June 2019

The Good News LYONSVILLE CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

"A Home for The Spiritual Journey"

Inside this issue:

Join Us 2

Birthdays and Anniversaries

3

Remember in Your Prayers

3

Mark Your Calendars

4

General News 5, 6

Mission Board News

7

Thank You Notes 8

Worship Opportunities

9

Rev. Sean Weston, Pastor Gary Boxell, Editor

PASTOR’S CORNER

Someone recently asked me “what does discernment mean anyways?” It was a good question! Discernment is one of those churchy words. It’s been around for a long time, but like many words its use and em-phasis has gone up and down over time. This is a time in church life where we are emphasizing the idea of discernment. In the Christian faith, discernment means many things. At Lyonsville we focus on discernment as determining God’s desire in a situation. This is actually very different from decision-making, which focuses on what I want, or on what a group wants. Discernment is an important part of living out our faith. It’s not just something we do at church. All of us are faced with situations and de-cisions, and so all of us are called to discernment. That looks different in different situations. The best discernment pro-cesses take place over time, focus on both the head and the heart, are rooted in prayer, and include careful listening to people we trust, and of course God. When discerning in groups (whether at work, at home, or in church) it’s even harder! We must keep in mind what is best not just for individuals but for the whole group. If you’re like me, you might want a more concrete guide to discern-ment, but that’s not how it works. Each person and group learns over time the best way to discern the way forward. The most important thing to remember is that discernment is about what God wants, even if what God wants is different from what I want. Successful discernment remembers this and trusts that when the time is right God’s leading will become clear.

May you experience blessings and wisdom in your own discernment – and we in ours! Peace,

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Join Us

MEN’S BREAKFAST GROUP meets on the second Saturday of each month at 9:00 a.m. at Willow Hills Restaurant, next to Walgreens at Joliet Rd. and Willow Springs Rd. in Indian Head Park. All men are welcome to join us for this chance to eat and talk! For more information contact Byron Loehman. WOMEN’S BABY BOOMER BUNCH (WBBB) w ill meet for breakfast at Willow Hills Restaurant at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 1. They will also meet Saturday, July 6. All boomers and their friends are invited. Contact Judy Birmingham for more information.

Volunteers We are always looking for volunteers for our Sunday mornings. Greeters: Meet people w ith a smile at the door as the enter the church building. Readers: Sean w ill provide you w ith everything you need. Fellowship Host: Provide goodies after worship, making sure there are enough

cups, plates, and napkins. Food Pantry: Meet our guests and distribute food. This is a 45 -minute commitment,

and training is available. Signing up is easy. Most Sundays there are folders set up at fellowship time for each of these.

You can also contact a member of Worship & Spiritual Growth or Missions.

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Happy Birthday (click here for birthday wishes)

Happy Anniversary

Please contact the church office if any information is missing or incorrect.

Remember in Your Prayers

Marvin Davis Paul Garrity Jamie Hankus David Havelka Bob Hegner

Barbara Loehman Byron Loehman Kathy Loehman Marion Randolph Beth Smidt

Dee Wallace

Justin Skweres 6/3 Jean Hegner 6/5 Rob Mueller 6/6 Chloe Cihak 6/7 Ellen Corlett 6/9

Justin Hegner 6/16 Pricie Rogan 6/16 Lauren Castner 6/20 Kelsey Byers 6/23 Christy Smith 6/30

Aleta & Michael Belletete 6/1 Nicole & Art Helms 6/5 Maria & Chris Korber 6/5 Jean & Robert Hegner 6/10 Marianna Mikat-Stevens & Rom Stevens 6/13

Erika & Joe Wierdak 6/19 Itzel & Justin Hegner 6/25 Susan & Rob Mueller 6/25 Beth & Larry Doria 6/26

Sanna Bashor 7/1 Nick Guglielmi 7/2 Michael Baker 7/3 Marvin Davis 7/4 Marion Randolph 7/4 Peter Schuch 7/6 Adeline Brocken 7/7

Beth Doria 7/8 Dawn Snell 7/11 Penny Taylor 7/11 Justin Knochemus Ferguson 7/12 Melissa Hendricks 7/18 Charlotte Mikat-Stevens 7/24 Bob von Trebra 7/31

Carrie & Michael Molloy 7/3 Laura & Bruce Cady 7/12

Lauren & Thomas McSweeney 7/29 Sherry & Bob Mueller 7/31

Mark Your Calendars

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To know where you're going, you need to know where you've been. As part of Ly-onsville's discernment process a team is gathering to explore how God has been at work in important stories from Lyonsville's history and the history of our surround-ing community. Sharon Comstock, Hazel Sharp, and Pastor Sean have organized an initial gathering of the "history team" on Sunday, June 2 from 1:30-3pm. All are welcome to join as we explore what our history can teach us today.

Plans for the other teams exploring our options are in process and will be an-nounced shortly.

Strengthen the Church Offering On Sunday, June 9th, we w ill take a collection for Strengthen the Church. This is one of the "5 for 5" offerings to which Lyonsville contributes. When you invest in the vision supported by Strengthen the Church, your gift will plant new churches, awaken new ideas in existing churches, and help de-velop the spiritual lives of our youth and young adults. This is another way that we can confirm that we are the church and that we are still listening to God.......that God is still speaking.

PIZZA AND GAME NIGHT On Friday, June 23rd at 6:00 we w ill get together for pizza and game night. We will take up a free will offering and the dona-tions will be sent to Feed My Starving Children. We hope you can all attend for a time of fun and fellowship. Bring your friends!

Father’s Day is June 16.

Young Adult Picnic—June 2. Noon at Walker park. If you are interested or want to learn more, please contact Pastor Sean.

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News from The Pews

We now offer coffee from the LTHS Transition Perks coffee shop for sale in West Fellowship Hall. Simply bring cash, check, or pay online. You can come by during the week when the office is open (9am-noon, Monday-Thursday) and of course on Sun-day mornings.

We also have coupons available to bring to the coffee

shop, located at 1062 Hillgrove in Western Springs.

The shop is open 7:30 - 10:30am, Monday-Friday.

Your purchases support our growing partnership with the Lyons Township High School Transition Program, a special education program that helps students transition from school to adult life.

Summer Worship Plans: Between Memorial Day and Labor Day (so starting June 2), worship will be held in the West Fellowship Hall as we have been doing for the last few years. We will gather for worship at 10:00am.

Summer is coming and the choir is taking a well-deserved break! Anyone who w ish-es to provide some summer music should contact Mike Molloy to book a date. Do your grand-kids take piano lessons? Does your Uncle Frank play the accordion? Is your sister an opera sing-er? Sign 'em up! All are welcome who wish to make a joyful noise!!

Pastor Sean will be attending the UCC General Synod in Milwaukee from June 20-26, as part of our participation in the UCC Pension Boards Next Generation Leadership Initiative. During that time please direct pastoral care needs to the office. After hours needs can be directed to Nayna Byers or Doug Adams. On June 23, while Sean is away, Lyonsville will not hold a worship service. We encourage you to visit Burr Ridge UCC or Highlands Presbyterian Church, which both have services at 10am. This is a good way to deepen our relationships with those congregations. See page 9 for more information.

Please pray for Nayna Byers, Barb Loehman, and Pastor Sean who will be attending the Illinois Conference Annual Celebration June 7-8 at Elmhurst College.

Page 6 The Good News

You can now give to the church on-line using a bank ac-count or credit card. Simply go to lyonsvillechurch.org/donate to make a one-time donation, or sign up to make a recur-ring donation. Recurring donations provide convenience for you and much-needed consistency for church finances. Sign up today!

Manna gift card order forms are ready and are available in the Narthex. The orders w ill be due on June 2 and the will be distributed by June 9. The next Manna will be due in the Fall. Please see Cindi Fiandaca for more information.

Don’t forget that you can support Lyonsville Church when you make purchases with Amazon. AmazonSmile donates 0.5% of your purchases to

an organization of your choice. Click here to set up Lyonsville Church as your organization. Then just go to smile.amazon.com to shop. This is a great way to do your Father’s Day shopping. Amazon gave back $11.45 to Lyonsville in the first quarter of 2019!

We're always looking for ways to improve communication. As we walk our journey of discerning God's will for Lyonsville together, Pastor Sean thought it would be helpful to have a bulletin board in the building dedicated to providing information and updates about the process, which you can find in the entryway, by the stairs to the Fellowship Hall. Please check it out, and let Sean know if there's something you think is missing. As a reminder, materials and updates will also be posted in the members' only ar-ea of the church website. If you need information on how to access that page, please contact Gary in the church office at lyonsville@sbcglobal.net. And as al-ways, don't hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns.

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News From Your Mission Board

The Lyonsville food pantry will be open on Sunday, June 30th from 11:45 - 12:30. If you are willing to help out, please sign up in the folder during fellowship hours or let Judy Birmingham or a member of the Mis-sion Board know. The next time we will be open will be July 28.

Our next outing to Feed My Starving Children in Aurora will be on Wednesday, June 19th for the 9:30 - 11:30 am shift. If you are interested in going, please let Judy Birmingham know.

GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY Please come join us to help volunteer at the Greater Chicago Food Depository (GCFD) on Saturday, June 15 2019, from 8:30 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. For more information go to http://www.chicagosfoodbank.org, or see/call Cindi Fiandaca or Judy Birmingham to sign up. The depository would like all volunteers to register in advance.

In June we are collecting peanut butter and jelly for the Lyonsville food pantry. If you would like to donate, please bring your items and put them in the donation box on the landing.

In May we collected items for Church World Service Hygiene kits. We will gather together on June 9th to put the hygiene kits together during fellow-ship hour.

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Thanks to Karen Oberg, Kathy Richel, Judy Birmingham and Doug Adams who volun-teered at the Greater Chicago Food Deposito-ry on Saturday, May 18, and helped sort and package 3840 pounds of sweet pota-toes, 3080 pounds of white potatoes and 6840 pounds of macaroni. This added up to 11,466 meals to help feed the hungry.

Thank you to Michael Molloy and the entire choir for another great year of music.

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6/2/2019 Seventh Sunday of Easter Scripture: Romans 6:1-14 Sermon: What is New Life Anyways? 6/9/2019 Pentecost Scripture: Acts 2:1-4, Romans 8:14-39 Sermon: What is the Spirit Doing? 6/16/2019 First Sunday after Pentecost Scripture: Nehemiah 2:17-20, John 17:6-26 Sermon: Part of Something Bigger: Exploring our Heritage 6/23/2019 Second Sunday after Pentecost We will not hold worship at Lyonsville. Please plan to attend Burr Ridge United Church of Christ or Highlands Presbyterian Church. Both worship services start at 10am. Burr Ridge United Church of Christ is located at 15W100 Plainfield Rd, Burr Ridge. Highlands Presbyterian Church is located at 1901 W 58th Pl, La Grange Highlands. 6/30/2019 Third Sunday after Pentecost / Open & Affirming Sunday Scripture: Acts 8:26-40 Sermon: Eunuchs, Queens, and Wilderness Roads

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6871 Joliet Road

Indian Head Park, IL 60525

LYONSVILLE CONGREGATIONAL

UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

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produced monthly, except for a combined July/August edition. Please submit your articles to lyonsville@sbcglobal.net. The deadline for the next issue is June 23.