What’s Happening at Good Shepherd
Potluck Reminder Next Sunday (8/6) is the first Sunday of the month. That means that it’s time for another POTLUCK! This month, the theme will be “Your Signature Dish”. Do you have a dish that is your dish? You know, the one that EVERYONE asks you to bring to gatherings? Please bring it, and enjoy lunch at Good Shepherd after the 10:30 service, but stay and have lunch even if you don’t!
We’ll be trying something new and making this a ‘Family and Friends’ luncheon. If you’d like, invite your family and friends to join us! They don’t need to come to church that day (although it’d be great if they did!). They can simply come, enjoy some good food, and maybe make some new friends.
Sunday School Announcement The teen Sunday School class will be taking a break for the next few weeks. It will resume on August 20th. In the meantime, all teens are welcome to sit in on the Adult Sunday School class.
Minister’s Team Schedule Many of you have noticed that the minister’s team calendar that is included in the update has been incorrect recently. We are in the midst of reforming the teams to account for all of the recent changes that have taken place. Please be patient during this time. We hope to have a new calendar in place in the next few weeks. If you see a ‘hole’ in a team, and are able to fill it, please let the team leader know that you’d like to fill in, even if it’s only for one Sunday. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Kennedy Family Vacation The Kennedy family is taking their annual vacation. They’ll be enjoying some much-needed rest, and will return to Good Shepherd on August 19th. Please refrain from contacting them unless there is a medical/physical emergency. The church office will remain open, and can be reached in all the usual ways.
A Quick Note from Good Shepherd’s Senior Warden, Chris Jones:
Our Rector, Fr. Matt, is Good Shepherd’s only full-time employee and he already gives much more time than we can compensate him for. Stephanie (Fr. Matt’s Secretary) and Charles (Sexton) are part time employees (around 20 hours per week each). As such, tasks must be prioritized in order to get everything done. We are blessed with some wonderful voluntary helpers and mission leaders in our church that are working and serving behind the scenes, and we certainly appreciate all the work the Lord does through them!
We hope to add more paid help soon, and the Vestry is working hard to find funding for that in the budget. This means that some things simply will not get done until that time. This can probably be expected to continue until the end of the year. Until then, this means that things that may seem important to some, will take longer than we hoped to accomplish. This doesn’t mean that those concerns are considered trivial, but rather a fact of prioritization of needs.
So, while we recognize that complaints are expected, solutions are appreciated more and, of course, anyone volunteering to help fix the problem, is even more so appreciated. If you have the willingness to provide both the time and the effort, even in small amounts during the week, please don’t hesitate in asking me (or any of the people in leadership) what you can do to help – especially if you see something you’d like to lodge a complaint about.
P.S~I will be writing next week about ways that you can help. I’m hoping that some of you can help out with the list, so be in prayer this week about how you can help! If you have items that need to be on that list, I’m happy to hear them!
Yours in Christ,
Chris
Help Wanted: Temporary Church Secretary Good Shepherd is looking for a person that could cover Stephanie’s work for 1-2 weeks per year. This person would need to be familiar with Microsoft Word, be able to handle light filing, answer the phones in the office, format bulletins and weekly updates, drop information into a pre-made template for the GS website, and print and put together all bulletins. If this is something you think you might be interested in doing, please contact Steph in the Good Shepherd office. The position would require about 20 hours per week.
Vacation Bible School is coming soon for children 5-11 on July 31- Aug 3 from 6-8 PM. We will take a journey with Jonah, sing some scripture, make new things, and play interesting games. Invite the kids in your neighborhood and your friends!
School Supply Giveaway and Free Barbecue August 26th 12-2PM we will host our annual School Supply Giveaway and FREE Barbecue. Please consider donating funds/supplies for this outreach to families in need. Especially needed are backpacks, folders, and crayons. Let’s help make the beginning of the new school year a little less burdensome to the less fortunate in our community. See Carmen or Stephanie for more information.
Water Please take time to offer a bottle of cool water to a passerby or a basketball player! If you spend any time at COGS, you will notice folks just outside our doors. Make that small effort to touch them as you offer a bottle of water in Christ’s name. The water bottles with Christ’s message are in the fridge.
An Offer of Prayer The prayer team prays for the needs of the church on a weekly basis. If you have a specific request (Praise or intercession) please fill out a card and place it in the “prayer box” by the bulletin boards in the parish hall. All prayers are kept confidential.
Ongoing Ministries
Children’s bulletins are available to help your children follow all parts of the service today. Please pick one up from an usher.
Bread and Wine If you are interested in joining a group of moms for a monthly supper and discussion of women in the bible, please contact Liz Hull.
Health and Wellness Our bodies are “the tents” that the Lord has given us to house our souls. Begin to take care of the body which God Has given you. Check your blood pressure, blood sugar, and weight every Sunday in the Parish Hall 9-10AM. Please see Dolly Shaller or Carmen Swoffer-Penna for more details.
Member Food Pantry Children need to be fed, so do their parents and other family members living with them. That’s one of the reasons that the GS member food pantry is so important, as it helps those at GS that financially or for some other reason can’t put food on the table to feed their families. The next time that you’re at the market, please consider picking up a few cans, boxes or bottles of something healthy to bring and put into the pantry. You will be glad that you did, and you’ll be a blessing to those who use it.
Items Needed: canned tomatoes and tomato sauce, macaroni and other pastas, instant/scalloped potatoes, olives, pickle relish, mayonnaise, pickles, peanut butter and jelly, coffee and creamers, tea, canned boxed or bottled juices, and anything else you’d like to bring.
Last Week
Last Week in Christian Ed We watched a video presentation featuring Rosaria Butterfield. Rosaria has an great testimony and many insights into the continuing issue of homosexuality and the Christian faith. I (Steph) highly recommend that you watch it if you have a few moments and didn’t make it to Christian ed.
You can watch the video here or in the window below.
Last Week’s Sermon (given by Mr. Jerry Shriver) was called ‘Turning to a Different Gospel’ and was based on Galations 1:1-10. It can be listened to or downloaded here.
Tuesday Morning Bible Study will not be meeting during the time that Matt is on vacation. We expect to begin broadcasting again on 8/22.
Preventing Grace Podcast Did you know that Matt and Anne have a podcast? They talk about everything from church polity to rustic breads. In this week’s episode, “Interfaith Dialogue”, Matt and Anne discuss internet communication, the overdone uproar over Dr. James White’s public conversation with a Muslim scholar, and close with a podcast recommendation and a commendation of an Anglican parish.
You can catch up on all of the older podcast episodes here.
This Week
Christian Ed We have a particularly happy surprise. Ife Ojetayo, our (recently) former Youth and Assistant Pastor will be teaching the next two weeks of Christian Ed. Here’s a note that he asked me to pass on to all of you.
Dear Good Shepherd,
We have missed your fellowship and are happy to be worshiping with you in the next few weeks. In addition to that, I’ve been asked to lead the Sunday School hour the next two weeks. We will be exploring the topic of “Truth and Beauty: How should we think about Truth and Beauty in light of God’s Word and the God who is the incarnation of both Truth and Beauty”.The topic is a mouthful, but I hope you’ll join me as we explore how we are to view and embrace beauty, despite the rampant decaying influence of a world that is increasingly at odds with the Author of all that is beautiful.~Ife
Christian Ed starts at 9:15. I’m looking forward to what promises to be an interesting topic, and hope to see you all there!
This Week’s Sermon is based on Galatians 3:21-4:7.
Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave,though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Team Philippians is working on the altar this Sunday.
The readings for this week are: Nehemiah 9:16-21 and Galatians 3:21-4:7.
The PDF Bulletin for this Sunday’s 10:30 service can be downloaded here.
Have an item for the Update or an Announcement?
Email the secretary at:
gs.binghamton@gmail.com
by Monday night.