July 24, 2010

Inside the Courier

•

A Look at the BriteSide, page 2

• News briefs, pages

3 and 5

• August Calendar

,page 4

On the Web: fccminneapolis.org

Disciples News Service

Week of Compassion updates

Arts, Drama, Music camp a first for region

August 8

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Worship &picnic in thepark (p. 3)

by Deb Murphy

A new arts-focused camp debutedthis July at the Newton ConferenceCenter. Sixteen youth (junior highand high school) and eight men-tors/counselors gathered from aroundthe region to participate in a spirit-filled and creative camp calledA.D.a.M Camp. I was lucky torepresent FCC as a camp counselor.Campersarrived Mon-day night andstrung andtuned the 16guitars thathad been do-nated to thecamp fromchurches andindividuals inthe region.Each of therest of thefour dayswas divided into several learningunits: Music, Drama, Movement/ Dance, and Art. Drama was coveredby the counselors, as several of ushad experience in that area, but guestartists were brought in to work withthe campers: Monika Peltz - move-ment/dance; Ellie Radcliffe - art; andDave Moore, a professional sing-er/songwriter - music. Dave washands-

down every camper‘s f

avorite.He told them his story as a sing-er/songwriter and then workedwith the entire group to write a song. Thekids titled it

―Let Your Faith Rise Again.‖

Each day had a different theme: Hope,Love, Peace, Faith. Creative time wasbuilt into the schedule to let everyonework on a project they had started or tolearn something new. Sheldon, one of thecounselors, held continuous guitar lessons.And, of course, pool time

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everyone

‘

sfavorite. There was a performance everynight for thecampers toshowcasetheir work and to be-come accus-tomed toperforming.We closedout a coupleof eveningswith a drumcircle aroundthe campfire- withSmores beforehand at least one night.Friday night there was a final perfor-mance for family and friends. There were27 acts: improvisation, solos, groups, artdemonstrations, instrumentals

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we had itall! The camp interns even joined in at thelast minute with an improv act of theirown. As the finale, the kids sang the songthey h a d writ

ten ―Let Your Faith RiseAgain.‖ The final p

erformance was dedi-cated to Adam Barnett, a former camperwith musical gifts, whose parents helpedstart the camp in his memory.

Christian Courier

First Christian Church of Minneapolis (Disciples of Christ)

Page 2

Pastor Bob Brite

Gracious God,we lift up these persons in our prayers, asking theblessing of your Grace and out- pouring of your Love upon them.

In our prayers

FCC Ministry: being a Disciples presence in the Twin Cities

We pray in concern for

Tim Ronnei

, recovering from his second surgery inas many weeks, for

Mike Ronnei

and

David Pyles

battling cancer, for

Ju-dy Ronnei

recovering from a ruptured appendix, and for

Becky Whitak-

er’s

father-in-law recovering from triple bypass surgery; in celebration for

for Don Cain’s

90th birthday, and for the dedication on July 18 of

AdrianMichael

Ramirez

by parents

Cicely and Rene Ramirez

, grandmother

Laura Arradondo

, great-grandmother

Doris Helvig

and others of the fam-ily; in sympathy with

C. J. Floyd

and her family of Lake Harriet ChristianChurch whose husband died in a tragic scuba diving incident recently; forthe safe arrival and resettlement of the

refugee family

arriving July 28;for

Bob Risinger

Helen Smith

and all our homebound members, Amen.

“There is something distinctive

about the Disciples of Christ

”

A couple of weeks ago in a meet-

ing, somebody asked me, ―What is

the current ministry of First Chris-

tian Church?‖ My response off the top of my head was, ―To be a

community of people loving one

another.‖ That‘s what I think we

do best; of course, the future of thechurch requires becoming muchmore so.

Now that I‘ve thought about it a

bit more, I would also add that thecurrent ministry of FCC is to be aDisciples presence in Minneapolis.There is something distinctiveabout the Disciples of Christ: Ouremphasis on the table, our call toindividual responsibility in grow-

ing one‘s faith and understanding

of Scripture, our commitment toecumenism and cooperative minis-try with others, our emphasis onmission, altogether are hallmarksof Disciples. We are a somewhatquirky people in the context of mainline Protestantism, and Ithink that that is largely a goodthing.As we continue movement to-

wards what we‘ll be doing in the

future, we are still called by Godto work on our ministry in thepresent: A ministry of evangelismand welcoming new and returningfolks to the Body, a ministry of meeting needs and helping people,a ministry of sharing the distinc-tiveness of Disciples in the neigh-

borhood and community. We‘re

going to keep plugging away atthese as we continue to navigatethe course towards the future.On a different note, Sunday, Au-gust 29, will be the second anni-versary of the sale of our buildingto MIA. We will be lifting that upas a theme in worship, a matter of grieving and closing. You might,between now and then, think of those memories that are most im-portant to you about the historyhere; I may be asking you to sharethem.

I‘d like to see YOU on Sunday,

Bob

A Look at the Brite Side

Actual

offerings through6/30/10: *$91,523.22*

Budgeted

offerings through6/30/10: *114,525.06*Shortfall: $20,001.84Can you help with this?

Christian CourierPage 3

Church Sunday School,Worship and Picnic Aug. 8

ALL FCC Sunday morning activi-ties

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the whole kit and caboodle

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will be outdoors at the North Mis-sissippi Park on Sunday, Aug. 8.All regular Sunday morningclasses will convene ay 9:15 atpicnic tables in the park. Campsongs and a more informal atmos-phere will highlight the 10 amworship service, which will have

all the ―regular‖ elements of

communion, prayers and reflec-tions.The all-church picnic will beginfollowing worship. The member-ship committee will furnish beve-rages and paper products, but therest is potluck, so bring your favo-rite dish to share. a wading pool / playground is available for allchildren, so bring suits and towelsif anyone in your family wants toget wet.To get to North Mississippi Park,take I-94 north to Exit 226. Gotowards 53rd Avenue North andstay straight to go onto I-94, thenturn slightly right onto LyndaleAvenue N (follow the signs).

Billman scholarships available

The John and Katharine BillmanScholarships for incoming collegefreshpersons and sophomores willonce again be available this fall.These $500 scholarships are avail-able simply by writing a letter of application to the church request-ing the scholarship and detailingwhere you will be attendingschool.This application letter should beinto Pastor Bob by

August 10

sohe can take it to the FinanceCommittee for action on Aug. 11.

Refugee Family arriving from Somalia July 28

On July 28, a family of four willarrive at Minneapolis/St. Paul air-port from Somalia to start a newlife here in Minnesota. Workingthough the Minnesota Council of Churches, Spirit of Joy ChristianChurch in Lakeville along withFirst Christian are working togeth-er to welcome the new arrivals.Warren Westphal is coordinatingefforts. While Spirit of Joy isgoing to provide most of the ma-terial goods for the family, FCC ishoping to be able to provide trans-portation to meetings, shoppingand other family trips. Currently,two drivers have volunteered, butseveral more are needed so thatthe driving needs can be shared.If you have a passion for refugeeministry, or have a talent in pro-viding hospitality, please contactWarren Westphal after service orcall the church office.

Update on Pyles family

David Pyles, member of FirstChristian, is fighting Lymphoma.Last year a newsletter was circu-lated delineating the medicaltreatments to date and that he wasa candidate for a bone-marrowscrubbing and transplant.That procedure did not occurand for the last months David hasbeen on experimental drugs tryingto see if any would either slow orreduce his tumors. Now he is on anew chemotherapy that will hope-fully allow him to enter a new ex-perimental drug trial.In that newsletter there werethings we could do to help Daveand Janice. Currently, the mosthelpful things for the familywould be preparation of small por-tions of food that could be storedin a freezer and a little volunteerweeding time. The foods are sim-ple: plain cooked brown ricepackaged in ½ cup servings; plaincooked black beans in ½ cup serv-ings; cooked ground turkey (canbe seasoned with onions and spic-es) in 3 oz paddies (pkgs); Cookedchicken breasts or thighs (sea-soned OK) in 3 oz packages.If you are going to prepare foodplease contact Sue Bona at 651-707-4836.The weeding is mostly aroundpathways. There is also a fund tohelp defray medical expenses; asyou know, both Dave and Janiceare self-employed. You may sendmonetary donations (payable toFund for David Pyles) to Sue Bo-na, 5901 Laurel Ave. #334, Gol-den Valley, MN 55416.Please keep Janice and Davidin your daily prayers.