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October 2009 Grace Spoken Here Volume 10, Issue 24
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Dear Members and Friends, 
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Our 49th Anniversary Celebration Weekend was a great time of ministry and fellowship. Be sure to read the details in this issue entitled "SSCC Celebrates 49 Years."
top: Celebration Lunch; 170 plus attendance
bottom left: Tom Key Reception (Craig McDonald, Barb
Duren and Tom Key)
bottom right: Paint-In for Hospital Art (Tim Helton and
daughter, Jordan)
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Rev. Price has relinquished his monthly column to allow space for other articles of importance. He will be back next month.
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| SSCC Celebrates 49 Years |
The weekend of September 18-20 was
filled with activities celebrating the 49th
Anniversary of Sandy Spring Christian Church.
On Friday evening, actor Tom Key entertained an appreciative audience
with his one man rendition of "Screwtape In Person." A reception followed where people
mingled with Mr. Key while enjoying a variety of delicious desserts and
beverages.
On Saturday morning, volunteers gathered
to participate in a day of service.
Participants chose between painting murals for Hospital Art, cleaning
the church kitchen, or helping residents at Campbell-Stone Sandy Springs. Painters completed two multi-paneled murals;
one will be at the Cobb
Douglas Community
Service Center
where Mary Robeck works and the other will hang at Atria Assisted Living
Facility where Taylor Boone's parents reside.
Jim and Marilyn Torbert are thrilled with the results of the crew that
deep cleaned our kitchen appliances and organized the storage closet. Volunteers at Campbell-Stone felt appreciated
as residents praised their work flipping mattresses, dusting high places,
moving furniture and more. John and Beth
Eggleston, two of our newest members, commented that many residents enjoyed the
company as much as the help. It was a
rewarding experience for everyone involved.
The weekend culminated in a special
worship service followed by a delicious meal in Dunlap Hall. An astounding 170 plus stayed to enjoy the
meal, fellowship and honor our adult Sunday school teachers with certificates,
a special cake and a donation in their name to an outreach program of their
choice. SSCC is honored to have Shelton
Blackburn, Barb Duren, Frank McDonald, Bob Roper, Landa Simmons, and Larry
Steinmetz lead us weekly on our faith journeys.
As Phil said, "49 is a number that we don't often
celebrate as a milestone." For
SSCC, there is much to celebrate about 49.
It was the year of our new sign, new website, new logo, new education
initiatives, new governance structure, new members and so much more. Imagine what we will have to celebrate next
year!
 
top left: Chefs Torbert preparing our Anniversary Celebration lunch - thank you!
top right and bottom right: SSCC teachers honored with cakes and certificates of appreciation
left bottom: Fellowship with old friends, Ferris and Herb Leslie
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| Cast Your Bread Wayne Dimmitt, Chair of Elders |
"Cast Your Bread" brings several images to my mind. One of them is an image of my granddaughter feeding ducks on a pond at one of Kentucky's beautiful state parks. I love to watch her run back and forth between her mother who supplies the bread and the ducks who willingly accept it from her. When she casts her bread on the water, she can see immediate results. Not all of us are so fortunate. It's satisfying to see the results of anything we do. I doubt that my granddaughter would cast her bread for very long if she couldn't see the ducks going crazy for every morsel. At the same time, I see that her mother has an even more responsible, but every bit as satisfying, role in this picture. Not only does she get the satisfaction of knowing she supplied the bread, she also gets to watch her daughter learn to enjoy giving.
I don't think it's all that different here at Sandy Springs Christian Church. We have opportunities to play both roles in casting our bread. Sometimes we get to see the immediate results of our giving by donating our time to the Community Action Center, by traveling to Mexico to build homes for grateful families, or by visiting shut-ins or residents of Campbell-Stone. Most often, though, we allow others to have the pleasure of casting our bread for us because of their proximity to the pond. When we do this, we rely on our faith to know that our bread is feeding those who desperately need to be fed. But no one can take away from us the satisfaction of knowing that we are fortunate enough to be able to supply the bread that we share freely and lovingly.
This month, when you're asked to "Cast Your Bread," be generous and be thankful that you are fortunate enough to be able to supply the bread.
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| Music Ministries Micki Gonzalez, Director of Music Ministries |
 I have been thinking about boundaries
lately. Boundaries first came to my
attention in a great class I took at Yale
Divinity School. It was called "Anthropology of Ritual
Behavior," and it was
the most fascinating class I
took. But I digress.
Boundaries are inevitable. Somehow they are produced. You cannot have an "in" without an
"out." There is no possible way to stop
them from occurring in our lives. Yet
removing boundaries is something Paul stressed in his ministry and something Jesus took from the comments of the
Syrophoenician woman. ("Even the dogs can eat the crumbs from under the
master's table. . . ." Mark 6:28)
There is something distasteful to me
about creating a boundary between one group, one thing, and another. For all of the ways in which I can see why
one group is distinct from another, I can also name many ways in which they
share common characteristics. For fun,
let's compare musicians and athletes. On
the face of it, they are very different.
One group is centered in artistic creativity, and the other in physical
activity. But wait. . .musicians use muscle groups, too, and they must be
coordinated, trained and strengthened.
Athletes must be disciplined in practice, and they must think creatively
during the course of their sport. Both
choirs and bands are team sports, where each person has a role and works
together for the good of the whole.
Sports teams practice for "performance."
So are they really so different?
What about religious boundaries? I have always been amazed at how strongly
people draw lines to separate human beliefs in the spiritual, but we do. We see ourselves as distinct from Jews,
Muslims, Hindus-and also Catholics, Baptists, Methodists. . .need I go on? Surely you have heard the light bulb jokes about Lutherans,
Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and the rest. Someone has cleverly defined each group in a
humorous way that separates them from the others by how they would go about
changing a light bulb. And you know what
is really eerie about that? We love those jokes because it makes us
feel good about how our particular brand of Church is distinct from the rest.
I think that our job of knocking down
boundaries that separate us from other people is much, much more difficult than
we think. We will always come face to
face with ways of living and thinking that we do not understand nor appreciate.
It is hard to minister to people who seem so
different from us. Yet that is what we
are called to do.
What helps me is the realization that we
are all in this process of living lives together. We all have to eat, sleep,
love our children, play, and support our community with our work and our
concern. So I try to remember those
things when I am confronted with communication issues based upon differences of
life style, belief, language, or behavior.
Does this work for me? No, not
always. It is very, very hard.
Now here's the irony: what helps me work on the process of knocking
down these boundaries is coming to church where there is definitely an "in-group"
called Sandy
Springs Christian Church. We come here
to remember how we should try to live our lives and how we should go about loving and helping others. Being "in" helps us go "out." Odd, isn't it?
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Outreach/Mission Ministry Greg Peterson, Chair
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The Outreach/Mission Ministry at Sandy
Springs Christian Church seeks to reach out to people in need in several
ways. One of the primary ways is through
disbursement of financial support to agencies that serve people in need. In thepast couple of years, it has provided support to various
organizations that serve the spectrum of people in need. This support is due to the generosity of the
congregation and its
commitment to
follow Christ's example and teachings.
In addition to this financial support, the Ministry directs significant
support to the Christian Church
in Georgia. Sandy Springs Christian Church can be proud
of the support provided, particularly in these times of financial uncertainty
and shortages experienced in the region.
The second primary way the Ministry
seeks to serve people in need is through "hands on" activities
such as sandwich making,
other projects such as
work at Campbell-Stone, and sponsorship of a refugee family. In 2009, the Ministry has chosen to begin a partnership with the
Community Action Center (CAC). Under this partnership, Sandy Springs Christian Church plans to staff the CAC one Saturday a month, which will permit the CAC to serve more people,
particularly those only able to visit the center on weekends. This endeavor is still evolving, but the Outreach/Mission Ministry
expects to convert the initiative into a signature outreach activity. It believes this initial work with the CAC on
a Saturday opening will grow into other service opportunities. This growth may be slow and may be incremental, but it will happen.
The financial support provided by Sandy
Springs Christian Church to people in need through its giving is a blessing to
everyone touched by the generosity. In
addition to this generosity, the Outreach/Mission Ministry believes that Sandy
Springs Christian Church's future story rests, in part, on a commitment to more
"hands-on" service in the community.
Identifying how to harness that commitment and turn it into real
hands-on projects are challenges for the Ministry and Sandy Springs Christian
Church. We look forward to the future.
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Youth Ministries Craig McDonald, Director of Youth Ministries
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Thank you to everyone who came out and
supported our first fundraiser of the year for our annual trip to Mexico!
We hosted Tom Key as he performed Screwtape in Person. It
was a wonderful and thought provoking performance, as well as a wonderful way
to celebrate SSCC's 49th anniversary.
If you did not have a chance to see
Tom, don't worry because there are plenty of other ways you can help support
this trip. Very soon, with the amazing support of the Torberts, we'll be
serving box lunches once again. Anyone who has had one of these lunches
knows that it is no ordinary lunch! Thank you for the many ways you support our youth!
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SandySpringsCC.org Chuck Jones
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Our completely redesigned church website
was launched on Friday, September 18.
The new site is a major step in a
communications process that began with the development of the SSCC future
story. Our desire in creating the site has been to communicate verbally and non-verbally
our core values and personality as a church.
Church websites are more important today
than they have ever been. For most of our visitors, it will be their
first experience of the church. They will "check us out" online before
they invest a Sunday morning visiting with us. So our goal as a
development team has been to provide the information a prospective member would
desire in a clear and compelling way.
Because web technology has come a long
way in the last several years, the new site will also be much easier to keep
current, modify and expand. Nan Woods, who produces the Wellspring and
the Chalice Chat, will be our webmaster.
Many folks have been involved in this
project. Our thanks especially to Teresa Bensch, Leslie Lady, Nancy
McDaniel, and Emily Volin for writing many of the web pages--a significant
commitment. Phil Price, Erin Cooper and Nancy Trusty were very involved
also. Carol Armstrong project-managed the effort, doing her best to keep
us all on track.
I encourage you to visit
SandySpringsCC.org as soon as you can. We welcome your feedback and
suggestions.
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Children's Ministries - Rev. Erin Reed Cooper, Associate Minister
Trunk or Treat |
You love to decorate for Halloween. Nothing is as much fun as seeing the cute
kids of your neighborhood come up to your door dressed as a princess or a
dinosaur. If only you could take that
joy with you when you come to church. WELL, NOW YOU CAN! That's right folks! On Sunday, October 25th we will host our second annual
(well, if it's the second, maybe it's only the first annual--
but who is counting?) SSCC TRUNK OR TREAT!
What is Trunk or Treat, you ask?
1) You decorate the trunk
of your car--spiders, pumpkins and witches, or pick a theme!
2) You drive to SSCC, pull
out your lawn chairs and sit by your open trunk.
3) You greet the kids of
our community and give them candy! Plan
to join us for this great event on Sunday, October 25th at 5:30 PM. Prizes will be awarded for the best trunk
décor. The children of our community are
counting on you to show up!
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SSCC Memorial Fund Supports Church in Bilaspur, India
Rev. Landa Simmons
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Just one year ago, plans were underway for the first
people-to-people pilgrimages to the Christian
Hospital, Mungeli. Julie Sanford approached me and asked if
there were any needs that the Sandy
Springs Christian Church Memorial Fund might support. In late January at our Wednesday Bible Study
gathering, Nancy McDaniel began to tell us about her trip in January. Again Julie asked, "Is there any way that the
Memorial Fund might support the work there?"
About the same time, Nancy
turned to the page in her photo album that contained pictures of the church in Bilaspur, India. Immediately we all knew the answer to Julie's
question. Founded in the mid 19th century by a congregational
minister, the Bilaspur church has served this small community in north central India
continually since. Last year, the state
of disrepair caused engineers to request the congregation no longer meet in the
church. The family of the founding
pastor has committed to raise the funds to renovate the structure. As you all remember, the family and friends
of Beverly Murphy created a special memorial outreach fund in her memory. What more fitting way to honor Beverly than to refurbish a church in India? Her love of interior design, her dedication
to outreach and her appreciation for the sacred space of church all would
combine in a wonderful tribute to her and a blessed gift to the community of
faith in Bilaspur, India. The Memorial
Fund sent a check for $1,311.30 to Global Ministries for renovation and repairs
to the Bilaspur church.
 
The walls of the Bilaspur Church have Exposed support rods in the walls of structural damage and are starting to the church
fall inward.
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Wine and Cheese Scholarship Fundraiser, October 23 |
Have a glass of wine,
enjoy some light snacks, connect with friends, and support the SSCC Youth
Scholarship Fund.
When: Friday, October 23, 7:00-10:00 pm
Where: Carol and Jim Armstrong
4530 Blackland Dr.
Marietta, GA 30067
Suggested donation: $10 per person
Please RSVP by October 18th to Carol at 770-955-5454, or send an email (see address in the
church directory). You can also RSVP from the SSCC website: click
on the Contact Us option at the bottom of the Home page, and select the option
to register for an upcoming event. Note that all donations will go
directly to the Youth Scholarship Fund.
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Ministry and Fellowship Opportunities
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10/1 Elaine Donnelly Covenant Group, 7-9 pm, (P)
10/4 Armstrong Covenant Group, 5-7 pm (P)
10/6 Gamma Circle, 7 pm (P)
10/9-11 Women's Ministries Fall Retreat at Norman Park
10/10 MUST Ministries Youth Service Project
10/10 Acolyte Training, 10 am (S)
10/11 ThirdAgers Chat 'n Chew, 12 pm (DH)
10/14 Sigma/Delta Circle, 10:30 am (P); Lunch, 12 pm (CR)
10/20 Bob Trusty Covenant Group, 5-7 pm (P or 202)
10/23 Wine & Cheese Scholarship Fundraiser, 7-10 pm (Armstrong's)
10/25 PAC Meeting, 3:30-5:30 pm (120)
10/25 Trunk or Treat, 3:30-6:30 pm (DH)
10/27 LTQ Dinner 6:15-7:00 pm, Class 7:00-8:30 pm (Room 121)
10/27 Chrysalis, 7 pm (P)
10/29 ThirdAgers Tellus Museum tour and lunch at Redtop Mountain, 11 am
Every Friday - Men's Fellowship, 7 am (CR)
Save the Date
11/21 Church-wide Chili Cook-off. Cooks and tasting judges needed!
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Wellspring Contributions for November 2009 Are Due October 25
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Email your contributions to Nan Woods. Call the church office or look in the church directory for the email address. Please keep your article length to not more than 350 words. Have pictures? Send them along with your article. Advertise your event.
Thank you.
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