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A bi-weekly newsletter to keep you up-to-date and informed.
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Vitality Day 2014
"Tools for Transition"
Vital congregations make a difference in people's lives. Vital congregations address the hurts and hopes of people in the community. Vital congregations bring healing to a hurting world. Vital churches transform lives. Transformed lives make vital churches.
"The product of the church is transformed lives - not quality ministry".
(C. Kirk Hadaway, Behold I Do a New Thing, p. 18)
"The church is a fellowship, a gathering of those who are in the process of being changed, of those who are being saved and made new, and who invite others to join them in this adventure and in this life."
(Anthony B. Robinson, Transforming Congregational Culture, p. 37)
"Lack of growth in a church implies that lives are not being changed."
(Hadaway, p.26)
Many churches exist "to satisfy people, not to change them; to meet their 'felt needs,' not to deal with the causes of their discomfort." (Hadaway, p. 32)
"The transformational process naturally produces 'heat'. Members are excited about what is happening to them and in their church. They want to invite people so others can see it and experience it for themselves." (Hadaway, p.32)
Churches will not look the same in the future, but ministry will continue. It is the vision and mission and hope of the Vital Growth Mission Area Team to prepare fertile soil for new and vital ministries to emerge within and out of our existing churches.
Thank you for making a difference!
Cheryl
The second annual Vitality Day sponsored by the Vital Growth Mission Area Team of the Michigan Conference UCC will be held on March 1, 2014 at East Congregational UCC, Grand Rapids from 10-4. Registration is due February 24th. Information is attached.
This is a time to bring a team of people from the congregation to work on a particular issue that needs some new life. What would you like to see more of in your congregation or community?
The Rev. Dr. Bill Lyons described this Vitality Day, not as a day of inspiration, but as a day of perspiration. Get ready to roll up your sleeves and work together. You will learn to identify immunities to change and how to bring about change more effectively. Proven strategies will be used to help you turn your hopes into reality. At the end of Vitality Day you will leave empowered to make real change happen in your church!
VITALITY DAY - FLYER
REGISTRATION
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| IJRW Workshop - Postponed |
Inclusive Justice Radical Welcome Workshop Postponed
This workshop will be rescheduled for a later date. As soon as information is available we will be sure to share it with you.
"Racism remains a wound at the heart of our nation
that cannot be wished away or treated carelessly."
-- UCC Pastoral Letter on Racism (2008)
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2nd Parent Adoption Event: February 16, 2014
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UUCGL
"Third-Sunday Film"
in February
will be a Community Forum on
2ND PARENT ADOPTION EVENT
Sunday, February 16, 2014
7:00-8:30 pm
Doors open at 6:30
On February 25, a federal judge will be hearing a challenge to Michigan's ban on same sex marriage and its practice of denying second parent adoptions. Come learn from people deeply involved in the issue.
Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lansing
855 Grove St, East Lansing
(Corner of Library Lane and Grove, across from E. Lansing Public Library)
Handicapper accessible from Grove St
2nd Parent Adoption Flyer
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New Beginnings Introduction Webinar for Congregations
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Our UCC national setting will present a New Beginnings Introduction Webinar for Congregations leadership on Tuesday, Feb. 25th at 3 PM EST.
To join the webinar click "WEBINAR"
The webinar will address:
- The purpose of New Beginnings Assessment Service http://www.ucc.org/new-beginnings/
- The target congregations for New Beginnings
- The New Beginnings Process and Program
- The cost and scheduling of New Beginnings for Conferences and Congregations
- Congregation Best Practices for New Beginnings
This is a great opportunity for congregations that are struggling financially, wondering what the next step for ministry may be, or have lost their energy for ministry. Five congregations in the Southwest and Grand West Associations are participating now.
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Boundary Awareness Training for Church Volunteers
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A special training event for Youth Group leaders, Chaperones, Church School Teachers and Clergy in the Grand West and Southwest Associations.
Saturday, March 15, 2014
9:30a - 2:30p (lunch provided)
$5 per person
10 East Park Place, NE Grand Rapids, MI 49503
with "Boundary Training" in the subject line - Name of church and name of each volunteer who will attend
- Mark Lambert, Michigan Representative, Insurance Board
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Festival of Faith - Worship for the 21st Century
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Saturday, April 26, 2014 10:00a - 3:00p
469 N. Hagadorn Rd. East Lansing, MI 48823
Cost to attend: $25 per person (includes lunch)
Featuring Keynote Speaker:
Bring a worship team from your church and experience a spirit of celebration with great preaching, music and good humor! You will discover resources for use in your home church.
Online registration begins March 1, 2014; a paper registration will be also be available. Childcare will be provided at this event.
Deadline to register is April 14th, 2014
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6 Steps to Grow Your Youth Ministry
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6 Steps to Explode Your Youth & Young Adult Ministry
Get ready for fall NOW!
This 6 month coaching program provides 6 steps to plan a fall program that is not only fun, but bursts the bubble on what you were taught to think youth and young adult ministry is supposed to be all about.
In six sessions, we'll cover:
- Imagining today's generation of young disciples
- Building a network of mentors to nurture young faith
- Empowering families to live out their faith at home
- Keeping kids coming back to church as they grow up
- Ministering well with social media
- Building your ministry plan and team (it's not just you!)
This group meets once a month for 6 months online with Rev. Nicole Havelka and Rev. Doug Pagitt as special guest. The cost is $499.00 per leader. Group rates are available - just ask!
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UCC Young Adult Service Communities
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 Young adults, ages 21-35 - Are you looking for a way to make a positive difference in the church and world? Just YASC! Excitement is building about the UCC Young Adult Service Communities - one near you or in another part of the country. February is the month for Applications. Inquire today UCC Young Adult Service Communities.
First Parish Church United of Westford, MA (near Boston), is a joint UCC-Unitarian church that loves to make everyone feel welcome and engaged. Old First Reformed UCC in Center City, Philadelphia lives every day as a wellspring of hope for diverse people in their neighborhood, city, region and throughout the world. St. Peter UCC in Granite City, IL (minutes from downtown St. Louis), is regenerating their church by working to regenerate their community. On the west coast, Pilgrim UCC in Carlsbad, CA , is a church committed to inclusion, progressive Christian theology and social justice. And the Justice Leadership Program in Seattle, WA gives interns the opportunity to link passion for social justice with spiritual and personal growth. Great community internships are lined up for the right candidates. YASC interns serve both in a community agency and part-time in congregational service at the church. Interns live in intentional community with one another and figure out how to live as 'change-makers' in the world. AmeriCorps education grants are available for interns placed in some community agency positions.
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Boundary Training sessions announced
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Sustaining Pastoral Excellence
at
Boundary Tending and Border Crossing sessions
Upcoming Dates: May 1, 2014 September 4, 2014 April 30, 2015 September 10, 2015
*Please note that two (2) sessions will not take place at St. Francis Retreat Center.
9:15a - 3:30p Cost: $75 (includes materials & lunch) $25 deposit required with registration
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UCC Women of Michigan: The Gathering 2014
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June 6, 7, & 8, 2014
"Sing a New Song" 
Featuring Keynote Speaker: Rev. Penny Lowes
Come and join us for various workshops
- Women's Intuition - Journaling by the Rev. Lydia Meyer
- Dancing with God by the Rev. Ginny Titus
- "What God has to say about LGBTQ" by Amy McDonald LLPC
- Corded bag/basket workshop by Eileen Lovett
- making prayer blessing flags, Scandinavian wood shaving ornaments, and much more.
Join us for a great retreat weekend at the beautiful Kettunen Center just outside Tustin, Michigan. A registration form is available below or you can email your name and address to either Amy McDonald amycmu@yahoo.com or Vesta Smith-Campbell vscampbell@cleary.edu and we will be glad to send you a paper copy.
REGISTRATION FORM
Hope to see you this summer!
Amy McDonald & Vesta Smith-Campbell
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WORKSHOP:
Disability Justice - What Role Can You Play?
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Allies for Change is offering this two-day workshop designed for nondisabled people who wish to deepen their understanding of the disability justice movement and explore what it means to be an ally with people with disabilities. The workshop will provide an opportunity to connect with other allies to build a community of accountability, discuss questions and concerns, and practice the skills of being an effective ally in the struggle to dismantle ableism.
Dates: March 14 & 15, 2014 (Attendance at both days is required) Time: Friday, 9:00a - 5:00p; Saturday, 9:00a - 5:00p Facilitator Team: Theresa Squires & Melanie S. Morrison Location: Red Cedar Friends Meeting House, 1400 Turner St., Lansing, MI (The facility is barrier free) Cost: $150 ($50 deposit and $100 balance due). The cost includes program, materials & lunch both days. Partial scholarships are available.
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Annual Ecumenical Lenten Carbon Fast
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 To fellow Christians, Pastors, and Denominational Leaders, Make Lent an opportunity to enter into a spiritual discipline of fasting from carbon. Over the past few years, thousands of people the world over have welcomed a day-by-day opportunity to fast from carbon as their Lenten discipline. Initiated by the UCC and endorsed by Episcopalians, people of every Christian perspective - and people who are not Christians - have benefitted from this opportunity to become more conscious and conscientious in their daily lives. If you're a pastor - SIGN UP... and: email this invitation to the people in your parish, tell them you'll be participating, AND - convene a weekly Lenten discussion focusing on the Carbon Fast. MAKE THIS YOUR CHURCH'S LENTEN PROGRAM!
- And if you're part of a local clergy association, email it to your colleagues, too.
If you are a denominational leader - SIGN UP... and: - email this invitation to the pastors in your region, AND
- email this invitation to your regional colleagues who lead other denominations.
AND FOR ALL WHO MAY PARTICIPATE: For hundreds of years, Ash Wednesday (March 5, 2014) marks the beginning of a time when Christians engage in spiritual disciplines involving repentance, fasting, prayer, study and works of love. Living as we are at a time when our actions - along with the actions of only a few generations - have threatened creation as we know it by the excessive burning of fossil fuel, it is fitting to engage in a spiritual discipline of fasting from carbon. Click below or paste that link in your browser to sign up to fast from carbon during Lent: www.macucc.org/carbonfast |
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A Special Tribute to Mrs. Mamie "Zwadi" Chalmers
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FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
~ From Birmingham to Detroit~
Still in the Struggle for Civil Rights and Social Justice
A Special Tribute Honoring
Mrs. Mamie King "Zwadi" Chalmers 
Sunday, February 23, 2014
(Immediately following Worship Service)
Shrine of the Black Madonna #1
of the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church
7625 Linwood, Detroit, MI 48206
Rev. Mbiyu Chui, Pastor
Please Join Us for
Worship Services at 10:30 a.m.
Tribute includes:
Invited Guest Presenters, Pictoral Tribute & Chidren's Tribute
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Lombard Mennonite Peace Center
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 101 West 22nd Street, Email admin@LMPeaceCenter.org
There's still time to make plans for Continuing Education in 2014, and we have some great options to consider!
Mediation Skills Training Institute for Church Leaders June 2 - 6, 2014 Sterling Heights, Michigan
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Transformations Spirituality Center
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"A Life of Being, Having and Doing ENOUGH"
Wayne Muller
Transformations Spirituality Center
March 2 - 4, 2014
From the moment we are born, we are seekers, but this is lost "in a world seduced by its own unlimited potential. In obsessive pursuit of money, success and self-improvement we reach the end of each jam-packed day discouraged by everything we have not checked off on our to-do lists. We despair that whatever we have accomplished is never enough.
All of our worries will not add a single day to the tally. In fact, anxiety is likely to reduce our days if not in quantity, then surely in quality."
In this retreat, you will grow in compassion and mercy for yourself and recognize what is most profoundly true about who you are and what you need. See how self-acceptance makes whatever you choose to do, in this moment, wholly enough. INFORMATION FLYERTotal registration is $270 when a $50 non-refundable deposit is paid by February 3, $295 after. Cost includes the retreat, two nights in private guest room with bath; 5 meals and materials.
Commuter Rate: Total registration is $190 when a $50 non-refundable deposit is paid by February 3; $215 after. Commuter cost includes retreat, materials and two lunches.
REGISTER (Please register by February 17.)
This event is co-sponsored by First Congregational Church of Kalamazoo, UCC. Please see their website for more events with Wayne Muller
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ADAPT: American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today
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2nd Annual Auction for Action Fundraiser
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Pilgrim Congregational UCC
125 S. Pennsylvania Ave.
Lansing, MI
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Edgewood United Church, UCC in East Lansing, Michigan has 110 plastic communion cups and six (6) wooden cup holders (35 slots in each).
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Seminary Sunday: February 23, 2014
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Celebrate Seminary Sunday on February 23rd
Why Celebrate Seminary Sunday?
Our UCC seminaries are filled with faithful, committed students seeking the skills and wisdom necessary to lead the church in the 21st century. Our congregations need these students. In our region, we are blessed to have three fine UCC seminaries - Chicago, United, and Eden. Each of these seminaries provides quality education for pastors and lay leaders, and they provide research and resources that serve the entire UCC. Please join us on February 23 in supporting the current and future leadership of the UCC by celebrating Chicago, United, and Eden Seminaries.
How to Celebrate Seminary Sunday
- Lift up our UCC seminaries and seminarians in prayer, in mission moments, and in your bulletins.
- Post materials about Chicago, Eden, and United Seminaries on bulletin boards.
- Include a special prayer or litany in your service.
- Show a five-minute CUE Seminaries DVD.
- Include a gift to CUE Seminaries in your church budget or to take a special offering.
- DVDs, bulletin inserts, posters, and offering envelopes are available on the CUE Seminaries website: http://www.cueseminaries.org/
If you would like more information about Seminary Sunday or if you have questions, please contact Michelle Turnau, CUE Financial Administrator: mturnau@unitedseminary.edu or (651) 255-6117.
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Gently Used Choir Robes For Sale
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St. James United Church of Christ in Casco Michigan has 20 used Choir robes that they no longer can use - ALL are in great shape. They are Seafoam Green in color; includes a directors robe as well. Price is very negotiable.
Please contact Kim LaDuke at (586)727-3651 for more information.
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We have 110 New Century Hymnals that are like new for sale at $10 a book or best offer. You can buy the whole set or each book individually.
Please contact:
Kimberly Eve, Bethel United Church of Christ
248-682-9240
Monday - Friday, 9a - noon
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Camp Talahi is currently seeking someone to fill the position of
If you are interested please click on "Site Manager" above for a detailed job description and information on how to apply.
camptalahi.org
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Employment Opportunities:
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"A Parable about Pastoral Leadership"
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Central Seminary - Ann Arbor
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 UCC History, Theology and Polity Course (3 credits)
Fridays 6-9 pm and Saturdays 8:30 pm - 3:30 pm
5945 Park Lake Road, East Lansing MI 48823
June 27-28
July 8 Wednesday (trip to national office)
July 25-26
August 8-9
August 15-16
Rev. Dr. Julie J. Kilmer Site Director Associate Professor of Theology & Ethics Central Seminary Ann Arbor 517 E. Washington Street Ann Arbor, MI 48104 Phone: 517-803-9685
VisitCentral Baptist Theological Seminaryonline for more information and classes available! |
Please keep in your hearts and in your prayers the Rev. Melanie Morrison and her family on the death of Melanie's mother the Rev. Eleanor Shelton Morrison. She was the wife of the Rev. Truman Morrison (deceased). Eleanor Shelton Morrison was born May 21, 1921, in Stonega, Virginia, to Floyd and Nelle (Morgan) Shelton. She died February 12, 2014, in East Lansing, Michigan. Eleanor was a passionate advocate for justice, lover of beauty, and skillful group leader.
A memorial Service will be held later at Edgewood United Church, UCC in East Lansing. The date will be announced through the UCC News. Memorials can be made to Edgewood United Church, UCC, 469 N. Hagadorn Rd., East Lansing, MI 48823. Cards can be sent to her daughter, Melanie Morrison, 4721 Ottawa Dr., Okemos, MI 48864. OBITUARY
Happy Birthday wishes go out to the Rev. Walter Noffke - who celebrates his 100th birthday on February 23rd, 2014!! Please help Walter celebrate this special birthday - cards can be mailed to the Hart Congregational Church - 408 State St., Hart, MI 49420 - marked "Happy Birthday Walter".
Please keep in your prayers Dorothy Arwood (Treasurer - UCC Women of Michigan)
and her family on the passing of her husband Jack, Monday, February 3, 2014. A viewing was held Saturday, February 8th, 2014 at the Hurst Funeral Home in Greenville; the burial will take place at a later time. OBITUARY
Please hold in your hearts and in your continued prayers, the Rev. Sherry Schacht and her family (Eastern Association; pastor of First Congregational UCC, Romeo). Please continue to lift her up in your prayers of strength and courage -determination and faith - and for LOVE and comfort.
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5945 Park Lake Road | P.O. Box 1006 | East Lansing, MI 48826-1006
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