Activities in the Life of the Church: February 2011-August 2011

Covenant Players Present Christian Drama/Worship for Us

The covenant players, Tom Smith and Allison & David Graham, presented some thought provoking vignettes.

From “The Search” where the lady on the park bench is looking for a Christian.

From “The Line Call” where the seated man wants The Lord to hold the line because he is busy (playing solitaire) and knows that the Lord will have a demanding “call.”

From “Galaxy” where two of the “aliens” find out that, amazingly, the Lord has visited the people of planet Earth.

From “Good Morning.”

From “Died October 20th” and the “dead” person does not want to be taken by the demon, proclaiming how he is a good church member and has served the church by being on the church golf team, and other self serving groups.

http://www.newsreview.com/reno/content?oid=1940083

We are grateful for the article written by Brian Burghart of the Reno News and Review about Sparks First Christian. We have a welcoming church with a fexible nature and we love our kids! We welcome you again Brian to join us on any Sunday!

Reno News and Review Article About Sparks First Christian Church!

The Passover Seder for Christians 4/17/11

What a wonderful Seder we had on Sunday, 4/17! Steve converted the sanctuary into an elegant Passover dinner setting with table cloths, flowers, candles and all the elements of a Passover dinner!! It was meaningfull, delicious and the horseradish got our attention. Steve narrated the questions and the men, women and youth of the congregation all took turns reading throughout the meal. The children all searched for leven bread to remove it from the Seder and took it outside.

Dawni Klein organized a pot luck afterwards which featured a delicious ham!! (A bit non-traditional but so is our congregation.) We had so many delicious dishes from antipasto, to yams, salads, mac and cheese and numerous deserts. Thanks to all who made this possible!

Mother’s Day 5/8/11

Mother’s Day was extra special at SFCC with the surprise of THREE home made and beautifully decorated cakes by Pat Ruth. And were they ever delicious!! Thanks Pat from all the moms and the congregation.

Then Dawni handed out to the moms, “God’s Promises” and beautiful bookmarks made by Nancy Geiger.

Hymn Sing Sunday 5/22/11

Not only did we sing hymns and learn about their origins but the kids made home made tambourines and decorated them. Lots of big kids helped the little ones!

Pentecost June 12, 2011

The sanctuary was decorated with flaming “beads” and the cups held candles. Four large banners matching banners surrounded the congregation. Lots of lights and candles were on the communion tables.

Steve talked to the children (and the adults) about remembering when there was a “kid’s table” at big family dinners and how the children sometimes felt separate. He told them that at God’s table everyone is the same and he had the children push the tables together. And to show how the children were a part of the celebration, the children’s activity was right at the communion table. They used the same “flame” beads and strung them together on pipe cleaners to make certain holders for all the sanctuary windows, so that God’s light may pour in.

Forth of July Seder, 2011

We celebrated the 4th with a seder, where the elements represented the components of our history, freedom and independence and the price paid for it. And they were delicious too: bilberries, strawberries, angle food cake, whipped cream iced tea (Boston Tea Party), pretzels (salt for the tears and struggles) and the traditional symbols of the flag.

The Front Porch Project

Day 1, Steps Demolition 7/16/11

What is The Front Porch Project?

Randy Siever said it best on Facebook:

It started with a need to replace/repair the steps leading up to the front entry of our very small, rather “vintage” church in Sparks, NV. One hand rail had fallen off the side, and the concrete steps were literally sinking and crumbling, making it unsafe for use anymore. We re-routed people to the side door for Sunday services, which wasn’t much better since it, too, had crumbling concrete and no hand rail. But it was a shorter set of stairs. The board decided they needed to get the front steps repaired, and I suggested we consider doing more than that. What if we were to make this project about who we are, about what our mission is in this neighborhood? What if we were to, instead of just replacing what has been with another version of the same thing, build a front porch? You know, a larger deck-like kind of space where we could not only safely gain entry to the chapel but also sit with old friends and make new ones? What if the front steps became an intentional, obvious commitment to reach out beyond the walls of our little building to connect with the neighbors all around us?

Front porches were pretty common in the pre and post-WW2 era of America. There wasn’t any efficient way to cool the interior of the house, so people built spaces on the front of their homes to sit in the cool of the evening. This was a fairly common sight in rural America, and the spaces often doubled as a “mud room” to get the first layer of dirt off before you went inside. Later, in urban areas, these spaces became a connecting point to the neighborhood. People walking for pleasure or errands would meet and greet their neighbors who were sitting on their porches. Often they would “sit a spell” and perhaps be offered some iced tea or lemonade. The front porch was a neutral space between the inside of the home and the outside world. Anyone was welcome there, and often it was a place of rest and refreshment for whoever wandered by. You got to know your neighbors, and they you, in the safety of the front porch.

The front porch nearly disappeared with the spread of suburbia in the 1960’s, being replaced with backyard patios and fences. Garages, which were pretty rare in the old days and used to be in the backyard, accessed by an alleyway if you had one, were moved to the front of the house. People began to entertain and party in the privacy of their own backyards. In more modern times people would drive home from work and straight into the garage, which they would close and never be seen or heard from again until the next workday. The front porch slowly faded out, and neighborhoods started being defined geographically instead of relationally. Isolation became the social disorder of our generation, and it became the norm to literally not know who lived next door to you.

The first house we bought here in Sparks in 1999 didn’t have a front porch. We never really saw our neighbors, so we built a porch and started sitting on it in the evenings after work. Eventually we got to know our neighbors, including the guy who lived next door alone. He’d work long and hard hours with Granite Construction almost every day of the week. I’d sit outside and when he came home, at first I’d just wave and say howdy. After a few times catching him on the way into his house from afar, we’d share a few comments back and forth. And then it happened. One day he came home and waved and walked right over to the porch. He never really sat down with me, but would always come lean on the railing and we’d chat for a few minutes before he went inside to shower and sleep. We became friends, and he’d help me on weekend projects now and then. “Big Mike” (he was a HUGE man) died suddenly of a heart attack later that year. I was his only friend in the neighborhood, and his family invited me in to help them sort out his stuff and plan the funeral. That front porch made our friendship happen.

So we thought a front porch might be a good way to reconnect with our neighbors on Queen Way. After four months of securing a general contractor, a building permit and funding (well, a lot of it anyway), we are ready to start the project. We hope to have it done by August. And there WILL be a party to celebrate. I’ll keep you posted on that. The whole neighborhood will be invited, and we hope they’ll drop by for a visit. I can’ wait. I think Big Mike would have loved this idea.

We need some help for a few Saturdays to build this thing. Here’s the tentative schedule. All dates are Saturdays.

July 16: Testosterone Day. Manly work. Busting concrete, moving rock, chopping out big roots, digging large holes. We anticipate renting an electric jack hammer. If you come, we’ll let you use it for a few minutes (this is considered incentive for most guys). Hoping to set the ledger board onto the building and possibly pour concrete in the foundation tubes. Bring any iron bars, shovels, picks, wheel barrows, etc. you may have. And gloves. It’s going to be a sweat fest. We’ll start at 8am and try to finish by 4. Lunch and drinks will be provided.

July 23: We are planning on starting the construction phase this day. We’ll need lots of hands to move material, and some people who know how to use power tools (cutoff saw, table saw, power drills, etc.). We hope to get the foundation built and begin laying decking. We may also install new doors on the front of the chapel.

July 30: We anticipate finishing up the project on this day. Will likely include staining/sealing the deck and stairway, and some final landscaping/concrete work.

We’ll start each day at 8am. Lunch and drinks will be supplied. Feel free to bring tools/implements/gloves/ whatever you have that might be helpful. We have three really good carpenters helping us with the project, and one of them (Gary Geyer) is the foreman for the job.

If you can help any or all of these days (even for part of one), please let me know. I need to have some sense of how many bodies we’ll have so we can be sure to have enough food and drink (and tools!) available.

Thanks!

Randy Siever

The Mission of the Front Porch; Day One complete

by Randy Siever on Monday, July 18, 2011

Last Saturday I was part of a large corps of volunteers who started the Front Porch Project at Sparks First Christian Church here in Sparks, NV. Probably 20 something people showed up during the day to bust concrete, move rock, dig LARGE holes (13 of them), remove HUGE stumps and root balls, and move dirt. This was stage one of the project to replace the broken, sagging, cracked and crumbling concrete steps leading up to the front doors of our tiny sanctuary (it only seats about 80). We haven’t been able to use the front steps or front doors for over a year now.

So we got the inspector to come measure our foundation holes this morning and he gave us the approval we were so desperately praying for to continue the project. Just yesterday we held our worship service in our sanctuary, and we all had to go into it from the rear of the building (the front accesses were, um, inaccessible due to construction). Our pastor, Steve Wren, decided to turn the pews around so we would all be facing what is normally the rear of the building. And he opened the double doors that had not been opened for a very long time. In front of those open doors, right on the edge of the entry and overlooking where the front porch will be built, he put the communion table. We all sat inside, looking out the doors at the neighborhood outside, Mt. Rose still glistening with snow in the backdrop. And then Steve described what was happening to us all. “You may have noticed that the communion table has been sort of migrating to this end of the building since Christmas. In some Christian traditions, the communion table is attached to the front wall of the sanctuary. In some it it is even shielded from the congregation by a curtain so that only the priest can see it. In our tradition, we believe this is Christ’s table, and he invites EVERYONE to come to it. So this table started at the front of the room last December, then to the middle of the room at Easter, and today it is at the back of the room, right on the edge of the open doors. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in a few weeks, you will show up one Sunday to find the table out on our new front porch.”

This was such a graphic and moving image to me of what this project represents. The front porch is that space of safety for those who are outside the building to sit and chat with those who live inside. It is a gathering place for neighbors to meet neighbors. And it is representative of one small faith family in Sparks who intend to reach out and serve their neighborhood, inviting whoever would pass by to “come, sit a spell.”

And maybe even join us at the table.

Thanks be to God for His provision and love and grace and mercy toward us all.