Please remember that if you have news to share in the weekly church email newsletter, you must notify Jonathan Bacon or Larry Birkby by Noon on Sunday each week.

Don’t forget to join us this week for the Sunday Morning Mission Road Worship Online and for the Wednesday Evening Prayer Circle Online (see below)!

IN THIS ISSUE:

MISSION ROAD CONGREGATION ONLINE MEETINGS

THIS SUNDAY’S WORSHIP

CHURCH RE-OPENING SURVEY RESULTS

SCHOOL SUPPLY DRIVE

NEXT FOOD PANTRY DROP OFF

VIRTUAL REUNION AND SUMMER CAMP UPDATE

And More…

MISSION ROAD CONGREGATION ONLINE MEETINGS

The Mission Road Congregation will offer several meetings in the coming weeks online.

7 PM Every Wednesday – Prayer Circle.

9 AM Every Sunday – Sunday Morning Mission Road Worship Online. More information on this Sunday’s worship is below.

7 PM July 16, 2020 – All Good Books group will have an online discussion of “The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy” by Rachel Joyce using Zoom.

THIS SUNDAY’S WORSHIP

The Sunday, July 19, 2020, worship theme is “Shine Like the Sun” and will feature a message by Dorothy May. Kennetha Kuttler will preside and serve as worship planner. Brian Libeer will provide the PowerPoint and host the Zoom meeting with assistance from Paul Bennetts.

You’re invited to join us online starting at 8:45 AM for conversation and fellowship with the worship activities beginning at 9 AM. After the service, we’ll keep the Zoom session open for folks to fellowship. We hope you can join us.

CHURCH RE-OPENING SURVEY RESULTS

We’re still reviewing the results of the Church Re-opening survey, but preliminary results (from 33 respondents) are shown below:

Question: Under the guidelines listed above (by the World Church) and assuming that Mission Road offers both face-to-face worship and online worship (using Zoom), which are you most likely to attend?

42.4% attend in person

36.4% attend only online

18.2% undecided

3% do not plan to attend currently

Question: Would you be interested in attending in an outdoor setting (church lawn or in a park) with social distancing and face masks?

48.5% yes

30.3% undecided

21.2% would not attend

Question: Are you interested in attending an adult class if offered?

42.4% no, thank you

36.4% yes, if online

21.2% yes, if face-to-face and with social distancing and face masks

More details coming soon, however, you should have already seen the Facebook posting or email message about the World Church criteria that COVID-19 cases should be stable or declining for three (3) weeks before face-to-face meetings are resumed. Johnson County, Kansas does not yet meet that criterion.

SCHOOL SUPPLY DRIVE

What items does the Center of Hope need? In addition to the regular food and personal hygiene needs, the Center is beginning its school supply drive. These supplies make the difference for many children served by CACH who otherwise might be going to school without the tools they need to fully participate.

Items that are most needed include bottles of school glue (Elmer’s), sets of 24 crayons, pencil crayons, blue pens, red pens, package of twelve #2 pencils, pink erasers, glue sticks, pair of blunt tip (Fiskars) scissors, pencil cases, pocket folders, subject dividers, packages of lined paper, packages of plain (copy) paper, lined wide ruled spiral bound notebooks, 12” rulers, boxes of tissues, broad tip markers, packages of washable felt tip markers, 1” binders, pocket dictionaries, pencil sharpeners, highlighters, bottles of hand sanitizer, and primary composition notebooks. These items cover school supplies needed for Kindergarten through 6th grade students.

When shopping for your children or grandchildren, pick up some extras for the CACH. Anything you can bring between now and the end of August will be a blessing for these school children.

NEXT FOOD PANTRY DROP OFF

Every other week you are encouraged to drop off foodstuffs for the Central Avenue Center of Hope. The next drop-off will be on Saturday, July 25, 2020, from 10 AM to noon, there will be a large box outside the front entrance of the church for you to leave your donations.

Your contributions are especially important during the current pandemic. Robin Payne will pick up the contributions at Noon then Susan and Merrill Clark will deliver the items to the Center for Hope.

VIRTUAL REUNION AND SUMMER CAMP UPDATE

We are disappointed we will be unable to gather at reunions and youth camps this summer. However, there will be a Midlands Virtual Reunion beginning a 9 AM on Saturday, July 18 and concluding at noon on Sunday, July 19, 2020.

Current plans call for each congregation to join the Midlands Worship Service (part of the virtual reunion) beginning at 10:00 AM on July 19th. The schedule will be posted next week.

Note: Mission Road Congregation will still hold its worship service online on July 19, 2020 starting at 9:00 AM and conclude in time for members to attend the Virtual Reunion worship that begins at 10:30 AM.

Link to Register and receive Zoom links: https://bit.ly/2AHAyvN

Link to Donate: https://bit.ly/31cpQrP

TITHES AND OFFERINGS

Please remember that church expenses continue, even when we’re not meeting in the building. Mary Reichenbach, the Congregation’s Financial Officer has indicated that contributions can be mailed to her house (10223 Briar Dr., Overland Park, KS 66207) or the church (7842 Mission Road, Prairie Village, KS 66208), or you can sign up for eTithing on the World Church website https://www.cofchrist.org/etithing). Any of these options will enable you to continue your regular contributions.

If you use the eTithing site, select the United States link and then scroll down to Mission Road Community of Christ. When you click on that page, there will be an option in the upper right hand corner to ’sign up’ to create your account and enter either your bank account information for direct debit or a credit card to charge your contribution, or ’sign in’ if you have already set up your account. You may also choose a one-time contribution or a continuing contribution. Most of the contribution options on our tithing envelopes are available on the Mission Road eTithing page. If you have additional questions about electronic contributions, please contact Mary.

2020 CALENDAR

October

18 – Midlands MC Conference

November

6–8 – TWIST

TBD Seventy, High Priest, Bishop, Evangelist Gathering

DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE WITHOUT EMAIL OR FACEBOOK ACCESS?

If you know someone in the congregation that does not have email and does not use Facebook, please let Jonathan Bacon know. We are trying to be sure everyone in the congregation has access to periodic news updates and information on congregational activities.

CONCERNING PRAYER REQUESTS

Please know that any member of the congregation can post prayer requests or share information about members and events on the Mission Road Members Only Facebook page. You do not need to send the information for approval to anyone. In fact, doing so may slow down the dissemination of your request. Be sure to include the person needing prayers and what situation has occurred (if you wish to share that information). If your post concerns an event or news item, be sure to include the basics in your posting (such as who, what, where and when).

For prayer requests, if you do not have access to Facebook, then please call Paul Bennetts our Congregational Pastoral Care Coordinator.

OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE VIA EMAIL

The email address for general church drafts of your Order of Worship and church business (Clint Reine) is mrcoc

The email address for CFO business (Mary Reichenbach) is mrcoccfo

IMPORTANT CONGREGATIONAL LINKS

The Mission Road Congregation hosts the following social media sites:

Congregational (public) website at www.mission-road.org

Facebook Page (public) at https://www.facebook.com/MissionRoad.CoC

Facebook Group (open only to congregational members) at https://www.facebook.com/groups/MissionRoad/

The All Good Books discussion group website at https://allbooksclub.wordpress.com/

Visit and "like" each of these sites to keep up-to-date on congregational news.

CONGREGATIONAL NEWS EMAIL

If you have news items and calendar additions or changes that need to be included in the congregational news email, please contact Larry Birkby. His email address and phone number are both in the Church Directory.