(This is an article from the March newsletter of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta.  It has lots of details about our work mission at Memorial Drive Presbyterian and lots of background about this Presbyterian non-profit ministry)

By Catherine Foster, Associate Pastor at Shallowford Presbyterian Church

When Presbyterians talk about being a “connectional church,” they’re usually referring to an upcoming Presbytery meeting, a controversial General Assembly bill, or paperwork that needs to be sent off to Louisville. But this past January, two hundred seventy Presbyterians revolutionized my understanding of and gratitude for our “connectional church.”

Memorial Drive Ministries’ Background

As the membership of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Stone Mountain continued to decline, it became more and more difficult for them to maintain their large campus. Far from hunkering down in scarcity, the membership of MDPC has reached out to their changing neighborhood of Clarkston and Stone Mountain to welcome three Presbyterian new worshipping communities, a Mennonite congregation, and at least six non-profit organizations.

Responding to MDPC’s request for support, in the summer of 2017, the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta convened members of five neighboring Presbyterian Churches to work alongside MDPC and its ministry partners in a visioning process that has become Memorial Drive Ministries (MDM). MDM is becoming a Presbyterian non-profit that will manage the Memorial Drive campus by gathering critical leadership, organization, and a wide network of loving neighbors to create a new expression of God’s Beloved Community.

MLK Weekend

The Board of the newly imagined Memorial Drive Ministries knew that in order for their vision of the Memorial Drive Campus to succeed that they would need many more church and community partners. The Board also knew that the campus of Memorial Drive called for an HGTV-worthy makeover in order to better host all the incredible ministries taking place on the property.

The MDM Board put the call out to all the churches in Greater Atlanta Presbytery, and, boy, did you Presbyterians rise to the occasion! At least two hundred seventy volunteers representing at least twelve Presbyterian Churches rolled up their sleeves, pulled on their work gloves, and got to work supporting their sister congregations.

Each congregation brought their God-given talents to build up the body of Christ. One church employed their tall sanctuary ladder and electrical skills to convert much of the lighting over to eco-friendly LED bulbs. Another church coordinated with the Inspire After School Tutoring program to paint their classrooms bright, cheerful colors. Yet another church utilized the artistic skills of their youth group to transform a black water cistern into a mural celebrating water as a gift of life. Still another church came forward to cook a hearty lunch so that everyone could break bread together. Presbyterians from many different churches teamed up to clean out closets, paint rooms, and scrub the facility. Three Presbyterian-owned businesses volunteered trash removal, landscaping, and building repairs. Over the course of Martin Luther King weekend, God multiplied the many gifts we brought as individual Christians and solitary congregations to transform the campus of Memorial Drive and to knit us closer together as the body of Christ.

Connectional Church

Like any good Presbyterian undertaking, the creation of Memorial Drive Ministries has involved countless committee meetings, reams of documents, and the pokey pacing of doing things “decently and in order.” But never again will I think of polity or paperwork when someone uses the phrase “connectional church.” Instead, I will remember the electric Spirit of over a dozen congregations uniting in love, hard work and hospitality over Martin Luther King weekend.

“Connectional church” is the discovery that we are capable of so much more together than apart. “Connectional church” is the blessing of my weakness being your strength. “Connection church” is the miracle of God making a stranger a neighbor and a neighbor a friend. Thanks be to God for “connectional church”!

To learn more about or to make a donation to Memorial Drive Ministries, visit our website at www.MemorialDriveMinistries.org.

Sunday night the music ministry cooked and served a meal at Clifton Sanctuary Ministries  

St. Andrews has only been involved with Clifton  since September.  Before that our church served the mission at Journey, another ministry devoted to the homeless and helping them become independent and a part of society.  Since September our Youth have served the men at Clifton twice and other individual members have served.  Our G2G Kids made up toiletry bags so that each new client at Clifton had enough toiletry items when they first enter Clifton.

The music ministry of St. Andrews, including Chancel Choir, Bell Choir, Men’s Chorus and Women’s Chorus decided to try their hand.  We had five delicious chicken casseroles, homemade green beans, garlic toast and homebaked cookies.  It was a yummy meal and so appreciated by the men at Clifton.  Our G2G Kids had made lunch bags pre-filled with granola bars, pudding cups, fruit cups and juice boxes.  These will be used by the men in the morning as they leave for their jobs.  All they need is a fresh sandwich to make a complete lunch.  The guys loved these because the G2G Kids decorated the bags with stickers and loving words.

We have six Sunday nights left in the year to serve at Clifton.  Think about organizing your friends at church to take one of these nights.  Sign up here

St. Andrews serves the fourth Sunday of each month.   We either cook before, cook at Clifton, or order pizza like we did on Christmas Eve last year (Big hit!)  We try to arrive around 5 p.m. so we can help set up the meal and get some laundry washing and drying for the guys.  Dinner is at 6 p.m so everyone is home at an early time.

We’ve got two opportunities for Engagement Ministry volunteers to help out in March:

• Saturday, March 10, 11:30 AM – 5 PM:  Serve chili and share information about St. Andrews with our Tucker neighbors at this year’s Tucker Chili Cook-Off on Main Street. Marsha Ashby is the head cook. She’ll be dishing up an African vegan chili, and giving us an opportunity to talk about St. Andrews’ support of missions in Africa through Change for Children and Rise Against Hunger. Wear your St. Andrews t-shirt! Sign up here for a two hour shift.

• Thursday, March 29, 6:00 PM:  Join your St. Andrews family for a simple meal prior to our Maundy Thursday service. To remember Christ’s Last Supper during Holy Week, we’ll eat family style before the traditional foot washing service. To help with cooking, serving, or clean-up, sign up here.

As always, if you don’t want to use the link just email, call, or talk to me at church if you’d like to help out. Thank you so much!

Paige

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Thank you to everyone who made last week’s ski trip possible!

Special thanks to our trip leaders: Kim and Mike Rometo, Paige and Craig Kubik, and Mindy McCarthy

Mission Trip to Summerton, SC-June 10-16. Price- $250 

We will be going on a mission trip with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. Our mission team will be responding to the devastation of Hurricane Matthew in 2015.  There’s still so much recovery to be done. Register here at this link

Straws…humans have used them for 7,000 years but in the 1960s straws shifted from being a renewable to an oil-based, single-use product. The problem: we humans use 500 million straws every day. If put end to end, this number would circle the planet more than two and a half times each day.

The straws we use require oil for production, gas for delivery and space for disposal. Because of their shape and size, straws are rarely recycled so they blight communities, fill landfills and trash oceans. Researchers estimate that 90% of seabirds, whales, dolphins and sea turtles ingest plastic that reaches the ocean. Over time plastics break into smaller fragments and travel into the food chain possibly concentrating toxic chemicals into the predators.

You can help! If you don’t need a straw, don’t use one. Ask your waiter not to bring straws to your table. Invite your favorite restaurants to consider offering straws to customers rather than automatically providing a straw with each drink. If you need a straw consider buying a reusable straw. Be mindful this Lent of the impact of plastic on the environment and marine life.

Source: http://blogs.worldwatch.org/plastic-straws-a-life-cycle/

St. Andrews School Registration for the 2018-19 school year is open.  Click here  for more information. Please let your friends and neighbors know!

Gospel Portraits of Jesus Sunday School Class 

During Lent, join other adults and high schoolers in the Meeting Room to explore a number of the names and titles for Jesus that appear in the four Gospels. This study will move from the most familiar name, Jesus, to Jesus’ activities as teacher, to several common metaphors such as bread, to more abstract names like Messiah and Son of God, concluding with a focus on resurrection and life

Caring for Creation suggests combining trips as a Lenten discipline Ordinary living involves trips to many places, some of which recur regularly, e.g the grocery store.  If you work, some trips may be combined as you travel to/from work.  If you are retired, there is greater flexibility to combine trips, e.g. grocery store and other trips on grocery discount day.  Combining trips is not only energy-efficient; it is also very time-efficient!

The Oregon Department of Transportation offers the top 5 tips for “trip chaining” and More On Smart Driving Resources.  To add an intellectual challenge to planning trips, impose these constraints:

• No back tracking;

• Make all your left turns at traffic lights;

• Maximize the number of right turns.

To quantify travel and fuel efficiency, the U.S. Department of Energy website offers My MPG where registrants can save MPG information, view, edit, or update it later and share or compare personal MPG with others.

Potpourri Sunday School Class will begin a new study on February 25th called Sabbath as Resistance, Saying NO to the CULTURE OF NOW by Walter Brueggemann. Contact Michael Bearden with questions.