June 2012
June 3 – Worship Service 9:30 a.m. (Communion)
Joe Harder, Pastor
(712) 366-1930
Website – stpaulsecc.org
June 7 – Friendship Circle 11:30 a.m.
June 10 – Worship Service 9:30 a.m.
June 11–15 – Vacation Bible School 5:30 – 8 p.m.
June 14 – Council Meeting 7 p.m. (Fellowship Hall)
June 17 – Worship Service 9:30 a.m.
June 24 – Worship Service 9:30 a.m. (Watchword news is due.)
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Announcements
Our Summer Worship Schedule will begin on Sunday, June 3, at 9:30 a.m. This schedule will run through
Labor Day Weekend. Thanks to all the Sunday school teachers and helpers. Enjoy your summer!
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To register, call:
(712) 366-1930
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Watchword news for the next issue will be due June 24, 2012. Please send minutes, articles, announcements, thank yous, etc. as you would like them to appear in the newsletter to:
Jean Friesen friesenjm@yahoo.com
313 Golden Oaks Drive or email: or
Council Bluffs, IA 51503 watchwordnews@yahoo.com

St. Paul’s Evangelical Country Church
Council Minutes
May 10, 2012
Members Present: J Stott, Jami Kline, Norma Foster, Rozan Smith, Gary Elgan, Marlita Petty, Chuck Petersen,
Ron Heuwinkel, Connie Peters
Meeting called to order: 7:09 PM
Pastor Joe Harder opened meeting in prayer.
Amendment to March/April minutes, error in members present, adding J Stott.
Treasurer’s Report
Connie reported back on technical error in last quarter quick books, talked with accountant and worked out to reflect accurate amounts.
Motion to accept Treasurer’s Report and last month’s minutes with amendment as above made by Rozan, a second by Chuck, motion carried.
Old Business
Garage is down, thank you to all those that helped demolish.
Jeannie is stepping down from Watchword News. Tom and Becky Nash have graciously volunteered to take over this responsibility. Thank you Jeannie for your time on the Watchword!! Thank you to Tom and Becky for taking over!
Rozhart’s potluck lunch went very well.
New Business
Email update from Tom Donaghy, building committee, after taking bids a contractor was selected to make repairs on siding and parsonage. Bid from Advantage Home Improvement, would like to replace all siding with vinyl siding, higher grade and quality. Building committee proposing negotiation with insurance company to obtain the higher grade siding.
J made a motion to approve negotiating with insurance for the higher grade siding, a second by Norma, motion carried.
The canopy in the back of the education building was damaged in the storm. It is aged and we cannot currently find the same awning. Proposing a porch roof that can be repaired with regular roofing materials. Negotiating with the insurance company to get this built, as awning replacement has already been approved and we are unable to obtain the same awning.
J made a motion to allow negotiation with insurance to replace awning with regular roofed porch, a second by
Gary, motion carried.
Marlita spoke with Aspen Smoke Company (smoked meat company). He expressed willingness to smoke meat for fundraiser should the church have any interest. The company information will be kept on file for any future interest.

Joe reports an overspending in Christian Education materials. Everyone is in agreement that this was a good overage. It represents kids coming to Sunday school as most of the monies are used for curriculum material. A discussion was held regarding purchasing bibles for Sunday school children. An anonymous donor graciously absorbed the cost of the youth NIV bibles. It is a blessing to have bibles available in the classroom and to see the children come in each Sunday with their bibles.
J made a motion to accept the continued purchase of curriculum and Sunday school pins/bars. In light of the overages, all Council feels it is very important to continue these purchases. A second motion was made by
Rozan, motion carried.
Gary made a motion to adjourn the meeting, a second by Marlita, motion carried.
Meeting adjourned 8:16 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Jami Kline, Secretary
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Pastor’s Note
You’ve perhaps heard the old saying: “Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.”
Here’s a new one I just made up: “Don’t bring a spade to do a skidloader’s job.” (I know: not quite as catchy.)
Yesterday, the construction crew came and started to dig holes for the footings of the new garage. On the sixth hole, a few inches below the surface, their auger hit something. There used to be a tree there, but we thought that the stump had been sufficiently removed. Since we could only see a few inches of wood down in the hole, Tom Donaghy and I got out some shovels, thinking that we could quickly dig it up—perhaps it was just an old root. We dug around it, and uncovered a bit more. I retrieved an axe from the shed, thinking we could chop it out. To our increasing discouragement, another hour’s worth of work just uncovered more and more stump.
Four hours later—and after a skidloader operator had dug a six-foot-deep crater around it—the true nature of the problem was revealed: a huge stump about four feet in diameter, five feet deep, with gnarly roots that radiated outward. It looked like a gigantic, broken molar in pieces in the parking lot, and eventually filled most of a dump trailer.
Clearly, our initial attempts with a spade and an axe were woefully inadequate.
By the time the skidloader got here, Chuck Petersen, and Ron and Jason Heuwinkel had come to help.
At one point, Chuck said: “There should be a sermon illustration in there somewhere.” I agreed, although neither one of us could think of one on the spot. But here’s my attempt after mulling it over!
Almost every human being recognizes that he or she has imperfections. “Sure,” we say, “I’ve got flaws.
I’m not as patient as I should be. I sometimes lose my temper. I just need to fix a few things.”
And so we try to reform ourselves. Maybe if we just “count to ten” before speaking we won’t say things we regret. Maybe if we practice deep breathing we’ll stay calm. Maybe we just need to work on self-discipline.
Maybe if we just try really hard we’ll learn to love that irritating neighbor. We just need to tweak a few things in our lives and we’ll be fine.
But thinking we can reform ourselves is bringing a spade to do a skidloader’s job. The Bible doesn’t say that we have a few “flaws” or “imperfections.” The Bible says that we are sinners. And even though we tend to minimize our sin, Scripture reminds us that sin is more of a problem than we think, in at least two ways.

1) Sin is more offensive to God than we think.
In Psalm 51, David confesses the sin of his adultery with Bathsheba and the arranged killing of her husband, Uriah. Yet he says: “Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight” (v. 4). What? we say. Uriah was the one who was killed! How can
David say he sinned only against God? Yet in a theological sense, David is right. Sin—even when it’s sin against another person—is ultimately a sin against God. It’s an act of rebellion against our Creator who has every right to demand our obedience. And God hates it. Scripture repeatedly describes God as “wrathful” against sin. As Josh Harris writes in his book Dug Down Deep
: “We see most of our sins as insignificant—a small match dropping on the grass or at worst a tiny brush fire. God sees what the small flames lead to. He sees the forest fire that devours the countryside and ravages homes and takes lives.”
2) Sin is deeper than we think.
Sin is not just a matter of some superficial flaws in our lives. It is more than occasional “mistakes.” We as human beings are corrupt. As Paul writes in Romans 7, describing himself apart from Christ: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not…I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good”
(vv. 18, 21). Ephesians 2 says that we were “dead” in trespasses and sins, formerly
“indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:1-3). Of course, not all people become murderers, rapists and thieves. Some people, living without Christ, might appear to be moral and decent people. But the fact is that the same principle resides in each of us: the desire to serve ourselves, not
God. Many theologians have used the phrase “total depravity” to describe humans without Christ. This is not to say that all people are as bad as they possibly could be; it is to say that sin infects us to the core.
Thus, sin is not just a little chunk of wood that can be dug out with the spade of self-effort. Sin requires some deep digging and some serious uprooting. It requires power beyond what we have ourselves.
And this is what God offers to us. Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be “born again” to see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3). Scripture elsewhere uses the terms
“regeneration”
(Titus 3:5) and
“born of God”
(I John 3:9) to describe the inner change that God brings about when we come to Christ. When a person repents and places her trust in Christ, the Holy Spirit breaks the power of sin and indwells her. It’s not that she instantaneously becomes perfect. But sin no longer enslaves her (Romans 6:22), and she is now able to live in a way that is pleasing to God (Galatians 5:22-23).
By yesterday evening, that old stump lay above ground in gnarled and broken pieces, and the skidloader had filled in the crater, leaving the garage site level and smooth. God has the power to uproot the corruption of sin from our lives; may we have the wisdom to surrender to Him in repentance and let Him do it.
Your fellow Christian pilgrim,
Joe Harder
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St. Paul’s Evangelical Country Church
Treasurer’s Report
January 1 – April 30, 2012
INCOME
EXPENSE
Net Income / (Expense)
ACTUAL YTD
$ 34,760.25
$ 34,196.05
$ 564.20
BUDGET 2012
$ 103,711.38
$ 103,711.38
BUDGET minus
ACTUAL
$ 68,951.13
$ 69,515.33
$ (564.20)