Celebrate a new school year in style. The Journey Youth kick-off is Sunday, Sept 8 from 5pm-8pm. Cedar Hills Youth ages 6th grade to 12th grade and their friends are welcome. Come prepared to make a mess! (Wear clothes you don’t mind messing up… and bring extra clothes and a towel.)
We’ll be at Cedar Hills Community Church (at the corner of E Avenue and Stoney Point Rd NW).
Because God loves you and we do, too!
Could it be true? Will it really open?
Word has it that the roundabout construction will be complete this weekend and that the corner will reopen THIS SATURDAY, August 17. So maybe you won’t need that extra 5-10-15 minutes to get to church as of this Sunday!
If you make it through the intersection, please report back in and let us all know!
On the cedar-rapids.org website, it lists and open house for the roundabout Saturday at 10:30am:
“CEDAR RAPIDS, IA – August 9, 2019 – The City of Cedar Rapids will host a “Mobile Open House” at the parking lot of Cedar Hills Community Church (6455 E Ave NW) on Saturday, August 17, from 10:30 a.m. – noon. The open house will give residents and community members the opportunity to learn more about the newly constructed single-lane roundabout installed at Stoney Point Road and E Avenue NW.
Residents are encouraged to stop by anytime and have the opportunity to talk with City staff regarding the roundabout, learn more about safety and efficiency features, see a simulation video of how the roundabout works, and even drive the roundabout with a City engineer. The open house is part of a public awareness campaign aimed at helping residents feel more comfortable with navigating roundabouts and learning more about their safety benefits. This is the third mobile open house hosted by the City.
Roundabouts help slow traffic speeds and reduce the severity of crashes, eliminating head-on and right-angle crashes with their slow, counterclockwise movement. They are more efficient than traffic signals, where signalized intersections are often not needed during the majority of the day outside peak morning and evening commutes.
Cedar Rapids installed its first roundabout in 2017 on Kirkwood Blvd SW, just south of 76th Avenue, which relieved chronic daily congestion for the College Community School District. A roundabout was also recently installed at Johnson Avenue NW and Wiley Blvd in 2018, and a roundabout is currently underway on Johnson Avenue NW and Jacolyn Drive.
To learn more about roundabouts or to download material or educational videos, please visit www.cityofcr.com/roundabouts.”
Calling all Middle School and High School students…
Sunday, August 18th, 5:30pm-8:00pm, Journey youth group will kick off! Come meet Steve and his family. Enjoy a time of food, fellowship, games, worship, and door prizes. Free pizza and ice cream sundaes. See you there! Will start in the Journey Rooms (132A/B)
If you haven’t registered yet, go here.
Or print and fill out the waiver form.
Join us for a pre-Summit worship gathering Wednesday, August 7 at 7pm. The worship service is part of the Global Leadership Summit kick-off, and is free and open to the public. You do not need to be registered for the Summit to attend.
The worship will be streaming live out of Willow Creek church in Chicago, IL. Cedar Hills is blessed and excited to be a host site for this year’s Global Leadership Summit – August 8-9.
If you’d like to attend the Summit at Cedar Hills, you can register online. Cedar Hills attendees are encouraged to contact the office for a special promo code.
We started a missional community (MC) four years ago with friends. We got the idea from our pastor that we should consider meeting regularly with others for the purpose of being discipled.
We were friends with the other couple, but not best friends. We had been getting together infrequently, prior to starting the MC. The following is what our evening looks like, when we meet every other Thursday.
We take turns coming to each other’s homes. The host cooks a meal for all of us and we join up around 5:30 pm to eat dinner together. After dinner, the gals sit and talk or go for a walk. The guys do the same around the pool table or in the backyard. The kids roam and play. After a while, we put the kids to bed. Sometimes we put a kid
in the basement bed or the laundry room (in a pack-n-play). We make the space as needed.
Then the four of us head to the living room to have some dessert and coffee. We take time to go over the chapter we are reading or the video we are watching. We share prayer requests, which is an essential way to share in each other’s lives. We’ve been through many ups and downs together including starting new businesses, miscarriages, work promotions, and deaths of family and friends.
This MC has been a core reason that I have moved forward in spiritual maturity. Becoming more Christ-like (than we once were) is the goal for our MC and the MC has been one of the best ways to see this come to fruition.
Lindsey Ungs
Connection and Communication Architect
Worship Ministries—Jump in!
If you have ever been interested in joining a worship ministry music team, this is the time of year to jump in.
Sanctuary Choir: This group sings about every three weeks in the 8:30 AM service. Choir is open to anyone high school aged and above who can read music (primarily SATB). Choir rehearses on Wednesdays, 6:40 PM in room 132A and will begin rehearsals August 21. All current choir members and any interested in choir are invited to sing at the Fall Kick-Off worship services August 18. The choir will sing along with the hymns at 8:30 AM service. Practice is just prior to the service at 8 AM that day. Choir is directed by Stuart Geiger.
1st Service Worship Teams: These SATB groups rotate and sing/play one week a month. Teams rehearse on Wednesday nights at 6 PM, prior to the Sunday they sing. Singers must be able to read music, as we sing parts on the hymns. We currently have openings for tenors and sopranos, but all are encouraged to apply, including pianists and organists!
2nd Service Worship Teams: These teams are a mix of singers and instruments (guitars, piano, keys, bass, drums, and occasional string instruments). Music at this service is led from chord charts, so some ‘playing-by-ear’ is required, and great for those who don’t read music. To participate in 2nd Service teams, the first step is to join a Worship Jam. (see below)
Worship Jams: Jams are open to all musicians and are held quarterly throughout the year. We pack all our voices and instruments on stage at the 2nd service and lead as an entire team! The next Jam is Wednesday, August 14 at 6:30 PM and will lead the 2nd service worship on Kick-Off Sun, Aug 18. To express interest in worship ministries or for more info, contact Leah.
Leah
Director of Worship & Media
We had 18 kiddos who did everything from pretending to be a pirate to being in the stomach of a whale, which was kind of stinky by the way!!
We are now ready to focus on our 50th year of Noah’s Ark Preschool! We have openings for Tuesday and Thursday 3-year-olds for the 2019-2020 school year. If you know anyone ready to start school, send them our way. You can register online or call the office to have a packet mailed.
All students and parents are invited to attend our Orientation Night! We’ll let the kids play in their new rooms with their teachers and the parents will attend a “Get to Know Noah’s Ark” Presentation. It is best if you have your paperwork ready to be submitted this evening, along with your first month’s tuition. Call the office if you need a packet. Contact the office for information: 319-396-3125 or email.
In God’s Grace,
Kris Crowther
Director of Noah’s Ark Preschool
Coming this FallThis fall we will celebrate 60 years as a congregation bound together in faith and outreach. Also, we’ll celebrate our 14th year in our current facility. In these years, we’ve served numerous families through Cross Training, Sunday worship, and Children and Youth Ministries.
We’ve hosted countless church and community events as well as funerals and weddings. We watched hundreds of preschoolers learn about their colors, numbers, and that God loves them through the ministry of Noah’s Ark. We launched a food pantry that meets food needs for our neighborhood and housed recover workers and displaced residents during disasters. Our space has been even more successful in reaching our community than we might have imagined.
With all the success, comes wear and tear. After 13 years of service, it’s time to refresh several components of our building, both physical and mechanical. Also, we want to continue to reduce our building debt.
Volunteers are looking at items that need fixing, replacing and updating, including heating and cooling units, the roof, the sanctuary sound and video system, carpet and more. All of these items are at or will be reaching the end of their useful life now or in the coming years. The campaign, and donations made in response, will allow us to make these important repairs and upgrades when they are needed. This fall will kick-off the
campaign to refresh the facility and further reduce our debt. Prayerfully consider what role you could play in the campaign and what God might put on your heart to give to support this effort.
Fall Kick-Off 2019Join us Sunday, August 18 at 9:45am for the Fall Kick-Off Open House (preschool—adults) to meet your teacher, visit your classroom, and have brunch.
Sunday, August 25 all classes begin at 9:45am.
Nursery: Staffed by loving volunteers at the 11am service. (Open for use by parents at the 8:30am service)
3&4 year olds: Robin Joens, Deb DeHaan, and Mary Landhuis (Register)
Kindergarten: Paula Stevens and Diane Potter (Register)
1st Grade: Jana Houghkirk and Tracy Spicer-Ehrman (Register)
2nd & 3rd Grade: Melissa Oberembt and Jill Henry (Register)
4th & 5th Grade: Matt Johnson and Matt Houghkirk (Register)
Middle School (6th-8th): Coming soon! (Register)
FaithQuest (for youth desiring Cedar Hills membership): Lois Deerberg (Register)
Senior High (9th-12th): Coming soon! (Register)
Teachers: Alan & Jan Crandall; Sue & Gary Sager; and Deb Steinbaker.
Exchange your brokenness for Christ‘s wholeness. Everyone has access to the abundant life Christ offers. We will look at the process of how to restore our lives to the image of God through Christ‘s love. (REGISTER)
Teacher: Joanne Lodge
The time of Israel during the reign of Ahab and Jezebel was a very immoral, treacherous time. How do we stand in such times? We will open the scriptures to study ordinary people who not only survived the times, but became extraordinary witnesses for God. We will receive hope, encouragement and direction for our own journey. (REGISTER)
Teachers: Bruce Boldt and Kyle French.
This is the ultimate definition for how we hope and pray that the Bible will work within us. Wouldn’t you adore a faith that could never be forgotten or removed, even against all evil? (REGISTER)
Teachers: Matthew & Shannon Constant; Stephen & Amanda Colbert; Karl & Lindsey Ungs.
Parenting is a big job and parents can use a lot of help along the way. The goal for our group is to build relationships by learning from and with each other in how we can raise our kids and grow as parents in a Godly way. (REGISTER)
From the Consistory – News and Notes
Our vision as a congregation is to make disciples who make disciples in the everyday stuff of life so that every man, woman and child in our community has a daily encounter with Jesus in word and deed.
Our goal as Consistory is to work toward alignment of all our staff and programs with this vision. When Jeremy shared his calling to move to Allison to become the pastor at Trinity Reformed Church, we started our discernment process for seeking a new Director of Youth and Young Adults.
The Search team processed dozens of candidates, interviewed four, and recommended two candidates
to meet with our congregation, youth, parents and youth sponsors. After processing feedback from the
candidate visits as well as references from the candidates we concluded that we had two excellent candidates.
Both candidates loved the Lord, had a passion for student ministry, had successful experience leading and growing student ministries, have built and led ministry teams, communicated well publically, and have developed solid biblical/theological foundations for ministry. Both candidates were well qualified!
When we discussed vision alignment, discipleship strategy, and chemistry we agreed – unanimously – that Steve Poole was the best fit for our ministry at this time. Consistory unanimously agreed with this recommendation and offered Steve the position.
We are very excited for the gifts that Steve brings to ministry. Here are a few of the qualities that led to our decision:
Steve has a highly relational approach to ministry.
Steve’s focus on disciple-making, mentoring, and small groups fits closely with our vision.
Steve has a humble, curious, and teachable spirit.
Steve is youth culture savvy and also in touch with the latest youth ministry trends.
Steve has current and past connections with RCA people, events, and culture. (Rocky, Power Connection, Central College, Adventure Life Reformed Church, Lakeview Camp, etc.)
Steve’s camp experience offers unique opportunities and also represents experience working with younger children.
Please pray for Steve, Cathy, and their children, Abby and Christopher, as they relocate to Cedar Rapids. Steve will begin his ministry here August 11! Thanks to all who helped in this process and thanks for your prayers!!! God has blessed us!