Please come and meet our sabbatical interim pastor, Rev. Cindy Maybeck, on June 12th. She sent us this introduction to help us get to know her better:

With great joy and thanksgiving, I accepted your call to be sabbatical interim pastor at West Concord Union Church this summer.  So let me introduce myself.  I have been a pastor in churches here in Massachusetts since 1990: a decade at Bethany Christian United Parish in Worcester and 13 years at Trinity Church in Northborough.  I love ministry, especially preaching.  I love the church, especially the people.  I love teaching about scripture in the Bible.  I bring an intelligence, enthusiasm and warmth to ministry, along with a sense of humor.

Three years ago, I responded to a call from God to create a new ministry outside the local church.  Spirit Story is a ministry of transformation for those in churches and those outside.  My aim is to tell the biblical story with my own particular brand of passion and love to reinvigorate the faith of all who hear.  You may take a peek at this ministry on my website www.cindymaybeck.com

Our summer outdoor setting of worship will be a lovely place to tell and hear sacred stories.  I will be available for pastoral visits and look forward to meeting you.  Please call on me to schedule a time for conversation.  Stay tuned because plans are still in process, but summer programs may include S’mores and Stories by the campfire for all ages, Finding Our Story — a workshop to learn to tell your church story, or I Love to Tell the Story, a class to learn to tell a biblical story.

As your pastor enjoys the blessings of Sabbath this summer, I will provide you with a fresh new look at scriptures and stories.  I will be present to guide you on your walk of faith.  I am pleased to provide spiritual leadership to you during this season of summer stories.  And when Pastor Hannah returns, you and she will both be renewed in your precious ministry together at West Concord Union Church.
–Rev. Cindy Maybeck

What an incredibly successful work trip to Household Goods on November 14th. Linens were measured and sorted, Boston College sofas picked up in May were cleaned and put out on the floor (and quickly claimed by clients) and 80 car and truckloads from donors were unloaded and items put away. Tom and Sharon and Ellen have decided to continue volunteering. HG is a very special place and a chance to volunteer with like-minded, happy people doing work that you can see makes a difference. If you would like to know more or can commit as little as 3 hours a month, go to householdgoods.org and fill out a volunteer form. You can also donate starter kits or kit items; click here for details. Pris and Marcia

Acts Ch. 2-4

What does the Spirit do?

When we meet followers of Jesus in the beginning of the book of Acts, they are so afraid that they aren’t doing anything. They have a great story to tell – the Easter morning resurrection glory halleluiah story – but they are afraid to tell it. They have amazing ministry to do – powerful, healing, life-altering, mind-bending ministry– but they are afraid to do it. All the people who knew Jesus the best and loved Jesus the most are sitting around in locked rooms, twiddling their thumbs and biting their nails. They are too afraid to do anything at all.

We would be afraid, too. We would be afraid to say anything about Jesus, or do anything in Jesus’ name. Jesus had a lot of enemies. He did surprising things and gathered a lot of followers. These were not twitter followers, or facebook friends, but something even more amazing: real people who physically followed him around and waited to see what he would do next. The leaders of the people decided that Jesus meant trouble; so they handed him over to the Romans. The Romans asked the crowds what to do with Jesus; and the crowds decided that Jesus meant trouble; so they handed him back to the Romans. In the end, the Romans decided Jesus meant trouble, and Jesus ended up dead.

It wouldn’t make you want to walk around Jerusalem with a pin that says, “I heart Jesus.” The followers of Jesus are afraid of their friends. They are afraid of their leaders. They are afraid of the Romans. They are afraid for their lives. So afraid, that they’re not doing anything at all.

Have you ever been afraid? So afraid you couldn’t do the right thing? So afraid, you couldn’t do anything at all? (more…)

It was clear from our annual “Welcome Back Party” in September that this year’s youth group likes to have fun!  With 25 registered members, our group ranges in age from 11-18 though we are not at a loss for fun things to do that can appeal to all of these ages.  At our game night the youth enjoyed Suspend (a new twist on the classic Jenga game), Apples to Apples, ping-pong, and our annual favorite Sardines (reverse hide and seek where one person hides and everyone else tries to find them and hides with them) in the darkened church!

Later in September, we traveled to Davis Farmland’s Mega Maze for a romp in their corn maze and some quality time around a campfire.  Navigating an 8 acre maze in the dark with flashlights is quite an experience!  With team work and a few helpful hints from the Davis Farmland staff along the way, the youth came out of the maze with many stories and laughs to share.

In October, we decided to head outside in the daylight this time to play and revel in God’s creation as we hiked up Mt. Wachusett.  The teens hiked at a slightly faster pace than their chaperones (humbling! 🙂 but we all made it to the top to enjoy some fantastic views.  The colors along the way were spectacular, reminding us all about the importance of taking time out to notice and appreciate the beauty all around us.

Rocks have become a trademark for the WCUC Youth Group for a number of reasons. We have a much loved tradition of beginning every class with “Milestones” which is a check in/prayer time in which the youth are invited to share joys and concerns. They then write what they want us to pray about on a small stone and put it in their hand-painted terra cotta bowl. At the end of the year, it’s fun to look back to all of our “milestones” throughout the year remembering the many ways that we were supported by God and each other.

This year, we expanded on this theme at our opening class by finding places in the Bible where God and Jesus are referred to as our “rock”. References such as “God, our rock and our refuge” or Jesus as a “rock in a weary land” gave us comfort and provided a catalyst for further conversation about the many ways that we’ve experienced God/Jesus/Spirit as a rock in our lives. Each member of the youth group left that day with a rock of their choice each painted with a word to help encourage them in their lives: strength, courage, wisdom, patience, and peace were among the favorites.

A “Youth Rocks” sign was one of the choices for our recent church-wide gratitude project. This group of middle school and high school youth indeed “rock” and we now proudly display this sign in our youth room (thanks to Ruth Sedlock!) as a reminder that we rock because God first rocks us.

During our Congregational Giving Appeal season, members of WCUC  are sharing how this community impacts them and why they give. Ruth and David gave this testimony on October 11th.

Ruth: My parents taught me so much about generosity: generosity of love, generosity of encouragement, generosity of forgiveness – but they did not teach me about generosity of money. I never knew how much money my parents gave away. And that was weird, because we talked about money constantly: I knew how much money my father brought home each week, how much my mother put into each of her little brown bill envelopes; how little, if any, would be left. I don’t think my parents were able to give much, if anything, to the church. I was aware that that was a source of considerable discomfort for them. Of course, there was no way to talk about that at their church.

Dave: I come from the same economic background as Ruth. And, my family didn’t talk about their giving habits either. But it seemed like my church talked about nothing else. Even as a kid I thought it was bizarre. Our church collected no less than 3 offerings during worship on Sunday. I honestly thought that the church kept collecting money from everyone until the parishioners literally ran out of money to give. In my church, guilt seemed to be the motivating factor in giving.

Ruth: So along come Dave and I. Married barely out of our teens. Earnestly trying to conduct ourselves as grownups. And, we did okay – except around the issue of generosity. There we didn’t have a clue what to do or why.

But then, as many of you know, we started moving around. We’ve lived all over the country in our 42 years together, and for us, cross-pollination has been a good thing. We encountered a few church congregations along the way that DID have safe and loving ways to talk about money. People we admired and trusted, people who in many ways were just like us, helped us begin to think about giving, and the kind of givers we wanted to be.

David: Another thing happened: as we moved around, since we had no family close by, we kind of adopted the church as our family and they adopted us and it helped a lot esp. when we had kids. And that helped us understand a bit about giving – it wasn’t to a faceless edifice or organization, it was our alma familia and giving took on a new meaning.

Ruth: Early on when we finally got the courage to calculate our giving as a percentage of our income, it wasn’t much, but hey, you have to start somewhere. We’d ask ourselves, can we move this year from 1 to 1 ½ percent? From 1 ½ to 2?

David: We eventually got to 10 percent; some years it’s more, some years less, but to tell you the truth lately we haven’t been keeping strict track – it’s just kind of where we are right now. We’ve never really been dealt the ‘guilt’ card, so we’ve really never viewed our gifts in that way. The way we see it, we owe God everything. Everything we are, everything we have is through God.

Ruth: It is absolutely our privilege to share at least some of our gifts in ways that serve God. Sharing our money in this place – where we bump into the Holy in such surprising ways, where people work so hard to make God’s love and justice real – is a joy. We do it for ourselves, and we do it for those we have not yet met, so that they might know the joy, too.

It’s also a privilege to share our story with you. Thank you.

One of my favorite parts of the Bible is from Luke 10: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” I want to show God my love by sharing my testimony with you today.

I remember doing a webpage for earth science class at CCHS. One of my first links was a picture of the Chinese Bible Church in Lexington, MA. It made my dad happy that I showed how I believed in Jesus and accepted him in my journey and announced my faith as a Christian. I remember I had wanted to join in taking communion for a long time.

About three years ago, I was hospitalized for low oxygen saturation. The doctor gave me a diuretic to drain excess fluid from my body. A strong dose of diuretic made me fall into a deep sleep that caused carbon dioxide retention in my blood. I was brought to the ICU for treatment. My dad thought I had suffered severe damage from the carbon retention and would never wake up. But I believed in myself and I never gave up.

After I woke up in the ICU, my dad found the hospital priest. Both my mom and my dad witnessed my baptism. When Father David from St. Mary’s Church baptized me, I felt joy and relief. God’s Spirit changed me from the inside and beyond. I could not care about how I looked. I knew it was God’s work all along.

Moving to a new environment and living on my own was a new challenge. I cried and was nervous at the beginning but I was also excited to take a big step in my journey. I am very grateful to God that a new apartment was prepared for me that is close to everything I need, a library, a Laundromat, the 99, but especially West Concord Union Church, where I feel God’s at home.

I came to West Concord Union Church for the first time on September 7, 2014. I will always remember taking communion here for the first time. Very quickly I met Pastor Hannah, Maureen and Melissa who invited me to Sunday Fellowship. I came to my first Sunday Fellowship meeting that same afternoon and I have been coming ever since. I love coming to Sunday Fellowship for worship, singing, and sharing joys and concerns with friends. I love hearing the bible stories there because it helps me understand God’s Word more. I really enjoyed coming to the Sunday Fellowship Christmas Dance because I have always loved socializing and having dinner with friends. But the best part of my time with Sunday Fellowship so far has been playing Joseph in the Christmas Pageant.

Thank you mom and dad for caring and loving me. Dear God, I know you have sent your Holy Spirit to live within me forever. Thank you God for all you have done for me.