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The Safe Car Park program will be back to CGS in April. Once again help is needed to assist in welcoming the guests to our church site. As a member of the Silicon Valley Safe Car Park network, CGS participates in hosting single adults and families sleeping in their vehicles to have a secure parking lot space. Our church community has been very welcoming to Safe Car Park guests, and now is the time to begin planning for the April visit. Volunteers will be needed for evening check-in (6:30 p.m.) and morning check-out (7:30 a.m.). With COVID restrictions lifting, we will host a community meal on Monday nights. Please use the sign-up sheet if you would like to donate to one of those meals. Donations of restaurant/grocery gift cards and gasoline gift cards are also always needed. In addition, donations of non-perishable snacks will be gladly accepted. (Please, all snacks must be individually wrapped.) We have set up an Amazon wish list link, to make it easy for you to donate and have it delivered to the church.

The current link for instructions and volunteers to sign-up is below:
SIGN UP sheet on Sign Up Genius
INSTRUCTIONS for volunteers A volunteer orientation will be held (if needed) after worship on March 20th.

Grab a coffee and a donut and join us on the patio. We look forward to welcoming Safe Car Park guests to CGS, and providing them a warm and welcoming place. Please feel free to contact anyone on the team if you have any questions. Sarah Janigian Rachel Visscher Kevin Visscher Chelsea Byom

Your answers to this survey's questions will help your call committee in
two ways. First, they will help your call committee complete the
Ministry Site Profile, which provides candidates with a sense of what
our congregation is like. Secondly, your answers will help guide the
committee as it interviews candidates.

The survey is anonymous (no sign-in to Google is needed) and email
addresses are not being collected. We appreciate your time and
thoughtful responses. Don't hesitate to contact any of the committee
members (Adolfo Ramirez, Julia Tranchina, Matt Byom, Paul Thomas, Randy
Presuhn, Sarah Janigian) with your thoughts and feelings regarding our
next pastor!

The survey should be completed by each member of your household who
is involved with CGS, regardless of whether they currently have voting
status. The committee will begin its analysis of the survey data on
Wednesday, March 2nd, so please fill it out now. We've worked hard
to keep it really short!

Survey can be found in the newsletter or by emailing the church office.

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Call Committee Corner

2/22/2022

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Call Committee article for weekly bulletin

Coming Soon…congregational survey! The Call Committee spent much of our last two meetings determining where congregational input is needed as we work through responses to the Ministry Site Profile. A survey is being finalized that asks you to respond in three specific areas: pastoral leadership, energy and what excites us as a congregation, and Social Justice issues. You should look for the survey coming to you soon.

The Ministry Site Profile is an important document in our Call process. The information we provide is used by the Synod office find candidates for our congregation, and for prospective candidates to get a good picture of who we are and whether they would be a good match for us. It is not easy. It does take time. The Call Committee is committed to finding a good fit for our congregation.

We do take your input and feedback seriously. All the comments we receive help us frame the responses in our Ministry Site Profile document. Thank you for your input, and please continue to let us know your thoughts. A reminder that the Call Committee members are Matt Byom, Sarah Janigian, Randy Presuhn (Chairperson), Adolfo Ramirez, Paul Thomas, and Julia Tranchina.

Please keep the Call Committee in your prayers.

Sarah Janigian

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A Reflection from John 12

2/14/2022

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A reflection from John 12

“Mary took a pound of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume… Jesus said “Leave her alone. She bought it so she might keep it for my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you don’t always have.”

Many years ago, I was invited to lead the Chapel services at a clergy retreat in Southern California.
   There were flowers arranged and candles lit. A sense of peace filled the small chapel space.
   I tend to be a bit of a creative rebel and felt that the retreat was just a tad too structured so I decided to use this Bible text to create a ritual.
   With no budget given, I set off to the drugstore scanning the shelves, for a cream infused with the unforgettable scent and a small container of glitter.
   Glitter was in the children’s craft section and the nard, in a moment of genius came in the form of a large container of Noxzema. If you don’t know what Noxzema is, think of heavy nightly cleansing cream scented like a muted eucalyptus tree with tones of aftershave.
   Later that evening, the few attendees filtered in and we began by praying and reading the text.
   These were tired pastors, seeking restoration. What began as my light-hearted attempt to create a ritual of restoration became serious when one of the attendees, a young overburdened pastor began to weep when I anointed him with the glitter-infused cream. He later said that he was always the one caring for others and once he felt himself cared for in this gentle manner of prayer and touch, something came to life in him
   This was the time of snail mail, and some days later, I received a letter from him asking me for the written liturgy of our service and where he could purchase the anointing cream.
   I don’t remember how I answered, but I know that expensive perfume simply involves a gesture of love and that a liturgy of anointment sometimes occurs best in the moment without written words.

- Pastor Jill Ross

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Call Committee Corner

2/14/2022

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The Call Committee continues to meet and work on the documentation we will submit to the Synod so we can allow possible candidates to best understand who we are. This week, for example, we had a long discussion on Purpose, Giftedness, and Mission.

As my college wrote last week, that documentation is the Ministry Site Profile (MSP). It will be used by the Bishop to match the candidate pastor's ministry skills to the needs of our congregation and will aid the candidate pastors in deciding if they are interested in serving at CGS.

The members of your Call Committee are Randy Presuhn, Chair, Paul Thomas,
Sarah Janigian, Matt Byom, Adolfo Ramirez, and Julia Tranchina, and we all greatly appreciate your prayers and support at this time. We hope to get a survey out to the congregation soon to help us complete the challenging components of our site profile. Please continue to talk to us about any ideas you may have about what we should be looking for in our next Pastor and keep us in your prayers.

- Paul

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Call Committee Corner

2/8/2022

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Your Call Committee continues to meet weekly. We have been steadfast in our efforts to conclude our discussion on the Leadership Needs section of our Ministry Site Profile form. This is the section that will identify what is most important to our congregation and how a pastoral candidate will contribute to our mission. These past few weeks we have been discussing and sometimes debating what we, as a committee think the "Top Five Ministry Tasks" and "Gifts for Ministry" parts of the MSP should emphasize.

Just a refresher, the Ministry Site Profile (MSP) is a very important tool in the call process. It will be used by the Bishop to match the candidate pastor's ministry skills to the needs of our congregation and will aid the candidate pastors in deciding if they are interested in serving at CGS.

That said, The members of your Call Committee Randy Presuhn, Chair, Paul Thomas,
Sarah Janigian, Matt Byom, Adolfo Ramirez, and Julia Tranchina greatly appreciate your prayers and support. We hope to get a survey out to the congregation soon to help us complete the challenging components of our site profile.

-Julia

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Safe Car Park at CGS

Call Committee Corner

Call Committee Corner

A Reflection from John 12

Call Committee Corner

Call Committee Corner

Christ the Good Shepherd

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