Circle of Concern Thanksgiving Needs

Circle of Concern provides a Thanksgiving basket to all clients and their families for Thanksgiving dinner.  Your gifts of food will help Circle offer Thanksgiving dinner to as many as 700 families.

The needs for the Thanksgiving baskets are:

• cornbread mix, biscuit mix, stuffing
• canned fruit
• dessert mix (cake, cobbler, pie filling, canned pumpkin)
• boxed rice mix
• macaroni and cheese
• gravy (canned or dry mix)
• canned vegetables
• jello gelatin
• broth or cream soup
• cranberry sauce
• canned milk (sweetened condensed or evaporated)

We want everyone in our community to "Get Stuffed".  Place all items on the table out side of Pastor Steve's office.

Worship October 12

PRAYER IN PREPARATION FOR WORSHIP:  Giver of light and life, we would be made whole again in your

presence for we have been drained by this week.  We would see again your glory and offer our praise for we have lost touch in the hurry of our days.  We would renew our faith and commit again our lives as you have called us to do, in Jesus’ name.  Amen                                                              

CALL TO WORSHIP (adapted from Psalm 97)

Leader:      The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice

People:      Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.

Leader:      The earth saw and trembled.

People:      The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord.

Leader:      The heavens declare His righteousness,

People:      Be glad in the Lord, you righteous ones and give thanks to His holy name.

Leader:      Let us give thanks to the Lord of the whole earth. 

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Lord, we confess that we do not know who You are.  When we look at You we sometimes see a distant god who does not know us.  Or we see a god who looks and thinks a lot like we look and think.  Forgive us for not making the effort to get to know You as You really are.  And as we open our hearts, our minds and our souls to You, help us to see clearly who You are and what You want from our relationship with You.  This we pray in the name of your Son.  AMEN.

For the sermon on October 12, Click here.

Christmas Boutique Bakers Needed for Bake Sale

Thanks to your response last year, the bake sale booth at St. Mark Presbyterian's Christmas Boutique was an outstanding fundraiser.  We look forward to contributions from all of you again.

Please only wrap your bake sale items in clear plastic wrap---customers only buy what they can see.  Also, label what your brought so we can promote the baked goods better.

We can use a small amount of gluten-free and sugar-free items.  Also, let us know if there are nuts in the baked goods.  Contact Karen Reed if you have any questions.

The Christmas Boutique will be held:
Tuesday – November 11 – 10:30 AM to 7:30 PM
Wednesday – November 12 – 10 AM to 2 PM

Book Club Schedule

PW Book Club!

October 2014- September 2015

Meeting the fourth Wednesday of each month, Presbyterian Women's Book Club at St. Mark always has a lively discussion and delicious treats.  Please don't feel like you had to have read the book to attend.  Some attend just to decide whether they want to read the book. Some like the entertaining discussions and others the fellowship.  We meet at 9:30 AM in room 102.  It was hard to narrow down the list this year, but here it is: fiction, non-fiction, historical, humorous, sad, enlightening:

Oct 22 Orphan Train by Christine Baker Kline

Nov NO Meeting

Dec. 10 The All Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg 

Jan 28 Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink

Feb 25 Fault in our Stars by John Green 

Mar 25 Invention of Wings  by Sue Monk Kidd

Apr 22 Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

May 27 End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

June 24 Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill

July NO Meeting

Aug 26 Still Life With Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen

Sept 23 BOOK SELECTION for 2015-2016

Please join us whether you read a book on a Kindle, a paperback, a library book, listen to it on tape or watch the movie.  You will have a great time.

BRO Doll and Toy Drive

During the month of October, Presbyterian Women will be collecting new and slightly used dolls, toys and monetary donations for girls.  These gifts are distributed by volunteers of BRO (Board of Religious Organizations) to over 5600 needy children in the St. Louis area for Christmas.   A $6 donation will be used to purchase one of these items.  In addition, gently used toys, dolls, games and books may be placed in the BRO gray container at any time.  Especially needed are toys for boys and girls ages 6-10. Donations will be accepted in the Narthex through the month of October.  For further information contact S. Boeker or L. Grothe.

Worship Service October 5 World Communion

Saturday Night Sharing Communion with New Zealand

PRAYER IN PREPARATION FOR WORSHIP:  You formed the universe in your wisdom, and created all things by your power.  You set us in families on the earth to live with you in faith.  We praise you for good gifts of bread and cup, and for the table you spread in the world as a sign of your love for all people in Christ.  Amen

                                                                

CALL TO WORSHIP

Here in this place, God offers us food,

        so we take and eat.

Here in this place, our neighbors are hungry,

        so we share the bread and the cup.

Here in this place, the table extends

        beyond our friends

beyond those who agree with us

        beyond these walls

beyond the borders

        around the world.

Let us taste and see that our God is good.

        Let us worship God with joy!

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

God of deep, abounding, astounding, boundary-breaking love,

        Forgive our closed doors; forgive our closed eyes and ears; forgive our insulated living,   forgive our safe and comfortable tables.  We pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen

Sunday Morning

Click here for Susan Hayes' sermon "Wonderful World" which was about the Youth Mission trip to Mobile, Alabama.

Fall Festival

Join us for a fun, family fall festival. Sunday October 12, 2014 11:30-2:30 on the St. Mark Parking Lot: 601 Claymont Dr. Ballwin MO. Free activities include bounce house, great food, Lolli the Clown, balloon art, games, face painting, pumpkin decorating, fall family pictures, and "barn style" music by "Banvard's Folly" with dance calling by Deborah Hyland. Apple butter, caramel apples, and Kona Ice will also be available for nominal charge. For more information call 636-394-2233.

Blessing of the Pets

The Blessing of the Pets is often held on a Sunday nearest St. Francis of Assisi's Feast Day (Oct. 4). St. Mark Presbyterian Church Youth held the service for the congregation's pets on Oct. 5 in the afternoon.

The World Should Praise the Lord

148 Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord from the skies.
    Praise him high above the earth.
² Praise him, all you angels.
    Praise him, all you armies of heaven.
³ Praise him, sun and moon.
    Praise him, all you shining stars.
⁴ Praise him, highest heavens
    and you waters above the sky.
⁵ Let them praise the Lord,
    because they were created by his command.
⁶ He put them in place forever and ever;
    he made a law that will never change.

⁷ Praise the Lord from the earth,
    you large sea animals and all the oceans,
⁸ lightning and hail, snow and mist,
    and stormy winds that obey him,
⁹ mountains and all hills,
    fruit trees and all cedars,
¹⁰ wild animals and all cattle,
    crawling animals and birds,
¹¹ kings of the earth and all nations,
    princes and all rulers of the earth,
¹² young men and women,
    old people and children.

¹³ Praise the Lord,
    because he alone is great.
    He is more wonderful than heaven and earth.
¹⁴ God has given his people a king.
    He should be praised by all who belong to him;
    he should be praised by the Israelites, the people closest to his heart.

Benediction:
May God, who made everything good, teach us to love all of creation.

May God help us to rejoice in the stars and planets; trees and flowers, the rocks and rivers, and especially in these precious pets that have been entrusted into our care.  How great is your name, O Lord our God, in all the earth.

Amen.  Praise the Lord!

Worship from September 28

PRAYER IN PREPARATION FOR WORSHIP: Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve;

to give and not to count the cost; to show kindness and not seek to find fault in one another, to toil and not to seek for rest; to labor and not to ask for any reward, save that of knowing that we do your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

CALL TO WORSHIP (Adapted from Romans 8:31-34 NRSV)

Leader: What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

People: The One who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not also give us everything else?

Leader: Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?

People: It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

Leader: Let us sing praise to the one who is for us.

CONFESSION OF FAITH (Romans 8:35-38 NRSV)

Leader: Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

People: No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

For the sermon from September 28, Click here.

World Communion Sunday

Did you know that World Communion Sunday was started by the Presbyterian Church?

Did you know that if you come to worship Sat. PM at 5:00 you will be sharing Communion with the churches in New Zealand?

Did you know the Peacemaking Offering is meant to coincide with World Communion Sunday?

For more information on World Communion Sunday, Click here.

Post Communion Prayer (World Communion Sunday)  – Elaine Sveet (2013)

God of field and fruit, of bread and wine, we give thanks for all we have received at this communion table.  United with the divine, now unite us better with one another.  Lead us to heal divisions, to welcome the stranger, to treat all as family.  Send us out to care for creation and one another, as we follow in the redeeming way of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

- See more at: http://revelaine.areavoices.com/2013/10/11/world-communion-sunday-rocks/#sthash.QcLLWxvA.dpuf