Welcome to our Blog!

Welcome to Pilgrim Lutheran’s web blog, our newest way to let all of our church family and friends know about Pilgrim’s latest news and events, and occasional musings from the pastor!  We hope you’ll check back often to keep up-to-date.

Lenoir Rhyne University Choir Coming Soon!!

Lenoir Rhyne University Choir Coming to Pilgrim!  This University Choir is on their Premier Lutheran College Choir of the Southeast Tour 2010!  They will be here on Tuesday, March 16 at 7:00 pm.  This concert is open to the public and is free, but donations are welcome!  Please come and join us for spectacular evening of music.  Tell your friends!

New Morning SALT Group Forming

A new SALT Group is forming very, very soon!  If you have been feeling that “nudge” to join a SALT Group, but just didn’t feel that the timing was right or that going in the evening was going to “work” for you.  Now is your chance!  Now is the time – don’t delay.  You’re facilitator is ready!  Please contact Dawn McCloy at dawnmccloy@gmail.com or 803-439-2005 for more information.  We are waiting on you!

Men’s Softball Team

 Men’s Softball Team
Softball registration is coming up soon and I would LOVE to have a team for Pilgrim Lutheran!  We will most likely be looking at Tuesday night games, since that is the only night that has worked for most of us in the past. Please let me know by the end of the month if there is any interest on your part. Have a great week and God bless you all!
Sincerely, Chris Spivey (803) 479-1799

2010 Beach Retreat

Registration to be held on February 28 – 9:45am – in the narthex

Does the cold weather have you dreaming of sandy beaches and warm sunny days?  The Pilgrim Lutheran Church annual beach retreat is coming!!! We have 21 rooms available at the Lutheran Coastal Retreat Center on the Isle of Palms.  Each room sleeps 4 and has a private bathroom.  The center has several meeting / gathering rooms and a common kitchen and dining room area.  We prepare our own meals (each family only helps with one meal – you get to sit back and enjoy the rest!) The dates for this year’s retreat are June 30 – July 5.  The rates have gone up again this year and are now $95.00 per night due to extensive renovations at the retreat center.  The cost of meals are $40 for adults, and $10 for children – yes, that is for the entire length of our stay. The date to make your reservations is Sunday, February 28 at 9:45 am in the narthex.  All you need is a $100.00 deposit to reserve your room.  For more information on the retreat center, visit www.sclrc.com

NOT Sunday – New Choices!!

NOTSunday

begins again January 13, 2010

6:30 PM

Meals served starting at 5:30 in the fellowship hall

 

Programs for Adults:

FROM SUCCESS to SIGNIFICANCE

Worldly success, as important as it is, lacks eternal significance . . . the result of fruitful living.  Come find out how fruitful living is realized in the major spheres of life: personal spiritual growth, marriage and family relationships, career and finances, and one’s work in God’s Kingdom. Room 1 downstairs behind Fellowship Hall.
 

PASTOR’S BIBLE STUDY

Join Pastor Rusty for a weekly dive into the Bible. The theme will be chosen by participants, either an intentional focus on a book of the Bible or a topic of interest to the group. Don’t forget to bring your Bible!! Rooms 2 and 3 downstairs behind Fellowship Hall.
 

PEOPLE MAP PERSONALITY TYPES

This five week course is designed to help people discover their personality type, understanding their in-born strengths, as well as their weak spots, and how the weak spot can be turned in to a “learned” strength. Each personality type has specific areas they need to address in their own growth and development so they can more effectively relate to others. Course will run from Jan 13 to Feb 10 and will be repeated Feb 24 – March 24. Cost is $10. Parlor across from the nursery.
 

A-LIVE WIRE

We have been made alive in Christ, through the waters of baptism, but does the world see us as alive… awake… alert and enthusiastic disciples?  A-LIVE WIRE Forum is a safe space to talk, and ask those hard questions about what it looks like to be A LIVE WIRE for Jesus Christ 24 hours a day… 7 days a week… 365 days a year… for the rest of our lives.  In our first couple of classes we will look into the mirror of the world, to see how the world sees us as Christians.   When we know how others see us, then we will begin discussing how we can electrify the world by living the way of Jesus Christ, lively and lovingly, one day at a time.   Come… get wired in… wired up… for the sake of Christ… and for the sake of others.  Conference Room upstairs behind the offices.

 
uBelong Youth Programs:

10 Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe: Jennifer Krushas will lead those who gather with her through Gary Kinnaman’s list of things perfectly smart Christians believe which tend to confuse us and derail our faith.  Come find out what the Bible says about God’s promises for our lives — and what it doesn’t say!  Please come prepared with compassionate hearts, ears, and mouths to discuss new and old questions with your Sisters and Brothers in Christ.
 

Triple E

During this time, youth will be equipped, empowered and encouraged for ministry in today’s world. Youth will engage in creative ministry used in worship, such as drama, interpretive movement, puppetry, music, and technology.

 God’s Kids

This January God’s kids will learn how God can help you live what you believe, how God is loving and forgiving, and how Jesus taught us to serve others. Kids will begin with a large group opening and then break into small groups for Discovery Center Activities

Adult Sunday School

Are you stuck spiritually?
Are you in a spiritual rut?
When you read the bible, is it like listening to Charlie Brown’s teacher “Wah wah wah”?
Are you frustrated about where you are in your relationship with God?
Do you feel like you are on the verge of a spiritual breakthrough but can’t take the next step?
Do you seek a deeper relationship with Him?

Come to Coffee Talk: Adult Sunday School seeking a deeper relationship with our Lord and His Word. Explore with your fellow seekers a deeper understanding of the Word and how it applies to your life.  In the Fellowship Hall.

Come to FaithWeaver:  Sunday School Curriculum gets parents and children on the same page as they study the same Bible lessons each Sunday.  Meets in rooms 1-3 (Saints and Sinners room), behind the Kitchen.

Come to the Wired Word:  Topical study of current events with a Biblical Perspective.  Meets in room 301 (the Parlor) across from the Church Nursery. 

Delve Deeper
Seek more fervently
Gain further understanding of the Word
Meet Him on HIS terms
Prepare your heart
Exercise your spiritual muscles

YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT EVERY SUNDAY AT 10:00 AM!!!!!

Miracle Hill Ministries

The following is written by Pilgrim Lutheran Member and faithful disciple Norma Jean Largent:
I first went to visit Miracle Hill Ministries just to get to know them and to measure their donated building for furniture, beds, dayrooms and such. I had inherited them as a client from a retiring rep in our company. Jimmy, my old cohort and current employee of Miracle Hill Ministries decided that we should really get to see what they do on a daily basis, so he invited us to lunch at one of their homeless centers for women and children only. We took a tour. We saw many things. It seemed a very clinical place even though you could see they were trying hard to put in homey touches. Although there were small rooms that were devotion rooms, even they seemed a bit lonely; that is the only way I can describe it. Even seeing the room with the cribs was surreal since they were empty at the moment, the residents were all down in the basement eating lunch. However, when we came up on a room with several steel bunk beds, lying on one of the bunk beds was a piggly wiggly type bag with a few clothes hanging out of it and lying on the pillow, placed very carefully it appeared, was a child’s stuffed animal. In this cold place that was so clinical and gray and sad, it was the first sign of a child we had seen and it just broke my heart and for just a minute, my spirit. This is not a place I would ever, ever wish to see my or any child; it just rips my heart out to imagine a child here. I lost it, I admit it. The thing that kills me is that this is the best place where children at least still get to be with their Moms.
Miracle Hill also has a children’s home, as well as an at risk boy’s home where the kids are just alone (possibly never to be adopted, just there) from birth to age 18. And still yet some are sequestered with their Moms in a battered women’s shelter where no friend or relative is allowed to know where they are. Many, they tell me, are taken from their homes and parents in the middle of the night without the ability to take even a single item of comfort, or any of their own clothes, never to see their families or homes again. They assure that any child coming in to one of these shelters that is lucky enough to be able to be given anything that is just for them, a toy or stuffed animal to call their own, just something to hold on to. That’s where we come in. They would be honored and happy to accept any gently used stuffed animals that anyone would care to donate. It would mean the world to these children who did not ask for or choose to be there.
So, what do you say, Pilgrim Lutheran Church? Do you have a gently used stuffed animal to donate to a child in need at Miracle Hill Ministries? There will be a box in the Narthex to accept these donations. Have a conversation with your child/children about picking a stuffed animal that could be given to a child that has nothing else; I’d be willing to bet that they’d jump at the chance to help that child.
If you have questions, please call Stan McCloy at 803-439-3309, or email swmccloy@gmail.com.
Let’s show Miracle Hill Ministries that we care about those children!

The Bates Family

Ken Largent and I visited a family in Lexington. This family was brought to us by Ken and Sheila Drafts.  They are hard working, faithful people. Like many of us, they have faced the trials of life, winning some and losing some I suppose; however, they face them with a peaceful, generous spirit that we all strive to achieve. Operation Inasmuch was in May of last year, but it’s legacy (and remaining monies) lives on. They need some help with their home. A good amount of work has been done on the home in the last several years, work that has been done lovingly by the family. However, the man of the home has been struggling with his health as of late.

He was badly burned in a house fire when he was a child. He had deep burns over 90% of his body. As a physician I can tell you that his life today is a gift from God, as many people do not survive such an extensive injury. He spent many months in the hospital enduring the intense pain of healing from such a travesty. He slowly healed, though, and maintained his faith and giving spirit through it all. He worked hard and provided for his family until he ran into some medical problems that forced him into a wheelchair and disability.

However, when you speak with him, you hear a joy and spirit that does not reveal his sufferings.

James 5.13:
“Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.”

They have a band and play with Wade, the bass player in Six:33. Their play benefits for others in need. They eagerly participate in outreach ministries in the church they attend.

They need a new linoleum floor in their kitchen, paint for their walls, and some work in their bathrooms (new toilet, fixtures for the shower), and a wheelchair ramp to descend 2 steps into their laundry room.

At this moment, they are having trouble accepting our church’s generosity. They are used to giving, not receiving. I reminded them of the Way:

Acts 2:43-47 (NRSV):
“Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

Christians take care of those in need regardless of creed, nationality or color (remember the Good Samaritan?), but we must also take care of each other, as we did as told in Acts.

But, I could see on their faces and in their voices a tinge of guilt; there are many much less fortunate than them. But, as Jesus said in response to the disciples’ objection to the anointing of Jesus with ‘very costly ointment’ while in Bethany:

Matthew 26.11 (NRSV):
“For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.”

We have an opportunity to help a family in need. That’s really all we need. But, knowing the details of that need solidify our calling to aid these folks. What can you do? First, pray for them, and for those who will participate in this project. Second, consider giving of your time, talent and treasures to fund and perform this project. We have some money left over in the OIAM budget, but not enough to complete all tasks. Contact me at: swmccloy@gmail.com
or on my cell at 803-439-3309 if you wish to help. We need folks experienced in flooring, painting, plumbing and carpentry. And, we need money. If you would like to donate to the cause, place a check in the offering plate marked with “Operation Inasmuch” in the memo line.

This family was  intrigued by our outreach ministry and asked how long it had been around. They so admired what we are doing. Now we need to live up to that admiration!

Matthew 25:40 (King James Version):

“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

’nuff said.

-Stan McCloy

Children’s Worship

WOW! Worshipping our Way – an alternative worship opportunity for children during the sermon time has begun.  Join us at the back of the Sanctuary after the Children’s Sermon for Worshipping our Way!  Children will be brought back into the Sanctuary in time for Communion.  WOW is for children preschool through 5^th grade.

PLC Yellow Pages

Do you have a skill or service to offer? Then advertise in the PLC Yellow Pages!! Babysitters, cake baker, electrician, plumber, or handy man, any and all welcome. Why not use the resources we have in our own congregation. Do you know a good heating and air or lawn care company? Give us your references so we can get them to advertise with us as well. We are only helping each other. Donations for ads are requested but not required. Sign up sheets are in the Narthex or call Clifford Ross 864 430 5641 or Ken Largent 803 309 2618.