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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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!

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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