The Link
The Weekly E-Newsletter of Disciples Christian Church
March 13, 2008
In This Issue
- Updated Prayer Requests
- Holy Week Schedule
- Easter Lilies
- Where’s My Copy of The Link?
- DCC Education Department News
- Evangelism
- A Good Friday Performance
- Men’s Bible Study
- Music Notes
- Spiritual Life Retreat
- Telling the Good News: Online!
Updated Prayer Requests
- Patti
Boyer’s brother has been
discharged form the hospital. He
still requires treatment for his infection but is anxious to get back to
his normal routine.
- Ruby
White, Patti Boyer’s aunt, fell
and broke her hip. She has a number
of other health issues making her recovery difficult.
- Mike
Ferris, Pat Brown’s neighbor, has
had numerous heart attacks. Pray
for healing of his heart and blood vessels.
- Rayburn
Peters, Sandy Snyder’s uncle was
recently moved to a nursing home.
The prayer requests in The
Link each week are recent updates. A list of ongoing prayer requests appears in
our worship bulletin each Sunday.
The next couple of weeks
coming up are the most eventful in the life of Jesus. They bring the focus on his dedication to
God’s plans and reveal to us that the will of God cannot be thwarted. They show us that when we are faithful, God
is with us, even in difficult times.
This coming Sunday is Palm
Sunday, also called Passion Sunday. It
lifts up his victorious ride into
But the miracle is that
that was not the end. God would not be
silenced by angry mobs. God would not
even be silenced by a crucifixion. For
on the third day, God raised Jesus from death.
What appeared to be a defeat was truly a victory. The march into
Jesus lives. And because of that we have hope in God’s
presence with us – and in eternal life with God’s glory.
Holy Week Schedule
Please
note the following schedule of events on the calendar for DCC during Holy Week:
-- Maundy Thursday, March 20: Communion worship service begins at 7:30 pm
-- Easter Sunday, March 23:
Joint Easter Resurrection Worship service with FCCC
at 9:00 am. Be sure to bring your
flowers to place on the cross.
Joint Easter breakfast with FCCC in Fellowship Hall at 9:30 am
Easter Egg Hunt on front lawn for all children at 9:50 am
Easter communion worship service at 10:30 am
Easter Lilies
Easter
lilies are for sale through Sunday, March 16 for $10.00 each. If you would like to purchase one or more
lilies in memory or in honor of a loved one, there are order envelopes available
on the welcome table in the atrium area as well as some on the credenza in the
narthex. The lilies will be in the
sanctuary on Easter morning. Please be
sure to take your lily/lilies home with you after worship. Let’s have an awesome display!
Where’s My Copy of The Link?
by Dave
Gillen
So you’ve been getting your
copy of The Link regularly for
weeks. Then…silence. They stop coming. What happened?
We email The Link to you. Unfortunately, email delivery isn’t
guaranteed. It’s much like the US Postal
Service – you put your letter in the box and then magic happens. We try our best to make sure things work, but
problems can arise at both ends of the process.
If you haven’t been
receiving The Link reliably, here are
a few things you can check.
·
Anti-spam filtering: Make sure
the anti-spam filtering on your computer (or with your email provider) allows theoffice@dccplano.com to pass
through. You never know when these
programs try to “help” you.
·
Clean out your Inbox. If you’re
like me, my Inbox grows and grows with all the email I get. Some email programs (like Outlook Express)
start misbehaving if your Inbox gets full.
When the programs misbehave, they “selectively” receive or reject new
email. Do a little housecleaning of your
Inbox, deleting the old stuff or moving it to another folder for future
reference.
·
Email Provider Limits. Some email
providers impose limits on how many pieces of email you can receive, or how
much email you can store on their servers (called “disk quota”).
If
you are a very gregarious e-mailer, The
Link may be that one piece that pushes you over the edge. It may be time for a different email
provider!
If
you leave your email on their server, you may be reaching this limit. Any new email (like The Link) is rejected. So,
it’s time to clean out your email on the server.
·
Black Lists. Some email providers keep a list of email
senders who send spam. The computer
names of these spammers are added to a “black list” and email coming from them
is automatically rejected. You need to
check with your email provider to learn if they do this and if dccplano.com has been mistakenly added.
If you’re still not
receiving The Link, and you checked
out these tips, please let us know. Send
email to theoffice@dccplano.com with
a quick note telling us which issue didn’t arrive, and the email address where
you expected to receive it.
And don’t panic. The current and back issues of The Link are on our Web site (www.dccplano.com).
Dave Gillen
DCC Education Department News
By
Youth News
Don’t forget that TODAY, MARCH 16, following worship DCC
and FCCC youth are invited to an afternoon of bowling at the Plano Super
Bowl. See you then!
Be sure to mark your calendar for
these upcoming events:
n Easter
Sunday, March 23: Easter Egg Hunt at 9:50 am
n
Saturday, April 12: Movie
Saturday, details to follow
n
Saturday, April 26: Youth car wash
fundraiser at DCC parking lot
n
Sunday, May 18: Youth Sunday with breakfast served before
worship.
A
Tutoring Committee comprised of PAT BROWN, ROSIE LEWALLEN, and SUSAN
SHAW was recently formed to assist youngsters from DCC, FCCC and Holy
Grounds needing assistance with a difficult class. Please contact
Also,
the Tri-Area Summer 2008 Camps and Conferences schedule is posted in the Youth
room downstairs as well as being mailed out to all DCC children and youth. Early Bird reservations need to be made
before April 15 in order to get the reduced price.
Adult News
n
A Christian Men’s Fellowship group is
being organized and plans a spring debut.
Contact Mark Mueller for more information.
n
n April 6, 13, 20, & 27: A Pastoral series will be held on these
Sunday evenings at 5:30 pm led by Revs. Diane and Galen Clark. More details will be forthcoming.
n May 4, 11, 18, & 25: A Newcomer’s
Café will start up again during the month of May with Fred Hall leading the
sessions.
By
Nancy Hall
Ten Surprises
about the Unchurched. . . Understanding their Hearts
and Minds
Taken from The Unchurched
Next Door by Thom S. Rainer:
Copyright 2003 by Thom S. Rainer:
Used by permission of Zondervan. I found this in the March edition of the
First Edition,
Unchurched refers to an adult (18 or older) who has not attended a
Christian church service in the past six months except for a special event or
holiday service. Listed below are ten
surprises. Thomas S. Rainer's research
has uncovered about the unchurched.
1. Most
of the unchurched prefer to attend church on Sunday
morning if they attend.
2. Females
are likely to be either the most antagonistic or the most receptive to the
gospel.
3. Most
of the unchurched feel guilty about not attending
church.
4. More
than eight out of ten of the unchurched said they
would come to church if they were invited. Are Christians inviting non-Christians to
church?
The heartbreaking answer is no. Only 21 percent of active churchgoers invite anyone
to church in the course of a year. But
only two percent
of the
church members invite an unchurched person to church.
5. Very
few of the unchurched have had someone share with
them how to become a Christian. And
Christians have not been particularly influential in their lives.
6. Most
of the unchurched have a positive view about pastors,
ministers, and the church.
7. Some
types of “cold calls" are effective; many are not. The definition of a cold call is simply “uninvited". The type of cold-call evangelism most often
resisted by the unchurched
is an uninvited visit to their homes.
8. The unchurched would like to develop a real and sincere
relationship with a Christian.
9. The
attitudes of the unchurched are not correlated to
where they live, their ethnic or racial background, or their gender.
10. Many of the unchurched
are far more concerned about the spiritual well-being of their children than of
themselves.
A Good Friday Performance
DCC’s Sandy
Snyder will be presenting the “Mary at the Cross” monologue during
the Good Friday worship service, March 21, at First Presbyterian Church in
Men’s Bible Study
Calling all men! Come join us at IHOP (
Music Notes
By Laura Young
Music Director
The results are in! Listen for your favorite hymns in 2008!
DCC's Favorite General/Ordinary Time Hymns:
Tied for first:
"They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love" and
"Amazing Grace"
Also requested:
"Living for Jesus"
"The
Church’s One Foundation"
"Joyful,
Joyful We Adore Thee"
"What a Friend We Have In Jesus"
Favorite
Lent/Easter hymns:
(Most requested) "In The Garden"
(Second most requested) "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today"
"What
Wondrous Love Is This?"
"Thine is the Glory"
"He Lives"
Favorite
Advent/Christmas hymns:
"Joy To The World"
"What Child is This?"
"O Little Town of
Music
Department schedule through Lent
March 16 (Sun.) Palm Sunday 9 a.m. choir warm-up
March 19 (Wed.) 6:30 Chancel
Choir
March 20 (Maundy Thursday) DCC hosts
(available DCC choir members to sing)
March 21st (Good Friday) TBA FCC hosts (no DCC choir;
we are simply invited guests)
March 23 (Sun.) Easter Rehearsal
times TBA for choirs
March 26 (Wed.) (handbells
TBA)
If you would like to share
information about upcoming concerts in the area, please submit them to Laura
Young for inclusion in "Music Notes."
NTA-DWM Spiritual Life Retreat - 2008
Come join women from the various Disciples
of Christ churches in the North Texas Area for Spiritual Renewal, Bible Study,
Music, Worship, Relaxation, Nature Walks, Fellowship and Fun! Meet the Biblical women who touch our lives
through the study of the Word. Limited
“first-timer” scholarships are available.
Rev. Jennie Churchman will be the keynote speaker at
the retreat which takes place on April 18, 19, & 20 at Disciples
Crossing in
The DCC Education Department is happy to announce that Lois
Teed-Gillen will give a presentation on
Telling the Good News: Online!
You
will soon begin seeing updates on the DCC website. Last week, the congregation unanimously
approved the hiring of Dave Gillen as DCC’s new webmaster.
Dave is already hard at work!
If you have not stopped by the DCC website recently,
click
on over. Remember, church leaders
can find important documents on the download
page. Also, don't forget to visit
the
online calendar. It enables you to send yourself reminders of upcoming
events, send invitations to friends and colleagues and download the church
schedule to your personal computer. You can find all of the church activities,
birthdays and anniversaries on that calendar, as well as the scheduled
Elders, Deacons and Connectors for each Sunday.
For website suggestions, please e-mail the church office or our new
webmaster, Dave Gillen at
The
In order to follow Jesus and worship God, we will serve our neighbors. We will
minister to our fellow Christians. We will live and tell the good news of Jesus
Christ in all we do.
Disciples Christian Church Staff
Diane
& Galen Clark, Co-Transitional Pastors
Laura Young, Music Director
Linda Gulick, Preschool Director
Julie Chen, Pianist
Jan Carter, Administrative Assistant
Carly
Geibler, Nursery Attendant
email: theoffice@dccplano.com
phone: 972-398-2240