January 2012 has five Sundays so I am suggesting that for New Year’s Day, we leave that open for special music and not a choir.

We will have Senior Choir practice on Wednesday, January 4th at 7:30pm and then sing for the January 8th service. The Women’s Choir, if desired, could sing January 15th and the Men on January 22nd. Watch for announcements of rehearsals in the Sunday bulletins.

Let us hope that the January weather will be mild as well, so that we can proceed with these plans. It has been great so far this winter. Let us start off the New Year right!

The choirs have been asked to be part of the special November 6th Patriotic Concert at St. Paul. Rehearsals are being planned to meet this deadline. Watch for announcements from the various directors for these practices.

The Bell Choir plans to practice at 7pm on Wednesday, November 2nd followed by the Senior Choir at 8pm, and the Men at 8:30pm. Not sure what the Women’s Choir is doing at this point yet, but will let everyone know when something is decided.

We are looking for more people to be involved with our choir program. We are flexible with our rehearsals and try to arrange that you will know what we are working on if you can’t make it at times.

See you at the next practice!

For the past couple of weeks I have encouraged you to invite family and friends to the Patriotic Concert. Personal invitation is important. The following is shared with permission from my son, Todd. It is a portion of his blog titled “R.S.V.P.”

This idea came to me last week Thursday. I was supposed to meet some friends in the Dining Commons to go see the Lion King in 3D. Side note for context, Thursday in DC is also the meeting for Living Waters. Living Waters is a weekly gathering for spiritual renewal. It has sermons and testimonies, and then they move into that “wacky” Christian stuff, like healing and prophesying. I say “wacky,” meaning “uncommon.” I have never really seen this kind of thing in action. Anyhow, back to my story. I got there and couldn’t find them. It seemed like they were gone. I heard what was going on, and usually, I would duck out and go back to my dorm. However, my friend, Jessica invited me to sit with her. I’m glad that she did. I listened and was interested by the speaker’s talk about brokenness, and after, I sat in on a session of prophesying. I’m still curious about it, but a lot of it seemed very important to the person we were asking insight for.

I could (and probably will) get into an article about these spiritual gifts, but this update is just going to talk about invitation. Inviting someone in is a powerful think. I would have left that Thursday if I hadn’t has someone friendly invite me in. How strange is that? I didn’t want to be in a Christian meeting without the presence of someone I consider a friend. Having a friend ask you to be there makes an experience that might have been uncomfortable originally, a time of comradery. Imagine if you were to go to a party on your won, it would be awkward, you might know people, but you would be there because you wanted to be, not because you were asked. If someone invites you, however, it sets you at ease, and gives you an anchor. The person who invited you is someone you can rely on, and from there, branch out to others.

This whole thing really drives home a need that Christians should fulfill. If we invited more people, more friends, to church or to our church gatherings who knows what would happen. The benefits could be numerous. People may just feel awkward about going to a church or bible study on their own, and if someone invites them to join them, they feel included. What do we have to be afraid of? We aren’t trying to drag them kicking and screaming to our churches, but bring them in as friends. I believe that if we I invite them to join us, mre will take up our offers. We don’t always have to be the ones to change them, just the ones to show them where they can find answers. Invitations are powerful, and they can really help change someone’s mind about a given situation.

Let’s just not invite people to those snake handling services, that might might not be a good idea.

Just something to chew on.

So whether it is the Patriotic concert, Sunday worship or Sunday school, a bible study or choir, Women’s Fellowship or just catching a Christian movie…all of us should be Andrews and invite people along.

God Bless you – Pastor Scott

P.S. Todd’s blog spot is on the web at http://alatenightcupofsoup.blogspot.com/

The Senior Choir will be singing September 25th instead of October 2nd, which is a change. We will probably try to work in a practice October 26th at 7:30pm to prepare music for November and December.

The Men will sing October 16th and will get together October 12th at 7:30pm to practice. The Junior Choir will probably be singing October 23rd and will practice during Sunday school. We will need to see when Bonnie plans to start Bell Choir and also figure out what the Women’s Choir will be doing as well.

To start with, various choirs will be practicing the evening of April 1st for Palm Sunday. The Women will rehearse at 7pm, the Seniors around 7:45pm, and the Men will work their time in around 7:30pm. The Junior Choir will practice on Sunday, March 29th at 10:10am. Palm Sunday is April 5th and is observed as a music Sunday in our congregation.

For Easter, April 12th, the Juniors plan to sing as well as the Senior Choir. This will all add to our festive Easter service. The Senior Choir will practice Wednesday, April 8th at 7pm.

The Men will sing April 19th and will probably practice April 15th at 7:30pm. April 26th is Confirmation Sunday. A special group of young people will provide music for that service. The Bells will work out their own schedule and be sure to check with Bonnie on the times and dates.

This is a time of year when more people can be found attending church. Invite your friends to be a part of these important services of the church year.

• Senior Choir will practice Thursday, February 26th  at 7pm. We are due to sing Sunday, March 1st. The reason practice is planned for Thursday is to avoid the conflict with the Ash Wednesday service at Dakota UMC. We will be working on music for Palm Sunday and Easter as well. This is the start of another busy season for church activities as well as school events.
• The Women’s Chorus will practice March 4th at 7:30pm for Sunday, March 8th.
• Men’s Chorus will practice Thursday, March 12th at 7:30pm. They will be singing March 15th.

At this point, the next two Sundays are open. One of them will probably be the bells but will need to hear from Bonnie and what is scheduled.

The evening of March 25th should be a night when several of the choirs may be rehearsing for Palm Sunday. Watch the Sunday bulletins for times.

A reminder to everyone that Palm Sunday is April 5th this year. This is our usual service with all choirs participating. Dates like this creep up on us quickly so I am reminding our choir members to mark their calendars.

There were six of our bell choir members and Lonny who attended the “Agape Ringers” concert in Rockford on February 22nd.  We were greatly impressed by what we saw and heard. The church was packed and Rockford is fortunateto be able to schedule their appearance because they are in great demand!

The Freeport Choral Society will hold its spring concert Sunday, March 29th at 3pm at St. John UCC, Freeport. The program consists of sacred and secular music fitting for the season. A bell choir will be part of the program. Hope that some from our congregation can attend and enjoy the music of the season.

January’s schedule starts out with the Senior Choir practicing December 30th at 7pm. That is a Tuesday, but figured people would not want to do it on New Year’s Eve. We are due to sing January 4th.

If all goes according to schedule, the Women’s Choir would be singing January 11th and the Men on the 18th. The Men’s Chorus should practice January 14th at 7:30pm if possible. The women should check with Lois to see what their schedule for rehearsal will be.

With that in mind, the Senior Choir will practice this Wednesday evening, Nov. 17th at 7pm. The music we are preparing will be for December 7th and 14th. Other rehearsals will be Dec. 3rd and 10th. Watch the Sunday bulletins for the exact times depending on when other choirs will be practicing. The Women’s Choir will meet briefly after worship this Sunday, November 23rd to decide if they will be singing on the 21st. They will also be practicing on December 10th at 7:45pm for Music Sunday.

Our special music Sunday will be Dec. 14th. Amy will be available that weekend with the Jr. Choir. All choirs should be participating in that service. Again, I would encourage our members to invite guests to be with us for that Sunday. With that change, it might be possible for the Women to sing Dec. 21st and the Men on Dec. 28th. We will need to check with Lois and Merlin.

Plans are being made for the 11pm Christmas Eve candlelight service and we are looking for people that would be willing to provide music for that service. Contact Ron Welling or Mary Jane Zimmerman with your suggestions. It is a beautiful service and it has a lot of meaning on a December night.

If you are like us, we like to attend special Christmas programs during the season. There are all types depending upon your interests and it makes the season more meaningful. We hope that you can find some time to do the same and enjoy anything from a school program to professional one.

One change is that we will practice Wednesday night, October 1st following Awana. (There are several choir members who will be here that night anyway, so why schedule them to come back the next evening?) This should help to conserve car costs and when the weather turns cold, could reduce heating costs as well. We will try it this month and see how choid members like this arrangement.

The Women’s Choir will be singing October 12th and will be practicing on Wednesday, October 8th at 7:30 PM after Awana.

The Men’s Chorus will rehearse October 16th at 7:30 PM and sing on October 19th.

Junior Choir should be singing this month on October 26th. Amy will inform the kids when she plans to rehearse. Watch for announcements in the bulletin.

We could use more choir members. Just come and join us if possible and be a part of the choral program here at St Paul.

We will start with the Senior Choir singing May 4th, with a rehearsal on Thursday, May 1st, around 7 PM. The anthem has been selecdted and the group tried it out last month.

The Women’s Chorus will probably sing for May 11th, unless there is other special plans for that Sunday. They should be practicing May 8th at 7 PM. There has been talk about having another Mother-Daughter Choir for May 11th, so watch for details.

The Men’s Chorus will be singing May 18th, with a rehearsal on May 15th at 7:30 PM.

At this point, I am not sure what is on schedule for May 25th, which is part of Memorial Day weekend. I do know that we usually have a special service in the cemetery honoring our veterans after our regular church service.

The Worship Committee is busy scheduling music for the Sundays this summer. If you have a special choice or someone you would like to see on the summer schedule, tell one of the committee members so that we can contact them.

I have not heard anything about a community choir for dakota’s Baccalaureate service on May 19th, so check for such announcements in the local papers and in our church bulletins.