7 p.m.
Join us on August 6th at 7:00 for the first Wednesday of the month experiential Worship service of praise and prayer we know as Dive!. Dive! is an opportunity to dive deep into the heart of God with your brothers and sisters in Christ as we dive deep into a theme from our current series in intimate worship. Who are you connected with when you worship God? Do you know that being adopted into Christ's family gives you a whole new relationship to the family of saints and the cloud of witnesses who follow Jesus? Dive in to an experience of real family worship. |
Ice Cream Social at the Montgomery Street Men's Shelter - August 12
Church Family Campout - August 22 - 24
We'll cook, play, and worship together in the woods and under the stars. RV sites are available near the campsite. Contact Susan Hough or Teresa Lewis for more information.
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PRAISE REPORTS!
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Gay Pride Attendees Build AIDS Caregiver Kits -- and Worship God
150 AIDS Caregiver kits were built for caregivers in developing countries. Hundreds of people stopped by our Gay Pride booth, and for the first time ever, Jesus rocked the house in Worship at the Festival! Thank you to all who worked so hard to make this happen -- Debi Cosentino, John Rodgers, Bran Scott -- and all who staffed the booth or sang in praise of God. There were some transportation snafus in getting folks to worship from our campus. The team sincerely apologizes to those of you who waited and were disappointed. But God brings good out of everything -- one of you made the superb suggestion to have a member-led prayer service on campus next year. So next year, we'll worship at Pride and on campus. God always comes up with creative ways to bring us closer!
Old-Fashioned Church Family Picnic a Success
The weather cooperated and our annual church picnic was a great success! Old and new friends gathered for burgers and water balloons, football and Fritos. The luau theme meant leis for the ladies and lads. There were sack races, hula hoop contests, a "tightwire" line to wobble on, and great humor all around. Thank you to Teresa Lewis for pulling all this together!
First Couples Retreat Binds Ties
 "Marriage is a calling, a ministry we do to benefit the world and to glorify God." This was the theme of our first couples' retreat. Five couples joined with our facilitators Loren Mahon and Philip SanFilippo to pay attention to that calling, and to see ourselves as ministry teams in Christ's name. The hard talks were private between couples, and together we provided support, questions, and prayer. The retreatants thank God for this time, and highly recommend it to every other couple in the church the next time it is offered.
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Annual Budget Passed and New Council Members Affirmed
At our annual business meeting June 22, we approved the budget proposed by the Budget Committee, and affirmed the call to Council of Debi Cosentino and Nora Menke.
Over the years, we have turned our attention to developing dedicated followers of Jesus Christ, rather than on simple education about Jesus. Council and the Budget Committee agreed that to have a thoroughgoing approach to spiritual development, we need someone with experience to address the specific needs of youth and famiies. The
new budget calls for a re-imagining of our approach to Christian
Education, implementing a Youth and Family Minister (1/2-time). We also expanded Cheryl Forest Morganson's music ministry to fulltime, so that we can have more worship opportunities, increased children's participation, and some indigenous, homegrown, handwritten music that reflects us and glorifies God.
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Shelter Dinner Update - June
From the pen of Angie Jaggers: Cuttings of alstroemeria in coffee cups placed on white paper
doilies created a nice effect on all the dining room tables. We had a full house of 13 women & 15
children this month.
This month's dinner was hosted by members of our Music
Ministry Team, specifically: Susan, Larry, Mary Alice, Kim, Jeff, Laurann,
Janeth, Hollie & Cheryl. In addition
to juices, French bread & green salad, these musicians prepared quiche,
tamale pie, chicken casserole, tuna casserole & brownies. Every morsel of food was enjoyed & all the
women & children clapped their approval of the dinner.
Our gift basket provided an assortment of travel-sized
shampoos, lotions, etc. for the women to take with them. We offered the opportunity to complete prayer
request cards & several women filled them out. They will be given to Pastor Elane at our next worship
service during prayer time.
July's Shelter Dinner still needs some help. If you can bake a casserole, prepare a salad
or supply french bread or croissants, please sign up on the Welcome Table at Worship, or contact me directly. Thank you.
Angie Jaggars
Shelter Dinner Coordinator
292-4063
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Want to learn to play rhythm guitar?
The Music Ministry department is committed to nurturing future Worship leaders! Along those lines, we are expanding out from piano and drum lessons to guitar lessons as well. While the exact format is still TBD, the group-based lessons will be casual and focused on Worship music (not classical). In exchange for lessons, all participants will be asked to participate in Worship (either Sunday morning or as part of a small group ministry) as their skill set allows. Contact Cheryl Forest Morganson for more information.
If you have no desire to learn the guitar, yet have a guitar sitting unused in your garage, please consider donating it to the Music Ministry for use in Worship!
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Want to play the piano "by ear" / off of chord charts in praise of God?
The vast majority of music that is performed by Campbell UCC's instrumentalists relies on chord charts and the human ear - not on little black dots scattered across a page of music. If you are able to walk up to a piano and pick out a tune - any tune - you have the basic skills necessary to learn to read chord charts and participate in Worship as part of the Music Ministry Team!
Cheryl Forest Morganson will be offering chord chart coaching sessions starting this summer. She has a designed a program of progressive "pop piano" study based on several praise and Worship songs. These sessions are much more flexible than the piano lessons that she is offering (no practice logs or weekly commitment required) and each participant will go at his or her own pace. Advanced participants will also receive instruction in how to produce chord charts de novo.
Please contact Cheryl for more information.
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Real Faith for Real Life We should not only want to be merciful, kind, unassuming, and patient persons but also be making plans to become so.
Dallas Willard
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