First Congregational to Participate in Leadership Transformation Program with KO Conference4/19/2021
![]() The Kansas-Oklahoma Conference of the UCC is honored to be one of the recipients of a 2021 Leadership Transformation Grant from the Kansas Leadership Center. The KLC is a non-profit founded by the Kansas Health Foundation. KLC provides training to foster leadership for stronger, healthier and more prosperous Kansas communities. Through the Leadership Transformation Grant, KLC partners with organizations to help them create a culture of leadership that embraces change, tackles problems and seizes opportunities. As a part of this grant, the KO Conference is sending 50 participants to participate in a two-day training with KLC. Our congregation was invited to put together our own delegation and we welcome your prayers as we prepare to learn and grow this summer. Janet George and Cassidy Moreau will participate in the KLC leadership training on May 5-6. Deane Lehmann, Jeff Watson, Craig Weston, and Pastor Caela will be attending the same training on June 2-3. You can learn more about the training here. ![]() Beginning May 2, we will begin using Zoom every week for worship. Pastor Caela will be joined in the sanctuary by other worship leaders and a tech crew....and, eventually, by all of us once we regather in our building. How exciting! You can read updates about our regathering plans on our website here. After May 2, our worship services will NOT be on Facebook or YouTube. We will continue to use the same link each week for worship and you'll find that at uccmanhattan.org/online. If you are unable to access Zoom, please contact the church office so we can help make alternative arrangements. It’s important to us that we find a way for you to attend worship. HOW CAN I HELP DURING THIS TIME OF TRANSITION? Thanks for asking! There are several things you can do:
WHY HAVE WE CHOSEN ZOOM FOR WORSHIP? We've made the decision to use Zoom as our platform moving forward because we believe it provides the best opportunity for us to help those worshiping at home feel more like a part of our worship service each week. Those who worship at a distance will be able to see other faces, interact with people in the chat, and stay for Fellowship Hour. Eventually, we hope to have the technology that will make it possible for people at home to read scripture, share their prayers aloud, and more. Being together on Zoom also means greater ease in our weekly worship creation workflow as we won't be pre-recording elements of the service and paying a video editor to piece it all together for us. We want to say a HUGE thank you to Companion Projects Media, who have been working with us for almost a year now and have been indispensable partners for our staff and volunteers. Worshiping together "in real time" also means we can ensure our service meets the moment, rather than being recorded earlier in the week. WHY AREN'T WE USING FACEBOOK OR YOUTUBE ANY MORE? You may be wondering why the service isn't simultaneously live-streamed to other platforms like YouTube or Facebook. While it's true this can be done, we've decided not to do so for two primary reasons: 1) copyright differences with streaming vs Zoom, and 2) privacy. When we worship on Zoom we are not streaming the service and, therefore, have more options for using music/words in our service without worrying about copyright concerns that come up when broadcasting our service. When we lift our prayers or invite the children forward for the Word for Children, we can do so in our Zoom room much like we did in the Sanctuary. It's still a public place, of course, but it's not live-streamed to the internet, which gives us a better balance of privacy and outreach. WHY IS THE ZOOM SERVICE BEING RECORDED? We currently have a couple of folks who have difficulty accessing Zoom and are preparing DVDs for them. In the future, we may make recordings available to those who were unable to attend worship. The recordings show the"speaker view," not the “gallery view.” Each week's sermon will continue to be uploaded to our YouTube and Facebook pages for those who would like to view or share them. We are still very much in a "liminal space" of experimentation and we anticipate that our online worship will continue to evolve and shift over the coming months. The staff and Deacons welcome your input on how things are going and what new things we might try as we learn and grow together. Pastor Caela will be on study leave from April 12-18. On April 18th we will be worshiping via Zoom and our guest preacher is Lynaya Morris.
Originally from Pocomoke on Maryland's Eastern Shore Lynaya holds a Master's degree in Higher Education Administration from George Washington University, and a bachelors in biology from Syracuse University. This semester she is wrapping up her Master of Divinity degree at Wesley Theological Seminary. Lynaya served and lived among students as part of GWU for the past 8 years, as an Area Coordinator, Residence Director, and later a Career Coach. Lynaya currently works at Catholic University as an Academic & Career Advisor. Lynaya enjoys not just the science disciplines and theology, but also creative endeavors such as baking, painting, knitting, and listening to music. Lynaya is excited to meet and worship with you! We will open the Zoom room at 10:40 so you can get settled in and enjoy some pre-service music. Please note we are ONLY on Zoom - NOT Facebook Live or YouTube. You'll find the link at http://www.uccmanhattan.org/online The bulletin for the worship service is available here http://bit.ly/bulletinapr18 Fellowship Hour will begin immediately after the postlude in the SAME ZOOM ROOM (not the regular Fellowship room). So just hang tight after worship to stay for Fellowship Hour. Grow Green Match Day Thursday, April 22, 2021
12 am -11:59 pm NO LIVE EVENT – Due to COVID-19 Online Gifts or Mailed Checks only Grow Green Match Day is a community fundraising event that offers a 50% match on gifts given on April 22! This year donations made to the Church will help offset costs related to HVAC improvements and sanitizer stations so that we may gather together safely and in person in the (hopefully) near future, and for media equipment so that we can provide a high-quality stream of our services. Please help us return to our building by supporting this great event! Here's how it works: Gifts can be made online from 12:00 a.m. -11:59 p.m. on April 22. Simply visit https://www.growgreenmanhattan.com on the day of the event. If you prefer to give by check: • Download the 2021 Grow Green Giving Form from the website, print, and complete. • Write ONE check for the entire donation made out to GMCF • Mail the check and donation form (postmarked on or before 4/22/21) to GMCF, P.O. Box 1127, Manhattan, KS 66505-1127 Your donation goes to the Church, PLUS contributions ranging from $25 to $1,000 will receive a local match at $.50 per $1, so a $1,000 gift can receive a $500 local match. The match amount will go into the Church's endowment account at the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. Please note that your gift is considered over and above any pledged giving. If you miss the April 22 event and would still like to support this campaign, you may send a gift to the Church and note that it is for the "Return to the building." ![]() Get outdoors this spring and summer and enjoy making new friends or visiting with longtime friends you haven't seen in a while! Text your name and the name(s) of the group(s) you're interested in to 785-380-7772. We'll sign you up for a GroupMe and the group organizer will text you updates and when/where to meet up. You do not have to have the GroupMe app to participate, just a phone that can text. If you don't have the ability to text, please contact the church office so we can make other arrangements. All groups take place outdoors and participants agree to follow our congregation's COVID safety measures. You can read full details at uccmanhattan.org/covid. The highlights are: don't come if you're sick/quarantined, wear a mask, maintain at least six feet distance from those outside your household, keep track of who attends in case we need to complete contact tracing. CURRENT GROUPS Easy Riders - Join us for easy bike rides in and around town. (And if you want to coordinate some more challenging rides, that's okay, too). This group is facilitated by Chad Moreau and Brent Maner. Playground Meet Ups - Meet up at local playgrounds and the kids can play while the adults visit on the sidelines. You don't have to be a parent/guardian to join the group. You can also just come and visit with others in a comfy seat. BYOC (bring your own chair - and mask, of course). This group is facilitated by Brandy McDonald. Chat & Craft (or just visit!) - You don't have to be a crafter to join. That's just a fun name. If you have any craft projects you like to do with your hands OR you just want to enjoy a comfy seat while visiting with friends, join us. BYOC (bring your own chair - and mask, of course). This group is facilitated by Deane Lehmann. Walk & Talk - Stroll with friends and enjoy conversation while you walk. We will meet up at City Park or other easy-to-walk places with sidewalks (i.e. not strenuous hikes). This group is facilitated by Greg Eiselein. Have an idea for another group? Great! Please let Pastor Caela know. ![]() One Great Hour of Sharing – Let Love Flow Nobody hungry, nobody thirsty, shade from the sun, shelter from the wind, For the Compassionate One guides them, takes them to the best springs.” – Isaiah 49:10 Every day and every week, we see our congregation giving tirelessly to reach out to meet critical needs of neighbors in our community. Less visible to most of us, but equally important, is to work with Our Church’s Wider Mission to allow congregations and individuals to meet people at points of critical need in their lives. During the month of March, we encourage our church members to support the UCC Special Mission Offerings for One Great Hour of Sharing which provides resources to reach out in places lacking health and educational resources and/or where disaster has struck. Here are a few examples of how your support can make such a difference in peoples’ lives. Water is life, water is love - Access to clean fresh water is vital for all of humanity, but for women in particular, water access means the difference between life and death for them and their families. The United Nations International Observance of World Water Day (March 22) reflects on the importance of water in our daily lives and remembers those who lack access to adequate drinking water supplies. For women and girls around the world, it can be a 12 hour walk to the nearest water source to collect water to maintain basic needs and crucial hygiene practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. With your support,100 families will benefit from the Water Well project, sponsored by the United Church of Christ in Mozambique (UCCM). When you give to One Great Hour of Sharing, you invest in the hopeful future of women and girls around the world and serve as co-workers with God to build a just world for all. Food security – Imagine not knowing where your next meal will come from, living in constant fear of political unrest, battling climate change, farmers battling obstacles to get crops to harvest. For many people in the world, this is their reality. In Nicaragua, families find it harder to believe that food security can be an attainable goal. Several of the families there have lost several harvests to the effects of climate change. Farmers in their community found that when it rains too much, the crops die from disease or are washed away. When it doesn’t rain enough, they dry up. Either way, farmers lose everything. Through One Great Hour of Sharing programs, farmers and their families are finding new ways to earn a living and secure their food supply, such as raising stingless Melipona bees, which produce medicinal honey to sell or raising poultry that produce eggs, plus another 140 chickens to sell! Your Board of Mission urges you to join in Our Church’s Wider Mission give generously to One Great Hour of Prayer which helps people in such need to imagine and attain a better life, with clean water, better sanitation, and secure food systems. You may make your gift any time during the month of March by indicating "OGHS" in the memo line of your check or online gift. For more information about how to give to and through First Congregational, please click here. Join us for Living Room Worship Online! LRW is an informal experience for those who desire to connect more with each other and with God through small group discussion, prayer, and singing. While we can't yet be together in person, we hope you'll join us virtually via your own living room! For more information, you can contact Kerry Priest ([email protected]).
Sunday, February 28 7:00 pm Click to Zoom Or call 1-669-900-6833 and enter Meeting ID: 931 8438 5398 Passcode: 848935 (Note: long-distance charges may apply when using the call-in option.) ![]() While Pastor Caela is on vacation, the Deacons would like to invite you to join them for a “road trip” to Colonial UCC in Prairie Village on Sunday, Feb. 14th. While many churches in the KO Conference are continuing to worship online for safety reasons, it’s a great opportunity to connect with other congregations in our conference and see the diversity in worship throughout Kansas and Oklahoma. How to worship on Feb. 14th: We hope you’ll worship with Colonial UCC in real time at 8:30 or 10:15 a.m. You’ll find their livestream at https://colonialucc.online.church/. You can also worship on demand via Colonial’s YouTube channel at https://bit.ly/CCYouTubeVid. Links to both of these options are available at www.colonialucc.org. How to fellowship on Feb. 14th: We will still gather for our regular Zoom Fellowship Hour at 11:30 a.m.. We hope you can join us for a time of conversation and connection! You’ll find that Zoom link at uccmanhattan.org/online Even with all of the challenges of 2020 it can be uplifting to take advantage of some of the things we can do now that we couldn't before. Worshiping with another congregation in the KO Conference is a gift! When you come for Drive Through Communion on. Feb. 7th, it’s also time for our Lent Pick Up. You can pick up ashes to use for Ash Wednesday (Feb. 17th) and a hard copy of the Illustrated Ministry Family Prayer Devotional. Click to read Pastor Caela's invitation to lengthen your faith this Lent and see all the options available as you choose your own Lenten adventure. You can also download the at-home worship service for Ash Wednesday at uccmanhattan.org/lent (note: the password to download the file is on the envelope of ashes or you may e-mail the church office for the password). You can also drop off donations for the Second Helping as we “fill the breadbasket” the first Sunday of each month. Weather permitting, we will have two opportunities for receiving Communion on Feb. 7th:
When we gathered for worship on Zoom during the Christmas season, many of us found we deeply enjoyed the sense of connection we felt as we saw familiar faces on our screens. The Deacons recently decided we’d like to try gathering for worship via Zoom on the FIRST Sunday of each month, beginning Feb. 7th. This will allow us to share Communion together in real time in a way that feels more intimate than our regular Facebook service. It also gives our worship leaders (staff and volunteers) a break from video production and allows us to save costs on video editing each month. Worshiping via Zoom also means those who aren’t into doing pre-recorded videos can assist in leading worship by reading scripture or sharing the benediction or call to offering by simply unmuting! Glory!
We know that some folks will prefer our Facebook Live services and others Zoom. Each platform has its advantages and drawbacks. We are probably ALL in agreement that we long for the day when we can gather together safely in our Sanctuary. Until then, we will continue to faithfully and prayerfully gather for worship in new and creative ways, confident that the Holy Spirit can work with any platform. Visit uccmanhattan.org/online for the Zoom link for worship. |
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