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Parish Life at St. John's
Annual Parish BBQ & Vision Meeting:
 Please
mark your calendars for Sunday June 1st! Following the
10:30 service we will be gathering together as a parish to take a look
back at our Vision Process one year later! Also, the day of our
final Parish Potluck, we will be firing up our new grill for a festive
BBQ!
If you would like to bring a dish to pass... Last names
starting with A-L please bring a hot side or salad. Last names
starting with M-Z consider bringing one of your favorite desserts!
Plan on coming for the food, staying for the fellowship,
and being renewed and reenergized for the continuation of our Vision
implementations over the coming year. As always, the food will be
all of our favorites, there will be activities for the kids, and the
company isn't too bad either. Mark the date - the party's not the
same without YOU!
Parish Life
Parish Life seeks to best respond to
the need for new approaches for fellowship as well as many facets of our
collective life and ministry, such as:
• Fellowship
• Family Ministry
• Flower Cheer Ministry
• Good Samaritans
• Bereavement Dinners
• Outreach
• Building & Grounds
• Greeters
• Pastoral Care
• In-reach
Still striving to find a better
approach for all of these facets of our ministry to “Check-in”, share
what is happening and plan together how things relate to each other and
the calendar. While efforts to improve our communications have
been successful, especially in terms of calendar, The Messenger,
website, and updated Parish Directory, a better practice of meeting
in-person as a group is still needed. The role of a Parish Life group
is fundamentally communication and resource sharing, not
oversight and ‘committee work’. As we get increasingly busier with
tighter resources, we wish to make sure that we are doing all that we
can to be effective stewards of what God has blessed us with in terms of
time, talent, and treasure. YOU can help – when asked if you
could assist with a project or event, please try
it, chances are you’ll like it. More importantly, if we want more
opportunities, events, and programs, we need to not only participate,
we all need to help; otherwise we’ll be right back in the same
rut, we all have worked hard to get out of.
Fellowship
While
Sunday mornings continue to be a primary time for fellowship with other
parishioners, this summer saw several updates to familiar events. For
the second summer, St. John’s hosted “Dinner with Francis”, our weekly
informal BBQ that happened each Sunday of the Annual Lawn Chair Film
Festival before each screening. St. John’s also took over seventy
people on a ‘road trip’ to Cedar Point for day of fun and fellowship.
Both offerings were enjoyed by not only long-time parishioners, but our
young families and guests. This past summer also saw our first extended
parish-life trip, in which over twenty people traveled to the Pacific
Northwest and Alaska for a fellowship trip that was escorted by our
Rector and even provided a fun and different kind of fund-raiser for our
choral scholar program. This year, as part of our on-going Vision
Process, we have enjoyed a monthly pot-luck luncheon before our
meetings. These meals, along with our devotionals have provided a great
basis for our discernment and creative conversation to develop. In
addition to these new endeavors, St. John’s has enjoyed no less than
thirty fellowship events in the year, including our special music
concerts and receptions, pot lucks, senior luncheon, and cookouts; as
well as traditional favorites! All of this would not have been possible
without the enormous work put into fellowship by Joyce McManus and a
dedicated group of volunteers! As Fellowship continues to evolve into
Parish Life itself, please think of ways that you can not only be
involved, but could invite someone else to participate!
Pastoral Care
While a fundamental part of Pastoral Care is the visits made by our
priests to those who are ill, infirmed, or in crisis, Pastoral Care has
evolved to include a great deal more in terms of different expressions
of care and with more people who work together. Pastoral Care may be
experienced by our prayer list, a meal delivered, some assistance,
flowers given, or Holy Communion brought in addition to a visit. Today,
St. John's offers Pastoral Care through both lay and ordained
ministry; and we are always looking at ways to be more effective - as
the care we extend to others is how they can experience the grace and
love of God.
Flower Cheer Ministry
Members of the Flower Cheer Ministry have distributed altar flowers
throughout the year to members who are il1 or otherwise in need of
cheering up. Participants work for one month at a time, gathering the
flowers on each Tuesday and then taking them to the recipients. We would
be happy to include more people in this heart-warming and uplifting
ministry.
Good Samaritans
Our Good Samaritans were signed up for periods of two weeks duration.
During this time, they were on call and available to any of our church
members who needed help in some way. Examples of the help would be a
ride to a doctor’s appointment, grocery shopping, supplying a meal, or
staying with a person who might need someone available during a medical
procedure. We are always in need of more volunteers to be Good
Samaritans.
Lay Eucharistic Visitors
Similar to our Lay Eucharistic Ministers, Lay Eucharistic Visitors are
assistants who are licensed by the diocese to bring Communion from our
Sunday Holy Eucharist to those who could not attend our service because
of being ill or infirmed. This role is also an important part of our
Worship Team and by its nature requires specialized training and
support. Currently St. John's has two active Lay Eucharistic Visitors
with several more who remain licensed. If you are interested in learning
more about how to serve in this way, please contact our Rector, The Rev.
Darren Elin by emailing him at darrenelin@,eastmich.org or call
the parish office 793-9575.
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