CONTENTS
Church Community News
1. E-Post Award
2. Website Feedback Meeting
3. Christmas Tree Pickup
4. What We Are Doing in December
5. Winter Discipleship Series Beginning in January 2010
Getting Involved: Meeting Needs In Our Church, Community, and World
6. Christmas Outreach Box Information
7. Ministry in 20 Minutes a Month
8. Serve Coffee on Sundays
9. Become a Part of Children’s Ministry
10. Would You Like to Name a New Board Candidate
11. A Volunteer Opportunity that You Might Not Know About
12. Website Feedback Meeting
13. Lost and Found
Getting Connected: Opportunities to Live, Learn, and Grow With Cedar Ridge
14. Advent Coffee House in the Barn: December 4
15. Grieving Loss During the Holidays: December 9
16. Middle School Retreat: December 11
17. Welcome Lunch: December 13
18. Prayer Practice: December 17
PostScript
- Contact Information
CHURCH COMMUNITY NEWS
1. E-Post Award
The December 2 E-Post award goes out to an amazing individual. Ellie Vandegriff is a hard worker who has participated in many aspects of church ministry. Currently, Ellie is a kindergarten and first grade leader at Cedar Ridge. She leads with much passion, love and genuine concern for our children. Ellie is eager to learn and grow as a leader. This summer, Ellie was kind and creative enough to take our zucchini that was in abundance on our farm and make several loaves of zucchini bread for the shelters and families in need. It was a nice treat for them to receive yummy already prepared food. (This gift gave the farm team the idea of making veggie breads to hand out for our monthly salvation army meals!) Ellie has participated in a variety of Sunday service elements like doing readings and dramas too. We are always grateful and excited to see our youth living out the vision to love one another. Thank you Ellie for being you!
2. Website Feedback Meeting
It's been great to witness our new Cedar Ridge Community Church website helping to improve communication about what's happening in the community day by day, and also offering more and more people the opportunity to expand the ways we interact and connect with one another and discuss the things that are happening among the Cedar Ridge community. Still, the website is evolving and remains very much a work in progress--we want your feedback about how to improve it to work for us all in living out our vision together. Please feel free to attend and share your opinions at the feedback meeting this Sunday, December 6, after second service in the auditorium, 12:30 to 1:30PM.
The pastoral staff and web tech team will be there to address technical concerns and to respond to philosophical questions about the site. We invite you to come and offer helpful suggestions - tell us what is working well and what is not - we hope to make the site more accessible for all. We will be taking photos for those who want to get their headshot in the user directory; and we will have laptops available so we can look at your personal account and troubleshoot issues to make the site more user-friendly for you. Contact Patsy Fratanduono for more information.
3. Christmas Tree Pickup
The Christmas Trees are here and will be ready for pick up Sunday, December 6, after each service. So if you ordered a Christmas tree, please remember to pick it up this Sunday. All profit is going to Guatemalan missions.
4. What We Are Doing This Month
Our December series will celebrate Advent: the period of waiting and expectation of the birth of Jesus at Christmas. We will spend this time focusing on the personal, unconditional, passionate love of God for humans. Each Sunday we will celebrate the joy of the miracle of love incarnate at Christmas and consider what might hold us back from experiencing this love in all its liberating wonder. Specifically we will look at how God’s powerful love can overcome all our failure, suffering and shame.
Throughout Advent we will also be referring back to the Gift of Enough series in November where we looked at alternatives to the rampant consumerism that so often entangles us during this time of year. We’ll focus on putting people first (rather than “stuff”) in our gift giving, celebrating and holiday activities as a means of heightening our awareness and experience of the mystery and magic of the incarnation of Christ that we celebrate at Christmas. Check out our website for lots of ideas.
On Christmas Eve we will have two special services at 4:30PM and 6:30PM. Each service will last one hour and will be suitable for all ages, so bring along family and friends as we celebrate the birth of Christ together. At the end of each service there will be Christmas boxes full of edible treats to deliver to people who have to work on Christmas Eve. These boxes will be prepared by our children on Sunday, December 20, (see below for more details) and are a simple way for us to share God’s love with others. Think of hospitals, fire stations, police stations, restaurants and stores that you pass on the way home and bring a little of God’s light into someone’s Christmas.
5. Winter Discipleship Series Beginning in January 2010
On Sunday, January 17, we will begin a five week discipleship series called “Our Journey of Hope: Following the Dangerous Way of Jesus”, focusing on our vision, values and philosophy as a community. What makes us the community we are? What are our distinctives? What is important to us and why? What is not important to us? How do all these issues shape us as a community? We’ll follow our usual format of Sunday messages and midweek discussion material, and sign-ups for groups will begin on Sunday, January 3, continuing on Sunday, January 10, when we will also have a church community potluck after second service. Please contact Patsy Fratanduono if you would like to lead a group.
GETTING INVOLVED: MEETING NEEDS IN OUR CHURCH, COMMUNITY, AND WORLD
6. Christmas Outreach Box Information
It’s that time of year again, when we will be collecting items for our Christmas Eve Outreach Boxes. A sign-up list can be found in the Commons at the Farm Table. Please sign up for one or more of the items you would like to donate. Collection days have started and will run through December 13. Please bring the goodies to the Farm Table too. We will be making 400 boxes to distribute at the Christmas Eve services. Our Children will be assembling and filling the boxes on Sunday, December 20, during service. This is a great outreach that unconditionally shares our love for others - people who work during the holidays and people in need. Join us in this service project to our community.
The following items need to be in single size packaging. We are sorry but we cannot use homemade or purchased perishable items. (The wholesale stores are a good place to shop for bulk items)
· Granola, fruit or breakfast bars
· Fruit cups
· 100% Fruit Juice Boxes
· Trail Mix
· Candy: lollipops, candy cane…
· Chocolate bars
· Cheese Cracker packs
· Smartfood popcorn or pretzels
· Chapstick
· Gum
· Tic-tacs
· Hand towellettes
· Tissue packs
7. Ministry in 20 Minutes a Month
Looking for a way to meet people and serve at Cedar Ridge, but don't have lots of time? The Welcome Team invites you to join us as we seek to cultivate a warm, welcoming environment for those who come to worship on Sundays. We ask that you arrive 15 minutes prior to the beginning of your preferred service in order to open the outside door, hand out bulletins at the inside doors, or answer questions at the Welcome Desk. Older children, teens, and adults are welcome to be a part of our monthly rotation. If you're interested or have questions, please contact Bryan Peterson.
8. Serve Coffee on Sundays
We take great pride in serving good quality coffee at our services on Sundays as a way of creating a welcoming environment. Currently we are brewing fair trade, organic beans from Guatemala. Would you like to help make and serve coffee to our community? We need more people to join in, so contact Matthew Dyer if you are interested.
9. Become a Part of Children's Ministry
Presently, we are in need of leaders to join some of our 9 & 11AM teams. These leaders guide groups of children through activities and curriculum on Sunday mornings, and commit to serving with children two or more Sundays a month. We are in need of leaders in the following areas:
- 9 & 11AM Nursery
- 9AM 2&3 Year Olds
- 9AM 4&5 Year Olds
- 9AM Kindergarten / First grade
- 9 & 11AM Second / Third grade
Please contact Leigh-Ellen Curl if you are interested in serving on one of these teams.
10. Would You Like to Name a New Board Candidate
As a non-profit organization Cedar Ridge has a Board of Trustees to ensure that we operate legally, ethically, with fiscal responsibility and that we remain true to our vision and values. Each year we elect new members to the Board; and on January 13, 2010 we will add one new member.
Nominations are now open until Sunday, December 6. Please check the Role of the Board of Trustees and also the Desired Qualities for Board Members here and prayerfully consider your potential nomination in light of this. Please send your nominations to the Chair of the Board, Shobha Duncan. Only Cedar Ridge members may be nominated; and you have to be a member to nominate anyone.
After December 6 the Board will prayerfully review and discuss all nominations and then, by December 20, recommend to the church one candidate for election. All Cedar Ridge members will have opportunity to pray, talk to this candidate and reflect upon whether they would like to approve the Board’s recommendation for 4 weeks up to the Annual Meeting on Wednesday, January 13, at 7PM, at which point all members will be able to vote. Please note this will be a simple yes/no/abstain vote for approval of the candidate, not a run off against other candidates. Appointments to the Board will be effective immediately following the vote.
11. A Volunteer Opportunity You Might Not Know About
Did you know for the past several years, Cedar Ridge friends have been responsible for feeding up to 150 homeless people in DC on the first Saturday of each month? This 'stealth-like' outreach started more than a decade ago with Mac McDaniel and now a group of Cedar Ridge people including Yohance Ford and Rachel Bibee lead this initiative every month. It normally takes a full afternoon of about 5-9 people to shop, make lunches and deliver the food. Some discipleship groups are familiar with the routine. Some break up the roles with grocery shoppers the day before, lunch makers the morning of and then a delivery team that travels into Washington, DC that Saturday evening. So lately, we've been thinking you may not be aware of such a fun and rewarding service and wanted to share this opportunity with you. The leaders of this ministry have shopping lists, even recipes for soup to make it a very simple process. The pots and containers are stored at the church with laminated instructions; and people who have helped in the past are always willing to help a new group get started. So if your discipleship group or group of friends ever want to make a meal for 150 homeless people, we invite you to let us know. The first Saturdays that are available are December 5, January 2, February 6. Please contact Rachel Bibee for more information.
For the future we'll be looking for people interested in using our Cedar Ridge farm food to make zucchini breads, soups or other treats to give to our DC friends for more healthy, organic meals. If anyone is ever interested in making homemade items, we'd welcome the items as part of the meal. Please keep your creative minds open to participating in one perspective of this outreach. It is a great way to build community and do something that blesses others. Please contact Beth Burgess for more information.
12. Lost and Found
Please check the Lost and Found for any items left at Cedar Ridge. Lost and Found is located at the coat rack across the hall from the restrooms. Contact Pat Martin for more information.
GETTING CONNECTED: OPPORTUNITIES TO LIVE, LEARN, AND GROW WITH CEDAR RIDGE
13. Advent Coffee House in the Barn: December 4
On Friday, December 4, we will be holding our annual advent coffee house in the barn. This has become somewhat of a Cedar Ridge tradition where we gather for good coffee and dessert, music and great conversation. It’s a great way to get into the real spirit of Christmas open to everyone (young and old).
This year (in keeping with our series: The Gift of Enough) there will be a special focus on social justice. In fact the whole theme of the coffee house will be Guatemala. Our church believes God is leading us to work and serve in Guatemala through long term sustainable partnership. We are currently developing relationships with Guatemalan communities both locally and in Guatemala. At the coffee house we will be able to find out more about Guatemala; and there will also be opportunity to:
- Drink exquisite Guatemalan coffee
- Meet some Guatemalan friends
- Buy fair trade Christmas gifts from Guatemala (Ten Thousand Villages will have a stall there)
- Listen to some Guatemalan music
There will also be information about buying alternatives gifts (such as cows, goats, beehives etc) to support people in the developing world as well as ideas and advice about lowering our carbon footprint during the Holiday season and having a positive impact on the environment. We’ll have a small craft table where children and adults will be able to make simple Christmas gifts.
Please contact Matthew Dyer for more details or if you would like to help serve at this event.
14. Grieving Loss During the Holidays: December 9
The holidays can be a wonderful time of joy and celebration with family and friends, but this time of year can also be a time of grieving and sadness as we remember the losses we've experienced in our lives. Come and join in a time of quiet reflection and remembrance on Wednesday, December 9, from 7-9PM in the historic Barn. Through conversation, prayer and ritual, we'll support one another and acknowledge our grief and losses and share tips for surviving the "holiday blues". Everyone is welcome but please register for this event through the website or contact Melanie Griffin at 301-474-8135.
15. Middle School Retreat: December 11
Our middle schoolers and leaders are heading off to Rockbridge, VA for a weekend of fun, adventure and spiritual challenge on Friday, December 11, returning the following Sunday afternoon, December 13.
16. Welcome Lunch: December 13
On Sunday December 13 we will host a welcome lunch in room 202 after second service (please note the date has changed from December 6 in view of the website feedback meeting). Everyone is welcome to attend and the lunch will be especially geared towards people who are new to Cedar Ridge and would like to find out more and ask questions. Our pastors, Matthew Dyer and Patsy Fratanduono, will be present along with other leaders, and they’ll share a little about Cedar Ridge and respond to questions over a simple lunch. Children are welcome too. Come along to room 202 at 12:30PM. Please contact Matthew Dyer for more details.
17. Prayer Practice: December 17
Are you longing to grow spiritually and to experience God's presence and love more deeply in your life? If so, please join our small gathering at this month's prayer practice December 17 and discuss and experience contemplative ways of being with God that will calm your spirit and refresh your soul. Everyone is welcome. No prior experience or registration required. Childcare and food not provided. Contact Patsy Fratanduono for more information.
POSTSCRIPT
Contact Information
Cedar Ridge Community Church
2410 Spencerville Road, Spencerville, MD 20868
Phone: 301-384-7444
Website: www.crcc.org