In honor of our seventh annual NWYM Peace Month in January 2016, this year’s theme, Sabbath as Peacemaking, invites us to “remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” The Sabbath is the seventh day, the day on which God rested in the creation story, and the day we’re invited to set aside for our own rest, and space for our animals, servants, and land to also rest, according to the instructions in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.

For American Christians, this may be the one of the Ten Commandments most ignored, and arguably for some good reasons. Sabbath laws were discarded in the United States throughout the early 20th century, and many of us would probably agree that the state should not have to legislate our enactment of Sabbath practices.  Still, we must ask ourselves some queries:

Do personal and communal practices of Sabbath hold an important place in our spiritual life today? Should they?

What might these practices look like, and what do they have to do with peacemaking?

During the five Sundays of January, Silverton Friends Church will explore the practice of Sabbath as an act of peacemaking. And thus, we will be asking “What does it look like to practice Sabbath?” especially in our culture, where we’re pressured to always be on the go. We look forward to exploring this important topic together as a meeting. Join us in January for these topics. 

Sunday Topics:

• January 10: The Gift of Sabbath
  • (Genesis 2:2-3; Exodus20:8-11; 31:12-17)
• January 17: The Rhythm of Sabbath (Martin Luther King Jr. weekend)
  • (Exodus 16:22-31)
• January 24: The Freedom of Sabbath
  • (Deuteronomy 5:12-15)
• January 31: Jesus and Sabbath
  • (Luke 13:10-17; Mark 2:27-28)
• February 7: Experimenting with Sabbath
  • (Luke 4:16-27; Hebrews 3-4)

One of the best ways to prepare for this very special season of Advent is to “get in touch with ourselves.” It may sound odd, but one symptom of our contemporary lives is that we can often be quite “out of touch” with what is going on in our very own hearts.

We begin our Advent Season, just as our culture ramps up Christmas preparations (department stores seem to start earlier and earlier each year). It is a busy time, and our heads are filled with so many details, parties, and family to remember. And it’s a time of emotional complexity with all of the expectations and challenges of family and relationships: who we want to be with and who we struggle to be with. So, our hearts are a bit tender, if not completely guarded from experiencing anything deeply. We have little time to prepare for much other than the busyness itself.

As each Advent Season, the Sundays leading up to Christmas will be filled with powerful and stirring readings from Isaiah, the Prophet, and the Apostles John and Luke. We will re-enter the ancient tradition of a people hoping for the coming of a Savior – like the Hebrew people of the Old Testament awaiting the coming Deliverer! We may even remember the days of our childhood when we hoped for Christmas to come – where gifts and anticipation gave us a something to be excited about.

And as adults, we have to ask ourselves: “What is it I hope for now?” The answer won’t come easily. The more we walk around with that query, and let it penetrate through the layers of distraction and guarded-ness, the more powerfully we will experience Advent this year.

“What is it I hope for now?”

What a great query for this Advent Season. I pray you will join me in letting this query penetrate our hearts through the distractions of self-protection in the coming days and weeks. Find some space, slow down, allow your cry to be – Maranatha! – Come, Lord Jesus!

“Hope is the good news of transforming grace NOW.” – Brennan Manning

A Hope-filled Advent and a Merry Christmas to you! Pastor Bob+

 

Enjoy a lovely holiday atmosphere while you find uniquely and wonderfully made art, crafts, and baked goods! Also, there will be antiques and collectibles, fine quality gifts, jewelry, cosmetics, and more!

Dates: Friday and Saturday, November 6-7

Time: 10am – 5pm

Where: SFC Gymnasium

Two days of wonderful Christmas shopping! Enjoy yourself and see you there!

Come join us – men and women – boys and girls – for a night of artistic expression!

Friday, November 20th in the SFC Fellowship Hall! 7-9pm

Bring your paints, beads, yarn, or whatever medium you enjoy and join us in the Fellowship Hall to get those creative juices flowing with each other! Also, we will have local artists demonstrating their mediums (possibly: painting, woodworking, coloring books (for all ages including adults), scrap booking, beading, cross-stiching, and weaving).

EXCHANGE: For those who have extra supplies and would like to share! Please bring your extras so others may try out or expand their artistic expression!

Not interested in arts and crafts? Come anyway! There will be music, board games and puzzles available for all ages. This is an event for EVERYONE!

Also, there will be apple cider and “fall” treats – feel free to bring a treat to share.

The Fellowship Committee will once again this year be putting together WELLNESS BAGS for people who are under the weather and COLLEGE CARE BOXES to surprise our students away at college.

Might you be able to help by donating a couple items?

Boxes appropriately marked will be in the sanctuary on Sundays for you to place your items.

For our WELLNESS BAGS (supplies enough for 30+ bags)

• EmergenC – variety of flavors
• Teas – variety of flavors
• Cough Drops – variety of flavors
• Ramen Noodles
• Pocket Sized Tissues
• Individually wrapped mints/chocolates
• Care notecards
• Surprise us with any miscellaneous items of your choosing

For our COLLEGE CARE BOXES (Supplies enough for 4 boxes 2 times per year)

• Microwave Popcorn
• Granola Bars
• Packets of Hot Cocoa
• Starbucks Via – individual instant coffees
• Movie Candy
• “Thinking About You” note cards

Surprise us with any miscellaneous items of your choosing. We will be adding fresh home-backed cookies also when they are sent.  Thank you for helping us “weave a fabric of care” at SFC!

 

 

Do you have an iPhone or an Android phone
and want to learn how to use it to its highest potential?

Topics to be covered:

Calendar                     Folder                Wifi/Data

Notification              Social Media              Cloud

App Store             Battery life         Phonebooks

And more …

Downloadable Phone Class Registration Form

WHEN: October 15th, 22th, 29th & November 5th
TIME:  6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
WHERE: Silverton Friends Church
COST:  $20 per person
CONTACT:    Deborah Climer   (503) 873-5131

silvertonfriends@frontier.com

silvertonfriends.wordpress.com

229 Eureka Avenue, Silverton, OR 97381

All proceeds will be donated to Silverton Friends Church Solar Panel Project

It’s October and that means schools and colleges across the country are celebrating homecomings with tailgate parties, home team spirit, backyard BBQs, parades, and big-screen TVs. As much fun as all this sounds, I want to talk about another “homecoming,” which should be just as exciting and celebrated.

This homecoming is about eternal matters, embracing a God who wants to welcome us home, and the mission of the church. To engage this important topic we are dedicating this year’s Book Study at Main Street Bistro to three books centered around the theme of “Homecoming.”

Our first Book Study will look at the classic The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. This is Lewis’s classic vision of the afterworld experienced on a bus trip through heaven and hell – one trip you will not too soon forget. The characters and encounters in this book will challenge you to come to terms with your own beliefs about Heaven and Hell and just what this final “homecoming” is all about. Join us on October 22 ready to discuss the preface and the first three chapters. With this being a short book, we will only meet for four Thursdays (Oct. 22, 29, Nov. 5, 12.)

Our second study will look at Henri Nouwen’s classic, The Return of the Prodigal Son. By utilizing Rembrant’s famous painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son, Henri Nouwen wants to bring his readers to a place where they sense belonging and feel the comforts and consoling of home. This is a journey as Nouwen says, “from teaching about love to allowing myself to be loved.” This study will begin on January 21 and we will again meet for only four Thursdays (Jan. 21, 28, Feb. 4, 11).

Our final study of the year will look at award-winning author and Biblical scholar N.T. Wright’s, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. In a lively and accessible manner, Wright invites his readers to wrestle with their ideas of life after death and how they affect the way we live before we die. Quaker Richard Foster said, “I heartily commend to you Surprised by Hope. Without compromise or apology Wright lays out a bold and vigorous articulation of the ‘blessed hope’ of the Christian witness. Grappling with a vast array of controversial topics, this book is sure to surprise you and will no doubt fill you with hope.” This study will begin on April 7 and will meet for six weeks (May 7, 14, 21, 28, May 5, 12).

Again, I invite you to join us at Main Street Bistro from 6:30-8:30pm for one or all of these great books and as we commit together to a journey home.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Bob+

Have you been wondering how to get involved this fall at SFC?  Here are several great opportunities to get you thinking, develop relationships, and learn to “weave a fabric of care” through your life. Check out these opportunities:

Meeting for Study @ 9:30am Sunday Mornings:
OPPORTUNITY 1: “The Church, the Bible, and the LGBTQ Community” Together, we will read and discuss seven books over the course of nine months. The purpose of this class is to make us better able to live into Jesus’s great command: to love God and love our neighbors. Co-facilitated by Sally Enns (Elder) and John Pattison (Clerk of the Meeting), this class will meet in the Green Room starting Sept. 20.

Books to be discussed:
Love is an Orientation (Sept. 27 – Oct. 25)
A Letter to My Congregation (Nov. 1 – 22)
Oriented to Faith (Nov. 29 – Dec. 16)
Washed & Waiting (Jan. 10-24)
Redeeming Sex (Feb. 7- March 6)
What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality? (March 13 – 20, April 3-10)
Torn (April 17-May 22)
Final Wrap Up (May 29)

OPPORTUNITY 2: “We Make the Road by Walking” Together, we will explore what a difference an honest living, growing faith can make in our world today. Organized around the traditional church year, this study will give us an overview of the entire Bible and guide the group through rich study, interactive learning, and personal growth. Each week will include reading scripture together, study time, and queries to ponder throughout the week. Facilitated by Pastor Bob Henry, this class will begin on Oct. 4. at 9:30am in room 10 (classroom wing).

Other Opportunities @ SFC

Pastor Bob’s Book Study: This year’s theme is “Homecoming!” On Thursday nights (6:30-8:30pm) grab a cup of coffee and prepare for a great conversation @ Main Street Bistro, in Silverton, where we will be looking at the following books:

• C.S. Lewis’s classic “The Great Divorce” (Oct. 22. 29, Nov. 5, 12)
• Henri Nouwen’s classic “The Return of the Prodigal Son” (Jan. 21, 28, Feb. 4, 11)
• N.T. Wright’s “Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church.” (April 7, 14, 21, 28, May 5, 12)

Women’s Evening Fellowship: Tuesdays 7pm (@ The Hudson’s home – Mt. Angel) Contact Deborah Climer for more information  The study will be Finding Healthy.

• About “Finding Healthy”: Geri Scazzero knew there was something desperately wrong with her life. She felt like a single parent raising her four young daughters alone. She finally told her husband, “I quit,” and left the thriving church he pastored, beginning a journey that transformed her and her marriage for the better. In this eight-session video Bible study Geri provides you a way out of an inauthentic, superficial spirituality to genuine freedom in Christ. This study is for every woman who wants to find emotional health and the true purpose for her life.

Continuing Opportunities

Ladies Bible Study: Tuesday 9am (@SFC) Study: Finding Healthy – See above for description (starting September 29, 2015) Contact Laurel Summers for more information.

Community Dinner: Every 3rd Wednesday 4:30pm (@ First Christian) Contact Mark Rediske for more information.

For Children and Youth

Children’s Church (Kindergarten – 5th grades) will continue to take place during our Sunday Meeting for Worship. Children are dismissed after the children’s message and during the sermon for lessons from the Scriptures, fun activities, crafts, and snacks. Contact Deborah Climer for more information.

Wyldlife (for 6-8th grade youth) – Every Other Saturday 7-8pm (@ Mark Twain Gym during the school year) – Contact Rebecca & Kevin Ortega  (2015 dates: Sept. 26, Oct. 10, 24, Nov. 7, 21, December 5, 19)

SFC Youth Coffee Hour (6th – 12th grades) – Sunday 9:30-10:30am will now be joining in the “We Make the Road by Walking” class facilitated by Pastor Bob in room 10 (classroom wing).

Bible Quizzing (for Jr. and Sr. High Youth) – Contact Erin & Tracy Wilson for more information.

Last year Silverton Friends Church committed to make the road by walking together. It was a time to learn new things, take new paths, and have important conversations with one another. Many of us sensed a genuine Quaker intentionality among our meeting to listen, wait, and discern together. This has been spiritually forming as it has allowed us to slow down and begin to explore our assets, our challenges, our opportunities, and most importantly our faith. I believe we have emerged upon a new season in the life of our meeting and that is exciting!

What this means for SFC is that together we have done a great work over the past year (yes, pat yourself on the back – or better yet, pat someone else on the back). We have learned more about who we are, what we believe, and where we have a diversity of thought. This doesn’t mean we have it all figured out or that we have arrived. No, we have only just begun to make the road by walking together.

In the coming year, my hope is that we will take another step in engaging who we are as a community by exploring the way we care for each other and those around us. Our theme will be Weaving a Fabric of Care. More than just walking a road together, this year we will be challenged to link, mingle, connect – interweave our lives with those we encounter in our daily life. And as we weave our lives together, my hope is that we will learn to develop an even more intentional caring atmosphere where our neighbors, colleagues, friends, and relatives will feel safe to grow, ask questions, and find healing.

Our theme verse is Galatians 6:1-10 from The Message. May these words challenge you and begin to prepare you for “weaving a fabric of care” this year at SFC.

Galatians 6:1-10 (MSG)
1-3 Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

4-5 Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

6 Be very sure now, you who have been trained to a self-sufficient maturity, that you enter into a generous common life with those who have trained you, sharing all the good things that you have and experience.

7-8 Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

9-10 So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.

Grace and peace, Pastor Bob+

Friends,

One of the roles of the clerk is to write an annual “State of the Church” message to our meeting. This was a difficult assignment for me to undertake for two reasons. First, I feel like I’ve already been too visible lately: two workshops at Northwest Yearly Meeting, two sermons at Silverton Friends, a couple all-church emails, a long business meeting, etc.

Second, as a writer, I struggle with the idea that I might be repeating myself. Because truth is, the things I most want to say to you have become like a mantra for me lately—covenant, new family, conversations, and love above all. You’ve heard these words from me before. And yet they do describe well the hard work we’ve been doing as a church.

What’s ahead? Probably more of the same. That’s part of the daily-ness of apprenticing ourselves to Jesus. The result, as I said in a different context a couple weeks ago, is that our church is growing into a community characterized by both gracious space and spacious grace. It’s pretty special to watch it unfold in “real time.”

This fall, Sally Enns and I will ask for an extra measure of your grace as we launch a controversial but necessary new Adult Education class.  Each Sunday morning, the two of us will be co-facilitating a discussion on “the Church, the Bible, and the LGBTQ community.” (This is a smaller, slower version of a monthly book club I am curating with the pastor of Oak Street Church, with participants from throughout the region.) Together, we will read and discuss seven books over the course of nine months. All seven books are written by evangelicals who love Jesus and take Scripture seriously, but they often come to very different conclusions.

August’s business meeting about the “release” of West Hills Friends Church from the NWYM kick-started a conversation about human sexuality that our local meeting has heretofore avoided. Rather than relegating that conversation to the shadows—to gossip and speculation, to hurt, silence, and neglect—we think it’s better to bring it into the light.

The purpose of the class is not to convince anyone to take a particular position on this controversial topic. The reading list is painstakingly balanced. Rather, the purpose of the class is to make us better able to live into Jesus’s great commands: to love God and love our neighbors. We also hope the class will knit us closer together as a church despite our differences. Christians believe that to follow Jesus is to be enfolded into a community that stretches across cultures, across old enmities, and throughout time. The history of American evangelicalism even hints that when people find a way to live in Christ-centered unity across differences, revival comes.

Spring is the season most commonly associated with rebirth. But after a summer of heat and drought and fire, I’m really looking forward to this autumn. School starts and temperatures cool. We scan the horizon (and the weather forecast) for much-needed rain. I believe this is a season of growth and renewal for Silverton Friends Church as well. I’m filled with hope.

Sincerely,

John Pattison

Clerk of the Meeting