Survey: what’s next?

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The Crossroads Team wants to say thank you to everyone who took the time to complete our survey on what relationship we want to have with the surrounding community and what we want to preserve as a congregation.

We’re compiling the results and hope to learn from your responses. In the meantime, we’re lining up meetings with community leaders over the summer to discuss what kind of a relationship the community would like to have with us.

Stay tuned for more ways you can get involved in planning what our faith community will look like as we grow, evolve and change in the future.

–Larry Schumacher

Solar energy documentary

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The Minnesota Renewable Energy Society will have a June 13 screening of “Point of No Return,” a film about the first solar-powered flight around the world. The viewing is from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at Cambria Gallery, Minneapolis.

The event is also a fund-raiser for MRES. Information and tickets at www.mnrenewables.org/film-screening-point-of-no-return.

Suicide prevention

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Ramsey County will host a listening session about suicide prevention from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 30, at Hallie Q. Brown Community Center, 270 N. Kent St., St. Paul.

Share your experiences with suicide prevention resources, needs, partnerships, support, and ideas about how to spread community awareness. More information: Kari Umanzor, 612-916-6998 or [email protected].

Pick-up soccer for kids

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Kids of all ages are invited to play afternoon pick-up soccer Monday through Thursday this summer at Curtiss Field in Falcon Heights. Mike Bradbury of Falcon Heights Church will be running it from 4:30 to 6 p.m.

Encourage your kids to come down to the park and play whenever they can. The City of Falcon Heights will soon be starting on construction of the new basketball court, so there will be two sports available.

And if sports are not your kids’ thing, there’s plenty of space to play other games or on the playground. The whole point is to get them out of the house and playing together as a community.

Summer fun and service

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Get ready for a summer of fun and service for people of all ages. The ad hoc Growing Young team is planning three special events you won’t want to miss.

On Wednesday, June 26, join us for the Saint Paul Saints Toilet Paper Drive at CHS Field. The game starts at 7:05 p.m. The Saints will be collecting toilet paper donations beforehand for Second Harvest Heartland. Tickets are $14 for adults and $13 for seniors and children under 13. Please sign up HERE BY JUNE 9 if you’re interested, or on the clipboard in the Gathering Room.

Be sure to save these dates, too:

  • Saturday, July 13: “Newsies,” presented by the Rosetown Playhouse.
  • Sunday, Aug. 18: Community clean-up followed by all-church picnic.

Outdoor Painters exhibition

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Falcon Heights Church will host an exhibition of art work by members of the Outdoor Painters of Minnesota at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 12. Learn more about the group–which is planning to use space at FHC for meetings and activities. Come and exchange ideas about future collaboration on community art events.

Appetizers and desserts will be served.

Heal the Earth Garden Party & Swap Meet

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Heal the Earth

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday, June 15, from 10 a.m. to noon, come kick off our summer of intergenerational fun with eco-friendly service projects!

We have four projects to help bring healing to our beautiful planet Earth. You can participate in any or all of them, or just serve as a friendly “sidewalk superintendent.”

  • Creating a pollinator-friendly garden behind the church
  • Creating an “indoor garden”–a paper mural for the Gathering Room
  • Creating stenciled reusable shopping bags
  • An eco-friendly garden-themed swap meet–a chance to re-use good stuff

We’ll provide hearty snacks and lemonade. The event will go on RAIN OR SHINE! We’re hoping for beautiful weather, but everything except for planting the pollinator garden can be moved indoors if necessary.

Invite your friends! You can copy and send them this link: http://evite.me/nhE6kmuARd

Guidelines for the swap meet

Please bring only items that are lawn and garden-related and in good condition (garden hoses, decorative pots, tools for planting/weeding/harvesting, a treasured garden gnome, maybe even some patio furniture).

You can bring plants of any kind; ones that are good for pollinators may be used in creating the new back-of-church pollinator garden.

NO CHEMICALS, please.

Children’s outdoor toys and play furniture would be great. Ask your kids, grandkids or great-grandkids to help you find some things to bring. They can enjoy swapping old toys for something new.

Drop items off at the church during the week before the June 15 event (but bringing them the day of the event is okay).

We’ll be posting signs about this in the neighborhood – anyone is welcome to participate. Invite your friends.

No money will be exchanged. Bring things you no longer want. Take things you can make use of. Anything left after 12 p.m. will be donated.

We need your views

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The Crossroads Team needs your views.Crossroads meeting

Thanks to the great group of people who stayed last Sunday for the team’s presentation on the faith and demographic trends we’re examining as we look ahead to our congregation’s future.

During the presentation, we asked the congregation to respond to a short five-question survey to help discern how to serve God’s people and express God’s love for all of creation. This survey is available at church in a printed format but also online here.

We need you to give us your views in this survey by Sunday, May 19, so we can analyze your responses and help us chart the way forward through the next phase of the Crossroads effort.

Questions? Talk to one of the Crossroads Team members: Cor Wilson, Carol Holm, Conee Biggs, Margee Fabyanske, Mary Gaasch, Brian Knapp or Larry Schumacher for more information, and thank you! — Larry Schumacher

Congregational survey

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A congregational survey will be part of our Sunday, May 5, worship service.

The Crossroads Team is exploring how Falcon Heights Church can survive and even thrive in an increasingly secular culture. One of our first tasks is to determine who our neighbors are, their needs and interests, and how our church might be the best neighbor possible to them.

Join us Sunday after the communion service, when team member Conee Biggs will share data found in demographic reports prepared for the Minnesota Conference and the implications of that data. We’ll ask the congregation to respond to a short five-question survey to help discern how to serve God’s people and express God’s love for all of creation. The questions are:

  • List 3-5 things that matter to people here. (What energizes people?)
  • With changing times and faith cultures, list 2-3 things you hope we don’t lose sight of.
  • In what ways do you think our church will be different 5 years from now?
  • List 2-5 pressing issues facing our local community.
  • List 2-5 hopes and dreams you have for our church (What would you like to be different 1-2 years from now?).

Don’t answer the questions now – you’ll hear information Sunday that might prompt some new thoughts about these issues. We look forward to seeing you there.  –Larry Schumacher

Church at the crossroads: report, survey

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Crossroads Team update for April 25:

Today’s cultural environment presents churches with complex challenges for which there are no easy answers. Churches face dramatically changing cultural surroundings in which established patterns of Christian life and witness no longer connect with many people in the neighborhood. Forming and restoring community with these neighbors for the sake of Christian witness and service requires learning new ways of embodying and communicating the gospel. –From “The Agile Church,” by Dwight J. Zscheile

Our culture is increasingly secular. The Crossroads Team is exploring how Falcon Heights Church can survive and even thrive in these times. One of our first tasks is to determine who our neighbors are. Even more important, we need to know their needs and interests.

On May 5, team member Conee Biggs will be sharing some demographic data prepared for the Minnesota Conference. She will also discuss the implications of that data. We will then be asking the congregation to respond to a short 5-question survey. We invite you to join us in discerning how to serve God’s people and express God’s love for all of creation.