Women's Circle Bible Study: Let Justice Roll Down

Let Justice Roll Down: God’s Call to Care for Neighbors and All Creation

Come for a time of Bible study and fellowship where women are invited to get together on the third Monday of each month from 6:00-7:30 p.m. at Robbie Staubes’ home in Mount Pleasant.

September through May we will get together to consider how scripture reminds us that we are called to speak out to urge our society to act for just transitions in this fast-changing world.

We are called to care for neighbors and God’s creation with all our hearts, with particular care for society’s least powerful members who are disproportionately impacted by unjust systems. In God’s first instructions to the nation of Israel we hear “you shall not pervert the justice due to the poor” (Exodus 23:6); in Moses’ final speech at the promised land’s border, he reiterated, “Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:20); and from Amos, the earliest recorded prophet, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream” (Amos 5:24).

Lesson One: Monday, Sept. 16

Environmental Justice

Scripture: Ezekiel 33:21; 34:8; 17; 18-19

Lesson Two: Monday, Oct. 21

Land Justice

Scripture: Genesis 2:7; Leviticus 25:23; 25; 26–27; 28; Deuteronomy 20:16–18; Joshua 6; 1 Kings 21:1–16; Psalm 24:1–2; Isaiah 5:8

Contact: Lucie Medbery, Sarah Mitchell, or Robbie Staubes

Intergenerational Women's Circle: Sacred Encounters

Please fill out the form if you’d like more information:

Sacred Encounters: The Power and Presence of Jesus Christ in Luke-Acts

Come for a time of Bible study and fellowship where women are invited to get together from 6:00-7:30 p.m. at Robbie Staubes’ home in Mount Pleasant.

September through May we will get together to consider Jesus and Jesus’ disciples who shared the Good News through sacred encounters with everyday people.

The Gospel According to Luke and the book of the Acts of the Apostles, or Luke-Acts, “one story in two parts,” demonstrate the unfolding of God’s redemptive purposes in human history and present a distinctive perspective on the person and work of Jesus Christ. Written by Luke, a physician and traveling companion of Paul, the message to the early Christian community (and to us) is radical, inclusive, and hope-filled.

Lesson Nine: May 20

People Encounter Jesus Through the Work of the Disciples

Scripture: Acts 9:36–43

Lesson Eight: Monday, Apr. 15

Lydia Encounters Jesus in Worship

Scripture: Acts 16:11–15

Lesson Seven: Mar. 18

An Ethiopian Eunuch Encounters the Good News of Jesus

Scripture: Acts 8:26-40

Lesson Six: Monday, Feb. 19

A Person with a Physical Disability Encounters Jesus

Scripture: Acts 3:1-10

Lesson Five: Monday, Jan. 15

A Person with Leprosy Encounters Jesus

Scripture: Luke 17:11-21

Lesson Four: Monday, Dec. 11

Mary and Martha Encounter Jesus

Scripture: Luke 10:38—42

Lesson Three: Monday, Nov. 13

A Bleeding Woman Encounters Christ

Scripture: Luke 8:43—48

Lesson Two: Thursday, Oct. 19

The Exorcism in Gerasa

Scripture: Luke 8:26—39

Lesson One: Thursday, Sept. 21

Elizabeth’s Sacred Encounter

Scripture: Luke 1:1—24; 39—45

Contact: Lucie Medbery, Sarah Mitchell, or Robbie Staubes

Volunteer with the Children and Youth on Sundays

We are excited to expand our opportunities for children and youth ministry this year to include more activities to foster curiosity and wonder in their spiritual lives. It’s only possible with an amazing team of volunteers invested in supporting the children in our faith community.

Please sign up to volunteer at least 2 or 3 times this semester.

Volunteers are needed on Sunday mornings to help in the nursery (0-2 year olds) and to lead the activity and lesson for either the 3-5K group or 1st-5th graders after the Children’s Chapel group time. You will need to walk over with the children to the Chapel after the Time for Children during church and then walk the children down to your assigned classroom for the lesson and activities. Note that the Time for Children will be a little earlier in the service to allow some more time for these children's ministry activities.

To make it as convenient as possible to volunteer, all lesson plans will be provided ahead of time and any lesson materials will be prepared before you arrive on Sunday morning.

Youth Group volunteers are needed each Sunday from 5:30-7:30 p.m. to help facilitate a time for upper elementary (3rd-5th grade), middle and high school students alongside Mr. Ken.

Volunteers are also needed to provide supper for the Youth Group.

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At Second, we value the impact our young people have within our congregation and community. Thank you for volunteering to help make these opportunities for spiritual development, faith formation, and study possible. Please contact our Director of Children and Youth, Ken Carrington at ce@2ndpc.org for more information.

Intergenerational Women's Bible Study: Celebrating Sabbath

Please fill out the form if you’d like more information:

Celebrating Sabbath: Accepting God’s Gift of Rest and Delight

Come for a time of Bible study and fellowship where women of all ages are invited to get together from 6:00-7:30 p.m. at Robbie Staubes’ house in Mount Pleasant.

September through May we will get together to consider Sabbath

• as a celebration, not a day of dreary formality

• as God’s intent for all of creation and that includes busy women too

• as one day of the week, perhaps a Sunday

• as a time to surrender unhealthy striving and frantic busyness, and instead trust God will provide

• as a reminder that life is precious and working too much is against God’s plans for our precious lives

• as a day devoted to community and justice and not exclusively to self-care

Ultimately, Sabbath reminds us to honor God who
honors us by giving us a day each week to reset our pace, our priorities, and our lives. Friends and visitors are welcome.

Extra copies of the lesson are made available in the narthex ahead of each meeting.

Lesson One: Sabbath and Celebration
Monday, September 19th

Lesson Two: Sabbath and Creation
Monday, October 17th

Lesson Four*: Sabbath and Surrender
Monday, November 14th

Lesson Three*: Sabbath and Sunday
Monday, December 12th

Lesson Five: Sabbath and Servitude
Monday, January 23rd

Lesson Six: Sabbath and Hospitality
Monday, February 20th

*meeting at the church upstairs in the conference room

Lesson Seven: Sabbath and Self-Care
Monday, March 20th

Lesson Eight: Sabbath and Justice
Monday, April 17th

Lesson Nine: Sabbath and Community
Monday, May 15th

Contact: Lucie Medbery, Sarah Mitchell, or Robbie Staubes

Intergenerational Women's Bible Study

Please fill out the form if you’d like more information:

Come for a monthly Bible study opportunity where women of all ages are invited to get together from 6:30-8:00 p.m. at Robbie Staubes’ house in Mount Pleasant.

September through May we will get together to explore What My Grandmothers Taught Me: Learning from the Women in Matthew’s Genealogy of Jesus. Their stories will lead us into the gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ and by exploring these stories together, we will have a richer idea of what the good news is.  Extra copies of the lesson are available at each meeting. You can read more about each lesson here.

Lesson One: Family Trees
Tuesday, September 21st

Lesson Two: Tamar
Monday, October 11th

Lesson Three: Rahab
Monday, November 1st

Lesson Four: Ruth and Loyal Love
Monday, December 6th

Lesson Five: Ruth and Redemption
Tuesday, Jan. 25th postponed to Monday, February 21st due to the early 2022 surge of COVID cases

Lesson Six: Bathsheba and Naming Injustice
Monday, March 14th

Lesson Seven: The Scandal of Mary’s Christmas
Monday, April 4th at the church

Lesson Eight: Mary in the Faith and Tradition of the Church
Monday, April 25th

Lesson Nine: What Are These Women Doing in a Place Like This?
Monday, May 16th

Please do not come to in-person groups or events if you are exhibiting any COVID-like symptoms, are aware of an exposure, or have been asked by a school or other institution to quarantine or isolate.

Contact: Lucie Medbery and Sally Caithness

2020 CE Report

April 28, 2020

Christian Education

What an exciting year for Christian education: We started the year with a kick off on Blessing of the Backpacks Sunday.  After blessing the backpacks in the service we served hotdogs and snow cones out on the portico.   

Just a few weeks after we blessed our backpacks we had Homecoming Sunday where we celebrated our 1st, 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th graders, saying a blessing over them and handing out Bibles. 

We also started Sunday School that week. We had three new Sunday School classes start in addition to the Mixed Adults class which has been going strong for years.  Our new classes included Peter Rupert leading a young adults class, Dominique German leading the 6th-12grade class, Sue Henderson teaching 3rd-5th grades and Robbie Staubes teaching 4k-2nd.  All classes came with a time change to the main service, our service was moved to 10:30 in order to incorporate our new Sunday School classes starting at 9:30. 

In September we also added two new Bible studies to our already existing Women’s Bible Study led by Sue Henderson on Wednesday nights.  A Men’s Study was started on Fridays at 6am and a Women’s Bible Study on Tuesday morning at 9:00am right after preschool drop off. These will continue throughout the summer in different zoom meetings. 

In October we enjoyed a great turn out at our Trunk or Treat event and we hope to build upon it this year by having more congregation participants decorating cars and opening it up more to the community.

Our Advent program was well attended but we are looking at new ideas to help incorporate more families and church member this coming advent. Our children's pageant during the service was a big hit and a blessing to all who participated as well as all who watched.

In January we began the long and difficult task of planning our first community wide vacation school. We partnered with Zion AME to reach a broader base.  We were all excited to see what the Lord could do on the East Side of Charleston.  We had a lot of plans in place and we were looking forward to our powerful week in June.  Unfortunately, due to the virus we have had to cancel our VBS for this year.  My heart is broken, but I know that the Lord has greater plans and that if he cares for even the sparrow then he has plans for the children around our church and in our community.

Moving forward there were plans to start meeting with the different age youth ministries: rising 6th grades through rising 8th graders and rising 9th graders through rising 12th graders.  It is still my hope to start bringing these groups together towards the end of the summer so that we can have strong groups for the fall and upcoming retreats with our presbytery.

Sunday School will kick off again this fall with more options and new exciting topics. We will also be looking at community small groups as well as strengthening our existing Bible studies. 

Of course, we will (hopefully) end our summer with Hands of Christ and Blessing of the Backpacks.

Thank you for the continued opportunity to serve among you and I look forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for our community in the coming months as we continue to adjust to new normals.

Blessings,

Sarah

Flat Jesus

Spring and summer are busy times of the year! Spring brings a lot of time spent outside with family and friends and a whole new schedule of sports. Families begin to wrap up the school year with final projects, testing and a whole long to-do list full of things. There’s spring break trips and plans, Easter egg hunts, end of the year cookouts and the travels begin. As your family begins to make travel plans this spring and summer, would you consider taking a special guest with you on your adventures? Whether they are local, near or far, consider taking this someone special with you. Let “Flat Jesus” be a part of all your fun!

What is “Flat Jesus?”

 FLAT JESUS was created as a way to keep our church connected as we approach the travel seasons of spring and summer.

Here’s how “Flat Jesus” works: 

Print out Flat Jesus, color him in, and take of picture of him wherever you go. You’ll love taking FLAT JESUS out to dinner with you, on Spring Break, to the beach, to hang with your grandchildren, and when you meet new friends all over town! It’s an amazing adventure. Take FLAT JESUS with you and see what happens.   

How to create your very own Flat Jesus: 

1. Print out the template - on heavy cardstock paper if possible. 

2. Be creative! Decorate Flat Jesus. Think about what, if anything, his robe should say.  What color and type of hair does your Flat Jesus have? Any accessories? 

3. Make one for yourself and one for a friend!

4. Place a reminder on the back of your Flat Jesus on how and where to send pictures of your Flat Jesus’ adventures. Send pictures to Miss Liv (olivia.cappelmann@2ndpc.org)

 5. If you have access to a laminating machine, laminate your Flat Jesus. This way if he attempts to walk on water he’ll be protected! 

6. Take your Flat Jesus everywhere with you and take lots of pictures and then share them with us.

7. Talk with family and friends about what you and Flat Jesus experienced.

There are lots of things happening here at Second that Flat Jesus would love to be a part of, too. Wednesday night suppers and studies wrap up on April 25th with the “Second Annual Talent Show.” We hope that you will join us for a night of fun, food and fellowship with your church family. Three of our high school youth will be traveling to Montreat Youth Conference the week of June 10th-16th. We will also take a group of middle school youth to the Montreat Middle School Conference at Maryville College July 18th-22nd.

Have you marked your calendars for Vacation Bible School yet? It is June 24th-28th from 5:30-8:00 every night and we need you! There are lots of ways to be involved in VBS and we cannot do it without you. If you have any questions about how to get involved or register your child for VBS please give Liv a call or send her an email.