St. Clare’s announces fundraising event Oct. 25; auction items needed

On Friday October 25, St. Clare’s Ministry will be hosting a fundraiser to continue to provide worship, a hot meal, and clothing to those experiencing homelessness as well as the working poor. The event will be from 5 until 7 pm at their location at St. Peter & St. Mary Episcopal Church, at 2nd and Acoma in Denver, and will include a silent and live auction, food and beverages. We hope you will join us. More information will follow.

If you or your group at Good Shepherd would like to put together a basket, e.g. coffee, wine, books, music, games, children’s or sporting items, gifts for cooks, or gather another item or two for our silent or live auction that would be most welcome as well.  If you know of a business or corporation we should approach just pass that information along.

Questions: Shelley Hitt, skhco@msn.com

Children’s Ministry News

September 8 is the Sunday set aside to commission all the Sunday school teachers and helpers.  Please plan to attend so you can show your support and appreciation for all those who come alongside your kids every week to help them learn about God and how much He loves each and every one of us!

Did you know that we have returned to our space downstairs?  We are so excited to have our space back!  The 3rd-5th graders have moved to the room next to the Godly Play room and are enjoying a fresh new, much larger space to call their own.

As we prepare for the next family service on September 29th, we are offering a youth & children's choir, led by our Choir Director, Connie Branton.  Rehearsals are Sundays from 12-12:15 on Sept. 8th, 15th, and 22nd in the Sanctuary.

Please keep in mind that Sunday school will meet the first four Sundays in September at 9:45 and since September has five Sunday’s, on the 29th we have a special family service focusing on angels.  For this Sunday only, the kids will not meet downstairs, but enjoy this special service in its entirety with their families.  On the first four Sunday’s in September, at approximately 10:35, we will process into the sanctuary so the kids can rejoin their family at the Peace, followed by the celebration of Holy Communion.

The combined Godly Play classroom is for children aged three years through 2nd grade.  The presentations for this month are as follows:

·         September 1:  Calendar

·         September 8:  Chasubles and Church Colors 

·         September 15:  Creation

·         September 22:  Creation: The Falling Apart

·         Family Service, so all kids will attend the entire service

The 3rd, 4th and 5th grade class is using Living the Good News which is liturgically based, meaning it follows the church service liturgy.

·         September 1:  Humility and Love (At a banquet, Jesus teaches the meaning of true family…Luke 14:1, 7-14…Parable of the Great Banquet). 

·         September 8:  Call to Commitment (Jesus calls us to love Him with all our hearts…Luke 14:25-27).

·         September 15:  Found by God (Jesus tells stories of God’s persistent love of those who are lost.  We may give up on God, but God never gives up on us!...Luke 15:1-10…Parable of the Lost Sheep and Parable of the Lost Coin).

·         September 22:  Faithful in All Things (Jesus tells the story of the dishonest steward who begins to take his life more seriously than his money…Luke 16:10-13…Parable of the Shrewd Manager).

·         Family Service, so all kids will attend the entire service

We hope that the school year is off to a great start and we look forward to seeing all the children on Sunday mornings.

Two special youth offerings for Sunday, September 29th

Be sure to join us for two important youth events happening on Sunday, September 29th – Youth Sunday, and a special presentation by psychologist Dana Max. The Youth Sunday service (10 am on September 29) will feature a youth choir led by our Choir Director, Connie Branton, and will celebrate the feast of St. Michael and All Angels. All youth are encouraged to participate in the choir, and rehearsals will be from 12 to 12:15 pm on Sunday, September 8, 15 and 22 in the sanctuary.

The second special event will occur at 4 pm in the Parish Hall when we will host psychologist Dr. Dana Max who will discuss how to develop a community focused, asset-based program that helps children and youth thrive. We encourage not only parents of Good Shepherd youth to attend, but also any parishioner who is interested in building our youth program. Child care will be provided. For more information on either of these opportunities, please contact Rachel Whipp at rwhipp@gshep.org.

Stewardship 2020 Update – Love in Service

Your Stewardship Committee met in August and began planning Good Shepherd’s 2019 Stewardship Campaign.  This year’s Campaign, Love in Service, will start on Sunday, October 6, as we commission our Stewardship Leaders, our Ambassadors, and our Prayer Team.  Commitment Sunday, where we lovingly present our pledges for 2020, is scheduled for November 3.

What are we trying to do?

·         We would like to have one Stewardship Campaign for 2020 that will eliminate the need for a Supplemental Campaign and a Capital Campaign in 2020.

·         To accomplish this, we will need to raise in the range of $500,000 in pledges for 2020.  We had $442,000 in pledges in 2019 after our Supplementary Stewardship Campaign.

Well, how are we going to do this?

·         We will need some new pledges – We hope with our Invite, Welcome, and Connect Program, we will continue to see new families and individuals, leading to new pledges.

·         We will need to maintain or slightly increase our average pledge from 2019, which was $2859/ family or individual after our Supplemental Campaign.

Why are we doing this?

·         We believe that our parishioners want one campaign rather than three campaigns.

·         (hopefully, no Supplemental Campaign and no Capital Campaign)

·         We believe that we can meet our operating budget needs and our 2020 Capital (ongoing maintenance) needs in one Stewardship Campaign.

So, why is this 2020 Stewardship Campaign important to me?

·         We will continue to be a church family and community with outstanding worship and music, and growing to meet the needs of our church and our community.  This stewardship campaign will continue to support our mission and vision to celebrate, grow, and serve our church and our community. 

·         The budget will support staffing for ministries and programs valued by this congregation.

·         This budget will continue our plan to maintain our building and grounds.

·         We will continue to be the center of our community for use of our building and outreach.

·         We will reach beyond our walls and property with outreach to the surrounding community.

·         We will fulfill our obligations to the Episcopal Church of Colorado and our High Plains Region.

This will be a tall order to achieve, but we believe that we have a stewardship campaign that everyone can support and pull together as a church family. 

Snapshot of Good Shepherd’s Finances

A graphic

From Fr. Gary: New wine in new wineskins!

“And they came to the Wadi Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them. . . . That place was called the Wadi Eshcol, because of the cluster that the Israelites cut down from there”.  (Numbers 13.23-24)

These two verses are from the account of the Israelites spying out the Promised Land soon after their exodus from Egypt. Twelve spies were sent into the land for forty days. Two returned—Joshua and Caleb—with the large cluster of grapes, along with positive reports of what they found. The other ten came back with reports of doom and gloom about the new land. Their report ultimately resulted in the forty-year wandering in the desert. The account in Numbers places the blame at the ten spies’ lack of faith in God’s instructions/promises of hope. (Numbers 14.30)

I was reminded of this account this morning when I read Jesus's well-known saying about wine and wineskins (Mark 2.21-22). My “go-to” interpretation of the saying "You have to put new wine in new wineskins” (v. 22) has to do with a new group of folks accepting Jesus’ “new” teaching. But this morning, what occurred to me (and why I thought about the Israelites and their delayed entry into the Promised Land) is that “new wineskins” might just as easily be interpreted as a new context. That is, with regard to the story from Numbers, the Promised Land was a “new wineskin”. The Israelites had, for generations, become accustomed to one way of being (i.e., as slaves in Egypt), and weren’t “suitable” for the new land. “New wine” had to be made for the “new wineskin”. And so, the Israelites had to wander for forty years two generations until those who left Egypt had all died, and a new generation—new wine—had arisen.

I think we’ve all heard tales both of the “good ol’ days”, as well as the criticisms of the “new society”. I hear in them, a longing for the "old wine" (and there’s nothing wrong with fine aged wine), but also a critique of the “new wineskins” (and some new barrels CAN impart bizarre flavor to a developing wine). But I think we can take Jesus’s admonition to put new wine into new wineskins as a challenge for us to accept our current situation and develop new strategies for addressing its opportunities. For example, “new wineskins” may mean demographic changes, technological changes, societal changes.

We, at Good Shepherd, are on the borders of some new “lands". And it will take the imaginations of all of us to develop “new wine” for these "new wineskins”! Several examples will be apparent in the early weeks of August!

As we start our budgeting process for 2020, we’re working to ensure our budget is aligned with our values and dreams! Using information that we’ve gathered over the last year, we’ll be giving the congregation’s members an opportunity to signal their support of these values. This conversation will be about both "new wineskins" and "new wine"! 

We’ve decided that the “new wineskin” of youth sports is a given, And rather than try to pour the “old wine” of forcing people to make a choice between church and sports (as if one is “good” and the other “less-than-good”), we’ll embrace the values of sports, and seek to find a “new wine” for that wineskin.  The conversation will begin on August 11 (see article below).

We have a new bishop in the Rt. Rev. Kym Lucas. She brings a new energy and vision to the Episcopal Church in Colorado; she is helping create a “new wineskin” for us. What “new wine” might we develop with her? THAT conversation will receive new focus when she visits on August 18 (see article below).

I often say:  “It’s all about joy!”, and “It’s all good”, and “Let’s change the narrative, and tell a new story!” To those, I can add:  “Time for the new wine in the new wineskins!”  We don’t want to wander for forty years!

Blessings,
Gary+

PS: You’ll note that in Jesus’s sayings about wine and wineskins, he never says anything BAD about old wine or old wineskins; he just points out how they're different from their newer counterparts!

August 11 service to feature Blessing of the Athletes

On Sunday, August 11 (that Sunday just before or after most students head back to school), we will try something new!  Recognizing that many folks in our congregation are engaged with athletics in one way or another (athlete, coach, referee/umpire), we want to bless that activity. 

In addition to the actual blessing (at the 10am service), we will be joined by Bill Tierney, Head Lacrosse Coach at the University of Denver, and has coached seven teams to the National Division 1 Lacrosse Championships (including one at DU). In addition, he is a devout Catholic, and we’ve asked him to speak on the intersection of athletics and religion—both from the athlete’s side, as well as the family’s side. [We have not settled on the time for his talk; it will either be during the “Faith Forum time, or after the 10 am service. Watch the E-News for updates!]

In keeping with the theme, the coffee hour will be “ball park food” . . . . think hot-dogs and chips!

AND, we invite all athletes (of any age or variety, regardless of the sports’ season) to come in their uniforms. 

Bishop Kym Lucas to visit Good Shepherd Sunday August 18; one service only at 9 am

On Sunday, August 18, Bp. Kym Lucas will make her first visit to Good Shepherd! It should be an exciting day!

We will have only one service that day so that all will have the opportunity to hear and meet her. The service will be at 9:00am. (There will NOT be an evening service on the 18th)

We will have a festive brunch reception after the service — as you might expect!  More details will come out through the E-News, so watch for developments!

Are you a Green Sheep?

Several weeks ago, a group of parishioners gathered together to talk about Creation Care, and how Good Shepherd might be better stewards of God’s creation. We brainstormed A LOT of ideas, and some of them may already be in place!

Recycling: Currently, we have several individuals who take the paper recycling home to add to their curbside pick-up. And one committed soul tries to collect plastic, cans and bottles from the kitchen . . . but often finds that the mix of trash and recyclables makes that difficult. How can we move forward on this?  (Good Shepherd can’t participate in curbside recycling, because we’re not a residential customer, and to get a large bin is cost-prohibitive.)

Disposables:  How much of what we use for coffee hour and other events is re-usable, rather than disposable? How much is single serve? And, if we were to make a change, who would help with the clean-up?

Garden & Composting:  (1) What if we did a better job of composting our kitchen waste? Are there parishioners who’d be interested in helping maintain a compost bin at Church (either for our landscaping use, or for folks to take home?) (2) What kinds of efforts might we make (or have we made) to help provide pollen-producing plants for bees and butterflies?

Education:  Do parishioners know how to separate recyclables?  Do we know what our individual HOA’s/municipalities will accept?  Are folks interested in taking a “field trip” to a recycling center? What are eco-friendly alternatives to common pesticides and herbicides?

Energy Audit:  How well do we do at reducing our energy usage?  We’ve had new furnaces and air conditioners installed; they’re more energy efficient! Yay! But how about our light bulbs? Our weather-stripping?

And, then there was the question of SOLAR!

So much came out of the discussion!  And it was just the beginning.  We didn’t even scratch the subject of eco-justice, or how our decisions affect folks outside the congregation.

And, so the question remains:  Are you (or do you want to be) a Green Sheep? Let Fr. Gary know if you’re interested in carrying the conversation further.  And watch for more information about ways to get involved!

Volunteers needed for Coffee Hour Crew

Fr. Gary spoke at morning services in July about needing more volunteers to help with coffee hour, especially after the second service. This is a fun, social ministry perfect for partners or families. Ideally, I would love for hosts/hostesses to serve, at the most, one Sunday a month; to make this possible, we need a few more teams/volunteers.  The second service hosts provide the following for our congregation:

• Replenish snacks/goodies and coffee pots from first service coffee hour

• Monitor coffee and drink levels during second service coffee hour

• Clean up and put away coffee hour items.

Interested people would “shadow” current hosts until they are comfortable with the routines etc.  If you would like to be a part of this valuable ministry, please contact Liz Peel.

Update on the installation of our new organ and choir loft remodel

In less than a year, we have raised over $65,000 for our new organ. The costs for the organ installation and choir loft remodel are adding up, though, mostly due to additional electrical requirements and new speaker cabinets. Parishioner Curt Watson has taken over the preparation for this project, and is working with electricians and builders. We want this work to be done with proper code requirements, and be inspected for safety. We must raise several thousand more dollars to complete this project.

Recently, a member said, "The congregation is very supportive of the music program in our church. They will continue to help with this cost."

Connie Branton and her team are optimistic that we CAN do this!!!

If you have thought about a donation, now is the time. You may use the forms available on the organ board in the hallway to make a donation. If you have any questions, please contact Connie via email.

Vestry Nominating Committee seeks new members

It is time to start thinking about the next members of our Vestry, who will begin their tenure in January of 2020. This process starts with our nominating committee, which is responsible for recruiting candidates and publicizing the choices. We are looking for additional members to serve on this committee. We are starting earlier to recruit the next Vestry candidates so all will have a good idea of their January choices. If you have questions or are interested in serving on the nominating committee, contact Deborah Sampson.

Children’s Ministry News

We have two special events that will take place in August. 

• On August 11, we will have a blessing of the athletes, including coaches, team parents, parents and grandparents during the service...please wear your team’s uniform/jersey!  After the 10:00 service, in lieu of our welcome and coffee fellowship time, we will provide ball park food to enjoy as Bill Tierney joins us to speak on balancing sports and church.  Details are still being ironed out at the time of this writing. 

• On August 18, we will have one service at 9:00 so that the entire congregation can come together for Visitation Sunday with Bishop Kym Lucas.  We WILL NOT offer Sunday school on August 18 so that all the kids can join the excitement as we welcome our new bishop as she visits Good Shepherd for the first time.  During the Peace, the kids will gather in the back of the Sanctuary to come together and present Bishop Kym with a special gift that the kids had a hand in creating! 

The kids will transition back to their school studies and we are so thankful to also soon move back to our space downstairs!   Once we can return to our space downstairs, the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade class will enjoy a larger newly renovated room next to the current Godly Play class. 

Please keep in mind that Sunday school will meet every Sunday in August at 9:45, except for August 18th when all the kids will attend the entire 9:00 service to experience the first visit of our new bishop, Bishop Kym Lucas!  Then, on every other Sunday in August, at approximately 10:35, we process into the sanctuary so the kids can rejoin their family at the Peace, followed by the celebration of Holy Communion.

The combined Godly Play classroom (which currently meets in the chapel is for children aged 3 years through 2nd grade), will complete our summer Saint’s series:

• August 4:    St. Francis of Assisi

• August 11:  Mother Teresa 

• August 18:  NO SUNDAY SCHOOL: One service at 9:00 for Visitation Sunday with Bishop Kym Lucas

• August 25:  St. Nicholas

The 3rd, 4th and 5th grade class (which currently meets in the room across from the chapel), is using Living the Good News which is liturgically based, meaning it follows the church service liturgy.

• August 4:  Rich in God’s Sight (Forget worldly prudence; seek the true riches found in Christ…Luke 12:13-21…Parable of the Rich Fool).

• August 11:  Heritage of Faith (Fear not, people of God; Jesus calls you to enter God’s kingdom…Luke 12:32-40…Do not worry/Watchfulness).

• August 18:  NO SUNDAY SCHOOL: One service at 9:00 for Visitation Sunday   with Bishop Kym Lucas

• August 25:  Healing and Faith (Let us cast off complacency and renew our lives in the power of the gospel…Luke 13:10-17…A crippled woman healed on the Sabbath).

Have a wonderful transition back to school and we look forward to seeing all the children on Sunday mornings.

Stewardship 2020 Update – Love in Service

Last month we talked about our 2020 Stewardship Campaign.  Your Vestry felt that Stewardship (time, talent, treasure and everything we do at Good Shepherd) was so important that it dedicated a day (Saturday, June 29) to talk about Stewardship with representatives from the Stewardship and Finance Committees.  Greg Movesian, with previous experience serving as Canon Steward at St. John’s Cathedral, served as facilitator, and we spent seven hours discussing Stewardship at Good Shepherd. 

Out of that meeting came some great new ideas for our 2020 Stewardship Campaign!  In addition, there was a consensus that (1) we try to avoid having to do another Supplementary Stewardship Campaign in 2020, and (2) we aim to not have a Capital Campaign this year or next! 

Over the next month, the Stewardship Committee, the Finance Committee and the Vestry will be talking with parishioners of Good Shepherd about values that are important to this congregation.  The goal is to collect feedback from the congregation on what is truly valued here at Good Shepherd and then weave that into our 2020 Stewardship Campaign.  We will being doing this in August, to allow time to properly prepare and carry out our Stewardship Campaign later this year. 

The 2020 Stewardship Campaign presents a both a challenge and a tremendous opportunity for everyone pull together as a Church Family and Community.  It just seems appropriate for our Stewardship Campaign theme this year to be “Love in Service”! 

Men’s Group meetings in August

In August, the Men’s Group will meet on August 10th & the 24th.

We’ll meet in the parish hall for a full breakfast on August 10th at 7:30 am, and there again for a light breakfast on August 24th at 7:30 am. A short program follows breakfast from 8 to 9 am in the Chapel, with our meetings ending generally at 9 am.

The topics for August will surround a review/discussion on the respective Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday, the 11th and the 25th.

Note, each session stands on its own, so those interested can attend any one of the individual sessions even if you miss one or several meetings. Information relating to the topics covered will be available at the meetings.

Mark your calendars and join us on August 10th and the 24th! We welcome men new to the Church and/or those having an interest in the Men’s Group. Please email me if you have any questions or would like to receive any additional information.

Thanks for your interest and look forward to seeing you at one of our upcoming meetings

Snapshot of Good Shepherd’s Finances as of June, 2019

From Fr. Gary: "This church is spiritually vital and alive”

This was the lead line on the report back from the US Congregational Vitality Survey that we took back at the end of March. The tag-line reflects our belief that we ARE spiritually vital and alive.  And we are!

As a reminder to those who took the survey (and a heads-up for those who have come to Good Shepherd since the survey was administered), the goal of the exercise was to identify what we believed are our greatest strengths. And the results showed that we were strongest in “Caring Relationships” and “Ecclesial Health” *, followed closely by “Spirit-inspired worship”. Where we are least strong is in “Evangelism”. In our greatest strength, and our “growing edge” (i.e., Evangelism), we mirror the diocese as a whole.

I believe this is good news!  We ARE vital. We have so much going for us (as the survey suggests). 

·         We are welcoming new families and individuals to worship every week!

·         We had a good number of folks either Confirmed or Received into the Episcopal Church at the last Regional Confirmation

·         We are well on our way to finishing the “Season of Discovery" of the Priest-in-Charge process. We should have a summation of what we’ve learned prepared for the congregation’s review by the end of the summer. 

·         By the end of the summer, we should have our basement repaired and back in use by our Sunday school, as well as by several of the outside groups that keep our building busy during the week. (Did you know that we have over 300 people through the building each week during the school year — not counting parishioners?)

·         By the end of the summer, we should have our new organ installed! 

·         Our Sunday School and Youth Programs are going like gangbusters!

·         We’ve made some fabulous plans for adult education for the fall and beyond!

·         AND, indicative of our main strength of “Caring Relationships”, we are re-invigorating our Congregational Care Ministries!

All of that speaks of a vital congregation: we are full of energy and lively (see definition #2 in the graphic above).

Where we are headed is suggested in the definition #1 in the graphic above:  we are going to march forward into what’s “absolutely necessary or important; essential”! Of course, that part of the definition is reflected in the bullet points above! But there is clearly more. The Church’s mission is “to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ” (BCP, 855) — in other words, to evangelize.  And that responsibility falls to all of the “ministers of the Church”, that is, “lay persons, bishops, priests and deacons” (BCP, 855). So we have work to do! And efforts are underway to (re-)evaluate our outreach, to consider what it means to “Invite, Welcome and Connect” people at Good Shepherd . . . in short, what it means to "spread the good news”.

With the “Season of Discovery” behind us, we begin to move into the “Season of Visioning”!  "Who we are" is part of the visioning, as we need to take the best of our past and present into the future. Opportunities will abound over the next several months as we seek to discern where we are called to minister as a congregation (including a time to talk about the Survey — see the article included in this “Sheepskin”). We will need to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit to explore new opportunities for mission, while maintaining those important ministries that are near and dear to so many at Good Shepherd.  

It’s an exciting time!  It’s a time to be VITAL AND ALIVE!

July 7th Faith Forum to feature discussion and results of Vitality Survey

Good Shepherd is VITAL! The US Congregational Vitality Survey results are in!  And WE ARE VITAL — especially in the areas of mutual care and concern, as well as in our understanding of the church.  

Do you think they’re an accurate reflection of who we are? Were you surprised? Dismayed? Come to the Faith Forum on July 7th (between the two morning services) to discuss the results of the survey, and what they might mean for Good Shepherd.  

You can access the results of the survey by clicking here.

Appreciative Living Circles to be offered beginning July 8

What do you want most in your life?

—and—

How do you create it?

You’ve heard Appreciative Inquiry (“AI”) mentioned from the pulpit, in meetings and perhaps elsewhere. The strategies and techniques of AI can translate into one’s every-day life as well! If you are interested in the answers to the questions above, you may find participation in a four-week “Appreciative Living Learning Circle” a wonderful summer exercise.

Appreciative Living is not about fixing ourselves or our lives, but in finding what works; where we excel; what we love; what makes us come alive. It is about taking responsibility for the life we have created and for the one we desire. [Note: While it is NOT a religiously- or faith-, based program, it is easily adaptable to any belief system.]

For four Monday evenings in July (8, 15, 22, & 29), we will meet for 1-1/2 hours to learn how transformative this practice can be!  There will be no cost for the course, but participants will need to purchase either one of the following books by Jacqueline (Jackie) Kelm. Both are easily available online. They cover the same material, but the first has a more ‘theoretical” feel, and the second is more “self-help”.  There will also be a participant’s workbook that the Church will provide.

Kelm, Jacqueline Gascobert. Appreciative Living: The Principles of Appreciative Inquiry in Personal Life (Venet Publishers, 2005).

__________. The Joy of Appreciative Living (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2008).

If you are interested in learning more, please contact Fr. Gary at gbrower@gshep.org.

July 14 Faith Forum to feature presentation on downsizing

We spend many parts of our life accumulating stuff – buying, swapping, being given, and inheriting wonderful worldly goods.  Then comes the time when we don’t want, have the space for, or are just plain done with all the dust-catchers and finery of eras past.  How to get to the spiritual essence of what we have, and why we have it will be an ongoing goal.

Join parishioner Anne McMahon for an informational overview on the world of downsizing – what to do with, how to determine, and most importantly how to let go – of all those memories (and sets of dishes). The presentation will take place on Sunday, July 14th at 9 am in the Chapel.

Whether it’s that the clutter has finally gotten to you, or you’re planning a move with a real move date and it’s now serious – or you’re looking ahead and seeing what the next steps are for you – come and bring your questions, concerns and listen to an experienced, retired, business owner from the senior move manger business share stories and solutions.