Please join us on Saturday, May 10, for our Annual Mother’s Day Luncheon.  This will be a wonderful event catered by JoAn Johnson and offering musical entertainment by the Monettes!

This is a great opportunity to honor your mother, daughter, friend or neighbor this Mother’s Day!  Everyone is welcome.  Come join us and bring a friend!

Tickets are $7 and $3 for children under 12 and are on sale now.  See Helen Melbourn and Winnie Hawkins before and after church on Sundays or contact the office for ticket information.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Sermon by Markus Watson on April 27, 2008

This is the sixth and last sermon in the series titled “MythBusters”

Theme – What’s the proper response when a person “sees” God? In other words, when we in some way experience the presence of God in our lives, how do we respond to that? We respond the only way we can. We respond the same way that Isaiah responded when he was confronted with the glory of “the Holy One of Israel”–with humility, contrition, and a willingness to go where God goes.

The sermon began by watching a clip from Monty Python And The Holy Grail in which God revealed himself to the characters in the movie.

 

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Vacation Bible School registration for the summer of 2008 is now open. You may download registration and release forms for your children below.

Registration Form
Release Form

Forms should be filled out and turned into the church office at your earliest opportunity — our program fills up fast!!!

The big question at Northminster right now is, of course: What’s going to happen with our worship services? Are we going to go back to one worship service? What would it look like? Would it be mostly contemporary? What does that mean? What would happen to the choir? What would happen to the staff positions that currently support the Heritage service? What time would the new service be?

These are all important questions that will have to be answered in time. And that’s the purpose for the open forum conversation held after the worship service on April 27. This is a big decision and I believe that everyone deserves to have his or her voice heard. It’s also why I invited everyone to share their feedback on the website (and I want to thank everyone who has shared their feedback).

There are, as I see it, two reasons to give everyone a chance to share their thoughts. The first is, as I mentioned above, to give each person a voice. We need to be in dialogue about these kinds of things, always open and willing to listen to each other, as well as to share honestly and lovingly with each other.

The second reason for allowing everyone to share their thoughts has to do with the role of Session (our board of elders). We are Presbyterians, and as Presbyterians we are led by the elders that we elect. The job of the elders is to discern the will of God. This is important—it is not to simply make a decision by majority vote, but to listen to the Spirit of God and then make a decision based on what they sense God is saying. And one of the critical ways by which elders can hear the Spirit of God is by listening to the people of God.

I believe God speaks through his people. That’s us! This doesn’t mean we will always agree on everything; and even our elders might not always agree on what they believe the will of God is. But we believe that God speaks through us and to us, and as we listen to God, God will make the way clear before us.

After our open forum conversation, Session will come together sometime in the following two weeks (I’ll be on vacation this week, so we won’t meet until sometime after May 4). At that time, we will talk about what we have heard from all of you and where we sense God may be taking us. At that time, the decision will be made as to whether or not we will reunite as one service and what that service will look like (though there will, of course, be flexibility to adapt in the future).

God is moving in some new ways at Northminster, and I am so excited about it! New people are visiting and coming back! People are joining our New Members Class! Some of you will be going on the mission trip to Mexico! And that’s just the beginning!

The wind of the Spirit is blowing at Northminster! Could a move to one service be part of the Spirit’s moving? We’ll see. But whatever happens, we can rest assured that God is with us. God has not left us and will never leave us or forsake us.

We can remember with joy the words of Jeremiah 29:11: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” Amen!

Hi ladies!

I have been wanting to do this for a long time. I am going to start a Women’s Bible Study (or Small Group) for Northminster women, Young Life moms, and really any woman who would be interested in joining us. If it is a hit and our group gets too big, we’ll split into two groups. I picked out a 10 week study by Beth Moore called “Daniel: Lives of Integrity, words of prophecy.” I have done a Beth Moore study before and they are really good.

I want to hear back about how many people are interested, and vote on either Wednesday evenings from 7 pm-9 pm with dinner, or Saturday mornings, maybe 8-10am or 9-11am with coffee. I hope to start either Saturday, May 10, or Wednesday, May 14.

Please let me know via email if you are interested, and which time you would prefer. Thanks! I’m very excited about this, and hope you’ll join me.

Love, Chelsea

PS - Once I hear back about how many people are interested, I get a discount at Berean Christian bookstores so can buy a bunch of the work books. You can get them from me at our first meeting if you don’t want to go to Berean.

Help kids get to CAMP! Tomorrow-

Car wash 10am-2pm FREE, accepting donations

Thank you!

Chelsea

The Women’s Association of Northminster is a part of Presbyterian Women in the Presbytery. We meet with that group once a month September through June and join in their mission outreach programs. We also attend regularly the 5 meetings per year of Church Women United which includes women of all denominations. In addition we have our local missions here in the area such as Northminster, its Youth Group, Young Life, and Community Christian Service Agency known as CCSA which provides needed supplies from food and clothing to help with household furnishings, etc.

We also have two Bible Study Groups on the second Tuesday of each month, September through June using the study guide provided by the Presbytery Church’s national headquarters. The coming year’s study will concentrate on the book of Luke. Any Northminster women are welcome to join us at any time. Faith Circle meets at 9:30a.m. and Rebecca Circle at 7p.m.

Friday, May 2, we will be meeting at the Pioneer Oceanview United Church of Christ at 250 Fairfield St. here in Clairemont in the Bay Park area. Salad pot-luck will follow the meeting. Please let either Sheila Mura at 619 275-1748 or Winnie Hawkins at 858 278-6788 know if you need a ride. The speaker will be Mark Jennings. Their ministry is through theater and he has performed in London’s Houses of Parliament to California’s Venice Beach. There is no charge but there will be a goodwill offering, half of which will go to the National Church Women United, the other half to local group for their mission work. We hope to see many of our Northminster women there.

Saturday, May 10,tickets will go on sale this week for our annual Mothers Day luncheon. Catered by JoAn Johnson we know it will be wonderful meal. Tickets are $7 and $3 for children under 12. Look for Helen Melbourn and Winnie at the welcome table on the patio before church on Sunday and immediately following the service. The program for the luncheon on May 10 is a musical one and we will be entertained by the Monettes. Come and bring a friend!

Last Saturday the 19th we sold cotton candy at Alcott elementary’s fair and handed out Young Life fliers. Sunday at church my Regional Director, Eric Scofied, visited Northminster! Afterwards Jaclyn, a Wyldlife leader, and I went to Dana Becker’s soccer game. Way to go Dana, she scored two goals! We then picked up Matt and four other YL girls, met about 10 other people from Young Life at the Rock church 7pm service, followed by In and Out burgers.

We had a really good campaigner night with Young Life this week. Hannah, a leader, shared her testimony. Wednesday we had lunch club at UC High, where I continue to be amazed by all the kids we are getting to know. I hope to bring some of them to camp this summer. Wednesday was also great at Wyldlife! Jaclyn Johnson lead the talk! Way to go, Jaclyn! Thursday was Madison High lunch club. Friday night some of our Young Life kids raised money by helping at Parents Night Out. Saturday was our car wash, where kids also raised money to go to camp.

COMING EVENTS:

MEXICO! We have TEN! people from our Young Life group interested in the Mexico mission trip May 24-26! If you cannot go on this trip, please consider sponsoring one of the Young Life kids. What an amazing opportunity to help them grow in their faith through service. A huge thank you for offering to sponsor someone- you know who you are

CAMP! We have 31 kids signed up who are interested in going to Woodleaf, 11 of those would be first-timers. 30 of those 31 would need financial assistance. 100% of those would have the time of their lives and grow closer to Jesus! 100% of you reading this would be blessed by sending a kid to camp, and receiving an update on what happened that week! Help us change lives! We have 8 Wyldlife kids interested in going to Oakbridge! We hope to plan a day trip up there to go swimming and get them excited about camp.

NEW LEADER TRAINING! This is required for old and new leaders alike. Have you ever been curious as to how we train our leaders? Ever wanted to become a leader? Here are the requirements:

1. You love Jesus and
2. you love kids.

Of course we do a background check as well. Our training will be a series of four Thursday sessions from 7pm-9pm. The dates are May 8, 15, 29, and June 5. At these sessions we will share a meal, have guest speakers (so far we have the amazing Markus Watson on May 8th, and the amazing Eric Scofield for May 29!) and have seasoned leaders help train new leaders. It will be an amazing time of fellowship and learning. Come! Be a leader! Help change kids’ lives! We want you there, we need you! The more leaders we have, the more kids we can reach in our Clairemont community.

Our Clairemont Area Leader Camping trip will be June 27-29. Fun, fellowship, planning, CAMPING!! great food, T-SHIRT!!

San Diego Regional AUCTION and Dinner! May 4, 4pm-8pm at the Bernardo Winery. Do not miss this incredible evening. The dinner will be unbelievably delicious. Young Life programs are always over-the-top. You will be wined and dined. You will be entertained. You will be excited about the ministry going on in the San Diego Region. Cost is $60 a person, $70 at the door. Let me know if you are interested in:

1. Buying tickets to the Auction (we currently have about 18 people from Northminster/YL going)
2. You would like to buy one of our drawing tickets for $50, or 5 for $200 (prizes are incredible, and $40 of each ticket goes DIRECTLY to our ministry!!!!)
3. You want to donate a great Auction item
4. You would like to provide a meal for one of our Leader Training nights! May 8, 15, 29, or June 5?

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. Getting kids to camp
2. That Jonny will be able to come on YL Student Staff (he needs to raise his budget)
3. That Jessie Swann will be able to fulfill her commitment to doing Work Crew this summer
4. Successful Auction
5. Mexico mission trip: funding, kids going, leaders going, great experience and safety
6. New leaders, excellent training time
7. PRAISE GOD- we found a teacher at CPMA middle to host a lunch club! Yay for Ina Soliz!

Thank you, God Bless!
Chelsea Knox
chelseanicoleknox@yahoo.com
(619) 322-7586

Sermon by Eric Scofield on April 20, 2008

This is the fifth sermon in the series titled “MythBusters”

Eric Scofield is the Regional Director for Young Life in the San Diego County Region. Northminster has a partnership with Young Life.

Theme – Everyone is designed for significance. Impacting the lives of others could be one of the most ways that most people would say creates true significance. Sharing who the person of Jesus is to others (which is a frightening thought) is taught as evangelism. Jesus shows us that to have an impact on a persons life is a process, that starts with standing on the shores of people’s lives, asking questions, pushing out, and eventually heading to deep water. Going aboard peoples boats (lives) is a way to share Jesus, and with His help, have true significance.

The movie below was used as an illustration by Eric to show how he would introduce Jesus if given the opportunity.

 

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In my sermon on Sunday, April 13, entitled The Truth About Change, I asked us all to consider going to one single service with a primarily contemporary worship style. The reason for this has to do with adapting to the changes going on in our culture—and that have been going on really for the last forty years. As a church, we need to continue to adapt to what is going on in our world and to what God is doing in our world.

The question we need to talk about now is, “Will we continue to adapt?” I think that part of this adaptation would be to go back to a single service with a primarily contemporary worship style.

I think it’s also important to bring our whole church together so that we can focus on the future of our church. And just as we care for our biological descendants, we need to pour ourselves into our spiritual descendants, so to speak—those who will be here fifty years from now. It’s important to do what is necessary to be a vibrant and alive church, not just today or ten years from now, but fifty years from now!

But I want us to talk about this. I want us to talk about it with each other, and I’d love for you to talk about it with me. I would also love for you to talk about it here on this website. Please leave your comments after this article to share what you think.

–Markus Watson