Despair.inc

I came across this web site that sells "de-motivational" materials. It is a tongue in cheek response to companies that sell motivational materials such posters, plaques and cups with sayings that are designed to inspire. This company, Despair.inc, designs the same sort of items, but they are designed to discourage. Their poster product lines have names like: Team Breakers, Positive Negations, and Megalomaniacal Maxims. I found the collection to be quite amusing. But then, you know me…

One poster struck me in a way that was never intended by the designer. The poster pictured a beautiful close up of one drop of water plopping gracefully into a serene placid pool. The title read, "Irresponsibility: No one raindrop believes it is to blame for the flood."

As I was smiling, I thought about attendance at worship. I imagine that no one is surprised that a pastor's thoughts would flow in that direction. It occurred to me how wonderful it is to worship in a church that is full and well attended. There is an enthusiasm and spiritual life in a well-attended worship service that rises and grows like a refreshing, renewing, flowing flood. Would that every Sunday would be as well attended as Easter Sunday!

I think most of us choose to attend worship by determining what we might get out of attending worship. Will we like the music? What will the sermon be about? Will I get something out of it? The poster from Despair.Inc made me think that we also come to worship to contribute to the whole worship experience by being a part of it. I doubt if anyone person attending feels responsible for the flood, but we are. Each person who makes that decision to get up, get dressed and attends worship joins with the next and makes up the congregation each Sunday. Together we are the body of Christ and each individual member contributes to the wholeness of Christ's body. Together our praises rise up like a flood. And no one raindrop believes it is to blame for the flood, but it is! Hope to see you Sunday at 10:30 AM. It won't be the same without you.

Seminary 20th Reunion

Here are some pictures from the 20th Anniversary of the class 1985 at SFTS.

Somewhere I have the same pose from 20 years ago - I must find it. We were thinner and had more hair!


Scott Hall

This is a watercolor by Nancy Chinn of Scott Hall pictured above.

View of Montgomery Chapel from the top of the hill.

Orange

I don't know why, but I just changed my web page and blog to Orange. What do you think?
Was blue better?

Men's Breakfast

We had a great turn out at the men's breakfast. We are studying Ps 15. The Women of Communidad Latino Americana cooked us a great mexican breakfast.

Westminster in the News!

From the Rosegarden Resident:
Westminster Church keeps its food drive going on a year-round basis
By Mary Gottschalk

Hunger isn't seasonal, which is the reason Mary Fatula and the congregation at Westminster Presbyterian Church collect food for Second Harvest Food Bank on a year-round basis.

On the first Sunday of each month, those attending services at the Shasta Avenue church are encouraged to bring food and place it on the steps in front of the Communion table.

"We try to make it such a huge pile of food that the elders can't make it up to serve Communion," Fatula jokes.

Donations have yet to prevent people from getting to Communion, but occasionally it is difficult to get to the table.

The efforts by Westminster members were recognized at a ceremony Feb. 16 where Fatula accepted Second Harvest's Community Champion Trophy for the highest total donation in the 250-and-less participants category.

The trophy, which is actually a plaque, honored the 3,496 pounds of food and $1,175 donated by Westminster members in 2004--food and money that goes to an average of 163,500 people in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties each month.

"Mary has been a champion for us getting food to Second Harvest," says Steve Norman, pastor of Westminster. "She writes up announcements every month to remind people."

Fatula's announcements go beyond simple announcements. Each month she makes a presentation, offering a theme for the month.

"I have some silly thing I say about it," she says.

For February she carried a large bowl to the Communion table and said, "When I think of Super Bowl, I think of soup."

She then asked congregants to bring cans of soup for Second Harvest in February.

In January, she suggested oatmeal and for March she says she's thinking green and asking for green vegetables in honor of St. Patrick.

Fatula doesn't want to limit donations to just one type of food, but says she finds making suggestions makes it easier for people to remember and participate.

She keeps a list of the foods most wanted and needed, which she's happy to share with anyone who asks.

At Christmas, she pretended to go through a long list of things to do and gifts to buy; then, she says, "I crumpled it up and said, 'Forget that list. I have the list of most needed foods.' "

She then urged the congregation to fill a grocery bag with items from the Second Harvest list.

Westminster's participation in the food drive is now in its fifth year, and Fatula has headed the effort from the start, watching donations rise each year.

In 2000 the congregation collected 601 pounds of food; in 2001 it was 2,811 and in 2003 it was 3,320.

Companies such as Cypress Semiconductor, Cisco Systems and Applied Materials dominate the annual recognition ceremony, although there is a category for schools and community groups.

"I look over who gets the special awards, and most times it's companies--a lot of really big companies that give huge amounts of food," Fatula says. "Most times, it was a holiday food drive. We are one of the few organizations that do it year-round, and it feels good."

When church services end, Fatula and others put the donated food into the barrels left for them by Second Harvest, which comes by once a month to pick up full barrels and leave empty ones.

Fatula says the church averages two to 21Ž2 barrels a month, but some months they collect enough to fill four barrels.

Fatula welcomes donations from the community at large and says they may be dropped off at the church during the day.

Westminster Presbyterian Church is located at 1100 Shasta Ave. at The Alameda. The church office telephone is 408.294.7447.

More about stealing garbage

I'm still concerned about my garbage being stolen. I did a google search on the subject to see if other folks have had their garbage stolen or maybe confessions of garbage stealers. I found nothing about stealing garbage. I found many comments about stealing garbage cans. It seems like there is a lot of garbage can stealing going on, but not much about stealing the garbage and leaving the can. I'm thinking about setting at trap next week to catch the garbage thief, if he/she strikes again. Possibly a rat trap on top of the garbage. Any other ideas?

Strange things...

I had a strange thing happen last night. Someone stole my garbage! I put the trash out at 9 PM and then later decided to dump the cat litter box and went out front to the garbage can and it was empty.... I checked the neighbor’s trash at 4 different homes and they had full trash cans. I’m not sure if it is the FBI, CIA, A crazy person or terrorists.

Experiencing God's call

I'm preaching this week on how we experience God's calling in our lives. How do we know when God is calling us? The Bible text is Samuel's call. He heard God's voice so clearly that he thought it was Eli, but it was God calling his name.
What would it be like to hear God's call as clear as Samuel did? I wonder why we don't hear God like that very often. In the scripture it says that, " In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions." It also says that Samuel didn't recognize the Lord's voice because " Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD: The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him."

I wonder if the reason we don't hear from God is because the word of the Lord and visions are rare in these days or because we don't know God very well and so we don't recognize his voice?

Another cartoon

Cool Cartoon

INVOCATION

Invocation in·vo·ca·tion n
1. a calling upon a greater power such as God or a spirit for help
2. a short prayer forming part of a religious service
3. the act of calling upon or quoting something such as a law as a reason or justification
4. a casting of a spell in an attempt to make an evil spirit appear, or the spell itself

At a recent church committee meeting the leader began his opening prayer, "O Lord, we call you into our presence."

It was an ordinary enough prayer and I'm sure it was well intentioned, but it struck me as very odd. Should we call God into our presence or should we be called to acknowledge that we are in the presence of God?

But what about all those scriptures about calling on the name of the Lord?

Not Too Old to Rock & Roll!

Just when I thought I was getting too old to rock and roll - my church surprised me with a 50th birthday gift: a brand new Eric Clapton Signiture model Fender Stratocaster and a Mesa Boogie amp! Was I ever surprised!!! I found out later that the youth group had cooked up this wonderful idea and had been collecting money for months with out my knowing! My what great kids we have at Westminster.... It is also the 50 year anniversary for Fender - who would have thunk!

Lily of the Valley

It has been a while since I've had the time to blog. The best thing that has happened recently is the birth of my granddaughter Lily. She is a wonderful little girl. Yesterday I was watching as Melia was working on a music project in the music room. I dozed off with Lily sleeping on my chest. She is so tiny, so precious and filled with such possibilities as her life begins. What a wonderful gift from God. Born on Thanksgiving morning. Link to more pictures- of course!


Click For more Lily Ulani Mann Pictures!

50th at CPPC

This last weekend Teri and I went to CPPC (Canoga Park Presbyterian Church) to celebrate 50 years of ministry at the church. I was a great time and we got to ee a lot of old friends. Some of us are much older friends than we used to be. I thought it was interesting to note that I am also turning 50 this year. I wish I would have taken some pictures when we were there.

Do you hear what I hear? Do you see what I see?

The first Westminster Town Hall Meeting to discuss the Vision Team Report was an important step forward in the visioning process. Yet, for the first half of the meeting, I struggled and wondered if we were communicating. I was reminded of the Christmas carol that asks the questions, "Do you hear what I hear? Do you see what I see? Do you know what I know?" It was clear in the first few minutes that the order for the meeting needed to be set aside and much more time was to be spent discussing and bringing an understanding of just what the Vision Team Report is and what the report is attempting to help us do as a congregation.

The report is not intended to be a polished document. The team decided to present the report in a way that would reflect the brainstorming process and hopefully spark open honest conversation and reflection. So it purposely contains raw and uncut statements as a way to get people to personally struggle with the questions. This was a risk and a very different way of doing things. Many terms and words are not intended to be exacting. Other approaches may have been better and easier, but I'm glad we took the risk.

While the report is not intended to be exacting, the team found it needed to develop
words and definitions that have specific meanings to communicate unique things in the life of Westminster. The terms: vision, Spanish speaking congregations, English speaking congregation, Bilingual congregation and one church are used in specific ways in the report, and understanding how these terms are used is very important to understanding the whole structure of the report. These terms are explained in the introductory pages of the report.

It is very important to understand that the report is intended to be a list of observations of the past and present. It is not intended to be a report of prescriptions and directions for the future. The team felt that a clear vision starts with discerning where we've been and where we are. We need to have a clear picture of what God is doing in the here and now before we attempt to understand God's future for us. Many churches struggle because they are either trapped in unresolved issues from the past or so concerned about the future that they miss what God is doing in the midst of the church now. The report tries hard not to make judgments about what should be. Rather, it is an attempt to observe what is now. It was hard not to offer solutions and directions and a few do slip into the report, but solutions and directions are for the next phase and the new vision team.

For now, we need to be about the hard necessary process of looking at ourselves, trying to discover and discern what God is doing in the midst of us. We need to compare notes. We need to be asking, "Do you see what I see? Do you hear what I hear? Do you know what I know?" As we find common vision; we will see what God is up to with Westminster. Another Westminster Town Hall meeting to further interact with the report is scheduled for Sunday November 7th at 4:00 - 5:30 PM. I hope you will be there. The meeting will be in English only and childcare will be provided.

Vision Report Town Hall Meeting

The Vision Team has finished their report,but that means that the Westminster Transformation Project is just getting started. 

The Vision Team met from December 2003 to July 2004 to seek a vision from God for Westminster. 

The team defined "vision" as an understanding of what God has been doing, is doing and will be doing.  They prayed and shared openly with each other the things that came to the their hearts and minds as the team discussed various aspects of life and ministry at Westminster.

The result is a series of lists of concerns, grouped around four dynamic of the transforming church.  They asked hard questions such as: What is working? What is not working? What should we stop doing? What should we start doing?

Sunday October 24 at 4 PM, the report will be presented in English at a church town hall meeting. The next Sunday the report will be presented in Spanish. At these meetings we will discover which parts of the report the church relates to or bears witness to as being on target.  From there the session will develop an intentional plan for change and growth.
Get a report here

Yes

A picture from my fishing trip with Melia and Micah this fall.

Web site is back

Wow - my web site is back - Now I can stop worrying about it and do some blogging.

Revnorman

My web site still isn't working!Revnorman

my web site is missing!!!!!!

Somehow Yahoo turned off my web site and all my pictures have disappeared! I'm trying to get it back up soon. Hopefully they will answer me and we can work this out. O the joys of technology.