1

We are seeing the winds of

change begin to blow. I pre-

dict that what seems excit-

ing at first will soon meet

with ferocious resistance.

This is the way of all sys-

tems. All systems resist

change. The church, and our

church, is a large system

that consists of many small-

er and interconnecting sys-

tems. People have them-

selves invested in these

systems. When these sys-

tems large or small are

threatened, people resist.

This is neither right nor

wrong, it simply is. That is

the way we are. The prob-

lem is, things that do not

change and grow or systems

that are not flexible enough

to adapt quickly enough,

like the dinosaurs, die out

leaving their scattered fossil

remains for the future to

stare at. Right now the great

Gothic cathedrals and the

down town churches of

America stand empty or

nearly so. At the same time

warehouses full of chanting,

screaming, jumping, and,

get this, quietly listening

people, by the tens of thou-

sands, gather every Sunday

to Worship, God, not them-

selves. These people

changed, and are changed

people.

Once upon a time the Jews

of ancient Israel only wor-

shiped at the Temple in

Jerusalem. They followed

prescribed rules precisely.

To do otherwise was to die.

Then, as the world around

them flexed and contorted

into new social structures

and they became a more

scattered people, they be-

gan to worship in local build-

ings, gathering once a week.

The early Christians moved out

of these buildings called syna-

gogues and began meeting in

homes. This quickly morphed,

over the next few hundred

years, into the church services

we hold onto today, well, not

quite. We trace our worship

heritage from the time of the

Reformation, the early 1500's

on. At first we sang the Psalms

with no instruments, then we

added piano and organ, those

pagan and evil instruments

that introduced all sorts of

diabolical elements into the

worship service. Next was or-

chestras, few of us remember

that era, then drums and that

most evil of all instruments,

the electric guitar, Satan's

strings, burning with the fires

of Hell. Each of these came

with struggle and backlash

and membership changes. I

once attended a church that

tried to overcome this. They

had a Capella Psalm singing, a

piano, an organ, a small or-

chestra, and mics and drums

and guitars. They did not have

liturgical dance, yet. I think

they were fighting about the

color paint in the unused

nursery though. Every change

of musical style brought with it

resistance. That's the way we

are.

Here's a truth for you, two

truths actually, which depend

on each other. Look around

the church, at the communion

table, at the pulpit, at the or-

gan, at the pews, at the choir.

Every single one of these at

one time did not exist in the

church. The pulpit was intro-

duced as a tool from Roman

and Greek orators. You will not

Seeking God’s Vision for His Church

Inside this issue:

Thank you / PW / Dea-

con’s

2

Joint Session Meeting/

Congregational Life

3

Seasons of Hope 4

Deacon Minutes 5

Session Minutes 6

Minutes from the Con-

gregational Meeting

7

Santa’s Breakfast/

Faith in Action

8

Christmas Joy Offer-

ing /Spaghetti Dinner 9

Spaghetti Dinner 10

December Calendar 11

Christmas Services 12

The Ranger

DECEMBER 2012

THE RANGER Poke Run Presbyterian Church

find "pulpit" in the Bible. We did

not always do weddings and fu-

nerals. Every one of the things

you see in the church came in at

one point or another as some-

thing new, and of course, huge

battles were fought over it. Any-

thing now in place once upon a

time threatened the entrenched

systems of the current church; it

was a heresy. Every new idea was

at one time a terrible idea, and

resisted. That 's the first truth.

The second is like onto it. Every

innovation will only last so long.

At some point they become use-

less, or boring or maybe even

heretical, again. So it looks like

we are stuck with both change

and resistance to change.

What about ways around this. If

you had a perfect solution to the

change/conflict dichotomy every

corporation in America and the

world would be offering you more

money than you could spend or

count. There is no perfect solu-

tion. We are after all human and

run on predictable patterns; pow-

er and control issues are one of

our deepest psychological struc-

tures. Change will come and we

will resist it. We can be on the

side pushing for change. Or we

can be on the side resisting

change. We can fight each other.

Or we can realize that conflict is

inevitable and prepare for it

somewhat graciously, not by com-

promise but by Vision.

A shared vision is the place to

begin, not talking about the ne-

cessity of change, which gets us

nowhere, but by defining our vi-

sion together. Once a vision is

formed steps can then be taken

towards it, but the vision must

come first. We need a vision that

we can speak in one sentence.

What will be our vision, to-

gether, to be the church

Christ calls us to be, towards

which God will lead us by His

Spirit, and towards which we,

as humans, will stumble and

fumble?

Blessings,

Rev. Pete

2

Thank you to our November Lectors: Don Lengau-

er, Eleanor Zerbini, Cliff Dupill and Debbie Seighman.

Thank you to our November Greeters: Dave and

Janet Thomas, Freda Bowman, Edyth Elwood, Ruth

O’Connor, Cindy Brooks, Bob and Margaret McBride

and Jack and Eleanor Zerbini.

PW

The PW Quarterly Meeting will be on Tuesday, December 4 at 7:00pm in Fellowship Hall. The hostess

and program will be Circle 2. All ladies are welcome.

Circle 4 will meet on Thursday, December 13 at 12:00pm. The hostess is Emma Dunmire.

Circle 2 will meet on Thursday, December 13 at 7:30pm. The hostess will be Amy Wilkinson

Thank You

For our prayers Ruth Speer, Dolly Remaley, Thel-

ma McCutcheon, Conrad McQuaide, Karen Light-

ner, Clifford Lightner, Irene Clark, Irma McDivitt,

James Powers, Carolyn Buckley, Grace Hartman,

Steve Marcheid, Marge Peterson, Robin, Tom Kim-

ble, Grace Young, Amy McQuiade, and those who

serve in the military.

THE DEACON’S

Giving Tree Be sure and stop by and take a tag from the tree and purchase a gift for a boy or girl. Helpful shopping in-

formation will be listed on each tag. The deadline for the gifts is Sunday, December 16th.

Food Basket Deadline is December 12th If you know of someone who is in need of a food basket call Laurie Powers. The deadline for orders will

be December 12. Food basket pickup will be December 15 at 9am.

Caroling The Deacon’s will be going caroling on Sunday, December 16th. If you know of

anyone who would enjoy this please let us know. Also please come and join us

we would love to have you. We will have a lite lunch after the 11:00 AM service

and then depart in various groups.

3

Session Invites all the New Officers to the December 11th Meeting

The Ranger

The Session will be meeting on Tuesday, December 11th at 7:00pm. All the

Elders, Deacons, and Trustees elected for service beginning 2013 are invited to

attend this joint meeting of all the Poke Run Elders, Deacon’s and Trustees.

Information Needed

Please notify the church office if you have had any name changes,

address changes, a change in your phone number or a change in your email address. You may call the office at 724-327-5563 or email your in-formation to pokerun@windstream.net Thank you.

Congregational Life

The Congregational Life Committee was very pleased with the turn out at the

luncheon in October after the Congregational Meeting. The vegetable soup,

Bar-b-q sandwiches, fruit salad and cookies seemed to be a big hit with every-

one. Thanks to all who stayed. Also a special thanks to all who helped in the

clean-up afterwards.

4

The Bash-Nied Funeral Home family invites you and your family to be a part of our

SEASONS OF HOPE

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

7:00 p.m.

Lamplighter Restaurant

6566 William Penn Highway

Delmont, PA 15626

The evening will include…

A candle lighting ceremony

A holiday remembrance service

Light refreshments ——————————————————————————————————————————-

Please RSVP by

Wednesday, November 28th,

to confirm how many will attend

(724) 468-8381 or bnfh@aol.com

5

Deacon Meeting 10/01/12

Attendance: Jan Fitzgerald, Laurie Powers, Cindy Brooks, Ruthie O’Connor, Erin Bruce, Sheree Wagner, Tammy Kelley, Karen Stay-mates, Pastor Pete and Heidi Hileman

Treasury Report: $5084.35

Next Meeting: November 5, 2012 – 7:00 pm

Pete opened w/prayer and devotions

Strawberry Festival was a success.

Mums have been ordered. Laurie would like to ask to use them for the Community Dinner tables. We agreed to use the flowers for the tables.

Watkins - Books are out to everyone. Orders due October 21st.

Ruthie will have breads ready for World Wide Communion Sunday.

Christmas Caroling will be Sunday Dec 16th. – bring 2 dozen cookies.

We will do an ornament “In Honor” and “In Memory” for Christmas. The money will go to the food bank.

Thanksgiving food baskets – Deadline 11/14/12. Pick up 11/17/12

Christmas food baskets – Deadline 12/12/12. Pick up 12/15/12/

We will do mini poinsettias for our Poke Run friends.

Laurie will talk to Linda Moorehead about the Giving Tree tags.

We will do “Treats for the Troops”. Our goal is 200 dozen. Will package on 11/3/12. Each deacon should do at least 10 dozen. We will announce in church.

We will ask the daycare to make cards to go with the cookies.

We need a secretary to replace Heidi Hileman and Tammy Kelley. Tammy Kelley is the Correspondence Secretary.

Deacons that are done with service this year are Tammy Kelley, Linda Moorehead, Heidi Hileman and Erin Bruce.

We reviewed our email list.

Closed in prayer.

Respectfully yours,

Heidi Hileman, Secretary

6

Poke Run Presbyterian Church Session Minutes October 09, 2012

The scheduled meeting of the Session met in the Sunday School rooms @ 7:00 pm. A quorum was present and, Rev. Peter Goetschius,

Moderator, opened the meeting with prayer and devotions.

Elders present: Rev. Peter Goetschius- Moderator, Connie Cauvel - Clerk, Glenn Ross – Assist. Clerk, Bob Thompson, Tim Martin, Cindy

McQuaide, Meri Slaugenhaupt, and Elizabeth Wilkinson

Elders excused: Bob Bierer, Linda Chicka, Grace Hartman

MSC: To approve the Session Minutes of September 11, 2012

MSC: To accept the Deacon Minutes of 9.10.12

MSC: To accept the Trustee Minutes off 8.23.12

Treasurer report: Amy Wilkinson

Spending has been kept very modest and we have made back almost half of what we borrowed. Congregation has given $35,000 more

this year than at the same time last year. Thank you for your generosity! Finances are fiscally healthy - What is God calling us to do?

Budget & Finance: Tim reviewed the 2013 Budget.

Mission and Stewardship: Linda Chicka

MSC: to accept the 2013 Mission and Benevolence Budget

Congregational Life: Glenn Ross – will prepare a lunch after congregational meeting on October. 21.

Technology: Proceeding with new website design.

Nominating Committee - Connie Cauvel & Glenn Ross: The 2013 slate of officers, prepared by the Committee,

were approved, and it will be presented at the Congregational Meeting.

Pastor Pete’s report: Pete gave a short verbal report to update us on everything concerning his position

and activities.

New Business:

MSC: To accept Callie Spalding resignation as our Youth Director with regret.

MSC: To accept the proposed 2013 budget with one “no” vote.

MSC: To approve the 2013 Slate of officers

MSC: To change the date of the November Session Meeting to Monday November 19, 2012

Pete asked us to consider: Where do we want to be as a Church in 5 years? How are we going to reach out and

to whom?

Close with prayer: Meri Slaugenhaupt Adjourn: 9 P.M.

Respectfully Submitted: Approved: 11.19.12

7

Poke Run Presbyterian Church Congregational Meeting – October 21, 2012

With a quorum present the meeting was held in the Church Sanctuary at 11:00am and opened with prayer by the Moderator Rev. Peter M.

Goetschius.

MSC: to dispense with the reading of the minutes of the last meeting of the congregation.

Ecclesiastical business:

The chairperson of the nominating committee presented the slate of proposed Session members as follows.

Bob Thompson, Ron Hileman, Sandy Chappell, and Josh Poterfield – Youth with one year term.

Nominations from the floor were opened and with no additional nominations it was

MSC to close the nominations.

Proposed member to the Board of Deacons:

Nikki McQuaide, Deborah Ross and Abby Ballas – youth with one year term

Nominations from the floor were opened and with no additional nominations it was MSC to close the nominations.

The nominations for Nominating Committee for the year 2012 were opened with the following being nominated:

Linda Moorhead, Laurie Martin, Bill Fazi, Chad McCutcheon, Jeffery Wilkinson.

MSC: to close nominations.

Corporate business;

The chairperson of the nominating committee presented the slate of proposed persons to the Board of Trustees:

Bob Wilson, Vince Goodiski and Dave Wilkinson

Nominations from the floor were opened and with no additional nominations it was MSC to close the nominations.

Nominations for Auditor, a four year term, was opened and Rick Slaugenhaupt was nominated and with no additional nomination it was

MSC to close the nominations.

The Budget for the Year 2012 was presented by the chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee:

MSC: to approve the Pastoral Term of Call.

MSC: to adjourn the meeting at 11:50am and was closed with prayer by the Rev. Goetschius.

Congregation was invited to enjoy a meal prepared by the Congregational Life Committee in Fellowship Hall.

Connie Cauvel Clerk of Session Approved: 11.19.12

8

Santa's Coming For Breakfast

The Christian Education Committee is sponsoring their annual “"Breakfast

With Santa"“ Saturday, December 1 from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Not only

will you be able to get a great breakfast at a great price, but you can also get

that special picture of your little one on Santa's knee Tickets are available at

the door. Tickets for adults and children ages 11 and over are $5.00 each, chil-

dren ages 3 to 10 are $2.00, and children ages 2 and under eat free! Breakfast

includes pancakes and syrup, sausages, and your choice of beverages. Each

digital photo with Santa costs only $1.00 and is mounted for you in a specially designed card by one of San-

ta's elves. Picture processing take about 30 minutes so plan to get your pictures taken with Santa prior to

eating or shopping at Santa’s Store. You’ll find some great Christmas decorating ideas and gift giving items

at this year’s store. Included among the store's many items will be miniature poinsettias, ornaments, can-

dles, Christmas novelties, knick-knacks, and much, much more! Children and adults alike will have a great

time shopping for just the right items on their shopping lists! Everything is available at reasonable, season-

able prices! So plan to go out for breakfast on December 1, and spend your morning with some great

Christian Fellowship at Poke Run Church! Proceeds benefit the Christian Education Programs

Volunteers Needed for Faith in Action

During this season of giving, the Mission and Stewardship Committee would like to remind you of a won-

derful opportunity to give of your time through the voluntary assistance program called “Faith In Action.”

This Westmoreland and Fayette County program is devoted to helping older adults (age 60 and older) live

more safely and independently in their own homes for as long as possible. The program recruits and trains

community volunteers to provide a variety of free, non-medical services for older adults. These services

may include such things as appointment escorts, handyman minor repairs, telephone reassurance calls,

caregiver relief, yard work/gardening, errands/shopping, referral assistance, supportive visits and home

safety checks.

Volunteers are essential to the success of Faith in Action. The program is expanding its service to the Poke

Run area, but before services can be provided to those that need them, the program must be assured of a

pool of volunteers. Volunteer opportunities are flexible and can be scheduled around work and other com-

mitments. A short training is provided to all volunteers so that they can easily carry out the services. The

volunteers can work as much or as little as they desire, and they can change their commitments at any time.

If you would like to volunteer for, or find out more about this wonderful program, please contact Linda

Chicka or Bob Wilson about your interest. When we have ten or twelve interested individuals, Joanne Ret-

ter, Program Director of Alle-Kiski Faith in Action, will provide us with the necessary volunteer training.

For more information, you may contact Joanne at 724-224-3199 or by email at allekiski.fia@gmail.com.

You can also speak to Linda Chicka, Bob Wilson, or Rev. Pete for more details.

9

The Ranger

Christmas Joy Offering

Like the shepherds, we hear the news and we are stunned: in Jesus, God has come among us as one of us, to

accompany us and transform us. As we open our hearts to God’s love in Jesus, we find it will not be con-

tained but yearns to be shared with others. One of the ways Presbyterians have traditionally responded to the

news of God’s great gift is by sharing our own gifts through the Christmas Joy Offering.

The offering supports racial ethnic education at Presbyterian-related schools and colleges, where students de-

velop their gifts and find their calling. It also helps families of active and retired church workers meet unex-

pected needs through the Assistance Program of the Board of Pensions. As we celebrate this good news of

great joy - that a Savior has been born to us – may our gifts bear joyful witness to God’s uncontainable love.

Undesignated gifts to the Christmas Joy Offering are distributed equally to the Assistance Program of the

Board of Pensions and to support student scholarships at the following Presbyterian-related racial ethnic

schools and colleges:

Barber-Scotia College, Concord, North Carolina

Cook Native American Ministries, Tempe, Arizona

Knoxville College, Knoxville, Tennessee

Menaul School, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Presbyterian Pan American School, Kingsville, Texas

Stillman College, Tuscaloosa, Alabama

In 2011, the Assistance Program of the Board of Pensions was able to support the households of active and

retired church workers and their families with 291 income supplements, 128 shared grants, 4 emergency as-

sistance grants, and 251 housing supplements.

Please give generously on Christmas Eve when this offering will be collected at Poke Run during both even-

ing services.

We are Thankful to share a delicious Spaghetti Dinner with our Community

10

Circle 2 Spaghetti Dinner

11

New officers will be installed on Sunday, December 9 at the 11AM Service.

The joint meeting of the Session, Deacons and Trustees will be on Tuesday, December 11 at 7:00pm.

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

Communion Dec. 2-

Glenn Ross & Mary

Ellen Ross

Communion Dec.

24-Deacons

Offering - PW-

Laurie Martin

Christmas Eve

Offering-Deacons

1 8:30-11:30

Santa’s

Breakfast

2 Communion

8:30-11 Worship

9:45 Sunday School

6pm Youth, 7pm Bible

3 6pm Youth Choir

7pm Deacons

4 7pm PW Quarterly

7pm Budget &

Finance

5 6pm Bells

7pm Choir

6 7pm Boy Scouts

7 8

9 Ordination –11am

8:30-11 Worship

9:45 Sunday School

6pm Youth,7pm Bible

10 6pm Youth Choir

7pm Mission & Stew-

ardship

11 7pm Joint meet-

ing Session,

Deacons, Trus-

tees

12 11:30 Soup /Soul

6pm Bells

7pm Choir

13 12:00 Circle 4

7:30pm Circle 2

7pm Boy Scouts

14

15

16Caroling

8:30-11 Worship

9:45 Sunday School

6pm Youth,7pm Bible

17

6pm Youth Choir

7pm Technology Mtg.

18 19 6pm Bells

7pm Choir

20 10am Cong. Life

7pm Boy Scouts

21 22 12-4 Birthday

Party –

Kemerer’s

23 8:30-11 Worship

9:45 Sunday School

6pm Youth , 7pm Bible

24 5pm &

7:30pm

Christmas Eve

25 26 27 7pm Boy Scouts

28 29

30 8:30-11 Worship

9:45 Sunday School

7pm Bible Study

31 New Years Eve

December 2012 Poke Run Presbyterian Church

12

1091 Poke Run Church Rd.

Apollo, PA 15613

Poke Run Presbyterian Church

December 1 at 8:30am to 11:30am Breakfast with Santa

Adults & Children ages 11 years and over $5.00

Children 3 years to 10 years $2.00

Children 2 years and under eat Free!

December 24 Christmas Eve Candlelight Services

5:00pm Informal Worship

7:30pm Formal Worship

December 30 Christmas Sunday

8:30am & 11:00am Worship

Christmas Programs

Phone: 724-327-5563

E-mail: pokerun@windstrem.net

www.pokerunchurch.com