August 2024 Connections

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CONNECTIONS AUGUST 2 024

HERE AND NOW Everyday Life on the Way to the Kingdom

AUGUST 2024 CONNECTIONS

INSIDE

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THE KING OF GOODBYES

QUESTION THE TACO

Virginia Hughes

Keith Bodger

Godbwye till we meet again.

Questions asked and answered, or so we think.

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14

FINDING WATER IN THE DESERT

DEPENDENCE DAY

Anonymous

Alex Lee

Water, water everywhere, but here.

Happy Independence Day—every day is a holiday.

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22

A RETURN TO ROUTINES

THE POWER OF ASKING QUESTIONS

Pat Cirrincione

Peter Kanetis

A set time can be a good time.

A “question”able approach to hard conversations.

AUGUST 2024 CONNECTIONS

FEATURES From the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

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Opportunities for Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

MAKING A HARD PATH A BIT EASIER

Our Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Coray Watson

Gallery Spotlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 ArtSpace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 A Word From the Panners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

CHURCH LIFE: August Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Looking Ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Soft landings ahead.

Under the Radar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Milestones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 SOHL Announcements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

26 GOSPEL NOW: Q&A WITH MICAH LINDQUIST

Hiding God’s Word in Our Hearts.

28 SAFETY, SECURITY AND YOU AT COLLEGE CHURCH James Cook

At the Bookstall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Giving Joy: Blessed Beyond Measure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Our Pastors, Directors and Residents: Our Pastors, Directors and Residents: Cheryce Berg, director of children’s ministries | Roger Burgess, pastor of visitation | Felipe Chamy, pastoral resident | Julie Clemens, director of disability ministries | Erik Dewar, pastor of worship and music | Tate Fritz, pastoral resident | Matt Heaton, pastoral resident | Baxter Helm, high school pastor | Dan Hiben, middle school pastor | Tim Hollinger, technology director | Jim Johanik, pastor of evangelism | Ann Karow, human resources director | Howard Kern, facilities director | Bruce Main, pastor of visitation | Josh Maurer, pastor of discipleship | Curt Miller, missions pastor | Josh Moody, senior pastor | Ben Panner, college pastor Mindy Rynbrandt, director of women’s ministries | John Seward, executive pastor | Nancy Singer, director of administration and finance | Wil Triggs, director of communications Our Council of Elders: Mark Berg | Mark Bradley, vice-chair | Jay Cunningham Steve Ivester | Randy Jahns | Glenn Kosirog | Josh Moody, senior pastor | Jeff Oslund | Roger Sandberg | David Setran, secretary | Dave Tweeten | Chad Thorson | Brian Wildman, chair

Connections is a monthly newsletter published for and about the people of College Church. Send news items and suggestions to: connections@ college-church.org. Keep Connections in mind to promote a community event to the College Church family. Send event information by the following dates: For the September issue: August 9 | For the October issue: September 9 | For the November issue: October 9

Be aware, situationally aware.

332 E. Seminary, Wheaton, IL 60187

On the Cover: Fine Art Photography by Meagan Shuptar.

(630) 668-0878 | www.college-church.org

AUGUST 2024 CONNECTIONS

CONTRIBUTORS KEITH BODGER

PETER KANETIS

PAT CIRRINCIONE

ALEX LEE

JAMES COOK

MICAH LINDQUIST

writes about summer vacations, but his “heart season” is winter. Keith and his wife, Mel, have lived in Wheaton since they married 28 years ago. He and Mel lead a small group together.

When not writing or praying for her grandchildren, Pat enjoys reading and baking and attending musicals, and pool water-walking in the summer.

Her greatest joys are God and her family, and time with both makes for much joy and laughter.

and his wife, Becky, first met in HYACKs and are long time members of College Church. James and Becky have four adult children and four grandchildren. In the past, James has served as an usher and head usher for many years. For the last six years, James has headed up the Life Safety Team here at College Church. A former social studies teacher, James enjoys his role as Life Safety Manager.

VIRGINIA HUGHES

has served in children’s ministries and on the deaconess board. At home, she is usually working in or planning out her garden or writing. Virginia and her husband, Roger, have three grown daughters, and are thankful for trips to Ann Arbor (MI) to visit their grandson.

teaches philosophy and religion at College of DuPage and Moraine Valley Community College.

He and his wife, Carole, spend an inordinate amount of time watching cat videos.

A letter-carrier for 35 years, Alex is counting down the days when he can hang up his satchel in retirement and take up his pen more frequently. He and his wife, Virginia, are blessed with a daughter and a son, and five grandchildren.

is a first-time contributor to Connections. She currently serves as a greeter and helps lead a small group with her husband, Dan. For years, Micah and Dan taught their children’s Bible school classes as their five children grew up in College Church. She now loves encouraging young moms as they seek to raise their children to know and love the Lord, and she loves traveling to New Jersey and Tennessee to see her three grandchildren.

CORAY WATSON

is a foster and adoptive mom who grew up in College Church and is enjoying worshiping here with her family again. She runs a foster care ministry here in Wheaton. She enjoys reading, playing games and spending quality time with her people. One of Coray’s greatest passions is sharing her heart for foster care—if you’d like to learn more about fostering, she would love to talk with you!

AUGUST 2024 CONNECTIONS

BAC K T O NO R M A L I SN ’ T A LWAYS NO R M A L WIL TRIGGS | EDITOR

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s we approach the end of summer and another school year begins, our days shift back to “normal” schedules of school, community and church life. The normal routine, the daily grind—these mental cues can serve as a comfort to find rest in familiar things we’ve come to know over time. But they also can mask change and hardship.

Sometimes grief over disruption and change is masked behind the here and now—as Virginia Hughes points out in her article (p. 2) about changes she didn’t fully understand in her childhood.

Looking back adds layers of perspective to her hardest goodbye as a parent.

Our day to day does not include a search for water. One writer reflects on how normal and rare it is to have a steady supply of running water in contrast to a watch country she visited this summer (p. 6). Pat C is looking back at truths of everyday life that turn out to transcend life itself with the help of Jesus (p. 10) Keith Bodger’s friend plays a trick on him, but I think Keith gets the last laugh with his article (p. 12).

In the day to day of life, where is our dependence? Alex Lee dares us to consider and answer this question (p. 14) Coray Watson (p. 24) points us to how we can give normal life and safe spaces to the vulnerable. When we do that, ordinary life for the least of these isn’t so ordinary after all.

And as Peter Kenetis points out, we can learn to ask questions along the way, and those questions might help us express ourselves for God in ways that don’t devolve into arguments or worse (p. 22). Micah Lindquist shares how Bible memory became a part of her here and now as a child and in new ways with our Gospel Now efforts (p. 26).

I hate to admit this, but goodbyes are also part of our here and now. I hate them. We have a beautiful photo of Ben and Joanna Panner and children, along with some words of love to us as they launch into a new ministry and life in Chicago (p. 16). Good things are ahead for Ben and Joanna.

Our here and nows might seem ordinary, boring even. But it is in the quiet of everyday living when big things happen. We are people of a heavenly kingdom and home. So, as you read this issue and enter a new season that might feel ordinary, look for extraordinary things from God and from his church.

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The King of Goodbyes Virginia Hughes

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t thirteen, Mom was crying in her room overwhelmed with sadness over her mother’s death, when her dad opened the door to tell her she had cried enough. He wasn’t going to listen to her cry herself to sleep every night and since crying wouldn’t bring her mother back, the crying needed to cease. Mom learned to hide her mourning and her anger over stifling it. Whenever she needed to cry, she ran down to the cellar laundry room and angrily tossed around whatever was there. An empty bleach bottle, a laundry basket, a pile of clothes, an old broken broom. She would put everything she threw back in place, and scream and cry into the clothes until she was done crying—well away from where Grandad would hear her. And it hurt my mom to hide her grief over the loss of her dear mother. It crept into her soul and twisted her thoughts into believing that her normal, outward signs of emotion in saying goodbye were a sign of weakness in herself and others.

Our mission home was in front of a sugarcane field, and we breathed in the cane’s essence and swallowed an abundance of its juice. How we relished that sugarcane and could never get enough of it. We would have followed the Pied Piper for a drop of sugar even without the magical music. The cane fields held promises that one day we’d carry a bolo knife and slay venomous snakes lurking within the rows. We never achieved that goal as we ran freely through the fields not knowing we would soon be leaving. How greatly we would miss our favorite people among other things in a cycle of goodbye, hello, goodbye, hello.

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Like Auntie Foompah.* Did we adore Auntie Foompah or was it more the sweet, chewy durian candy she always brought? It’s a tough call with memories of the delicious candy and the person so entwined. Foompah would float in with news from the USA, regale us with traveling stories and laughter, preach and join the ministry planning sessions full of smiles and godly blessing when she was present. She didn’t stay long, and we kids were sorry to see her, and the durian candy, depart. Much later in life we learned her visits were a mixed bag of joy, but also nerves and worries of what she’d report back to the mission board about our parents’ efforts. Would her evaluation truly reflect their vision and how diligently they worked to do the Lord’s will? She locked horns with Dad when she suggested they cut construction expenses by building one dorm and not two on the Bible school campus. Foompah was our own Mary Poppins who arrived to shake things up and leave again on the wind.

She inspected, scrutinized ministry methods, took notes and dropped in her two cents’ worth, but we younger kids didn’t know any of that as we contentedly chewed the sweet durian candy. On the heels of her delivering a report Stateside, new orders arrived and we loaded our scant belongings into the VW bus and moved to a new mission location. Goodbye, don’t cry; just hit the road, Jack.

How lovely the new road unfurled before us who were the younger half of the family when Dad announced that God was calling us to a new adventure. The younger half fell right in line. My older siblings, however, had formed real attachments and more keenly experienced the loss of friends and familiar

settings while making an effort to stifle their feelings and appear respectable. Stiff upper lip was the rule and oddly translated into a way to prove one’s strong faith in God. Some of us were not emotional about goodbyes and those who were dared not cry for long when we moved to a new mission assignment. Sad feelings were discouraged as if having them challenged our God-given orders.

Thankfully, over the years my mother was able to unwind her childhood griefs and learned that God is our comforter and blesses our mourning. Mom came to outwardly mourn losses and goodbyes and expects others, including her children, to do the same. Recently, she cried openly over the loss of a sweet pet whom she will sincerely miss and those who love pets can all relate.

Goodbyes fall upon each of us differently depending on their severity and their timing. Our age, personality, connectedness and support during a goodbye all play a role in how we adjust to it. Choice also affects goodbyes and so often we have no choice in the goodbyes we face.

There are goodbyes that break our hearts such as when a loved one dies. The tragic loss of one’s own child is a harsh experience.

Author Joe Bayly, who suffered the deaths of more than one of his children, described the death of a child as, “A period that doesn’t belong in the middle of a sentence.” I get that, but for me it was more a painful, burning chasm that at times iced over and did not belong in the middle of my mind, heart and soul.

The little prince of goodbye in my life was my first baby Joshua, who died in our arms after living for three short hours after

he was born. His death was not a surprise as his issues were detected at 16 weeks in utero, but he beautifully grew for nine months until his birth. There was always hope that everything we’d been told was wrong, he’d actually be fine, and we’d carry on raising him. While we were saying hello to him, his soul said goodbye and went on to heaven. I was left with my throbbing body and muddled mind. Instead of reveling in his new baby presence, we went limping off to shop for his burial outfit.

Dealing with my baby dying was too much, the casket too small, the pain too deep and the upheaval too intense. The church’s love and prayers, and the support of many loved ones carried us through, but my inner turmoil was ongoing.

A few thoughts I wrote at the time: When you left I felt smaller, less together.

It is important to others that I be ok. I am not ok.

What will fill the space you left? My faith and church, husband, family, friends, a garden, music, my kids at school, my kids at church, physical activity, a trip, good books, a creative project.

It is not working. I still feel empty. Did I pause long enough to process your passing? How exactly do I process your passing? Why did I go right back to teaching? At school, I ran out to my car for a crying break today. When asked what was wrong? I answered... nothing. Has everyone already forgotten? I have moved into not “feeling” at all. Is it my head or my throat holding this thick wad of wet wool? I cannot... continued on next page 3

AUGUST 2024 CONNECTIONS

I felt unglued. There were so many feelings and questions wound around any hope of thinking clearly. There were days where regular chores were merciful work to do and other days, where continuing to do the stuff of life was too difficult.

It became apparent over the years that the death of my child would be processed in many ways for the rest of my life. I lived life and grief would suddenly arrive in waves like the ocean’s tides rolling in and out again.

We were pleasantly distracted by raising three healthy daughters born very close together. Each new baby was a perfect bundle upon whom we loved and doted. The girls were healing us with their presence while we missed all the wonderful milestones with our son now in heaven. I wondered if the angels were raising him and if they watched him closely enough. Can I trust them? I don’t even know them. The passage of time happened.

Days upon days folded like processed laundry one on top of the other. Eventually, mercifully I didn’t always and only hurt and long for Joshua and break into a million pieces of sharp glass on the edge of every thought and breath. Three decades later, I have grown stronger than ever imagined, yet more sensitive and all too aware of the fragility of our earthly beings as I lean heavily on Jesus with my questions and woes.

There are goodbyes that are not death, but feel like death, as a grown child makes life choices that state: I will not be following the narrow road of faith you raised me upon. I am leaving the light of my childhood and all the good, true ways of living and everything right you ever taught me. This unfair goodbye from a grown child has one questioning God and grappling for more ways to show love and support, praying for patience and remaining involved to communicate a heartfelt message, “I will always love you. I am here for you and will always be leaning on the everlasting arms.”

There are goodbyes that nearly kill us and make us feel like trash. The goodbye of infidelity and abandonment, when sacred vows are burned to ashes as a spouse blows up the sacred unit of a family and is gone. And we lament and we should lament. Oh, I hope we lament. It is not weakness to lament.

We may be uncomfortable with our own lament if we were shushed too much when we needed to lament as children.

We may frighten ourselves with our raw emotions and quiet ourselves too much. But emotion that has been repressed and stuffed turns into a never-ending fountain of vitriol and bitter resentment. And it is the resentment that is toxic and should not be nourished. Grief must be expressed.

In Isaiah, Jesus is described as a “man of sorrows.” The Hebrew phrase ‘ish makh’ovot means, literally, “man of pains,” and refers to both physical and emotional suffering. God’s Son was not immune to difficulties. In fact, he would be “acquainted with deepest grief.”

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Days of great loss hold heft. The death of Christ was a heavy day. He forgave the world with his shed blood and dying breath. He had such a bloody, horrible death leaving no doubt that his blood was poured out for us. He physically left mother, friends, followers.

Yet, it is his return in resurrection glory that will make him the official King of Goodbyes.

How did Jesus say goodbye after the resurrection? Jesus said he was going away to the Father, and that he would send the Holy Spirit to guide the disciples. Jesus bestowed peace on the disciples and commanded them to love one another. Then he left again in the clouds but promised to return. And this is what we believe. Our faith is not naive. It is both optimistic and courageous.

An original form of goodbye, dating from the 1570s, was “godbwye,” which looks like a phone text and meant, “God be with ye!” or “God Bye.” We will always be saying, “goodbye for now,” to our beloved people and places, but we travel along with the King of Goodbyes, and he will handle our grief just fine.

How lovely is the day stretching out before us.

Fresh starts are built into creation. Each day has its beginning, middle and end. We are told to seize the day which is a real laugh when a day is but a vapor chanting out its fleeting moments from sunrise to sunset. A day lily dances in the breeze and magnificently feeds the hummingbird, butterfly and bee, but only for one day. Hello, it says and then goodbye, in a blink. (*Foompah—all women who worked alongside my parents were called Auntie plus their first name. When, as a tot, my eldest sister was introduced to Auntie Flora Belle, she could only say Foompah, and Flora Belle burst into giggles over it, insisted she loved it and the name Foompah stuck forevermore.)

AUGUST 2024 CONNECTIONS

OPPORTUNITIES FOR PRAYER

Work with us.

Looking for meaningful part-time work at a great workplace?

Check out these openings at College Church.

• Communications Design Assistant (10-15 hours a week) • We are also searching for our next Pastor of Care & Connection.

Visit the college-church.org/job-openings or email Ann at akarow@ college-church.org.

Call the church office or email info@college-church.org for details on these prayer meetings.

SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER: 8:15-8:40 a.m., meets in C101 SIGNS OF LOVE DEAF MINISTRY POTLUCK & PRAYER: 12-2 p.m., in Crossings. Meets every other Sunday. August dates: August 4 & 18.

MIDWEEK PRAYER MEETING: Wednesdays at 7 p.m. via Zoom AUGUST 7: Jake and Honah Finn, member care at Cornerstone in Thailand, with One Mission Society AUGUST 14: Jeff and Ann VanDerMolen, community development with Kids Alive in Dominican Republic AUGUST 21: Rick and Janice McKinley, sports ministry, discipleship and training with Missionary Athletes International AUGUST 28: Harry and Wendy Robinson, member care FRIDAY PRAYER FOR THE PERSECUTED CHURCH: 12-1 p.m. in the Board Room.

AARON-HUR PRAYER FELLOWSHIP will meet on Thursday, August 8, at 7 p.m. at the home of Everett and Marcelyn Peterson, 127 Westminster Drive in Carol Stream, (630) 784-0569. Our guests will be Nathan and Vera Beck, serving in the Czech Republic.

BARNABAS PRAYER FELLOWSHIP will hear from Nathan Beck about his and Vera’s work in the Czech Republic with Greater Europe Mission on August 21 at 1:30 p.m., in the Arts Room at Covenant Living at Windsor Park All are welcome to come. The group also prays for its assigned group of College Church supported crosscultural workers.

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Finding water in the desert AN ON YM OUS

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t’s late on a very warm Wednesday night, and I’m listening to water slowly drain into one of the large white cylinder tanks on the roof of the apartment building where we are staying. Tonight is the night for this neighborhood’s once weekly allotment of municipal tap water. The pipe valve into the building has been opened, the water has started flowing, and after several hours, the rooftop tanks will be full. The drip, plop, drip is a welcome sound, almost like summer rain dripping off the

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roof, except this summer, as all other summers here, there is no rain. This is a desert.

The tanks will provide household water, but none for drinking. The water has been treated but is not pure. It’s suitable for laundry, showers, flushing toilets, mopping the floor, boiling for rice or pasta, or for the sporadic buckets of water the landlord pours down the entry stairwell to clean it, but not for a clear, clean, refreshing glass of water.

AUGUST 2024 CONNECTIONS

To enjoy a drink of water in your home requires a separate purchase and another task: buying numerous fivegallon plastic cannisters and mounting them as needed on a drink dispenser.

Then you can press a button and fill your glass, your coffeepot, and the water bottle always by your side. Fivegallons run out very quickly, and it’s time to pull another heavy cannister from the storeroom and mount it on the dispenser.

Planning to travel to another city? Load several eight-packs of two-liter water bottles into your car. It looks like more than a family could drink, but when you travel in the desert in 109-degree heat, those two-liter bottles disappear alarmingly fast. You can’t depend on rest stops or stores along the way to have drinking water for sale. (Actually, there are no rest stops.)

Arrive at a destination in a more remote part of the desert, and while the sandy expanse and rocky cliffs are hauntingly beautiful, they are dry, hot, and a constant reminder of how here there are no springs of water or even municipal water trucks, just limited supplies from nearby water tanks and the precious bottles in your car.

Visiting a restaurant? The server is warm and friendly but will not place a free glass of refreshing ice water at your place before you even order. You must order and pay for bottled water with your meal. Perhaps multiple bottles.

Attend a gathering and there are no pitchers of water or buckets of ice. Just small, plastic covered 8-oz. cups of water; most people help themselves to two or three to quench their thirst.

Wondering how to water your lawn?

A lawn?? Unheard of, except in perhaps the most affluent parts of the city.

There are some established trees which enjoy the winter rains, as well as some struggling shrubbery and flowering bushes, a few flowers that offer infrequent patches of color, occasionally brightening the expanse of limestone

and concrete buildings wedged into the rocky hillsides. With water such a limited and precious resource, who can spare it to keep plants alive?

I return home from the desert and immediately have a new perspective on this most basic of natural resources.

Water. Here in the land of the Great Lakes, water is everywhere. Gushing from the faucet at the slightest turn, filling my cup, my glass, my bottle, my mug, my coffeepot. Churning through my dishwasher. Jetting into my washing machine. Spraying from my hose as I water flowers, shrubs, trees, a garden, a green lawn. Overflowing the bucket as I wash the car.

How I have taken this plenty for granted!

When it comes to water, I am profligate, especially compared to those living in a desert land. Do I ever appreciate that when I open a tap the water is clean and will not make me sick? How often do I leave a full glass of barely sipped water at my place in a restaurant? Launder a small load or run an unneeded extra rinse cycle? Forget to turn off the hose? Dump the water from my bottle because I want a fresher drink? Shower for, well, a long time? Assume there will be a pitcher of water at every occasion?

I have not appreciated as I should the liquid plenty that flows through our pipes from Lake Michigan, but there is another, far more lasting water that I also often take for granted. In John 4, Jesus, while resting at Jacob’s well, asked a woman from Samaria who had come to draw water to “give me a drink.” After the woman exclaimed that she could not understand how a Jew could ask a woman of Samaria for a drink, “Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman initially grabbed onto the words, “never be thirsty again,” because she begged Jesus for his living water “so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” She was understandably hoping to escape an arduous but unavoidable daily task.

It was only after the woman realized that Jesus is “a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” that she discovered, along with the other Samaritans she brought to meet Jesus, that he indeed is “the Savior of the world,” who offers true living water that can fully satisfy any thirsty soul.

Like the Samaritan woman, I too often keep my gaze on the present realities of my physical situation, even when I am in the very presence of the One who offers eternal thirst quenching.

Or worse, I take for granted the water of life Jesus offers. H2O is necessary for my daily survival, and Jesus cares about that, but how much more important that I seek living water not only for my daily spiritual welfare, but also to share the spiritual abundance I enjoy with others who have thirsty souls.

The people who live in desert lands are thirsty not just for scarce clean water but for the water of life. Pray that God will make himself known to those who live in the thirstiest places of all.

When the woman asked Jesus, “Where do you get that living water?” Jesus told her, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty 7

AUGUST 2024 CONNECTIONS

Gallery SPOTLIGHT Days and Nights of Light and Life, the current gallery in ArtSpace, includes four artists of vision and distinction expressing their unique perspective on summer and faith.

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BARBARA ELSENHEIMER LIITA FORSYTH MEGAN SHUPTAR DAVID SOBOTKA

AUGUST 2024 CONNECTIONS

GALLERY

GATHERING

DAYS AND NIGHTS OF LIGHT AND LIFE

A monthly coming together, where we discuss our personal projects and the many facets of creativity and God.

THROUGH AUGUST 14 Four artists bring their creativity to summertime.

WATERS OF THE WORD SEPTEMBER 1-OCTOBER 4 Opening Reception:

NOTE: Summer Dates We will be meeting on the second Thursday of each month instead of Tuesday during the months of June, July & August.

September 1, 12-2 p.m.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 8 at 7 p.m. in Crossings

Exploring water through the

August word for the month: Today

stories and truths of the Bible.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Submissions accepted on our webpage at college-church.org/ artspace through August 26.

All ages are welcome to submit art.

GALLERY HOURS: Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 12 to 2 p.m. Also open on Sundays after the evening service.

For other opening times, contact the church office at

WORKSHOPS ArtSpace participants are welcome to join the August 6 meeting Q&A with Philip Ryken, author of Beauty Is Your Destiny and Art for God’s Sake.

COMING SOON:

(630) 668-0878 or email

• ACRYLIC POUR WORKSHOP

artspace@college-church.org

• GARDEN DESIGN • MOVIE-MAKING WITH YOUR PHONE Watch our website for details.

For more information or to sign up for an adult workshop, visit our webpage: college-church.org/artspace.

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A Return to Routines PAT CIRRINCIONE

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rowing up on the west side of Chicago, my summer routine was leaving the city for summer camp in the country, otherwise known as Wheaton, Illinois.

The summer camp was run by the Off the Street Club, which is still located on Kostner Avenue, and prior to the end of the school year, a handful of junior high and high school students who would spend a weekend at camp, getting it ready for the day and overnight campers. I was among the chosen ones. Most of the prep work involved laying gravel on the mile long road that led into the camp from Butterfield Road. The boys would fill wheelbarrows with the gravel, roll them to a section of road, where the rest of us would shovel the gravel out and lay it down on the road.

We also picked up fallen branches from the campgrounds, and cleaned out the dorms for the campers who would soon arrive. The reward for a weekend of labor in the sun was swimming in the pool and eating the wonderful food made by the director and his wife. No one ever complained about tiredness, soreness, or too much work. It was a labor of love and camaraderie which lasted throughout the summer months (and for some a lifetime).

After this arduous weekend of hard labor, we headed home to finish the school year, anticipating the return to the beautiful countryside. Those were the days my friends, filled with long 10

hikes, canoeing at Herrick Lake, biking trips, swimming at the Batavia Quarry or our own pool when built, crafts, summer theater skits, and when eating a meal around the campfire or wherever your camp group sat. It was fun, and filled my life with many fond memories.

But that was then, what about now?

I grew up, grew older, I wish I could say wiser, and have always been somewhat of a routine type of person. For example, while raising a family I had a morning routine of getting up at 3:30 a.m. to do my daily workout routine, then shower and get dressed before I woke everyone else up in the household to go through their morning routines, such as rolling back over to go back to sleep until I turned music on loudly, or nagged until everyone got up and ready for their day. Those days, too, passed very quickly, as children went off to college, married, and are now creating their own routines with their families.

Now as an empty-nest family, routines have changed again. I no longer get up at 3:30 to work out, preferring to hug my pillow while I sleep in past seven (okay, maybe eight). My husband and I mosey our way to the kitchen for a cup of coffee before we do whatever we are going to do for the day: a weekly visit to the various grocery stores for household supplies, gardening, or for me, checking out if my bathing suit still fits from last season before I head to the pool, for pool walking exercise.

All of this got me thinking about one of Jesus’s routines while on earth— prayer. Did you know that at times he went away by himself, to be alone (Matthew 14:23; Mark 6:46-47; John 6:15). He went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued to pray to God (Luke 6:1-2). He also prayed with others.

The Bible indicates that having set times for certain things is good. David indicated that morning was the right time for him to praise God and ask for his direction (Ps. 5:3; 143:8). And Daniel prayed three times a day, and not even the threat of death made him change his routine.

According to The Jesus Inspired Morning Routine That Changed my Life by Brandon Hilgenamm: “The Three Things that Jesus did that I don’t: 1. Jesus got up early, before the sun.

2. Jesus left the house and walked somewhere.

3. Jesus spent time with God alone.”

Does that sound like you? Like me?

Like us? Whoa! I think as summer ends, I would like to get back to a quieter routine of exercise, morning prayer, Bible Study, shower, and then go!

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Question the Taco KEITH BODGER

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n the mid-90s, I was on a job site in Wisconsin with numerous colleagues. We were sampling soil, and I was running a laboratory for immediate chemical analyses. I had a backlog, and it was lunch time. The rest of the team went to lunch, and I asked them to bring back two seven-layer burritos. I continued my work and, eventually, my colleagues returned.

My buddy Jay handed me a bag and said, “Sorry Keith.

I accidentally ran over your taco.” I was confused, busy and hungry. He didn’t run over a burrito, which I ordered. He ran over a taco that I didn’t order. I took the taco, laid it on the lab bench, and noted the literal tire marks. I unwrapped the taco to eat it and Jay started howling with laughter. “Bodge, it’s a joke!

I didn’t run over your food,” and he handed me my two sevenlayer burritos. He was expecting me to be belligerent and angry.

Instead, I accepted, adapted and didn’t ask any questions. I didn’t question the taco.

I recently trained a colleague, and he questioned so much. The task at hand was calculating emissions using spreadsheets.

Spreadsheets I’ve used for a decade. The guy I was training, Leo, questioned the column headings. One column was Regen and another Dehy and I kept using the term Reboiler, which wasn’t a heading. The spreadsheet showed operating hours under the Dehy column, and we used those hours to determine emissions.

But I said the Dehy doesn’t have emissions.

He asked, “Why does the heading say Dehy?”

I said it’s because the Dehy operates when the Reboiler runs but the emissions come from the reboiler, not the Dehy.

Why does the heading have Regen when it’s a reboiler?

“Well, they’re synonymous. A Regen regenerates the glycol that’s in the reboiler.”

“Why not use Reboiler instead of Regen?”

“I don’t know.” The more he asked, the more I explained, the more we both understood. It’s good to ask questions. I adapted to the taco. Leo questioned the taco.

The primary reason we question is to understand. As we walk our Christian lives, we should question what we read and hear. In Acts 17:11, when Paul was in Berea, it says “Now these Jews were 12

more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” If you hear something new or curious in sermon, small group, general conversation, check it out in the Scriptures.

Ask the person about what he or she said and where you can find that in the Bible. If people are well researched, they can point to Scripture and explain it. If they aren’t well researched, together you can search the Scriptures to confirm the point or learn from the Scriptures to see it differently. Either way, get into the Word and learn.

It’s good to question one another with respect to finding truth in the Scriptures. But is it good to question God? Moses did, “Who am I that I should go to Pharoah and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” “Where am I going to get meat to give to all this people?”

Moses’ questions seem more like complaints or excuses to get out of obeying God. David and Jesus questioned God, “How long, oh Lord, how long—” or “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”—questions wrenched from pain-filled but submissive hearts.

So, we can question God. A lot of believers say they have a list of questions for God upon arrival in heaven. “Why did this happen?” Or “Why didn’t this happen?” “What is three in One?” “Was it seven actual days of creation?” “Why did Abram lie about Sarai?” “Who were the Nephilim?” “Did we really need Mark 14:51-52?” “Really Lord, seventeen-year cicadas?” Aside from the cicada question, might not all questions become meaningless in the glorious, beautiful presence of God? Meanwhile, here on earth where we eat tacos and burritos, we can rest assured that God can handle our questions. He might not answer them, but he can certainly handle them. Through our questioning, he can bring peace even with our doubts. We can turn to God. We can turn to his Word.

One thing about questioning God is that you need to adapt to his answers. He might tell you something that isn’t comfortable or doesn’t align with your plans and expectations. In those cases, you need to adapt. Certainly, keep asking. Absolutely, keep praying. You might have prayed for a burrito, but God might have delivered a flattened taco. Question it, for sure. But get ready to dine, regardless.

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be without God; or better still, be your own god.

Dependence Day

Everyone has assiduously followed this mandate. But looking for alternative options to God is a mad and fruitless search, and the proof of this is our mad and spiritually vacuous world. As for me, I have found a government on which I can unreservedly rely, a kingdom ruled by a king for whom I cast my volitional vote but once. In return for my vote, I was granted a passport to heaven, never to expire or be invalidated.

“We hang suspended in His love” —Mark Salzman, Lying Awake

The young faith I carried with me, when I traveled from the Far East to the Midwest, was about one-tenth the size of a mustard seed. It consisted of a vigorous acknowledgement, but not a daily application, of God’s Word. I was naïve and idealistic. I had yet to wander in the wilderness of unpleasant surprises. My faith was untested; my security lay in my work ethic; America was the field in which I would sow my dreams.

Alex Lee

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n the heels of July, with its patriotic highpoint on the Fourth, I propose a less spectacular, but infinitely more important counterpoint to Independence Day. Every day this month, let us cultivate an attitude more appropriate to Christian living—not an unamerican attitude, but one which transcends culture, and transforms our very nature.

Let us make each day of our lives, beginning this month, a quiet commemoration of Dependence Day. Instantly, the phrase repels us with its incongruity. Dependency is not a value we cherish. We might associate it with drugs, or with the helplessness of infants, or, as in co-dependency, with unhealthy relationships. Our language and experience have effectively prejudiced us against the idea. But place the word in a biblical context, and it loses its shady connotations. It begins to move us gently, inviting our soul toward its soothing, protective embrace.

I depend on God alone; I put my hope in him. (Psalms 62:5, GNT) Dependence on God—putting all our eggs in his indestructible, inviolable basket—is the simplest and wisest strategy for living.

Look around for alternative options, if you doubt my conclusion.

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Looking to Caesar for protection?

Caesar is dead and gone, and all that remains of his empire is a colossal amphitheater in need of a rehab. Other governments—past, present and future—will meet similar fates. After all, as Isaiah writes, “the government shall be upon his shoulders”—the shoulders of our mighty God, the Prince of Peace.

As a young man, I fled a dysfunctional government for one I judged to be principled; I exchanged an Asian culture for a Western one, a tropical climate for a continental one. It hasn’t worked out as well as I had hoped. Power corrupts, as Lord Acton observed, and power, even with constitutional checks and balances and a free press, soon subverts all who wield it. The prophet Jeremiah, predating Caesar and Machiavelli and Lord Acton, warned, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9, KJV) Who indeed? The heart fools even itself, as mine did.

“Know thyself,” Socrates sagely counseled. But centuries later, his serious admonition has been watered down into a lazy, modern dictum: “Be yourself!” In other words, depend upon yourself— lean on your own understanding, define your private truth. In other words,

It took fewer than forty years of wandering before I realized with dismay that though my dreams were good, the field I cultivated had lost its fertility, and my hard work, though a virtue, proved at bottom to be hevel—vapor, more transient than a greenhouse gas (see Ecclesiastes 2:18-21). It was this realization which pulled me, guardedly at first, and then delightedly, toward the Father’s welcoming arms. Though I had money in savings, I was as psychologically needy as the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable, and as desperate a man as the fool, in another of Jesus’ stories, who built his house on sand.

To depend on God is to know that when the storm comes, one’s safety is assured.

Some wind is always whistling, and some water gurgling somewhere in our lives.

In matters of health, we are at the mercy of microbes and rogue cells and the proverbial unseen, onrushing bus. Our finances are subject to the vicissitudes of employment and the gyrations of the global economy. There are geologic and geopolitical threats bubbling all over

AUGUST 2024 CONNECTIONS

the planet. Will the Yellowstone super volcano erupt tomorrow, raining ash on DuPage County? Will Gog and Magog, before we know it, attack Israel?

When the flood rushes in, and the wind howls, how sturdily will your foundation take the hit? Could you say, with David, that God leads you beside the still waters even as everything you cherish and worked for is swept away in the current?

It is dependence on God that gives us strength, for God’s strength, as we abide in him, as branches abide in the vine, is transmitted to our limbs and our minds. “My power,” said the Lord to Paul, “is made perfect in weakness”— a clear affirmation of Christian dependency. Christ’s yoke, when we bend underneath it, is “easy”—not less difficult, not less costly, but easy because we are ensconced in joyous captivity.

“The miracle of it is,” the novelist Mark Salzman writes, “we only feel the weight of the cross when we try to get out from under it. If we bear it gratefully, we find that it carries us.”

next, morphs softly into a spiritual meditation. We breathe in Scripture and breathe out prayer. Prayer is a posture of dependence. Sometimes we are on our knees, and sometimes we are running hard; sometimes at rest, and sometimes in a sweat, but in every instance, we are overcome with gratitude and relief and satisfaction—the sinner’s reward for having come to his savior.

An older man now, I have minor ailments and a few regrets. Thank God, for the most part, I did not do it “my way.” To say I have done it God’s way entirely would be a laughable lie. But I once was blind, as the hymn puts it, and now I see.

I see that my set of traditional values and political views—or my diet and metabolism, or my credit score, or what tomorrow’s headlines will bring—is not what counts. History is God’s todo list, and guess what? It’s done. “It is finished,” Christ said on the cross, and by that, I take it he included my own fussy introspection. What counts is God’s work, and our reliance on that work.

My issues are settled; the debate is over.

Mankind’s redemption was accomplished on Calvary, and my fears and pride, if only I toss them into God’s holy fire, will be consumed mercifully today.

We may depend on it.

Within a universe of possibilities, we have chosen the single one wherein life has meaning and no end.

Whatever afflictions we may face, we may rely on the sovereign competence of the God who knitted our bodies in the womb and who numbers our hair.

Amid our distress, we can be sure that God, who pays attention to a falling sparrow, knows our trial. The end of our distress, after all, is merely death, a terminus Christ has opened wide with his resurrection. Our peace, between our suffering and the hereafter, is the degree to which we place our trust in God. Trusting in God does not relieve us of responsibility, or of decision-making, or of paying bills. But the logistics of life, when accomplished in light of God’s will, and in appreciation of his grace, becomes an effortless devotion.

Life’s long, exasperating to-do list, its scramble from one crisis to the 15 15

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A Word from the Panners As they prepare to begin a new ministry with The Charles Simeon Trust and establish a new home in Chicago, the Panners share their thoughts with us below.

Church Family, Over the last 12 years at College Church, our family has been deeply shaped by this community. College Church has ministered to the Panner crew, and we are forever grateful! You have welcomed us, loved us, encouraged us, trained us and helped us to mature in Christ.

God has opened a new door for me to become the director of workshops for The Charles Simeon Trust. The Simeon Trust is a parachurch ministry dedicated to training the next generation of Bible expositors. With a team, I am tasked to help propel forward more than 150 preaching workshops across the globe. My time at College Church has greatly prepared me for this role!

We are sad to leave our dear friends and faithful partners in ministry at College Church, but we are excited with where the Lord is leading our family. My final day at College Church will be Sunday, August 11. Our family will move to Chicago for this new opportunity.

We want to thank Pastor Moody, the pastoral staff and church staff for their partnership in the gospel. We want to thank our elders for their faithful leadership. We want to thank women’s ministry for its shaping influence on Joanna.

We want to thank our Kids’ Harbor ministry for their amazing ministry to each of our children. We want to thank our co-laborers over these last 12 years for your gospel-centered ministry. We want to thank the past and present students in HYACKs and College Group. It has been a privilege to serve alongside you. We want to thank this church for your prayers and support.

We love you all. We thank God for you and will remember you in our prayers with great joy because of our partnership in the gospel (Philippians 1:3-5). Thank you for your loving Christ, loving one another and loving us well.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Corinthians 13:14).

With love and deep gratitude, The Panner Family—Ben, Joanna, Piper, Jeremiah, Levi, Simeon and Seth

We will have a time of recognition for Ben in our evening service on Sunday, August 11, followed by a farewell reception for the whole family in Crossings.

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AUGUST 2024 CONNECTIONS

OUR VISION 2024 INITIATIVES Vision: “Proclaiming the Gospel”

PATHWAY. We will develop a simple invitational pathway for our gospel ministries: Discover Jesus, Grow in Your Faith and Impact the World. In 2024, we will continue developing that pathway by emphasizing and enhancing the “on ramps” to College Church in the following ways: 1) promoting Kids’ Harbor as one of the first impressions of College Church, 2) augmenting and strengthening our Front Door ministries, and 3) establishing a culture where our congregants willingly and effectively share our faith.

Rationale: After consultation with a Christian communications company, and surveying the neighborhood, we have discovered that we need to present the distinctive gospel ministry opportunity of College Church more clearly and invitationally to the surrounding community.

COMMUNITY. We will cultivate care, encouragement, and connection in 2024 by: 1) calling a pastor focused in these areas (title to be determined), 2) establishing a permanent CARE team to support congregational care, 3) expanding elder prayer for each member of the church by name, and 4) identifying and training Small Group Coordinators to support all of our Small Group Leaders.

DISCIPLESHIP. We will elevate biblically rigorous and practical discipleship by, in 2024: 1) emphasizing and encouraging a renewed focus on discipleship in the context of church family life, 2) providing additional resources for personal disciple making as well as improving awareness and accessibility to them, and 3) offering two churchwide seminars on matters of current importance for being faithful disciples in today’s world.

Rationale: After a churchwide discipleship survey, we have ascertained a growing need for more rigorous and practical discipleship that is coherently coordinated across both small and large groups.

CAMPUS. We will increasingly activate our campus by utilizing the Crossings as a crossover space to reach the community and for student, worship and family space, funded through Gospel Now, prioritizing safety and accessibility upgrades to our parking and other key areas, and studying the highest and best missional use for our portfolio of rental properties.

PARTNERSHIPS. We will leverage the church’s history of church planting, training programs, and connections across the country and world by: 1) expanding the scope of our church planting efforts to include planting, strengthening and revitalizing, 2) hosting a prayer gathering for College Church members interested in this work, 3) exploring partnership with one new organizational partner, and 4) seeking to develop one new church partner in each category (planting, strengthening, revitalizing) by December 2024.

Rationale: By partnering with likeminded churches and organizations, and by broadening our scope to include planting, strengthening, and revitalization, we can increase our gospel impact through gospel-centered, Bible-preaching churches.

Rationale: After the Site and Facilities committee’s extensive work surveying the ministry pinch points, it is apparent that we need to develop our ministry space, and we will target the Crossings space.

Rationale: After conversations with key ministry leaders, it is apparent we need to increase connectivity between members and attenders of the church through mutually loving and caring hospitality.

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AUGUST 2024 CONNECTIONS

CHURCH LIFE AUGUST HIGHLIGHTS

SUNDAY MORNING WORSHIP SERVICES Everyone welcome.

Join us at 9:30 and 11 a.m. throughout August. Livestream broadcast is at 9:30 a.m. You can watch it at college-church.org/livestream

How To Be Truly Happy

AUGUST 11: James 5:1-6, Pastor Josh Maurer preaching

LIVING WORD Sundays 9:30 a.m. in C104A & C104C

AUGUST 18: James 5:7-20, Pastor Curt Miller preaching

• Teachers: Felipe Chamy, Jacob Raju

AUGUST 25: No evening service

• Study: Gospel of John

SUMMER FORUM Everyone welcome.

• Description: Fellowship and exposition of the Book of John, with application to life today.

Sundays 9:30 a.m. in Commons Hall

LOGOS Sundays 9:30 a.m. in C104E

The Word and the World: How the Storyline of the Bible Equips Us for Faithful Witness

• Teacher: James Seward

AUGUST 4 (the last forum for the summer): Equipped for Faithful Cultural Engagement, Josh Maurer, pastor of discipleship

Pastor Dan Hiben preaching

ADULT COMMUNITIES

AUGUST 4: Psalm 1

Begins August 18

MORNING SERMON SERIES:

ALL NATIONS Sundays 9:30 a.m. in C104F

The Book of Chronicles Senior Pastor Josh Moody preaching

• Teacher: Curt Miller

AUGUST 11: The Power of Humility, 2 Chronicles 26:1-23

• Study: Discipleship & the Global Church

AUGUST 18: Finding a Compass for Your Life. 2 Chronicles 34:1-7

FORUM 15 Sundays 8 a.m. in C104F

NEW MORNING SERMON SERIES:

The Gospel of Matthew Senior Pastor Josh Moody preaching AUGUST 25: Where to Find Your Life’s Story, Matthew 1:1-17

SUNDAY EVENING WORSHIP SERVICES Everyone welcome. at 5 p.m.

• Teacher: Bruce Main • Study: Probing Scripture: Personal Bible Study Principles GREEK EXEGESIS CLASS Sundays 9:30 a.m. in the Board Room • Teacher: Jon Laansma

Let’s Get Practical

• Teacher: Teaching Team

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• Teachers: Teaching Team • Study: Gospel of John • Description: Fellowship, teaching and prayer with an emphasis on applying God’s truth to our lives.

VERITAS Sundays 9:30 a.m. in C104B & D • Teacher: Dr. Gregg Quiggle • Study: Christian History since the Reformation

SUMMER BOOK GROUP Tuesdays, through August 6 at 7 p.m. in Commons Hall.

AUGUST 6: Meet the Author: Q&A with Philip Ryken, author of Beauty Is Your Destiny

WOMEN’S MINISTRIES

• Description: Knowledge of Greek is not required for this class.

LIFE TOGETHER COMMUNITY Sundays 9:30 a.m. in Commons Gym

AUGUST 4: James 4:13-17, Pastoral Resident Felipe Chamy preaching

THRIVE Sundays 9:30 a.m. in Crossings-Clapham Main Area

• Study: 1 John

EVENING SERMON SERIES: Evening Sermons from the Book of James

• Study: The Book of Hebrews

• Description: Various Topics with small group discussion.

Authentic, biblical community for adults ages 25–40

MOM2MOM Park Playdates at (9:30-11:30 a.m.)

AUGUST 12: Babcock Grove Park, Glen Ellyn

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AUGUST 26: Briar Knoll Park, Wheaton

MIDDLE SCHOOL (KINGS MESSENGERS)

SHARE YOUR GIFTS Wednesday, August 7, at 7:30 p.m in Commons Hall

SUNDAY MORNING: 9:30-10:30 a.m. begins weekly on August 18 in the KMs room (Commons lower level).

WEDNESDAY NIGHT: 6:45-8:15 p.m. begins weekly on August 21 in the Crossings.

Students in grades 6-8 are invited to join us for Bible teaching, singing, small groups, prayer, fellowship and fun.

Women, join us for our last Share Your Gifts event of the summer as we focus on watercolor painting.

Get to know other women and spend time in fellowship, as we reflect on God’s creativity and beauty together, enjoy a demo and get some hands-on practice.

Whether this will be a new skill or building on an old one, we hope you’ll join us. Registration is $5 and available online.

MEN’S MINISTRIES

CHILDREN’S MINISTRIES (KIDS’ HARBOR) SUNDAY MORNING 9:30 a.m.: Nursery (0–2) and preschool AUGUST 4: 9:30 a.m.: Kids entering grades 1–5 are dismissed during the service for final Elementary Summer Lighthouse.

AUGUST 11: Family worship (no Kids’ Harbor); nursery only at both 9:30 and 11 a.m. services AUGUST 18: Fall Start-up for the school year. All Sunday morning classes begin.

HIGH SCHOOL (HYACKS) HYACKS FALL KICKOFF: August 18, 2-5:30 p.m. Details and registration on the high school page on the website.

SUNDAY MORNING: 9:30-10:30 a.m. begins weekly on August 18 in the Crossings (Clapham). Join us for Bible teaching, singing, fellowship and prayer.

WEDNESDAY NIGHTS: begins weekly August 21, 7-8:30 p.m. in the Crossings (Clapham). Both August gatherings will be large group gatherings. Small groups kick off September 11.

SUMMER COLLEGE GROUP AUGUST 6: College Group Hangout, 7 p.m., at 1N220 Indian Knoll Road., West Chicago

STARS DISABILITY Children, Adult and MultiGenerational Sunday classes meet at 9:30 only. This will be our summer schedule until September.

PRISON TASK FORCE Every Saturday our Prison Task Force heads to Stateville Prison for ministry to the inmates there. Join them in prayer in the parking lot at 9:10 a.m.

Other ways to get involved: • Commit to pray at home during our services (15 minutes).

• Pray for the names of men who share requests (10 minutes).

• Help establish a new ministry of weekday, in-person visitation.

• Be a pen pal to help disciple believers behind the walls.

Find out more by emailing prisontaskforce@collegechurch.org.

ARTSPACE Details on page 9.

SIGNS OF LOVE DEAF MINISTRY POTLUCK & PRAYER See opportunities for prayer on page 5.

STEPS OF FAITH Steps of Faith such as believers baptism or confirmation, and infant baptism or dedication are important signposts in our lives. If you are interested in pursuing one of these for yourself or a family member, contact Christy at baptism@ college-church.org.

GO TEAM! Looking for ways to serve at College Church that can be flexible with your schedule? Be part of the Go Team! Within our church family, there are frequent requests for help in a variety of ways—taking a meal to someone after a hospitalization, providing transportation to a medical appointment, helping move a piece of furniture, minor maintenance work or handyman help, or even help with a computer problem. Consider being part of the team so that we can show love and serve one another well!

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AUGUST 2024 CONNECTIONS

Looking Ahead WORD AND WORSHIP Something New in September Come to the Sanctuary at 5 p.m. for a new approach to evening service with an evening meal to follow. This service is open to everyone but is especially planned to welcome collegiates as they begin their new school semester.

We want to grow our college ministry and pray these services might minister to more college students than ever before. Pastor Josh Moody will preach all four Sunday evenings.

SEPTEMBER 8: Finding Help When Things Seem Beyond Hope Luke7:1-10 SEPTEMBER 15: How to Bounce Back from the Grave, Luke 7:11-17 SEPTEMBER 22: Is Jesus Who Christians Say He Is? Luke 7:18-35 SEPTEMBER 29: Lessons from a Prostitute, Luke 7:36-50

ABOUT US LUNCH Are you new to College Church or would you like to learn more about us? If so, you’re invited to a special lunch on Sunday, September 8, at noon in the lobby outside the Sanctuary. Come and meet pastors and staff, learn about College Church, and find out how you can get involved. Lunch is on us!

RSVP to help us plan.

GRIEFSHARE Despite it being part of life, death is never easy. It hurts to lose someone, and it may be hard to feel optimistic about the future.

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GriefShare is a 13-week class which features video seminars with experts, focused group discussions and personal study and reflection that can help you face your challenges and move toward rebuilding your life.

GriefShare begins on Monday, September 16, 7-8:30 p.m. in the College Church Commons. It is open to College Church members and attenders, as well as people you know from the community or other churches. You are welcome to begin attending GriefShare any week. Each session is “selfcontained,” so you do not have to attend in sequence. You will find encouragement and help whenever you begin. For more information, contact Christy at griefshare@collegechurch.org, or register using the QR code.

MEMBERSHIP CLASS Come find out about College Church’s history, core beliefs, ministries and what it means for you to be a member. This one-day only membership opportunity will be on Sunday, September 29, from 8 a.m.- noon in the Commons; registration is requested. This new format will start with lunch at noon, and then the class will run from 12:30-4:30 p.m. For more info, contact Christy at membership@collegechurch.org, or call (630) 668-0878, ext. 175.

GRACE MARRIAGE Meets once a month in Crossings on the fourth Saturday of the month, from 8 to 10 a.m. Enjoy coffee and conversation from 8 to 8:30, and the class teaching is from 8:30 to 10 a.m.

Under the Radar HONEYROCK Enjoy a Northwoods fall get-away with College Church friends and others.

Northwoods Adventure at HoneyRock for adults (50+) Full week option: September 23-28 New: long weekend option: September 26-28 Classes, activities, devotions and group sessions with guest speakers. Email Leah Wolf at leadh. wolf@wheaton.edu for information or call (630) 752-6024.

KLINE CREEK FARM Kline Creek Farm: August 5, 1:30-3:30 p.m.

Help with different historical household or barnyard chores around the farm. Suggested donation: $5 per person/all ages; under 18 with an adult. Questions?

Call (630) 876-5900

TREE AND SHRUB SALE Fall Native Tree & Shrub Sale Order Online Starting Aug. 1 Pick Up at St. James Farm Sept. 20 & 21 Fulfill your fall planting plans with native trees and shrubs adapted to DuPage conditions.

SHAKESPEARE Wheaton Shakespeare in the Park AS YOU LIKE IT August 29-31, 6:45 p.m., Memorial Park In partnership with Wheaton College Arena Theater

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ART EXHIBIT

ART AUCTION AND SALE

THINGS NOT SEEN

SUMMER ART AUCTION AND SALE

A selection of cathedral photographs by William North Exhibit runs August 9 through Sept 8 with an opening reception: August 9, 6-9 PM

STARS FAMILY SERVICES August 23, 2024 in the Crossings 7-9 p.m.

Water Street Studios Dempsey Gallery (lower level), 160 S. Water Street, Batavia, IL, (630)761-9977

MILESTONES MARRIAGES Ryan Costello and Jillian Locke were married on June 22 at Wilder Mansion Gardens in Elmhurst. Jillian is the daughter of College Church members Brooks and Susan Locke.

College Church member Hannah Japp married Scott Miller on May 25 at College Church. They are now living in Cudahy, Wisconsin.

BIRTHS Joel and Dana Weinberger welcomed baby Ruth Elyse on July 15. Ruth joins her siblings Leah, Noah, Grace and Isaac.

Josiah Gordon was born to College Church missionaries Caleb and Marisa Duttweiler on July 1 in South Africa. Josiah joins his big sister, Zoey. His paternal grandparents, Rod and Kathy Duttweiler, are also College Church missionaries.

Lydia Marie was born to Mike and Lauren Walsh on June 27. Lydia joins her siblings William and Ellie. Lydia’s paternal grandparents are Hal and Anna Walsh.

DEATHS Pray for the family of Adrienne (Kevin) Cassel as they grieve the loss of Adrienne’s mother and longtime College Church member, Carolyn Denning, who passed away on July 23. Services were held.

Pray for Karen (Rob) Riley and family as they grieve the loss of Karen’s mother and longtime College Church attender, Lois Nelsen, who passed away on June 18.

Children’s Choirs “SINGING DOES AT LEAST AS MUCH AS PREACHING TO IMPRESS THE WORD OF GOD ON PEOPLES’ MINDS.” —D.L. Moody Singing not only involves text, pitches and rhythm, but also helps to create a bridge into the mind and heart of those participating. Music is a unique avenue that helps us hide God’s Word in our hearts, guiding and shaping us to become more like Jesus.

The Children’s Choirs at College Church provide an opportunity for our first-sixth grade students to do just that—imbed biblical truths deep within as we prepare to help lead in worship services and concerts.

Our concerts also are wonderful evangelistic opportunities.

Some, who would otherwise never darken the doorstep of a church yet need to hear the gospel, will come to hear children sing.

Children’s choirs run September through May on Sundays, 5-6:15 p.m. Registration opens soon.

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The Power of Asking Questions Peter Kanetis

A

s Christians, we sometimes avoid difficult conversations with those who disagree with us, whether it’s sharing the gospel with an unbeliever, or debating abortion with our friends, family or coworkers. One reason for our reluctance is the thinking that, in order to persuade others to follow Christ or to protect the unborn, we have to be able to answer every challenge our inquisitor throws our way. People pepper us with tough questions, and then sit back and watch us stutter and squirm. As a result, we end up feeling ill-equipped, and when the next opportunity to share the truth arises, we end up saying nothing, and then proceed to condemn ourselves for being an unfaithful coward, waiting for the rooster to crow at any moment.

Thank God, there are several ways to maneuver through these difficult conversations, but here I will focus on one: Asking questions.

Asking questions can change people’s lives, in more ways than one. The philosopher Socrates was known for asking his interlocutors question after question, exposing their ignorance, in hopes of guiding them both to the truth. Pastor and theologian, Francis Schaeffer claimed, “If I have only an hour with someone, I will spend the first fifty-five minutes asking questions, and finding out what is troubling their heart and mind, and then in the last five minutes I will share something of the truth.” As our ultimate example, Jesus is recorded as asking more than 300 questions in the Gospels.

When it comes to discussing abortion with a pro-choice relative, friend, coworker or protestor, instead of launching into all the philosophical, scientific and biblical arguments for the pro-life position, we can begin by asking her two questions.

The first question is “What do you believe?” It’s a simple question but it accomplishes much. It shows respect and care for the other person, that we sincerely want to know what she thinks. Like the Schaeffer quote above, asking questions can give us insights into this person’s heart and mind. After all, we are speaking with another image-bearer, and even in disagreement, we should treat her with dignity and respect.

Note that the first question doesn’t have to be phrased precisely this way. It can be stated in countless ways, for example: • To make sure I understand, could you please explain your view to me?

• In your view, what is the unborn?

• When does the unborn become a human being?

• Are there any instances when abortion is immoral?

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Once she has articulated her view to us, then we can move on to the second question:

we be prepared and ready to make our pro-life case, with as much grace and truth as possible.

“How did you come to that conclusion?” Here, we are asking for reasons, evidence that supports beliefs. We want to see if she is offering an emotional response, or a worked-out rational defense for the pro-choice position. Like the first question, this one can be posed in many ways:

Closing disclaimer: To give credit where credit is due, much of what I wrote here is inspired by apologist and author, Greg Koukl. If you’d like to go further, I highly recommend his two books: Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions and Street Smarts: Using Questions to Answer Christianity’s Toughest Challenges.

• Why do you believe this?

• What are the reasons you believe this view is true?

• How would you persuade a jury in a courtroom that your view is true? (a fun, good-natured version of the question) Though these two questions are simple and commonsensical, they can help us maneuver through these conversations in several ways.

First, as mentioned above, asking questions creates a friendlier atmosphere. What’s more, when we ask questions, there is nothing for us to defend at the moment, so the pressure is off, and we can feel a bit more relaxed.

Second, asking questions can help someone realize the flaws in his own views. Just by asking these two questions, you’d be surprised how many people are not able to give good reasons for what they believe and why they believe it. As it’s been said, when it comes to life’s most important questions, most people are two “why” questions away from not having an answer. As a result, he may come to see that his views are not as well-thoughtout as he had first believed. In these instances, our questions are more like seeds that have been planted. That is, if he is really seeking truth, the Lord can use his doubts—doubts that he now has about a lie—as a significant first step on his quest for truth.

Third, asking questions can be more effective than giving an argument. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m a big believer in equipping ourselves with evidence and arguments to persuade others that abortion is the taking of innocent human life. And we should be ready to present them whenever needed. However, human nature being what it is, people frequently don’t respond well when presented with an opposing belief. On those occasions, our walls usually come up, we become defensive, and disregard other beliefs out of hand. But, when we ask questions, and the other person is answering them, he is connecting the dots on his own. So now, when he discovers a point of truth during our exchange, the truth is not coming from the outside—from us—but rather from inside of himself. And thus, there is a much higher price to pay if he denies the truth.

Finally, building on my last point, asking questions also opens up opportunities for us to share our views. By showing interest in the other person’s views, don’t be surprised if he eventually asks us what we believe. Because we’ve invested time in asking questions and listening to him, it’s much more likely that he will be curious to hear our beliefs. And when that time comes, may

Recommended additional resources from the Sanctity of Human Life Task Force: What to Say When and What to Say When 2 by Shawn Carney and Steve Karlen.

SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE ANNOUNCEMENTS CARING NETWORK NEW LOCATIONS IN CHICAGO During 2023, the majority of the 91,000 abortions in Illinois took place in Chicago zip codes. (The number of abortions has increased dramatically from 42,080 in 2020). Caring Network pregnancy centers will begin serving three Chicago neighborhoods to go where the need is greatest. Once new Caring Network centers open, there will be six pregnancy resource centers in Chicago to help combat the influence of 16 abortion businesses.

HELP START A CHICAGO BABY BANK These new centers need a Chicago Baby Bank as the suburban Baby Bank locations are too far for Chicago clients. Perhaps you have connections to congregants, churches or businesses in Chicago who might want to partner to provide baby supplies for financially needy Chicago Caring Network clients. If so, please contact Sarah Lindquist, College Church Caring Network liaison, at sohl@college-church.org with possible leads.

BRING SUPPLIES FOR CARING NETWORK’S WHEATON BABY BANK Provide for financially needy Caring Network clients in the Wheaton area who chose to parent. Bring diapers, wipes, baby lotion, shampoo, and wash, diaper cream, and formula to the crib (outside the sanctuary on the first Sunday of every month and in the Commons the rest of the month). Scan QR Code for Amazon ordering.

40 DAYS FOR LIFE PRAYER Saturday, August 10, 1-2 p.m. Join Sanctity of Human Life Task Force at 40 Days for Life’s year-round peaceful prayer vigil. Meet on Waterleaf pregnancy center’s property across from Planned Parenthood Aurora’s driveway.

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Making a Hard Path a Bit Easier Coray Watson

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ccording to The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting system there are approximately 391,000 children in foster care. As of 2021, Illinois had 21,086 kids in the system, which places us at one of the highest ratios of kids in care to the population of our state. Yet Illinois only has 8,690 foster homes.

Let’s make it even more personal. In DuPage County, as of April 30, 2024, there are 342 kids in care. That number has increased since then I am certain, based on the number of calls I have received in the last two months for kids needing homes. But don’t focus on abstract numbers. Picture faces. Imagine each one of those kids as an actual child in your neighborhood, a child losing everything and everyone they know at the drop of a hat, and then sleeping on a cot in the DCFS office because of the 70 DCFS licensed foster homes in DuPage County only about 10 have potential space for these kids at the moment.

We live in a county where many of us are wildly blessed. Many of us have nice houses, safe neighborhoods, loving church community, supportive extended families, and more than what we need to live our lives. Yet in our county there are children who need families to step in the gap. Where are they? There is 24

no such thing as other people’s kids. Am I my brother’s keeper? I believe what we learn in Scripture is that the answer should be yes, right? As you did for the least of my brothers, you did for me (see Matt. 25:40). Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers (see Heb. 13:2; Rom. 12:13). Do good (Isa. 1:17, Heb 13:16). Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy (see Matt. 5:7). In humility, value others above yourselves, not looking only to your own interests but also to the interests of others (per Phil. 2:3-4). We have what these kids need, and we are called to do all of these things. If we who are called, and have the motivation and reasons to do it are not doing it, then what’s holding us back?

Yes, I know you’re worried about getting too attached. Can you imagine if something happened to you and your child went into foster care? Would you not hope that the family would be completely attached to them? Would take them in and love them fully? And respect that you were their parents and try to help them get home to you? Saying goodbye is hard and sad when we love someone. Winnie the Pooh said it best, “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” How lucky you will be if you get the chance to get attached and love a child so much

that saying goodbye is hard. And these kids deserve nothing less than that. They are children created and loved by God, therefore they matter to us.

Yes, I know you’re worried about how it will impact your bio kids. It will make their lives harder, yes. It will show them that the world is not about them. It will allow you to do ministry as a family. It will allow your family to live in a way that is not sheltered or blind to the needs of those around you. It will teach your children from an early age what many people in this world face. It will teach compassion, empathy, understanding.

They will likely mature faster in many ways, which can be hard, but also gives them a depth that many don’t have even as adults. If they choose to follow Jesus, they will learn to lean on him early on, as there is no other way to live in moments of challenge and suffering than with him.

Yes, I know you don’t feel ready. Maybe it’s when I’m married, when the kids are bigger, when I’m more stable financially, when I have more bedrooms, when I’m not working so much, or whatever you’re waiting for is. I guarantee you’ll never feel ready. Whatever situation you are in, you can love kids in need of your love. And I promise you the kids are always less ready to be in this situation than you are. No child is ever ready for

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this. Yet every child deserves a soft place to land with someone who is prepared to welcome them in fully. All you need to be ready is to commit to being fully family to every kid who comes through your door no matter how long they are there and reading books about trauma and fostering certainly can’t hurt.

Yes, I know you are worried about how hard it will be. It will be hard. People have asked frequently how I do it.

I don’t do it alone. It truly does take a village. I have people who bring dinner, family who show up to babysit, friends who check in. Don’t overthink it. You’ll get stuck wondering how you’ll do it and what if it’s too hard. Instead, focus on doing the work God has given to you to do and not on yourself, and then you just do it. Nowhere has God called us to easy. If we look in Scripture, we know God never took his people, especially his Son, on an easy route. He took the route that took them where they needed to go. He takes us on roads that sanctify us. He takes us on roads that are not about us. He calls us to follow on the narrow path. The path people will look at and wonder why we’ve chosen it. The path worth choosing.

We are in the process of forming a task force under the Evangelism and Culture Impact Committee. We are here to support and help you. I already run a foster ministry here in Wheaton. I will help make sure you have clothing for your kids, support with meals when they are first placed, and someone from church to walk alongside you. I am happy to meet with you and answer any questions or discuss what this would look like. We are trying to make this hard path a bit easier and less lonely just like you will make it a bit easier and less lonely for the children who enter your home. Join us!

Email Coray at coraywatson218@gmail. com to learn more about fostering or to sign up for the family adocacy email list.

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Q&A WITH MICAH LINDQUIST As part of the Gospel Now project, our church-wide prayer focus, based on Scripture, we’ve memorized Colossians 4:2-4; Philippians 1:9-11 and Ephesians 1:16-19a. August’s memory passage is Ephesians 3:14-19.

It’s hard work, so be encouraged as you read this email interview with Micah Lindquist, who talks about her family legacy of Scripture memory.

Do you remember the first verse you ever memorized?

I don’t actually remember the first verse I ever memorized, but, growing up, I do remember hearing about the verses that were “life changers” for my parents and grandparents. For example, one day, I asked my grandmother when she began to really love reading her Bible. She told me it was in high school when her Young Life mentor called her out for not knowing an answer from the Bible. Her mentor quoted Hebrews 5:12-13 and challenged her to not be a baby Christian. “Babies are cute,” her mentor said, “but it is not cute to see an adult still be a baby with regard to the Scriptures.” My grandmother was so embarrassed that she went home and asked the Lord to help her love studying her Bible as much as she loved ice cream (her very favorite thing at the time), and the Lord answered that prayer.

What motivated you early on to memorize the Word? Do you recall a time when that motivation became something more personal and serious for you?

My grandmother encouraged me to memorize Paul’s prayers when I was in high school, and she wrote them all out on index cards and we memorized them together. She would have her grandchildren over for Friday night sleepovers, and I know this might sound funny, but I looked forward to those sleepovers even though I was in high school. She was so full of fun and had so much joy that all her grandchildren looked forward to those nights with her. We would have one of her wonderful homemade meals, play her favorite board games, and then talk about the things of the Lord until late, soaking in her godly wisdom as she encouraged us in whatever was going on in our lives at the time.

She ended up getting Alzheimer’s later in life, but her memory of Scripture was one of the last things to go, and I will forever be grateful for the hours she spent encouraging me in the Lord.

In what ways did your parents motivate and encourage you to memorize Scripture?

Sixty-six books of the Bible to choose from— how did your parents choose what verses you memorized? Did you do it as a family?

Our family loves to sing when we are together, so my mom put verses to songs. Some were silly tunes, but they stuck, and so did the Scripture. Today, those Scripture songs have been passed on to her 31 grandchildren who still love singing them together at family reunions.

In high school, my parents led our youth group through the Navigator’s 2:7 Series, which is a discipleship curriculum that includes a Topical Memory System (TMS). We memorized over 50 key verses that pointed us to the basic truths and important instruction for us as believers, and this curriculum, along with

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memorizing Paul’s prayers with my grandmother, was the launching point for me in hiding God’s Word in my heart.

And just for fun, how many of those verses you memorized can you still recite?

Why do you think it was important to your parents that you memorized Scripture?

Actually, almost all of them. Ever since my grandmother encouraged me to memorize verses in high school, I have recited them, and prayed them, receiving comfort in the words of Scripture when I didn’t know what to pray. The peace and rest that comes from praying God’s Word is like no other. God’s Word truly is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.

They knew Psalm 119:11 was true. The psalmist says, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

(NIV) It’s so easy to sin and then justify it in our minds if we don’t have a developed conscience based on the Word of God. We see this more and more today, and one of Paul’s prayers that I love to pray when I sometimes get discouraged about the lack of conviction over sin even in the church today is Paul’s prayer that we “may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way.” (Col. 1:10, NIV)

Looking back, how did scripture memory help you as a young person grow spiritually?

Can you think of specifics situation where the verses you memorized came to mind and encouraged you to hold fast to god?

Yes! God’s Word was my comfort and guide when I changed schools in junior high, dealt with the normal teenager girl drama in high school, and as a student at Wheaton College struggling through the conservatory all four years. God’s Word continued to be my comfort and guide as we raised our kids, experienced health issues and miscarriages, and sought the Lord for wisdom in so many areas of our life. Proverbs 3:5-6 continues to be a favorite passage (yes, one that my mom put to a tune), reminding me that all the Lord wants is a heart surrendered to him and ready to trust and obey. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

Based on your experience, what advice or best practices would you recommend as we memorize the prayers of Paul throughout the year?

We all memorize so differently, but for our family, we keep a memory card in our Bible, on our kitchen counter, and in our car. After our devotions in the morning, my son Stephen and I will review the verse at breakfast, and when we don’t have time, we review it in the car or when we’re back for lunch or dinner. Repetition is the key for us, and even just saying it to one another each morning helps it stick. I love the prayer guides on the back of the bookmarks that allow Stephen and I to just read it and pray, and we also love the reminder to pray for our “one” this year. A shout out goes to Pastor Dan Hiben for putting together those prayer guides each month to help us stay the course in praying these verses for our church and community!

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Safety, Security and You at College Church JAMES COOK

The Life Safety Team (LST) is a ministry that seeks to provide a safe and secure place of worship for all members, regular attenders, and visitors of College Church. Safety and security are everybody’s responsibility. We want people situationally aware and sensitized to act. In addition, we want to normalize the topics and conversations regarding safety and security. By both preparing and normalizing the conversation about safety and security, we reduce fear and are calmly ready if an incident does occur.

There are 40 dedicated people who serve on the LST. They have been trained in Stop the Bleed, CPR/AED, de-escalation skills, dealing with the mentally ill, evacuations, active shooter response and other scenarios. The LST coordinator is usually near the usher table in the Narthex, or ask the ushers for the nearest LST member.

The LST has policies and procedures in place for when a safety or security incident occurs. The chart on this page shows how you can help.

Get to know the LST team so you are comfortable expressing a concern to them and pray that God will continue to safeguard this flock at College Church.

Protesters

REMEMBER:

The First Amendment allows for protesters, people with petitions or people handing out material with the attached limits that they are peaceful and remain on public property. Thus, over the years College Church has had protesters, people with petitions, and people handing out materials near our church. As long as they stay on the sidewalk, parkway or street, these people are simply exercising their First Amendment freedoms.

The best response is to not engage protesters at all. Some protesters have been known to wear go-cameras and would like nothing more than to post a “doctored” video of a churchgoer getting into a heated argument, with the church as a backdrop.

Fire, Tornado, and Evacuation

REMEMBER:

Remember to use all exits during an evacuation. For example, everyone in the sanctuary cannot evacuate through the main sanctuary doors swiftly and efficiently at the same time. Please use every exit and remember to assist the young, elderly and people with disabilities. Do you know where the exits are? Where would you go during an evacuation?

Parents are reminded not to go to their child’s classroom during an incident or evacuation. (The children will already be gone or barricaded before parents arrive.)

Instead, parents should please go to the assigned reunification area. If an incident occurs which requires the north building to be evacuated, then the reunification site is in the Commons. Traveling outside, go to the Commons Lobby and people there will assist you in reuniting with your child.

Someone Seeking Financial Assistance

REMEMBER:

Please refer any individuals seeking financial assistance to the church office during weekday office hours. The pastor on call will meet with the individual, assess the situation and connect the person to the appropriate resources.

These situations are often complex, and it is best to seek help from church staff before responding to requests for financial assistance.

Medical Incident

REMEMBER:

When the number 777 is displayed on the Sanctuary child alert boxes, a medical incident is in progress.

If you are a doctor, PA or nurse, please feel free to go to the usher table in the Narthex or the incident site if in the Sanctuary.

Active Shooter and Security Threats

REMEMBER:

Trust your instincts…if something does not seem right, something probably is not right. See something, say something.

The LST is discreet when following up reported concerns. (For example, if you are walking from the parking lot to church, and notice something concerning or awry, please say something to an LST member.)

In the case of an active shooter, run, hide, fight

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at the

BOOKSTALL WAITING ISN’T A WASTE

THE DARK STAR

by H. R. Hess

by Mark Vroegop

The worlds of Princess Runa and one of her land’s enemies, Zaphreth, collide as her father, the King of Callenlas tried to avoid war. With a clear Christ character and many adventures, The Dark Star is a Christian fantasy book that kids 10-14 will love!

We all experience periods of waiting in our lives. Often times our waiting is through times of difficulty. This book is meant to encourage us in our waiting.

God is using it in our lives. We are not in control. And we can find comfort in the Lord.

Bookstall Price: $12

Bookstall Price: $13

PARENTING WITH HOPE

LONELINESS

by Steve DeWitt Pastor and author Steve DeWitt has experienced many times of loneliness in his life. Loneliness is a common occurrence in our world today. Pastor DeWitt reminds us that it doesn’t have to be something we hate, but something we can embrace and use as a time of sweetness and drawing closer to the Lord.

by Melissa Kruger This is a fantastic book for book clubs or small groups.

Getting parents ready for the teen years, Melissa Kruger tackles parenting foundations from God’s Word, how to avoid common pitfalls and cultivating a home where teens thrive.

Bookstall Price: $15

Bookstall Price: $12

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B L E S S E D B E YON D M EA S U R E

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here don’t seem to be a whole lot of blue-collar workers like me in this church. I am an auto mechanic and, although I love my job and repairing cars, it doesn’t pay much. Working overtime is essential to pay all my bills, and I have always worried about the future.

I attend church most Sundays when I don’t have to work, but I admit I always struggled when the subject turned to giving. The thought of parting with even a small portion of my hard-earned cash made me anxious. Yet, every week the pastor reminded the congregation of the importance of giving. I always figured that he was saying that because the church needed my money, and I felt guilty I wasn’t giving any.

One Sunday the pastor spoke about the widow’s offering, the story of a poor widow who gave two small coins—all she had—and how Jesus praised her for giving out of her poverty. I felt a tug at my heart and decided I needed to take a step of faith, even though an uneasy feeling quickly crept in.

When I got my paycheck the following Friday, I actually withdrew a few dollars from my account, determined to put it in the offering on Sunday, hesitantly, but determined.

Each week, I performed the same ritual, and after a few months, it became a habit.

On the Fridays when I knew I was going to have to work on Sunday and not be in church, I put the money in an envelope which I kept until the following weekend and gave both weeks of that small amount. To my surprise, this action became easier and easier, and I even began to increase the amount of money I gave. And I could still pay all my bills. I was excited, amazed at how I felt, and determined to give and perhaps even increase the amount over time.

Amazingly, I began to notice small changes in my life including a sense of peace that I had never experienced before. It felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders.

When the Gospel Now project was introduced, the church gave away copies of Randy Alcorn’s book, The Treasure Principle, and I read it one night cover to cover. What Alcorn described was exactly what I was feeling—a sense of freedom and joy because I was released from the constraint that money always had over me. I marvel at how my reluctant decision to give has transformed my life. I will never be wealthy, but now I’m convinced that I don’t need to be. I feel blessed beyond measure, knowing that my faith and generosity has brought me into a deeper, more enduring joy than I have ever known.

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