NSUMCNorth Salem United Methodist Church

The Messenger

December 2001

Volume 1, Issue 6

Consecration Sunday Big Success 
"Second Christmas Eve Service" 
Snow Removal Needed 
Babysitting for Shoppers 
Trustees Report on our Growing Church
Worship Committee Report 
“Second Worship Service to be Added” 
Youth Group 
Message from Pastor Sang-Churl Bae 
“Lazarus House Christmas” 
Pastor Parish Relations 
Sunday School  

United methodist church, worship services in North Salem New Hampshire

United methodist church, worship services in North Salem New HampshireConsecration Sunday Big Success

By Financial Secretary Noreen Nadeau

December 9th’s Consecration Sunday was a huge success despite the 6" of snow we received.
Rev. John Blackadar’s message and his beautiful voice inspired all that were in attendance.
I am pleased to report that the pledges from those who were present showed a 12% increase over last year’s pledges.
All giving is a thankful response to what GOD has given us.
A BIG THANK YOU goes out to Keith Boucher, Laurie Eldredge and Merrianne McDonald for preparing and donating the delicious food for the Victory Luncheon. It was wonderful!
(Just a reminder that if you are behind in your pledge for this year, please make sure you get it in before the end of the year, in order to get credit for it this year. Plus, it makes the bookkeeping a lot easier. Thanks!)

United methodist church, worship services in North Salem New Hampshire

"Second Christmas Eve Service"

This year, in addition to our traditional 7:00 PM candelight Christmas Eve Service, we will be offering an earlier service. A 5:30 PM family/youth based service will be offered for the very first time. "By offering this earlier service we feel we can attract families with younger children that may want to be home earlier than 8:15 on Christmas Eve”, said Pastor Bae. He continues, "We plan to have a worship service that focuses on the Christmas story and allows the children to participate in a way no other church has done before. We'd like to send the kids home to bed thinking about the true meaning of Christmas and the coming of baby Jesus, not only Santa Claus."
See our Events page for a printable calendar

United methodist church, worship services in North Salem New Hampshire

Snow Removal Needed

To make sure the Church walkways are cleared after each snowstorm.
Please contact Bill Ermer or Merrianne McDonald for information.

United methodist church, worship services in North Salem New Hampshire

Babysitting for Shoppers

On December 16th and again on the 23rd we are holding a Christmas Shopping Baby Sitting Service between 1 - 4 PM so you can get some shopping done and the children will have a great time with other children.
For more information call Keith Boucher.
Also, please let us know if you go south for the winter so we can change your mailing address.

United methodist church, worship services in North Salem New Hampshire

Trustees Report on our Growing Church

by Bill Ermer

The trustees met Oct. 10 and Nov 5, 2001 to insure the parsonage would be ready for Pastor Bae and his family by Nov. 24, 2001 and to insure work was being performed on our new addition.
The parsonage was ready on time with the exception of remodeling the downstairs bathroom and floor tile in both bathrooms by outside contractors. I am proud to report it is now complete.
The work on the addition is near complete. The floors are tiled and the plumbing should be complete when you receive this news article. The facility should be ready to use by the Christmas holidays. In January I will need a few volunteers from the trustees and others willing to help stain the woodwork and doors. This will complete the work on the addition.
The whole project was a team effort and I want to thank the many people that came forward to help. You should be proud of yourselves, you do make a difference. The work we do paves the way for many missions of our church.
This year A.J. Farrow and family will again be donating the Christmas tree in memory of Bobby and Robert Emmert. We thank you very much, it adds so much to the decor of the church during the holiday season.
Good News! We received many donations for our church office. It is being set up at the parsonage next to the youth center. We have received chairs, a file cabinet, and a conference table form Brian King whose work relocated. Thank you Brian.
Donations also came from several Methodist churches, from Merrimack, NH we received desks, chairs and an organ. A desk was also picked up in Lowell, MA. From Maine we got a fairly new copier and special thanks goes out to Dawn & Steve Chalmers for getting the copier from Maine to Salem.
As you can see our church is growing with a new youth center, parsonage, and addition. Most important we are sending a message through our work to spread the word of God. God Bless and Happy Holidays!

United methodist church, worship services in North Salem New Hampshire

Worship Committee Report

By Nancy Collier-Welch

Liturgists, Greeters and Ushers Needed

We’ve had a great response from people wanting to volunteer as liturgists, but it is even greater when more people come up to me and want to volunteer as Greeters or Ushers.
Do you have a favorite hymn or two you haven’t heard lately? Write down the name or number of the hymn and pass it on to Pastor Bae or myself.
We also always need more people to sign up (list is hanging up next to the goodie table) to bring refreshments for our coffee hour after the service. All you have to do is bring in snacks for everyone, creamer and juice for the kids.
It is wonderful to have everyone be part of the worship service. Give me a call or see me after church to volunteer. Thanks!

United methodist church, worship services in North Salem New Hampshire

“Second Worship Service to be Added”

As we work to grow our church and attract new parishioners, we’re happy to announce to you the development of a second worship service to begin on Saturday evenings at 6PM. This service is scheduled to begin on March 2nd and continue every Saturday evening thereafter. Why do we need a second service and why schedule it on Saturday evenings? Our goal is simple, to appeal to a different set of unchurched people. People that may have commitments on Sunday morning such as families that have soccer / hockey / dance; or young people not interested in getting up early on Sunday morning, but still want to have a relationship with Christ and a church family; or families with young children that just cannot meet the demands of getting everyone ready and out the door in time for a 9:15 service. What will the service be like? Although in the early planning stages, we hope to have a contemporary family worship service that includes contemporary live music and nursery care We are also seeking musicians and vocalists to make a once a month commitment to provide varied music and are discussing a simple meal prior to the service. So please pass the word to your friends and family about this great upcoming idea that will bring new people to our church.

United methodist church, worship services in North Salem New Hampshire

Youth Group

by Marina Brown

The youth group is off to a good start this year. Since our late start we have had a lot of fun. We have painted, were scared at the haunted house and had a great time with Laurie doing crafts. Many thanks to Laurie for volunteering. Coming up this month we have the toys-for-tots drive, sledding, and our annual Christmas party with caroling at a nursing home in the area. The “youth center” room is coming along nicely, we now have the pool table and should have quite a time putting it together. Thank you to all who have helped so far this year, I am a little new at this and all the help is truly appreciated.
I am planning an Open House for the parents and anyone who would like to come (tentatively) on Saturday the 15th at 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Just an informal get together to answer any questions and share ideas for what the kids and I are doing.

United methodist church, worship services in North Salem New Hampshire

Message from Pastor Sang-Churl Bae

The United Methodist Church has a publication from its General Board of Global Ministries known as “the Alternative Christmas Giving Guide.” Among the many suggestions it discusses are filling out a cost/analysis form to discover just how much you do spend on Christmas and on what. The writers suggest that you then cut those costs by twenty-five percent and donate that same percentage to the poor, sick, hungry or needy this Christmas.
Other alternatives being suggested by the booklet include: encouraging each family in your church to adopt a needy family for the coming year; hold a gift-making workshop at the church, showing people how to put themselves into the gifts they give to others; center Christmas on activities instead of thing-giving, visit sick or shut-in friends and neighbors, organize a community Christmas worship service, or organize a study-action group devoted to using the monies usually spent on commercial Christmas celebrations for hunger projects or other human welfare efforts both locally and globally.
In fact these alternatives are not alternatives to the gift-giving of Christmas. They are actually the essentials of Christmas. They are in tune with the coming of Jesus Christ into our world. Jesus did not simply come to receive but to give, not to take care of himself but of many others, and not to keep the blessings of God in himself and enjoy them exclusively but to freely give and share the blessings of God and help others enjoy. For these purposes, Jesus came to our world as a baby and lived, ministered, and died on the cross.
The season of Christmas is a perfect time to reflect on the purpose of God in the baby Jesus and on what our responses of faith should be. As Jesus has become the sign of God’s love for all humanity at all times, our faithful responses to the love of God in Jesus Christ should reflect not just this particular time of the year but also everyday of the entire year. It is God’s love in Jesus that makes us think and act differently. This season of Christmas is, therefore, all about celebrating the love of God in the baby Jesus Christ, who is our source of divine wisdom, courage, and love.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Your Pastor, Sang-Churl

United methodist church, worship services in North Salem New Hampshire

“Lazarus House Christmas”

With your support this Christmas Lazarus House food baskets will be distributed to more than 700 families in the greater Lawrence community and holiday meals served to as many as 750 people.
As we do each and every Holiday season we are asking the North Salem worship community for nonpersihable food and frozen turkeys to help Lazarus house meet the needs of these hungry people. This is a simple way for us to acknowledge the blessings that God has bestowed upon us and to illustrate our faith.
Please leave your food in the narthex of the church or call Keith to pick it up. Thank you!

United methodist church, worship services in North Salem New Hampshire

Pastor Parish Relations

Merrianne McDonald (Chair)

As I sat down to write my message today, I was touched in my thoughts, to really say, “Thank You Lord for all the Blessings you have given our Church.”
With this in mind, PPRC wishes to extend a sincere “Thank You” to everyone who worked so hard at the parsonage, the church and on the Palmer Gas newsletter during this past month. Without all of the efforts put forth, our goals would not have been obtainable. This goes to show what a great team of families we have and what a blessing each and everyone of us are to our church.
With the celebration of the birth of our Lord just around the corner and everyone scurrying to get things done, let’s try to keep in our thoughts that Jesus is the reason for the season. Let us all try to put our God first as we were ministered to do. It becomes a real soul searching process as we try to accomplish this. A lot more difficult than I first imagined even as simple as it sounds.
PPRC has been very busy with the Finance Committee in the planning of our church budget and goals for next year.
PPRC would like to plan a Congregational Meeting after the first of the year to go over these issues with everyone and hopefully get some new ideas to add to the ones we have tentatively talked about. Our church has great families who work so well as a team that I know, with God’s help, we can accomplish our visions. Faith is all it takes and I know we have a great abundance of faith within our church.
We have successfully moved Pastor Bae into the parsonage and, hopefully, he can find everything he needs to get by until his family returns this month. Sorry we lost your shoes and your rice making machine!!
Let’s all keep Pastor Bae’s family in our prayers this month as they fly back from Korea. We look forward to seeing them with us once again. All of us on Pastor Parish wish all of you
“God’s Peace and Love this Christmas Season.”
Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.
Merrianne McDonald (Chair)
Noreen Nadeau
Nancy Swank
Diane Boucher
Keith Boucher (Layleader)

United methodist church, worship services in North Salem New Hampshire

Sunday School

Dawn Trusty, Sunday School Superintendent

The youth will be sharing what they are learning in class with readings, song, music and creativity. I will be looking for several older youth to read The Tale Of Three Trees, retold by Angela Elwell Hunt. All students will create ornaments for the church Christmas tree. I also welcome young singers or musicians to contribute a song they would enjoy sharing. This is tentatively planned for December 23rd during the regular Sunday service.
Please see me if you would be willing to be on the Sunday school teacher substitute list.
Congratulations to the Grade 4+5 class for accepting the challenge of the Older Elementary curriculum. They have previously used Middle Elementary during their class time.