First Presbyterian Church NON PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE 110 East Third Street PAID Dixon, IL 61021 PERMIT NO. 212 Phone: (815) 284-7741 DIXON, IL 61021 Fax: (815) 284-6725 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Website: www.fpcdixon.com 2012 MARCH BIRTHDAYS 03/02 David Hage 03/09 Stanley Weber 03/20 Judith Magdich 03/02 Andrew Dempsey 03/10 Marvin Speer 03/21 Abbey Schaefer 03/03 Jack Dempsey 03/10 Jon Dempsey 03/24 Erik Hopp 03/07 Char Hawbaker 03/11 David Coers 03/28 Julie Batorski 03/07 Alexandrea Barth 03/12 Cliff Rugh 03/28 Ashley Hawbaker 03/15 Mark Dempsey 03/29 Michael Barth 03/30 DeeAnn Wendt 03/31 Allen Cumberland MARCH ANNIVERSARIES 03/04 Bruce & Carol Bennett 03/14 Dick & Cheryl Mills 03/29 Chuck & Vicki Jones 1 The Belltower A Monthly Publication of First Presbyterian Church Dixon, IL 61021 March 2010 Since the beginning of the year I’ve been following a book of devotional readings taken from the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer ( I Want to Live These Days with You, Westminster-John Knox Press 2005). I was especially struck by the reading for February 25, and I’d like to quote it for you. Only those who are thankful for small things also receive great things. We keep God from giving us the great spiritual gifts he has for us because we do not give thanks for daily gifts. We think that we cannot be satisfied with the small amount of spiritual knowledge, experience and love given to us and always look greedily for greater gifts (Jer. 45:5). We then complain that we lack the great certainty, the strong faith, and rich experience God has given to other Christians, and we believe that our grievances are righteous. We pray for great things and forget to give thanks for the daily small (yet in truth not small!) gifts. But how can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive small things from his hand? When we do not give thanks daily for the Christian community in which we are placed—even when there is no great experience, no perceivable wealth, but where there is much weakness, little faith, and much difficulty—when we are always complaining to God that everything is so measly, so small, so unlike what we expected, then we keep God from making our community grow according to the abundance and riches that await all of us in Jesus Christ. Bonhoeffer points out that when we think and pray and work for the church to grow, we can be prone to certain attitudes that are not only practically counter-productive but spiritually counter-productive, too. We can, for instance, become envious of churches that appear more “successful” than ours, or we can become nostalgic for the past, or we seek “success” because it makes us feel better about ourselves. But in the process we can lose sight of the truth about ourselves, that God is present with our church right now, and that his gifts and grace are sufficient. He warns us that if we fail to appreciate the gifts God has already given us, and worse than that complain about them, we have little reason to think that God would entrust us with greater gifts and blessings. 2 I realized this morning that as I write this, tomorrow will be the second anniversary of my call to Dixon. It serves as a good reminder of the reasons I came. This is a church full of gifted, loving, committed followers of Jesus, and I see evidence of that faith and love every day. In this past month when we were called up to host the Presbytery for their meeting on the 14 th and the community for the Lenten service on the 26 th I saw people receiving warm hospitality. I see it as people share in all the aspects of worship every Sunday, from the care taken in preparing the sanctuary, to the thoughtful preparation of the liturgists and musicians, to the care shown our little ones in the nursery. I see it in the many hours members of our church family devote, usually very quietly, to the community. I encourage you to give thanks for these simple blessings, and then ask how we can grow to be an even greater blessing to our community and world. Grace and peace, David Remember Newsletter information to be turned into the office by the 15 th of each month. Don’t forget to SPRING AHEAD March 11!! OUR MISSION STATEMENT As Presbyterians, we embrace the Reformed tradition as we strive to support Christ’s mission within our church, our community, and worldwide, celebrating the life of Christ by reaching out to all people. 3 The time is fast approaching for graduation. If you have a child, or a grandchild that will be graduating from eighth grade, high school, college, or graduate school, please let the church office know the graduate’s name, where they are graduating from, and also send a paragraph telling the church family about their future plans. One Great Hour of Sharing Immediately following WWII, Protestant churches in the U.S. made appeals for the relief and reconstruction of areas devastated by the war, primarily Europe and Asia. In 1949 the leaders of several denominations formed a committee to organize an appeal to support their churches’ separate campaigns. A radio program called One Great Hour was broadcast on March 26, 1949, over major networks and many independent stations. The broadcast closed with a request that listeners attend their local church the following morning and make a sacrificial contribution. No exact measure of receipts was possible, but it was estimated that more than 75,000 churches participated. The next year the offering was repeated, using the name “One Great Hour of Sharing” for the first time. At times, this offering was coordinated with both the Roman Catholic Bishops’ Fund Appeal for Overseas Aid and the Jewish Passover Appeal. From the beginning this has been an ecumenical effort. As denominations changed and merged. OGHS has varied from eight to 29 participating denominations. Each denomination allocates its gifts differently; all use their funds for ministries of disaster relief, refugee assistance and development aid. Today, projects supported by this major offering are underway in more than 100 countries, including the United States and Canada. In recent years Presbyterians have given about $10 million annually. PCUSA allocated approximately one third to each of three programs: Presbyterian Disaster Assistance; Presbyterian Hunger Program; Self-Development of People. There are currently eight denominations participating in One Great Hour of Sharing. Presbytery Women We are still saving Betty Crocker labels and also Campbell soup labels. There is a plastic container in the kitchen. We need only the little square bar code at the bottom of the label. If you don’t want to cut out the label just put the whole can wrapper in the plastic box. In past years we have given labels to the YMCA. This year we plan to give them to Kemmerer Village in Assumption, Illinois. Kemmerer Village is a Presbyterian home and school for wayward children. At this time they are caring for 36 families and 64 children. 4 Christian Education In March we will be asking for an offering of loose change you may want to give. As usual we will have plastic eggs in the pews for your loose change. Donations will be given to PADS to help with the bills of the homeless shelter. Please don’t forget to bring your change in and help out those in need. Thank you . A grateful thanks for ALL the efforts and contributions put forth by all the volunteers on February 14 when First Presbytery of Dixon hosted the Presbytery meeting. Many hands do make light work and it was felt that everything went quite smoothly. A special thanks to Carolyn McBride and Paul Katner, who co-chaired the efforts with Mary Mobarak, chair of the committee, who fed 125 plus attendees. A number of us working that day had numerous comments on our beautiful facility and how welcoming it is. By the time you receive this issue of the Belltower Lent will be in its second week. We hope that you attended the Ash Wednesday evening service and or the Dixon Lenten service held in our church the evening of the 26 th . A thank you to all who helped with these two services and a special thanks to the choir for singing. Since we are now in the Lenten Season, that means that Palm Sunday and Easter are not far away. As in past years, we will be offering you the opportunity to beautify the sanctuary with Easter and spring flowers. Sign up sheets will be in the bulletins during the month of March. We hope you will take advantage to remember loved ones and to contribute to making Easter Sunday special. The Worship Committee The Flower committee Presbytery – February 14, 2012 The most significant aspect of our February Presbytery meeting was that it was here! Anybody who says our church is past its prime and can’t pull off a big deal like last Tuesday (the 14 th ) is off the mark because we really had a successful day and the two or three dozen local Presbyterians who pitched in and organized it and then carried it off are to be commended. Our church is too small and we don’t have enough parking so we can’t host Presbytery.