Worship Moment
Enjoy this moment of worship with Leah Carolan, leading “Build My Life”. Our favorite line: “I will build my life upon Your love. It is a firm foundation.”
Category Archives: News
An Update From Pastor Kent
An Update from Pastor Kent
May 8, 2020
Dear Cedar Hills Family,
I want to update you on our plans for re-opening in-person worship gatherings and share perspective on the future of our ministry.
First, the short update: We hope to meet together soon, but not yet. When it becomes legal, wise, and safe (not just legal) for us to gather for in-person worship again, we will joyfully do so. Until then, we will continue to gather online instead.
Second, the planning. Last week when Governor Reynolds lifted legal restrictions on religious gatherings in all 99 counties, many people were surprised. The announcement came sooner than expected and placed the decision about reopening with each individual congregation. At that time our consistory and staff began praying, discerning, and planning.
While we don’t want to rush back too soon and put our church family, or the community we love, at risk; we also don’t want to wait too long to get back together again as a church family. When we do re-gather, social distancing and other safety protocols to protect us from unnecessary exposure to COVID-19 will no doubt remain in place. As our plan comes together we will share additional details.
And now, some perspective on our ministry. We are called as a congregation to make disciples who love, belong, and serve. The pandemic does not change our mission. We carry out our mission by offering hospitality, authenticity, forgiveness, and restoration. The pandemic has not changed our values. Mission and values are one thing – strategy is another. The pandemic is challenging our strategy.
Challenging times call for creative solutions. We are blessed with gifted staff and leaders who love the church and long to see us connect more deeply. We see Cedar Hills as a place for belonging and now is a time when people are hungry to reconnect. Consider how God is calling you to connect with others through these opportunities.
- We will continue to connect online. This opportunity includes Facebook Live worship, Zoom groups, and individually reaching out with phone calls, texts, and emails.
- When it is deemed safe, we will connect in person. Think about who you want to connect with in larger group worship, or in-home worship watch parties, or in small groups. When gathering in-person, always follow the recommendations for six feet of physical space, regular hand washing, and do not gather if you are unwell.
- Everyone wants a friend – especially now. We will use this unique time as an opportunity to grow neighborhood connections by boldly loving your neighbors, co-workers, and family members. Reach out in safe ways to love and serve others. You can be a bright spot of hope to someone who might be very discouraged and anxious!
Imagine how fun and refreshing it will be to connect (six feet apart for now!) with new friends in your church family, in your workplace, and in your neighborhood. Imagine bringing life you help the disconnected feel real belonging. Imagine how good it will feel to endure this season of uncertainty and find our way back to wide-open doors welcoming disciples. Imagine our community transformed! Imagine hope, not fear!!
We are the kind of people who unlock doors for people. The pandemic does not change that even if it invites us to imagine new ways of connection. May God bless us as with strong imaginative powers. “Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Jeremiah 29:7
The Lord be with you,
Pastor Kent
P.S. Thanks for your generous support through prayers and financial gifts. You are making a difference as we make disciples who love, belong, and serve together!
Are you graduating? Calling All 2020 Graduates!
Attention: High school and college graduates!
Cedar Hills will be recognizing our graduates on May 24th. Please register to be recognized by filling out this form. It asks the following:
- A current picture (senior picture)
- A baby picture
- School from which you are graduating & any honors/degrees
- What’s next?
- Words of the wise…
HS graduates – what is your advice to those entering HS?
College graduates – what is your advice to those entering college?
This information will be used to create a slideshow for our worship service on May 24th. Also, graduates will be featured in the June edition of CHIPS!
A Quick Three-Question Survey
The Cedar Hills board is continuing to keep track of the COVID-19 public gathering recommendations closely. However, we would like to gauge our congregation’s comfort level regarding when we gather together in-person again. Please answer this quick 3-question survey:
Gathering Survey
Worship & Links 5-3-20
Links for Sunday, May 3, 2020 |
Sunday, May 3, 2020
Video Highlights:
Cedar Hills Kids:
News:
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From Pastor Kent
Note from Pastor Kent
Many times in the past few weeks I have felt weary. I miss my old routines, I’m tired of all the changes, I want to meet up with people, I’d like to stop thinking about COVID19. I’ve said many times, “I’m taking it one day at a time.” and I’m tired of that. It is exhausting. COVID time feels like dog time. One week equals seven.
Two things helped me this week. First, a passage of scripture. Isaiah 40:28-31
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Second, a passage from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring.
“I wish it need not happened in my time.” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandolf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
The Lord be with you,
Pastor Kent
Serving Burnout Threshold
There are times in my life where the mere hint at yet another thing someone is asking of me has the potential to put me over the top. Whether home life, work life, friends, kids, invitations to events—sometimes enough is enough.
We have the danger in ministry of becoming busy-bodies. It’s fun to serve. It feels good to serve. It LOOKS good to serve. But there is also a side of serving we don’t often address: Serving Burnout.
Serving burnout comes from unmotivated serving. Serving for the wrong reasons. Serving out of a deficit of our spiritual walk instead of out of an abundance. Serving because we’re ‘supposed to’. Serving because that’s what ‘good Christians do.’
When I get to the place in life where one more task sounds completely unbearable, I am at that serving-burnout-threshold: the place where instead of serving joyfully and happily, I am serving with a darkened, bitter, grumpy, whiny, complaining heart that finds fault in everyone and everything.
At this moment, I need to run to the Father. At this moment, I have lost sight of God and am running in my own strength instead of His. When I have lost sight of God and am serving outside of my abundance with Him, serving sucks. And I am bitter person. When I am at one with God, when I am at peace with God, my natural loving, serving heart is opened and I can find joy in even the most menial tasks.
As we learn about our church vision of “LOVE. BELONG. SERVE.” you must know it isn’t all about doing! At first glance, it looks like more ‘do this, do that’ but it is not! These three things are completely motivated by the work that God has done FIRST. We can truly extend love, only to the capacity that we know of God’s great love for us through His son Jesus. We can extend belonging to another, out of a depth of knowledge that God has adopted us as orphans to become part of His family. And we are able to love, to help others belong and able to serve because God has done all these things first.
Leah Carolan
Director of Worship & Media
Final Chips
We have been incredibly blessed to be able to serve those who have come to worship at Cedar Hills throughout the years, and so thankful that the Lord has given us this time together and we will not soon forget a minute of it.
However bittersweet, the Lord has a different direction for us and a new calling to pursue to bring glory to His Kingdom. In obedience to our Lord, Alisse and I will be taking the plunge into the adventures of church planting.
With immense grace, we have been given a wonderful partnership with an experienced church planting couple who are currently leading a plant in the Newbo area for the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America). I’ve already begun to check some of the initial boxes of the ordination process and hopefully in the next few months will be traveling to partake in the PCA’s national church planting assessment.
Once placed into a formal PCA partnership with our church planting friends, our efforts will be two-fold, to learn and grow under their guidance and also to begin setting the foundation for our own church plant that we expect to be planting up in the Marion area.
We know that we can’t do this alone, but in partnerships. And we’d love for you to be able to partner with us in a couple of different ways:
1) Pray for us.
2) Interested in participating in a plant in Newbo or Marion? Let us know.
3) Support us financially either by check or digital donation to our Paypal at www.paypal.me/kyletfrench (once we are officially received by the PCA, then donations will be tax-deductible).
Once again, thank you for allowing us to be a part of your spiritual journey!
Kyle French
Director of Family & Children Ministry
Belonging, in a Pandemic
Belonging, in a Pandemic
My in-laws suggested we “borrow” their cat for the duration of the pandemic, so the kids would have a pet to play with. It seemed like a great idea the more we thought about it. The cat, Joey, is incredible with kids, allowing them to drag him around and hold him (from every angle). We bought all the supplies needed and planned to pick him up the next day, all without revealing the surprise to the kids. It was at this point that I shared the idea with my friend Jessica (who is in our small group). She quickly reminded me that she has a severe cat allergy, a detail I had placed in the recesses of my brain.
Over a 12 hour period, Karl and I had to make a decision about what to do. We already had all the supplies. Also, Joey’s visit was our Easter gift to the kids. Many thoughts ran through my mind. Would there really be pet dander in our house when we can see each other again, months from now? How bad is her allergy? Should I really toss my plans just for this?
After praying about it, I had a new perspective enter my mind. Am I prioritizing a thing (a pet) over a person? This thought stuck with me for several hours. Even though I was still angry about having to cancel our “Easter surprise,” I decided to prioritize our relationship over a pet (that wasn’t even ours).
We prioritize our small group relationships in-part because it provides us with belonging and connection, even in a pandemic. It’s where we live out the sanctification process. Sometimes that process is ugly or involves anger and sometimes it is joyful. Over the last 5 years, we have gotten on each other’s nerves, sometimes to the point of not speaking to each other for a short time. But that’s the reality of being broken humans in a close relationship. The beauty is that we get to give and receive hospitality, authenticity, forgiveness, and restoration in the regular flow of life.
Since social distancing began, our small group continues to meet. We use Zoom and the Marco Polo app. We’ve recently begun having the guys and gals meet on separate nights, using Zoom. This way the “other” parent can put the kids to bed. Being able to see each other’s faces and nonverbal gestures is helpful for maintaining close relationships. Belonging and connection are possible, even in a pandemic.
Lindsey Ungs
Connection & Communication Architect
Journey Update – May 2020
Journey Student Ministry
ZOOM! I never imagined when 2020 began that a group video chatting program named Zoom would play such a large role in my life and ministry. This time of COVID-19 stay home order has upended my life. Youth group?! How do you do that? I want to just give you a brief glimpse into a youth group Zoom meeting.
Our youth group is so blessed to have many talented musicians. During this time we have been encouraged by lyrics calling us to peace confronting our fear with faith. This time of worship has a ook different. Worshiping together, to pre-recorded videos of Ben leading worship, to now doing worship LIVE on Zoom. Our spirits lifted up together, even when we are in different physical locations.
In a Zoom meeting we chat about how all these changes, and the unknown is affecting us. We offer encouraging words and prayers for each other. Our current series is “You Can’t Quarantine the Gospel.” We pray. We care. We share. We are praying together for our friends, family and those in need. We are talking about how we can care for our friends and family well and how Christians have been known for centuries for how they care in times of crisis. We share, learn how to share, the hope of the Gospel, which shines brighter than ever, providing hope in this crisis.
Finally, our Zoom meetings involve playing games! We have played screen games like, “Did they Peep it?” A game in which student earn points by correctly guessing if flavor of Peep was real or fake. (Do they make bacon flavored Peeps?) But our favorite game has been a scavenger hunt game, where students earn points by getting things from around their house; a bug, tallest tower of toilet paper, previously chewed gum… The best part is that we are together, we belong, and for just a little while we forget that we are cooped up at home!
Steve Poole
Director of Student Ministry