iHOPE

Upcoming Youth Auction

Our annual Youth Mission Trip Auction is coming this Sunday. This is an unsolicited appeal from one of our members who has worked with our youth.  She's right: This stuff matters

 Read on ONLY IF:

You are the parent of a teen.

You will be the parent of a teen.

You have been the parent of a teen.

You were ever a teen yourself.

 When events like this come along it is easy to think “it doesn’t really apply to me”.  But I assure you if ANY of the statements above describe you, you need to be at the auction with checkbook and pen in hand.

 Earlier this winter I was invited to accompany the youth on their winter retreat because their usual (and very fun) leader was “voted off the island” temporarily by her children.  I was truly overwhelmed by our youth.  They are fun, but they are also sincere in their faith, eager to learn and grow, really honest and thoughtful about important questions and how they live in a challenging and formative time in their lives.  This was in contrast to an experience I had a week earlier when attending a workshop about drug and alcohol use in our local high schools.  I did not consider myself a naïve’ attendee as I’ve worked with families in pain for 30 years, but I was heart-sick and very saddened by what I heard.  Our kids are growing up in the midst of   demanding realities.

 With that experience fresh on my mind I spent a couple of days with some incredible kids – your kids, grandkids, neighbors’ kids.   We have the opportunity to contribute to the building of their faith, and character by supporting their mission trip this summer.  These kids, your kids, are making a difference now and have the potential to make a very big difference in the years to come.

 Whether you can contribute the cost of one student’s trip or the cost of one student’s lunch, you are giving a  significant  gift to the future of New Hope’s kids, the kids of St. Louis and who knows where that will lead when placed in God’s hands. 

 This matters.

Joy Barklage

re-Imagining Hope

This was presented as part of the sermon on April 21

Do you recognize this picture?  If you were around 25 years ago, you might.  This is what New Hope looked like in the imagination of people before New Hope existed.  It is an aerial view of a chalk outline of what people imagined New Hope might look like when it was finally built.That sliver of blacktop that was just a small parking lot is Meadows Parkway today!

New Hope Presbyterian Church will celebrate its 25th anniversary next January.  The overall mission of New Hope then was the same as it is today: Congregations from Sedalia and Louviers sacrificed greatly to move into Castle Rock and imagined a church that would be on the frontier of a new community and for 25 years, New Hope has been a place where people can ‘Find a Home, Build a Life and Make a Difference.”  Even though our mission is the same, our community has changed- and so have we! There are new opportunities and new challenges. If we are going to effectively minister effectively in the next 25 years, we believe now is the time to “re-Imagine Hope.”  

 Re-Imagining Hope

Strategic planning isn’t new. Session tries to do that every year and we are where we are today because of that good work in the past. This year, we believe something more is warranted. We have contracted with The Armstrong Group (TAG)to help us with this process. TAG has extensive experience in helping churches get a good picture of who they are, the unique strengths they possess and the opportunities for ministry that build on those strengths.  Churches have weakness and blind spots, too. TAG will also help us identify and incorporate them into our strategies for the future.

 The process is not inexpensive in time or money. It will require the insights of the entire congregation, focus groups, leadership retreats and a whole lot of work from many people. That’s OK. New Hope has never shied away from hard work, sacrifice or tough decisions- especially when it had to do with extending the mission of God into the community. In fact, it is because we believe this is part of the DNA of New Hope that we believe we can’t afford NOT to do this.

It Starts Here

We need your help.  The first step of this process begins with getting a good picture of ourselves. There is a survey that will help us to do that.  It is called the “Transforming Church Index (TCI) Survey.” I hope you’ll help us out by taking it. It will take about 15-20 minutes. You can get the instructions and start taking the survey by clicking here. If taking a survey over the computer is difficult, we have paper versions available in the office, too.

 The time for taking the survey is between now and May 19 (paper surveys have to be back in the office by Wednesday, May 8). They will be compiled and tabulated. Along with the information from some focus groups and a demographic survey being compiled, we should get a pretty good picture of who we are, the strengths we’ll build on and the blind spots we’ll work on, the needs of our community and how we might best minister in Christ’s name.

 There is more to the process and I look forward to sharing it in later posts. For now, let me conclude by saying that we are where we are because 25 years ago, people imagined a church like New Hope. I am so glad they did. People's lives have been changed, a community has been blessed and the cause of Christ has been advanced. Now, I am looking forward to working with you to re-imagine what New Hope will look like in the years ahead!

A Prayer for This Week

Like everyone else, I have been watching the events unfold in Boston and now, West, Texas. Like everyone else I have been searching for words to describe what I see or at least, express what I feel. I was struck by the these words from Tom Sheffiled, our Presbytery Pastor, and wanted to share them with you:

 

     "Having grown up in a small, rural village, surrounded by farms and also having lived in a large metropolitan area, I know the differences between those places.  But today there is no difference between them. Today there is no difference between the City of Boston and small town of West, Texas.  Both are experiencing grief, immeasurable loss and the horror of unexplainable destruction.  Both need our prayers. Today we pray for the people of Boston and the people of West, Texas.  We pray for the people of all places who must endure, seek to make sense of and find ways to live beyond devastation and death.  We pray for the people of all countries who are caught in daily expressions of horrors of all kinds.  Humbly, I reiterate the words I shared earlier this week.  This time we enlarge the scope of our prayers to include more.  Continue in prayer.  Continue reaching out to those who need our caring touch and words.  Continue reaching out to God.

       "May God bring

             peace to aching souls,

                hope to despairing hearts,

                   healing to injured bodies,

                       grace, skill and courage to all who respond both to those wounded

                            and to the friends and families of  those injured or killed,

                          faith to those who wait by bedsides,

                              wisdom to those who must bring a caring presence in the midst of this time,

                                   remembrance of any we may forget,

                                       assurance for eternal life,

                                           and love that will never let any go. "

Easter is a Team Event: Thank You!

Easter is a Team Event.

No congregation is able to celebrate Easter with just a few people. At New Hope it took scores of people to make it the great day it was. I don't know how to count them all, but it included:

Set up ahead of time: 

There were folks who decorated the sanctuary, hung banners and put out hundreds of extra chairs. The Prayer Team gathered up and displayed various works of art in the Prayer Walk depicting Holy Week and the Seven Last Words of Christ. There were even folks who connected big coffee urns full of water in side their cars with extension cords to timers so they would have hot water ready for (grateful) people who showed up at the Sunrise service at Daniel's Park.  Thank you!

Musicians:

Instrumentalists and Vocalists practiced for weeks to bring great music as their gift to worship throughout Holy Week and especially on Easter Sunday. The services were rich and moving. In between the services, there was another team of people who provided delicious food to keep everyone going. Thank You!

Greeters and Ambassadors: 

When guests and visitors arrive (we have many on Easter Sunday), they don't know what to expect. They don't know where to take their kids or how they will be greeted. That is never a problem at New Hope. Everyone is greeted with warmth, energy and a spirit of welcome. Anxieties are put at ease and when folks went into the sanctuary, there were more people helping them find a seat. Thank you!

Children's Ministry:

We have so many volunteers who work to make sure our children are engaged, instructed and cared for throughout the morning. Many of them are invisible because they are downstairs, but their effect is felt everywhere. Especially on Easter, when so many children are coming for the first time, the ministry of those who work in the Nursery, Preschool and Sunday School is vital. Thank you!

Technical Support: 

Four different services, with four different set-ups for sound. Three different PowerPoint presentations that included movie clips. Microphones need to be set-up and monitored throughout. What is a full plate on any Sunday gets multiplied on Easter, and people are always there to make worship flow. Thank You!

Staff:

From bulletins prepared and folded to PowerPoint presentations, from rehearsing and prepping worship leaders and musicians to coordinating all the volunteers who will work with children, from putting up banners and readying web pages to making sure the facility is ready, there are a lot of things that happen behind the scenes. Most people don't notice because they are done so well. Your Staff worked very hard. Thank You!

After each of the services yesterday, people came up and thanked me for the powerful and moving services. I am always glad to hear that the services we provide connect with folks. I am also very aware that no one person (especially this one person) could pull that off by themselves. I am always happy to play my part, and grateful for the many, many others who play theirs so well.

Easter is a Team Event and I am grateful to get to be a part of this team.