January/February 2007 – Vol. 3, No. 1

God of grace and God of glory,
On Thy people pour Thy power.
Crown Thine ancient church’s story,
Bring her bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
For the facing of this hour,
For the facing of this hour.
—Harry Emerson Fosdick 

Greetings and Happy New Year from Your Pastor!

My late Grandma Farkas cautioned us every year to never eat turkey on New Year’s Day. It is an old Hungarian superstition that eating turkey on January 1st was bad luck, and would cause bad luck for the entire year. One year, since New Year’s Day is my birthday, I had asked my mom to make roast turkey. That year, numerous people in our family died, and Grandma Farkas wouldn’t let us live down our bad decision.

Well, this New Year’s Day, my family and I had delicious turkey pot pies. Sure enough, right on January 2nd, Ned hurt his back and Ben came down with a bad cough that kept him out of school for several days. I can almost hear Grandma, calling me from beyond, with the Hungarian equivalent of “I told ya so.” Wow—we may need some real courage for the facing of 2007 in our family!

Superstitions aside, we will ALL need this courage. We live in times which urgently need us to live as Christians when others, even those who claim to be Christian, are not. We live in times which need us to exhibit hope, love, understanding, compassion, generosity, and faith. Christ grants us this courage, for the facing of these days. May you be so blessed in this new year.

With Christ’s Brave New Hope,
Pastor Steph

President's Message

As I look around the Church over this past year, I see many positive things. To discuss them all would be beyond my intentions for this article. I would like to mention several that show there is a caring and growing spirit within our Church.

First there is the Youth Choir Tour. The Youth Choir is building great momentum by sharing our musical talents with those in our community and will very soon be on the road to New Jersey. We are blessed to have a great group of young adults. We are even more blessed to have the adult volunteers who lead this program. I want to personally thank all who have provided contributions, who presently volunteer, and to the previous volunteers that instilled the passion of music in our children when they were much younger.

Secondly is the beginning of our Marketing Campaign. This is providing us with a new look and feel to our newsletter, as well as a Church Banner, and new brochures for our visitors. Now that Marketing is a budget item, we can expect to share our church events even more with the local communities.

Thirdly is the amount of time, effort and monetary contribution our fellowship has provided in the upkeep of our Church. Because of your generous support, we have repaired several leaks (not all) in our roof, we have replaced storm windows, and we have begun to perform patch and paint repairs that have needed some attention. We have a ways to go to complete all the repairs, but I am hopeful some of these will be accomplished in the very near future.

In closing, I encourage each of you this year to become involved with something “new to you” at our Church. Have you ever wanted to be the sound-guy, a greeter, a scripture reader, a bell ringer or sing in the choir? Or are you thinking about joining one of our many groups? I never thought about being President of a church either, but I have learned by doing so that I have formed a closer fellowship with many of you and it has caused me to think more introspectively of my relationship to Christ.

Daniel Livingstone

Free Lunch—It’s for the Birds! And Dogs, and Cats…

Everyone is cordially invited to a Free Luncheon, right after church on January 28th. This Luncheon is sponsored by our Middle School Sunday School Class, and is being given to benefit the Humane Society. You are asked to bring along a donation to the Humane Society—money is fine, but you can also donate pet toys, food, cages, etc. All gifts should be new or like new, and will be donated to the local Humane Society. Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you for lunch!

Any questions, please see Kim Livingstone or any member of the Middle School Sunday School Class.

Notes From the Annual Meeting

At the 2007 Annual Meeting there were several items discussed. There was a discussion about creating a fact finding/exploratory committee to look into our options about not only the expensive to maintain physical building we having been using for nearly 100 years but also to look into the possibility of building a new building a new one sometime in the future. The vote was in favor of creating such a committee. Members who want to serve on the committee will be able to sign a sheet on Pastor Stephanie’s office door.

There was discussion about the timing of the Annual Meeting and the ability of the Church officers and staff to get the written report into members hands at least one week before the meeting. This year, the report was not available until the meeting itself. A change to the By Laws was made so that this will not occur again in the future.

The recommendation about the splitting of the Sexton position into two positions (Sexton & Housekeeper) was discussed and accepted as part of the Budget for this year.

There was discussion over how much money should be given to ABCOM in the Mission Budget. The Mission Budget was accepted as written.

Two committees have too many members so the membership waived the requirement in the By Laws for this year only for those committees.

Happy Anniversary Bill & Marilyn

After the Worship Service on January 7th, we helped Bill and Marilyn Stockson celebrate their 60th Wedding Anniversary. Everyone enjoyed the cake and the memories. Their daughter and one granddaughter planned the surprise party and traveled to Bangor for the event.

New Member Class

Starting the first week in February, Pastor Stephanie will be holding a Baptism and new member class at 9 am on Sundays. Anyone interested in joining the church should contact Pastor Stephanie.

Christian Ed Pool Party

On March 3rd, the Board of Christian Education will once again sponsor the Annual Pool and Pizza party for families of all ages. It will be held at the Laura Hoit Pool in Hampden and the pizza and games will be at the Bangor PAL building on Essex St. Watch the Church Bulletins for more details.

Sermon Topics Purchased At The Neighbors Auction

The Women’s Sermon, Purchased by Diana Keyser, Sue Staples, Dian Stratton, and Pam Levesque, will be on February 18th. Topic to be determined—something about “Men.”

Sam Ogilvie’s Sermon will be on February 25th. Topic: “Bungee-Jumping for Jesus”

FBC Mystery Members

Last month’s mystery member was once again unidentified by anyone. Despite her chagrin over the way I cropped the photo, Mary Hamilton was a great sport in letting me use the photo of her as a child. Since no one correctly guessed Mary, I saved 25 cents and none of you get the bragging rights as to being the most observant person at FBC.

This time, since it is a two month issue, you get two chances to get my 25 cents and at least half, if not all of the bragging rights. Leave your guess in the office with the date of your guess or just email me at chenauct@aol.com Also, I could use some feedback from people. Do you like this feature of the newsletter or do you have other suggestions on how we can better use the space?

Bits and Pieces

The Music Committee has interviewed 2 candidates for the Music Director position and is conducting contract talks with one of the candidates.

Christian Ed has selected a person to run the Nursery during Worship Service and is in contract talks with that person.

Adult Bible Study continues on Tuesdays at 10 and 6. The Book of Romans is the topic. Everyone is invited.

The Growth Committee is working on new pew cards using the same theme as the new brochures.

Adult Sunday School

You know that David had a run in with a giant named Goliath, but after that did you know that he spent several years dealing with run ins with King Saul? The adult Sunday school class spent the fall of 2006 reading 1 Samuel and learning about David’s rise from poor shepherd boy to King of Israel (and pretty much everything in between!). It was an incredible journey that most of us knew little (if anything) about! We are now ready to take on the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, Chapter 5). That is our next unit of study.

The adult Sunday school is open to anyone 18 years or older who wants to spend 45 minutes or so before church service begins discussing a few verses of Biblical text. Don’t feel insecure about joining us! We are all learning at the same level, and we have lively discussions each and every week! We meet at 9:00 A.M. in the choir robing room (where the elevator is) just off Fellowship Hall. Why not join us this week?!

Errors? Omissions? Let us know!!

Newsletter Contacts: Any submissions for the newsletter may be delivered to the church office or any member of the Publicity Committee: John Cheney, Pam Levesque or Ned Salinas or emailed to chenauct@aol.com. The deadline for the March Messenger is Sun., Feb. 25th