coming of Christ) and what has not yet happened

(the completion of all things in Christ at the end of

time). In the U.S., once Thanksgiving has passed,

it’s time to turn on the Christmas music and

celebrate! But the observance of Advent, the time

of waiting, will include tunes that express longing

and expectation, no “Joy to the World” quite yet.

Advent helps us to empathize with the faithful of

all the ages past as they awaited the Messiah and

gives voice to our current waiting for the return of

Christ and the total manifestation of the victory that

has already been won.

I am not so naïve to think that this article would

(or even should) totally overhaul the way you and

your family spend the season of Advent. My hope,

however, is that the more we are reminded of the

true meaning of this season that we would

acknowledge it, participate in it, and share it with

others. Maybe Advent can get “buy in” if we

realize that waiting doesn’t mean doing nothing.

This activity and participation can be reflected in

our Christian practices.

Christian practices are a broad category which

describes our Christian way of life. They include

things like hospitality, saying yes/no, keeping

sabbath, and testimony. When we infuse the

meaning, hope, and thankfulness of the Advent

season into these very things that we are already

doing; we participate in the season of Advent.

“When we live the practices of Christian faith, we

join together with one another, with Jesus, and with

the communion of saints across time and space”

– Craig Dykstra

Join me this Advent season in being more

mindful of the longing and waiting of our ancestors

in the faith for Christ the King, and the longing and

waiting we now expect and hope for in the

realization of the full measure of the reign

of Christ that is to come.

—British

From the Pastor’s Pen

Special points of interest:

From the Pastor’s Pen (p 1)

Pastor’s Reading Corner (p 2)

Preschool News (p 3)

Farewell Rev. Maybry (p 4)

December Calendar (p 8)

In this issue:

From the Pastor’s Pen 1

Financial Team Update

Beginning the

Conversation

Pastor’s Reading Corner

Memorials & Honorariums

What’s Happening in

Sunday School

Upcoming Events

Preschool News

Church Library

2

3

Farewell Rev. Maybry

Thank You’s

Adult Education class

Giving Options

Advent Events

December Calendar

4

5 &

6

7

8

9401 S. Tryon Street phone…704-588-1211 fax...704-588-1461 Charlotte, North Carolina 28273 www.cscpc.org admin@cscpc.org

December

2017

Volume 17, Issue 12

We’re on the web… www.cscpc.org

or Facebook.com/ Central Steele Creek Presbyterian

Psalm 80:2b-3: Stir up your might, and come to

save us! Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that

we may be saved.

Mark 13:26-27: Then they will see 'the Son of

Man coming in clouds' with great power and glory.

Then he will send out the angels, and gather his

elect from the four winds, from the ends of the

earth to the ends of heaven.

The dictionary defines waiting in this manner,

“stay where one is or delay action until a particular

time or until something else happens”. Waiting is

not common in our culture today, where we have

gone from snail mail, to email, to text messaging as

the norm for written communications. Our verbal

communications have evolved from phone

conversations on a land line to mobile phone

conversations and then moved at break neck speed

to video phone conversations like Skype and

Facetime. These kind of communication

advancements have made waiting much harder to

do for those who “remember when” to those who

have never known anything different! The

expectations for how and when we could or should

respond and in what time frame has changed

dramatically. There is certainly a plethora of

benefits to rapidly accessible communication

methods. I personally have been in a situation

where the document, coupon code, or account

number I need is in one place and I am in another.

How awesome it is to be able to have someone

email or text me what I need right away!

This mindset however, creates a problem for a

season like Advent which begins on Sunday,

December 3rd. Advent, by definition, is

“expression of hope and expectation for both the

first and second comings of Christ”. Advent lies in

the tension of what has happened already (the

2

The Beginning of the Conversation

Central Steele Creek Presbyterian Church

Phone: 704-588-1211

Fax: 704-588-1461

British Hyrams Associate Pastor

Sheila Fetner Director of Music

Tom Schmutzler Associate Director of Music

JoAnna Harrigan Director of Preschool

John Granger Custodian

Allyson Haenlein Administrative Assistant

Lauren Perkin Treasurer

Jeanne Sikes Financial Secretary

Charlotte Burgess Clerk of Session

SUNDAY SCHEDULE

Sunday School 9:15am

Children’s Choir 9:50am

Worship 10:30am

Deadlines January 2018 issue deadline is December 22nd

Articles received late will be included the next month.

Sunday Bulletin: Thursdays, 10:00am Articles received late will be included the next week.

CSCPC Women’S

Groups

Circle #1

10:00am, Room 300, Tuesday, December 5

Circle of Friends

10:00am, Room 300, Saturday, December 2

Women’s Bible Study

5:30pm, Room 300, Tuesday, December 12

THE MONTH OF DECEMBER

Canned soups, vegetables, & meats Please place items in the donation box

located in the Church Narthex.

For the month of November, 193 pounds were

collected for the pantry!

FINANCIAL TEAM UPDATE:

Income (for budgeted items) needed as of 9/30/17: $353,886

Income (for budgeted items) received as of 9/30/17: $323,562

Capital reserve fund balance: $154,907

In honor of Evelyn Ervin; Roy Youngblood

In memory of Nancy Knight, sister of Joy Cheek; Sandy &

Pat Hart

In memory of Kaci Davis, grand daughter of Ellie Bostick;

Sandy & Pat Hart, Burns & Jean Taylor.

In memory of Joyce Elms; Toni & Greta Lambert, Emma B.

Young class, W. Douglas Robinson, Ms. Barry R. Hemby.

MEMORIALS & HONORARIUMS

Pastor’s Reading Corner Recommended Book List

Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching People

Dorothy C. Bass, editor; Jossey-Bass-A Wiley Imprint, San

Francisco, CA. © 1997

(Christian) “Practices address fundamental human needs and

conditions through concrete human acts. Young men traveling

alone do not need to be greeted with a sermon on hospitality;

they need to be beckoned inside, given some supper, and

shown where to sleep. The hosts may or may not be able to

articulate why they do these things, though in fact they are

carrying on long traditions rooted in the Bible. They are simply

practicing hospitality. And the other practices are like this; they

provide concrete help for human flourishing. Each is the

human place where people cooperate with God in doing what

needs to be done.

Practices, therefore, have practical purposes: to heal, to

shape communities, to discern. Oddly, however, they are not

treasured only for their outcomes. Just taking a full and earnest

part in them is somehow good in itself, even when purposes

that are visible to the human eye are not achieved. If a patient

dies unrelieved in spirit as well as body, do healers abandon the

practice the next time? No, they do not, for they understand

what they do as part of the practice of God. They are doing it

not just because it works (though they hope it does), but

because it is good. The observable outcome is, in a sense,

beyond them; a different satisfaction comes just from taking

part.”

taken from Practicing our Faith, Dorothy C. Bass, editor; Chapter 1,

“Times of Yearning, Practices of Faith” by Craig Dykstra & Dorothy C.

Bass, pgs. 6-7

3

JANUARY HEAD ELDER, USHERS &

COMMUNION SERVERS

Elder: Robert Stallings

Ushers: Sharon Wilson, Scott Moss, volunteer needed

Communion Servers: Sandy Hart, Pat Hart, Joyce Smith,

Dave Barbee, John Burgess, Jr., Joe Stuart, Joyce Martin,

Herman Canipe, Jr.

What’s Happening

In Sunday School

Our Sunday school classes gather at 9:15am on Sunday mornings here at Central.

All classes welcome new members.

The December lesson subjects for the adult Sunday school classes are as follows:

The Mighty Acts class will study the book entitled Balanced by Andy Stanley.

The Dean Bassett class will study “The Present Word - The Early Church Proclaims Faith in Christ.”

The Living Word class will study Christmas.

The New Covenant class will continue their study of the life of Simeon Peter.

The Emma B. Young class will finish their study

of the video entitled “Not So Silent Night” and will begin a study of a Bible book to be

determined by the class.

The Youth will present

"I Will Give You My All”

a Christmas play written for the children of CSCPC during the worship service on December 17th.

Please contact Ardy Skidmore by email at: skidmoreaj@gmail.com if you would like your child to be part of this wonderful event. The rehearsals are December 2nd and December 16th at 11 am in the Sanctuary. The Youth CE team would love to have more people join our team. Our next meeting is Saturday, December 16th in the children's room #12. The children are the future of our church, come be a part of this wonderful team to help impact their time at Central.

PRESCHOOL NEWS Merry Christmas wishes from the Preschool! What a busy time of year! We are learning about the birth of Jesus Christ and the special gift He is to every one of us. What a joy it is to hear the children singing the songs of Christmas, talking about His wonderous birth, yes, and talking about the gifts they are anticipating finding under their own Christmas tree, just like the three wise men brought gifts to Baby Jesus. We hope every one of you have a joyous and blessed Christmas. Jesus is the reason for the season… Love, Miss JoAnna You are cordially invited to attend our Christmas Program, Thursday December 14 at 9:00am in the sanctuary…

GOD BLESS US EVERY ONE

Saturday, February 17, 2018

Salute the Saints Luncheon @ CSCPC (formerly VIP Luncheon)

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Cub Scout Yard Sale

Saturday, June 9, 2018 Mighty Acts Golf Tournament

Saturday, June 16, 2018

Vacation Bible School

Upcoming events

Church Library: The Adult Christian Education team will begin cleaning up and organizing the Library into a Church Resource Center. Any family who has

donated an item to the Library in the past and wishes to keep it should make arrangements to retrieve it by the end of the day, January 14, 2018. After that date, all items identified for removal will be offered to the full congregation at a designated site within the church. Any remaining items will be sold at the Spring Attic Sale. In addition, Sunday School classes are encouraged to donate to the Resource Center any previously used material or curriculum so that other classes can share and/or reuse. Following the January 14 deadline, the ACE team will begin the process of reorganization. If you have any questions, please contact Herman Canipe.

4

Severe Weather Closing Announcements:

Please check news stations WSOC-TV, WBTV, News 14 and WCNC-TV for cancellations of any church events. Thank you!

Thank You: We would like to extend a special thanks to our

church family for the prayers, food, visits and

phone calls we received during our hospital stays and

convalescence time at home. All of you are special Angels.

Greta & Toni Lambert

I am appreciative and humbled by the recognition I

received from the congregation on November 12th.

Thank you, Wilma Price.

Thank you to my dear church family for all of

the prayers, cards, phone calls, meals and visits

that I have received during my recovery from

surgery. I am truly blessed to be a part of such a

caring “family”. Love to all of you,

Ellie Bostick

Central Steele Church & Staff, Thank you so very much for donating your gym for our “No Lunch” Lunch event on November 16! The event went great. In the end, we raised almost $33,000 to donate directly to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina!! We could not have done that without your help and your facilities. Thank you. QCD Pineville & GSF Foundation

How do you know the will of God? Join us for an in-depth look at God’s will for us in a

5-week study being offered each Wednesday January

10—February 7, 2018 from 10:30am—12:00 (noon) in

Room 300. We will examine two questions: What does

scripture tell us about the will of God? How do I know

what God wants me to do? Join us in this study as we

explore discerning God’s will for each of us and our con-

gregation as it goes through this time of transition. We

will also look to how God works in people’s lives when

difficulties and impossible questions befall us.

(Watch the church bulletin or contact Kathy Bricker for

more information).

Our Farewell to

Rev. Luke H. Maybry

You will be missed

and we wish you well!

5

6

7

8

19 Lynn McNeill

Jeanne Sikes McGrath 21 Kathy Bricker

28 George Bostick 29 Randi Clapham

31 Charlotte Burgess

2 Kerri Murray

4 Timmy Hood 6 Mark Clapham

Nora Carter 9 Amanda Romance

10 Deborah Russell 11 Diane Faust

12 Wilma Price Eric Smith Will Moss

13 Miles Shepard Andrew Burns

14 Kevin Hyrams Stephanie Vojvoda

15 Arthur Perkin 16 Matthew Clapham

Pete Wortman 17 Geneva Godfrey

Richard Moss 18 Max Tolley

Birthdays-December

DECEMBER 2017 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 AA, 12:00pm

Charity Christmas

Party, 6:00pm

2

Circle of Friends,

10:00am

Children’s Play

Rehearsal, 11:00am

3

Christmas Breakfast,

9:15am

Worship, 10:30am

Guest Outreach Team,

11:45am

4 Preschool

AA, 12:00pm

RITI, 3:00pm

Publicity Team, 5:30pm

Staff Support, 5:30pm

Boy Scout Leaders, 6:00pm

Handbells, 7:30pm

5

Preschool, 9:00am

Circle #1, 10:00am

Men’s Basketball

Ministry, 6:00pm

6 Preschool, 9:00am

AA, 12:00pm

Cub Scouts, 6:30am

Choir Rehearsal, 6:45pm

Boy Scouts, 7:00pm

7 Preschool, 9:00am

Bridgewater BB, 6:00pm

Food Addicts, 7:00pm

8

AA, 12:00pm

Bridgewater BB, 6:00pm

9

10

Sunday School, 9:15am

Chancel Choir Cantata @

Worship, 10:30am

Fellowship Team, 11:45am

Chrysalis Board, 2:30pm

11

Preschool, 9:00am

AA, 12:00pm

RITI, 3:00pm

Handbells, 7:30pm

12

Preschool, 9:00am

Ladies Bible Study,

5:30pm

Men’s Basketball

Ministry, 6:00pm

13 Preschool, 9:00am

AA, 12:00pm

Adult CE Team, 1:30pm

Scouts, 6:30 & 7:00pm

Choir Rehearsal, 6:45pm

Boy Scouts, 7:00pm

14

Preschool Christmas

Program, 9:30am

Bridgewater BB, 6:00pm

Food Addicts,7:00pm

Emmaus Board, 7:00pm

15

AA, 12:00pm

Bridgewater BB, 6:00pm

16

Youth CE Team,

10:30am

Children’s Play

Rehearsal, 11:00am

17

Sunday School, 9:15am

Worship, 10:30am

Deacons, 11:45am

18

Preschool, 9:00am

AA, 12:00pm

RITI, 3:00pm

Cub Scout Leaders,

5:30pm

Handbells, 7:30pm

19

Preschool, 9:00am

Men’s Basketball

Ministry, 6:00pm

20

AA, 12:00pm

Choir Rehearsal, 6:45pm

21

Bridgewater BB, 6:00pm

Food Addicts,7:00pm

22 AA, 12:00pm

Bridgewater BB, 6:00pm

23

24Sunday School, 9:15am

Combined Worship,

10:30am

Candlelight Service, 6:00pm

31Sunday School, 9:15am

Worship, 10:30am

25

CHRISTMAS DAY

AA, 12:00pm

RITI, 3:00pm

CHURCH OFFICE CLOSED

26

CHURCH OFFICE

CLOSED

27 AA, 12:00pm

28

Bridgewater BB, 6:00pm

Food Addicts, 7:00pm

29 AA, 12:00pm

Bridgewater BB, 6:00pm

30

December 3 Barbara Choate

December 10 Donna Young

December 17 Teresa Canipe

December 24 am

December 24 pm

Hope Moss

Childcare available

Megan Tolley

Childcare available

December 31 Joyce Martin

Worship Child Care Volunteers December 2017