August 2011
The Beacon
A PUBLICATION OF ERIN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 200 Lockett Rd. — Knoxville, TN 37919 — (865) 588-5350 — www.ErinPresbyterian.org
PASTOR Rev. John Stuart pastor@erinpresbyterian.org
SESSION Mr. Charles Snodgrass Clerk of Session session@erinpresbyterian.org
CONVENORS Joy Bornhoeft, Fellowship fellowship@erinpresbyterian.org
Kelli Crisp, Discipleship discipleship@erinpresbyterian.org
David Eggers, Stewardship stewardship@erinpresbyterian.org
Mike Sharp, Outreach outreach@erinpresbyterian.org
LouL Tate, Creative Expressions cex@erinpresbyterian.org
A Message From The Pastor The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. —Isaiah 40:8 Dear Friends, Rev. John Stuart When I was growing up in Glasgow, Scotland, one of the best thrills that I had as a kid was sitting on the top front seats of a double-decker bus. Almost every other weekend, I used to travel to the heart of the city with my brothers, and we’d race upstairs on the bus to get the two front seats. It usually took 30 minutes to ride into the city and because we sat at the front, we could see everything that was going on in the busy metropolis. At that time, Glasgow had a population of more than one million people, so there were bustling crowds and noisy traffic everywhere. It was an exciting place to be and a wonderful city to grow up in.
As the double-decker bus moved around the city, it passed many stops and stores. Every now and then a bus stop was located outside a crowded café, a major department store, or even a pub! I loved watching the people getting on and off the bus, as well as wondering what they were doing and where they were going.
Dale Webb, Property property@erinpresbyterian.org
STAFF Nancy Berry, Organist oliveberry@aol.com
Jenny Dell, Administrator admin@erinpresbyterian.org
There was one bus stop right outside an old Gothic church. The building was an amazing piece of Victorian architecture, and I always saw something new on its ornate stonework. Next to the old oak doors, there was a public notice board which had a poster of a biblical verse in bold letters printed on it. The Bible verse was changed each week, so I memorized a lot of them and kept them in my heart for years. I didn’t know it then, but that simple ‘wayside pulpit’ was feeding me spiritually, and when I crucially needed God most in my life as a struggling alcoholic, those verses flooded back into my heart and soul.
Camie Entrekin, Nursery info@erinpresbyterian.org
Joe Jaynes, Choir Director jtj@abacusarts.com
Rebecca McCurdy, Youth becca73180@aol.com
Karen Stump, Christian Ed.
Years later, when I was a student minister, I was given the opportunity to preach in that very same church on several occasions. The congregation was wondering whether or not to continue to display the biblical posters because the notice board had been vandalized several times. When I preached there for the first time and thanked them for their ‘wayside pulpit’ ministry to me as a child, they realized that God worked through their faithfulness and that lives were being changed in ways that they would never know. To this date, the Bible verse posters are still displayed outside that city church.
cec@erinpresbyterian.org
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