Muskingum Valley Presbytery
MVP Mission Update

April 18, 2013

This week...
Save the Dates!
MVP News & Materials
Installation Service for Rev. David Smith
Free Bibles
RMMG Spring Retreat 2013
We're Hiring at Camp Wakonda
Associate for Communication
Presbyterian Youth Triennium 2013
Haiti Teaching Mission Trip
Ministry Options in the 21st Century
An Invitation: To Catch Your Breath
Holy Habit: Pondering the Breath of Life
From the Clerk's Desk...
Week 5: Joining with the Prophets
Prayer Requests/Updates
Join Our Mailing List 

Save the Dates!

 

Saturday,

April 20th

 

9:00A-4:00P

 

Registration  

begins at 8:30A 

  

Ministry Options in the 21st Century

with George Bullard

  

Unity Presbyterian Church

130 N. 7th Street

Cambridge, OH 43725

   

  -------------

  

Saturday,

May 18th

 

9:00A-4:00P

 

Registration  

begins at 8:30A 

  

Eastertide

Local Garden Initiatives/Stated Presbytery Meeting 

 

Hosted by: Zanesville Parish

 

Cost:  

$10 (for lunch & materials)

 

Trinity Presbyterian Church

830 Military Road

Zanesville, OH 43701 

 
 

  -------------  

 
Questions?
Comments?
Corrections?

  

800.693.1147
330.339.5515

 

  

MVP 
Office Hours:
Monday thru Thursday
8:00A - 4:30P

MVP News:

  

2011-2013
Book of Order
$9.00 each

2013 Mission Yearbooks
are now on sale
$12.00 each

Per Capita 2013 
GA
 6.87
Synod
 3.25
Presbytery
18.36
Total
28.48
 

 

 

Installation Service for Rev. David Smith

 

Sunday, April 21st 3PM  

First Presbyterian Church  

501 Fourth Street

Marietta, OH 4575




FREE BIBLES

 

The following bibles that are available for free: 

 

19 - Small print RSV Bibles

 

24 - Larger print RSV Bibles

 

Contact Pastor Robin Swinsburg at 740-445-5013



"I am the Vine, you are the Branches"

A Sacred Conversation of Hope

 

Muskingum Valley Presbytery Spring Retreat Sponsored by the Retreat Ministry Mission Team

 

Spring Retreat
Sunday, May 5 at 4:30PM to
Tuesday, May 7 at 1:00PM

Saint Therese's Retreat Center, Columbus, OH

 

Cost: $150.00 for 2 nights and 6 meals

Deposit: $50 due by Monday, April 22nd 

 

A limited number of Scholarships of $50 each are available

Contact Donna Robertson -

[email protected]

 

To register, please print and mail in form:

RMMG Spring Retreat 2013 Flyer



   

We're hiring!

 

Do you know someone who would make a great role model?
 
Camp Wakonda is currently seeking talented, responsible, caring, Christian individuals to work as counselors and lifeguards for this summer's programming. The application and details for this rewarding job can be found at www.wakondacamp.com

Applications are due Monday, April 15th



 

Open Position: Associate for Communication  

 

The Office of the General Assembly is looking for an Associate for Communication.  

It would be very helpful to us if you can distribute the attached position description to your constituencies. To apply, please see information below:  

 

Email resume/PIF to Loyda P. Aja, Associate Stated Clerk for Ecclesial Ministries:  [email protected] 

Or apply via www.louisvilleworks.com, click on "Job Search" and type:  Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) under "keywords"

 

The deadline for resumes/PIFs is:  

May 15, 2013





PRESBYTERIAN YOUTH TRIENNIUM 2013 
July 16-20, 2013 
Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

2013 Pre-Triennium Retreat
Sunday, May 5th
2PM to 5PM
First Presbyterian Church in Uhrichsville

All Youth are required to attend the Retreat with at least one parent/guardian

Emails have been sent to all youth with this information

 

NEED MORE INFORMATION?

Please contact Shauna at the Presbytery office, 330-339-5515 or by email.



Interested
in a 

Haiti teaching 

mission trip?

 

Contact Kathy Adams:


 

Ministry Options in the 21st Century

with George Bullard

  

Saturday, April 20th

9:00AM to 4:00PM

Registration begins at 8:30AM

 

Unity Presbyterian Church

130 N. Seventh Street

Cambridge, OH 43725

 

Get Directions from GoogleMaps

 

 

An Invitation...

To Catch Your Breath


The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living thing.
  Genesis 2:7

 

Jesus breathed on [his disciples] and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit." John 20:22

 

Take a breath.  A deep breath! And release.  What does your breath have to tell you about the pace of your life? About the stresses you are experiencing?  The tension in your body?  Your level of energy?  Your ability to be filled with the Breath of Life?

 

A recent survey of 20,000 Christians around the world revealed that busyness and constant overload is a major obstacle to "catching our breath."   We have become enslaved to busyness.  We live in bondage to overload.  Yet still we persist.  Michael Zigarelli, who conducted the survey, describes a "vicious cycle" born of our present condition:  1) Christians are assimilating a culture of busyness, hurry, and overload, which leads to 2) God becoming more marginalized in Christians' lives, which leads to 3) a deteriorating relationship with God, which leads to 4) Christians becoming even more vulnerable to adopting secular assumptions about how to live, which leads to 5) more conformity to a culture of busyness, hurry and overload.  And then the cycle begins again. Survey: Christians Worldwide Too Busy for God, Christian Post, July 30, 2007, Email Newsletter.  We have forgotten how to breathe in the breath of the Spirit... the Breath of life.

 

Yet even science tells us that "following a period of activity, the body must replenish fundamental biochemical sources of energy... (called) "'compensation' from which energy is expanded and recovered." Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz, The Power of Full Engagement, New York: Free Press, 2003, pp. 29-30.  Why then do we find it so challenging to rest?  To balance work and rest?  Doing with being?  Time together with time apart?  In stopping to catch our breath, to rest, we literally provide the means for living the active life.

 

Menuha is the Hebrew word for "rest."  Loosely translated, menuha means to "catch our breath."  Overtime, the failure to stop and "catch our breath" and breathe in the Breath of Life, results in spiritual death.  From the beginning, physical breath and spiritual breath have been intimately linked.  God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life and he lived.  Even now God seeks to fill each one of us with that same breath of life.  Sabbath keeping is God's invitation to stop and "catch our breath" and be refreshed.   

 

Don Postema speaks of the link between "catching our breath" and refreshment: "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth; and on the seventh day, [God] rested and was refreshed" (Exodus 31:17).   He notes: "The phrase 'refreshed' is used only a couple of times in the Hebrew Scripture, and each time it speaks of an exhausted person's energy being restored... (He further notes that) the Hebrew carries the idea that when we are exhausted, we lose our identity, our soul." [Don Postema, Catch Your Breath, Grand Rapids: Faith Alive, 1997, p. 41]  May the words of the hymnodist become a living prayer for us as we learn to keep Sabbath anew: 

 

Breathe on me breath of God, fill me with life anew, that I may love what thou dost love, and do what thou wouldst do. 


 

Debbie Rundlett, general presbyter
[email protected] 

 

 

 

Holy Habit: Pondering the Breath of Life

 

Parker Palmer, in The Active Life, reflects on the difference between living an "active life" and a state of frenzy:

 

For some of us, the primary path to aliveness is the active life.  The active life is an extraordinary mix of blessing and curse.  The blessing is obvious... But the active life also carries a curse.  Many of us know what it is to live lives not of action but of frenzy, to go from day to day exhausted and unfulfilled by our attempts to work, create, and care.  Many of us know the violence of the active life... Action poses some of our deepest spiritual crises as well as some of our most heartfelt joys.

 

In what ways are you confusing "the active life" with a life of "frenzy"?  If God were to ask you to stop something for 24 hours, what might it be?

 

Think back to a situation where you were forced to stop your normal activities.  What did you find difficult?  Was there a hidden gift? What did you learn?  Can you identify in yourself any tendency toward an addiction to busyness?  Have you ever engaged in habits that helped you address that addiction?  What habits make the addiction stronger?  What does it mean for God to be "refreshed"?  What then are the implications for us to be "refreshed"?

 

Close by breathing in the Breath of Life. Use the words of the hymn to close in prayer:

 

Breathe on me breath of God, fill me with life anew,
that I may love what thou dost love, and do what thou wouldst do.

 

 
FROM THE CLERK'S DESK         April 18, 2013

 

In last week's Mission Update, I reviewed the proposed change in the PCUSA Book of Confessions-replacement of the current Heidelberg Confession with a new translation-that will be voted on at the presbytery's Eastertide Gathering on May 18th at Trinity Church in Zanesville.

This week's focus is one of the eighteen proposed changes in the PCUSA Book of Order that were approved by the 220th PCUSA General Assembly (2012) and sent to the presbyteries for action.

 

Each of these proposed changes requires 87 affirmative votes from PCUSA presbyteries.  As of April 13th, sixteen of the changes have been approved by overwhelming majority votes by PCUSA presbyteries.  These proposed changes in the Form of Government (6), Directory for Worship (1) and Rules of Discipline (9) are primarily minor tweaks to existing language in the Book of Order and can be found in Proposed Amendments to the Constitution-Part 2 of 2.  Since the other two proposed amendments to the Form of Government have engendered considerable controversy and their final status has not yet been determined, they are detailed here.   All eighteen of the proposed amendments to the PCUSA Book of Order will be presented for a vote at the MVP Eastertide Gathering on Saturday, May 18, 2013, at Trinity Church in Zanesville.

 

Item 12-B   On Amending G-2.0104a Gifts and Qualifications

 

The vote of the Assembly Committee on Church Orders and Ministry on the proposed amendment was 28/20/5.  The 220th GA (2012) approved the committee's recommendation 329/275/9.   As of April 13, 2013, 105 presbyteries have voted as follows:  44 affirmative, 61 negative; 43 yes votes of the remaining 68 presbyteries are needed to approve the proposed change (shown in italics as follows): 

 

"G-2.0104a. To those called to exercise special functions in the church-deacons, ruling elders, and teaching elders-God gives suitable gifts for their various duties.  In addition to possessing the necessary gifts and abilities, those who undertake particular ministries should be persons of strong faith, dedicated discipleship, and love of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.  Their manner of life should be a demonstration of the Christian gospel in the church and in the world.  This includes repentance of sin and diligent use of the means of grace.  They must have the approval of God's people and the concurring judgment of a council of the church."

 

The written response of the Advisory Committee on the Constitution provides a detailed examination of this proposed change in light of the current language regarding suitable gifts and qualifications given by God for the various duties of ordered ministry.  See page 5, Proposed Amendments to the Constitution-Part 2 of 2) for more information on this proposed amendment.  The full report can be found on pcusa.org/amendments2012.   

 

Item 12-F   On Amending G-3.0302d  Concurrence for Overtures

 

The vote of the Assembly Committee on Review of Biennial Assemblies  on the proposed amendment was 24/2/0.  The 220th GA (2012) approved the committee's recommendation by voice vote.  As of April 13, 2013, 106 presbyteries have voted as follows:  62 affirmative, 44 negative; 25 yes votes from the remaining 68 presbyteries are needed to approve the proposed change (text to be deleted shown in with astrike-through and text to be added with italics as follows): 

 

"G-3.0302d  ...proposing to synod or General Assembly such measures as may be of common concern to the mission of the church, and/or proposing to General Assembly overtures that have received a concurrence from at least one other presbytery, and..."

 

See pages 13-16, Proposed Amendments to the Constitution-Part 2 of 2) for more information on this proposed amendment.  The full report can be found on pcusa.org/amendments2012.

 

Copies of the PCUSA booklets on the Proposed Amendments to the Constitution-Part 1 (Book of Confessions) and Part 2 (Book of Order) can be picked up here at the MVP Mission Center and will also be available at the MVP Eastertide Gathering on Saturday, May 18, 2013, at Trinity Church in Zanesville.  Please contact me here at the Mission Center (330-339-5515 or [email protected]) if you have questions or comments.  

 

 

Week 5: Joining with the Prophets

 

Last week we began to practice a grief born from exile.  As we turned to the scriptures and prayer, we asked God to give us a glimpse of what it is like to feel hidden from God and the signs of God's covenants. Certainly, as Jerusalem was sieged and as the people became slaves, every Jewish household became well acquainted with the anguish of feeling separated from the promises of God.

 

This category of grief is a common sorrow for all those who walk through the dark days of exile.  This mourning was not experienced by a few.  Rather, this grief was tangible for the entire population.  All of Jerusalem and Judah lamented in their own way as the siege ramps encompassed the walls of the city and as the tribes were placed in fetters.

 

Partnering with Jeremiah

According to the scriptures there is an additional form of grief that is just as palpable as the first.  In each exile event, this grief is not as wide spread and is hidden from some.  If the first grief is a theological grief rooted in the reality of feeling hidden from God, the second grief is the Godly grief of the prophet.  

 

While all of Jerusalem wept, Jeremiah certainly tasted his tears as well.

 

Prophetic grief is found in the heart of God's people where God's faithfulness and human unfaithfulness collide like freight trains.  The essence of Jeremiah's words project these freight trains with power, force, acceleration, and mass.

 

Therefore, when reading the book of Jeremiah, it is natural to feel the prophet's anger, frustration, grief, suffering, and pain. It can even be agonizing to appropriately wade through the chapters of Jeremiah's sorrow--internalizing the prophetic moan.  

 

All the more, we know that the internal suffering of Jeremiah lasted decades. Surely Jeremiah had periods without restlessness. But still, his ministry of weeping and proclamation was prolonged. How heart wrenching!  Who can endure such a ministry?

 

Looking back, I can only imagine Jeremiah and Baruch's tears smudging and blotting out the Hebrew letters which were sprawling on the scrolls below them.  Like a water-color under a sprinkler, the ink would have bled and the letters would have morphed.  A visual and Godly grief worthy of consideration.

 

For the Spirit-lead reader Jeremiah's years can be transduce in one sitting.  Yet even being experienced during a short period of time, the book of Jeremiah is not for the faint of heart, the casual reader, or for simple cognitive study.  

 

Jeremiah is the weeping prophet who invites us to join him. And here is the Godly surprise that we find in our partnership with Jeremiah: the prophetic heart and life within us can weep and minister for decades in our day and time.

 

A Prophetic Grief

 The exiles wept because they were becoming slaves in a foreign land and because they lost the experience of God's covenant. Like his people, Jeremiah suffered this anguish.  Jeremiah too cried for the fetters and the carnage, the chains and the war horses.

 

However, if Jeremiah 13 in part and in whole is to be believed, this prophet first wept over the pride of his people.

 
Thus says the Lord: Just so I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.

10 

This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own will and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing.

 

Jeremiah goes on, speaking in his own voice:

 

15   

Hear and give ear; do not be haughty, 

for the Lord has spoken. 

 

17         

But if you will not listen, 

my soul will weep in secret for your pride...

 

As we shed tears during our own exile and as we join with Jeremiah in his ministry, we begin to moan from deep within our souls.  According to Paul, this is the Holy Spirit giving sound to that which we can assign no words.

 

Behind close doors, and in common worship, we groan and we grunt out our prayers.  At these moments and in these locations, we again connect to God's heart.  Here we no longer see the war horses nor enslavement as our main concern.  No!  These inflictions can both serve as symptoms and point us to the remedies of our broken relationship with God.

 

In exile, God and the prophets weep for the pride of God's people, their haughty hearts, their closed ears, and their chasing after other gods.

 

Prophets in our Midst

Leaders among us during the emerging exile will join with Jeremiah.  Elders, deacons, and pastors will weep for their pride and the pride of their people.  From the tender encounter with God as we gather bathed in our tears may we find motivation, joy, and satisfaction as we are being made more like Jesus, his servants, and humble leaders.

 

Wrestling with God

 -Pray through these 25 verses regarding pride: http://www.womensbiblecafe.com/2009/11/25-scripture-verses-about-pride/

 

As you pray, ask God to show you the hidden areas of your life, where pride hinders grace, worship, and good-works.

 

After you offer yourself to the scrutiny of God, offer your church and MVP as well.

 

-Read 1 Peter 5:6 and James 4:10.

How do you need God's blessing in your life, heart, and relationships the most today?

 

Peace,   

Matt Skolnik

 

Holy Habits

 -I contend that Jeremiah's prophetic grief was the driving motivation for his ministry.  Gather a group of servants in your town or city and do nothing but read the book of Jeremiah together, asking God to soften your hearts, just as Jeremiah's  heart was tenderized (broken).

 

Have someone knowledgeable about the book of Jeremiah with you, so that the reading does not become a study.  Allow the reading in God's Spirit to move you.

 

As your hearts begin and continue to break, consider how your group is being motivated to act in the world and church?

 

-After your group has sufficiently met God and begun to partnered with Jeremiah, make a poster that records the ways in which you found the joy of God's salvation in this encounter.  You might also consider what joys you may find in your  soon to be accomplished actions.

 

For this set of Holy Habits, you may enjoy a quite sound track in the background.  

 

My selection for this activity may include:

"Satisfy Me" 

by Sarah McMillian

 

"Hold Me Near," "I Need Love," "Love Me Today," and "I Love You" 

by Karla Adolphe

 

"Build a Tower," and "Hush" 

by Jacob and Lily

 

 

 
Prayer Requests/Updates

Jackie Pinkowski of New Philadelphia First had meniscus surgery on her left knee on Wednesday of this week. Please keep her in your prayers.

Please pray for Carol Bisel of Plymouth First. She broke her femur and has other health issues as well.  She recently had surgery and is in the hospital for rehab for 4-6 weeks. She's doing well this week following the surgery but can't put weight on her leg for that 4-6 week period.
 

Please lift up Barb Amon in prayer regarding her health.

 

Please keep John Scheurer, New Harrisburg parishioner, in your prayers. He has now moved from Aultman Hospital to Rose Lane Health Center in Massillon.    

 

   If you or someone you know has a prayer request

please send them to:
Shauna at [email protected]
   

  

      

  

Journeying with Jesus to touch the world...
Empowered by the Spirit to:
Make Disciples, Nurture Our Faith, and Serve the Needs of the Community! 
 

Shauna Engeldinger, Administrative Assistant

  

Muskingum Valley Presbytery

109 Stonecreek Road NW

New Philadelphia, Ohio 44663 

330.339.5515

1.800.693.1147

Fax: 330.339.6225

 

 Visit our website: www.MVPJourney.org

 

 

Regular Office hours

Monday - Thursday

8:00A to 4:30P