February, 2012
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
CONVENERS Joy Bornhoeft, Fellowship fellowship@erinpresbyterian.org
Kelli Crisp, Discipleship discipleship@erinpresbyterian.org
David Eggers, Stewardship stewardship@erinpresbyterian.org
Outreach Team outreach@erinpresbyterian.org
LouL Tate, Creative Expressions cex@erinpresbyterian.org
Dale Webb, Property property@erinpresbyterian.org
STAFF Nancy Berry, Organist oliveberry@aol.com
Michele Meer, Administrator admin@erinpresbyterian.org
Cindi Stooksbury, Nursery info@erinpresbyterian.org
Joe Jaynes, Choir Director jtj@abacusarts.com
Christian Ed., Vacant cec@erinpresbyterian.org
Elizabeth Snodgrass, Youth Director, youth@erinpresbyterian.org
A Message From The Pastor
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” (Hebrews 12:1) Dear Friends, Rev. John Stuart I’m looking forward to the Super Bowl this month. I’ve been watching live since 1984. When I lived in Scotland, the game began about 10:30PM and :inished around 3:00AM. I used to sit up watching it on my own with the usual array of chips, sandwiches, and a pot of Campbell’s tomato soup. I can remember wonderful players like Walter Payton, John Riggins, Dan Marino and John Elway who just captivated me with their skills. Their striving towards excellence gave their teams a lot of con:idence and brought noteworthy successes. The legendary Packers coach, Vince Lombardi, once said, “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” He also maintained that ‘Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.’ For almost two years, we have been renovating the church at Erin and pursuing a dream for the future. It hasn’t been easy – these are tough economic and theological times – but we have accomplished amazing things. We’re now into the last quarter of our rebuilding and we’re heading towards the winning end zone of this whole project. What we’ve done has involved a lot of patience and perseverance, faith and vision. When the work in the Sanctuary is completed this year, we will have a church place with a great potential for future ministries and missions that will see our church become a more effective vehicle for the Gospel in our community and across the world. Many people in our church have given a lot of time, talents, and money to support the work that’s going on. Others have not had or not taken that wonderful opportunity. As this last phase deals with the Sanctuary, it provides everybody with an ideal opportunity to give speci:ically to the most sacred area on the church campus. As Paul wrote in Hebrews, ‘let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.’ To us at Erin today, this could be written ‘let’s ful:ill the vision God has given us.’ May God be with and bless us all.
~John