Quote of the Day

Your mind is a garden.
Your thoughts are the seeds.
You can grow flowers or you can grow weeds.

 ~Anonymous

Guest Pastor This Sunday

This Sunday, August 28, we welcome the Rev. Dr. David Glenn Walker to the pulpit. His sermon title is "When God Whispers." Please join us at 9:00 am in Swain Hall for this special service!

Tuesday Night Service of Reflection

Join us tomorrow night (Tuesday, August 23) at 5:00 pm in the Chapel for a short worship service featuring poetry and jazz. David Hodgson will help us reflect on the lessons of the first three Sunday sermons of this month. Dinner will be served afterward in Swain Hall. Please come and bring a guest!

New News Deadline

We have been told that in order for our events to be included in the local newpapers' monthly church calendars, the information must be submitted to them no later than noon on the Tuesday before the last Monday of the month. To ensure we have everything we need before that deadline, we are changing the monthly deadline for The SPIRE to the second-to-last Monday of each month. If we have all the necessary event details that day, we can send them to the papers the next day. And, voila! Free press!

So, the deadline for anything to be printed in the September issue of The SPIRE will be next Monday, August 22, and we will send our September calendar of events to the newspapers on Tuesday morning. If you have an event that should be included in the calendar, please help us meet the papers' deadline by meeting ours. After all, it's good publicity, and free!

Quote of the Day

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” ~Mother Teresa

2016 90+ Tea

Did you know that our church has 41 members and regular attendees who are 90 years of age or older? We have invited them all to a special tea at 2:00 pm on Thursday, August 25, with special music by pianist Vonda Hagen. If you are not yet 90 but would like to help in the kitchen, transporting the attendees, or serving as the host/hostess of one of the tables, please contact Beth Mabee in the church office (623.974.3605 or bethm@firstpressuncity.org).

Movie Night Cancelled

The venue of the preview showing of Ben-Hur has been changed to a location on the other side of Phoenix, so our church will not be participating.  Thank you to everyone who signed up!  We hope you are not too disappointed.

August Ecumenical Hymn-Sing

This Sunday, August 14, join us in our chapel at 3:00 pm for a hymn sing with members of several other local churches. Sing all your old favorites and maybe learn a few new tunes! Homemade cookies will follow in Swain Hall at 4:00 pm. For more information, call the church office at 623.974.3605.

Movie Night

Thursday, August 11, 7:00 pm

Join us at the Harkins Arrowhead Fountains 18 Theater for the preview of the new Ben-Hur movie! This new screenplay adheres more closely to General Lew Wallace's original story and is much-more Christ-focused than the 1959 version starring Charlton Heston. This Mark Burnett and Roma Downey production centers on messaging of mercy, redemption, reconciliation, compassion, faith and forgiveness.

Call Beth in the church office for tickets. They are free for veterans and $9.00 each for the rest of us.

Let us know what movies you'd like to see in the future!

August 10 luncheon cancelled

Due to inadequate registrations, the PW-sponsored school supply luncheon scheduled for noon on Wednesday, August 10, has been cancelled.  However, you may still drop school supply contributions at the church office from now until August 10.

Minute for Mission

We have good news and bad news from Fry’s Community Rewards program. The good news is that we have received our first check. The bad news is we have to sign up annually for the program. August 1st begins the re-enrollment. Below are the directions to re-enroll. Thank you for your patience and diligence on this matter. We may use the money at our discretion, except for salaries, there are no other restrictions.

~Carolyn Lopez, Congregational Care and Outreach Commission

• Go to www.FrysCommunityRewards.com. 
• Click on “Sign In.” 
• Enter your email and password; click on “Sign In.” 
• Click on your name (top right hand corner), under “Account Summary;” scroll down to “Community Rewards.”
• Under “Community Rewards,” click on “Edit.” 
• Under “Find Your Organization,” enter 41034 (our NPO number) and then select “Search.”
• Under “Select Your Organization,” click on the circle next to the church’s name. 
• Click on “Enroll.” 

If you have re-enrolled correctly, you should see a green box saying “Your enrollment in the Community Rewards Program has been updated. Thank you for participating!” You will also see the information listed under “Community Rewards” on your Account Summary page.

Presbyterian Women in August

PW Luncheon Planned for August 10 (with men invited!):
Mark this date on your calendar. Lunch will be served at 12:00 noon. Be sure to sign up for this late summer get-together! (PW circle members: Please contact Gail Bickel, Moderator, to volunteer for set-up, service, and clean-up.)

“Come to the Waters:” 
Circle meetings will begin again in September, focused on this year’s Horizons study, Come to the Waters. If you have not already purchased or requested your copy of the book ($9.00 each), please notify Sherry Gearhart, 602-509-2684, or call the church office, 623.974.3605.

Back-to-School School Supplies for Dysart: 
A big “Thank You!” to everyone who helped us accumulate an amazing variety of items now ready to be delivered to the Dysart School District.

Franciscan Renewal Center – the PW Synod of the Southwest Fall Gathering: 
Registration forms and payment for this activity are due by October 8. The event is: Friday, October 28 (evening session plus dinner), Saturday, October 29 (breakfast, program, workshops, lunch, more workshops and dinner), and Sunday, October 30 (breakfast, worship, lunch). Overnight lodging is optional. Questions? Need a registration form? Call me at 623.330.4915.

Blessings,

~Marge Hagerman, Co-Moderator

Ears to Hear

The followers of Christ in every age are known by their desire to hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying. And in every age, where that message is distorted or confused, the followers of Christ complain loudly, and appropriately! Jesus was the first to remind us that our ears were designed by God so that we might hear the words of the Lord, but it was John, the evangelist, who declared to the ages, "Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches!" (Rev. 2)

Sometimes the Lord's words to the church are distorted by political influence that seeks to silence the voice that would preach, but I thank God that that is not the case at First Presbyterian Church of Sun City. Freedom of the pulpit is alive and well and I sincerely appreciate the congregation's desire to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church. Our problem has been acoustical confusion! At last we have a diagnosis! And with it comes the prescription for a remedy! We can at last explain to any who may be interested what was happening with sound in our sanctuary and what wasn't happening. We understand why there are dead spots, and why the message is garbled. We pondered the possibilities of correcting the present sound system and quickly realized that to achieve the best result we needed a completely new system.

The Session has approved the project at a special meeting because it will take six weeks to complete it; and we would like to have it finished before we move our worship celebrations from Swain Hall. At the same meeting, the Session voted to invite the church family to participate in funding the project, with the theme that no gift is too small, and all gifts will be gratefully received.

The total cost of the project will be $30,000, and we already have $12,400—given by thoughtful members who wanted to encourage us to find a solution, and who wanted to be part of it. Gifts, whether sent to the office or placed in the offering plate, are to be marked Sound System, and we will see that they are appropriately used. I thank you all for your desire to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church, and for your generosity that will make it possible.

~David