god is still speaking as i look at it. · god is still speaking... brookings united church of...
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God is Still
Speaking...
Brookings United Church of Christ
WWW.BROOKINGSUCC.ORG
Brookingsucc@brookings.net
605 697 2882
Rev. Wade Schemmel
Pastor
Email:
buccpastor@swiftel.net
Office Phone:
605-697-2882
Cell Phone:
701-934-2051
As I look at it. . .
“Whoever you are,
wherever you are on life’s journey, you are
welcome here”
Issue 1 January 2015 January 2015
828 8th Street South
Brookings, SD 57006
Brookingsucc.org
605.697.2882
828 8th St. South
Brookings, SD 57006
ISSUE
1
As we begin another year I would like to take this opportunity to look into the future and
share what I am seeing. Possibly you could help me to determine which of my projections is fact and
what is fiction. I would anticipate that in the coming year the United Church of Christ, Brookings
will share its faithful interpretations on some of the pressing issues facing us as a nation and as a
community. These issues may cover some of the hot button areas such as the Tar Sands pipe line,
and immigration and may also be looking at some of the more local questions such as poverty in
Brookings and relations with the Native American community in South Dakota. It is my hope that
through these issues we will be able to define our faith for ourselves and for the community. For the
Christian faith is not separate from the public arena, but rather through its interpretation of the issues
facing the public the Christian faith becomes clearer in its meaning. I would hope that the process of
looking at such public concerns is community based and involves members of the congregation and
when possible, the wider community in meaningful discussion. I would envision that if such discus-
sion is held in a clear and open manner and if clear stated conclusions are found then those decisions
would need to be shared with leadership politically, and in business. For if the faith guides us to
come to any form of definite understanding that is itself a gift that shouldn’t be kept to ourselves, but
shared with others.
I would anticipate that in the coming year we would continue to develop a style of worship
that is embracing of the whole community while sensitive to the needs of the individual. I do realize
that at first blush this may sound like talking out of both sides of my mouth. Please let me explain. It
is my hope that our worship in the coming year engages the entire community in praise and celebra-
tion. I would hope that it is an opportunity for us to join our voices and our spirits in both thanksgiv-
ing and petition, but I would hope that we do that without losing sight of the fact that we are a con-
gregation of many different types of people with many different types of needs and understandings.
We must never lose sight of the face that radical hospitality is not an excuse to hold more tightly to a
singular view but rather a challenge to open our doors and minds to viewing life through a wide lens,
and to see ourselves as the host of a very big tent.
I would also anticipate that in the coming year we will experience some numerical growth.
Churches of our type rarely grow in great leaps, but rather assume a more steady paced growth pat-
tern. I would hope that as we seek to grow numerically, we would also strive to grow in our under-
standing and commitment to the faith. For growth in numbers is of little value if our faith continues
to remains locked in its protected vision of life. My personal goal isn’t to avoid certain issues but
rather it would be my wish to explore those issues with all members that we might grow into a fuller
understanding of what God is calling forth from us. While I know that this holds some risk, I believe
it also has some benefits because I know members may hold a wide variety of views.
Finally, I am looking forward to meaningful and personal interaction with each and every
one of you who are friends and members of this congregation and community. I want to assure all of
you that my door and my spirit are always open and that I do believe through mutual conversation
and understanding we have the potential to grow as a community of faith as participants in it.
To sum this up I am looking forward to a very exciting and busy 2015. Namaste. Wade
Moderator’s Report by Jim Wilson January 2015
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 New
Year’s Day
2
Youth Movie
Night!
3
4
Adult Study 9
Worship 10
Fellowship 11
Min. Team
5
6
7
Bible Study
11:30—1
Night Out
5:30 pm
8
Outreach
Roundtable
5:30 pm
(cancelled)
9
10
11
Adult Study 9
Worship 10
Fellowship 11
Communion
12
13
Church Life
Comm. Mtg.
5:30 pm
14
Bible Study
11:30—1
Night Out
5:30pm
15
Faithful
Crafters
2pm
In the News 6:30pm
16
17
18 Adult Study 9
Worship 10
Fellowship 11 ANNUAL
MTG~
11 am
19 20
21
Bible Study
11:30-1 pm
ULC comm.
3:30pm
22
23
24
25
Adult Study 9
Worship 10
Fellowship 11
26 27
28
Bible Study
11:30-1pm
29
30
31
OK, I miscounted. I thought that the last Moderator's report was my final one. Can I just refer you to
the last newsletter? I suppose not. . . I again want to start by thanking each of you for your time, effort, and
general support of our Church. As I think back over the last two years, I do think that we have come a long
way. Are we there yet? No, but we are much more stable, not as worried about, “are we going to make it,”
and hey, we are taking in new members. Those are all positive signs and it says that we continue to fill a
need and purpose in the community. Consider all that our community of faith gets accomplished.
I believe that God is very much at work in our Church, but as I have said before, God works through
people. If you are thinking we have bitten off more than we can chew, help work on adding new members.
What is the saying? “Many hands make work light.” If you come across someone new, tell them about the
neat stuff our Church has going on. That is always easier and often better accepted than saying “hey, you
should come to Church.” I know many of us are not comfortable with asking others, but that is the best way
to get people through our doors. Wade has made that task easier with the pocket power cards that keep fall-
ing out of our bulletin each Sunday.
I remember our founding Pastor, Rev. Bob Alpers say that, “the UCC is considered the Church of last
resort.” Some may consider that to mean that we are at the bottom or the least among Churches, but I believe
that we don't believe in a small God and by not putting God in a box our Church makes a relationship with
God available for all. In my opinion, we need to come to church as children of God. That should be the only
criteria. Let's go forward this year to provide a place ALL children are comfortable, no matter their place on
the spectrum. Whether left, right, north, south, east, or west I believe all are welcome to Christ's presence in
our Church
I truly pray that as we live, work, and play together, that we as a congregation will grow and continue
to strengthen as we move through our new year. Thank you for the opportunity to be your Moderator.
NOTES FROM THE DECEMBER CHURCH COUNCIL MEETING
Don Marshall has agreed to be the new Financial Secretary for the church. Thanks Don!
New ministry teams are being chosen, but haven’t been finalized yet so we’ll continue with
the current ministry teams for January. Each new ministry team will choose their leader
when they meet the first time.
Open & Affirming will be voted on at the next annual meeting coming up on January 18th.
Kathy Apland agreed to stay on the Church Connection Commission for another term, but we
still need one more council member to serve on the commission.
Pastor Wade would like the church to consider organizing a mission trip.
The council is deciding whether to adopt a child through the church using the Global Minis-
tries program.
Darlene Dokken has been hired by the church to assume the custodial duties.
Trifon Theodosopoulos has been hired to remove the snow this winter in the parking lot and
on the sidewalks. By: Ruby Wilson
January 18th: Annual Meeting
Following the service of worship January 18th
the United Church of Christ, Brookings will
gather for its Annual Meeting. The meeting
will take place immediately after the service
of worship and will be followed by a pot luck
dinner. All members and friends are invited to
come and be a part of the process of exam-
ining the past and envisioning the future. An-
nual reports are in the process of being put
together. If you have any other reports ready,
please send them to the church office email
brookingsucc@brookings.net as soon as pos-
sible or contact Terri at 697.2882. Thank You.
We’re looking forward to a great New Year!
Native American Honors Offering
On the first Sunday of February, February 1st a special offering will be taken to assist the Native American Cen-ter on the SDSU campus to support the American Indian graduates this coming spring. Each year the center gives a quilt and a stole to each Native American graduate. This is a cost of approximately $300 for each student. We would invite you to be generous on February 1st when we receive this very important and helpful offer-ing.
Welcome Terri and Darlene
As we begin 2015 we welcome to new members to the United Church of Christ, Brookings family. We give a special welcome to Terri Logan who is the church secretary. Terri works Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons be-ginning at 2:00 pm. Darlene Dokken works approximately 3 – 4 hours per week as the in house custodian. This position takes some stress off of the worship teams. It is with pleasure that we welcome both Darlene and Terri to the church staff.
Dear Friends of Brookings Backpack Project,
We would like to extend a big thank you to those who have helped
us already this school year. The time and generosity that our sup-
porters and volunteers give amazes us each and every day! We are
about to start the second half of the school year and currently
have volunteer opportunities available. Please respond by either
text or email if you are interested in helping Brookings Backpack
Project finish the school year strong!
Packing Bags:
When: Wednesdays at 6:00pm
Where: BBP Staging Site (216 W. 2nd St. S.)
Number of Volunteers: 10-15 per night (you can sign up just yourself or an entire group)
How Long: About an hour Comments: This is a good opportunity to do a volunteer task as a group with BBP! Unwrapping Food Shipments & Prep for Packing:
When: Mondays at 6:00 pm Where: BBP Staging Site
Number of Volunteers: 3-5 How Long: About ½- 1 hour
Comments: Although this does not involve much lifting, some of the food items are heavy, so
please be sure that you can lift heavy canned items and such before you sign up for this task.
Pickup & Delivery of Fruit:
When: Each Wednesday (consistent time can be worked out) Where: Pick up the fruit from SDSU Dining Services & deliver it to the BBP Staging Site
Number of Volunteers: 1-2 How Long: ½-1 Hour Comments: We usually get about 6-7 cases of fruit. Again, you need to have a vehicle that is
able to transport the cases of fruit. It would also be nice to have one or two people doing this regularly so that the Dining Services are used to the same people each week & do not have to
wonder from week to week who is coming.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about these opportunities.
Remember, our Packing Parties fill up very quickly!!
Ashley Dahl, Volunteer Coordinator
605-690-6396
Celebrate! Birthdays in January...
3 Elecsia Dokken
5 Rod Steele
12 Christie Delfanian
Tayla Dobrenski
13 Helen Andersen
16 Craig Treiber
18 Don Marshall
23 Katie Marshall
29 Zachery Treiber
Open and Affirming The Path to Open and Affirming is open:
During the upcoming Annual Meeting the United Church of Christ Brookings will vote on becoming Open and Affirming. This is a very important vote for it places before us the opportunity to open our ministry to a group of people that at the present time have no real home in our community. Each one of us have the op-portunity to determine if our faith calls us to vote yes or no on the issue of guiding our congregation to become accepting of the LGBT community. If any have ques-tions or thoughts they would like to ex-plore prior to the meeting please feel free to contact the church office that we might find a time for conversation.
217 4TH Street
BROOKINGS, SD 57006
605.692.5007
IMMEDIATE NEEDS: Crackers Hamburger Helper
Peanut Butter
Peaches
Sugar
Scallop or Au gratin Potatoes
Carrots
Kidney Beans
Spaghetti O’s
Egg Noodles
HARVEST TABLE:
A warm-no-cost meal served every Monday
night from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm at the First
United Methodist Community Life Center,
The meal is offered for anyone in the com-
munity looking for good food and fellow-
ship! Call 692-4345 with questions.
FEEDING
BROOKINGS
Bags of food are distributed
every Thursday from 4:00—5:00 p.m. at the
Ascension Lutheran Church
2030 3rd Street 692-6565
January food item of the month:
Pasta & Rice
If you have participated in the weekly Harvest Table,
you know that it is more than a hot meal for those in
need. They also distribute food stuffs and supplies
for families to get through the week, such as soap,
toothpaste, diapers and baby wipes to name a few.
The number of people being served each week has
grown significantly over the last few years. In July
285 people were served a hot meal, grocery items
were distributed to 145 households, 110 packages of
diapers and baby wipes were handed out to families
all at no cost to the families. The cupboards are
BARE!! The Harvest Table is desperately in need of
supplies. Non-perishable foods, (canned goods, pas-
ta, rice, peanut butter, beans, cereal, baby food, for-
mula, fruits and juice, canned meat and other pantry
staples), personal care items (soap, toothpaste and
brushes, shampoo, mouthwash), baby supplies
(diapers and baby wipes are especially needed), pa-
per goods (paper towels, toilet paper). The needs
run the gamut. If you need it for your house, the
Harvest Table probably needs it as well. If you aren’t
sure what is most needed, money is always “the right
size and color.” With your tax-deductible donations,
the Harvest Table staff can shop for what is needed
the most. Thank you for your support. If you have
questions, contact Vonda Kirkham, Harvest Table
Director, 692 4345.
Youth Group Update:
The UCC Youth spend a night at the Movies:
January 2nd was movie night at the United Church of Christ, Brookings. The evening was complete with pizza, pop and good fellowship. Following a time of exploring what one brought into the New Year and what one was going to discover in it, the movie began. The group snuggled down on the bean bags and watched a movie that had been agreed upon. As the night ended all agreed that it was a good evening together and a good way to begin the New
What is the Faithful Response?
Ash Wednesday is Feb-ruary 18th and Easter is April 5th/ in between these two dates we have Lent. Lent is a time set
aside for the purpose of growing in our understanding of the faith, its history and its impact today. During the Eve-nings following Ash Wednesday pro-grams will be held on the theme “A Faithful Response”. We will look at some of the hot button issues of the day from a faith perspective and then make our decision. The exact times and dates are yet to be decided.
Pantry is open:
Monday, Wednesday & Friday
1:00 - 4:30pm
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