"I will put my teaching in their minds and write it on their hearts..."
Jeremiah 31:33
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Below are the weekly programs. Brief descriptions of these weekly programs are on our website.
Clickable links are in blue, underlined, and italicized.
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SUNDAY Choir Practice, On hiatus for summer
Contact Tom Ludwig, if interested.
| | Below are the upcoming non-weekly events on the calendar happening at McFarland UCC for about the next month. All events are on the McFarland UCC calendar with Zoom links and additional information in the details/description area. Click the event on the McFarland UCC calendar to see the details. | | |
Saturday, July 12, 6:30 - 8:00 pm, A Musical Tribute to Pastor Bryan by Native Americans Art Shegonee and Bill Miller, Sanctuary
Sunday, July 13, Befrienders Commissioning during worship
Sunday, July 13, Cookie Fundraiser for Teen Trip before and after worship
Tuesday, July 15, 6:30 - 8:00 pm, Social Justice Collective Monthly Meeting (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Thursday, July 17, NO Creation Care Meeting
Saturday, July 19, 9:00 am - 1:00 pm, Car Wash Fundraiser for Youth in the parking lot
July 22-28, Teen Trip
Wednesday, July 30, 6:00 - 8:30 pm, Farewell Potluck and Cookout for Pastor Bryan, Outside & Fellowship Area
Sunday, August 3, Communion and Birthday Sunday
Sunday, August 3, 5:30 - 7:00 pm, NO Teen Meeting
Tuesday, August 5, 6:30 - 8:00 pm, Social Justice Collective Monthly Meeting (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Thursday, August 14, 6:00 - 8:00 pm, SaLT Monthly Meeting (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
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Thank you to this weekend's volunteers!
Greeters/Ushers: Mariana Schweitzer, Dawn Cogger
Hospitality Hosts: Diane Mikelbank
| | Resolve to get involved at McFarland UCC! Volunteer on Sunday. Join a ministry such as Racial Justice, Creation Care, Befrienders Care Team, SaLT, Youth ministry, Building & Ground Team, or others. Find out more by clicking here. | | |
News at McFarland UCC
Note: Clickable links are blue, underlined, and italicized.
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Peggy's Cookie sale
Sunday, July 13
Before & after worship
All proceeds from July 13 and 19 fundraisers go to the Teen Trip
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Saturday, July 19
9am-1pm
In our parking lot
Kwik Trip Car Wash cards - 5 elite car washes for $36
First free car wash on us
Accepting donations if you don't want a gift card
Select Here to print out an order form for the Kwik Trip Car Wash cards. You don't have to come on the 19th in person to purchase these cards. Just fill out the form and bring it and your payment to church anytime.
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Want To Officially Join Our Church?
July 20th is the day!
A few folks have approached me (Pastor Bryan) and said that they would like to officially join our congregation before I end my pastorate. That is wonderful! If you are among them, we will receive these new members during my final Sunday in worship, which will be July 20. If you would like to join at this time, please contact me and let me know and I'll answer any questions you may have about what membership at McFarland UCC means to us.
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Sound Bath - Chakra Balance and Affirmations
July 20, 1-3 pm
Judy Taber has a connection with Karen Jedele and helped coordinate this opportunity.
What is a Sound Bath?
A sound bath is a meditative experience where participants lie down or sit comfortably while sounds and vibrations from various instruments are played. These instruments can include singing bowls, gongs, chimes, drums, and other harmonic tools. The term "bath" implies that the participants are immersed in the sounds, allowing the vibrations to wash over them, promoting relaxation, stress reduction, and sometimes even spiritual or emotional healing. The intention is to create a therapeutic environment where individuals can let go of tension, quiet the mind, and enter a state of deep relaxation or meditation. Click here to register.
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Farewell to Pastor Bryan
Join us in sending Pastor Bryan off on his next adventure! There will be a cookout/potluck at the church on Wednesday, July 30th, from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. The main course (burgers, hot dogs, etc) will be provided. Please bring a side or dessert to share if you are able.
RSVP is not required, but would be appreciated for planning purposes. Volunteers will be needed for setup and cleanup.
Please contact Judy Taber at 608-215-4161 or judy...@gmail.com with questions, to volunteer, or to say you are coming. Hope to see you there!!!
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What in the World Is a Wind Phone?
Submitted by Trish Kalhagen
From mywindphone.com: The original Wind Phone was created in Japan by Itaru Sasaki while grieving his cousin who died of cancer. He purchased an old-fashioned phone booth and set it up in his garden. He installed an obsolete rotary phone that was not connected to wires or any "earthly system." Here, Itaru felt a continued connection to his cousin and found comfort and healing amid his grief. Itaru gave his phone booth a name, Kaze No Denwa (風の電話), translated as The Wind Phone.
A few years ago on a walk at Sunset Park in Sturgeon Bay, WI, we saw our first Wind Phone there in the park not far from the lake. I knew of this practice to aid in our grief and it was comforting to see one in a public space. My mother-in-law Marilyn had died not long before this day. It was a profound experience in that park, “talking” to Marilyn through the Wind Phone. That experience was meaningful and comforting. It also brought an unusual encounter with a dog and his owner who were walking by just after we left that Wind Phone. This dog kept looking back at me as he walked along up ahead of us. That empath of a dog could feel the energy of the pain that was being experienced. I had a beautiful conversation with the dog's owner, and he confirmed that his beloved dog does this all the time with people who are hurting, sending them love and support with those sweet eyes of a dog.
The sign that was on this Wind Phone said:
A Tool for Healing
The Wind Phone is for all who grieve.
You are welcome to find solace here.
Please use it to connect with those you have lost.
Feel the comfort of their memory.
Say the goodbye you never got to say.
May you hear their voices in the wind.
May you be at peace with your losses.
When I returned from Door County that weekend, I hoped we could place a Wind Phone here for others to have the opportunity to use this beautiful tool for supporting grief. The MUCC wind phone is located between the church and the community garden area.
I hope many others will give it a try and “talk” to their loved ones that have passed with this unique grief tool. May you feel peace, love, and support.
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Weekly Creation Care Topic
Reduce/Reuse/Recycle
This week’s tip: REDUCE microplastics by trading out plastic cutting boards for wood. “Scientists are growing increasingly worried that microplastics that find their way into our bodies could be harming our health. One way they get in? Food. And not only through food itself — though they are there — but also in the sundry tools and other items we use to prepare and store what we eat on a daily basis.” Click here to learn more in this NPR article.
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A Few Words from Pastor Bryan
You’re not supposed to know how …
I did a brief sermon series earlier this year that focused on how we can learn to “hear the voice of God.” I mentioned that God is always trying to somehow communicate to us and with us and even through us. So often we don’t even know that what we’re sensing or feeling or experiencing is God “speaking to us.” As the saying goes, “Is it God or is it odd?” It’s often so subtle. And so ambiguous or nuanced or subjective. Things happen in a certain way at a certain time that feel significant, and we attribute it to God “moving.” Some of us playfully refer to these experiences as “God winks.” Carl Jung called it synchronicity. Einstein said, "coincidences are just God's choice to remain anonymous."
None of us can prove that God is speaking to us. Faith pretty much means that we choose to believe that God is speaking to us even though we can never be completely sure just what it is. You know--someone calls at what feels like just the right moment and says just what we needed to hear at that moment in a way that feels “from beyond.” Or from Deep Within. Some “chance” encounter changes the timing or the course of our day and that leads to some other encounter that we couldn’t have possibly planned but that made a huge difference in our lives or in someone else’s and we decide that God was somehow in or behind it all. But is that really God speaking? No way to know for sure. I mean beyond the shadow of a doubt. And you know what?
I’m okay with that. In fact I’ve grown to love that. I appreciate the invitation to work with it. Even the freedom to miss it completely is Grace.
I don’t need to prove anything to anyone anymore. Especially about God. As if I could anyway.
I rarely get beyond the simple fact that I could easily just be projecting-- reading my own spiritual interpretations into things. A hawk appearing at “just the right moment” might just mean that there was a rodent close by that the hawk was about to have for lunch! How presumptuous of me—egocentric—narcissistic even—to think that the Creator of the Universe is arranging these random things in order to speak a specific “word” to ME. But then again, as I’ve often said, I don’t want to make it so hard for God to get through to me that I miss the subtle gifts and graces that actually make the spiritual life such a beautiful and enchanted journey. And as I’ve shared with you all a few times, it was a hawk sitting on our McFarland UCC church sign that led me to accept the call to be pastor of our congregation 7 years ago. I'm so grateful to that beloved Hawk.
After my 50 years now of being on a rather wild and deliciously unpredictable and uncontrollable spiritual journey, I have to smile at myself when I think of how darn “woo woo” I’ve become. I realize how foolish I probably seem in the eyes of some. But I’m okay with that too. And biblically I seem to be in pretty good company. Faith to me means actually risking that the subjective, inexplicable, unverifiable, “nudges” I feel and the “words” I hear—sort of—I mean silently within my own heart and mind and soul--are REAL enough to risk building my life on them.
Jesus said that his “sheep” (that’s us) know his voice. We learn to recognize how he communicates and what his voice sounds like.
About a dozen or so times in my life, I’ve heard Jesus or God speak in a way that I just couldn’t ignore. At least I think it's Jesus or God (see?). In these times, what I hear within myself is a sentence or a phrase that is clear, and that doesn’t come from my own thinking. It’s just there all of a sudden. Sometimes it’s a very clear instruction. It seems to drop in out of nowhere, but it’s plain and unambiguous. And often challenging. For example, when I graduated from college in 1980, I took a job as a management trainee at a major U.S. steel corporation. I worked for about 5 months, and then one evening I was sitting alone in my apartment in St. Louis, MO, and out of the blue I heard the words, “Quit your job and go to seminary.” It came from some “place” within me that I knew I could not ignore and be at peace. There was a quiet urgency to it. Like--"don't play around with this. Do it." No one else heard it. But I did. The next day I quit my job and started the process of enrolling in seminary. When you get a clear word from God—don’t wait. I later wrote a song called “Don’t Wait” that communicates this basic point. (select here to hear it).
Another time I was driving to a concert I was going to perform during my years of music ministry, and on the way I heard a voice say, “It’s time for you to learn to play another person’s music.” That one was a bit more riddle-like. I took it as a call to collaboration. I began to realize that my ministry was not going to be just about me and my own songs and my own artistry. I needed to work with others and promote the music of others in addition to my own. Looking back now I can see that that was the beginning of what eventually led to my establishing The Convergence Music Project (CMP) many years later. That’s the ministry I’ll be focusing on full-time once my time as your pastor comes to an end in less than 3 weeks from today.
My most recent “word” came during the last Contemplative Prayer and Healing service at our church led by Cameron Macdonald. During the service, Cameron led us in a guided meditation. She gently encouraged us to imagine entering a beautiful place in nature, and then having Jesus show up and spend time with us and speak to us. To be honest, I was having a hard time focusing and getting there in my imagination. I was distracted by the process of discernment I was in about ending my pastorate. I knew I was being called at some point to give my full-time focus to CMP and to be more available to my kids and grandkids, but I couldn’t figure out how to make it all work pragmatically (as in having adequate funding, etc.) without taking a huge risk. But when Jesus showed up finally in that prayer exercise, here’s what happened.
Jesus smiled at me and simply said, “Quit trying to figure it all out. YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW HOW. Come and have an adventure with me.” He was almost teasing me. As if to say, “Bryan—quit taking everything so darn seriously. Every time I’ve called you it’s required a risk. You think it’s going to be different this time just because you’re an old man? Trust me old man. Let’s play.”
Well that was it folks. That was a voice I recognized. That’s the Jesus I’ve known and given my life to for the last 50 years. Silly me. Wanting it all secure and laid out and fully mapped out beforehand. I should have known better. And that’s one “should” I’ll gladly lay on myself…
I’m not supposed to know how.
That’s the Jesus of my journey. Intimate and unreasonable. Relentlessly demanding. Playfully inviting me to risk looking or being foolish in in the process of trying to respond faithfully.
Irresistible.
Two more Sundays together. Hope to see you one way or another before the end of the month.
Much Love,
Your Woo Woo Pastor Bryan
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