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ST. STEPHEN’S CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP CHURCH
1100 Hunters Chase Lane
Lebanon PA 17046
717-273-3912 Email: ststephcfc@comcast.net
Website: www.saintstephenscfc.org
The list is located in the back hallway. Please sign up now for your date for alter flowers or bulletins. It is
always nice to see fresh flowers on our altar on a Sunday morning.
Alter Flowers are $35.95 a week (Please note the change in price).
Bulletins are $12.00 a week
If interested, call Jessie in the office at 717-273-3912
Crazy for Daisies is our supplier
Alter Flowers and Bulletins
November 2015
Special Thanks
There are some special
thanks I need to give to
those who have offered their
help in so many ways.
Please allow me to thank
all of you for making my
transition here at St.
Stephen’s so enjoyable. You
have welcomed me into you
church family. Blessings to
all of you this Holiday
Season!
Jessie Weidman,
Church Secretary
2
November 2015
Our Worship Team List
Lectors:
Ushers: Greeters:
Counting Teams:
November 1
Paul & Joy Weidman
November 8
Paul & Matt Weidman
November 15
Tyler and Erin Frantz
November 22
Richard & Janice Rights
November 29
Brian & Kim Weidman
November 1
Kaitlyn Day
November 8
John & Pat Stormfeltz
November 15
Tyler and Frantz
November 22
Richard & Janice Rights
November 29
John & Pat Stormfeltz
November 1
Joy Weidman
November 8
Paul Weidman
November 15
Tyler Frantz
November 22
Brian Weidman
November 29
Kim Weidman
November 1 - Team #5 Cindy Klingler
November 8 - Team #6 Johan Berger
November 15 - Team #1 June Barry
November 22 - Team #2 Ken Shank
November 29 - Team #3 Brian Weidman
3
From your president’s computer
Every November, I like to participate in the "30-Day Give Thanks Challenge." Each day,
I post on Facebook or Instagram something for which I am thankful. I enjoy participating in this activity because forces me to reflect on life's various blessings. I also enjoy reading other people's posts and seeing the photos that accompany them.
I know this year I have many reasons to be thankful. I am thankful to have a healthy baby boy and loving husband who bring a smile to my face each day. I am thankful to have a supportive family who has been there for me since I was just a little girl. I am also thankful to be part of such a thoughtful and caring church congregation. Tyler and I consider ourselves blessed to have found a church to attend where we consider the people our family and the Lord our leading light and Father.
I hope everyone takes time to give thanks during this month of November, as well as every day of the year. Maybe you’ll even create your own "30-Day Give Thanks Challenge." Happy Thanksgiving!”
Note: The Church Council is seeking a volunteer for membership. The 3 year term starts in January, 2016. Ifinterested, please contact me or one of the other members of the Council.
4
From your Pastor Take The Time...And Count Your Blessings!
As we enter a great month for worship, decorating, baking, feasts, fun and celebrations with friends and family, I
believe for most of us, the centerpiece of November is, of course, Thanksgiving.
In reading a recent article I was reminded of the words of the song “Count Your Blessings, Name Them One by One.” I
haven’t sung that song lately, but I was reminded that the words are tremendous:
Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, ev’ry doubt will fly,
And you will be singing as the days go by.
What a wonderful reminder to take the time to think about what God is doing for us. Too often we focus just on the
horrid things - the evil, the hurricanes, the floods and devastation and famine, and all sorts of heartbreaking tragedies.
So may I suggest, take time every day to verbalize or write down all the things you are thankful for. You may want to
use this outline. Doing so will revitalize your soul. Begin With Thanksgiving!
Psalm 100:4 tells us,
“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.”
Thank Him for His patience and forgiveness.
Thank Him for the privilege of coming into His presence.
Thank Him for what He has done in and through your life in the last year.
List What He Has Done
Take the time to list what God has done for you. Be specific. Think through every area of your life.
Be Still Before the Lord. (Psalm 46:10)
Consider who God is. (Psalm 103)
Praise Him for His attributes. (Psalm 145)
Rejoice in your fellowship with Him and that He delights in you. (Proverbs 15:8)
Read passages of scripture and pray them back to God. (Psalms 146-150)
Sing to the Lord.
Lord I thank You for the beauty of the seasons. I thank You for health and strength. I thank You for people to love and
people who love me. I love You God and thank for loving me first. Amen.
Have A Blessed Thanksgiving!
Pastor Ron
5
Music News and Views
November 2015, by Steve Suk
.
As Thanksgiving rapidly approaches and the “busyness” of the holiday season is really beginning in earnest, I
thought it would be good to reflect on God’s goodness by looking at the history of a Thanksgiving hymn that
we all know and sing, at least once every year. “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come”.
Henry Alford (7 October 1810 – 12 January 1871) was born in London and came from a line of five successive
generations of Anglican priests. His mother died when he was very young and so he was brought up by his
widowed father. He was a very bright and, at times, precocious child. He was immersed in the classics from
an early age and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was made a fellow in 1834. After
ordination he held a number of positions in the Church of England, rising to Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, a
post he held from 1857 until his death in 1871. He even wrote an inscription for his own grave, Diversorium
Viatoris Hierosolymam Profisiscentis - “the inn of a traveler on his way to Jerusalem”.
Alford was a talented artist, musician and writer. He translated the Odyssey, edited an edition of the Greek
New Testament, the works of John Donne, and published a number of his poems, along with a manual of
idiom A Plea for the Queen’s English. He wrote several hymns, among them; Come, Ye Thankful People,
Come, Forward Be Our Watchword and Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand. But of the several hymns he
wrote only the Thanksgiving hymn is sung today.
Come, Ye Thankful People, Come, echoes two of Christ's parables; Matthew 13:24-30 (the wheat and the tares)
and Mark 4:26-29 (the story of the seed springing up without the sower knowing of it). This latter text includes
the words: "All by itself the earth produces corn. First the stalk, then the ear, then the full grain and as soon as
the grain is ripe, he puts a sickle to it, because the harvest has come."
Through the years the hymn has been greatly altered, and Alford himself was critical of some of the early
revisions.
The first verse acknowledges our dependence on ‘God our maker’ and invites the worshiper to give thanks for
harvest home. The second celebrates our partnership with God in creation - we sow and reap but it is God
who gives the growth. The verse ends with a prayer that we too might grow and bear fruit as ‘wholesome
grain’. The last two verses look to the spiritual harvest of the last judgment, when ‘all be safely gathered in’
into God’s garner to abide.’
Come, Ye Thankful People, Come, is almost exclusively sung to the tune St George's Windsor. It was written
by Sir George Elvey (1816-93) for Thorne's A Selection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (1858) where it was set to the
hymn "Hark, the song of Jubilee". Elvey was organist of St George's Chapel, Windsor from 1835 to 1882. The
compilers of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861) recognized it as the most suitable tune for Come, Ye Thankful
People, Come.
Sources: Christianity.com, ChristianityToday.com and Parish of Oystermouthparish.com
6
Family Advent Night Celebration will be December 6th at
6:15pm. We will have a meal, a craft to fill and then decorate the
Christmas Trees in the Church Sanctuary. Also, enjoy the carol
sing-along. A sign-up sheet will be located in the church narthex.
Save The Date!
The annual St. Stephen’s Christmas Cantata, A Noel
Celebration, Sounds & Stories of Christmas by Lloyd Larsen
will be held during our morning service at 10:30am on
December 13, 2015.
We plan to have a small Christmas tree again in the church
narthex to collect mittens, gloves, hats and scarves for the
local children.
.
November Birthdays
11/4 Austin Weidman
11/6 Amy Weidman
11/7 Kenneth Bender
11/10 Catherine Koons
Heather Shindel
11/11 John Blouch
11/12 William Koons
Cole Miller
11/15 Darrell Reis
11/20 Alisha Gerhart
11/22 Jennie Wise
11/24 Jessica Meyer
Jacob Earhart
November Anniversaries
11/3 Mr. & Mrs.
Jonathan Hoke
11/14 Mr. & Mrs. Ken Shank
11/19 Mr. & Mrs.
Clarence Dohner
11/22 Mr. & Mrs. Lee Boyer
Happy
Thanksgiving!
7
Don’t Forget!
Our Facebook:
Haven’t liked us on
Facebook yet?
It’s not to late, check us
out at…
St. Stephen’s Christian
Fellowship Church
Our Website:
Check us out online for
updates on news around the
church and church
information.
Check us out at:
www.saintstephenscfc.org
Also if you have any
information for the website
see that our secretary,
Jessica Weidman receives it
as early as possible
Celebrate the Season
Volunteers are needed to help decorate the
church for the Christmas Season.
The decorating party will happen
Saturday, November 28th at 9am.
If you can spend a little time helping
decorate the church for The Advent
and Christmas season, it would be
greatly appreciated.
St. Stephen’s Christian
Fellowship Church 1100 Hunters Chase Lane
Lebanon, PA 17046
Don’t forget to join us on Sundays for our worship service at 10:30am
See you in the pew!
St. Stephen’s Christian Fellowship Church
November 2015 Steeple
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