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Ponderosa S.A.G.E. Newsletter
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January 2005
issue by Carol Stevens
Can you believe we’re having our one-year anniversary as a church? To celebrate that fact, we’re going to have a sock hop and potluck lunch, here right after service on 1/16/05. See Christy for signup info.
Many of us have been here since the start; some have not. This seemed like a good time to trace our history and see what has been accomplished in one short year.
Toward the end of 2003 several people of like mind got together and expressed their desire for a more meaningful spiritual experience and a closer sense of fellowship and community. They met a couple of times in each other’s homes to make plans. Spirit moved through one of our group who approached a local restaurant owner and asked if we could meet at his facility on Sunday mornings. Not only did he say yes, but offered his place rent free as long as we needed it. On January 11, 2004, our own Rev. David Phears facilitated our first Sunday Service at the Ponderosa Restaurant. At that point, however, he offered his support as our temporary minister, while he pursued full-time ministerial employment elsewhere. We were blessed by interspersing many interesting guest speakers when Rev. David could not be with us. Each week we were growing in number as well as in the confidence that we were a part of something special. Rev. David agreed with us, and even though he was a candidate for minister in one of the largest Religious Science churches in California, he withdrew his name from consideration and signed on as our full-time minister in April of 2004. From that point until now we have worked together as partners building on that original idea. I would like to bring you up to date on the many wonderful things that have been accomplished through the vision, dedication and hard work of many, many people.
* Completed Bylaws. Our partners worked many hours to put together a set of bylaws that reflect our unique vision of how we want to operate as a church.
* Tax Exempt Status. After many hours of hard work, along with the expertise of some of our partners, we are now an official, tax exempt, nonprofit organization.
* UCRS Recognition. We have been accepted as a pre-church with the United Church of Religious Science. We will be meeting this year to examine our options regarding church status.
* Classes. Rev. David knows and values the role of class work in our philosophy and has already facilitated three dynamic classes for our fellowship partners.
* Radio Ministry. From the inception we have maintained a weekly radio ministry on Stardust Radio 910 AM on Sunday mornings at 8:00 a.m.
* Fall Festival. We organized and put on a hugely successful festival in October of this year, which brought in over $1000.
* Moved our church meeting. Due to our growth in numbers as well as the need for classrooms for our youth, one of our partners approached this school and we were approved for its use. This required that we obtain liability insurance, which we did. We are now able to have classrooms for our ever-growing youth group as well as a larger meeting room for the adults.
* Sent Youth to Camp. Through the efforts of our dedicated youth teachers and the generosity of the fellowship as a whole, we were able to send one of our youth to winter camp this year.
While this is by no means a complete list of our accomplishments, it does illustrate our commitment to our vision to be a dynamic, growing fellowship.
First Christmas Celebration. For those who were not fortunate enough to have been here on 12/19/04, we had a wonderful holiday celebration. After service, we took turns expressing what this time of year means to us, followed by a candle lighting ceremony, followed by guided meditation, music, and wonderful food. Our own Michelle Phears put all of this together. It truly set the tone for the Holiday to come. Thank you, Michelle.
Kid’s Corner. I would like to devote this section of the newsletter to hearing about our youth church. In this first segment, I interviewed the young man we sent to camp, Michael Stevens.
Q Mike, what was camp like? Did you have fun and would you recommend it to your fellow church classmates?
A It was great! There were 350 young people there and I made lots of friends.
Q What kinds of things did you do?
A We played games, sang songs, ate great food, had free time and even something called “secret silence” where you got real quiet. We also broke into family groups and acted out stuff, like say no to drugs.
Q What do you think you learned from this experience?
A I learned there are alternatives to bad behavior. I can choose to do something else. And I made lots of cool friends. Thank you to everyone for sending me.
We are so blessed to have such a mixture of people who make up our fellowship. We have our youth and our sages and all the in-betweens. We come from very diverse backgrounds and walks of life, and yet we find ourselves pulled together by something far more important than any of that…a desire to fellowship with like-minded people and to encourage and foster the individuality that uniquely expresses that One Life manifesting through all of us. The following Chinese poem is one of my favorites:
Ten thousand flowers in the spring;
A cool breeze in summer;
The moon in autumn;
Snow in the winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.
As we Close the Door on 2004, and Choose to Thrive in 2005, this might be an interesting time to look at our vision and goals for our church. Some of what we envision for the year to come is:
* Continued growth in numbers, treasure, enthusiasm and love
* Examining our options for church affiliation
* More classes
* Expand our media ministry
* Continue to utilize visioning
Keep our partners better informed.
If you would like to enhance your church experience, I invite you to come and join us at our monthly business meeting held on the 3rd Thursday of each month at the home of Cheryl Colvin and Pat Alice at 6:30 p.m. We meet to share our vision, ideas, love and enthusiasm about developing this vibrant fellowship and sharing it with our community. Everyone is welcome, so bring your thoughts, talents and ideas and add your voice to those who have worked so hard this year to get us to the point we are today.
Peace and blessings to all.
Information Center:
Church phone number: 961-8223
Our web site: www.ponderosasage.com
Radio Show: Balancing the Journey
on Stardust Radio 910 AM at 8:00 a.m. |
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