Goatville New Haven Tastings

In order to publicize the Goatville Community Group which will hopefully become the third site of CPC, we put on three tastings concerts.  These were concerts put on at fun local venues, featuring local musicians and local beverages.  At the first one, we tasted beer and listened to Mon Monarch at the Outer Space.  At the second, we had wines from The Wine Thief and heard Jonny Rodgers and Lamont Hiebert at The Bourse.  Last Friday, we tasted coffees from Willoughby's and had the pleasure of listening to improvisational music by Nathan Bontrager, Robert Messore, Colin Meyer, and Junius.  It was a total blast and at a great little art gallery, ArtSpace.  We hope that the community has some idea of who we are and what we are about now. 

Snow!

snow on the ivy

Here are the aforementioned snow photos!

Heading toward the front door, you can see just how deep it is

The statue on the top of East Rock and the neighbors hard at work in the East Rock neighborhood.

Junius, Jeremy, and Mook shoveling out the Audi.  Jeremy and Mook are neighbors living in the white house you can see on the right in the background

It has been a long time since I posted!

Considering I didn't post here for about a year I will try to put up the highlights of the last 12 months.

Ascension Celebration - May 16

This was the first major event shared by both the Hill and Whitney congregations of CPC.  We went to a nearby park, picnicked, and shared stories of how God has been working in our lives.  It was a sweet time bringing the two congregations together and playing together.

Junius' graduated! - May 24
After working on his PhD for 10 years, Junius turned in his book and walked!

Live at 135 - June 17

The Stacy Phillips and Paul Howard Duet on dobro, guitar, fiddle, and vocals!  It was a fun evening.  This concert CPC puts on during New Haven's International Arts and Ideas Festival.

Haiti trip - July 24-31

How to summarize?!  Well there were about 20 people from CPC (1/10th of the congregation!) that went to Mirebalais, Haiti for a week of teaching ESL, VBS, singing with, playing, and holding orphans, providing a little medical care, and worshiping with the Haitians.  We saw God at work in so many ways and were greatly moved by the peace of these people who walk long distances to get to church, who may not have shoes, but will wear their Sunday best and sing their hearts out and greet foreigners (blancs) with great hospitality.  The last photo is of me sharing about the Haiti trip with the youth group at IPC.

before

after

after

Redecorating the youth room

This room has been many things during its life at CPC and it was time for a facelift.  The ceiling which had been falling down was fixed in the summer of 2009 and then last summer, several high school students with some fantastic help from the decor team, repainted, covered the couches, and redecorated.   

CPC Jeopardy

leap frog

all feet in the air -- that is really hard to do!

model shot

Heisman

Abbey Road

Church-Wide Retreat - October 22-24
I'll now begin to jump months a little bit.  I had the privilege of putting together a retreat for the entire congregation last Fall.  It was beautiful and we had a great time together!  In addition to the talks by Dr. Rick Lints and the worship on Sunday morning, we played CPC Jeopardy (all questions being "who is (someone on the retreat)" in which learned all sorts of hilarious things about each other, we had a photo contest in which teams posed as famous statues, the Abbey Road cover, models, etc. We also played frisbee, made s'mores, and even had our own troubadour.

snow! - all winter
It was the snowiest January on record in CT and came pretty close to the snowiest winter.  There are so many good photos that I will post those separately.

Largest Joining - Feb 13
We had the largest membership joining in CPC history!  There were 29 people total.

Introduction to Spiritual Leadership Conference - March 25-26
This was also the best attended leadership conference we have ever had.  We began the weekend with a leadership appreciation banquet which featured great food, a slideshow, and testimonies about the joys of leadership in the church.  There were over 50 of our 80 leaders in attendance.  For the first time, the conference was joint, with the Hill congregation ready to train leaders.  Also we did something we titled "track two" which is a form of continuing education.  Track two was an hour and a half for small group leaders, servant leader board members & team leaders, and Sunday school teachers to interact together over common leadership issues in their respective fields of ministry.  I was very excited for all of the new leaders to have an opportunity to interact with those who have been at it for years. 

The first Hill joining was April 10!  We now have members of the Hill congregation, not just regular attendees.  The Whitney congregation joined them for a celebratory potluck lunch. 

Artstravaganza 2011

  We had a fantastic evening of music, literature, painting, photography, needlepoint, and dessert!  The music ranged from classical to operatic to pop to downright silly.  Highlights for me included a mother-daughter duet and a whole audience sing-along of Bohemian Rhapsody.  Junius shared the introduction to his novel, The Edge of Thought, for which we are currently looking for an agent.  To learn more about that, visit Junius' website.  Here is a short video I put together to give a feel for the whole concert.  Not everyone is in it, but there is a good sampling.  Enjoy!

Artstravaganza 2010

Friday night was  CPC's annual arts celebration.  Artists from within the church show off their talents in a concert and gallery opening.  There was some pretty impressive stuff played.

Sanctuary Dedication

The sanctuary dedication may be the most successful event CPC has ever hosted at getting the city to attend.  There were Yale professors, local businessmen, and gallery owners all there as well as many of the friends of CPC throughout the city like campus ministers from the various churches.  The place was packed and we had a fabulous reception beforehand and afterwards as well.  The pictures show us all praying over different parts of the sanctuary and a good one of anabaino, the painting.

Live at 135

New Haven hosts the International Festival of Arts and Ideas every June.  It is a 2 week festival with events all over town.  There are acts like jugglers and musicians on the town green complete with cart food every day and then big acts in all of our main venues.  The shows are usually a bit experimental or cutting edge and include ballets, plays, and music.  For instance, next June there will be a one man stage adaptation of Moby Dick.  There is a bit of a fringe festival that goes on at the same time with events in galleries and other venues throughout the city.  For the past couple of years we have participated by hosting a concert called "Live at 135" which is indeed our address.  This June we have Laura Usiskin, a regular attender and fantastic cellist, give two concerts on back-to-back Friday nights.  Over the course of the concerts she played the complete Bach cello suites.  Hot Off the Press provided the reception.  It was a fantastically fun event, with many from the city coming.  This is quite a lot of music for a single performer and quite famous pieces at that.   We are grateful to Laura for sharing her talent with us!

Back in the swing of things

Last week was wonderfully exciting with lots of possibility.  I organized several programs and I discussed new opportunities.  This week feels like it is back to the old grind with scheduling difficulties and the required waiting while others discuss the proposals.  I understand it, but busyness is my least favorite thing about living here.  Everyone is so busy all of the time!  The solution I have had to come to is be the aggressor.  If everything is competing for their time, then CPC is competing with everything else, not scheduling itself around everything else.  Still this is difficult especially as I take on high school ministry where they have incredibly fixed schedules and no car.  You can pray that I will have patience and persistence.  Thanks!

Christmas Service

We had a fantastic Christmas service on Friday!  We had three themes, each consisting of three skits.  The themes were glory & beauty, suffering & frustration, and romance & intimacy.  The skits were illustrating these things in our world from different perspectives -- from that of a scientist, a high school literature classroom, and a musician's studio.  Preston then tied it all together with an explication of Matthew 2 as the wise men bring things of this world to Jesus - things which are of this world and yet point to his glory, his suffering, and the love for us that brought him to take on humanity.  It was particularly fun to listen to the high school students playing themselves in the literature skit since they didn't really have lines but were actually discussing the poetry.  I spent quite a few hours on the bulletin inserting pictures and quotes.  Many thanks to the people who helped me find all of those quotes.  I'll try to find a way to attach it for you to peruse.  Merry Christmas y'all!

Here are a few pictures of the choir, homily, and skits.

ministry celebration

Last week, we held a lawn picnic and ministry celebration.  This involved all of the service teams and most of the programs of the church setting up a table of the front lawn with flyers and decoration.  There was a passport for every kid which they could get stamped at the different tables.  It was a lot of work and a lot of fun.  This allowed members to see what all of the other teams were up to, newcomers to see all that we do, and every team to be prepared for the year with flyers and potentially new team members. 

I was manning a table showcasing the communications and publications team, website team, alumni team, and theWindow, our newsletter.  A lot of work has gone on in the past year.  I really encourage you to check out the new and improved website which has been one of my major goals this year:  cpcnewhaven.org.

Update on the Hill congregation

The Hill church has begun holding Sunday worship services now.  They are renting office space in a church building in the Hill and are using the Boys & Girls Club as their worship space.  They have had a few times the cooperative store has been open (this is like a garage sale - or tag sale as they say around here - but all of the items being sold were donations and the profits go towards paying those who staffed the store), the mentoring program is up and running, and we are beginning to think about next year's sports camps. 

As the weather gets colder there will be a new challenge for this fledgling church -- transportation.  Cars are much more of a luxury in New Haven than most of America.  The city was laid out back in the horse and buggy days and downtown is quite walkable.  Consequently parking is ridiculously hard to find and property taxes are incredibly high.  Most undergrads go without cars as do many grad students and many of the city's poor.  However, once the weather gets cold and snowy, people only go where they have to.  No one feels too bad for the undergrads since they live on campus and can suck it up and walk the quarter mile to class, but for those who don't have adequate clothes and those for whom church is 2 or 3 miles away, this can become a big deal especially for the small children.  A local school recently had to close its doors and is looking to sell its mini-bus for under $10,000.  If they can raise the funds, the Hill congregation would love to purchase the vehicle and pick up members every Sunday morning.

Kevin's ordination

Last night, Kevin Nelson was ordained!  He has been serving as the pastor of university ministry for the past year at CPC and going through all the testing involved in ordination.  We were very excited to celebrate that ordination last night and to vow to support him in this calling.  Picture coming.

the sanctuary

I am sick and laid up on the couch so expect several posts.

I realized today that I promised a photo of the completed sanctuary.  This is my favorite one.  It has been a real joy having this painting in our worship space. 

Who is this Junius fellow?

If any of you are wondering about who this guy is in my wedding photos, let me point you to a recording of him telling you about himself:  Junius' testimony
Junius team-taught a church history class this past Spring.  The staff asked Junius and Mark to conclude the class with their personal reflections on how their study of church history has affected their faith.  The recording is from the day Junius shared.

wedding shots

I have been a wee bit busy lately so I haven't written, but here is a shot or two of what I've been up to.  For more about the wedding, check out the wedding blog.

The New Sign

Yay!!! We have a new church sign. This has been quite long in the coming between all of the decisions to be made about the sign and obtaining the money with which to get the sign, but it is finally here! The new one is bigger, faces sideways from the original so that it can be read by those driving as well as those on the sidewalk. I have included a photo taken of Junius and I with the old sign in February. Knowing that we were getting a new one any day now the sign had fallen into disrepair so look closely and you will see broken glass, faded wording, rotten trim, and mud. The new sign is simpler and therefore less likely to fall apart.

in VA

Hey y'all,

Junius and I are in Virginia right now preparing for his mother's funeral. It has been a rough week. We came down when we heard she had entered the hospital but she probably never knew we were here. Please be in prayer for Junius and his brother, Ralphael, as well as their extended family and her friends. Thank you so much for your concern.

Rebekah

the Hill plant

     Christ Pres has a vision for a small large church.  That confusing sentence is trying to express the vision of having one large church with all of its shared resources and all of the individuality and efficiency of a small church.  That would be accomplished by having one city session ruling several different congregations.  It is very presbyterian, though not in the way presbyterianism is usually practiced.  Each congregation would have its own diaconate and session, but would also have members that sit on the city session.  Each congregation would be responsible for handling its own style of worship, its own programming, its own staffing, etc., but would also be responsible to the city session, such that all resources among the city would be shared.  All of the congregations would have the same core values and hold to the same confession, but individual congregations would need to make decisions about what that looks like for them.  By sharing resources there is a lot that together we can accomplish.  We can care for the widows and orphans in New Haven in a way that a congregation by itself cannot do.  We can think strategically about the gospel going forth, not simply for one neighborhood but for them all.

     This is the vision that has driven CPC to plant a second congregation - CPC Hill.   Rev. Wills has begun a Bible study and various other community activities to prepare for the planting of this congregation.  It is growing rapidly and many thanks go out to those who are holding it up in prayer.  He has been able to spend time hanging out in the neighborhood really getting to know the people and the pace of the place.  The Hill is one of the lowest income neighborhoods in New Haven.  It is also one of the oldest; being near the water it used to be home to sailors and captains and immigrants fresh off the boat.  Now it has residents a few generations back from people who did construction on Yale buildings during the Great Depression.  It is largely African-American with a quickly growing Hispanic population.  

To reach this neighborhood CPC began holding a VBS soccer camp two years ago with the help of Independent Presbyterian Church of Memphis, TN.  It was such a blessing to have members of my home church come here and share their talents.  We repeated the camp this year on our own and hope to expand into several camps in 2009.  The kids from the camp have been so excited about the church plant and many of their families are part of the core group.  

    We've been searching for property lately, a place for offices, for a cooperative store, and the Bible study.  We will probably need a separate worship space soon.  The cooperative store will sell secondhand items inexpensively.  The merchandise will largely come from the CPC Whitney congregation, as we've begun calling ourselves, and other generous folks in New Haven.  The store will be manned by residents of the Hill community to create jobs and keep dollars within the neighborhood.  It is an exciting mission and we look forward to seeing God's hand at work in it.  We appreciate your prayers for Rev. Wills, this congregation, and this neighborhood.  

Winter Is Here! sort of

So it snowed twice already but we've also been able to play golf this week. It is no surprise I, and everyone else I'm friends with, have gotten sick in the last 10 days.

Still it is beautiful when it snows and Kristy, one of my roommates, has a new camera! She's been learning about lens and aperture, etc. and here are a few photos of our apartment. Don't miss the Charlie Brown Christmas tree!

Hot Off the Press

Here are some photos of Hot Off the Press, one is from our November coffeehouse which featured Nick Lauer, one of the glorious beans themselves, one of the Poppery, the popcorn popper turned coffee bean roaster, and a couple from the reception after the Christmas service. You get to see all the equipment, from the stately Poppery, to the sleek grinder (I'm emptying it), to the elegant press pots. You even get the lined brown paper bags that keep the coffee fresh for the coming week.