Wow! What an amazing event we had last night at Northminster. Thank you to all the families who were able to attend our annual Northminster Preschool Celebration of Art. I was pleased to see so many families, siblings and grandparents at the event. A special thank you goes out to Pastor Markus Watson, Tom Wickstrom, John Crow and Vance Belliston from the Church, for taking time out of their evening to help make our night a huge success. We could not have done it without them!

It was a wonderful thing to hear your children sing 5 Little Speckled frogs a cappella! They practiced their little hearts out for the past 3 weeks. You may listen to their rendition via the pod cast feed on the right or via the link to the audio at the bottom of this post.

I hope you all had the opportunity to visit all the classrooms. Mrs. Keri’s class went back to nature in her room. Weren’t those ducks in the pond just the cutest things?

Mrs. Marcella’s class sure reflected the great outdoors with their plants, kites and huge sunflowers. They were taller than the children!

Mrs. Vela and Mrs. Frank’s classes read a lot of books and the displays of your children’s art made it easy to see how creative they are!

Mrs. Allen’s class studied some famous artists and learned about the several types of mediums used in art. It was amazing to hear your children tell us about Matisse, Monet, Van Gogh, Pollock, Johns, and they knew the difference!

Mrs. Alcala’s class used plain old cardboard boxes to create magnificent Zoo animals. Weren’t their animal creations marvelous?

Mrs. Durst and Mrs. Martin’s class took us on the wings of butterflies back to the age of dinosaurs. I hope you were able to read the children’s description of what type of dinosaur they wanted to be and why!

It is easy to see from last night’s event why the staff at Northminster Preschool has been here a combined 162 years.

We LOVE what we do!

 

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When these little folks put their minds to it, just look out! The word went out that the Preschool would be collecting peanut butter (… and jelly) as a mission project for CCSA. With “Peanut Butter Enthusiasm” those little people jumped into the mission and the jars came rolling in. We ended the month with over 120 jars of peanut butter! ( … and some jelly.)

Curriculums this month are varied. Some classes are investigating the community around us, with trips to the grocery store, fire house, post office and pet store. These aren’t isolated projects. They are integrated with math skills, reading, socialization and motor skills. It takes a talented staff to put this all together.

With funds raised by the Preschool parents, the Pacific Animal Productions will present two programs with hands-on touching in the animal kingdom.

Pastor Markus will accompany the children on his guitar at the Art Celebration on Monday, May 19, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. This is a popular event with both children and parents, so the sanctuary and classrooms will be full with participants. All are welcome.

Come by and visit and see what we are up to at the preschool!

Sermon by Markus Watson on May 18, 2008

Theme - As Christians, we often tend to be fairly clear on what we’re supposed to do or how we’re supposed to act. But we’re not always as clear on who we are. 1 Peter 2:9 tells us who we are; we are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.”

 

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On Thursday evening, May 14, the Session of Northminster Presbyterian Church gathered to discuss where God may be calling us in terms of our Sunday morning worship. We spent two and a half hours discussing, deliberating, and even learning together.

There’s no question that the style of worship at Northminster has been an ongoing issue. And it has, in my view—as well as in the opinion of many of you—had some negative effects on this congregation. The most unfortunate effect of having two differntly styled services has been the “us” and “them” attitude that we seem to have developed toward one another. Those who prefer contemporary worship think of those in the second service as the “those heritage people,” and those who prefer traditional worship think of those in the first service as “those contemporary people.”

It’s my belief that in order for us to truly be the people that God is calling us to be, we have to eliminate all labels of “us” and “them,” and “heritage” and “contemporary.” I believe that we need to come together for, not only our common good as the body of Christ, but also for the good of those in our surrounding community. We can’t be a blessing to those outside the church if we’re not united inside the church. We can’t be outwardly focused if we’re not inwardly strong.

We need to be inwardly strong.

For this reason, Session made two decisions on Thursday night. The first decision was to go back to having one service at 9:30 a.m. for the summer, beginning June 1, 2008. We need to be unified as a church, and bringing us together to worship is a step toward bringing about greater unity. However, no decision was made as to the style of worship that this service should be. In fact, I believe that we all generally agreed that we need to eliminate the labels of “heritage” and “contemporary.” We simply need to worship together.

The second decision was to create a “Worship Imagination Team” consisting of people who have in the past attended the Heritage service and people who have attended the Contemporary service. This team will be chaired by the pastor. The purpose of this team is simply to be creative with forms of worship, orders of worship, styles of worship, etc., etc. They are to experiment with aspects of worship that may be considered more traditional and aspects of worship that may be considered more contemporary. Over time, we may, as a body, find a style of worship and an order of worship that authentically fits who we are. Or we may find that we actually enjoy being creative with different forms and orders of worship.

I don’t know where this will lead. No one does. The important thing here is to continue to be open to the leading of God’s Spirit.

I want to close this article with two quotes from our Presbyterian Book of Order (believe it or not!):

The church is…free to be innovative in seeking appropriate language for worship. While respecting time-honored forms and set orders, the church may reshape them to respond freely to the leading of God’s Spirit in every age. (W.1.2005)

The Church has always experienced a tension between form and freedom in worship. In the history of the Church, some have offered established forms for ordering worship in accordance with God’s Word. Others, in the effort to be faithful to the Word, have resisted imposing any fixed forms upon the worshiping community. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) acknowledges that all forms of worship are provisional and subject to reformation. In ordering the worship the church is to seek openness to the creativity of the Holy Spirit, who guides the church toward worship which is orderly yet spontaneous, consistent with God’s Word and open to the newness of God’s future. (W-3.1002)

May God help us to focus on him in this time of transition. And may we, as a church, be “consistent with God’s Word and open to the newness of God’s future.”

–Pastor Markus Watson

Last night Northminster hosted the Young Life San Diego Region’s All City Club. The “official count” was 389 kids and Young Life leaders. This is an event that we at Northminster look forward to hosting as it gives us a chance to see God at work in our community. The event last night was the largest All City Club that we’ve hosted, bringing together kids from all over San Diego county.

Club is one of Young Life’s Five C’s and is the primary weekly event of the Young Life program. All City Club is just a larger scale version of what Young Life Club is like every week. It is where “controlled chaos” happens. A common response regarding the question as to what club is, is that you just have to see it to believe it.

Pictures from the 2008 All City Club may be found on our Photo Gallery along with pictures from the 2007, 2006, and 2001 All City Club events that we’ve hosted.

Sermon by Markus Watson on May 11, 2008

Theme – On Pentecost, we celebrate the day that God sent his Holy Spirit to those first disciples. There was a sound like a violent wind. There were tongues of flame on their heads. They spoke in all kinds of languages. Sounds pretty incredible! But what if we believed that God could do that again today? What if we really believed that the Holy Spirit was with us today in the same way the Holy Spirit was with those first disciples? How might that affect the way we lived?

 

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Lunch clubs have been quite a hit this year! We have one lunch club at University City High School on Wednesdays, and one at Madison High School on Thursdays. CPMA stands for Creative Performing Media Arts. We have been wanting to start a lunch club at CPMA for a couple of months now. We needed to have two student representatives, and a teacher to host it in their classroom. Robert Scott, who has been in Wyldlife for two years now and is a student at CPMA, has been trying to figure out which teachers to ask. We have been praying for the last two months for a teacher, and to get the club started. Some schools are very difficult to get started, as administration is very hesitant to let in outside religious groups.

Just a week ago Robert told me that he found a teacher for me to call. I called her and she said that since she started three years ago as the music teacher at CPMA, she has been waiting for a student to approach her to start something like this. She had asked when she first came on staff, and was told that it had to be initiated by a student. She said that Robert went up to her and barely got the words out about starting a lunch Bible club and she said “yes!”

Ina Soliz is an answer to prayer. Nate Landis started the Urban Youth Collaborative, which is the umbrella for the lunch clubs. He has partnered with Horizon Urban Ministries, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and the San Diego Presbytery. Sixteen high schools and now one middle school are provided with a speaker, pizzas, and Bibles every week! And here comes the big news:

Nate, Jonny Sherfy and I met in the office today for our kick-off of the CPMA lunch club. Nate brought one case of waters and five pizzas. Little did we know that “Faith Club, Free Pizza” was announced to ALL classrooms this morning. We got to Ina Soliz’s classroom FULL of students, and I asked her if her class hadn’t gotten out yet. She was bewildered and said “No, they are here for the lunch club!” Altogether I counted 80+ kids! Nate gave a talk on our physical hunger and spiritual hunger, our need for love, and how only Jesus can fill that need. At the end he invited all the kids into a relationship with Jesus. Twenty kids raised their hands! The kingdom grew today before our eyes. Praise God for this! Those 80 kids were respectful, excited, inquisitive…I can’t wait to go back and see them again!

Matthew 18:2-3 says: 2 He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3 And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Sermon by Clark Cowden on May 4, 2008

Clark Cowden is the Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery of San Diego. Clark was filling in for Markus this morning while he was taking a well deserved vacation.

Theme – There are times in life when God surprises us. Sometimes, God acts in ways that seem contrary to our human ideas of how God should act. Some Americans think that God should be about meeting my personal needs, making my life easier, and restoring peace and comfort to my world. That may be the exact opposite of what God does. It may sound counter-intuitive, but Jesus may disturb you, disrupt your life, and discomfort you, in order to get you to grow and become more like Christ. Bringing peace and calm to your life may actually keep you from growing spiritually. You may not grow in the ways God wants you to unless God’s Spirit pushes you to the edge of chaos. There, you may find exciting new ways of understanding God and creative new ways to follow Christ, that you never would have discovered, without God turning your life upside down.

 

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Our Women’s Bible Study Small Group will be on Wednesdays. The first will be May 14th at Northminster from 7pm-9pm. You can purchase the workbook at our first session for $20, or from the Berean Christian bookstore on Clairemont Mesa Blvd. I am very excited about this and all of you who said you will be coming, see you Wednesday! God Bless- Chelsea

Our next Car Wash to raise money for camp will be May 31st from

10am-1pm in the Northminster parking lot! See you there!

(Free, accepting donations)

Chelsea