Fuller Avenue Christian Reformed Church

JUNE 2016

Fuller Life is the newsletter of the Fuller Avenue Christian Reformed Church

1239 Fuller Avenue, SE

Grand Rapids, MI 49506

Published monthly, except July

Barb Straatsma, editor

Connie Scheurwater, member in focus articles

Freda Rufli, collating, circulation and mailing.

On the cover: At our last Women’s Bible Study meeting, Susan Lucasse introduced the term, “wordle”. A wordle is a word cloud or word text which has been created on a computer into a visual pattern of words – the more frequent a word is used in a text, the larger it is displayed in the wordle. Our cover is an example of a wordle. The text is I Samuel 3:8-10, the passage from our sermon on May 1. “Samuel” is used 7 times, “Lord” is used 4 times and “Eli” is used 3 times.A blast from the past- the “Fuller Life” font was used ? years ago.

May Council ReportBy Barb Straatsma, Clerk

Barb opened the Council meeting by reading Nelle Vander Ark’s devotional, Being Salt and Light, from the book, My Heart I Offer and prayed.

Finance – The April Fuller Ministries Fund receipts were $25,000. Our first quarter receipts are unusually low, below 75% of budgeted. The Finance Committee will meet and look at our financial situation and report to the Administration Committee. Bob Zwiers agreed to chair the Finance Committee. A member is considering the position of Treasurer.

After reading the article, Who Gets to Sing in the Kingdom by Ruth King Goddard about church congregations around the world experiencing a growing trend of non-participation in congregational worship singing, the Worship Committee met to discuss this article and focus on vocalists and decided on a trial period using 2 vocalists for the first set of songs in the worship service to make it a more hospitable singing environment.

At a special Council meeting on April 24, Jim Krosschell introduced Barbara Bjelland to Council. She was approved by Council for the position of Director of Faith Formation and introduced to the congregation on May 1.

The evaluations of our staff have been completed. An article about Pastor Nate’s evaluation will be written for the Fuller Life.

Pastor Nate had another heavy month of congregational care.

He is very thankful for the work of Pastor Morris, elders, deacons, and the Visitation Teams who help him with this. The month of April was also heavy with administration. He secured 6 congregational members to serve on our Next Steps team. Our series, Re:Vision, will conclude on May 15. A new series on Worship will take place this summer. Kickball starts on July 10 and ends on August 14. The games will be held at the Pontiac Field next to the Grand Rapids Christian Elementary School.

Pastor Morris regularly visited with Doug Hoek and Ed Stuursma while they were in the hospital along with visits to other members of this church. He and Pastor Nate conducted Jeri Hoek’s memorial service at church. He attended the regular administration meetings.

Susie developed and led a 5-week series for women that focused on internal daggers such as blame, shame, sarcasm, and insults. This was a powerful time of discussion. The series ends on May 10 with a time of contemplative listening prayer. She is planning the Tuesday Family Nights and summer events. Flyers for this will be distributed throughout the neighborhood and church in May. She has started planning events and series for the fall. She hopes to have these completed soon so that we can

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advertise and talk about them with our neighbors during the summer. She purchased food and organized the community dinner. It was prepared and served by Adams Park Apartment residents, Fuller House students, and Neighborhood Outreach Committee members. Approximately 30 people enjoyed an evening of good food and relationship building.

There is a Classis Grand Rapids East meeting on May 19.

Dan and Kate Miller are leaving the Neighborhood Outreach Committee so a new chair and members are needed. If you are interested, please contact the pastors or any member of the Administration Committee.

Jerry Van Veen and Donna Meyer wish to be relieved of their positions as directors of Kids Hope USA.

Pastor Nate thanked each retiring elder and deacon. These Council members are retiring: deacons: Doug Hoek, Kate Miller, Crys Van Beek, Tom Jonker, and Greg Van Stee, elders: Dave De Windt, Mitogo Opira, Barb Straatsma, and Casey Ter Haar. Please thank these people for their dedication to this church.

The Care Group Elder and Deacon teams met to discuss their Care Group.

our walkers

Access Hunger Walk - May 1, 2016 By Larry Segaar and Crys Van Beek for the Deacons

Team Fuller had 10 walkers: Dan & Kate Miller, Dave, Miki, Zachary De Windt, Larry Segaar, Karla Laninga, Pat DeVries, Connie Scheurwater, and Caryl VandeVoort. The start of the 5k walk was at Park Church, across the street from St. Cecelia. What a beautiful route on a partly sunny, spring day!

The route……We gathered at Park Church (10 E Park Place NE), checked in and then started walking down Fulton going west to Straight Ave., South to Wealthy, east to Grandville Ave., north to Cherry St., east to Division, and then north to Fulton and the church for a total of 3.1 miles.

The walk started officially at 2:30 pm on Sunday May 1, but we were eager to walk and started a few minutes early. As a result we finished almost first and were rewarded with fresh cut roses and tulips plus some food and drinks. The walk took about 1 hour. Donations from Fuller have been turned in and were generous. At this point we estimate the donations have totaled to$1,960.00. Access will send out final totals to participating organizations. Thanks to your donations, more people living in poverty will benefit in our greater Grand Rapids area and internationally.

This photo is taken on June 21, 1939 of the front of Fuller with George Brander standing in the forefront with the white hat, dark suit and cigar. It was given to us by his granddaughter, Sheryl Renken. The back of the photograph says “Ideal Park”. Maybe a trip to this park in Wyoming? Does anyone recognize these young people and know the story? If you do, let me know and I will include it in the next Fuller Life.

BOOK REVIEW

Bad Religion: How we Became a Nation of Heretics, by Ross Douthat

Reviewed by Dan Miller

In this current (and seemingly eternal) political season it can be hard to figure out how we got to be such a deeply divided nation. It’s also hard to discern just how a Christians should respond to the situation. Those two issues are at the heart of a book I just finished reading: Bad Religion: How we became a nation of heretics, by Ross Douthat (Free Press, 2012). The author is a New York Times columnist whose opinions I often disagree with so I began reading with some skepticism. I’m happy to report that my skepticism was entirely unwarranted; on a topic that lends itself easily to polemics (it is about politics and religion after all), Douthat’s book is a model of balance and good judgment.

Douthat’s main point is that Christians used to have worthwhile things to say about public matters but they lost their way over the past sixty years. He describes how liberal mainline Protestant churches and post-Vatican II progressive Catholics abandoned orthodox theology and Biblical sexual ethics in an effort to remain relevant in the rapidly changing popular culture of the 1960s and 70s. Unfortunately their lack of theological distinctives did not attract broadminded newcomers to

their churches as they expected, instead liberal congregations dwindled as young people looked to other religious traditions for spiritual fulfillment and to secular sources for their progressive ideals. The demographic and theological decline of progressive Christianity means that one of the voices needed for a healthy national debate over issues of political and personal morality was simply not up to the job.

Douthat is a conservative Catholic so it didn’t surprise me to see him criticize liberal Christians, but he also argues that Evangelical Protestants and conservative Catholics who resisted changes in the culture lost their way as well. The two groups joined forces to fight what they regarded as the decline of morality in America, but before long their list of causes was indistinguishable from the platform of the Republican Party including lax environmental regulation, low taxes, and strong support for a militaristic foreign policy that had little obvious relevance to the teachings of Jesus. Adding to the woes of the Christian Right, many Evangelicals preached a fundamentalist theology that was hostile to science and spread “End Times” paranoia and endorsed a health and wealth gospel that equated material well-being

with spirituality. It was even worse for the Catholic Church when it was revealed was that

for many years Bishops had suppressed evidence that some priests were sexual predators. In

the end, hypocrisy, hyper-nationalism, and hyper-partisanship discredited the

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voice of the Christian Right in national affairs.

According to Douthat, failures on both sides of the ecclesiastical aisle have left America without the kind of wisdom it gained in earlier years from the likes of W. H. Auden, Reinhold Niebuhr, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bishop Fulton Sheen, Christians who commented on matters of public policy and personal conduct using categories of thought derived from Scripture and traditional Christian theology. Since their time, “bad religion” meaning self-indulgent, theologically rootless “spirituality” of the Elizabeth Gilbert Eat, Pray, Love variety, has largely replaced orthodox Christian belief and practice. The result is a society that has no way to think about its most urgent problems from a well-informed Christian perspective. He concludes with an “altar call” to the reader, whatever their theological or political orientation, to commit to authentic Christian belief and practice. Douthat does not presume that such a commitment will lead individuals inevitably to one side or the other in the political debates, but he argues that authentic Christianity offers wisdom that can save us from personal and political folly while also inspiring us to care enough about the well-being of our neighbors to do what we can to promote the public good.

Congratulations to Ruth Van Stee!Ruth Van Stee is the 2016 recipient of the Baxter award from the Grand Rapids Historical Society. The Baxter award is named in honor of Albert Baxter, one of Grand Rapids early historians and author of the 1891 History of the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

There is an article about Ruth and her award in the May 2016 Grand River Times, a newsletter of the Grand Rapids Historical Society. The award is given to people who have made significant contributions to the preservation and interpretation of the Grand River Valley history. Ruth was given the award because of her passion and many hours of research on our local history, her indexes at the library of African-Americans history and the history of women in Grand Rapids and her presentations at the Grand Rapids public library. Congratulations Ruth!

Pastor Nate’s2-Year Evaluation and Review

By Jim Krosschell

As you may recall from bulletin announcements, the

Administration and Personnel Committees have recently completed annual job evaluations of Fuller’s paid staff. When Pastor Nate accepted Fuller’s call and began his ministry among us, Council committed itself to a thorough, broad-based evaluation of his work following the second anniversary of his arrival. The review involved two parts: a self-assessment by Pastor Nate, and sharing input received from various sources at Fuller.

Pastor Nate has given permission to publish the opening paragraph of his self-evaluation.“Thinking back over my first two years here at Fuller I am struck by God’s goodness. Both personally and as a family we are so blessed to have Fuller as our church home. As a church you have supported and encouraged me in my pastoral work and you continue to encourage our family. I can say with confidence that I am thankful to be your pastor.”

Pastor Nate then reviewed the five “Key Tasks and Responsibilities” (Worship, Outreach and Church Growth, Congregational Care, Faith Formation, and Administration) in his job description, in each case self-assessing his work related to them and suggesting how he will continue/improve filling them. Changes to his job description that resulted were just a few minor wording changes and adjusting his preaching schedule from 75% to 70% of available services.

Next Pastor Nate reflected on the goals and objectives he set for himself last year and assessed how he had met them. Those goals were:

Increased focus on neighborhood outreach. Both personally and as a congregation. This may include further training and opportunities to engage that training.

Continued improvement in my leading of our worship services – particularly with the in-between wording.

Improve my presence in worship as indicated in the sermon evaluations I’ve received.

Continue to look for ways to improve in my leadership of our worship.

Development of a well-articulated and implemented plan for spiritual formation for all - from infants to adults.

Grow the young families/couples group here at Fuller

See positive year-over-year growth in members and attendance

Continue to deliver solid, relevant, challenging biblically-based and grace-filled sermons.

Help new hires acclimate to the church and its members.

Highlights he included were our 90th anniversary celebration, three professions of faith, three adult and six infant baptisms, a new website, beginning “Next Steps for Fuller” investigations, and Book of the Quarter.

Pastor Nate commented on his perceptions of his weaknesses, the aspects of his work that he most and least enjoys, his weekly hours worked and set the following goals for the future:

Help implement a dynamic and engaging Faith Formation program for infants through adults.

See a growing level of participation and commitment to prayer at Fuller through the development of a prayer team either in person or via email

See a healthier corporate spirituality as a body

Continue to improve my preaching and leadership in worship – I hope to become more dynamic and less tied to my manuscript

Help lead us to a healthy process for discerning God’s vision for us as a church

Grow in my own personal spiritual and devotional life

Lead us to discovering God’s vision – this may not be completed by the end of 2016, but the process should be well underway.

Increased attendance in our worship and growth in our denominational and classical numbers

Develop a strong sense of team within and among the staff

Work on continued staff development and explore new ways to include other developing leaders in the ministry at Fuller (seminary/college interns, worship leaders, etc.)

Again with his permission, we share his closing comments.-“In conclusion, I simply want to say thank you. Thank you for two good initial years. Thank you for trusting me to lead and serve you. Thank you for being a community that is filled with warmth, love, and support. Thank you to the many leaders who have stepped up on times of transition or trouble to help carry the load. Thank you too for your work as you step out of some of your comfort areas and explore new and next steps. Thank you for your loyalty. And finally, thank you for your love – your love for the Lord, your love for each other, and your love for me and my family. It is my joy and it is my honor to be your pastor. May the Lord bless us and keep us, may He give us His vision for Fuller, and may He equip us with the discernment and courage to continue following after Him. All to His glory. Amen.”

The report which the Personnel Committee presented to Pastor

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Nate was a summary of input received from a variety of sources in the congregation. It began with this paragraph:

“The congregation of Fuller Avenue Christian Reformed Church, it officers – current and past, staff, many volunteers and members express thanks to Pastor Nate and his family Sam, Eli, Alex, and ??? for their presence and work among us. Just over two years ago Pastor Nate’s came to a congregation shrouded with lingering clouds and viewing a perplexing horizon resulting from sad and troubling events that preceded his arrival. Following two years of his work among us, our congregation has found reason to worship joyfully, plan optimistically, and participate gratefully.” Pastor Nate’s grace-filled messages, ministry-initiating ideas, tireless and willing efforts, and depth-and-breadth embrace of how Fuller should participate in God’s Kingdom ministry have resulted in a welcome transition to renewed thoughts of a bright future for our congregation.”

Among those who choose to “rate” Pastor Nate’s performance, 90% gave him a rating of “Outstanding” or “Above Average” From the many comments received, most were presented to Pastor Nate verbatim, some paraphrased, and some summarized. The vast majority were positive and complementary.

The evaluation concluded with the committee sharing with

Pastor Nate their perception of his strengths, some priority reminders, perceived challenges for the years ahead, and a prayer sharing thanks and beseeching God’s blessing.

Mr. Gordy’s Read to Ride

By Joyce Van Haitsma

It was in 2010 that Gordy Van Haitsma became 1 of the 30 “All Stars Among Us” winners to represent the Detroit Tigers for his “Mr. Gordy’s Read to Ride” program. This award was funded by Major League Baseball, PEOPLE magazine, and the Detroit Tigers. He was 1 of the 7,500 nominations nation wise for the 30 awards that were presented. Gordy credits the win to all of the Oakdale Christian Elementary School staff and students who voted for him.

The “Mr. Gordy’s Read to Ride” program has celebrated its 10th year anniversary encouraging kids to read. Gordy’s initial idea was that each kid should have a bike to ride but then he thought that bikes will take kids only so far but reading will take them a lot further so I put the two together.

His program is supported by the teachers who encourage students to read age appropriate books and will review the student’s written response to each book. After the student has read 5 books and written 5 reviews they have earned a bike related item. These items that Gordy has purchased and the items picked might be a bike lock, tire pump, a bell, a horn, or maybe flashing reflectors. The student receives a bike related item after 5 books that they read and after reading a total of 15 books they have the opportunity to pick out a rehabbed bike of their choice.

This is exciting for the student and teacher because it proves that they have worked hard and earned a bike that they get to actually choose. A picture is taken of the student and their chosen bike. The picture is framed and Gordy will add a written message that says: Think college, keep reading.

This year the “Read to Ride” program is working with the third grade classes at Campus Elementary School. There are several students who have already earned their bikes and others who have earned bike related items. There is a lot of excitement and extra time spent by the students reading as the school year is ending so that they can earn their bike.

Many people have asked how you can be involved or support the “Read to Ride” program. We rely on donations of gently used bikes that can be repaired

and rehabbed for the students who are reading to earn their own bike. The bike related items are earned by the student after reading 5 books are all new and purchased by the “Read to Ride” program. Gordy is thankful for God’s blessing and growth of his “Read to Ride” program.

Our Graduates

Middle SchoolBlessing Htoo will graduate from Brookside Middle School and will be going to Union High School.

Myriam Mitogo will graduate from middle school on June 2.

High SchoolJonah Phelps will graduate from Grand Rapids Christian High School on May 26.  He plans to attend Eastern Michigan University in the fall to study Theatre Arts and Communication.  The Fuller family is invited to his graduation open house in the Fellowship Room on Sunday, June 5, from 2:00-5:00 PM.

Koli Elisha Mitogo will graduate from Grand Rapids Christian High school on May 26.

CollegeSteve Powers graduated from Grand Valley State University

on April 30 with a degree in mathematics and elementary education.  He plans to leave his work at D&W and find a teaching job in the fall in an upper elementary classroom or he may do substitute teaching until he finds something more permanent.  Steve was recently engaged to Jenni Steinhof, a special education teacher from Mancelona; they hope to be married in June of 2017.

Megan Rozeveld Karsten graduated from Calvin College and has a job at Hennessey High School in Hennessey, Oklahoma. She will be teaching Spanish and will be the varsity fastpitch and slowpitch softball coach.

Masters degreeJana Postma earned her Masters degree from Geneva College in Pennsylvania. Her degree is a Masters in Higher Education, and she was awarded this degree on May 7, 2016. It's a degree that will help her continue well in her current work as a Student Life Professional.

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June 2016Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesd

ayThursday Friday Saturday

1 27 pm: Council

3 4

510 am:Faith Promise & SECOM Food Offering

No Evening Worship

67 pm:Outreach Committee

7Flyer the Neighbor-hood:Help needed!

8 9 10 11

12Welcome Lunch

No Evening Worship

13 146 pm: Church Picnic

15 16 17 18

19

Father’s Day

No Evening Worship

20 216 pm: Tuesday Family Night – Farm on the Go

22 23 24 25

26

No Evening Worship

27 286 pm: Tuesday Family Night – Kevin Kammeraad –puppets & music

29 307 pm: Admin Committee

There will not be a July issue of the Fuller Life

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FROMFuller Avenue Christian Reformed Church1239 Fuller Avenue, S. E. Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506-3248

TO

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