Worship Every Sunday at 10:00 am
4882 Lavista Road | Tucker, Georgia 30084-4460
office@sapctucker.org | 770-938-2833
Directions to St. Andrews

Presbyterian Women Bible Study will meet Tuesday, March 21st at 10:30 in the Meeting Room. The study this month will be Who is Jesus? What a Difference a Lens Makes, Lesson Seven: According to Non-canonical Gospels and will be led by Rev. Camille LeBron Powell

Volunteer Opportunity from the Mission Ministry: NETWorks Cooperative Ministry has begun a 12 week Faith & Finances Course for Tucker area residents. Volunteers are needed to provide simple meals for 25-30 people at 6:00 pm, Mondays at Tucker First Baptist Church. Sign up to bring meals here. Open dates: Apr. 17 – Jun. 5. For Questions or more information, Contact: Stephanie Suggs, Stephanie@NetworksCoop.org; 770-939-6454; or Mike Bearden,

Mini-Pictorial Directories: If you would like a smaller version of the new church pictorial directory in addition to the standard size, you may order one for $5 each. These are only available if you order them in advance. Please contact the church office, or your deacon by April 3rd to place your order.

Save the date to volunteer, run or walk, as our 5K-10K Peachtree Qualifier returns to raise money for missions.

More details to follow, but please circle that date and be ready!

Please join us for our “Welcome to St. Andrews Reception/Information Session,” which will be held Sunday, March 26,  from 9:00am to 9:45am in the parlor.  This is a low-key, informal session for visitors to meet with our pastor, learn more about St. Andrews, its programs/activities, and the Presbyterian Faith.  Childcare is available, along with coffee and pastries!  We hope to see you there!

The Potpourri Sunday School Class’ next book, beginning March 12 and continuing for five weeks is Half Truths – God Helps Those Who Help Themselves and Other Things the Bible Doesn’t Say (Adam Hamilton). The book is available in paperback and e-book from both Cokesbury and Amazon. An updated class schedule / study supplement will be forwarded in the next couple of days via email and will also be available on the SAPC Sunday School web page under the Potpourri Sunday School class or from Mike Bearden in the class. The scripture and some notes are included below for the March 12 lesson (week one).

About the book and author:

Half Truths – God Helps Those Who Help Themselves and Other Things the Bible Doesn’t Say – Adam Hamilton (Methodist Minister and Senior Pastor at The United Methodist Church of Leawood, KS).

“They are simple phrases. They sound Christian—like something you might find in the Bible. We’ve all heard these words. Maybe we’ve said them. They capture some element of truth, yet they miss the point in important ways. Join Adam Hamilton in this 5-week Bible study to search for the whole truth by comparing common Christian clichés with the wisdom found in Scripture. The clichés include:

Everything happens for a reason.
God helps those who help themselves. God won’t give you more than you can handle.
God said it, I believe it, that settles it.
Love the sinner, hate the sin

Week one scripture:
Deuteronomy 30:19-20, Matthew 10:29, Genesis 1:28, Romans 8:28, Proverbs 3:12, 1 Corinthians 15:54

The two books we will do following Half Truths are:

 

The Holy Spirit – William H. Willimon (Presiding Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church, Birmingham, AL area, and Visiting Research Professor, Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC) and Stanley Hauerwas (the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law at the Divinity School at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina).  4 weeks; available – paperback and e-book – Cokesbury; and, paperback and Kindle version (free app is available from Amazon for use with other electronic devices) – Amazon.

“Do you realize what baptism really means? Through the Holy Spirit we become part of the Body of Christ! The work of the Spirit is often thought of as “inspirational,” but it’s more than a personal experience and this book challenges some of those individualistic and subjectivist accounts. You’ll come to understand that the Holy Spirit is who God is and what God does as the Trinity. And you’ll learn how to prayerfully embrace this gift that created the church and become empowered to live out holy love and friendship in the world.

‘Hauerwas and Willimon are among the most reliable teachers of the church. Ours is a time when faithful teaching is urgent in church that is compromised, bewildered and domesticated. This study by these trustworthy teachers on the Holy Spirit is a robust affirmation of the way in which core claims made concerning God’s Spirit matter concretely in the life of the church. This book is an invitation to fresh learning, to repentance, and to the recovery of missional nerve.’
-Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary”

 

The Faith of a Mockingbird – A Small Group Study Connecting Christ and Culture – Matt Rawle (“Lead Pastor at Asbury United Methodist Church in Bossier City, Louisiana. Matt is an international speaker who loves to tell an old story in a new way, especially at the intersection of pop culture and the church. He is the author of a new series of books titled The Pop in Culture Series. The series includes  The Faith of a Mockingbird, Hollywood Jesus, The Salvation of Doctor Who and The Redemption of Scrooge.”) 4 weeks; available – paperback and e-book – Cokesbury; and, paperback and Kindle version (free app is available from Amazon for use with other electronic devices) – Amazon.

“Pastor and author Matt Rawle is on a mission. He sees Christ all around him—in books, movies, TV shows, rock music—and he wants to share what he sees. As Matt says, ‘God offers the raw ingredients, and ‘culture’ is whatever we cook up.’  In The Faith of a Mockingbird, based on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, pastor and author Matt Rawle uses Lee’s beloved characters to explore Christian faith, theology, and ethics. Join Scout, Atticus Finch, Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson in this four-week study considering God’s world and what it all means.”

 Potpourri is an adult Sunday School class which studies an eclectic assortment of books that results in inspirational discussions that help on our Christian faith journey.  The class meets Sunday morning 9 a.m. to 9:45 a.m in the education building.
We Need Your Help!  Beginning January, 2017, we have been staffing our nursery on Sunday mornings with St. Andrews volunteers only, as we are no longer using a paid nursery worker. We need two volunteers in the nursery room each Sunday morning from 8:55 until 11:15 am and so far this transition has gone well, thanks to our current volunteers: Monica Komi, Deby Brooke, Mary O’Brien, Farah Ranaivoarisoa, Corinna Papotto, Rachel Ellingson, Natalia Papotto,and  Victoria Ashby. Thank you for your dedicated loyalty.
However, we could  really use some additional volunteers! We need to make sure we always have enough volunteers to continue to provide this important service for our congregation.
If you think you might be interested, please communicate with Jill Jarvis through the office email address.
Lenten Sermon Series begins next Sunday
Unity, Reconciliation, and Diversity – The Call of the Confession of Belhar
 
              The season of Lent is a time for a probing consideration of our human condition, including sin and its deadly consequences for both individuals and society. Lent is also a time for an equally intense consideration of the new possibilities offered to us in Jesus Christ and their implications for practical living. Confession is always an important part of a faithful observance of Lent as we prepare ourselves for Easter. By spending time with a confession of faith we can gain new insight into what we are called to do and be.
              The Confession of Belhar is the Presbyterian Church’s newest confession of faith. Arising out of South Africa in 1986 as a response to Apartheid, Belhar calls for reconciliation, justice, and unity. Join us as we learn from its wisdom for our own time and place as we explore reconciliation of broken relationships; the work of justice for all people, in the neighborhood and around the world; and the work for unity as the church by lovingly and compassionately accepting those with whom we differ.
March 5
Confession       Matthew 28:16-20
March 12
Unity                Ephesians 4:1-16
March 19
Reconciliation  Ephesians 2:11-22
March 26
Justice             Amos 5:21-24 
April 2
Benediction     Matthew 16:13-20
April 9
Palm & Passion Sunday 
    Matthew 21:1-11; 27:11-31
April 16
Easter              Matthew 28:1-10
What is The Belhar Confession? The Confession of Belhar is a powerful confession of Christian faith that emerged in South Africa during the years of Apartheid. It is named for the city in South Africa where it was first adopted. It is a statement that focuses on three themes, Unity, Reconciliation, and Justice, in a church environment where racial separation made it impossible for brothers and sisters in Christ to worship together or come to the Lord’s Table together. Churches around the globe have recognized the power and theological insight of Belhar as an expression of Scriptural truth for their own contexts. In 2016 the 222nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) formally adopted the confession into Part I of our constitution, The Book of Confessions.
Who wrote the Belhar Confession and why? The Belhar Confession was originally adopted by the Dutch Reformed Mission Church as it protested the sin of apartheid which had been present within the church itself. Just a few years later it became the confession of the Uniting Reformed Church of Southern Africa, the reunion of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church and the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa. The two principal authors were Russel Botman and Dirk Smit.
Jesus was a refugee. There are modern refugees in our midst. Our next What’s On Wednesday (WOW) dinner and program, March 15 in Heffner Hall, features Alla Yoonis, Community Outreach AmeriCorps member at New American Pathway. She will speak to us about their work with the refugee population in Clarkston and the greater Atlanta area. Come find out about the programs and resources New American Pathways offers to new refugees in our areas and ways you can be involved in their efforts
Dinner starts at 6 p.m. and we’ll feature food from Cafe Madina here in Tucker. The program starts at 6:30 p.m. and finishes at 7:30.
All kids pre-K through fifth grade can participate in Glory to God Kids (G2G Kids), our worship arts program for children. Childcare will be provided. in the education building.
Find out more about New American Pathways

Are  you a type-A person who loves to organize?  Perhaps someone who loves rearranging furniture?  Do you like dancing reindeer that sing,”Everybody Dance Now!”?  If any of these describes you, come to the all-church clean-up day?  There will be light refreshments in the morning and lunch.  Questions?  Contact the office, office@standrewspresbyterian.org to contact a ministry chair who might need some extra help.