St Paul Church

Just a reminder that the times for Sunday School and Worship will change this Sunday, May 6th. Sunday School will begin at 9am with Worship at 10am. We look forward to seeing you!

Now that we’ve gotten a taste of Spring or more so Summer, we’re excited to start that dreaded clean-up after a long winter! If that’s you, start digging into those closets, dresser drawers, cupboards, garages and even the basement for the church garage sale!

You may drop off your clean, neatly packed and sorted items for the garage sale beginning on Saturday, April 21st through noon on April 25th.

Here are two helpful hints for sorting your items:

1. Separate clothes into bags/boxes marked as women, girls, men, boys and infants.
2. Put all household items in a separate box.

These two minor requests will make the jobs of those sorting and setting up much easier.

We will again be offering a Bake Sale and Lunch Stand. There will be sign up sheets for donations passed around as the date gets closer.

If anyone is interested in helping this year, there will be a sign up sheet with specific working times for you to sign up.

If you would like flyers to distribute at your place of work or business, they will be on the table under the bulletin board soon.

Any questions, please call the church office.

Thank you in advance for all your help with this project!

The church is in need of a wheelchair. If you have one that is in good condition that you’d be willing to donate to the church, please contact Ralph Jones.

Confirmation Sunday will be on May 6th during our 10am worship service. Please plan to be in attendance for this special service.

If you have not had a chance to enjoy an evening of dessert and fellowship with Pastor Scott and Sue, April 29th will be your chance. Join them at the parsonage beginning at 6:30pm. There is a sign up sheet posted on the bulletin board for those wishing to attend.

Just a reminder that the times for Sunday School and Worship will change on Sunday, May 6th. Sunday School will begin at 9am with Worship at 10am. Please mark your calendars now!

The annual meeting of the Northern Illinois Fellowship of the CCCC will be held on Saturday, June 2, 2012 at the First Congregational Church in Peru, IL. Pastor Scott has a wedding commitment that day so the Council would like to encourage someone from the church to serve as our representative. The event begins with worship at 10:30am, followed by a potluck luncheon and then the annual business meeting. If you’d be interested in attending this meeting, please contact the church office.

Another active and productive year of AWANA has come to a close, though the WORD hidden into the hearts of our wonderful students will continue to be a treasure without measure in their lives! We would like to thank all of the families who brought their children throughout this school year! We deeply appreciate your commitment to your children’s spiritual growth!

THANK YOU, too, to our wonderful core of volunteers, without which our AWANA club could not function! We are blessed at St. Paul with so many who give of themselves in countless ways to encourage and mentor our young people. Listed below are those who were involved with the program this year:

• Commander: Deanna Babler
• Secretary: Paula Rainwater
• Games: Duane Schurch & Loren Ludeking
• Puggles: Cheryl Bradt, Adam & Christina Boyer, Jan & Joe Boyer, Brooks Henneman
• Cubbies: Dianne Meinert, Pat Smith
• Sparks: Karen Kleckner, Cathy Ludeking, Joanne Meinert, Sue Naevestad, April Zettle, Sal Kuhlmeier
• T&T: Jim Kleckner, Merlin Meinert, Diane Schurch
• Set-up Crew: Wayne Blocker Sr.
• Opening & Closing Program Leader: Diane Schurch
• Pastoral Support: Rev. Scott Naevestad
• Missionary: JP Morgan

To everyone from the congregation that contributed toward the financial support of AWANA, prayed for our young people, invited a child to participate, visited during a Wednesday evening club meeting or in any other way gave of your time – we are very thankful for you!

The Board of Christian Education met on March 6th at 6:30pm, discussing the following:

• Secretary and Treasurer reports read and approved with a treasury balance of $2901.96.

Old Business

• Easter update – Pre-K – 5th grade will have an Easter parade for the church during the Sunday School hour. Parents are encouraged to stay for a time of light refreshments and a brief survey as the children prepare for the parade.
• Sunday School Department update – the K-5th grade teachers will be teaching about the “Fruits of the Spirit” for the summer Sunday school. The preschool class is looking for an additional helper. If you’d be interested in serving in this way, please talk with Valerie Wymer or Kristi Krahmer for details.

New Business

• Salvation Army collection for April will be a general collection. Thanks to those that continue to support this mission.
• Updates for the Jr. Superintendent, Assistant Jr. Superintendent, Adult Superintendent and Assistant duties were updated and presented to the board. Binders will be made for these positions as well as others that can be passed on to future members.
• VBS date and theme have been set: July 23-27 and will be a Son Surf Beach Bash.

Other topics discussed were:

• Awana
• Need for sub-committee for the BOCE
• Teacher Appreciation for Sunday School and Awana – set for April 22nd during worship
• High School Graduate Recognition – May 20th during worship
• Clean up of nursery toys and a wish list for the memorial committee
• Establishing a game closet for Sunday School and Youth Fellowship use. April will order games.
• Approved purchasing new items for the Pre-K-5th grade Birthday Box.

Next meeting set for April 3rd at 6:30pm.

The Youth Fellowship will be leading our Easter Sunrise service on April 8th at 7:30am. The service will be followed by breakfast. Please sign up on the bulletin board so that we can plan accordingly. Thank you for supporting the youth of St Paul.

St Paul will have a Relay for Life team this year at the American Cancer Society’s event at Aquin High School on June 15th. If you’re interested in joining our team, we plan to meet after worship on Sunday, April 1st. We need to get registered as soon as possible to ensure our spot and participants t-shirts. Contact April Zettle if you’re interested in joining our team!

Women’s Fellowship will meet April 4th at 1:30pm. Shirley Goeke will give the lesson and Joanne Meinert will serve refreshments. We are studying Women of the New Testament and this month we will learn more about Sapphira. All ladies are welcome!

Youth Fellowship will meet Saturday, April 7th at 4pm to set-up and prepare for our Sunrise service and breakfast. We’ll have pizza and pop while we work, so join us when you can. Watch your emails for items that we’ll need for the breakfast!

We will also plan to meet Sunday, April 15th and 29th at 6pm at the church for a time of fun fellowship and study. Hope to see you there!

The Church Council met on March 20th and discussed the following:

• Heard reports from the following committees: Board of Christian Education, Finance, Cemetery. Mission Committee will meet April 10th and the Worship Committee did not meet.
• Appointed Christina Boyer to the Board of Christian Education to finish the term of Deanna Terpstra, due to her recent move. This term will expire August 31, 2012.
• Approved the recommendation from the Cemetery COuncil to award the mowing bid to Mark Mashaw. His contract will start April 1st.
• Pastor Scott gave dates that he will be away from the pulpit and will being working on Pulpit Supply for those dates. Denny Buss will preach on May 27th while Pastor Scott is in NY for Kyle’s college graduation.

Next meeting was set for April 17th at 7pm.

The first two Sundays in April are very busy with music for St Paul Church. Our service for Palm Sunday will include various choirs as part of the service. For that reason the practice schedule for the last week of March includes: Bell Choir (6:45pm) and Women’s Choir (7:30pm) on Wed. evening, March 28th. Senior Choir (7:30pm) and Men’s Chorus (8:15pm) will rehearse, Thursday, March 29th. There is just too much activity to try to do all four on one evening.
Senior Choir will practice Wednesday, April 4th at 7:30pm for the Easter Sunday service.

Junior Choir will plan to sing April 29th and will practice the two Sundays before.

At this point the rest of the schedule for April is still open. Watch Sunday bulletins for announcements of who will be singing and which Sunday. There are five Sundays in April so there are openings for other music as well.

The Board of Christian Education continues to sponsor monthly food drives for The Salvation Army and for the month of April we will be collecting any non-perishable food items, paper products and personal hygiene items, or anything else you wish to bring. As always, thank you for your continued support of this outreach to our local communities.

The Stateline Ministerial Association will host a Good Friday worship service at Indian Grove Country church beginning at 1pm. Pastor Dan DeSchoolmeester will share the message. There will be a monetary offering at this service and will go to support the Rockford Rescue Mission.

St Paul will share in a Maundy Thursday soup and service with Communion on April 5th beginning at 6pm. There will be a sign up sheet passed during worship and then placed on the bulletin board. Please sign up if you plan to attend as this will help us better prepare for this service.

The Freeport Choral Society will present its spring concert Sunday, March 25th at 3pm at St John UCC Church in Freeport. Featured will be a combined bell and choral rendition of the hymn, “How Can I Keep From Singing?” A combo will accompany the chorus with several dance songs of the 40s and 50s. It is more of a pops concert and not heavy with choir music being sung. Come and enjoy!

The annual reports are now available in the Narthex. Please pick one up to review it before the annual meeting (on the 22nd).

If you’d like one mailed (or emailed) to you, please contact the church office.

After dealing with repeated computer issues, I finally managed to get the sermon online from when Justin Schlueter led Sunday Worship back in August. My apologies for the lengthy delay. I hope to get a video clip of it online soon. Meanwhile, check out the audio version at http://stpaulchurch-davis.org/sermons/?sermon_id=17.

The following dates have been set regarding the 2011 Annual Meeting:

• December 31, 2011 – Church books close. All recorded membership contributions should be made by this date.
• January 4, 2012 – All committee reports for the Annual Report due to the office.
• January 8, 2012 – Annual Reports ready for pickup at the church or received via email.
• January 22, 2012 – Potluck and Annual Meeting following worship.
• January 23, 2012 – 7pm Council meeting with newly elected members attending
• January 29, 2012 – Installation of newly-elected council members

Please be in prayer as to how God may be calling you to serve at St. Paul. The Nominating Committee has met and will be looking for members to serve on the Church Council and various other committees. Should you be asked to serve, please take the time to pray about it and see if this is where God is asking you to serve.

December is a month that keeps the music program at St. Paul busy. We need to thank all who were a part of the various services during that month. Thank you for finding time in your schedules to participate. There were some new surprises with the choices of music from the bells, organists and accompanists, and assistance with percussion instruments.

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!

We will be putting together a new address and telephone directory for 2012 and would like current addresses, telephone numbers and emails for those of you that may have updates. If you’ve canceled your home phone and are using only a cell phone, we need to know that, too. Please call or email the church office by January 16th with these changes. The 2012 directory will be available the first Sunday in February.