Shelf Life

A big thank you goes out to Cathy B. and Jane D. for their work this morning on the Vacation Bible School (VBS) material. They got it all organized and put on the new shelves in the storage room–thank you so much ladies!

There is some leftover shelf space up there and there's talk of using it for seasonal church decorations. These shelves (and the efforts applied to them) have turned out to be a real blessing to keep that room organized and orderly. Thanks again!

Operation Christmas Child

We are collecting shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child again this year. Our goal is 100 shoe boxes, due on November 11. A table is set up in the back of our sanctuary for these boxes and if you have any questions you can ask our MOPS ladies or consult this FAQ.

Help Shelve VBS, Reminder

Don't forget about the work day tomorrow at 9am to organize our VBS material. Click this link to see the original post.

All About Church

Here are some sermon notes from last April about the Church. We're inviting people this
week to consider membership with our church family. It's not that the Church is pushing our congregation over another, but if you're going to worship here, then we want you to belong and relate and serve and be served. And sometimes the only obstacle to really belonging is that we are keeping the others at arms length in some sense.

If you're wanting to join please contact me (Jared Altic) as soon as possible so we can plan a time to talk.

Top Ten Truths the Preacher Wishes People Knew About Church:

The Nature of the Church

• It's a group plan, get used to it. Nobody gets to fly solo. (1Cor 12:12-27)
• It's not my church, it's the Lord's church. Don't forget whose name really belongs on the sign out front, Jesus Christ. (Eph 5:30)
  
• The Church's closest parallel in this world is the family. (Gal 6:9,10)
  
• Wise, fatherly Elders make all the difference. (1Tim 3:1-7)
  

The People of the Church

• Believe it or not, these are the folks who get to go to Heaven. It's like the bumper sticker says, "we're not perfect, just forgiven." (Col 3:13)
  
• Numbers matter, sort of. Because we're counting family members, and ultimately the people who are saved, we count the people. But we're driven by faithfulness not numbers. (Acts 2:41; 4:4)
• Church membership should matter the most to you. Because God made us to do good works, we should desire to work in and through the Church. (Eph 2:10)
  

The Purpose of the Church

• Worship, and church in general, isn't really for you. It's all for the glory of God. (1Pet 4:10,11)
  
• Church has a cumulative effect. Church is where you learn (patience, forgiveness, reconciliation, etc) over time. (Gal. 6:9,10)
  
• The Believers could hum hymns in a hay barn, but the unchurched will not. And lost people are a priority to us because they're a priority to the Lord. (Luke 15:7; 19:10)

Mapping Missions

We have a world map in the main hallway at church which shows the 10/40 Window. Starting this week, the map also shows map pins where WCCC has focused it's mission efforts. Different colored pins show long term mission support (like our missionary in Asia that we've supported for decades), short term mission support (like Sean Cannon, the MAF pilot we supported a few years ago, long term mission work (like the Hachinsky's years in Indonesia), and short term mission work (like week-long mission trips).

The long term missions are relatively few in number but well known. On the other hand, the short term missions are many but often forgotten as the years roll by. If anyone has record of the mission efforts we don't have recorded, please let us know.

I'm specifically looking for the exact destinations in China for Sarah W.'s trips from a few years ago. Please let us know of other short term work done by the WCCC family that we may have overlooked.

Wednesday Family Night

You may be wondering how can I be more involved at church? Here's one way…

We need volunteers to prepare a meal (or help clean up) at Wednesday Family Night. The process isn't difficult; Christi C. is the contact person to get you started. There is a budget and some meals are easier and cheaper than others and Christi can get you pointed in the right direction. In most cases you can shop for the food and bring it up to the church days in advance. Then, depending on how much preparation you need, you arrive early enough to serve the meal at 6:00pm.

Everyone helps with the clean up, but you can also volunteer to clean the kitchen, doing dishes and such. That's always the longest job and doesn't need to be done by the meal preparer–in fact, we'd prefer that they not have to do it.

We need dishwashers immediately and openings for the meals begin in late October. Can you lend a hand?

Attendance is Up

We had 175 at Worship on Sunday.

That's not a record attendance but it is noteworthy. You see, last Sunday wasn't a holiday. Or Friend Day. Or any kind of special occasion at all. Unofficially it might be the highest attendance on a "normal" Sunday we've ever had. 175 used to be higher than our record attendance. It is higher than our typical Easter or Christmas service in recent years.

Our attendances this year are higher than previous years and we may be seeing another growth period with higher attendances this last month. In part, those numbers are new attenders and guests. But hopefully it also represents more regular attendance patterns in our membership. Consistent church attendance will be a blessing in the lives of those individuals and in the life our church family as a whole.

You Oughta Be in Pictures

Smile! We're taking a group photo of our congregation after church services (before Sunday School) on October 7. At approximately 10:30am we'll gather to have Mark Carver take our picture, capturing a moment of our church for posterity. Mr. Carver is a professional photographer with experience shooting large groups; copies of the photo will available for purchase.

What's the occasion? This Fall marks 35 years since our congregation was started in Piper, Kansas. We thought it would be nice to have a memento to mark the anniversary.

Help Shelve VBS

On Saturday September 29, we'll have a workday of sorts to organize and store supplies for Vacation Bible School. Gary R. installed several new storage shelves for us in the upper deck of our storage room and Cathy B. is in charge of getting our VBS material stored on them. If you'd like to help, please be there at 9:00am on the 29th – there's a lot of stuff to put away!



Thanks again to Cathy and her fellow organizers for helping with this need. And thanks should go to Gary for the shelves. God bless you guys!

Sunday Attendance

Here's an excerpt from my minister's report for next week's board meeting:

"Attendance is still well above historical norms, averaging in the mid-140's, but not growing above the rate of absenteeism (the total number of families has increased this year but the weekly attendance has been static for months now). We haven't been below 128 all year (which used to be above average for us) and we were over 150 five times just this summer. If the absenteeism could be addressed we would easily average 200 on Sunday morning before adding any new families."

A recurring problem is the regular absence of our active church-goers [I wrote about it on my blog yesterday]. About half of the congregation (give or take a few families) is at church nearly every week. The other half attends regularly but infrequently, missing up to three Sundays per month (I'm not counting those that attend less frequently as "active").

Over on my blog I noted the why absenteeism hurts those who miss church, but I didn't discuss how it affects those who didn't miss:

1. The empty seat is a discouragement.
2. The missing volunteer must be replaced.
3. The unheard call for help leaves future needs unmet.
4. The unheard prayer request creates distance in our relationships.
5. The absent part of the body is missed.
   

Let's Have Financial Peace

Our first Dave Ramsey Class was last night and it went great. We have five new families taking the class and three alumni families were also present. All FPU alumni are invited to join us whenever you can.

Thanks should also go to Landon R. for teaching. He does a great job.

Trust and Obey

Here are the lyrics to the verses of Trust and Obey (1887) that I used in this morning's sermon:

When we walk with the Lord
In the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way;
While we do His good will,
He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey,
For there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey.

But we never can prove
The delights of His love,
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor He shows,
And the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey,
For there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey.

Moms and Money

• The Mothers of Pre-Schoolers (MOPS) program begins next Tuesday evening (9/11) at 6:00pm. Click here for more information and their schedule of events. Tuesday MOPS meetings run until 8:30pm and still need volunteers to help.
  
• The Dave Ramsey class (Financial Peace University) begins next Monday evening (9/10) at 7:00pm. FPU alumni are welcome to join us; the weekly classes last until 8:30 or 9:00pm.
  

Double Crossed

John F. added some decorations yesterday by installing two crosses. We've had requests for a long time now to add something to our bare walls, especially crosses. So John figured out how to get it done and presented it to the board a few months ago. Volunteers nailed down the specifics and John nailed up the fine adornments.



The indoor cross has rope-lighting built into it and turns on with the wall sconces. It looks really nice with the main lights off. The smaller cross under the screen was removed.

Rock the Light

Several folks from our church went to the Rock the Light concert last Friday and Saturday. I've heard great reports about the event and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. It appears that those of us who didn't go really missed out on great musicians like Chris Tomlin, Toby Mac, BarlowGirl, and Superchic[k].


Here's a picture from the concert with Laura, Jarod, Danni, and Mindy (Jarod's sister) hanging out enjoying the music.

Mower Thanks

Thanks again to the folks who went to Mission Lake Christian Camp and mowed yesterday. Richard A., John F., Kennie G., Lynn M., Cecil & Gale R. all used their day to mow and trim and make the camp grounds look great!