Growing the Church - Reece's Peace's

Last month I was scheduled to speak at our prayer breakfast. Unfortunately, do the rising COVID cases, the breakfast was postponed until November.

However, I still want to give a little information about the breakfast topic to prepare you for the November breakfast.

Here are four basic questions about church growth:

Why should the church grow?

-        For the benefit of people not attending. Our church has something special and we need to invite people so they too can experience our church.

Who do we want to join?

-        The basic answer is anyone, but we are focusing on certain groups. The three groups that we're focused on growing are empty nesters or almost empty nesters, couples without children or with very young children, and retirees. We have the most ability to provide programming for these people and therefore can probably provide them the most benefit. However, they are by no means the only people we want to join.

How do we get new people to come?

-        It is a church-wide effort. It can't be something done by just staff or a select few members. It's something that we all need to come together to do. There are four main ways people can come to know our church. By a personal invitation, social media post, online search or research into our church, or by driving by. These four are in order from the most likely to succeed to the least likely to succeed. When personally invited, people are very likely to attend our church. Meanwhile, people who drive by often just drive by. However, they are also in order from most difficult to least difficult. It takes lots of effort to personally invite someone to come to our church while it takes no effort on our part for someone to drive by. The harder you work the greater the reward.

What do we do after they come?

-        It is important to not overwhelm visitors, but we also need to make them feel wanted. Be friendly but not overbearing. Most visitors arrive before church starts and leave immediately after, if not before it ends. When you see them it's important to ask them a few questions. Why are they here? Are they looking for a new church or are they just visiting the city? Invite them to fill out one of the visitor contact inserts and make sure you invite them to a fellowship event happening at the church later on.

The Story Behind the Hymn: ”Now Thank We All Our God” - Marc's Music Notables

Written by Alissa Davis is a Master of Sacred Music student at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. She studies hymnology with Dr. C. Michael Hawn, University Distinguished Professor of Church Music, Perkins School of Theology.

For modern American Protestant churchgoers, the hymn “Now thank we all our God,” likely conjures up an image of a congregation singing in unison, a pipe organ blasting away at a stately tempo, and a church full of people thinking about the approaching feast of stuffed turkey with cranberry sauce. In order to understand where this hymn came from, I would like to offer a very different image: A minister and his family sing this hymn before dinner to thank God for the scraps of food they have on the table in their meager home in a desolate refugee city that is afflicted with famine and disease and war. Since the earliest projected date for this hymn is 1636 and the oldest known date is 1663, this hymn was certainly written during or soon after the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648).

Martin Rinckart (1586-1649) was an accomplished musician who studied at the University of Leipzig and then spent most of his career as a musician and archdeacon in the city of Eilenburg during the Thirty Years’ War. British Hymnologist J.R. Watson accounts that as one of the last surviving ministers in the city, Rinckart had to stretch personal resources to take care of refugees and spend most of his time performing nearly fifty funerals per day at the height of the plague. This experience during the Thirty Years’ War had a profound impact on Rinckart’s poetry, just as it did for his hymn writer contemporaries. Lutheran scholar Carl Schalk observes that unlike the objective hymn texts of the Reformation period, the “cross and comfort” hymnody of the time reflected life situations of the people with greater metrical regularity, smoother language, and a theology relatable to everyday life.

The text of the first two stanzas are based on Sirach 50:22-24: “Now therefore bless ye the God of all, which only doeth wondrous things everywhere, which exalteth our days from the womb, and dealeth with us according to his mercy. He grants us joyfulness of heart, and that peace may be in our days in Israel forever (KJV).”

The first stanza is a depiction of a bounteous and gracious God who has blessed us and provided for us. The text is propelled forward by the phrases beginning with “who/whom” and ending in descriptors of God’s actions (anaphora):

who wondrous things has done, in whom this world rejoices; who from our mothers’ arms….

For someone in Rinckart’s dire situation, this expression of abundant gratitude might seem like hyperbole. If you don’t live in constant fear of starvation, the plague, and invading armies, you are already quite a bit more fortunate than he; and yet, he expands this description of God into the second stanza by bridging the two with similar ideas (anadiplosis) “countless gifts” at the end of the first stanza with a “bounteous God” at the beginning of stanza two.

The second stanza of the hymn moves to the future, praying for guidance and a continuation of thanks and praise:

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us, with ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us; and keep us still in grace, and guide us when perplexed; and free us from all ills, in this world and the next.

The second stanza also employs the poetic device of anaphora by beginning each phrase with “and” in three successive phrases: “and keep us…,” “and guide us…,” “and free us….” The three verbs are arranged in an implied chronological order that leads up to the final phrase “this world and the next.”

The third and final stanza brings the hymn to a close by acting as a German Gloria Patri (Lesser Doxology), which offers praise to all Persons of the Trinity and acknowledges God’s eternal nature in the last line.

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given; the Son, and him who reigns with them in highest heaven, the one eternal God, whom earth and heaven adore; for thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

Cheddar Harvest Pear Pie - Cheryl’s Favorite Food Memories

In fall, since my college days at the Purdue Ag farm, I always think of the pear and apple harvest. My days were early and very chilly as I worked along side Professor Hayden on the various apple and pear cultivars, From picking to tasting we would score them on firmness, juiciness, and taste. I learned the various components that make a great fruit for eating vs making cider vs baking. I also had a mind for if the flavor would compliment cheddar cheese as the two were frequently my snack. Especially since the apples were free to this poor college student and the cheese was cheap from the Ag farm store.  Later when I spent my first thanksgiving with my husband’s family, my father-in-love made this incredible pie. I frequently sub out apples for pears when I cannot find perfectly ripe pears. Its always so yummy I make two at a time so that I don’t have to share mine.

sMILESnBlessings, Cheryl

Cheddar Harvest Pear Pie

Ingredients for 8 Servings

Filling:

Unbaked pastry for a 9-inch single crust pie.

4 to 6 large fresh pears 5 to 6 cups

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon salt

Topping:

1/2 cup sifted flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar

2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese (I use Vermont Sharp white)

1/4 cup melted butter

Directions

¨ Pare, core and slice pears to measure 5 cups.

¨ Add lemon juice.

¨ Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt.

¨ Mix with pears and turn into pie shell.

¨ Prepare topping by combining flour, salt, sugar, cheese and melted butter until crumbly.

¨ Sprinkle topping on pears.

¨ Bake on low rack in a 425-degree oven for about 25-30 minutes or until pears are tender and crust is crisp and golden brown.

¨ Serve warm topped with ice cream or whipped cream, if desired.

How Often Should We Read Our Bibles? - Kayla's Korner

We should be reading our Bibles every day. I know it can be hard to read every day when we have the dishes to be done, the laundry to fold, an eight-hour shift to work. Something my aunt made a requirement for me to graduate high school was to read the Bible from Genesis all the way to Revelation. Not many Christians today, can say that they have read the Bible cover to cover.

It’s honestly your choice how long you want to spend reading your Bible and meditate on it. Some spend 5 mins; others spend 20 mins. That is your decision. Pick up the Bible this month and make it a habit to read either in the morning or at nighttime. Watch your life begin to change and watch God start using you more.

Blessings Kayla Beeler

2 Timothy 3:16-17

“16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

Two Balloons - Reece's Peaces

Two people were given balloons. They were filled with air but not helium. They were given simple instructions: don't let it touch the floor and you can't hold it with one hand for longer than a second. 

The first person began focusing their attention on the balloon, tapping it to keep it up. Tap, tap, tap, with vigilant effort they kept the balloon bouncing up and down. 

The other volunteer began to tap it, but they weren't just tapping it to keep it up. They tapped it over in the direction of a door in another room. They walked while they tapped and moved it over to another room. 

When they returned their balloon was floating high, filled with helium. 

The first person said, “That's not fair!” 

The second replied, “The instructions were only to keep the balloon in the air and only touch it with one hand for no longer than a second. I was able to follow both of those rules as I filled it up with helium.” 

At first glance, the first person’s attempt of tapping away at it can seem nobler. Yet the second person’s strategy would last far longer with less effort and would undoubtedly win the day. You can only tap for so long. 

In our lives, we try to do things the hard way, often because we think it's the only way. However, when we re-evaluate and take a step back, we can see that there are sometimes much easier and better ways to approach a problem.  

Before Christ, there were many commandments and rules that faithful people needed to follow. With Christ we now have the great commandment: love the Lord with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul, and love your neighbor as yourself.