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New Elders and Deacons Installed Sunday

Sunday, January 8 our new Elders and Deacons were installed into consistory (our name for the church board.). Thanks to those who served faithfully on the board in 2016 and welcome to our new Elders and Deacons. This year we will be exploring what it means to make disciples and how we can do this more effectively. Your continued prayers for us are very much appreciated. Pray for us on January 21 as the board and staff retreat together to explore God’s leading. We are excited about a new year of reaching out with the love of God here and around the world.

Ordaining Alan Brockette to the role of Deacon.

 

Ordaining Kate Ulmer to the role of Elder.

 

2017 Elders and Deacons

Deacons

Alan Brockette, Jim Flamming, Jim Humphreys, Nancy Josifek, Karen Schumacher, Willis Sneller (Chair)

Elders

Lois Deerberg, Deb DeHaan, Mike Robinson, Jerrad Swestka, Kate Ulmer, Ken Viggers

Pastors

Alan Crandall, J.R. Henderson, Kent Landhuis (President)

Journey, News

Journey 2017

Welcome to 2017!! In this new year the Journey student ministry has decided to take big steps in living out their faith. Come check out the student ministry hallway and room and see the different ways we are connecting with the community. In the hallway we have a map of the corridor with markers where we live, work, go to school, and just do life. These are our impact zones each and every week. Inside the Journey room we have a pathway wall that will have footprints on it. Each footprint represents a conversation we have had with someone about Jesus.

The third and final aspect we are adding to our Journey room is called a Cause Circle. This circle includes three separate parts. Part one is to pray for our friends who do not know Jesus, part two is to pursue them in a friendship, part three is to persuade them with the truth of the Gospel. Each week we will post names of our friends that we are engaging in each of the three areas. At the end of each Sunday night, our students will join around this Cause Circle and pray for all the names around the circle.

Please take time this year to pray for our students as they engage Cedar Rapids with the truth of the gospel of Jesus!!

~ Jeremy Van Genderen
Director of Youth and Young Adults

News, Reset

Microwave Reset

Sometimes if my microwave at home gets wiggled, jostled, or moved by too many slams of the door, it will power off. You have to reach behind to wiggle the power cord on the back to get it to turn back on. After it powers off, the screen always displays “0” instead of a clock. This drives me nutty. My husband will usually leave it on “0,” but my eyes are so accustomed to looking at the microwave for the time, that I am always compelled to reset the clock.

I wish I could leave it at that, but when I reset the clock, I face the dilemma of which clock do I set it to? The coffee pot clock? The big clock on the wall? Or my cell phone clock? I know my cell phone is the most accurate, but I also like all of my appliances to display the same time. (Any one else have this issue?) So much so, that if I use the coffee pot as my reference, I will wait until the minute changes and quickly reset the microwave at the same time so that their minutes both change together. This makes me happy. This January we will focus on recalibrating our hearts as we start a new year… doing a ‘reset’. But what should we recalibrate too? What is our guide of reference? And how can we align with all of those around us?

Jesus’ intro to the Sermon on the Mount gives a glimpse of how God’s principles for living are vastly different than the world: “Blessed are they that…” It’s good to take stock of our minds and hearts and rediscover where we have gone astray and reset them in line with God’s principles. I’m looking forward to doing this alongside all of you this new year!

~ Leah Carolan
Director of Worship

News, Reset

Resurrection Re-set

What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have Him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole. I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. . . . Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation. (1 Peter 1:3-9—The Message)
This torn, tarred, terrified, tear-stained world got its ultimate re-set 2,000 years ago when the apostles discovered an empty tomb and felt the nail-scarred hands of a living Lord. Re-set from Eden lost to Eden re-gained. Re-set from death to life. Re-set from the curse of Adam to the blessing of Christ. “Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph over his foes.” On that Sunday morning, the whole human family was set on a new course toward wholeness. You and I and all our neighbors were then and there resurrected, restored, and revitalized with Jesus, the victor over sin and death, the man who represents and embraces us all. Keep your eyes focused on the risen Savior—and his glorious resurrection re-set!

~ Alan Crandall
Pastor of Care

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Reset

Reset Love Rē-ˈset (verb) – 1. to move back into an original place or position | 2. to put back in the correct position for healing | 3. to restore

Remember the big, red easy button from Staples? Whenever someone is stuck, push the button and start over. “That was easy!” I wish resetting my heart were that easy. Sometimes my heart gets all muddled and disordered. I can feel the tug of fear. Envy. Failure. Pain. Bitterness. Greed. And my heart grows hard. The Bible says I should love God fully and love my neighbor as myself, but my hard heart has trouble loving. I need a reset.

Scripture can sometimes help. I read John 13. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” I read that and think, “Good idea.” But, my heart is not in it. I need to recalibrate my heart. My heart needs a reset button. As the new year starts I am praying that God will do a work in me and the first work I am asking for is on my heart to grow in love. “God reset my heart.” That is my prayer. You can pray for that, too.

Pastor Kent

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Giving Tuesday

mainlogoIt’s Giving Tuesday – a day to give back to charities and non-profits that you love to support.  Our unique challenge at Cedar Hills is to total up our spending from Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday and give 10% of your total.  Won’t you consider joining this movement of giving?

If giving to Cedar Hills, try out our new mobile app! Download from the App Store or Google Play by searching for “Cedar Hills”.  Or give directly online.

Not sure if you’re favorite organization is participating? Check out the Giving Tuesday website and do a search.

 

News

Cedar Hills launches a mobile App

img_2350-1Cedar Hills is exciting to announce that we know have a church app!  Within the app, you can find links to the sermon recordings online, the Bible, online giving, all our social media sites, prayer requests… and more.  Definitely all the best of Cedar Hills in one place.

Weather cancellations? With the new app, we can send them right to your phone.  Need to find your 2016 giving statement for tax purposes? Open the app, and click on “Church Community Builder”.  Need to find a phone number for someone else in the church? The “Church Community Builder” button in the app will also lead you to the right place.

Download the Cedar Hills app.

With the new app is also a new option to give using a debit/credit card or bank account.  Use the “give” button in the app, quickly setup a secure PushPay account if you haven’t already, and give easily.   Any offerings in the app link back directly to your church giving statements for a seamless giving experience.

We’re also looking for feedback on our app: if you have a good idea, please pass it our way as well.

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Youth Retreat Update – Two New Salvations!

brightspot“On Saturday night (November 12) at the Youth Group Fall Retreat two students accepted Christ for the first time and many others took steps to grow deeper in their faith.” ~ Jeremy Van Genderen

Last weekend the Journey student ministry went on retreat.  We’ve heard great testimonies from the weekend, but the highlight being two decisions for Christ!  Please pray for these new believers as they begin the great journey of faith.  And continue to pray for our youth as they move forward with a new hunger and desire for the gospel after their retreat.

Journey Student ministry is a place for ALL students 6th-12th grade to come walk together on their faith journey.

They meet on Sunday nights from 5:30pm-8pm at Cedar Hills Community Church.  Each night starts with a cafe time where you can purchase items like pizza, candy, chips, hotdogs, soda and Keurig coffee drinks.  Starting at 6:15pm, we rotate between large group teaching, small group discussion and games.

No matter where you are on your faith journey you are invited and welcomed to join us each and every week.

Holiday, News

Thanksgiving Eve

thanks_eve_bannerJoin us for worship on Thanksgiving Eve, the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving.  We’ll gather for a short reflective, uplifting and light-hearted service to take communion together, share stories of gratitude and worship. The service is in the Gathering Space, so has a completely different feel from Sunday morning. And is kid-friendly, too.

Wednesday, November 23 at 6:30pm.   All are welcome to come and join us for worship.

More about worship at Cedar Hills.

Find us.

News

Annual Celebration – Nov. 6

annualcelebrationAnnual Celebration

This Sunday we’ll gather together as a full church community for our Annual Celebration.   A potluck will immediately follow the 2nd worship service at 12:15pm, followed by the congregational meeting at 1pm.  (If your last begins with A-N, bring a main dish. O-T, bring a salad. U-Z, bring a dessert.)  Child care will be available at 1pm for children 0-2yrs.

Attending is important to active participation in the life of our church in numerous ways:

How is God at work?

We’ll hear stories of how God is at work within our church community and celebrate what He is doing. We have a lot for which to be grateful and will hear highlights from the year including the “State of the Church Report” from Pastor Kent.

United in Worship

We don’t often have opportunities to worship as a full church with members from both services.  What blessing to be able to gather together in one place!  We’ll open with a short time of worship and prayer as a full church body.

Elect Consistory

We’ll elect elders and deacons to serve on Consistory (the RCA name for the church board). This matters because God will use these newly elected leaders to lead our church Body for a three-year term. For more on the roles of elders and deacons in the Reformed Church and our structure of leadership, there is a brief write-up on the RCA website here. We’ll also celebrate the consistory members who have completed their three-year terms.

2017 Budget

We’ll vote on next year’s budget and learn together how we are doing financially.

Hope to see you there!

Love. Belong. Serve.