Trite as the saying may be, it’s still true. If you don’t care where you’re going, any road will do. But how often do we truly not care where we end up? Even when we say we don’t care who picks the movie or the restaurant, just let someone suggest something and you’ll suddenly find you did care. The New Year presents all of us at Shiloh with the time to consider where it is we want to end up this year. End up individually. End up as a congregation. End up as part of the community around us. The New Year presents us with a time to decide what it is we actually care about. Then having figured out what that is, it is up to us as followers of Jesus Christ to try and discern how God would have us behave.

We begin this January building upon the momentum of our Advent and Christmas. Administrative Council will be meeting in retreat in mid-January for a training time on strengths-based leadership and communication. The entire church is invited to save Sunday evening, January 31st for a potluck dinner State of the Church gathering in which we will share our thoughts on Shiloh’s mission and ministry for 2010. Our Youth Group will continue its activities through Breath of Life, weekly gatherings and a weekend outing to the Winter Blitz 2010 at the Kentucky Convention Center. This yearly gathering of the youth of the Kentucky Conference is a loud, lively inspiring time of faith-sharing from some of the country’s leading youth speakers and musicians. Our Tuesday night small group resumes with “Bo’s Café”, a story of one man’s encounters with grace at an amazing café, published by the people who brought The Shack to publication. Our Sunday School class for adults will also begin a new study in January, “I Can’t See God Because I’m in the Way” in which we explore the possibility that God’s abundant life is present for us if we just change our spiritual perspective. Our women’s small groups on Sunday morning and Friday lunch continue meeting and will be selecting new materials later in the month.

The one thing we all know we care about is that Shiloh’s sense of family, where we know each person by name, continues to be central to our mission and ministry. Be sure to know that you will be missed if you are not with us in worship, in fellowship, in study and in ministry this January.
Pastor Susan

Thanks to everyone who sewed and decorated stockings for children of inmates and residents of juvenile detention halls in Kentuckiana. Shiloh delivered 112 stockings to Evangel Prison Ministry to be delivered ! Remember, you can sew stockings all year, so get a head start!

Fear. It doesn’t just gnaw at the hearts of 21st century men and women living in times of too fast change and too slow joys. No. Fear has stalked us since that day in the Garden when our hands were sticky with apple and we heard God calling us. The Bible uses the word fear over 400 times and describes us as fearful, fearful hearted, fearing, full of fearfulness and just plain afraid. The heart of fear never changes even if the causes come wrapped in different clothes. The big ones: death, illness, pain, abandonment. Bad enough to be afraid for ourselves. Agony to be afraid for our children and those we love. The one difference is that we have lost the illusion of times of relative safety unless we turn off CNN and Fox News and our computers which constantly remind that somewhere near us, someone just suffered a tragedy. Who wouldn’t be afraid?

This September 13th and thereafter you are invited to a ‘Fearless Fall” at Shiloh Church. We will begin a time when both in sermon and during our Tuesday evening DVD study time we challenge each other to be more fearless, less fearful. We’ll will read together Max Lucado’s new book “Fearless” and look at the different fears that leave us paralyzed, unable to enjoy and share the grace of God, robbing ourselves of the richness of life Jesus came to give each one of us. Our sermon series beginning that Sunday will be part of this church wide time in which we open ourselves to the radical message of power and hope of our faith. Mac Lucado writes this in his introduction to Fearless:

Imagine your life, wholly untouched by angst. What if faith, not fear, was your default reaction to threats? If you could hover a fear magnet over your heart and extract every last shaving of dread, insecurity, and doubt, what would remain? Envision a day, just one day, when you could trust more and fear less.

Can you imagine your life without fear?

You won’t want to miss our worship on the 13th as we begin our Fearless Fall…you won’t want to miss inviting friends and family in special need of these weeks of empowerment.

You know there are 168 hours in a week. You just don’t know where they all go. So…why not take one of those hours you don’t what you did with and give it over to God?

Really. Why not? There are men’s groups Sat am @7 at the DQ in Prospect and 7 pm @ Java on Thursdays. Talk to Bill Parker or Jim Morse or Joe Taylor or Dave Jennings….

At home on Fridays? Women meet at noon for lunch and a great time of sharing around the book of the month. Talk to Carolyn Wade or Ann Hart or Melanie Winkle…

No good TV on Tuesdays? Join us at 7 for the Max Lucado ‘Fearless’ DVD study, complete with light dessert. Talk to Jim Morse or Jody Arthur or Iva Morse….

In need of prayer and support Wednesday morning? Our prayer group meets at 9 am for prayer and a devotional time on spiritual growth. Talk to Sherry Parker or Pastor Susan…

Oct 30th-Fall Festival —Old Fashioned Community Halloween Celebration

November 7th-Susannah Wesley Annual Chili Dinner and Auction

November 8th-Charge Conference