Click here to see the April calendar.Click here to see the Worship Teams Schedule.
 GodViewsIn 1999, Jack Haberer, a Presbyterian minister, wrote a book called GodViews: The Convictions That Drive Us and Divide Us. Haberer argues that there are many different “GodViews”—faithful ways of seeing and experiencing God. He describes five in particular:Confessionalists see and experience God primarily through preserving doctrinal orthodoxy and (capital “T”) Truth The challenge for us is to make room for all of them, to not allow a single GodView to become the only GodView. It’s a great temptation for churches to say: “we’re about this one thing.” For example: “We are an activist church, so working for peace and justice is the only way to be faithful.” Of course we are called to work for peace and justice, but that’s not everything. Or: “We are a devotionalist church, so having a passionate personal relationship with Jesus is the only way to be faithful.” Of course we are called to follow Jesus, but not everyone will experience this the same way. You get the idea. Our goal should be to draw on and make room for all of the GodViews, and not allow any one to completely define us. To allow any one GodView to completely define us is to limit God and to turn people away. “Go find another church for that peace and justice stuff, we’re all about Jesus here” (forgetting that Jesus was all about peace and justice!). I think the six commitments made by the session point us in this direction. They take seriously that people come to church for different reasons, looking for different things. In other words, they take seriously that people have different GodViews, and as much as possible we want to make room for those differences. Some people are looking for acceptance. ~ Richard 
TAIZÉ WORSHIPABOUT TAIZÉ SERVICESThe Taizé community began in France in the 1940’s emphasizing peace and reconciliation. Today, Taizé style worship services have become very popular. Services have been described as a deep, spiritual experience and a creative opening to the world. Attendees are asked to enter in silence. The mood of the service is peaceful, with silent meditation being at the heart. A typical service consists of meditative singing, a scripture reading, prayer, and silence. The atmosphere is inspiring….lit candles adorn every corner of the worship space. Music is a prominent part of the service…not the typical organ and choir music that you would expect. Instead, you will hear a “folk music” kind of sound. The instrumentalists sit in the back so that the intense sound washes over your ears, leaving your eyes to focus on the glowing candlelight. The repetitive and simple nature of the songs will put you at ease and encourage you to lift your voice. With each repetition, the songs build and grow as new solo instruments improvise on top of the melody. RCLPC is blessed with many talented musicians, so come and give this new service a try.Our charming and historic sanctuary provides the perfect setting for this transforming new style of worship. Join us in this new adventure….beginning in June. Musicians (singers and instrumentalists) who are interested in participating should contact Emily Floyd by phone or via email. Come Feel peace Be transformed |
 MEN'S BREAKFASTJoin together with other men in the church and enjoy a breakfast together while you study the following Sunday's scripture. We will meet in Fellowship Hall on Saturday May 7th at 9 am. Join us! Questions? contact Karl Dencker.
CELEBRATE LIFE!The Adult Choir will lead worship with the cantata “Celebrate Life!” On Sunday May 8th at 9:00 and 11:00 am. The work tells the story of Jesus in simple, dramatic terms.A Mother’s Day Brunch will also be served between services in Fellowship Hall from 9:30 – 11:30 am. All are welcome. Please join us on Mother’s Day, Sunday May 8th, as we celebrate together the life of Jesus Christ. MOTHER’S DAY BRUNCHCome one, come all and share in food and fellowship on Mother's Day. Brunch will be served in Fellowship Hall from 9:30 until 11:30 am. To make this a reality many hands are needed. People are needed to set-up and clean-up, prepare food - breakfast casseroles and fresh fruit, and people willing to serve on Sunday morning. Many hands make light work so I hope that you all will join with me in making this a wonderful morning to remember. Please sign up to help in the Connecting Link or call Sheila Mohler. CIRCLE OF FRIENDSFormerly known as the “Twenties and Thirties Group”, Circle of Friends meets the first Saturday evening of each month. Now that some of us are moving on up, we changed our name to reflect who we currently are. Most of us have young families (elementary aged children through infants) and some of us are 20’s/30’s singles. We meet in each others’ homes and usually have family friendly kind of gatherings. This is an opportunity for church members, visitors, and friends of the church to get to know one another better.We hope to see some new faces in May as our Circle of Friends is ever growing! For more information about Circle of Friends, contact Heidi and Buddy Pride. TUESDAYS AT BORDERSGreat discussion, delicious coffee and good friends—all can be found at “Tuesdays at Borders”.We will be discussing the book called "Peace Like A River" by Leif Enger over the next couple weeks. The next book on our list to discuss is, "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold Come join us on Tuesday mornings in the Borders Café in Crystal Lake from 10 to 11:30 am for a lively soul-filling discussion. Share your story over a great cup of coffee or tea. See you next Tuesday! Questions? Contact Sheila Mohler or Kim Stewart. |
DIRECTORY UPDATE
Have you moved, got a new phone number, changed email addresses or are you a new member since our last directory came out in January 2004? We are in the process of updating our directory information to get a new directory out. If you have changes, please UPDATE YOUR INFORMATION HERE or call the church office at 815-459-1132.BUILDING & GROUNDS CORNER - Clearance Sale
I see we have new light weight tables in Fellowship Hall. It’s about time, I’m tired of carrying those old heavy tables around!Yes, it’s out with the old and in with the new. We need to get rid of some of those old heavy tables and the infamous “turquoise” folding chairs. If you have use for a sturdy 8’ long table in your workshop, or extra folding chairs for all your relatives, have we got a deal for you? Just pick up what you need from the “Clearance” carts in Fellowship Hall and drop whatever donation you like in the Sunday offering plate.
THANK YOUS!
Thank you to Shelley Berg, the Thompson family, the Stewart family, the Baser family and Mary Moltman for providing dinner during Youth Sunday rehearsal.*****************************
Thank you Youth Auction Workers! My car hasn’t looked or smelled so good since it was brand new thanks to the good job Melissa Zoerner did. My best wishes to all of the youth for a successful mission trip.
Edith Pierson
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Dear Young rclpcers,
Thanks so very much for a wonderful Sunday service we had yesterday. The Music, the Drama, and especially the MESSAGE. My Brother Ron Berube from California, commented that it was great.. The best part too was the receiving line going out, that was soo cool that you all said best wishes as we left.. Good job... Thanks again to all...
Reach up and shake hands with God, Peace
Pierre and Joyce
NEWS FLASH!!!
I would like to introduce to you the new project being initiated by the Caring Crafters. We call it THE CARING CART. Often during a worship service we hear requests to pray for illness, to remember a family who has lost a loved one or even a birth or anniversary to celebrate. We have good intentions of sending a card, but very often when we get home we forget.The Caring Crafters’ stamping group has stamped a variety of cards that will be accessible on Sunday mornings for your use. You may wish to send a Get Well card, a card of Sympathy, Congratulations, or Happy Birthday to one of our members. We have a large variety of these cards and others on our Caring Cart. You may select a card, write the message, address the envelope and put it in a box. The Caring Crafters will put a stamp on it and mail it for you. All we ask is a donation if you are able so we can purchase the stamps and the materials for the cards.
This service will begin on May 1st in Fellowship Hall. We will be there to welcome you.
VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL
WHEN: July 18-22 |
 VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL -
Howdy Partners!!! Debi Keyzer here! Yeeee-Hawwwww!!! |
NATIVE AMERICAN CONNECTION
Lakota Humor
"American Indian humor has not been recognized, yet the culture is fraught with it," says Ronnie Theisz, an academic expert on Lakota humor who recently attended a Great Plains Writers' Conference in South Dakota.He comments, "…Lakota have many cultural taboos such as not speaking to in-laws. This shows respect for those a person is related to through marriage and it also 'takes away from the Days of Our Lives' types of things".
Professor Theisz explains, "There are two functions of Lakota humor. The first is a way of maintaining conformity if someone within the community steps out of line. This is when problems such as alcoholism are mocked. It is a genuine problem among Native Americans but humor is a way of dealing with it while at the same time calling serious attention to it. This is inter-tribal joking".
"The second function is a way for Native Americans to voice their criticisms of Western culture." He continues, "with the U.S. Government, Christopher Columbus, George A. Custer and the Bureau of Indian Affairs being frequent targets". He laughed as he talked about his grandmother who thought that "combat boots were actually called 'comeback' boots, because that's what soldiers have on when they came home from the war".
Joy Martin, Alice Haznedl, Ann Legg, Janet Pearce, Ginger Robinson, MJ Towne, Gloria Thorson.
DID YOU KNOW?
Home of the Sparrow gives away 10% of net proceeds to help low income, poverty level applicants referred to us by other County agencies.A trend from transitional shelter programs to more permanent housing programs is on the rise with shrinking funding dollars anticipated in late 2005 and 2006.
The number of homeless people with mental illness such as bipolar has grown 600% in the last three years. If the mental illness is controllable through medication, we do accommodate them in the Home of the Sparrow program.
IN and AROUND RCLPC with BARB
Good morning! And it is a beautiful one at that. With so much news this week I had to use small print, so get out your bifocals!What a GLORIOUS Youth Sunday! WOW!!! So much energy! It is truly exciting to see so many of our young people participating and maturing (it’s neat to see when you are young :-) We had the testimonies, the drama teams, the scripture readers, the prayer leaders, the choir (which seemed to be only female) and the “swayers” (which seemed to be only male). This was accompanied by some very talented musicians. We had PAUL DOLMON , CARL WESA and LAWSON DEES on percussion, and COLIN BERG and KARISSA STEWART on guitars. We had a beautiful prelude played by ANN VORNSAND on the violin and a marvelous, flowing offertory trio played by KIM LARSON on the saxophone, and AMANDA SCHIELER and LAURA KAY ON THE FLUTES - (I didn’t want their music to end.) We thank each and every one of you for the work you put into Youth Sunday for us. THANK YOU!
* Have you ever heard of the Odyssey of the Mind competition? Neither had I, but our own ADAM JENSEN (son of BOB and LAURIE, brother of KAYLEIGH) has. Students from around the state met at Central Jr. High School in Belleville to show off their creative talents. Among the 47 teams was a team from Valley View Elem. School in McHenry. The Creative categories were: Stunt Mobiles, Get the Message, Crazy Columns, Laugh-a-thon, Fable-us, and Adam’s category - In Your Dreams. His team had to create a dream that was cheerful, nonsensical, and nightmarish. It must have been good, because his team placed FIRST! Now the six fourth and fifth graders and parent volunteers will be going to the WORLD COMPETITION in Boulder, CO. May 21st - 24th. Twenty countries will be represented and Adam and his mom Laurie will be right there. Congratulations Adam! This is quite an accomplishment.
* Did you catch the photos in the Neighbor section of Saturday’s paper? Check the bulletin board. There was a photo of our Nursery Renovation Team. The photo showed HEIDI, LUKE and EMILY PRICE, VALERIE, COLIN and CLAIRE KRUKIEWICZ, DEBBI and AMY KEYSER, CHERYL and MARINNE LILLY, and ANNA FLOYD (without a mommy.) These ladies have done a beautiful job sprucing up the nursery. Stop by and take a peek. Thank you, team.
The other photo was of the Bull Valley Garden Club and had our MARY MOLTMANN-BENNETT amongst them. She is always beautifying something with her hands! Isn’t it great seeing RCLPC in the news so often? Yes, it is!
* And now for the young people in our church who achieved Honors or High Honors at their schools.. From Jacobs High School: 9th Grade - ANN VORNSAND; Crystal Lake Central: 9th grade - EMILY BEREITER and MICHELLE ESCHE, 11th grade - LINDA MANDOLINI-TRUMMEL and CLAIRE WELLER, 12th grade - LIZ DALTON and FRED THOMPSON; and from Prairie Ridge: 10th grade - KARISSA STEWART, 11th grade - KAYLA STEWART, AMANDA SCHIELER, MARK BULICEK, LAWSON DEES, ERIC TERLEP and CAROLINE FREUND, and 12th grade - SARA WALTERS. So many and we are very proud. If I left anyone out, please let me know. The other schools will follow.
* Did you catch THE SOUND OF MUSIC at McHenry West High School last weekend? If you did you saw ALAINA ROGERS (granddaughter of JOY MARTIN) playing the lead role of Leisl - the oldest daughter of the Von Tropp family. You also would have seen Joy, as I here she even saw it twice. We are proud for you, grandma.
“Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it.” Confucious. Let us look for the beauty. Until we meet again, thank you for spending time with me. I am, Barb Turley