PARISH NEWS
March 2021 Ministers of the Month: The Congregation Council
Gosh, when this past year's Congregation Council members signed up for a three year stint on Messiah's main governing body, they all definitely got more than they asked for! From leading us through a year long pandemic and physical shutdown to moving nearly all of our life changing ministries online to successfully navigating our unification with Trinity Reformed, beginning the development of both our Bread of Life Community Center and laying the groundwork for accessibility upgrades to our Worship Center to keeping our congregation together amidst divisive times, there is SO much we've accomplished this past year! Special thanks go out to our outgoing President, Pete Jones, along with other outgoing members Joyce Gresham and Ann Marie Gray. Our returning Council members include Vice President Sue Collins, Treasurer René Dunda-Martin, Assistant Treasurer Phil Bazicki and Secretary Karen Keenan. Our brand new members include Katie Becker, Eric Cawley, Crystal Murray, Rachel DeTeso-Mathis and we are still looking to fill one additional vacancy. Thank you to the Congregation Council for your awesome leadership and congrats on being our March 2021 Ministers of the Month!
March 2021 Senior Pastor's Letter
Thursday, March 4th, 2021
Dear siblings in Christ,
Whew... I'm writing to you all at the end of an absolutely amazing week in the life of our congregation! My soul feels lighter than it has in quite a while! While our Congregation Council will have a special meeting next week to discuss the final proposal, I am happy to announce that Messiah's application to receive $30,000 in pre-development funding to turn Trinity Reformed into a comprehensive community center for the good of our neighbors in Rotterdam HAS BEEN ACCEPTED. Along with a VERY generous $10,000 anonymous gift, that should give us all the funding we need to work through a process to seek a development partner to build senior and/ or workforce housing around the existing church structure by the end of the year. Our Community Center Task Force also met for the first time this week, discussing that the overarching work of our community center is something like "Bringing neighbors together across all that divides us to be fed in body, mind and soul." We'll likely be released a survey soon to our food pantry clients, congregation members and neighbors alike looking at what additional support services are needed in our community. Plans to make our Worship Center accessible are in their early stages but progressing, as our plans to launch a Capital Campaign to fund that work. Just yesterday, I was BLESSED with the opportunity to co-lead a Bible Study with Rev. Nicolle Harris of Duryee African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church on Hamilton Hill. We had about twenty folks participating, evenly split between members of each of our congregations, for a wonderful conversation about Christ's call to work together across the color line for the good of the community. Next week I'll co-host a similar conversation with Rabbi Matt Cutler and members of Congregation Gates of Heaven... join us on Wednesdays at 2:30p! Seven months of work on the Schenectady Police Reform Collaborative Steering Committee is nearly complete, and while I'd say there were a number of shortcomings throughout the process, on the whole, there does appear to be broad consensus amongst both police and community leaders on the vast majority of reforms. See... we can agree on some things when we listen to one another! We had a wildly successful and well publicized Shrove Tuesday Drive Thru Pancake Supper a couple weeks back and our next in-person event will be this Sunday, when twenty of our kiddos and their families will gather together for an afternoon of snow tubing at West Mountain in Queensbury. You'll see in this newsletter that we'll begin experimenting with a number of other in-person, primarily outdoor events for folks of all ages, from a Palm Sunday walk at Thacher Park to an Easter Sunrise Service in Trinity Reformed's parking lot to PERHAPS our first in person regular Sunday morning worship service celebrating Earth Day later this April!!!
This season of Lent, know that our over year long journey in the wilderness is far from over, but it does appear to be rounding a major bend in a much more positive direction. I'm so, so thankful for your prayer, support and participations in the many life changing ministries of our Spirit filled congregation grounded in Jesus Christ!
In faith,
Pastor Dustin
Mental Health Matters with Pastor Jonathan, LMSW
Each month, Pastor Jonathan will be sharing brief insights about mental health. He is a licensed psychotherapist and believes mental health is as important as physical and spiritual health.
Lent is always a time of mixed emotions for me. A season designed to remind the church of its need for God; of penitence and of confession. While I think these things are always necessary, for the past several years, I’ve often thought “The world is broken enough already. Do we really need another season designed to make us feel bad about ourselves?”
It’s a fair question, I think. In my experience as a psychotherapist, my clients, despite coming to therapy to address difficult life circumstances, often recoil when we attempt to lean into areas of past pain, hurt, and suffering. They tell me, “I thought therapy was supposed to make me feel better. But every time I come in to talk about my difficulties, I end up leaving feeling worse than I did to begin with.”
This has been a hard year. We have been made brutally aware of the frailty of our human condition, with masks worn on faces like ever-present marks of ash, always reminding us of how close we are to our own earthly limitations. No matter what way you look at it, we have experienced a variety of losses and pain over the past twelve months. It is easy to give ourselves over to gloom.
Psychotherapists talk often about the “five stages of grief.” While a bit overly simplistic, it is the idea that processing grief often passes through five distinct emotional experiences: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. For me, I’ve seen all five stages over the past year- denial of the reality of what goes on around us, anger at the injustice of it all, bargaining around what feels safe and reasonable, depression over feeling hopeless at the never-ending monotony, and acceptance coming when the full weight of the loss is acknowledged.
In this Lenten season, there is, in a particular way, a sense of profound grief that has overcome us. Pain and loss stare us in the face, threatening our shaky resolve. Many of us are experiencing one of those five stages. Many of us feel as if we have experienced all five, sometimes multiple times in the course of a week. We’re overwhelmed, tired, short, and on edge.
As much as we might want to run away from this pain, I want to encourage us in this Lenten season to lean in to the grief. I often remind my clients that you never “get over” a loss, instead you have to “go through” the loss. This is hard. This is painful. And this is a season when we journey together. We are reminded that we are on a path with a Savior who understands this pain. As the author of Hebrews reminds us in chapter 4, verse 15 and 16: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Christ is with us in this season. Let us boldly bring our pain, our hurt, our fatigue, and our needs directly to the one who is able to sympathize with us.
Beloved people of God, we are not alone. In this season, we are reminded, yes, of our need for God, but more importantly, that we have a God who meets us in our needs. We are not alone.
Worship and Music News
Your worship and music committee are continuing to discern, alongside of the Congregational Council, moves to resume in-person worship in some format. Alongside of the in-person, outdoor Easter Sunrise Service, we will be considering what other sorts of gatherings might be appropriate as the weather warms and vaccines become more widely available. As always, feel free to reach out to Pastor Jonathan who is chairing the committee, or any of the other committee members if you have thoughts, questions, or concerns.
Lead at Messiah!
While a number of folks have stepped up in recent months, we're still looking for a variety of new leaders to fill a number of appointed roles including a Social Justice Chair, a Nursery Chair, a Youth Ministry Chair, an Arts & Culture Chair, a Young Adult Chair, a Men's Group President and an Archives Chair. We are also looking for one final member of our Congregation Council. If any of these things sound of interest to you, please contact Pastor Dustin!
Worship Support at Messiah
We all have various sized households and some of our members and friends have reported they are beginning to run out of communion wafers. If that describes you, our wonderful Care & Concern Committee Chair Barb Hallett has offered to deliver you more supplies! Simply give her a call if needed!
Supporting Our Seniors
Eddy SeniorCare, the Capital Region's only Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly(PACE), is a special model of care that provides the necessary supports to adults 55 and older with long-term healthcare needs so they may safely remain in their own homes. PACE is designed to put each participant at the center of their care and surround them with a clinical team who provides and coordinates all aspects of their healthcare (including primary care, rehab therapies, social work, prescriptions, assistive devices, etc.), as well as providing social supports, and even transportation to medical appointments. For more information, please call 855-376-7888 or visit EddySeniorCare.com.
Gosh, when this past year's Congregation Council members signed up for a three year stint on Messiah's main governing body, they all definitely got more than they asked for! From leading us through a year long pandemic and physical shutdown to moving nearly all of our life changing ministries online to successfully navigating our unification with Trinity Reformed, beginning the development of both our Bread of Life Community Center and laying the groundwork for accessibility upgrades to our Worship Center to keeping our congregation together amidst divisive times, there is SO much we've accomplished this past year! Special thanks go out to our outgoing President, Pete Jones, along with other outgoing members Joyce Gresham and Ann Marie Gray. Our returning Council members include Vice President Sue Collins, Treasurer René Dunda-Martin, Assistant Treasurer Phil Bazicki and Secretary Karen Keenan. Our brand new members include Katie Becker, Eric Cawley, Crystal Murray, Rachel DeTeso-Mathis and we are still looking to fill one additional vacancy. Thank you to the Congregation Council for your awesome leadership and congrats on being our March 2021 Ministers of the Month!
March 2021 Senior Pastor's Letter
Thursday, March 4th, 2021
Dear siblings in Christ,
Whew... I'm writing to you all at the end of an absolutely amazing week in the life of our congregation! My soul feels lighter than it has in quite a while! While our Congregation Council will have a special meeting next week to discuss the final proposal, I am happy to announce that Messiah's application to receive $30,000 in pre-development funding to turn Trinity Reformed into a comprehensive community center for the good of our neighbors in Rotterdam HAS BEEN ACCEPTED. Along with a VERY generous $10,000 anonymous gift, that should give us all the funding we need to work through a process to seek a development partner to build senior and/ or workforce housing around the existing church structure by the end of the year. Our Community Center Task Force also met for the first time this week, discussing that the overarching work of our community center is something like "Bringing neighbors together across all that divides us to be fed in body, mind and soul." We'll likely be released a survey soon to our food pantry clients, congregation members and neighbors alike looking at what additional support services are needed in our community. Plans to make our Worship Center accessible are in their early stages but progressing, as our plans to launch a Capital Campaign to fund that work. Just yesterday, I was BLESSED with the opportunity to co-lead a Bible Study with Rev. Nicolle Harris of Duryee African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church on Hamilton Hill. We had about twenty folks participating, evenly split between members of each of our congregations, for a wonderful conversation about Christ's call to work together across the color line for the good of the community. Next week I'll co-host a similar conversation with Rabbi Matt Cutler and members of Congregation Gates of Heaven... join us on Wednesdays at 2:30p! Seven months of work on the Schenectady Police Reform Collaborative Steering Committee is nearly complete, and while I'd say there were a number of shortcomings throughout the process, on the whole, there does appear to be broad consensus amongst both police and community leaders on the vast majority of reforms. See... we can agree on some things when we listen to one another! We had a wildly successful and well publicized Shrove Tuesday Drive Thru Pancake Supper a couple weeks back and our next in-person event will be this Sunday, when twenty of our kiddos and their families will gather together for an afternoon of snow tubing at West Mountain in Queensbury. You'll see in this newsletter that we'll begin experimenting with a number of other in-person, primarily outdoor events for folks of all ages, from a Palm Sunday walk at Thacher Park to an Easter Sunrise Service in Trinity Reformed's parking lot to PERHAPS our first in person regular Sunday morning worship service celebrating Earth Day later this April!!!
This season of Lent, know that our over year long journey in the wilderness is far from over, but it does appear to be rounding a major bend in a much more positive direction. I'm so, so thankful for your prayer, support and participations in the many life changing ministries of our Spirit filled congregation grounded in Jesus Christ!
In faith,
Pastor Dustin
Mental Health Matters with Pastor Jonathan, LMSW
Each month, Pastor Jonathan will be sharing brief insights about mental health. He is a licensed psychotherapist and believes mental health is as important as physical and spiritual health.
Lent is always a time of mixed emotions for me. A season designed to remind the church of its need for God; of penitence and of confession. While I think these things are always necessary, for the past several years, I’ve often thought “The world is broken enough already. Do we really need another season designed to make us feel bad about ourselves?”
It’s a fair question, I think. In my experience as a psychotherapist, my clients, despite coming to therapy to address difficult life circumstances, often recoil when we attempt to lean into areas of past pain, hurt, and suffering. They tell me, “I thought therapy was supposed to make me feel better. But every time I come in to talk about my difficulties, I end up leaving feeling worse than I did to begin with.”
This has been a hard year. We have been made brutally aware of the frailty of our human condition, with masks worn on faces like ever-present marks of ash, always reminding us of how close we are to our own earthly limitations. No matter what way you look at it, we have experienced a variety of losses and pain over the past twelve months. It is easy to give ourselves over to gloom.
Psychotherapists talk often about the “five stages of grief.” While a bit overly simplistic, it is the idea that processing grief often passes through five distinct emotional experiences: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. For me, I’ve seen all five stages over the past year- denial of the reality of what goes on around us, anger at the injustice of it all, bargaining around what feels safe and reasonable, depression over feeling hopeless at the never-ending monotony, and acceptance coming when the full weight of the loss is acknowledged.
In this Lenten season, there is, in a particular way, a sense of profound grief that has overcome us. Pain and loss stare us in the face, threatening our shaky resolve. Many of us are experiencing one of those five stages. Many of us feel as if we have experienced all five, sometimes multiple times in the course of a week. We’re overwhelmed, tired, short, and on edge.
As much as we might want to run away from this pain, I want to encourage us in this Lenten season to lean in to the grief. I often remind my clients that you never “get over” a loss, instead you have to “go through” the loss. This is hard. This is painful. And this is a season when we journey together. We are reminded that we are on a path with a Savior who understands this pain. As the author of Hebrews reminds us in chapter 4, verse 15 and 16: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Christ is with us in this season. Let us boldly bring our pain, our hurt, our fatigue, and our needs directly to the one who is able to sympathize with us.
Beloved people of God, we are not alone. In this season, we are reminded, yes, of our need for God, but more importantly, that we have a God who meets us in our needs. We are not alone.
Worship and Music News
Your worship and music committee are continuing to discern, alongside of the Congregational Council, moves to resume in-person worship in some format. Alongside of the in-person, outdoor Easter Sunrise Service, we will be considering what other sorts of gatherings might be appropriate as the weather warms and vaccines become more widely available. As always, feel free to reach out to Pastor Jonathan who is chairing the committee, or any of the other committee members if you have thoughts, questions, or concerns.
Lead at Messiah!
While a number of folks have stepped up in recent months, we're still looking for a variety of new leaders to fill a number of appointed roles including a Social Justice Chair, a Nursery Chair, a Youth Ministry Chair, an Arts & Culture Chair, a Young Adult Chair, a Men's Group President and an Archives Chair. We are also looking for one final member of our Congregation Council. If any of these things sound of interest to you, please contact Pastor Dustin!
Worship Support at Messiah
We all have various sized households and some of our members and friends have reported they are beginning to run out of communion wafers. If that describes you, our wonderful Care & Concern Committee Chair Barb Hallett has offered to deliver you more supplies! Simply give her a call if needed!
Supporting Our Seniors
Eddy SeniorCare, the Capital Region's only Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly(PACE), is a special model of care that provides the necessary supports to adults 55 and older with long-term healthcare needs so they may safely remain in their own homes. PACE is designed to put each participant at the center of their care and surround them with a clinical team who provides and coordinates all aspects of their healthcare (including primary care, rehab therapies, social work, prescriptions, assistive devices, etc.), as well as providing social supports, and even transportation to medical appointments. For more information, please call 855-376-7888 or visit EddySeniorCare.com.