Articles
Greetings! From Reverend Dale Walker
by Reverend Dale Walker on 02/15/10
Lent begins Wednesday, February 18: Ash Wednesday. Traditionally, Christians have used the six weeks of Lent to prepare for the grace of Christ’s resurrection. Fasting, penitence, prayer, scripture reading, acts of sacrifice and service are some of the disciplines we may use to reflect on our relationship with God and to stretch ourselves spiritually. If you have a special way of keeping Lent, would you let me know? I’d like to be able to share those ideas with the congregation—your anonymity protected, of course—to encourage others to deepen their relationship with God during these weeks
Haiti - What Can We Do?
02/15/10As God’s people, we are called to stand in the “GAP”— GIVE, ACT, PRAY.
"Grace-ful" Benefits Received from the Foust Trust
by Cindy Ingle on 02/07/10
Long-time members of Springwood church are mostly familiar with the name of D. P. Foust. He was one of the founding members of Springwood, gave the land on which the church and cemetery sit, and provided the cemetery fence. In 1906, upon the death of his wife and at his request, his estate established among other bequests three Trusts to benefit Orange Presbytery. Salem Presbytery has answered Springwood's grant request with $50,000 from one of these trusts to go toward our water and sewer project. Exciting news!!
Greetings! from Reverend Dale Walker
by Reverend Dale Walker on 12/23/09
May the light of Christ attend you past Christmas Day and into each day of 2010. As the year races to an end, I offer you two readings. May they lead you to blessings in 2010! Readings by: Ruth Duck Gandhi
The Souper Bowl of Caring: How it Began
by Jennifer Sutherland on 12/23/09
A simple prayer: "Lord, even as we enjoy the Super Bowl football game, help us be mindful of those who are without a bowl of soup to eat" is inspiring a youth-led movement to help hungry and hurting people around the world.
Closings and Cancellations
by Vicky Messick on 12/23/09
As in the past, Springwood will report closings, cancellations or delays to WFMY News 2, cable channel 9 for both Alamance and Guilford County residents. The station provides an e-mail or text message service for delays or closings. If you’d like to sign up for that service, please go to www.digtriad.com
Christmas Gift Market a Success!
by Ann Jennings on 12/23/09
Springwood's Alternative Gift Market was a great success again this year. The market was held on Sunday, November 15, 2009 just after worship. This year’s market raised over $1700.
Session Digest
by Cindy Ingle on 12/23/09
The Session Digest summarizes key topics of discussion and actions taken at Springwoods monthly Session Meetings.
Wednesday Night Bible Study
by Reverend Dale Walker on 12/23/09
The Wednesday night Bible study starts back January 13, 6:30-7:30 for a study of the book of Ruth. We welcome new members!
Blankets and Tools Sunday
by Ann Jennings on 12/23/09
Blankets and Tools is a special Mission opportunity. Our offering will provide resources to help people in some 80 nations, including the U.S. It is a project of Church World Service. Springwood will have Blanket and Tools Sunday on January 10, 2010. Blankets and Tools can provide blankets, tents and other emergency shelter items in the wake of disaster. Gifts to Blankets and tools provide the right tools at the right time, making a difference in the lives of children and families in the world over, whether faced with an emergency or struggling to keep food on the table. Refugees returning home can be helped with tools to rebuild and seeds to replant fields. Families living in drought-plagued areas are helped to dig wells for clean, safe drinking waster, and for water to irrigate crops and gardens
B.A.D. Girls Meetings and Cookbook
by Ann Marion on 12/09/09
The B.A.D. Girls of Springwood will meet on Jan. 19, 2010 and Feb. 16, 2010 in the fellowship hall at 6:30 pm. Join us as we continue our study of the Holy Land. Work is continuing on the cookbook but we are short about 200 recipes to reach our goal of 500. During this holiday season as you attend parties and family gatherings, please ask for recipes. Gather from your children, parents, siblings and friends. We can use them all.
December Greetings from Reverend Dale Walker
by Reverend Dale Walker on 11/30/09
Advent has two faces, two orientations: past and future. Advent looks to the past—to the longing with which women and men of faith prayed for the coming of God’s Messiah; and to the fulfillment of their hope and their waiting, as the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Advent also looks to the future, as we wait and wonder what else God will do with us. For the congregation here at Springwood, that has meaning not only for the lives of individuals, but also for the future of the church itself. We wait, we wonder, we hope.
November Greetings! from Reverend Dale Walker
by Reverend Dale Walker on 10/28/09
Christian stewards are a bit like gutters. We can let God’s presence and God’s blessings flow through us--or not. Stewardship is a year-round work for Christians who realize that all we have—life and health and family and friends and possessions and the earth itself—are gifts from God. There is no simple formula for “doing” stewardship. As individuals and as church, we need to take a hard look at ourselves regularly to see if we are using God’s gifts well—if we are taking care of God’s gifts and managing them for God—if we are being channels between God’s abundance and those who need it, whether that abundance be money or a listening ear or a helping hand or a word of grace.
Greetings! from Reverend Dale Walker
by Reverend Dale Walker on 09/28/09
It’s true: time sure flies when you’re having fun! It’s hard for me to believe I’ve been your Interim Pastor for almost 13 months. From where I sit, it’s been a good year. Many positive things have happened, or are in progress, thanks be to God—for it wouldn’t have happened without God’s hand, and the willingness of your leaders and you to let God lead. The accomplishments at Springwood over the past year tells me that your commitment is to this church and to God, and that you are aware that churches are the work of the people. Having a Pastor is important, but the Pastor is not the church. You are. And the church is not ours, but Christ’s. When the members of a church take seriously their responsibilities and seek God’s will rather than their own for the church, amazing things happen. Grace, mercy, and peace as we move into the Fall. Dale
Soles 4 Souls
by Jennifer Sutherland on 09/01/09
Springwood will host its first ever Barefoot Sunday on September 20th, 2009. Members of the congregation will be challenged to leave their shoes at the door as an act of worship and selflessness. All shoes collected will be donated to the Soles 4 Souls organization. They collect any kind of shoes including athletic, dress, sandals, heels, work boots, cleats, dance, and flip flops as long as they are new or gently worn. Even if you are not sure about their usefulness, please bring them anyway. More than likely, they can be used.
CROP Walk at Springwood
by Jennifer Sutherland on 09/01/09
This year Springwood will support the CROP Walk by hosting our own “CROP Walk Around the Church” on Sunday, October 11th, 2009. Everyone is invited to stay after church for a light lunch and then take a stroll around the church yard to help stop hunger. All donations collected will go to the Alamance County CROP Walk.
Fall Food Drive for Urban Ministries
by Ann Jennings on 09/01/09
Urban Ministries will hold its Fall Food Drive on Saturday, September 19th from 10am until 6pm at the Stoney Creek Food Lion. This event is a wonderful opportunity to get out into the community and help our brothers and sisters in Christ who are in need.
Scoops Express!
by Jennifer Sutherland on 09/01/09
On August 22, 2009 Jennifer and Rod Sutherland embarked on a new adventure; they opened a “Scoops Express” at 203 E Main Street in Gibsonville. The menu will include Hershey's hand scooped ice cream, milkshakes, malts, sundaes, banana splits, floats, coffee, iced coffee, doughnuts, and bottled drinks.
Greetings! from Rev. Dale Walker
by Reverend Dale Walker on 09/01/09
While we can worship God in the privacy of our own homes or out on the beach, there is something powerful about worshipping together with other Christians, joining our voices in song, our hearts in prayer, our minds in meditation and reflection. May you receive the nourishment you need for spiritual growth at Springwood!
Reformed and Always Being Reformed
by Reverend Dale Walker on 09/01/09
The Church is much more than a collection of individual Christians called into individual relationships with God. It’s a community—united, glued together by the Holy Spirit—which exists to make God visible to the rest of the world. Our covenant relationship with God is extended to our relationship with other Christians, beginning with those in our own family and congregation. Only when we can work together in the spirit of Christ’s peace can we build and sustain one another’s faith—celebrate one another’s joys—comfort one another’s grief—and work together to extend God’s kingdom to the world beyond these walls.
Reformed and Always Being Reformed
by Reverend Dale Walker on 07/01/09
Our Presbyterian Book of Order guides our way of being as a church. They may surprise you in the breadth and depth of what we--yes, that means YOU, and me!—are called to do and be. It’s no more and no less that what Jesus tells us in the Gospel accounts. Consider how you can fulfill each of them, in your personal life and through Springwood’s community of faith. If you believe you cannot fulfill one or more, talk to me about them—I’d love to make suggestions! Dale
Greetings! from Rev. Dale Walker
by Reverend Dale Walker on 07/01/09
Last Spring, in a retreat , the Session began to dream about what Springwood could be over the next 10 years. In January, the Session agreed for Springwood to participate in the Presbytery’s “Acts 16:5 Initiative” which I preached about in January. We see tremendous potential in Springwood and believe God is calling us forward – not to fail. May your study and God’s Word bring us to a clear vision of what God intends for Springwood—and to a stronger commitment to do it together!
Reformed and Always Being Reformed
by Reverend Dale Walker on 04/16/09
During the next months, I will use this space to introduce information regarding the Presbyterian Church, the Reformed tradition, Presbyterian form of government—anything dealing with Presbyterians. The title of these articles is also the “motto” of the Presbyterian Church. (Book of Order G-2.0200.) We observe October 31as Reformation Day, remembering that day in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 “theses” or arguments on the door of the cathedral in Wittenberg, Germany. He wanted to reform the Catholic Church’s non-biblical practice of charging people money to buy their salvation or that of their dead relatives. The money was used to build cathedrals, buy up land, and otherwise enrich the institutional church. Luther’s effort to reform the Catholic Church resulted in schism—Luther and his supporters were cut off from the Catholic Church. In protest (thus, “Protestants”), they established churches that center on Luther’s “aha!” realization that salvation comes through God’s gift of faith, and not through our works (Romans 3:28.) By the way, the Catholic Church reformed itself along the way and no longer charges for salvation.
Greetings! from Reverend Dale Walker
by Reverend Dale Walker on 04/16/09
A while back, this anonymous ”pondering” found its way to me by e-mail. In this Eastertide, I want to share it with you—for, although it may seem to be ”a discouraging word” in a season of resurrection and hope, I believe it may help each of us to look for at least one thing we might do to change the world, simply by changing something in ourselves!
Greetings! from Reverend Dale Walker
by Reverend Dale Walker on 03/16/09
Jesus celebrated the Passover meal each year as an observant Jew. At his last Passover meal, however, he transformed it into his supper, giving his disciples a new covenant in which the bread and wine symbolize his own body and blood. According to John’s Gospel, before the meal, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples the way a servant would; and he gave them a new commandment or “mandate”: to love one another
Greetings! from Rev. Dale Walker
by Reverend Dale Walker on 01/01/09
It’s true: time sure flies when you’re having fun! It’s hard for me to believe I’ve been your Interim Pastor for almost 13 months. From where I sit, it’s been a good year. Many positive things have happened, or are in progress, thanks be to God—for it wouldn’t have happened without God’s hand, and the willingness of your leaders and you to let God lead I have seen from the accomplishments of this past year that your commitment is to this church and to God, and that you are aware that churches are the work of the people. Having a Pastor is important, but the Pastor is not the church. You are. And the church is not ours, but Christ’s. When the members of a church take seriously their responsibilities and seek God’s will rather than their own for the church, amazing things happen.
