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)
