Belonging Service
October 4
The Village is celebrating its ninth year as a church.
This celebration will involve our usual belonging service and some baptisms. This year, we will each take a puzzle piece home to design as a symbol of our belonging together in community. We will put these all together at the Belonging Service, frame the puzzle, and put it on the wall. If you are interested in what it means to be a member of the Village, the membership covenant and doctrinal statement is available on the table in the entryway.
The Village: News and Notes
Sept 14, 2009
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September 18
7:30 p.m.
The Village is hosting the Christian Reformed Church Classis Meeting. The Christian Reformed Church has supported the Village over the past eight years with money and prayers. They are very excited to see what we have
done with the building and spend some time worshiping with us. If it is possible for you to make it this Friday at 7:30, please come by to spend some time singing and praying with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Please take note that there will be no childcare available.
Nehemiah In Review
This coming Sunday is the last message on
Nehemiah. I thought I would take a little time to highlight some of the important parts of the story of Nehemiah. I wanted to emphasize a few of the things that have come out of our study of Nehemiah and become a part of the Village identity. First, the song Dual Wield will always remind me of this series, since one of the first challenges from this
book was to fight for our friends and families and to lean on Jesus. Second, we took seriously the Nehemiah challenge to spiritual renewal and began fasting and praying together once a month for the city and for one another. We re-engineered the Drumming Circle to focus more on
worshiping God and seeking His wisdom and less on planning and structural issues. Finally, we are stepping into the process of learning to celebrate what God has done and to passionately expel our own Tobiahs.
Aug 2 2009 Fasting This Sunday, we talked about how the Israelites were emotionally impacted by their sin. I suggested that it would be a good thing for our community to use this month’s time of fasting to ask God to confront us with our sin so that we might be able to confess and be in touch with its impact. I also asked the community of men to meet me for a time of prayer from 6:30-8:00 a.m. on Friday at the church building and the women to gather from 5:30-7:00 p.m., also on Friday at the building.
The New and Improved Drumming Circle In staff meeting, it was brought to my attention that I may not have clearly communicated who needs to be at the Drumming Circle. Please allow me to clear up any confusion. IF YOU ARE A MEMBER OF THE VILLAGE OR WOULD LIKE TO BE A MEMBER OF THE VILLAGE, YOU NEED TO BE AT THE DRUMMING CIRCLE ON AUGUST 14 AT 6:00 P.M. Also, if you are in high school or junior high and are either a member of the Village or have parents who are members of the Village, we want you to be there! If you have children and have not checked off boxes indicating that you need childcare, then we are assuming that you have found your own childcare. If this is not the case, please contact me as soon as possible. On Sunday, the final sign-up list will be available. We need to know how many of you are coming so that we can plan for food.
July 2 2009 Workdays According to Overlord Jimmy, we are approximately 60% finished with the kitchen overhaul. We are still in desperate need of your brain and/or braun. Jimmy is expecting you on Friday from 9-3 and Saturday from 9-3. In his great and infinite knowledge of construction and mindless organizational duties, he has prepared a job for you. I, your fearless leader, will be at the church building most of the day on Saturday digging holes and pounding nails. I am looking forward to working with you.
open house Stuff Around the Community There are several ways in the community to get involved this month. You could join a group of six of your closest and not-so-closest friends for dinner on July 17 at Dinners For Six. Or, if you prefer to be alone with God, you could join Keith at the top of Mt. Lemmon on July 19, departing from the building at 8 a.m. If you're interested in what the Village thinks about sin & grace and the cross, you can come to the Seneca House on the last Wednesday of the month and join Ron Layman and the Brunsons for a rousing conversation about theology and its practical implications. Finally, check the website on a regular basis - listen to the sermons, read the blogs, post what God is doing in your life. If you signed up for a new user name, it should be active by next week. Check in and try it out.
open house August 14th: The New & Improved Drumming Circle In an effort to provide a place for the community to worship God, talk about church issues, and practice spiritual gifts, we are unveiling the New & Improved Drumming Circle. "What's so new and improved about it," you say? Well, there are a few things we hope to change. First, we are looking to hire trustworthy babysitters from outside our community for kids 9 & under. Second, the lack of drums and the presence of one of the bands to lead us in singing, will cause you to question the name of The New & Improved Drumming Circle. Third, I will be doing some teaching about who the Village is and why we do what we do, there will be opportunity for people to join as members, and as usual, there will be time for discussion and in-house planning re: our mission and future together. If you are a member of the Village, the leaders would like to encourage you strongly to be there on the 14th of August to participate fully in ownership of our community.
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June 25 Fasting & Prayer Recently, the Village has entered into the process of spending time fasting & praying together on the 1st Friday of each month. The purpose of this time is to focus our minds on the needs of the city, the needs of our community, and the needs of our friends before God. In Jeremiah 29, God calls people to work and pray for the peace and prosperity of the larger community. In July, I would like us during our fasting time to focus on praying for the peace of our city and peace in our relationships with one another. Also, I would like us to spend some time offering God our own needs, confessing ways we have taken advantage of people, and asking God to point out the riches we each have to offer to the world. On the 3rd of July at 5:30 p.m., we will gather to pray together at the building.
Puttin' Yer Shoulder Into It I would like to thank all of the people who have volunteered to remodel the kitchen. I know it's difficult to give up time with family and time to relax from a hard week of work. The kitchen project will soon be over, but we are in need of as many volunteers as possible over the next few weeks to finish it up. So I'm asking that you hold lightly to your next few weekends and offer to participate in the final stages of this part of the remodel. If you haven't volunteered yet, now's your opportunity to join the people who have worked hard over the past month and put yer shoulder into it.
As Often As You Gather For a long time, Hebrews 10:24-25 has been a theme of the Village. We've talked a lot about how we need to consider one another and irritate each other on toward love and good deeds. We haven't spent as much time, though, about the concept of not neglecting gathering together and doing so more and more as we see the Day approaching. Gathering together on Sundays and not neglecting it, having it as a regular rhythm in your life, is actually a sign of spiritual maturity. When we come together to worship God corporately and sit down to eat together, we're giving the Holy Spirit the opportunity to use our community to sharpen us and shape us in Christlikeness. It also helps us take this next step in the community in getting us engaged in smaller groups, meeting newer people and inviting them into our homes, and finding out the immediate needs of people in the community.
The Website If you haven't figured this out yet, the website is the center of information distribution for the Village. Last week I asked people to write down user names & passwords if they didn't have one yet, and many of you responded. Unfortunately, I misplaced the stack of papers these were written on. So please send these in again this coming Sunday. Thanks. Another note: I really like the website because it offers the world a peak into our community. I really appreciate how many of you are willing to put up your struggles and your answers to prayer and how you respond gently to each other's posts. I liked Emily Lewis's concept of each of our homes & small, clustered communities representing different sections of the wall, and the website serving as the connection between each of us and the place where we can blow the horn when the Sanballats and Tobiases invade.
VILLAGE CAMPUS REMODEL OVERVIEW: NOTE: The strategy below reflects a 'Jesus rhythm': work, rest, work, rest.
Kitchen Remodel: June - mid-July 2009
Fallow Season: Mid-July - August 2009
Café': September 2009
Fallow Season: October - November 2009
Great Outdoors: Mid-November 2009
Fallow Season: December 2009
Great Outdoors, cont.: January 2010
June 15 Kitchen Report
June 3rd Sunday: June 7, 2009
Things to Remember:
1. Trying to start service at 5:00pm
2. Nursery Workers need to be at the building at 4:50pm
3. Grasshopper Herders should take kid Vespers children to the Sanctuary when parents are picking-up babies from the Nursery.
4. Rod is Preaching on Nehemiah 4.1-14.
may 3rd
April 15
Sunday April 19: My Birthday 1. Sunday's Band: the Social Servants: Featuring Laelia and Her Cello
2. Chick-Flicks end with Weddings: Pastor Eric
3. Invite your friends
The Open House: May 3rd 1. Make sure you are signed up for a work group.
2. Invite your friends
3. Everything starts at Noon on Sunday may 3rd.
4. Come to the Work Day on the 25th
5. We need artists: 3 values left
Pastor Eric
Work Day April 25
1. Starts at 8:00am
2. Ends at Noon
3. Bring Gloves
4. Be ready:
a. to rake
b. to pull weeds
c. to haul trash
d. to participate in general clean-up
Easter in Review: 1. Rod's Sermon Rocked
2. Got a good recording of We Have Not Known Thee
3. It was fun to hear James sing
4. 85 people showed up for the Easter Service
5. The food was amazing
6. The Dessert was even better
April 1 Drumming Circle (need nursery and urchin care: Village is willing to pay. Need at least 2 women. Call Eric at 5204448810 or email at jedipastor@gmail.com) Our second Drumming Circle of 2009 will be held on April 3rd at 6 p.m. at the new building. The purpose for this meeting is twofold: 1st, the leaders will update you on the upcoming Easter service and how you might participate; 2nd, and for the majority of the evening, we will be discussing the upcoming Open House to take place May 3rd at 12 noon. The purpose of this Open House is to invite the neighborhood and your friends to a big barbecue/art show/building tour/fun time for the kids. We will send out fliers and set up times to walk through the neighborhood and invite people. There will be many opportunities for you to participate, from being a welcomer to cooking at the grill, designing fliers, helping prepare the building, inviting friends, etc. We realize that this meeting is happening on short notice, but we ask that you make it a priority so that we can begin the process of reaching into our community through our building. This Open House will take place in conjunction with the start of our sermon series on Nehemiah, which we will advertise at the Open House.
Open House Groups you can Join: 1. Food 2. Welcome Group : Staff building with welcomers, orchestrate visiting neighbors
3. Setup Team : Tables/umbrellas out front, Art setup 4. Sign Crew : need signs for open House that can work for future; Ad signs, Restroom signs 5. Publications Group : New brochure using existing materials, Mailers, previously talked about Village cards 6. Grounds Group : weed-wack, clean up grounds, wrap up projects around building 7.Eric will marshall the artists around a theme - no group
Easter All the work that has already gone into the building, combined with our hopes of hosting a well-organized open house in May, has led the leaders to opt for a low-key Easter celebration. This means that we’ll just have a regular Vespers service with a special meal prepared by all of us. We will, therefore, need nursery care and kidVespers workers for the night. If you’re willing to help out in this area, please sign up at the Drumming Circle or on Sunday. We encourage you to invite your friends, because Rod is sure to show his famous Monty Python ‘Dead Parrot’ Sketch. More info to come at the Drumming Circle.
This Past Sunday… Things I Enjoyed 1) Cello, cello, cello.
2) Listening to the Skeptic Chickens play Dual Wield – it’s such a great song; I love the words.
3) Hearing Corey Gilchrist’s voice.
4) Eating pizza! Mmmm… sausage and onions. Sigh.
5) People bringing their friends!
6) Preaching on Ruth; I’m having a lot of fun.
7) People cleaning up after Vespers.
8) Thanks, Christy, for jumping in to help with nursery at the last minute.
9) Older guys trying to figure out what it means to be good dads to young women.
This Coming Sunday: April 5th Ruth 4: Men and their Shoes
I’m really excited about finishing up the book of Ruth. Find out how a guy taking off his shoe can create the perfect ending to a love story. Bring your friends – they’ll want to know.
Woot! and that Cello
This week, the band Woot! is up and will be accompanied by her hundred-year-old cello. Come enjoy the percussive undertones of Aaron Cromer and woot it up with the Woot! band.
This Sunday: Ruth Part IV and the Skeptic Chickens (Modified) with a Cello I'm really excited about this coming Sunday's message on Ruth, as we continue our chick flick saga. More importantly, I'm excited to hear Laelia and her cello (hopefully it will be out of the shop by then... otherwise, Laelia will be playing air cello) with the band. If you have friends who like chick flicks and cello music, this would be a great Sunday to invite them.
Our second Drumming Circle of 2009 will be held on April 3rd at 6 p.m. at the new building. The purpose for this meeting is twofold: 1st, the leaders will update you on the upcoming Easter service and how you might participate; 2nd, and for the majority of the evening, we will be discussing the upcoming Open House to take place May 3rd at 12 noon. The purpose of this Open House is to invite the neighborhood and your friends to a big barbecue/art show/building tour/fun time for the kids. We will send out fliers and set up times to walk through the neighborhood and invite people. There will be many opportunities for you to participate, from being a welcomer to cooking at the grill, designing fliers, helping prepare the building, inviting friends, etc. We realize that this meeting is happening on short notice, but we ask that you make it a priority so that we can begin the process of reaching into our community through our building. This Open House will take place in conjunction with the start of our sermon series on Nehemiah, which we will advertise at the Open House.
Having a new home. has made it a lot easier for Villagers to recycle! We now have our own blue bins and we're using them! Here is a friendly reminder of what things we commonly encounter that can be recycled, and what can't.
You CAN recycle: soda cans, water bottles, clean paper and cardboard, junk mail, soup cans (rinsed), #1 and #2 plastic jugs with screw caps (no tubs), paper milk/creamer cartons (rinsed)
You CANNOT recycle: most plastics (if it's not a #1 or #2 with a screw cap, it's trash), disposable food-service items (cups, plates,napkins), any paper with dirt or food residue on it, light bulbs, batteries, wood, foam, anything not on the city's list of accepted items
There is a poster in the dining area that has specific information on what can and can't be recycled. Acceptable items are also screen-printed on the blue bins outside. Non-recyclables are considered contaminants and can cause expensive problems and delays with the city's automated sorting machines, so if you aren't sure if something is recyclable, throw it in the trash. For more information about the City of Tucson's recycling programs, check out
www.tucsonrecycles.org.
We are also collecting pop-tabs from soda cans. They are donated to a charity that sells them to recyclers and uses the proceeds to fund childrens' health care. Please remove the pop tabs from your soda cans and deposit them in the container marked for soda tabs.
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