Foothill Focus

 

 

Number 8 SEPTEMBER 2008 Volume 16

Churches Planting Churches

was the call put out by the Covenant about a dozen years ago. The goal

was to have every Covenant congregation participate in the planting of

new church. As I spent time praying about how Foothill might be involved in a church plant, God seemed to bring the Chinese people to my mind and heart. At that time we lived in a San Jose neighborhood that was filling with Taiwanese immigrants and I explored the possibility of partnering with our Taiwanese Covenant churches to plant a church among these people. However, God had something else in mind and so he surprised me, when at a Billy Graham Crusade training event, I reconnected with an old friend, Pastor Steve Wong, who was in the exploration stage of planting a church targeted at reaching second and third generation Asian-Americans (including Chinese-Americans). Out of that conversation came an invitation to Steve and his core group to join the Covenant church planting effort and then to birth this new congregation -Grace Community Covenant Church at Foothill. We came to host Grace, to support them, to provide their early kid's classes, and to partner with them in a number of ways. That was ten years ago. It's time to celebrate

Grace Community Covenant Church will be celebrating her 10th anniversary on September 14, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. and they want us to be part of that celebration. So we will leave our campus on the 14th and join them at their Palo Alto campus at 11 a.m. for worship and a lunch that will follow. Watch the bulletin for further details.

VISION TO ACTION

What's happening on our vision teams. There continues to be a feeling that we are beingtransformed even as we seek ways to be agents of transformation in our communities. Here's what's happening

Community Connections: On the first Saturday in August, wehosted our 4th annual neighborhood BBQ. It was a great time tohang out with neighbors. The food was better than ever. The hamburgers were hand-made and the ribs flew off the platter.There seemed to be more energy than ever before, and for thefirst time, we've seen neighbors attend worship because of thisfirst personal contact with us at the BBQ. Thanks to all whocame and helped produce the meal and engaged in warm conversations.

Mentor/Tutors: Soon those from Foothill who tutor and mentor will be reconnecting withtheir students or being assigned new students. Some will tutor at elementary and middleschools in Mountain View and Los Altos and others will mentor students mostly at MountainView and Alta Vista High Schools. If you are interested in ministering to the needs of ourcommunity in this way, call Pastor Jim and he'll help get you started.

 

TWO LOVE OFFERINGS -On August 3rd our Communion Sunday Love Offering was collected to go towards the emergency relief needs of members of our Covenant church in LaVilla, Texas. Dale Lusk will be coordinating teams to help rebuild homes and make repairsto the church as a result of Hurricane Dolly. We were able to send $500 to this project.

Our Love Offering on September 7th will go towards a PSWC project created to help withserious repairs to parsonages in our Alaska Covenant churches. The ravages of hard Alaskanwinters has taken a great toll and these churches, many in rural Alaska, need help with thecost of the needed repairs. Please plan on a generous gift on Sunday, September 7th. To findout more about the details of the project, see the bulletins on the Missions bulletin board.

SPLINTERS FROM THE BOARD

On Sunday, August 17, 2008, we held the second session of our 2007-08 Congregational Annual Meeting. At this meeting we approved a new operating budget for 2008-09. If youmissed picking up a copy, copies are available in the church office.

We also read into the minutes a proposed new constitution. This constitution is based on a leadership team model rather than our present board model. Action will be taken on this proposed constitution at our 2008-09 Congregational Annual Meeting. You can pick up copiesof the proposed constitution in the church office. Note that the constitution read into the minutes is slightly different than the proposed constitution that was distributed at the first sessionof our annual meeting.

CONGREGATIONAL CONVERSATIONS ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL BY-LAWS

will take place over the course of the coming year. They will focus on the By-Laws of thenew proposed constitution. We will be working a few sections at a time. Our goal is to finetune the by-laws document in time for it to be "read into the minutes" ninety days before the2008-09 Congregational Annual Meeting. While the Constitution Review Committee has presented a basic document, it desires more feedback about many detailed sections of thedocument. Please be alert to the announcements of the conversations and to the themes that will be discussed. We want be well prepared as we come to take action on this importantdocument in the coming year.

 

Celebrate! with Kier & Hung Ecklund who welcomed their new daughter, Sonia Mai, on August 6,2008. She weighed 6lb. 11oz, measured 18 1/2", and arrived by C-section at 11:55 pm onAugust 6th. Pray God's blessing on this newest member of our community.

NEWS OF JOHN BERGMAN As many of you know, John Bergman who served Foothill Covenant as her second seniorpastor, has had some serious health issuses the last few years. Daughter, Amy, hassent a recent update with pictures. You'll find it on the lobby bulletin board.

Women's Bible Study

On your mark, get set, go! Women's Bible study starts on Wednesday September 17 at 9:45am. We'll be studying Hebrews this year, ably lead by Marian Ecklund and supported by Nancy Baldwinson. Please join us!.

Women's Lunch Bunch

We will meet at the Country Gourmet in Sunnyvale for lunch on the first Thursday of each month at 11:30 am, September 4, 2008. Please call Ona Avent (408-984-7625) for more information.

Stretch Yoga Class

We continue our Stretch Yoga class on Wednesdays at Noon during the summer. Call Kay Roberts (408-255-7817) for more information.

Men's Breakfast

Men's Breakfast: We will be meeting September 13th at 8:00 am. Our program will be personal sharing and a time to reconnect. We will meet for a hearty breakfast in the Fireside Room served with good fellowship. You don't want to miss Men's Breakfast!

Per, Doug, Perry, and Stan

Men's Lunch

Men of Foothill, please join us for lunch and informal conversation on Thursday, September 4 at Noon. However be aware that we've moved from our old meeting place in Palo Alto to Brian's Restaurant in Los Altos in the Rancho Shopping Center on Foothill and Magdalena.. Please call Jim Gaderlund at 650.967.7447 with any questions.

 

MISSION SPRINGS Summer/Fall 2008 CAMP/RETREAT BROCHURES ARE AVAILABLE!

Find out what's going on this summer at Mission Springs for children and youth at FrontierRanch and Wild Oak and for families. You'll get your questions answered and find registration information and forms. The brochures are available in the lobby and office.

MISSION SPRINGS Camps & Retreats

Dads and Sons Weekend Sept. 12-14, 2008Covenant Women's Retreat Sept. 16-18 & 19-21, 2008

Detailed brochures and registrations information are available online atwww.missionsprings.com.

 

Part of a Larger Family

Keep up to date on what God is doing in our larger church family. Visit the web sites for our Pacific Southwest Conference at www.pswc.org and for the Evangelical Covenant at www.covchurch.org. Each site has current news in churches and ministries around the Covenant. Or to have news sent to you, subscribe to Newswire by going to the home page onthe Covenant web site and look for the link on the right side of the screen.