LaDonna Mendleski

Chief Shepherd Jesus Christ

Pastors David Benedict

Forrest Cotter Rick Schmeski

Ministry Managers

Preacher Gene McCoy

Youth Ministers Eric Dwyer

Vanessa Peglar

Extended Ministries Steve & Rhonda Hayward

Papua New Guinea

Brad & Linda Berg, Mexico

Saleem & Naylah Massey Pakistan

Jay & Romola Henry, India

Ernest & Numreta McFarland, India

Don Truitt Bruce Wolf

A monthly publication of Christian Church of Mountain Home in the interest of promoting the Gospel of Jesus Christ and goodwill among His people, our friends.

In this issue . . . P. 2 ♦ Preacher’s Pen ♦ Dollar Day ♦ Love Life

events P. 3 ♦ Counterpoint ♦ Leadership

Seminar P. 4 ♦ Rally at the

Rock ♦ Resurrection

Day schedule

Volume 23 April 2013

The four preachers and their pianist will return to present their blend of southern gospel music in our Worship Center on Friday evening, April 5, beginning at 7:00 p.m. On previous visits to our area the quartet has been featured at the Baxter County Fair and presented a concert at the North Central Correctional Unit in Calico Rock. Their last concert here was on the day we hosted the community for a celebration when we moved into our new building. The same five individuals have been harmonizing and preaching as a group since 1983, when all four were preaching in the same camp and men’s fellowship area of southern Missouri. Each of the singers is an ordained preacher of the gospel who has devoted his life to the located ministry in Christian Church congregations. They have served together in

church camp severa l summers and traveled the Midwest to lead revivals, present concerts and to perform at state and national conventions. In 2010 the quartet sang in Cody, WY. T h e F l o r i d a B i b l e Conference featured the quartet in 2011, as each preached twice and sang at every session. In 2008 the quartet had the privilege to

preach and sing for an entire week in Beijing, China. From Mtn. Home the group will travel to Nixa, MO and then to Forsyth, MO, where they have been invited to lead a revival meeting. An offering will be received at the concert. Everyone is welcome, so please help us promote and publicize the event.

Don Truitt Joey Peglar Ted Bankes

David Benedict Jason Schmeski Jim Darr

We celebrate the continuing relationship with our Youth Minister, Eric Dwyer. He became a member of our staff two months after completing his college studies. Within a year he and Sarah were mar r ied and they established their home here.

Through his exposure in the schools and his involvement in the community youth events and youth ministry organization, Eric has achieved a level of recognition and respect among the educators and churches

in Mtn. Home. These associations have afforded our congregation a favorable reputation in the community. Like previous youth ministers here, Eric has become a favorite in the pulpit. He is respected by the congregation for his authenticity and his ability to communicate effectively. The elders and preacher are especially pleased with his passion for teaching our teens the biblical truths and principles upon which they may build lives that are not only personally fulfilling, but that glorify God. We congratulate Eric upon this anniversary and commend the congregation for its support of our youth ministry.

Five Year Anniversary

April 2013 CONTACT Page 2

For other articles and information about our congregation, go online

Preacher’s Pen by Eric Dwyer I’m going to tell you something which may

shock you, frighten you, or make you feel really old. Today’s teenagers do not know what life is like without the Internet. You read that correctly. The Internet was commercialized in 1995. We are in 2013. There are students walking around college campuses who learned to walk by steadying themselves on tables which had Internet connected computers on them. For their ENTIRE lives, all the information on “the net” has been a click away.

Now, before you think I’m trying to make myself sound like an old dog, I should clarify that I was not yet a teenager in 1995. But I was close. I have had my feet in both worlds. Growing up, we had a set of blue encyclopedias. They took up a whole shelf and they were HEAVY. I can now look up all that information using a device in my pocket that weighs 4 oz. I can recall having to endure licking thousands of stamps and envelopes to send letters. Now I have to deal with forgetting to attach a file to an e-mail. I recall looking up numbers in a thick yellow book. Now I only have three phone numbers saved in my head because I have a phone in my pocket with all the info at the push of, well, a screen! That’s right. We’ve gone from cords, to wireless, to BUTTON-less in decades!

If you feel like I just took you on the crazy train through technology, think about how all of this is affecting our kids. Our children are growing up in an age in which information is mobile and it is everywhere. I’m not only talking about facts one can look up in a search engine; I mean information about their lives. Thanks to social media and phones with camera and video capabilities, every moment of their existence can be shared with everyone in the world! I am pretty sure when I said my first word (I like to think it was “Pizza”), my family and close friends were the only people who found out about it. If you go to Youtube.com right now and type in “baby’s first words,” you’ll search through thousands of videos of babies fumbling through their first attempt at language communication. Some of these videos have gone “viral” and have hundreds of thousands of views!

In their book, “A Parent’s Guide to Understanding Social Media” Mark Oestreicher and Adam McLane write about children growing up in this new age saying, “Their births, first steps, potty training, kindergarten nerves, and elementary school

days have all been captured and shared in ways our parents never could have imagined.” They go on to say, “In some ways, we have no idea what it means to be a child today.” In addition to that, unfortunately, not all kids respect or trust their elders right off the bat just because of their age and experience. So what do we do? How can we bring up Godly children amidst all this traffic on the information highway? We can start by recognizing the differences between generations without insulting or belittling one another.

I saw a woman at a Verizon store last week who brought in her entire laptop with her iPhone and asked the workers behind the counter to show her how to back up her phone to her computer. Under her arm, she was carrying a book called, “An Idiot’s Guide to the iPhone.” The book had many Post-It notes being used as bookmarks sticking out of it. If I could give out a “Person of the Week” award, she would get it in a landslide. Here was a woman who was not afraid to ask a question and learn about a new generation. As she left, she said to me, “That’s what happens when you give an 83-year-old an iPhone.”

Some young people may prefer to text instead of actually making a phone call. Instead of lecturing them by saying something like,

“When I was younger, we actually TALKED to one another,” we should understand this is the only world these kids know and try to meet them where they are. Try texting them back! If you don’t know how to text, ask someone. Bring me your phone and I’ll give you a tutorial. And as you fumble through your first attempt at textual communication, if you make a

typo or if autocorrect gets the better of you, don’t get frustrated, but be willing to laugh and learn. I promise we won’t put it on Youtube!

Relationships are a two way street and by showing younger people that you are willing to at least TRY their world, you build and strengthen your influence with them. This is not a one-time deal. You can’t say, “There, I tried it, now let’s do it my way.” This process of relationship building to influence a young person may take years. It also takes that long (if not longer) to establish credibility as a church interested in our kids’ future AND their present! After you have showed your curiosity, established “street cred” in their world, and understand some of the issues they may be facing, then you can offer great counsel which can save them a World Wide Web of trouble.

Every one dollar bill in the offering will be given to an

individual in our congregation to present to the needy recipient s/he nominated and that was

selected by the Benevolence Ministry Team.

A Musical Showcase sponsored by

Baxter Co. Right to Life Sunday, April 7

Emmanuel Church 2:30-4:30 p.m.

•silent auction •offering received •refreshments served

Dessert Extravaganza fundraiser sponsored by

Pregnancy Resource Center of Mountain Home Monday, May 6 6:30-8:30 p.m.

First Baptist Church

Speaker: Carol Everette, author, “Blood Money”

Call 424-4673 to reserve seat

or to volunteer as a table host.

April 2013 CONTACT Page 3

APRIL MEETINGS 2 Willing Workers 2 Benevolence Ministry Team 3 Finance Ministry Team 7 Education Ministry Team 8 Elders 18 Property Ministry Team 18 Outreach Ministry Team

Our Youth Minister makes a good point in his article (p. 2) that merits consideration. There is room for mutual respect by the younger set, as well, which our Youth Minister also emphasizes in his communication with them. Young people, please honor the older adults. They do not appreciate your condescending or patronizing attitude toward them when they express their fears, concerns and lack of enthusiasm for things technological and modern. These are people who grew up wearing hand-me-down clothes and who played outside with used and worn out toys—toys that did not require batteries or circuit boards. They actually had moving parts; if you manually moved the parts, that is. Lest I begin to sound like a grumpy old man by going on and on with comparisons between the “good ol’ days,” when life was hard and money was short, to modern times, in which people don’t really know what work is and don’t appreciate the value of a dollar, I will let you in on a revelation that may surprise you. None of the old timers wants to go back to the “good ol’ days,” except for the better music, wholesome entertainment, and pervasive morality. You see, the “good ol’

days” had their problems, too. But we weren’t as sophisticated or technological in our sinfulness back then. You may also be surprised to learn what motivates many older people to criticize and complain about young people and new things. What is really behind a lot of it is fear, intimidation and sympathy. Before you write off that old person as a grouchy killjoy and disregard his criticism, please bite your tongue and check your attitude with the following realization. Older people who do not understand the value of electronics by virtue of their lack of experience with them may be expressing fear more than criticism. It is natural and normal to fear what we do not understand. So please be patient and gracious. That same lack of understanding causes us to fear what it is doing to those we love and to our society. The critical older person may simply be afraid for you. And that is an expression of love. Many times we are critical of that which intimidates us. The world is moving so quickly that many of us feel like it is passing us by. We don’t like to be considered irrelevant so we bad mouth that which befuddles us. There isn’t enough time or energy left for us to invest in learning new skills, so we tend to discredit the value of whatever intimidates us. We may even demonize it, thinking that will somehow prolong our relevance. Consider, too, however, that older people may be expressing sympathy that you have grown up so quickly and missed out on the simple joys they treasure from their childhood. They also sympathize for you in that you are missing out on the valuable life lessons that hardships teach. When the truth is known, that which lies below the surface of the grousing about kids and their electronic toys and relatively soft and carefree lifestyle is their genuine concern for the well-being of the next generation and the future of society. They tend to forget how the generation before them had similar complaints and concerns relating to them. And they sometimes fail to remember how much they matured within a few short years after leaving home — especially those who spent some time traveling with Uncle Sam! One more consideration should stop you short when you are tempted to disregard and disrespect an older person who is possibly too critical. Show him the honor you will want when you express similar criticism of the generation that follows yours. For in fifty years you will be saying the same things!

Counterpoint by Gene McCoy

Main Sessions: 1.Staying Encouraged and Sticking With It 2.Keeping the Spirit in Charge at Church

3.If You Forget Everything Else, Remember These Things

Workshops: -Doing Ministry through Big Events -Worship Music: What Works, What Really Matters -Getting the church involved in short term mission projects -What to look for when you're looking for someone -Being an Effective Deacon -Being an Effective Elder

Cost: The church is paying the registration for all who will attend. This includes the breakfast and the lunch! Transportation in the church van will also be provided to the first twelve people who commit to attend.

It is spring cleaning time. Bring shovels, rakes, brooms and interior cleaning supplies. The party begins at 9:00 a.m.

Our Kids’ Praise group will repeat their sidewalk testimony that was so well received last year. Adults are invited to participate, too! Meet at the church building at 10:30 on Saturday, March 29. The placard preaching will begin at 11:00 a.m. and conclude at noon.

Non-Profit Org. POSTAGE

PAID Permit # 35

Mtn. Home, AR 72653

Sent With a Prayer to

1365 Eastside Centre Court Mtn. Home, AR 72653 870-425-8323

RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

The LORD’S COMMISSION is OUR MISSION Matthew 28:19-20

April 2013 CONTACT Page 4

Sunday Morning 9:30 Worship

11:00 Bible Classes

Wednesday Evening 5:30 Supper

6:30 Bible Classes

ACTIVITIES Frisbee golf & facility tours

3 on 3 basketball Free throw competition 3-point competition

MUSIC Youth: Allen Lorton Band

Adults: Age to Age

CHILDREN’S PROGRAM music & crafts

for elementary kids Nursery care provided

FOOD pulled pork, salad bar

desserts

an hour of meditation and celebration of Jesus’ atoning work at Calvary

a musical and devotional celebration of Jesus’ resurrection

our weekly family gathering for

communion, praise, prayer and preaching

This annual church camp event has been completely revamped to appeal to all ages.

Everyone may participate in the activities as they choose. All will eat dinner together in the dining hall. The youth will have their age-appropriate program in the tabernacle and the adults will have their age-appropriate program in the cafegymatorium, as Eric likes to call it. The children will also have their own music and crafts.

Our emphasis upon being good soil and nurturing a good soil environment at CCMH continues. In this regard we appeal to all in the congregation to include those very words in all of your prayers. This is one means by which we hope to implant this focus in our minds.

Please ask God to cultivate good soil within you and to cultivate through you an environment of good soil at CCMH. We trust God to bring about a good harvest!