Family bingo night March 16

Posted on by Lisa Bell

The Faith Education Team will host a Bingo night fundraiser from 5-8 p.m. Saturday, March 16, in Hayden Hall. Tickets are: $5 for ages 5-11, $10 for ages 12 and up, $25/household, free for ages 4 and under.

Ticket price includes dinner (grilled cheese, soup and dessert) and bingo prizes. Contact anyone in Faith Education for more details. A portion of the proceeds will go to Marjaree Mason Center to purchase snacks and art supplies for children there.

Karri Jones or Eileen White can answer questions.

Spring has Sprung!!! Enter to win a bursting garden basket

Posted on by Lisa Bell

Our March Raffle will be a Gardening Basket chock full of gardening related items that are sure to encourage and inspire your green thumb. $1 raffle tickets will be sold at church on March 3 and March 10 — the winning raffle ticket will be announced after church on March 10.

This basket is bursting with garden and decorative items:

Garden

  • $20 gift card to Gazebo Gardens
  • Knee Pad
  • 4 Pair of Gardening Gloves
  • Hose Nozzle
  • Jobe Plant Food Spikes
  • Good Dirt Liquid Plant Food
  • Hand Sprayer
  • 2 Solar Lights
  • Gardening Tools
  • $5 Target Gift Card
  • Miracle Gro Potting Mix
  • Assorted Seeds
  • 18” Plastic Pot

Decorative

  • Flowered Hand Towel
  • Hummingbird Feeder
  • Spring Garden Coloring Book
  • 3 Garden Gnomes
  • Frog Sun Catcher
  • Owl Pot Hugger
  • Lounging Frog
  • 3 Garden Stepping Stones
  • Butterfly Stakes
  • Never Stop Growing Sign
  • Metal Trowel Door Knocker
  • Wisteria and Morning Glory Mugs

Basket items have been donated by the Personnel, Pastoral Relations and Charitable Gifts Teams

On the Threshold of Lent

Posted on by Lisa Bell

The season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, March 6. Ashes to Go (drive-thru imposition of ashes) will be available from 7 to 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the parking lot. Then in the evening beginning at 5:30 p.m. we will have a brief service of Ashes and Communion. We will cycle through the Service four times in this hour. All are welcome at any time with the cycle.

The central portion of our Lenten Season this year will be our LENTEN SERVICE SUNDAYS.

Each Sunday of Lent, beginning on March 10, we will have a light lunch and then engage in an activity that will build up the body and spirit of our congregation. The first step is gathering the resources for the season. Therefore…

Needs for Lenten Service Sundays

Week 1, March 10:

Bread-baking machines, experienced bread bakers

Beginning around 9 a.m. by preparing the dough, we will bake dozens of loaves of bread. Each participating baker will take one loaf home, one loaf to give to someone within 24 hours. Dozens of loaves will remain refrigerated/frozen at the church for Week 2’s activity and for communion throughout the Lenten season and Holy Week.

Week 2, March 17:

4 cases of 36 (500 ml) bottles of water; peanut butter, jelly, jam, or preserves; cans of tuna; travel size hand sanitizer; Ziploc bags- sandwich and gallon size; socks

Going to G Street to distribute after making sandwiches with the bread we baked last Sunday.

Week 3, March 24:

What music/song(s) address your spirit? Please forward song title and artist of music you associate with refuge, inspiration, celebration, and/or meditation to EJ Hinojosa prior to March 15. Send to ejhinojosa@hotmail.com. We will be enriched by the varied and myriad music we will experience on this afternoon.

Week 4, March 31:

Laundry detergent pods; dryer sheets; money to purchase laundry cards; Ziploc quart size bags.

We will offer a free wash and dry at various laundromats throughout Fresno for Lent.

Week 5, April 7:

All Church Work afternoon!

We will have all sorts of tasks appropriate for every person in our congregation as we prepare our buildings and grounds for Palm Sunday and Easter. Specific information will be available by March 15.

There will be a Lenten study at Roger and Vicky Wall’s home (5139 N. Poplar) on Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m., beginning on March 13. We will be studying five pastoral psalms that inform the theme for Lenten worship:

BUSY and Missing the Beautiful

A full Lenten and Holy Week schedule will be available on the website, eNews and on paper at the church next week at this time.

Blaze Pizza Fundraiser March 7

Posted on by Lisa Bell

The Blaze Pizza at River Park (185 Paseo Del Centro) will host a fundraiser for Community UCC from 4 to 9 p.m. Thursday, March 7. Our church will receive 20 percent of proceeds during that time.

Pick up a flyer from church or save this image below to your phone. The flyer (or image on your phone) must be presented when you order. Let’s break bread together and raise some money for our church! Contact Patty Parks if you have questions.

(Donation amount excludes proceeds from tax and gift card purchases. Valid for dine-in and take-out only. Not valid for online orders. Alcoholic beverages excluded. Event proceeds void if flyers are distributed in or near restaurant.)

UCC Flyer-001

Four weeks of Advent projects

Posted on by Lisa Bell

Each year the Missions and Social Justice Team plans Advent projects for the four Sundays in Advent, beginning this year on Sunday, Dec. 2. The committee picks four organizations that will benefit, and the congregation can bring requested items for each week’s project.

Here are this year’s recipients:

  • Dec. 2 — Cash Donations or gift cards for teens in foster care through Uplift Family Services. Many younger children in foster care receive gifts from things similar to the snowflake tree, but there is usually an age limit and the teens get left out. For this Advent project, bring $10 gift card to anywhere a teen may want to shop — Jamba Juice, McDonald’s, Target, Walmart, Claire’s, stuff like that.
  • Dec. 9 — Snowflake tree to buy gifts for underprivileged elementary-aged children at Robinson Elementary, our neighborhood school. Students have been identified by their teachers. The tree will be up for people to pick a child’s name on Dec. 2, return gifts by the Dec. 9.
  • Dec. 16 — Collecting small gifts for senior residents of Twilight Haven retirement facility, like mittens, socks and scarves to help residents stay warm.
  • Dec. 23 — Cash donations to buy bus passes for residents of  Dakota EcoGarden, a transitional homeless shelter with an environmentally-friendly approach.

For more information, contact Felicia Rocha at flearocha82@gmail.com.

 

Update on our Missions giving

Posted on by Lisa Bell

Community United Church of Christ actively supports a wide variety of groups. Since our fiscal year began in July, our members have generously given the following to:

  • Break the Barriers: $389.55 plus an additional $50 made directly
  • CUCC Band CD Release: $1,990
  • Neighbors in Need: $545
  • OCWM (Our Church’s Wider Mission): $400, to date (CUCC donates $100.00 each month for a total of $1,200 per fiscal year.)
  • Tubman University: $1,130

On the third Sunday of each month, our church highlights a specific organization and asks members to donate as they are able. Your contributions during these special “Mission Moments,” above and beyond your pledge, allow us to continue supporting these very worthy groups!

THANK YOU!

Boutique returns to Community UCC

Posted on by Lisa Bell

The Boutique at Community UCC will return from 7 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3, in the Church parking lot. Booth spaces are $20 each. If you know a vendor who would like to display and sell their wares, let them know! Contact Donna Wright to reserve a space.

Come by that day to do a little holiday shopping!

  • 6 a.m. – Set-up
  • 7 a.m. – Open
  • 1 p.m. – Close & clean-up

Wanted: Vendors!

  • Homemade items-boutique
  • Rummage
  • Art/Photo
  • Food: tamales, pizza, snacks, drinks, shaved ice, tacos, food trucks, etc.
  • Furniture
  • Clothing

Provided to vendors:  Space: the size of 2 parking stalls, electricity if needed, restrooms

Vendors need to bring: tables & chairs, awnings/umbrellas, money for change, electrical cords, if needed

Prohibited: firearms, ammunition, weapons, pornography, alcohol.

Whatever you bring with you that you don’t sell has to go home with you at the end of the day.

Contacts:

  • Donna Wright (559) 917-8979
  • Karri Jones (541) 912-9275

Contact the Marilyn Wall in the church office to register and pay for a booth, (559) 435-2690.

Build a Bigger Table potluck, Neighbors in Need special offering

Posted on by Lisa Bell

Oct. 7 is World Communion Sunday. For the potluck luncheon immediately following worship, bring dishes that relate to your background or culture. Fellowship will provide service items and drinks. There will be a sign-up sheet before then. ~ Patty Parks

Neighbors in Need is a special mission offering of the United Church of Christ that supports ministries of justice and compassion throughout the United States. This year’s Neighbors in Need special offering will be take on Oct. 7.

Please come to our table and celebrate with us!

Five weeks left to reach our 2017-18 pledge goal!

Posted on by Lisa Bell

Church members turned in 57 pledges for the 2017-2018 fiscal year (July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2018).  As of May 14, we are a little short of the total amount pledged.

We have about five weeks to bring in the $25,000 we are short for the fiscal year.  If you haven’t met your pledge yet this year, won’t you please send in your donation soon? Or if you met your pledge, maybe you can afford to give just a little more to help us cross the finish line.

Pledge statements will be available to members at the Congregational Meeting on June 10, but if you’d like to know where you stand now regarding your pledge, just call the church or email treasurer Carol Kilburn at carolkilburn559@gmail.com and she will send you the information.

Thanks so much!

Looking for your gifts!

Posted on by Lisa Bell

This Sunday, May 20,  will be a special day for CUCC. It is Confirmation Sunday where the young folks who have completed nine months of classes and participated in service activities will tell their stories during worship.

Following worship, there will be a Team Fair.  There will be tables with representatives from the committees who will tell you about the wonderful service opportunities that are available.

Each of our committees/teams carry out the mission of the church through their fine work.  They provide a way for each of us to share our gifts … our time and talents … in the life of the church for as little or as much time as we can give!

Following is a brief description of some of the work of each committee.  Please take some time to visit the tables and prayerfully consider where you might serve.

Deacons:

  • Participate in worship planning and decorating the worship space
  • Assist in sacraments, such as communion,  and other rites of the church

Elders (Extravagant Welcome Team):

  • Welcome newcomers and greet  church attendees on Sunday mornings
  • Provide orientation to prospective members
  • Reach out to members who are in need of care

Trustees:

  • Raise money for the operation of the church through fundraising events and the annual stewardship drive
  • Prepare the church budget for congregational approval
  • Care for the buildings and grounds of the church

Christian Education:

  • Provide educational programs for all ages
  • Provide youth ministries
  • Assist in confirmation education

Fellowship:

  • Arrange fellowship hours following worship
  • Work with other teams in providing social occasions and special seasonal events

Missions and Social Justice:

  • Facilitate congregational involvement of mission and social justice concerns
  • Lead special moment in worship to educate the congregation and request special offerings to support missions  and provide service opportunities

Pastoral Relations:

  • Serve as a support group for the pastors and their families
  • Facilitate communication between the pastors and the congregation to ensure positive and healthy relationships

Charitable Gifts and Endowments:

  • Solicit and accept memorials, donations, endowments and bequests into the funds of the church.
  • Manage the funds within the framework of the church’s tax exempt status

Personnel Team:

  • Ensure that staff are hired and evaluated
  • Hear personnel matters  involving staff at the request of the pastors
  • Mediate conflicts or misunderstandings between the staff and pastors
  • Discharge employees if needed in consultation with the appropriate supervisors