Primetime Celebration!

We had a wonderful time last night celebrating the end of Primetime. We had delicious food from the Taylor St. Pizza Company, an Ice Cream Sundae Bar, and great fellowship with each other. Nearly 40 people came out and celebrated together. It was a great night! Thanks to those who came and to Kathleen and Lorna for their help!

DOWNTOWN VBS!!!

Downtown VBS!
Vacation Bible School will be June 25-28. Our theme is “Avalanche Ranch: A wild ride through God’s word.” We are sharing VBS with 2nd Congregational United Church of Christ, Emmanuel Episcopal Church, and First Presbyterian Church. We will be rotating buildings throughout the week. We need 2-3 members from each church to join the steering committee for Downtown VBS, and then of course we’ll need volunteers for OUR day. Court Street’s Day will be Thursday, June 28. We get the last day! We really want to show off our Court Street PRIDE! We need the following volunteers:
Before VBS:
Registration helpers: We need volunteers to help go through the pre-registrations and keep all of the things organized.
Aritists: we need some large cut outs and such of the characters.
General volunteers for the days before to prep our building.
Decorators to make every station look great!
Givers! Financial support of this program would be greatly appreciated.
For All 4 Days:
2-3 (or more) volunteers to be Ranchers (group shepherds). Group shepherds don’t have to do any preparation for activities, they are just there to guide their group from rotation to rotation and help the various rotation leaders.
Junior Ranchers: these are youth aged 6th grade and up who will assist the Ranchers.
For Thursday, June 28:
Wild Bible Adventures Leader (This is the bible story leader.) The scripture for the day is Mark 15-16 and Psalm 47:2. The bible point is “God is Awesome”. This is the day the children learn about the crucifixion and resurrection.
Operation Kid to Kid Leader: This is a project where the children stuff bears to be sent to children in Africa and South America. This is a project where our children really get a chance to reach out to others.
Cowpoke Crafts leader: This will be a craft that the children make. You will not have to come up with the craft idea. The craft, all the supplies, instructions…everything will be provided for you!
Chadder’s Wild West Theatre Leader: This is a lesson that has a movie and an activity. Children get to meet with “Chadder” the chipmunk and learn more about the bible verse of the day!
Chuck Wagon Chow Leader: Chuck Wagon Chow is a snack time where the kids create a fun snack and then eat it. We will likely need 2 leaders for this to help with the creations. The Snack for the day is “awesome avalanche surprise” and is basically a pre-packaged cup of vanilla ice cream with crushed oreos.
Horseplay Games Leader: This is recreation time and there are games! This will take place in our gym and should be great fun. 2 leaders might be needed for this group as well! You don’t have to invent the games, but feel free to add creative games if you want to!
Sing and Play Stampede helpers: Rob will be leading the music, of course, but he will need helpers! If you like to sing and help children learn songs, this is where we need you!
Lunch Crew: I need a group of people to plan, create, and serve lunch to our children. This does not need to be a fancy lunch. Hot dogs, burgers, sandwiches, even pizza…anything would be fine.
Show time roundup leader: This is the end of the day activity for the children and is a worship/celebration service reviewing the points of the day.
Photographer: Someone will need to take pictures throughout the day. We need specific pictures that will be used in the Showtime Roundup, but we also want a lot of really great pictures for future use here at the church.
All volunteers will be asked to attend a one-time, short training session where you will meet the volunteers from the other churches and receive basic training for the VBS. This will take place Wednesday, May 23 at 6pm at 2nd congregational. Everyone is asked to bring a dish to “pitch in” for the meal.

Please contact Becca ASAP if you are willing to help with any of the above activities! Thanks in advance for your support of Downtown VBS!

The Sunday Summary (and Saturday too)

Saturday's worship was great. We had 43 people worshipping together in the sanctuary at our new 5:12 service. This service is really speaking to people come and join us! Everyone hangs out afterwards for the 5:12 cafe to enjoy the coffee, the chocolate covered strawberries and whatever other treats the Galloway's bring. Come join us!

Sunday was another great day here as well. We celebrated Mother's day by honoring all of the women in our lives. Here are some of the highlights:

• All of the ladies were treated to flowers
• The JuBellation Handbells played "As The Deer" as a prelude in the 10:45 service.
• The "youth girls" helped tidy Becca's office and organize our mission stuff so it can be distributed.
• Becca talked about "How God is like a Mommy" in her Children's sermon.
• The Choir presented "The Music of God"
• Scriptures were: Acts 16: 9-15, and John 14: 23-29
• Sue Cram and Karen Brown talked about the upcoming Garden Bazaar. If you are interested in helping please contact one of them asap!

The sermon was titled "The woman who made it happen". Here are a few highlights from Pastor Keith's words:

• We celebrate women and their wisdom, toughmindedness and compassion.
• Women have been seen for having the gifts and graces to do God's work. When society doesn't allow those gifts to be shared we all suffer their loss.
• Jesus valued women highly
• 16 of 40 women mentioned in Paul's Epistles are women!
• Many women fear financial insecurity and suffer from "Bag Lady Syndrome". Even famous women have this problem.
• He told the story of Lydia: the first european woman to embrace the gospel.
• "The way to make things happen is to give ourselves over to God's spirit, like Lydia did."
• "Step away from fear adn walk in faith."

REBEKAH IS THE BIBLE IDOL!!!!

BIBLE IDOL FINALS!

The finals of Bible Idol were very exciting. David, Daniel, and Rebekah competed for the title. Each character came and sang LIVE for us!

David was portrayed by Tim Welk
Daniel was portrayed by Pastor Keith
Rebekah was portrayed by Shirley Holley

THe judges did a great job deciding and deliberating.

CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES OF ALL THE FUN!!!!

Thanks to all the kids and to our guests! Bible Idol ROCKED!

Softball STRIKES again!

The Court Street Softball team played against GPS/Grace on Tuesday night. In the first inning both teams were scoreless. In the 2nd inning, they scored one, but we rallied in the 3rd and matched their one with one of our own. We held them to a score of 4-1 until the sixth inning where a grandslam on their part and a couple of errors on our part lead to a final score of 11-1. Our pitcher was Kyle (from Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd). Other players included Kathleen Kennan, Jeff (also from LCGS), Betsy Smith, Samantha and Jason Fischer, Eric Lovelady (Betsy's son), Bruce Martin, Becca and our friend Tricia who joined us at the last minute to play so we didnt' have to forfeit for not having enough girls. She was the one run that made it in, so we were very thankful for her presence and for Bruce Martin for hitting her in and earning an RBI. THanks to the Lewis' and the Swinson's for coming out to support our team!

Sunday Summary (and Saturday too)

It was a great weekend for worship here at CSUMC despite our sound system issues. We had great attendance for all three services and were glad that everyone came out to worship!

Here are some of the highlights:

• The Choir presented "And We Remember"
• We celebrated the baptisms of Abby Logli and Jacob Voight
• The Youth sang "The God of Hope"
• The Scriptures were: Acts 11: 1-18 and John 13:31-35

Pastor Keith's sermons was called "Welcoming, Nurturing, and Serving." Here are some highlights:

• The Early church struggled with the conflict between Christian Judaism and becoming a Christian as a gentile.
• Peter's vision of "Kill and eat" taught that Gentiles should be embraced.
• Peter didn't understand this until he visited with Cornelius and his family.
• The power that moved Peter was the power of "Love one anohter as I have loved you"
• He shared a story told by Rabbi Label Lam: A Russian peasant farmer who never left the small and parochial surroundings of his town had occasion to come the big city of Moscow. He arrived at the elegant hotel with mud on his boots and overalls looking completely inappropriate. The man at the desk assigned him to a room on the top floor and treated him as any other paying customer. With key in hand and a few possessions he started the long climb to the hotel room. On the first landing there was a full-length mirror. The man who had never seen himself before was suddenly startled and frightened by the imposing image before him. He growled and barked to scare the him away - only to find that the image in the mirror was willing to threaten and shout the same. He ran to the next floor and confronted the fearsome giant again exchanging harsh looks and almost coming to blows. On the third floor they stood nose to nose and exchanged simultaneous insults as a deepening war-like attitude was taking root in both of the them. Realizing that there was no where to escape this ugly beast-like fellow who was aggressively stalking him in the hotel he ran quickly back to the lobby and to the front desk to file a complaint. After having given a detailed description of the perpetrator the man at the desk understood that the he had met the enemy and it was the man in the mirror. So as to save the face of his guest and to disengage the hostility he offered simple advice. He said, "The fellow who you confronted is here to protect people. He is really quite harmless. Trust me. If you will show him a harsh and angry countenance he will do the same. However if when you see him you just smile pleasantly and continue on your way he will nod and smile at you as well. Enjoy the rest of your stay." That's what he did and remarkably that's what happened...
• The poers that move or destroy us are often inside us.
• The love we need is realy within is. If we are created in the image of God, and God is love, then WE are love.
• HE also shared about the work done at Bethpage APartments on Appletree here in Rockford. The Leadership Rockford group worked to plant flowers at this home for those strugglign with mental illness.
• "It is by really serving that we experience the spirit of welcoming and nurturing"
• Sometimes we think that love is reciprocal. Rather, love moves us to serve without expecting anything.
• We don't serve because we recieve. We serve because we love.

Please join us next Sunday for Mother's day.

We have FINALISTS!!!!

Last night the Bible Idol Judges were faced with the difficult task of narrowing down the 11 semi-finalists to just 3 finalists who will compete next week for the title of Bible Idol! It was a very difficult decision with a 2-way tie for the 3rd finalist. Finally, after a second vote, the finalists are:

REBEKAH

DAVID

DANIEL



The finals will be next week at 7:00 in the primetime room! Tune in to find out who is voted to be the BIBLE IDOL!!!

Softball is in full SWING!

The Court Street and Friends softball team played our first game last night! We lost miserably 15-3, but had a GREAT time playing together. Many thanks go out to all who played with us and here's hoping that next week your "coach" is a little more organized (i know...i really didnt have a clue). Oh...and there are rules-- CRAZY rules...i'll be giving everyone copies if you want them. If you're not on the team...you should come support us. We play again next tuesday at 7pm at Wentz park in Loves Park (off of riverside). Go Court Street!

Back from vacation...

Sorry for the lack of posts...I was on vacation from Thursday-Yesterday. I returned home to Kentucky for my College Reunion, some family fun, and to visit my church. It was nice to see everyone and have some time at home with my family and kitties.

Anyway...Last week's Bible Idol winner was indeed Daniel. He was our last regular round winner. Tomorrow night we'll have the semi finals to see who will be competing in the final round to crown our Bible Idol.

I heard that Bill Carmine did an excellent job from the pulpit on Sunday. I'm looking foward to listening to the tape of the service!

Have a great week everyone!