Weekly News

Elder Gloria Watson, CLP of Twining-Maple Ridge who is recovering from knee surgery.
Elder Freda Lawther and the Rev. Rich Lawther of Fairgrove Freda continues to battle cancer. Prayers for both Freda and Rich during this difficult time.
Tom Princinsky and Elder Julianne Princinsky Tom continues his recovery from a stroke several months ago. Prayers for both of them during this time of adjustment.
The Rev. Dr. George Baird, Stated Clerk of the Synod of the Covenant, former LHP Stated Clerk and Pastor of Midland-Chapel Lane who celebrated his 80th birthday earlier this week.
The Rev. Parker Smith and Susie Smith as they begin to enjoy Parker's retirement.
The congregation and pastors of Flint-Trinity United who celebrate their 2nd anniversary this weekend.
The Rev. John Becker and Emily Becker of Vassar as they look forward to and plan for their retirement in the summer of 2010.

(Contact information is available for anyone on the prayer list

by calling the presbytery office at 989-799-7481 or 800-621-6905)

For Your Calendar...Happenings in the Presbytery

June 28 - The Rev. Parker Smith's last Sunday at Linden Worship service at 10:00am; Celebration Dinner at 5:00pm Visit their website for details.
June 28 - Flint-Trinity United - Second Anniversary Celebration Worship at 10:30am Click Here to visit their website.
July 2 - Board of Trustees meeting at the Presbytery Office at 9:30am
July 3 - Presbytery Office closed in observance of the July 4th holiday
Week of July 5th - Health Fairs
July 6 - Nominating Team meeting at the Presbytery Office at 1:00pm
Summer 2009 - Vacation Bible School Click Here to go to our Upcoming Events page to see a listing of the host churches, the dates and themes

World Mission Challenge '09

is coming to Lake Huron Presbytery

Amy Robinson, mission worker in the area along the Texas/Mexico border (El Paso and Ciudad Juarez), will be visiting Lake Huron Presbytery from September 25 through October 2. In addition to sharing her experiences in her current role, Amy can tell us what it’s like to be a human rights “accompanier” in Colombia and to serve as a Young Adult Volunteer as the primary staff person at a church in Cincinnati. She will also share the story of how God is at work not only in Mexico, Colombia, and the U.S., but all around the world, through mission workers from the Presbyterian Church (USA). You can learn more about Amy at www.pcusa.org/missionchallenge/speakers.htm. Events will occur in each of the presbytery’s five regions, so that you and others from your congregation, including your young people, will be able to meet and converse with Amy. Stay tuned for details, headed your way soon. As you may realize, the PC (USA) has a very real commitment to mission in partnership. It is for this reason the church is sending 40 PC(USA) mission personnel into 140 presbyteries for World Mission Challenge ’09.

"Happy are those who....

give food to the hungry"

(Psalm 146:5-7)

A new Two Coins-A-Meal brochure is now available in print and on-line to assist congregations to participate in the Presbytery of Lake Huron's hunger ministry. Since the beginning of "Two-Coins" in 1989, the Presbytery has dedicated a major portion (now 55%) of the offering to help alleviate hunger especially among children through our IEPC partner churches in Costa Rica. 20% of the offering is designated to the Presbyterian Hunger Program to respond to the crisis of hunger in the U.S. and around the world, and 25% is designated by your congregation to meet hunger needs in your local community. Contact the Presbytery Office (800-621-6905) to order a limited quantity of the brochures or download the brochure by Clicking Here to print quantities locally. The form may also be found on the Documents page of this website. For further information about "Two-Coins" or the Presbytery's Costa Rica Partnership Network contact the Presbytery's Hunger Action Enabler, Judy McDowell at jsmcdowell@charter.net or 989-839-6926.

The Nominating Team is looking for a few good men and women

Perhaps you feel a call to serve your presbytery or know of someone who would be a great asset to LHP. Elders and clergy are needed to serve on various presbytery committees. Please click here for a form to complete to suggest someone - or even yourself - to the team for consideration. This form may also be found on our Documents page near the bottom. A listing of the volunteer positions are also available on our Documents page or by Clicking Here.

Join the Presbytery of Lake Huron group on Facebook

Connect with others in the presbytery. Share ideas on what is happening in your congregation or just get to know your fellow LHP members. The group is closed to protect your privacy so it does require that you request to join and then a group moderator will approve you. It is an informal group and will not be directed by the presbytery. To join, Click Here.

Mission Update

In the last Bi-Weekly Brief we spotlighted a mission that several women at Lapeer-First have been working on. (Click Here to read the article) Basically in involves making dresses out of pillow cases and sending them to children in need in Malawi. On Sunday, June 14th, Alice Merriman was presented with 62 dresses made by the 8th grade Clothing Construction class from one of the local schools. They were so excited to do this project and got quite carried away and creativity abounded! The teacher was so excited and proud of her two classes (which includes about 30 students) that she plans to continue to do the project as it fits well with 8th grade level sewing. Congratulations to the ladies of Lapeer-First who have not only enjoyed their own mission but have inspired many others as well.

What's Your Mission????

After seeing all of the great displays at the May presbytery meeting it is obvious that there are a lot of great things happening in our congregations. Please share your mission story with the rest of the presbytery. It can be an ongoing project or a one-time event such as Vacation Bible School. Send a picture or two as well if possible. Send information to spercy@presbylh.org

Grants and Scholarships Available

The Synod of the Covenant would like to ensure that everyone knows about the availability of various grants and scholarships through their offices. Please visit their website at: www.synodofthecovenant.org and click on the Grants and Scholarships link on the right side of the page.

Things I Learned at the Big Tent ...

I was fortunate to be able to be a part of a wonderful event sponsored by the PC(USA)...the Big Tent Event held in Atlanta, GA June 11-13. It was a first-of-its kind event combining ten national Presbyterian conferences under one roof and one theme: "And the Word became flesh" (John 1:14). The conferences that were held under this one Big Tent were:

Healthy Ministry Conference - for CPM, COM, presbytery staff, seminary faculty and staff. The conference was aimed at developing those who serve in these roles and inspiring and equipping them for their calling to shape and support healthy leaderrs for the PC(USA). www.pcusa.org/vocation
Presbyterian Communicators Network (PCN) National Conference - for people at all levels of the denomination who are involved in communicating the ministry an mission of their congregations, presbyteries and synods. www.pcusa.org/comnet
National Multicultural Church Conference - for anyone who wanted like to learn more about models for multicultural church development and redevelopment, evangelism and church growth in a diverse setting. www.pcusa.org/multicultural
Stewardship and Investment Conference - designed for elders, pastors, presbytery staff and volunteers seeking to discover and employ the best practices of stewardship interpretation and programming. www.pcusa.org/stewardship
Evangelism Conference - focused on the most-needed topic in PC(USA) - evangelism. To help equip people to share the good news of the transforming love of Jesus Christ. www.pcusa.org/goodnews
National Elders Conference - a gathering of elders from across the PC(USA) who wanted to discover the vision of the elder as described in Chapter 6 of the Book of Order. www.pcusa.org/eldersconference
Peacemaking Conference - participants experienced worship, biblical reflection and celebration in community, engaged in conversations on difficult issues and concerns for justice around the world in the name of Jesus Christ. www.pcusa.org/peacemaking
PHEWA (Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association) Social Justice Biennial Conference - participants connected with those working at the grass roots of our denomination in justice ministries. www.pcusa.org/phewa
Racial Ethnic Convocation - a triennial event where racial constituencies and new immigrants reaffirm and celebrate their diversity. www.pcusa.org/racialethnic
New Immigrant Ministries Convocation - an intentional evangelism and social justice effort to help middle governing bodies bring new immigrants into membership of the PC(USA) as equal partners. www.pcusa.org/immigrant

(All of the above descriptions were taken from the Big Tent Registration Guide and Quick View Calendar)

The whole weekend was amazing, inspiring and incredible. I have never attended General Assembly or anything else this large before. To have 1500 people all in one place to celebrate and renew our calling to serve God was overwhelming - but in a good way. The fact that the group was so incredibly diverse yet had so much in common was amazing. The worship services were an absolute treat! They incorporated many different cultures and worship styles yet flowed together beautifully.

Here is a link to a video that a retired pastor, the Rev. Thomas Davis, who also attended the communicators conference put together. I think he did a great job of capturing the spirit of the whole weekend. Click Here to view the YouTube video. Be sure to turn the sound on - the music is wonderful!

I attended the Presbyterian Communicators Network (PCN) national conference. It was nice for me to be able to meet others who work at the presbytery level doing similar things as I do. And since I am new to doing communications for the presbytery it gave me an opportunity to learn quite a bit. Over the course of the summer, I will be sharing with you, things that I learned not only from the PCN conference but also from just attending the Big Tent and gathering information. I intentionally visited every booth in the Exhibit Hall so that I could bring back information to share with everyone. As a result of gathering several pounds of brochures and other items to read and distribute I had to get rather creative with repacking my suitcase and carry on so that I did not exceed the airlines baggage weight limit. I also now have the daunting task of sorting through all that information. I have also asked the others from LHP who attended to share some of their experiences with everyone. Those will be featured in upcoming Bi-Weekly Briefs.

There is so much good information to share with you! But I will begin with one of the best workshops that I attended. It was led by Elder Lynette Hawkins from Greensboro, NC and was titled: Reaching the Un-churched and the De-Churched. While this was a part of the Communicators Network conference, it really applied to anyone at the congregational level.

Reaching the Unchurched and the DeChurched Lynette Hawkins

Lynette R. Hawkins, a communication consultant of Beyond Marketing Group, Inc. Awesome Insight conducts seminars and leadership retreats for churches and non-profits nationally. She offers a free monthly e-newsletter for church leaders that reaches more than 1,000 Christian leaders, resource tools, seminars and consulting on welcoming and reaching out. Sign up for her free newsletter at www.awesomeinsight.com or e-mail her at info@awesomeinsight.com

So who are the Unchurched and the Dechurched? Unchurched are adults 18 and older that have not attended a Christian Church service (not including Easter and Christmas) in more than six months. They do not have church on their mind. When they wake up Sunday morning, they do not think about going to church, it is just not on their mind. The Dechurched are those that once attended church but no longer do for any number of reasons, such as: changes in life situation, disenchantment with the church or feeling unloved (judgmental and hypocritical).

So how do we reach the unchurched and/or dechurched? Some suggestions that Ms. Hawkins has include:

Tailor your message to your target audience
- This often means taking yourself out of the picture and speak with your target in mind
- Ask yourself "Who is God calling me to reach?"
- Make sure to do your homework to find out how your target audience responds to various situations and types of communication
Speak with a "lean-in" message (when you are having a conversation with someone and your are interested in what they are saying you tend to lean into the conversation, toward the speak)
- Tell how your ministry benefits the daily life of those who you are trying to reach.
- Be relevant!
Go where your target audience goes; Where do the people you want to reach go, read or listen to?
- Put info where non-church folk will see it; not just at churches or like places because they are not there to see it.
  - Grocery stores and restaurants often have bulletin boards to post information
- Open the digital door

Links to some additional resources:

21 Common Blunders Reaching Beyond the Walls of the Church

Are You Ready to Get the Word Out to the Net Generation?

15 Reasons Why First Time Guests May Not Return

For more information, please visit www.blog.awesomeinsight.com Lynette Hawkins monthly newsletter is full of great ideas on how to creatively reach people who are - for whatever reason, not attending church.

News and Other Items from the PC(USA)

Here are links to several news items from the PC(USA). Please take a few moments to read what is happening in our denomination.

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance honored by National Voluntary Organizations active in disaster

PDA's establishment of volunteer housing and toll-free number cited as "outstanding example"

News from the Big Tent

Link to the various stories that came from the Big Tent Event in Atlanta, June 11-13

Weekly News

Tell Me About It

Communicators at all levels of the denomination - from congregations on up - are urged to view storytelling as gift from God

Young Adults See the World Through Different Lenses

Understanding consumerism is key, Nishioka tells Stewardship Conference

Reluctant about Evangelism

Mead, Hoey present attitudes, styles that can overcome fears