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July / August 2010 News 

From the Moderator's Keyboard

Summer (now that it's finally here) should be a time of fun and relaxation so I hope everyone has a wonderful vacation planned. After finishing the rummage sale, the strawberry festival, Vacation Bible School, and the church clean-up it seems that everyone is ready for a couple of quiet months.

When everyone is back from vacation, getting ready to go back to school or just looking forward to the coming fall, I'd like you to think about our community outreach. One of the ways to provide service to our community is to be prepared to offer assistance in an emergency. I would like to offer a class, or classes depending upon the interest, in CPR from the American Heart Association this fall. It can be taught to older children and adults and is an invaluable tool when a life may be in jeopardy. I look forward to providing this service if we have even a small group of people that are interested.

Linda Smith, Moderator

During the month of May and into early June your search committee has been busy reading and evaluating ministerial profiles. We are using both quantitative and qualitative criteria to find a person that will best fit the needs of our Congregation. In the near future, we are planning to interview two potential candidates via Skype (Internet face to face calling) who are interested in coming to Ogden. Please continue to keep our work in your prayers.

Ed Boies, chairperson

Board of Directors

The June 12 windstorm took down several large branches at the cottage, one of which came through Bob's office window and went unnoticed until the neighbors called. The tree damage and some other trimming has been completed and paid for thanks to designated donations of $420. The window repair is estimated at $230. We welcome additional designated donations to cover this cost.

Ben Cornwell spent a considerable amount of time at the church early this week to rewire the cottage sprinkler system and get the sprinklers at the cottage and church running. Thanks Ben. It must officially be summer.

Gary Smith, Chairperson

Celebrate Japan

Wednesday, July 7th, from 11:00 am-1:30 pm, Ogden's Congregational United Church of Christ will host a "Japanese Festival." Carolyn Somer will facilitate a workshop on making Sushi and Kristen Seiff will demonstrate Ikebana, traditional Japanese flower arranging. All will have the opportunity to do Origami and Haiku. A light lunch of traditional Japanese fare will be served. Please come and join us for this time of friendship and fun. To hold your spot please call Kim Harbath, 801-737-3667.

Yard Sale and Strawberry Festival
June 5, 2010

Thank you Amy Windsor-White for a very successful Yard Sale and Strawberry Shortcake Festival. We raised a whopping $1,038.40, and many of us did some needed house cleaning. Thanks also to all who helped sort and price items, move tables and chairs, bake shortcakes, donate supplies, cut-up strawberries, and sell items. We had a beautiful day for this event on our church lawn. From the proceeds, we gave 10% to the YCC (Your Community Connection), and the YCC gratefully accepted the few items of baby furniture – seats, swing, and tub – left over from the Yard Sale.

We have two other items left over from the sale – 13 yards of beautiful fabric and liner for drapes (?) plus a set of glass luncheon plates and cups. We think they might bring a nice price if sold on Ebay or another online sales outlet. If you are interested in selling these items, you are welcome to them. They are in the church cottage. Just donate 10% of whatever you get for them to the church.

Thanks to all of you who participated in the Goldfish Guessing Jar, the Float a Boat Fish Bowl, and the Banana Boat Sundaes. We raised $155 for our church’s participation in the Vacation Bible School program at First Presbyterian Church the week of June 7. On Tuesday night, June 8, Jerry and Jeannine Heppler, Jeni and Amelia Hadden, Carolyn and Mort Somer, Slim Jolley, and Dottie Steimke helped serve a hot dog supper to about 125 Bible School participants. Thanks to Jeni Hadden for being our representative for this Ecumenical outreach.

Once again, I brought back a few good ideas:

• People, even in smaller churches, come to worship with many varied stages of faith development and churches must speak to them.
• Instead of a traditional Confirmation program, beginning at age 12, youth could be taken into the church and then begin a "Rite of Passage" that will last all through their young adult years with mentors and continual discussions on what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
• Plan to work with parents, mentors in the congregation, and all children and youth for 18 years with faith development. Community projects just once or twice a year doesn't set a good pattern.
• Have children and youth worship with adults because they discovered that by sending children to Sunday School during worship, as adults they did not return to worship. Instead, even the youngest of children should be in worship for a little while before they go off to an age appropriate activity.
• Facilities say everything to parents about children's ministry in the church. This new church still has a couple years before their new facility is built, so right now they are in a school in an excellent multipurpose room for worship but with the children in one of the locker rooms and youth in another and with a small closet in between-and the parents don't like it at all.
• Every congregation needs a 10-year plan and stick to it. This is the purpose and mission of the church, the focus, if you will.

You can tell I could become excited about all this if I were younger and not a soon-to-be-replaced interim pastor, but these are good ideas that a larger church can share with smaller congregations.
Rev. Bob Nuhn

Can you help? A large 20" x 30" TV was donated to our church. We’d like to use it in the Fellowship Hall, but we need a heavy-duty TV stand. We also need a better CD player for our worship services, and one or more cables to connect it to our speaker system so all can hear. If you can provide any of these items, know where we can get these for a reasonable price, or would like to make a donation toward their purchase, please speak to Carolyn Somer or Pastor Bob.

Jeni Hadden’s sister, Janice Byington, has offered to lead a workshop for us on Family History Research. She has been enthusiastically doing and teaching this for some time. At our June Deacon’s meeting we thought it would be a good activity for one of our monthly evening groups. This group will meet regularly on the 2^nd Wednesday each month at 7:00 p.m., but will begin in September on the 4^th Wednesday, September 22. Janice will cover general information about how to go about doing Family History research, how to use various software programs and other resources, and how to manage the information you gather. Mark your calendars now if this is something you’d like to know more about.

Summer Sunday School begins June 13. This is a volunteer program in which you can choose the topic or use the Seasons of the Spirit resources. Elementary aged children will be in the opening of worship and then you may take them outside or downstairs for about 20 minutes. Bob Nuhn can help you with a topic if you wish. To volunteer, please sign for the date(s) you wish in the Signup Notebook. We hope to have a leader and a helper for each Sunday. If, by chance there are no children present on the Sunday you volunteer, please take another date.

Our popular and traditional Holy Smoke BBQ will return this year on Saturday, September 11. Ben has the cooker and some good cooks lined up. The entertainment is taking shape in the form of a Music and Cowboy Poetry Jam. Some of our own have already offered to provide music and cowboy poetry readings. We’re opening it up to anyone interested in sharing their talents in these areas.

Pastor Bob and the Deacons took of survey of our hymnals and agreed we should purchase 8 new New Century Hymnals and 7 more Pilgrim Hymnals. Memorial funds given in memory of Dixie Leesman were used to purchase these hymnals. They will be dedicated to her memory with bookplates honoring her life and membership in our church.

Small Group Ministries

Small Groups within a congregation are a healthy, lively way to "be" church and we hope you enjoy the variety offered this autumn. These groups will continue while there is interest and they are dropped when interests change, then new groups are formed when new interests are expressed. We hope you can take part in at least one or more of these groups.  

Some of our Small Group Ministries, like the Book Group, take a break for the summer.  Others continue, like the Spirited Adult Bible Study.

The Spirited Adult Class - Sundays at 9 A.M.

This group will continue to meet at 9 am on Sunday mornings in the church cottage.  The leadership will rotate among those who participate. We will continue to use the Seasons of the Spirit material.  

We are taking a break until fall and are looking for ideas for our next book.  If you'd like to join us and/or have suggestions for a book, please speak to Pastor Bob or Carolyn Somer

Prayer Shawl Ministry  

Shawls of Sanctuary, the prayer shawl ministry of the church, will meet on the third Thursday, July 15th and August 19th, at 7:00 p.m. in the cottage. All are welcome to bring your handcraft and enjoy a spiritual time together.

On Tuesday, July 26th Stephanie Pittman will present a program on the spiritual practice of Transcendental Meditation for Women's Spirituality. She has engaged in this practice for years. Stephanie will talk about meditation in general, then focus on TM and then lead us in a loving, kindness meditation. Please feel free to join us for an evening in the cottage that promises to be enlightening and fun. Questions? Call Kim at 1-801-737-3667.  All are welcome!