Knox

Presbyterian

Church

Listowel, Ontario

August 20, 2017

“…a welcoming family of God’s people, committed to worshipping Jesus Christ, sharing our faith and doing His work in the world.”

August 20, 2017 10:30 a.m. Prelude

Entrance of Bible, Choir & Worship Leader

Hymn: “Sweet is the Solemn Voice That Calls” # 321

Welcome & Announcements

Responsive Call to Worship (Psalm 103:1-5)

Prayer of Approach

Greeting One Another

Children’s time ending with Prayer and Lord’s Prayer (“debts/debtors”) Hymn: “To God Be the Glory” # 73

Scripture Lessons: Old Testament: Jeremiah 29:4-7 (page 1227) Gospel: John 14: 1-4 (page 1675) Responsive Reading: (Psalm 122)

Offering& Hymn: “” # 396

Offertory Prayer

Message: “Roadtrip Tunes: Coming Home” (Angelica Atkins) Pastoral Prayer

Hymn: “All the Way My Saviour Leads Me” # 508

Benediction & Choral “Amen”

USHERS FOR AUGUST: Richard Boertien (Captain), Meredith Schneider, David Verbeek, Harold Arand

Please Join Us for Coffee, Cold Drinks and Fellowship served in the Main Hall following the service. Hosted by: George Sjaarda & whoever is willing to give him a hand. 2 Announcements Please see our bulletin boards for upcoming events!

We welcome everyone here today. We hope that you feel comforted by our worship, and that you will leave here refreshed and inspired in your personal life. If you are a visitor today, thank you for joining us and we ask that you would please sign the Guest Register in the front foyer. We hope that you visit us again soon! There is no Sunday School Program during the summer months, but there are activity and colouring sheets for children ages 2 to 10. The children can pick up a file folder for their age group, some crayons, a peanut free snack and a drink from the bin on the front pew after the children’s story time.

Today we welcome and thank Angelica Atkins for filling in while Rev. McCallum is on vacation. Angelica has always had a heart for healing. She grew up in a missionary family and earned her undergraduate degree in Pre-Med biology. She went on to study art therapy, facilitating psychological and emotional healing through creative expression and therapeutic relationship. Now she is responding to a call to pastoral ministry, studying at Knox College in Toronto. She hopes to integrate her varied background into a ministry of holistic care, walking with others towards a full life in Jesus. Also, thank you to Shirley Suggitt for providing music for us the next couple of weeks while Agnes Marie is on vacation.

PLEASE NOTE: Rev. McCallum will be on vacation until August 28 Agnes Marie will be on vacation until September 5 Pam will be on vacation and office closed August 25 to September 5

HOSTS/HOSTESSES NEEDED: We need people to help during the days of picture taking. It is a simple job of obtaining and recording information from the people getting their pictures taken. There is a yellow signup sheet on the bulletin board in the main hall. Please sign up for as many time slots as you would be able to help out. Talk to Pam in the office for more information.

History Behind “Soflty and Tenderly”

[This] hymn is a classic invitation hymn from the 19th-century revival tradition.

Will Lamartine Thompson (1847-1909) was born in Pennsylvania and died in . He attended Mount Union College in Alliance, , and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, before continuing his musical studies in Leipzig, Germany.

In addition to being a composer of secular, patriotic and gospel songs, Thompson was a music publisher. When his songs were rejected by publishers of his day, he formed his own enterprise, Will L. Thompson & Company, with offices in and East Liverpool, Ohio. By the 1880s the company expanded beyond publishing music and sold pianos, organs and other instruments and supplies.

The words and music for “Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling” first appeared in Sparkling Gems, Nos. 1 and 2, a collection compiled for Thompson’s company in 1880 by singing-school teacher J. Calvin Bushey.

Other well-known gospel songs by Thompson include “Jesus Is All the World to Me” (UM Hymnal, No. 469), and two with strong eschatological leanings, Lead Me Gently Home, Father” and “There’s a Great Day Coming.”

UM Hymnal editor, the Rev. Carlton R. Young, notes: “This is a typical lullaby in the gospel hymn tradition that characterizes Jesus as a mother, gently rocking and comforting a child. This attribute contributes to the continuing popularity of this genre of religious song that presents Jesus as waiting, caring, and forgiving in intimate—and for many, compelling—metaphors.”

Perhaps Revelation 3:20 captures the spirit of the hymn: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (KJV) This patient Jesus stands “on the portals . . . waiting and watching . . . for you and for me.”

The second stanza takes a different approach: How can we reject the “pleading” one who offers “pardon”? The third stanza increases in urgency: “Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing . . . shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming. . . .” The final stanza returns to the theme of Jesus who offers “mercy and pardon” for the sinner.

The genius of a gospel song is usually found in the refrain and this one is no exception. The refrain extends the invitation to “come home” four times in the melody, and an additional two times in the accompanying lower voices.

Interestingly, though “Softly and Tenderly” is the quintessential invitation hymn in the revival tradition, the invitation to “come home” may also be seen as the invitation to join Jesus in heaven. Indeed, two examples attest to this: The hymn was used during the memorial service for assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on April 8, 1968. It was also a recurring song in The Trip to Bountiful (1985), an Oscar- winning movie about an older woman in the 1940s who wants to return one last time to her girlhood hometown of Bountiful.

Hymnologist Ernest Emurian told a story associated with this hymn: “When the world-renowned lay preacher, Dwight Lyman Moody, lay on his deathbed in his Northfield, Massachusetts, home, Will Thompson made a special visit to inquire as to his condition. The attending physician refused to admit him to the sickroom, and Moody heard them talking just outside the bedroom door. Recognizing Thompson’s voice, he called for him to come to his bedside. Taking the Ohio poet-composer by the hand, the dying evangelist said, ‘Will, I would rather have written “Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling” than anything I have been able to do in my whole life.’” www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-softly-and-tenderly-jesus-is-calling

Board of Managers’ – Financial Report Attendees August 13, 2017: 106 adults

General Contributions: $ 1,445.25 Presbyterians Sharing $ 250.00 Other Missions $ 300.00

You can now book your appointment for having your picture taken for our 2017 Photo Directory. Simply go on line to https://booknow-lifetouch.appointment- plus.com/y102yeex/, or look under the “Events” page on the church website to click on the link. If you require help booking an appointment, please contact Cathy at 226-430-2021 or the church office. Please note that the October dates have changed to Monday October 30 to Saturday November 4.

Knox Presbyterian Church 220 Livingstone Avenue North Listowel, Ontario N4W 1P9 519-291-4690 [email protected] www.knoxlistowel.ca Minister: Rev. Donald P. J. McCallum Cell #519-444-8434 [email protected] Youth & Family Coordinator: Nicole Kaufman [email protected] Director of Music: Agnes-Marie Henderson Office Administrator: Pamela Coleman [email protected]

CCLI # 1209835  CRL # 134937  CVLI # 50160573 Office Hours: Monday - Friday 9:00 am – 12:00 pm & 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm