Announcements 2-25-24
Announcements:
EASTER EGG HUNT: We are hoping to provide the community Easter Egg hunt again this year. However, before we start to advertise this event we would like to get our volunteers in place. We are looking for people to staff the craft tables (easy crafts no art skills needed), snack table, help with bunny pictures, and hide Easter Eggs. Please let Louise know ASAP if you are available to help on March 16th from 8:00 AM – 11:30 AM.
PROGRAM OF HOPE: Join us to make Sandwiches on Tuesday at 2:45 PM and to serve at POH on Wednesday at 8:00 AM. See Sue, Richard, or Sharon for more details.
TABLE CLOTH DINNER: Join us for the next tablecloth dinner on March 12th at 6:30 PM at Outback Steakhouse. Sign upp and let us know if you would like a ride.
MONTHLY FOOD PANTRY DONATION: Each month we are asking you to Donate one or two items to the food pantry. This month we are asking for Diapers of all sizes (both adult and child), feminine products, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, and hair products.
BOOKS FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH: As we enter black history month now is a great time to recommit ourselves to understanding and supporting the call for racial Justice and Healing. This month we will be recommending books that can help us on that journey. All books are available on the PCUSA store. Creating a Culture of Repair: Taking Action on the Road to Reparations BY Robert Turner. The inequality remains even after laws and policies have been corrected. Calculating and implementing financial reparations will require large-scale government action, which can feel out of reach or overwhelming for the average person. Robert Turner provides an accessible guide for individuals and groups wanting to influence significant institutional action while also acting on their own to repair the effects of racial injustice in our communities, churches, and spheres of influence. Dividing into categories of individual, social, institutional, and spiritual repair, Turner offers the longest list of reparations currently published, with more than one hundred actions readers can begin practicing and advocating for to help balance economic injustice, undo hurtful decisions from decades past, and rally public support for bold and principled legislation.
GOOD FRIDAY PRAYER VIGIL: We cannot experience the glory of Easter if we do not first experience the pain of Maundy Thursday, the loss of Good Friday, and the sadness of Holy Saturday. Setting aside a specific time in church to wait and pray with Jesus, to reflect on the events that led up to his death and resurrection, to speak to God and seek his guidance and listen to his heart, is essential to preparing our hearts for the Joy of Easter. To that end, we will be hosting a Prayer Vigil on Good Friday, March 29th. We hope to have an all-day vigil with at least two people in the sanctuary throughout the day. Please take a moment to consider what time you would like to come in and pray. Use the signup sheet in the Bulletin, or sheet in the Narthex, to let us know when you would like to come in and pray. If you are not ready to sign up don’t worry there will be several more chances and even if you are not able to sign up please plan to drop in on Good Friday.
ANNUAL MEETING: Join us on March 10th during the Worship service for our annual meeting.
SESSION MEMBERS: Class of 2024: Jeremy Moore, Sue Crawford, Briana Mayfield, Cameron Mayfield. Class of 2025: Beverly Kennedy, Andrew Nolan, Sandy Cranfill. Class of 2026: Joan Albright. Others: Louise Ochart (Staff), Kelly Cuppett (staff), Ragina Isham (Insurance/Staff Committee Volunteer), Linda Lowry (Deacon), Bill Bottomley (Treasurer)
CALENDAR:
2/26- 1:00 PM – Staff Meeting
2/27 – 2:45 PM – Sandwich-Making
2/28 – 8:00 AM – Program of Hope
6:30 PM – Cantata Rehearsal
2/29 – 6:00 PM – Sailboat Church Zoom Book Study Chapters 5 and 6
3/2 – Playschool Arts and Fun Fair
3/3 -9:15 AM – Adult Sunday School
10:15 AM – Choir Warm-up
10:30 AM – Worship Service with Children’s Church
11:45 AM – Choir Rehearsal
BIRTHDAYS: Asher Ochart 2/25, Ernestine Price 2/28,
Joshua Hebert 3/2, Sue Crawford 3/2
order of Worship 2-18-24
SERVICE FOR THE LORD’S DAY
1st Sunday of Lent
February 18th, Ten Thirty in the morning
Minister: Aaron Ochart
Liturgist: Briana Mayfield
Please silence all cell phones.
Bold face indicates congregational participation.
* Please stand, in body or spirit
GATHERING
PRELUDE Prelude Op. 28 No. 6 by F. Chopin
*PROCESSIONAL [GTG#726] Will You Come and Follow Me?
- “Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my name be known,
will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?
5.Lord your summons echoes true when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.
In Your company I’ll go where Your love and footsteps show.
Thus I’ll move and live and grow in you and you in me.
WORDS OF WELCOME AND DEACON MINUTE
ADORATION
CALL TO WORSHIP Gen. 9:12
ONE: God’s promise is for all generations;
MANY: God’s covenant is with every living thing.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Lord of abundant riches, when asked to give everything to follow Jesus, a rich man faltered. Give us the courage to give everything that we have to you, knowing that what you offer is more valuable than all the riches in the world. Amen.
*HYMN OF THE MONTH [GTG#695] Change My Heart, O God
Refrain: Change my heart, O God; make it ever true.
Change my heart, O God, may I be like you.
You are the Potter; I am the clay.
Mold me and make me; this is what I pray. (Refrain)
MESSAGE FOR THE CHILDREN
RESPONSE [GTG#749] Come! Live in the Light!
We are called to act with justice;
we are called to love tenderly;
We are called to serve one another, to walk humbly with God.
CONFESSION
CALL TO CONFESSION
SILENT CONFESSION
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
God of mercy, you sent Jesus Christ to seek and save the lost. We confess that we have strayed from you and turned aside from your way. We are misled by pride, for we see ourselves pure when we are stained, and great when we are small. We have failed in love, neglected justice, and ignored your truth.
Have mercy, O God, and forgive our sin. Return us to paths of righteousness through Jesus Christ, our savior. Amen.
KYRIE [GTG#577]
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy. Lord have mercy.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
PROCLAMATION
SCRIPTURE Mark 10:17-31
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
ONE: The Word of the Lord
MANY: Thanks be to God
SERMON “Earning Heaven” Rev. Aaron Ochart
RESPONSE
*AFFIRMATION OF FAITH Theological Declaration of Barmen
Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.
As Jesus Christ is God’s assurance of the forgiveness of all our sins, so in the same way and with the same seriousness is he also God’s mighty claim upon our whole life. Through him befalls us a joyful deliverance from the godless fetters of this world for a free, grateful service to his creatures.
The church’s commission, upon which its freedom is founded, consists in delivering the message of the free grace of God to all people in Christ’s stead, and therefore in the ministry of his own Word and work through sermon and Sacrament. Amen.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
RECEIVING OF TITHES AND OFFERINGS
OFFERTORY You Make Beautiful Things by Gungor
*DOXOLOGY #606 (in Minor key)
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
praise God, all creatures here below;
praise God above, ye heavenly host;
praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
REMEMBRANCE OF BAPTISM
ONE: The Lord be with you.
MANY: And also with you.
ONE: Lift up your hearts.
MANY: We lift them to the Lord.
ONE: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
MANY: It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
*HYMN [Blue #377][GTG#721]
Lord, You Have Come to the Lakeshore
1 Lord, you have come to the lakeshore
looking neither for wealthy nor wise ones;
you only asked me to follow humbly.
Chorus: O Lord, with your eyes you have searched me,
and while smiling have spoken my name;
now my boat’s left on the shoreline behind me;
by your side I will seek other seas.
- You know so well my possessions;
my boat carries no gold and no weapons;
you will find there my nets and labor. (Chorus)
3 You need my hands, full of caring
through my labors to give others rest,
and constant love that keeps on loving. (Chorus)
- You, who have fished other oceans,
ever longed for by souls who are waiting,
My loving friend, as thus you call me: (Chorus)
*PARTING PRAYER
Gracious God, our way in the wilderness, guide us, by your Word, through these forty days, and minister to us with your Holy Spirit, so that we may be reformed, restored, and renewed; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
*RESPONSE [BLUE#599] [GTG#227] Jesus, Remember Me
Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.
Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.
POSTLUDE
*Note: the hymn lyrics in the bulletin and on the projection screen are from the Glory To God Hymnal (© 2013 Westminster John Knox Press), which we are transitioning to. Words in the “Blue” Presbyterian Hymnal (© 1990) in your pew may differ slightly.
Participating in today’s service are Rev. Aaron Ochart, Pastor; Louise Ochart, CE Leader; Kelly Cuppett, Music Director. Appreciation to Dennis Lauland. Mike Fortin, and David Garland for the video production of today’s service.
The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by Permission. All Rights Reserved.
STAFF |
Church Office 504.888.1375
Playschool Office 504.888.1378
The Reverend Aaron Ochart – Head of Staff
Louise Ochart – Christian Education Leader
Kelly Cuppett – Music Director
Lauren Crisler – Playschool Director
Stephanie Galliano – Playschool Admin. Asst.
For more information, visit our website at www.JohnCalvinChurch.org
or find us @JohnCalvinMetairie on
For more information, visit our website at www.JohnCalvinChurch.org
or find us @JohnCalvinMetairie on