The Good News - This Week

This Sunday in is "Evangelism Sunday" in our denomination. I will be preaching on "the great commission" from Matthew 28 and will try to emphasize the joy and importance of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ in a broken and fearful world. My friend David Bartlett's most recent book is entitled, "What's Good About This News?" In it he writes, "Throughout the New Testament good news is always the herald's announcement of God's victory." The term "gospel" (euaggelion in the Greek) is a summation of the Christian message that means "a good announcement."

When you hear good news you rejoice. You also don't keep quiet about it, but share it gladly and broadly so that others may know the source of your joy. News of God's victory is always a joy! Evangelism Sunday reminds us that God calls us, as members of the church, to share the good news with all the world. We share it through deeds of mercy and compassion to those in need. We share it by participating in public worship and inviting others to join us in praising God. We share it through our prayers, fellowship and stewardship.

Jesus died for our sins and conquered death's power over us in his resurrection. Nothing can separate us from God's love and salvation belongs to any who call upon him in faith. Once we were not a people, now we are a people. Once we were slaves, now we are children and heirs! Salvation is God's glorious gift! This is the news we have heard, embraced and share.

APC is on a mission to live and share the good news of Jesus Christ and you are the ambassadors and evangelists of that gospel. Let us share it with classmates, work colleagues, neighbors, friends, family and strangers. Through your words and deeds and supported in prayer, for God's sake, invite a friend to APC. Ask someone to join you in the pews or at youth group or in women's circle or to the congregational dinner. Let folks know that they are invited and we have a place for them in this Christ centered family of believers. How sad to hear someone say, "I never came because no one ever invited me. I thought you didn't want me."

In short, don't hide your light under a bushel basket.....let it shine. Good news of great joy for all the people. Alleluia! Now, make some noise.

Road Construction Ahead

The City of Alpharetta will soon begin widening Academy Street in front of Alpharetta Presbyterian Church and The Cottage. When the project is completed, APC will have a dedicated left turn lane into church property, new sidewalks, and new curb and gutter.

The orange silt fences erected along Academy Street mark the boundary for demolition, grading, and construction that will occur over the next several months.

Demolition can begin as soon as the city inspects and approves the fencing. This includes the necessary removal of some shrubbery and trees near The Cottage and the demolition of the curb, gutter and sidewalk.

Although there may be extended periods of no apparent progress, the project will be completed by March 31, 2013. The city has assured us that during all phases of construction APC's driveway will remain unobstructed.

Promise Class Training

On Wednesday, October 3 Open Arms is offering a training class for those interested in volunteering on Sunday mornings in the Promise Class. The class will be in Room 210 from 6:30-7:30pm. If you are interested, please contact Sarah Provow at shprovow@bellsouth.net.

Presbyterian Women's Circles

Ladies, the four Presbyterian Women Circles of the church are up and running. Consider joining one this year! There are two daytime circles and two evening circles. This is a great way to meet people and to grow in your spiritual faith. For more information, call Gail Bullock at 770-754-4427.

OKTOBERFEST- First Wednesday

First Wednesday, October 3 - Make your reservations by September 30!

Come enjoy Oktoberfest! Dinner is from 6:00 PM - 6:30 PM with an adult menu and a children's menu. An Adult/Youth Program and Children's Activities are from 6:30 - 7:30 PM.

Make your reservations by Sunday noon on September 30 by either (1) going on-line at http://www.alpharettapres.com/acs (2) by filling out a card on the table in the hallway or (3) by using the bright lime green sheet posted by the APC kitchen door.

Dinner fees are: $4.00 for children 8 years and younger; $6.00 for adults/youth.

The adult/youth menu will be:

· SLOW ROASTED PORK WITH SWEET & SOUR RED CABBAGE

· SPAETZLE (GERMAN DUMPLINGS)

· POTATO PANCAKES WITH SOUR CREAM & APPLESAUCE

· GERMAN STYLE GREEN BEANS

· ASSORTED BREADS

· MIXED GREEN SALAD

· DESSERT - GERMAN CHOCOLATE PIE

The children's menu will be:

· Grilled cheese sandwiches

· French fries.

The adult/youth program will be presented by APC member, Alex Edwards, on "Managing Time -Finding Time to be Spiritual in a Busy World." Children's Ministry will provide special activities for children. Nursery will be available.

Mission Opportunity

Interested in traveling with a Presbyterian mission team to Zambia? ZAMJAM 2013 will be held July 16 - August 2, 2013. Trip expense (including airfare) is expected to be $2660. Zambia is caught between the challenges of poverty (80% of their population) and HIV/AIDS (one in seven are infected). Mission work is being done through the Alliance for Children Everywhere (www.childreneverywhere.org). Mt. Vernon Presbyterian Church is organizing this effort and Ms. Barbara Hughes is the trip leader. For more information, contact Barbara at 770-396-9313 or MVPC.

New Member Class

If you are interested in joining APC in membership, and learning more about the faith and life of the church, this class is for you! APC's next New Member Class will be held on Sunday, September 30, October 7 and October 14 from 9:45-10:45am in the theater. New members will be received by the Session and introduced to the congregation on Sunday, October 21. Please speak with Ollie or Jamie, and contact Carol in the church office to express your interest in participating in this process carol@alpharettapres.com.

Come Sing With Us

Women's Ensemble is open to all ladies who love to sing. We meet on Sunday mornings, from 10:00 to 10:30am in the choir room starting October 7.

One Voice is open to all middle school and high school singers. We meet on select Sundays from 12:30 to 1:30pm starting October 7. We meet in the choir room and pizza is served before we start singing. To see the Sundays we rehearse and perform, go to the Music Notes page of the APC web site (under Ministries/Music Ministries/Music Notes)

Ladies Night Out October

Join APC's Presbyterian Women on October 11 for a night out to enjoy the hilarious, entertaining show Menopause the Musical. Tickets are $48.00 each. RSVP and payment due to Pam Heydinger by the end of day October 4. Carpool will leave from the APC parking lot at 6:30pm. Contact pamheydinger@comcast.net for details.

Family Promise Comfort Cookies from APC!

The first fundraiser for Family Promise, our new mission partner, is coming up on October 6. We hope to see many of you in attendance for this wonderful event. Gather your family and head to Temple Sinai in Sandy Springs to sample "comfort foods" from all of the Family Promise partners while helping raise money to aid homeless families.

Purchase Tickets Here

APC's food donation will be "Comfort Cookies" and we need your help! We'd like to provide several trays of different flavors of home baked cookies. If you have a favorite recipe and can bake two or three dozen of them for the event, please let us know by completing this volunteer form or contacting Dianne Berry (or by phone 770-664-6767).

Radio Play

The Big Guns: or Whose Little Lily Is She?

October 5 and 6 at 7:30pm

With songs and smoking six-shooters, we're here to tell the adventures and misadventures of two cattle barons and, most especially, of a beautiful young lady in search of, well, not the usual kind of gold in them thar hills. Is this a musical? Nope. But somewhat like Cat Ballou, Paint Your Wagon and a lot of John Ford westerns, it has words and music that made their way west-songs like "Shenandoah," "Oh My Darling, Clementine," and "Sweet Betsy From Pike." And what's a rousing, sometimes rowdy western without a long-legged, curvaceous but vestal saloon gal? A saucy little filly known as Lily-with a more-than-middling singing voice to boot. A comic valentine to the cowboy and cowgirl heroes of bygone screen, radio and television-Gene, Roy, Hoppy, Coop, The Duke-with a tip of the Stetson to Calamity, Annie O, Belle Star and Cat Ballou. A story of the Old West, but a different sort of a story. A tale with a twist. A rootin', tootin', six-shootin' wing-ding of a western!

All proceeds of this production to benefit the APC STARS group. Tickets are $10 for everyone.

Open Arms Volunteers

Open Arms is a ministry of the church that seeks to include all our church family in worship in whatever way is needed. Through the efforts of this group, the church provides the Promise Class for children with developmental disabilities. Respite care is available for families one Saturday a month at APC as well as a camp one week each summer through FOCUS. An Eldercare group has been established as well as a Cancer Care group. Volunteers are always needed. If you wish to become involved in the efforts of this ministry contact Eelder Pat Dennis, Elder Sarah Provow, or Rev. Jamie Butcher.

APC Eldercare blog http://apcopenarmsreachingout.wordpress.com/

APC Cancer Care cancercare@alpharettapres.com

APC Open Arms Ministry www.alpharettapres.com (click the Open Arms tab)

Walks for a Cause

Are You Walking or Running for a Cause?

On Sunday, September 30, APC's Cancer Care Support Group will sponsor a "Blessing of the Walkers" for the Minute for Mission during service. There are many cancer awareness/fundraising walks throughout Metro Atlanta in October. Perhaps you are walking, running or otherwise supporting one of these worthy causes - in memory of a loved one, in support of a patient, or in celebration of survival. Be with us as we offer up God's blessings upon each and every one of these volunteer efforts. Please email cancercare@alpharettapres.com if you would like to have your walk acknowledged during this moment.

Event	Location	Dates
Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Atlanta	Centennial Olympic Park	October 6, 2012
Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Marietta	Glover Park on The Square	October 27,2012
Susan G. Komen Atlanta 3-Day	Atlanta	October 18-20, 2013
It's The Journey Atlanta 2-Day Walk for Breast Cancer	Atlanta	October 6-7, 2012
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Light The Night Walk	Centennial Olympic Park	October 13, 2012

Career Transition

APC Career Transition Program - Recently the unemployment rate in Metro Atlanta dropped from 10.2% to 9.9 %. When individuals are no longer job hunting, as well as those who seek full-time jobs are counted, the real rate of unemployment is a conservative figure of 15%. Since 2007, Georgia has lost 360,000 positions, so the state now has approximately the same number of jobs that existed in 1999. Elder Bill Harris leads efforts at APC to address the employment concerns and needs your help. We are trying to get a handle on how many of our members are unemployed and underemployed and whether or not they participate in the Career Transition Group at APC. If you would like employment assistance, please email Bill at w.m.harris@att.net.

If you work for or lead an organization, we would appreciate any information on positions that might represent opportunities that become available or contact names that would ensure a more effective outreach. We need our employed professionals and executives to reach out and make information available that will give a competitive edge to members of our congregation who are endeavoring to gain a sense of the real jobs and hidden market versus Internet postings. In the Lobby, the Career Transition Bulletin Board is now up and running. Please email Bill with any assistance you can offer as we renew our commitment to serve our members, veterans and the community in this challenging and prolonged Recession.

C.S. Lewis Series

The Sunday evening C.S. Lewis lecture series continues. Jim Motter, an APC member and C.S. Lewis scholar, will lead a 10-week Sunday evening lecture and discussion series on C.S. Lewis' masterwork, Mere Christianity. The lectures will be held in the theater now through November 11, from 5:30 to 7:00pm. The public is invited.

College Students

A large number of APC members are enrolled in colleges and universities this fall. Please be sure to update the contact information of college students in your family through Access ACS on our website using the e-mail address on file at APC as your login. We want to keep our college students connected to APC while they are at school and hold them in our thoughts and prayers during this formative time in their lives. You can also notify the youth ministry office of updated school contact information for your student by e-mailing kelly@alpharettapres.com.

Youth Ministry News

Youth Group, grades 6-12, Sunday, September 30, 5:30 - 7:30 PM

Habitat Aid Slideshow - Join Harrison & Walter Dean and Pastor Wagner for a slideshow highlighting their summer mission trip to Kenya. Dinner will be served in Fellowship Hall ($4 per person donation).

We need parents to sign up to help with meal prep for Youth Group. Contact Wendy Curl to select your date.

Please update your information in Access ACS! The Youth Ministry will begin transitioning all sign ups for events and volunteering to this system over the next few weeks and we want to make sure that we have current information for everyone. If you are having trouble, please contact Michelle Burton for assistance.

For questions or more information, please contact Kelly Edwards, Director of Youth Ministries at kelly@alpharettapres.com or 770-751-0033.

Children's Ministry News

Nursery care is provided on Sundays from 8:15am - 12:15pm for ages 0-2 in the nursery.

Promise Class is provided on Sundays during the 11:00 worship service for our special needs students in the Blue Room.

Kinderkirk (Children's Worship Education for children ages 3 - rising 2nd graders) will be during the 11:00 service only during the summer. Preschool classes will meet in Room 101 and Kindergarten and rising second graders in Room 102.

Sympathy & Celebrations

Celebration - To Steve and Susan Brown at the marriage of their daughter, Megan Brown to Trey Janney, on September 29 at APC.

Celebration - To Art and Patricia Pashayan at the marriage of their son, Ara Pashayan to Mayra Huerta, on October 6 in El Paso, TX.

Sunday Volunteers

Serving as acolytes this Sunday: Jack Shevlin at 8:30 & Nick and Tyler Heydinger at 11:00

Serving as greeters this Sunday: Volunteers needed

Serving as ushers this Sunday: Sharon Bean, Richard Boston, Marian Cunningham, Carolyn Dillon, John McPherson at 8:30

APC Church Officers

The Session

Class of 2012 Class of 2013 Class of 2014

Dianne Berry-Children's Ministry George Bancroft-Property Scott Doll-Membership/Youth Ministry

Michelle Burton-Youth Ministry Jodie Barger-Children's Ministry Molly Elkind-Worship

Morris Estes-Finance Lynn Danson-Fellowship/Mission Stu Laubenstein-Personnel

Jim Gray-Clerk of Session/CE Pat Dennis-Open Arms Anne Mahone-Dayschool/LRP

John Shevlin-Mission Nancy Hill-Personnell/Nominating Charles Moriarty-Property/CE Adult

Jessie Prigge-Youth Ministry Jan Hughey-LRP/Finance Sarah Provow-Open Arms/Commitment

Amy Rogers-Communications Kylie Vacko-Open Arms Ferrell White-Worship/Fellowship

Jean Williams-Nominating/Membership

Deacon Care Teams

Hospitality - John Hicks, 678-513-4570, hicksjc@bellsouth.net

Companion Care - Carolyn Dillon, 770-751-3799, csdillon@bellsouth.net

Hospital & Recovery - Paul McChesney, 678-234-8471, paulsmcchesney@gmail.com

Sympathy & Celebrations, Steve Ludlow, 770-722-5473, ludlowst@comcast.net

APC on Facebook

Find us on Facebook! That's right Alpharetta Presbyterian Church has a facebook page! You can "like" APC at http://facebook.com/alpharettapres. Look for the latest information about activities and missions of the church!

The Good News - This Week

Alpharetta Presbyterian Church.
You can visit the church on line at www.alpharettapres.com or contact the office during regular business hours at 770-751-0033 (Mon-Thurs, 8:00am-4:00pm and Friday, 8:00am-1:00pm).