Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Upcoming Presbytery Meeting Time Changes

The next Presbytery meeting is only a month away and is schedule for Tuesday, November 11, 2008, at the St. Paul Presbyterian Church, 6426 Merle Hay Road in Johnston and will feature a celebration for the 165th Anniversary of the Presbytery of Des Moines. The theme of our special day is “Remember, Rejoice, Renew”.

The November Presbytery Meeting Time has Changed
This week our Coordinating Council has voted to change the meeting time from 9:30-3:30 p.m. to 2:00-8:00 p.m. for this special day. It is the Council member's hope to make this a meaningful experience more accessible to all members of the Presbytery who normally cannot make a weekday stated meeting. The evening time will be saved for a special celebration and worship service for all who can attend. This includes a joint-choir from the 64 churches in our presbytery. If you are interested or have members of your church choir who can participating in this Presbytery-wide choir, contact Coordinator Emily Seeger at seeger@q.com or 712-243-4519.

Don't Forget to send in your Church History
All congregations have been requested to submit a one-page synopsis of their church history or an anecdote about the congregation and their ministry in the past 165 years. Those churches which have missed the deadline, still have time to turn their history into the Presbytery office by October 17. A printed booklet will be available at the November Presbytery meeting for all churches as a keepsake. Currently, we're missing the following church histories: Allerton, United; Bedford, United; Brooklyn, First; Centerville, First; Clive, Heartland; Deep River, United; Des Moines, Fort Des Moines; Des Moines, Westminster; Diagonal, United; Johnston, St. Paul; Lenox, United; Malcom, First United; Monroe; Montezuma, First United; New Sharon, First; Ottumwa, East End; Ottumwa, Westminster; Pitzer, United; Sharpsburg; and Sigourney, First.

Meeting Materials will soon be Available Online
Watch the Web site for details of the event and meeting materials. Look for the "Mark Your Calendar!" box in the upper right hand corner. Links to the August Minutes and The Call will soon be available to read, download or print. You may download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

NOTE: Churches are now responsible for getting the documents printed for their Commissioners and Pastors, unless they don't have access to the Internet. If you are unable to print the download or do not have access to the internet, please contact the Presbytery office immediately to receive a printed copy before the meeting.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Upcoming Discussion Groups are Planned

Fall programming is under way in our churches and here in the Presbytery, we'll be offering a few discussion groups that you might be interested in joining:

The Presbytery's Lectionary Study Group that meets weekly on Tuesdays, would like to remind everyone that next Tuesday, October 7, the group will help the Rev. Gus Nelson with a critique of the outline of a book, Why Bother with the Church? The group will meet from 9-10 a.m. at the Presbytery of Des Moines office in Urbandale. (This will be before our normal lectionary text discussion time at 10:00 a.m.) The outline is online for your review.

Attend the Brown Bag Planning Event for Advent. Those interested in planning for the Advent season experience are meeting Tuesday, October 14, 12:15 p.m. at the Presbytery Office in Urbandale. Bring your own lunch and let's put our heads together to plan some great events for this holiday season here in the Des Moines Presbytery. We'll look at the lectionary text and any ideas that you bring along to share. For any questions and to RSVP, contact Rev. Mark Davis at 515-770-5601 or markdavis@heartlandpresbyterian.org. (If this date doesn't fit your schedule, please let Mark know.)

Finally, Communications Director Kim Coulter would like to remind everyone of the Lunch and Learn Series at the Presbytery office. The next gathering will be Thursday, October 16, from Noon-1 p.m. We'll be discussing annual reports and the do's and don'ts of these yearly documents. This is just in time for our session committees planning their year-end reports for their church members. Bring your lunch, reports and questions and we'll offer support and help as well as beverages.

Hopefully, we'll see you at the Des Moines Presbytery office, 2400 - 86th Street, Ste. #20, Urbandale, IA 50322 in the next few weeks!