Reaching Heights November 2019

Reaching Heights November 2019

Links to this month’s news:

WORSHIP AND STUDY
Worship in November
2nd Hour – Adult Study
Mid Week Bible Study – Ruth continues

FROM THE STAFF
Along the Path – Thoughts from Pastor Roger
Kate’s Cogitations

MISSION TEAM UPDATES
New Children’s Choir – From the Worship Ministry Team
Mission Ministry Team Report
Holy Currencies – from the Administration Team

UPCOMING EVENTS
Community Meal – News
Halloween Candy Collection – November 1-8

OTHER NEWS
Gift Cards for the Holidays!
Prayer List Requests

PAST EVENTS
Be a Blessing Spiritual Retreat
Community Conversation

See the Serving Schedule – Go to the church calendar

November Worship

November 3 – All Saints Sunday – “Who Are the Saints?” – Ephesians 1:11-23
2nd Hour – Grateful with Diana Butler Bass (more info below)

November 10 – “Grateful for You” – 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17
2nd Hour –  (more info below)

November 17 – “Thanks Be to God” – Isaiah 12
2nd Hour – (more info below)

November 24 – Commitment Sunday – “Content” – Philippians 4:1-13

 

Sunday Morning Adult Study – 11:30 in the Campbell Room

In her book, Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks, Diana Butler Bass “explores why gratitude is missing as a modern spiritual practice, offers practical suggestions for reclaiming it, and illuminates how the shared practice of gratitude can lead to greater connection with God, our world, and our own souls.”

This study, based around filmed interviews with Ms. Butler Bass, is a continued dialogue about what we’ve done with/how we misuse power, how to find abundance within, what it looks like to be a cooperative culture rather than competitive. Butler-Bass invites us to reorient, remember and connect—to circle around the feasting table of God together where God is ever-giving, where there is more than enough for everyone.  Led by Pastor Roger.

MidWeek Bible Study Wraps Up for Fall!

Meeting on Tuesdays at 2:00 pm. through November 12 at  3-19 Coffee located at  3427 Lee Rd. (the corner of Lee Rd. and Van Aken Blvd.

RUTH – The book of Ruth is an idealized story of what life would look like if God’s people treated each other with divine loving-kindness – insiders and outsiders alike. A key understanding in Ruth is that God uses these acts of the loving-kindness of people to demonstrate that which God gives to all, whether they realize it or not.    5 sessions

November 5         Naomi Has a Plan!
November 12      The Happy Ending

Along the Path:

Christmas is almost upon us.  I know that because Christmas merchandise is  in the stores, and our worship team is already planning for Advent.  But we’re not there yet and I would rather focus my attention on one of my favorite holidays – Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is a great holiday because, for most of us, it includes gathering with family and/or friends, great food, and a terrific theme, giving thanks! Meister Eckhart said, ‘If the only prayer you said in your entire life was thank you, that would be enough.’  And he was right!

Gratitude, gratefulness, thankfulness, are certainly what we owe God and are ways we share the currencies of relationship, wellness, and money.  They are also the theme of both our worship and adult study this month.  So come prepare your heart and soul for Thanksgiving by giving thanks in worship and study at HCC.

Kate’s Cogitations

One of my favorite aspects of my job is making connections. In my work I get to make connections between scripture and current events, between worship and daily life, between HCC’s legacy and what God might be calling us into next. I also get to make connections with people, both within HCC and the community. One of the things I love about the Cycle of Blessings approach to congregational vitality is the way it helps me make connections between different blessings and opportunities to share blessings with others. Once I start listing the blessings involved in any one program or event, I can’t stop! Each list makes me think of other blessings (sometimes in disguise), and help me realize how blessed we really are. The wonderful thing about gratitude is that it is connected to generosity (and vice versa). So I wish you blessings on your journey of discovery and connection!

 

 

 

Mission Team Report

Who Funds Community Meals?

You do!  Every time you use the blue HUNGER Fund pew envelopes, deposits are made to the Hunger Fund. And those funds allow us to support the Community Meal project.  It is that simple.
And if you are up for it, the committee can always use your physical presence to help prepare, serve, talk with guests, and cleanup.  Talk to Andrena.
You should also know our folks have attended training and we will be able to get food from the Cleveland Food Bank.  So your donations will go even further in feeding our community.
You can also give to the community meal online!  Click here to go to the community meal page on our website.  A donation button is at the bottom of the page.

Thanks for your support!

Our Next Community Meal…
is on November 16th from 12-2pm. (They take place every 3rd Saturday of the month).  Come join us to eat, help serve, set up/clean up and/or get to know someone whom you didn’t know before.

Kiwanis Halloween Candy Collection

November 1-8
HCC will serve as a drop off site for leftover Halloween candy that will then be donated to local and national charities.  This is a service project of the new Shaker Kiwanis Club that has helped with our community meal.

Holy Currencies: 6 Blessings for Sustainable Missional Ministries

This year our annual fund campaign will be part of a larger exploration of The Cycle of Blessings approach to year-round, holistic stewardship. Also called “Holy Currencies,” this was conceived by the Rev. Dr. Eric H. F. Law to help congregations move beyond “time, talent, and treasure” to create missional and sustainable ministries. These currencies are: Time & Place, Gracious Leadership, Relationship, Truth, and Wellness.  They flow and recirculate to form a Cycle of Blessings which empower us to strengthen our internal relationships as well as reach out and connect with the diverse populations in our neighborhoods. It is the flowing of these currencies that gives them value. the word currency comes from the Medieval Latin word “currentia,” which means “a flowing.” We invite you to explore how these blessings flow in your own life, and how you might share them for the benefit of all. Watch for opportunities to learn more about these blessings and how to increase their dynamism in our life together.

Currency of Time and Place – paid and volunteer time that leaders and members offer to the church. Properties from which a church operates and other properties owned or

which can be accessed by the church.

Currency of Gracious Leadership  – ability to use skills, tools, models, and processes to create gracious environments for build mutually respectful relationships across differences.

Currency of Relationship is the network of relationships, both inside the congregation and outside. It seeks balance, between internal and external foci, and between attention to tasks and attention to relationships.

Currency of Truth – ability to articulate individually and corporately the global and holistic truth, both internally – the experiences of individuals and groups within the church – and externally – the experiences of different individuals and groups in the community and beyond.

Currency of Wellness  – the state of being healthy physically, socially, economically, ecologically, and spiritually within a church or community, especially as the result of deliberate effort. Sustainable wellness requires regenerative and circulatory flow of material, human, financial, and natural resources.

Currency of Money – something generally accepted as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or as a means of payment.

Gift Cards for the Holidays in 2019

Christmas shopping can be a trying experience.  Did you buy and get everything you wanted on black Friday? Which site crashed?  Who did you forget? What about the dealing with the crowds in the brick and mortar locations?  And then the charges hit in January!

Why not try gift cards?  They let you avoid the internet, the crowed stores and the post-season credit card bills.  And you ‘giftee’ can spend them as they wish at Target or their favorite stores.

The earlier you shop for gift cards, the sooner you can sit back and relax.  We have a Special Order Form (attached and in the Campbell Room).  Special orders are accepted for pre-Christmas delivery until Tuesday  December 3, 2019. We will then place one consolidated order on 12-3 for delivery by about December 13th.   Don’t see what you want?  Please ask and we can see if it is available.  Our card vendor has Disney, airlines and other cards too numerous to mention.

Support HCC while you shop.  Get your shopping done early.  And make your life less hassled.  Gift cards are easy.

Prayer List Requests

A new procedure has been established for listing names of individuals to remember in prayer. As of September, each name will be listed on the bulletin insert for a period of one month. If anyone wishes for a name to be included for a longer period, please call the church office to continue listing that individual for a subsequent month. The list will be kept on a rolling basis. As always, the congregation of Heights Christian Church welcomes and honors any requests for prayer support.

Count Your Blessing, Be a Blessing

Our Fall Spiritual Retreat, planned by the RenewalWorks Team, used the theme of Blessings to explore gratitude for all we have been given, and inspiration for sharing blessings with others. This theme fits perfectly with our focus on the Cycle of Blessings, or Holy Currencies approach to congregational vitality and year round stewardship. As we move through the month of November, let’s count our blessings, individually and as a congregation, and let’s consider how God might be calling us to be blessings to others, in our community and in the world.

HCC hosts Community Conversation on Working Toward Racial Harmony  11/3 at 4 pm in the Campbell Room

Members of the Shaker Heights community have collectively asked how we might work toward racial harmony in our local context. HCC was pleased to host the second in a series of community events on this issue at which people shared together from their own experience and perspective about working together for the common good. This series is planned by members of Neighbor Night, the Human Relations Task Force, and the Shaker Engagement Collaborative.  Look for additional opportunities to gather in the future.

Reminder

HCC is on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and You-Tube! If you see something you like, share it on your page! This will increase our reach and may draw in our next visitor!