“How great are You, o Lord! There is no one like You. We have never even heard of

another God like You.” 2 Samuel 7:22

For the week of October 21, 2019

Presbytery of Cincinnati 4309 Cooper Road Cincinnati, Ohio 45242

The Cincinnati Sampler MORE PREBYSTERIANS—MORE ENGAGED

The Presbyterian Digital Revolution

Have a website? Need a website? Want a church app? Need to put out a podcast, or a blog, or a video feed? Interested in how to connect with more people virtually? Want to get a free grant? There’s a Free Seminar for that! Growing Digital Communication Presence & Ministry Hosted by the Congregational Renewal and Vitality Team November 1, 2019 from 9:00am - Noon Miami University Voice of America Learning Center 7847 Voice of America Park Drive, West Chester, OH

Every congregation should send at least one person! Register with the Presbytery Office at secretary@cpresby.org

PRESBYTERY STAFF AND OFFICERS

Lisa Allgood, Executive Presbyter— lisa@cpresby.org

Erwin Goedicke, Stated Clerk—erwin@cpresby.org

Margaret Heidenreich, Office Manager—secretary@cpresby.org

Bill Maney, Treasurer—finance@cpresby.org

Adam Fronczek, Moderator

Bill Bogdan, Vice Moderator

Bob Young, Council Chair

PRESBYTERY OFFICE HOURS ARE 9AM-2PM Monday through Thursday

Being Matthew 25 WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A MATTHEW 25 CHURCH? Matthew 25:31-46 calls for us to actively engage in the world around us, so our faith comes alive and we awaken to new possibilities. The vision of Matthew 25, as adopted by the GA in 2018, unites us as Presbyterians—both within our own Presbytery but also with PC(USA) churches nationwide. By accepting the Matthew 25 challenge, we:

Connect and unite the Presbytery, creating a spark that energizes and joins us in a common mission

Celebrate and call forth churches that actively engage in the work we are called to do in the world

Demonstrates that as Presbyterian Christians we are “saved to serve” We are already working across the three pillars of Matthew 25 in the Presbytery of Cincinnati:

Build Congregational Vitality through the Congregational Revitalization team, offering training in digital networking, leadership, and idea-rich revitalization, and challenging people and congregations to deepen their faith to get actively and joyfully connected to the Presbytery and their community

Dismantling Structural Racism by advocating and acting to increase aw areness and understanding, and to break down the systems, practices and thinking that underlie bias and discrimination. Our active engagement with MARCC testify to our long interest in chal-lenging all discrimination, and some new training and programs will emerge soon.

Eradicating Systemic Poverty by w orking to change law s, policies, structures and plans in our society that perpetuate economic exploitation of those in poverty. Our One Hopeful Fund and work with MARCC also engages here, and our widespread congregational programs connect with poverty systems across our region. Look for additional opportunities for learning and active engagement with the issue of poverty to be announced!

There are some amazing organizations in Cincinnati working in these areas. Let’s be one of them. The Presbytery will be pulling together some forums on the Matthew 25 pillars. If you have ideas, let us know—and stay tuned. This is Kingdom work. Also, check out the public forum and panel discussions on poverty hosted by the Cincinnati Enquirer: October 23rd, 6:30-8PM at the Schiff Conference Center at Xavier University. More information at https://tickets.cincinnati.com/e/the-long-hard-road-public-forum

Get ready to be engaged!

Check out the Matthew 25 link for more information:

https://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/matthew-25/

UKirk News The Pastor(s) are IN! UKirk kicked off with a great service and meal at Immanuel Presbyterian last week, and already the amazing UKirk Board is off and running! The next UKirk gathering is at Immanuel Presbyterian (3445 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati 45220) on Sunday October 27 at 5 pm. Does your congregation have students at UC? Make sure they know. And all the Presbytery is always invited as well!

Pastor Russell Smith (Covenant-First Presbyterian Church) is holding UKirk Office hours at the Starbucks on campus in the main Conservatory of Music building (4215A Mary Emery Hall, fourth floor) in the CCM Village. Wednesdays 2-5PM. Stop by and start the discussion! Tell your students, and have them bring friends!

And while not strictly UKirk, Pastor Brad Sheppard (Immanuel Presbyterian Church) runs a Pub Theology gathering every month (check it out on Facebook!) - different locations, young adults 21+, tough questions. Many thanks to our tireless UKirk Board: Pastor Brad Sheppard (Immanuel), Pastor Tom Jeong (Korean), Pastor Kevin Waters (Pleasant Plain), Elder David Paulik, Dr. Mark Boyd, Margaret Hei-

denreich, and Professor Dr. Will Umphres.

For more information contact us at

ukirk@cpresby.org

(513)751-0312

LIKE US on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

@CincinnatiUKirk UKirkCincinnati

NEXT CHURCH

NATIONAL GATHERING

CINCINNATI

MARCH 2-4, 2020

Cincinnati Convention Center Registration is OPEN!

NEXT Church is a network of leaders — church members, ruling elders, youth leaders, educators, pastors, seminarians and professors — across the PC(USA) who believe the church of the future will be more relational, more diverse, more collaborative, more hopeful and more agile. They provide hopeful space for robust conversations about the theology, culture, and the practice of ministry, support strong, faithful leadership in a time of adaptive change, and encourage collaboration and creativity across congregations and geographies, and seek to foster conversations about how to follow Christ in our particular day and age. Next Church is a movement seeking to strengthen the relational fabric of the PC(USA) so that our congregations are strong and healthy enough to be a sustained, effective, faithful and moral voice that is engaged in the transformation of our communities toward the common good. The NEXT Church National Gathering in March 2020 will be held in Cincinnati, offering a unique opportunity for all our Cincinnati Presbyterians to learn, meets others, and get energized! The Presbytery of Cincinnati is helping to sponsor this event in Cincinnati, and the partnership is already bearing great fruit. We are also hosting a pre-gathering event at The Hive in Northside, and in thanks for our sponsorship, NEXT Church is offering discounts for registration:

At the Eventbrite registration site click on the green tickets button and in the top right-hand corner click on the words “Enter Promotional Code” and type in Presbytery20

When the tickets appear, scroll to the bottom to find Pre-Gathering tickets at a new rate of $25 (up to $45 discount!)

Register for that ticket. If you are also attending the Gathering, select the conference ticket you’d like to purchase.

Complete registration and payment Note that the discount only works at the first ticket window, and you can only use the code once.

Lay Leaders and Ruling Elders will need to make two separate purchases. And if you run into problems, contact Jen James, Next Church Gathering Coordinator, presbyjen@gmail.com

The Presbytery office has the NEXT Church Cultivated Ministries Guide and will be happy to send it on, and we’re sure it will give you ideas and a language to guide you in the work of your ministry, wherever you find yourself. For more information and the latest resources, check out the NEXT Church website: www.nextchurch.net.

https://nextchurch.net/gathering/2020-national-gathering/

The Presbytery of Cincinnati

Invites you to

A WORSHIP SERVICE

OF THANKS and

CELEBRATION OF GIVING

A Presbytery-wide Celebration November 24 at 4:00PM

NorthChurch 4222 Hamilton Avenue

Cincinnati OH 45223

Worship and special music by a Presbytery-wide choir

Favorite Thanksgiving hymns and songs of praise Offering collected for the Presbytery One Hopeful Fund

Prayers and praises for the many ways our Presbyterians work and witness to the real presence of Jesus Christ

We are looking for ushers, greeters, an umbrella brigade, decorating help...

Want to be a part of the choir? There are several ways:

Join the NorthChurch November choir rehearsals (Wednesdays @ 7 p.m. (Nov. 6, 13, 20) at NorthChurch and at Sunday service on November 24 (10:00AM)

Get your Choir to rehearse separately

Rehearse with other choir members interested in surrounding churches

There will be a general rehearsal for Presbytery-wide choir members immediately be-fore the service, at 2:30PM at North Church on November 24.

Be a meaningful part of a wide Presbyterian circle of gratitude and praise!

Questions? Logistics?

Contact Peggy Grant (daffodil@fuse.net) or 513-542-5223 (H) or 513-368-7396 (C)

Website Advice—More to Come at our FREE Seminar

Digitalize Your Church!

Free Seminar for church leaders and administrators: Growing Your Digital Communication Presence & Ministry Hosted by the Congregational Renewal and Vitality Team Presenter: Peggy Friedhoff, AlwaysOn Communications November 1st from 9:00am - Noon Miami University Voice of America Learning Center 7847 Voice of America Park Drive, West Chester, Oh 45069

During this seminar you will not only learn what's possible for your congregation, but actually begin taking some tangible steps in enhancing your online plat-forms, and improve your online story! Our congregations have some amazing stories to tell...let's share the Good News.

Register at secretary@cpresby.org.

Questions? shawnb@crestviewchurch.com or 513/ 777-6555

Make sure key information is on the very first home page! Times of worship And Sunday School Address of the church and parking information Childcare availability Pay attention to typography and images on the site Make the images easy to read on multiple devices. Typography helps create harmony and builds recognition (branding). Images can be worth more than a thousand words! Make sure your images speak to visitors to tell the story of who you are. Incorporate video as much as possible Videos have the same impact as images do, but drive the point home faster. Today's web visitor expects to find video on an active website. Consider posting video of a Sunday service on your website, which gives potential visitors a feel for what it’s like to attend a service, and encourage them to visit. Create a series of conversations that live on your website, but are delivered in a variety of ways: Blogs—podcasts—e-newsletters—Facebook Live—study guides (just a few ideas) Platforms like this are fun ways to describe upcoming events and demonstrate why someone might want to participate. For people who are curious about your congregation, these platforms are tools that let your unique personality shine. Search engines such as Google love when multiple sources of content drive traffic back to your website. As a result, these organic links can have a significant impact on how Google ranks your website during a generic search by a potential visitor. Register today!

NOTE

CHANGE

Highly Acclaimed Music Organization Makes Its Home in Greenhills Community Church, Presbyterian: Cincinnati Fusion Ensemble Music Institute

This past September, the community of Greenhills celebrated the opening of the Cincinnati Fusion En-semble Institute of Music at its new site in the Greenhills Community Church, Presbyterian. The Cincinnati Fusion Ensemble is a non-profit organization of world-class professional musicians, who perform, teach, and mentor. It is led by Brad Caldwell, Music Director of Greenhills Community Church, Presbyterian, and Howard Helvey, Music Director at program at Calvary Episcopal Church in Clifton. Brad is a widely known keyboard artist, choral director and voice mentor. Howard is internationally known for his many published arrangements of liturgical music. Under Brad’s leadership, the church supported the idea of approaching the Winton Woods High School Choral Director. The Winton Woods choral program was legendary with numerous awards including a Gold Medal in the 2012 World Choir Games in Cincinnati. Initially, the idea was to see if some of their students might like to sing in the church choir. This contact with Winton Woods led to auditions for some of the students and simultaneously the church finding some sources to pay selected singers stipends, to not only sing in the choir, but to also pay for private voice lessons with the Cincinnati Fusion Ensemble. Brad also developed fund raising strategies through the Cincinnati Fusion Ensemble, faculty of which includes professional singers affiliated with the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and Miami University. In 2014, the first group of students began the Music Scholars program, with stipends for performance and tuition for lessons. The church provided space for instruction and this cooperation marked the beginning of its location that has expanded and evolved to the Institute of Music location. During the past four years, the Music Scholars program has continued to gain strength thru the combined efforts of the church and the Cincinnati Fusion Ensemble; not only funding lessons, but also provided support for the students to attend week-long summer voice workshops that the Ensemble organized in Miami and Savannah. To date, the original “class” of the Music Scholars program, Jaysean Johnson, received a scholarship to study music at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee and has finished his second year there. Three other recent Music Scholars, who are Winton Woods High School graduates, have completed their college freshmen year as music majors with scholarships based on their musical abilities and facilitated by the Fusion Ensemble. This year, 2019 Winton Woods High School graduate, Cari Sullivan, was ac-cepted into the highly competitive All-National Choir based on her audition. This extremely high honor reflects well on her training, her school and her talent. Cari will enter Miami University and will major in vocal performance. In summary, the Music Scholars program has been a wonderful success for all involved—students, school, church, and Fusion Ensemble, The Cincinnati Fusion Ensemble high school scholar program resulted in scholarships totaling nearly $750,000 for the 2019 graduating class. The Fusion Ensemble has greatly expanded its program, now occupying four newly renovated rooms in the lower level of the church. What a wonderful way for a church to be relevant in the community, make use of its space to benefit students and the community as a whole!

OCTOBER 2019

CALENDAR

PRESBYTERY OF

CINCINNATI

Thursday 17 October-

Monday 21 October

Mid-Council Leadership

Meeting, Baltimore

Tuesday 22 October

9:30AM Bible Study for

Pastors and Preachers,

Location Mt. Auburn

Presbyterian Church,

Clifton

Wednesday 23 October

6:30PM Cincinnati Poverty

Forum, Xavier University

Schiff Center

Tuesday 29 October

9:30AM Bible Study for

Pastors and Preachers,

Location Mt. Auburn

Presbyterian Church,

Clifton

Tuesday 29 October

2:00PM Personnel

Committee, Presbytery

Office, Blue Ash

Thursday 31 October

10:30AM COM Leadership

Meeting, Presbytery Office,

Blue Ash

Friday 1 November

9:00AM-12:00PM

Congregational Vitality

Digital Workshop, Voice of

America Miami University

NEWS AND NOTES

Legacy Organ Concert

Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the installation of the Schantz Pipe Organ at the Presbyterian Church of Wyoming ! The Presbyterian Church of Wyoming will present Dr. Connie Golden in concert on Sunday, November 17, 2019 at 4:00p.m. Guest musicians for this concert will include Seven Hills Brass and PCW’s Chancel Choir. Past organists will be recognized during the program and a Happy 50th Birthday reception will follow the concert to honor the organ and organists alike. The concert is free and provides a preview event for the church’s 150th year to begin in 2020. Everyone is welcomed to celebrate with us, Sunday, November 17, at 4:00p.m.

Batavia Presbyterian Church Celebrates 190 Years! Join Batavia Presbyterian Church in celebration of their 190 Anniversary Sunday November 3. The festivities will begin at 10:45 with worship followed by a reception for former pastors, former members, current mem-bers and friends! There will be stories, historical pictures, and a potluck dinner. Come to 277 North Street, Batavia, OH 45103 for the memories and fun.

Installation Rev. Brad Sheppard Immanuel Presbyterian Church 3 November 2019 3:00PM Join for the installation and celebration of the Reverend Brad Sheppard at Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Clifton Avenue in Cincinnati on Sunday November 3, at 3 PM.

Carmel Days is Here! Join the Congregation of Carmel Presbyterian Church 3549 Reading Road Cincinnati, OH 45229 Saturday, October 26 "CLASSICS & COMBO" Concert 4pm - 6pm Saxophonist Craig Bailey and Classical Cellist Myles Yeazell Adults $20, college students $10, children free Saxophonist, flutist and clarinetist Craig Bailey is an inventive reed player. A native of Cincinnati, he earned his undergraduate degree from Miami University and his Master of Arts in Jazz from New York’s Queens College. Bailey’s latest recording Music à la Fleek is a mixture of Pop, Funk, Be-Bop Jazz and Modern Modal Music. Currently, Bailey is the Assistant Professor of Music in Jazz Saxophone at the University of Cincinnati - College Con-servatory of Music. Myles Yeazell performs with the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra, where he is an active cellist. He received the Cincinnati Symphony Orches-tra's Norman E. Johns Multicultural Awareness Committee Chair Award. Yeazell is a member of the CSO's Nouveau Chamber Players and won the 2016 Laureate Award, Junior Division in the Sphinx Competition. He is one of the first Cincinnati area musicians selected to perform in the Sphinx Competition since 2002. In 2015 and 2016, he received a Cincinnati Sym-phony Orchestra Norman E. Johns Chair Scholarship Award. COME JOIN US AS WE CLOSE OUT THE SERIES!