Tuesday, April 1, 2025

April Update - No April Foolin'

 


Approximately 17 years ago, I began publishing the church newsletter. Liz Lienau loved to copy, fold, stuff the envelopes, and mail them. She is gone, and the newsletter has been replaced mainly by daily online posts to what is now considered traditional social media.

However, every once in a while, it’s time to play catch-up in the information business. I will write this mainly in the first person.

Celebrate! Jesus! Celebrate. Palm Sunday is upon us. Resurrection Sunday in trace. Reflections on the week in between help us approach the Lord’s Table with absolute humility and depart from it with unbounded joy for what the Lord has done for us.

There are no noontime services for Holy Week. Only the pastors attended. If there is a demand for this service (that would be wonderful) perhaps it will return in 2026.

We will have come-and-go communion from 5:00-7:00 pm on Thursday, April 17, 2025.

The Community Resurrection Service will take place on Friday, April 18, 2025, at Living Waters. The service begins at 7 pm.


Goat and Two Chickens. We are halfway to our Goat and 2 Chickens goal of $125. We will return to our Jesus Damien (Columbia) World Vision offering following Resurrection Sunday.

Front Doors. The front doors have been replaced, as you may have noted. There is still some touch-up work to be done. During our March winds, one of the doors tried to catch a ride to Kansas and Nebraska. I caught it before it left the hinges, but it did some damage.  Repair plans are being considered by the session.

Big Red Fire Control Box. Yes, we also updated the fire control box. It was a different size from the original. Although it may still require a minor touch-up, it is compliant with fire safety regulations.

Pews. The pews still need work. For those of us who were here when we opened this property as a church building, we recovered our own pews that we got at a bargain. God never intended this facility to be a grocery store for long. We got it looking like a real place of worship in short order.

Now, the pews need some care and repair. If you are someone who knows their way around some reupholstering, let one of the elders now serving on the session know. This might be something that we can do in-house again.

Copier. The session agreed upon and ordered a new copier. I will manually adjust the monthly memory verse print to make it lighter as the month progresses. Yes, memorize it!

 

F4. Our Wednesday evenings no longer include a meal. We usually have snacks at the end of the evening. We meet from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. A positive handover is required inside the building for the younger children.

We adjusted and now it’s more about drawing near to God. We beat the dead horse on the meal thing but could never get the social dynamic of the world out of the building. It just continued through the evening.

We are made in our Creator’s image, and we are creative. We adjusted. We made changes. The mission of taking God’s love to the world and making disciples remains unchanged. We've decided to follow the Jesus Diet—you know, doing the will of the Father for our true sustenance.

Visitation. Give Tom Collins a call if you get a chance. His number is (405) 439-3042. He is in the Elk City Nursing Home (west of GPRMC). Tom likes word search puzzles and conversation. I brought him plenty of puzzles and mental challenges, but he needs more conversations.

VBS kicks off the Tuesday following Memorial Day. Look for more information in the weeks ahead.

Camp is in mid-July, and the youth are out raising money to get there. The church budgets some money to help, but it has been the ethic of this body to encourage and facilitate our youth earning a significant portion of the camp fees on their own. It adds value to what is already so valuable.

The Red River Presbytery will meet on April 26, 2025, at St. Timothy CPC in Arlington, Texas. Kendra Walker is our elder representative.

Presbytery Host. We host the Red River Presbytery in September. The meeting is scheduled for 27 September, but we sometimes have an event on the evening before. The Clinton CPC is often involved with us. Contact Kathy Stegall if you're interested in contributing to the planning and serving that make a great Red River Presbytery experience possible.

If nothing else, be there for the worship.  Feel what it is like when everyone is singing to the Lord!

Farewell. By the way, I am retiring at the end of this year. Okay, I will never retire from the ordained ministry. Still, my time here needs to come to a close after serving 15 years as an ordained minister in this pulpit, 2 years as a candidate for ministry and stated supply, and 1 year as a tent-making pulpit supply. I was an ordained elder for seven years prior to that, so it has been a long and fruitful tenure.

But it’s time. The session has been proceeding with a transition plan to minimize disruptions during the transition process. It’s still early, but not too early to consider serving on the pastoral search committee. Pray and think about it now. Talk to the session in May or June if you are interested.

I’m sure I've missed plenty, so stay connected to our website or Facebook page. Stop in for a visit. Pray about how and where God might use you to bring glory to your name.

Good to know stuff…

Our Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Burnsflatcpc

Our simplified website is: Burnsflat.org

The church phone is: (580) 562-4706.

Our mailing address is PO Box 8, Burns Flat OK 73624

Our Burns Flat CPC history is online: https://burnsflatcumberlandpresbyterianchurch.blogspot.com/2018/06/burns-flat-cumberland-presbyterian.html

Projects in Search of a Champion.  

Dates for Planning Purposes.

Unfinished Business.

 

2025

 

13 Apr – Palm Sunday

17 Apr – Come and Go Communion

18 Apr – Community Service @ Living Waters (7 pm)

20 Apr – Resurrection Sunday (Sunrise service at 7 am, Breakfast by the Men to follow, and 11 am Traditional Worship- no First Light or Sunday School).

26 Apr – RRP – St John CPC (Arlington TX)

27 Apr – Pulpit Supply

27-30 May – VBS

  8 Jun – Pentecost Sunday

15-20 Jun – General Assembly (Knoxville TN)

29 Jun -- 5th Sunday Fellowship Meal (Team 2)

  5-11 Jul – CPYC

13-18 Jul – RRP Camp

  4 Aug – RRP Committees meet

10 Aug – Elder Retreat

27 Sep – Host RRP

16 Nov – Thanksgiving Service and Meal (6 pm)

23 Nov – Community Thanksgiving Service (6 pm)

14 Dec – Christmas Worship and Meal (6 pm)

 

Sunday, March 30, 2025

Online Giving

 

Yes, we have entered into the current century, at least in our ability to give online. 

We now have an online option for tithes and offerings.  Scan the code. You will receive a receipt from SubSplash. We will still have a time for tithes and offerings during worship services. 






                       


Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Unfinished Business

 Left Unfinished

 

Front Doors – Repair, finish floor space

NW door removal/wall replacement

Fire System Box Finishing

Pews


.

Friday, November 8, 2024

Elder Service and Rotation

 Begin-End-Name

 Service begins on 1 January and concludes on 31 December of the years listed.       

2008     2010     Gerald Stegall

2009     2011     Rick Reeves

                          Rodney Chilton

2010     2012     Rick Ellis

                         Junior Delp

2011     2013     Kathy Stegall

2012     2014     Phil Delp

                           Gene Reeves

2013     2015     Rick Reeves

                          Dana Ellis

2014     2016     James Hendrix

2015     2017     Gerald Stegall

                          Rodney Chilton

2016     2018     Garrett Stegall

                          Rick Ellis

2017     2019     Larry Walker

2018     2020     Rick Reeves

                          Danny Rush

2019     2021     Dana Ellis

                          Robert Wascom

2020     2022     Phil Delp

2021     2023     Garrett Stegall

                         Kathy Stegall

2022     2024     Ethan Delp

                          Rick Reeves

2023     2025     Danny Rush

2024     2026     Lori Scheberger

                         Kendra Walker

2025     2027     Session Nominee is Garrett Stegall

 

 

Current Elders    

               

Ethan Delp         

Danny Rush        Rotating Off

Rick Reeves        

Garrett Stegall   

Kathy Stegall      

Larry Walker      

Phil Delp               Serving

Gerald Stegall       Session Nominee for 25

Lori Schneberger   Serving

Kendra Walker      Serving

Des Simmons        Serving

               

Rick Ellis             Does not desire active service

Dana Ellis             Does not desire active service

Rodney Chilton  Does not desire active service

Carolyn Murray Does not desire active service


In remembrance:






 









Friday, October 18, 2024

Memory Verses for 2025

 Memory Verses for 2025

Jan – Psalm 25:10

Feb – Psalm 25:11

Mar – Psalm 25:12

Apr – Psalm 25:13

May – Psalm 25:14

Jun – Psalm 25:15

Jul – Psalm 25:16

Aug – Psalm 25:17

Sep – Psalm 25:18

Oct – Psalm 25:19

Nov – Psalm 25:20

Dec – Psalm 25:21-22

Monday, October 7, 2024

Projects in Search of a Champion

 Projects in Search of a Champion.  The following projects await someone with some ambition, organizational skills, a desire to find viable solutions, and the desire to finish a project.

·         The Attic (Sort and Organize)

·         VBS Materials (Sort, organize, and determine what to keep/give away)

·         Admin office and copy room (General Organization)

·         Acquiring a Supply Vendor

·         Finding a worthy recipient for saved educational materials

·         Finding an outside water solution

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Lord, Show Us what to do to help recent Victims of the Storm

 

Dear Father in heaven,

We praise your name and give you thanks. Even in times such as these, we are thankful.

We lift on high the name that is above all names. We ask Jesus, who is the Christ and who sits at the right hand of the Father, to intercede for us. We trust in his power to send mercy and relief to those afflicted by the storms of this past week.

Lord, call upon the body of Christ to respond to the needs of their neighbors. We, who are protected from this storm have known other storms and have given you thanks for seeing us through them.

Thank you for our testimonies. We pray that those now afflicted have testimonies of your great love.

Lord, whether those testimonies come in the form of witnessing a mighty act of your hand or by the compelling of your Spirit that lives in our hearts and in the hearts of other believers to be your hands, let your love be known in this trial.

God Almighty, we sit in comfort and thank you for that, but our hearts are being shaped like yours and we want to help those who need help most right now.

Lord Jesus, we long to be known as belonging to you by our love in action.

Open our eyes that we may see what to do.

Amen.