inside this issue3 on tuesday, august 29, the consistory accepted the resignation of john wisdom as...

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Ebenezer Reformed Church

2997 N. German Church Road

Oregon, IL 61061

Office: (815) 732-6313

www.ebenezerreformed.com

Secretary: Dee Haak

Email [email protected]

Treasurer—Larry Seabold

[email protected]

Bookkeeper—Mark Lohman

[email protected]

*Newsletter editor: Jean Woodin

Prayer Chain Requests:

Contact Dee Haak (815) 397-2410/

(630) 346-8882

CO�SISTORY MEMBERS 2017

ELDERS

Tony Berg

(815) 721-0590

[email protected]

Council: Worship & Music

Dan Herriot – Clerk of Consistory

(815) 732-2762 – home

E-Mail: [email protected]

Gary McDanel

(815) 234-8233 – home

(815) 222-7222 – cell


Council: Property & Stewardship

John Smith (815) 234-2493 – home


Council: Mission & Outreach

Bob Van Stedum –

(630) 726-4652 – cell


Council: Mission & Outreach (Chairperson)

DEACO�S

Marilyn Berg (815) 732-3122 – home


Council: Discipleship & Education

Dale Boomgarden

(815) 222-8734 – home


Council: Property & Stewardship (Chairperson)

Melissa Reecher (815) 713-1640 – home

(815) 978-9721 – cell


Council: Discipleship & Education (Chairperson)

Steve Raine

(815) 978-7300 - cell


Council: Discipleship & Education

Cara Stewart

(815) 881-8079 – home

(815) 499-2857 – cell


Council: Music & Worship (Chairperson)

"A body of believers glorifying God, outwardly focused, committed to growth in personal transformation and in number."

Calendar 2

News and Events 3

Birthdays and Anniversaries 5

Schedules 6

Reformation 7

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

*Newsletter articles are due SU�DAY October

22. Items can be emailed to

[email protected] or put in the box in the

Narthex. Thank you.

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Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 Food Pantry Collection 8:30AM Prayer Meeting 9:00 AM Sunday School 10:00 AM Worship

2 6:30 PM Wonderful Women in the Word

3 6:30 PM Music & Worship Meeting

4 1:00 PM Ladies Aid

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8 8:30AM Prayer Meeting 9:00 AM Sunday School 10:00 AM Worship

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6:30 PM Wonderful Women in the Word

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14 6:00 PM Chili Supper and Bonfire at the Herriots’

15 8:30AM Prayer Meeting 9:00 AM Sunday School 10:00 AM Worship with Lee DeYoung Town Hall Meeting

16 1:00 PM Naomi Ruth 6:30 PM Wonderful Women in the Word

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19 12:00 PM Christian Fellowshipers

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22 Newsletter Articles Due 8:30AM Prayer Meeting 9:00 AM Sunday School 10:00 AM Worship


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25 8:00 AM-12:00 PM Soup Supper Prep

26 4:30 – 7:00 PM Soup Supper

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29 8:30AM Prayer Meeting 9:00 AM Sunday School 10:00 AM Worship


31 Halloween Reformation Day 6:30 PM Elders 7:00 PM Consistory

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On Tuesday, August 29, the Consistory accepted the resignation of John Wisdom as pastor of Ebenezer Reformed Church. Sunday, September 24 was Pastor John’s last official Sunday in the pulpit. Pray for the Wisdoms for God’s guidance as they step away from us into a new future. The congregation of Ebenezer Reformed Church thanks Pastor John for his time with us and wishes him and his family all the best! Coffee Fellowship Are you able to help provide goodies for our Fellowship time? There are plenty of available dates on the whiteboard outside the kitchen. Please sign up to help set up for coffee and share some of your favorite recipes! Food Pantry Collection Sunday October 1 is the monthly food pantry collection for area food pantries. This month’s collection will go to Bread of Life in Stillman Valley. They are in need of all kinds of canned beans, canned vegetables, peanut butter, jelly, hamburger helper and toilet tissue. Please place monetary or food donations in the grocery carts in the church foyer. WWW The Wonderful Women in the Word meet every Monday night at the church at 6:30 PM. They are currently studying the book of Exodus. Join them and see what new revelations God has in store for you! Ladies Aid The Ladies Aid Missionary Society meets the first Wednesday of each month at 1:00 P.M. at the church. There is a Bible Study, devotions, refreshments and each member brings a scripture verse for “roll call” relating to a certain topic. Ladies Aid takes an offering to support various ministries throughout the community, denomination and the world. They also serve luncheons when requested by family members at the time of funerals in the church. Do you have a couple hours to give one afternoon a month? Age doesn’t matter; this ministry is open to all women of the church. This month’s meeting is October 4. Connie Bader is the hostess. Lorna Snapp will lead the devotions. The new Bible Study is Jeremiah and roll call will be a Scripture verse on “Light”. LADIES! The Ladies Aid women are interested in hearing from you! We are looking for new ladies interested in Christian Fellowship and Bible Study during the weekday. Would you like to join us? We would love to have you! Maybe a new day or time would be more beneficial for you? We would like your opinion and would like to invite you to join us. Let us know! Contact either Lorna Snapp, Norma Flanagan or Dee Haak or give them a note to show your interest! Now is the time to reply as we are starting a new Bible Study this month. Chili Supper and Bonfire On Saturday October 14 at 6:00 PM the Herriots are hosting a church family fall bonfire and chili supper at their home - 587 N. Daysville Road, Oregon. All are welcome for a time of fellowship and fun!

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Town Hall On October 15, Lee DeYoung will provide the sermon. Lee DeYoung was voted the next president of General Synod on Monday, June 12. He is an elder at Hager Park Reformed Church in Jenison, Michigan, and vice president for international ministry at Words of Hope. Following the service there will be a town hall meeting and Q&A with Mr. DeYoung. Naomi Ruth Naomi Ruth is a women’s Bible study that meets at the church. They meet on third Monday of the month at 1:00 PM. Each member takes turns leading the Bible Study. This group is open to all women of the church. Are you looking for a Ladies Bible Study? Come join Naomi Ruth on October 16. Dee Haak will lead the Bible Study. Christian Fellowshipers Christian Fellowshipers is a time for anyone over the age of fifty to get together for Christian fellowship and fun. They meet the 3rd Thursday of every month at noon for a potluck meal. Each month a designated host and/or hostess plan and serve the event. There is scripture reading and prayer. Outings to local restaurants or other activities are scheduled. A free will offering is taken for missions. If you are fifty or over you are invited to the meeting on October 19 at noon; please bring a dish to pass. Ron & Connie Bader are the hosts this month.

Soup Supper Thursday, October 26 (please note date change) from 4:30 PM to 7:00 PM is the annual Soup Supper fundraiser for Mission & Outreach. We will be serving Chicken Noodle, Broccoli Cheese and Vegetable Soups and Chili, along with pie, cake and a beverage. Helpers are needed to set up the morning before from 8:00AM until around noon. Please contact Mary Goerks

at 815-218-4266 if you are able to help Wednesday morning. There will be a sign up sheet in the Narthex for dessert donations and helpers during the supper. Don't miss this fun filled event and don't forget to invite your friends! Just Show Up! In A Million Little Ways (Revell), Emily Freeman says in order for Christians to “show up as you are with what you’ve been given,” we must confront these statements: • I’m not cut out for this. • Someone else can do it better. • People might not like it. • I have nothing to offer. • I hate my calling. • It’s a waste of time. • It’s too much work. • Who do you think you are? “A million loud voices … keep us from the million little ways [Jesus] wants to show up through us to the world,” Freeman writes.

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2 Eugene Denekas 4 Sophie Reecher Diane Seabold Kelly Sievers 9 Jilysa Daehler 11 Mark Lohman 15 Jim O’Hare 16 Dan Herriot 19 Lloyd Ruthe Robert VanStedum 22 Khalena Chapple 25 Cherie Bertsch 28 Marg Anspach 30 Ron Bader

1 Mr. & Mrs. John Smith 6 Mr. & Mrs. Rick Snodgrass 13 Mr. & Mrs. Steve Brechon We are trying to keep the birthday and anniversary list up to date. If your birthday or anniversary is incorrect or missing, please send an email to [email protected] or put a note in the newsletter box in the Narthex. Thank you!!!! Show our shut-ins your love – they need our contact!!! Keep them in your prayers as well as drop by for a visit or send a note to give them a lift. See list on bulletin board for addresses and birthdays!

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October 2017 Schedule

10/1 Greeters Dick & Phyllis Cain Kim & Tyler Carow Ushers Dean & Connie Rieck & Grace Henley

Nursery Deb Boomgarden & Annette Martin 10/8 Greeters Paul & Linda Chermak Christiansons Ushers Bill & Melissa Reecher

Grace Henley Nursery Mary Goerks & Val Herriot 10/15 Greeters Tom & Lisa Gale Grygiels Ushers Steve Raine & Grace Henley Nursery Jen Grygiel & Abbie Wisdom 10/22 Greeters Dan & Val Herriot Craig & Karen Hummel Ushers Paul & Linda Chermak

Grace Henley Nursery Connie Rieck & Marilyn Berg 10/29 Greeters Martin Family Gary & Ginger McDanel Ushers Mark & Myrna Lohman & Grace Henley

Nursery Jean Woodin & Anna Ring

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Faith That Changed the Culture How Luther Inspired Music, Charity, and Abolition As a young monk, Martin Luther hated God. “I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God,” he wrote. Like countless others who doubted whether they had made themselves worthy of heaven, Luther shook with fear at the thought of how God might judge him. Until, of course, he began to understand that the gospel is not a message of fear and judgment, but of good news and great joy. It was as if his whole world had flipped inside out. God, he saw, is not asking us to earn his love and acceptance in any way. God’s righteousness is something he shares with us as a gift. Acceptance before God, forgiveness, and peace with him can be received with simple faith or trust. “Here,” said Luther ecstatically, “I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.” Luther had joined a monastery to do good works for God. But he came to see it is not God in heaven who needs our good works. It is people on earth. Luther therefore encouraged Christians, instead of retreating to monasteries, to go out into the world. Having been loved first by God, they could go out to love and serve others. Through the Reformation, a tidal wave of social and cultural improvement was unleashed. Bach: Composer of Joy Take Johann Sebastian Bach, an ardent Lutheran all the way down to his tapping toes. When satisfied with his musical compositions, Bach would write on them “S. D. G.” for Soli Deo Gloria (“Glory to God Alone”). For through his music he wanted to sound out the beauty and glory of God, so pleasing both God and people. The glory of God, he believed, gratuitously rings out through sunsets, stars, mountain peaks and music, bringing joy wherever it is appreciated. And the enjoyment of those things can give people a taste of how enjoyable their Creator is. God, Bach saw, is to be enjoyed. In fact, the deepest and most satisfying happiness can only be found in knowing God. The Abolitionists: Crusaders for Mercy Consider also those 18th- and 19th-century heirs of the Reformation who campaigned for the abolition of the slave trade. Perhaps best known are William Wilberforce, the British parliamentarian, and John Newton, the ex-slave-trader and author of the hymn “Amazing Grace.” “God Almighty,” wrote Wilberforce, “has placed before me two great Objects, the Suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Manners [i.e., morals].” Wilberforce was strongly encouraged in his work against slavery by John Wesley, the evangelist and founder of Methodism, who wrote his last letter to urge Wilberforce on. “Slave-holding is utterly inconsistent with Mercy,” argued Wesley. It is the exact opposite of the liberating kindness of God which had been trumpeted in the Reformation. Wesley therefore fought and prayed for the emancipation of both African bodies and souls: O burst thou all their chains in sunder, more especially the chains of their sins; Thou Saviour of all, make them free, that they may be free indeed. And his prayer was answered: the success of the abolitionists over slavery went hand in hand with a dramatic growth in black Christianity.

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Shaftesbury: The Great Philanthropist When William Wilberforce died in 1833, his funeral was attended by another heir of the Reformation, Anthony Ashley Cooper. Later titled Lord Shaftesbury, he would become known as “the great philanthropist.” Trusting himself to God after reading the same book that had converted Wilberforce to Christianity, he had resolved “with the help of God” to devote his life “to pleading the cause of the poor and friendless.” Which he then did with unstinting energy for over fifty years. Through Parliament, he fought the sale of girls into prostitution, outlawed employing young boys as chimney sweeps, established working hours to end the cruel abuse of poor manual workers, and transformed the previously disgusting conditions of London madhouses. He provided education, food, and housing for the poor — and the list could go on for pages. Having experienced the loving compassion of Christ himself, he wanted to share it. After all, he said, “these social reforms, so necessary, so indispensable, seem to require as much of God’s grace as a change of heart.” No man, depend on it, can persist from the beginning of his life to the end of it in a course of self-denial, in a course of generosity, in a course of virtue . . . unless he is drawing from the fountain of our Lord Himself. Still Reforming For us today, the Reformation still has sparkling good news — news of an enjoyable and satisfying God. A God who lavishes his love on those who have not made themselves attractive to him. A God whose love can liberate the most broken and guilty. What Martin Luther discovered in the Bible pulled him out of despair and made him feel he had “entered paradise itself through open gates.” Nothing about that message has changed — or lost its power to brighten lives today. By Michael Reeves. Source: http://www.desiringgod.org

inside this issue3 on tuesday, august 29, the consistory accepted the resignation of john wisdom as...

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