Tonight

Ladies, do not forget that tonight is the last presentation in the TenthWomen's Friday Evening Teaching Series. Ed Welch will be speaking on "The Restless Heart" at 7:00.

Thanksgiving Day Worship and Parade

Here is a map and info about Thursday's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which begins at 8:15 and runs over three hours.

Don't forget the church Thanksgiving service beginning at 11:00 am.

CCA Report

Ray Withers sent me this report on CCA, of which I am a board member:

Urban Family Council finished up their four part presentation to our students regarding a biblical perspective on marriage and dating. It was well received by students, and faculty were generally affirmative.

We had an excellent in-service last Friday, working on curriculum scope and sequence in preparation towards accreditation.

Please pray for our success Friday with the open house. Many families have applied affirmatively to coming; it's a good opportunity for next year's enrollment. (4:30-7:30)

Aaron on Loneliness

Aaron Messner will speak on the subject of loneliness this Sunday at the Bridge-Builders luncheon. All are invited. It is from 1:00-3:00 in Fellowship Hall. Register by emailing David Apple at dapple@tenth.org. Just tell him you are coming.

Narnia Night

"Understand that you have given me Narnia forever, you have lost your own life and you have not saved his. In that knowledge, despair and die."

From "The Triumph of the Witch" in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Bryan Glass will perform a dramatic reading of this chapter tonight. If you've seen Bryan perform, you can imagine the emotion he will put into that line.

The reading and lecture tonight by Leland Ryken begin at 7:00 pm in the sanctuary.

Out of Bondage

The scaffolding is half-way down. You should see a freed tower on Sunday, maybe even tonight.

Walking Back

Just walked back from the Youth Study Center on the Parkway. David Apple goes there every Wednesday at noon to have prayer with any staff who comes by. I fill in when he's away. A couple of men dropped in for prayer. It is encouraging to meet these staff who enjoy their work and truly care for the kids.

On my way back, ran into Chun Shin who directs the Angel Tree Tutoring ministry. The volunteers meet with kids every Saturday for academic tutoring and mentoring - one volunteer per child. This Saturday is their last session until the new year.

The scaffolding around the tower is halfway down. Workers were also painting the walkways on the corner.

He's Arrived

Jonathan McCarthy has started his new job as Head Sexton today. He is roaming about the building with Pat now.

CCA Takeout

Pat Canavan sent this notice to the staff:
The annual CCA Senior Thanksgiving dinner will be held on Tuesday, November 22, beginning at noon in Fellowship Hall. This is an opportunity to directly benefit the seniors and their families because the proceeds from this dinner will help defray the cost of their annual social and class trip.
I will place a dinner order form in your mailboxes later this week. You can give me your completed form and money by Monday, November 21.

If you are in Center City, how about joining us? You can sit down or take out. I'll see that order forms are placed in the display rack in Delancey Lobby. You can fill one out and place in the CCA mailbox in the mailroom. You can also call CCA for further information at 215.731.1930. Maybe take some orders for your office.

Congregational Dessert and Meeting

From the Diaconate:

Everyone is invited to attend the Congregational Dessert in Fellowship Hall December 2 at 6:00 p.m. followed by the Congregational Meeting in the Sanctuary at 7:30 p.m. There is no charge for this event. A bake sale and dessert auction will benefit Maranatha summer missions trips. Please join us for dessert and fellowship.

Nursery and child care is available starting at 7:10 p.m. Nursery care is available for children through age 4 at the Reception Hall Drop-Off Desk. A movie for older children over 5 years old will be offered in 1701 Delancey Street, 1 West, starting at 7:30 p.m. To register for nursery and child care, please contact the Church office at 215-735-7688 x221 or nhala@tenth.org by Wednesday, November 30.

There is no registration needed for the Congregational Dessert. We hope you can join us on December 2 for the Congregational Dessert, a time of fellowship, and the Congregational Meeting!

Christmas Sales

Your Christmas gift shopping dreams are coming true! Beginning this Sunday, you will find the following reduced prices in Tenth's bookstore:

Tenth DVD - $15
Tenth Ministers' CD - $5 (sermons by Barnhouse, Di Ganzi, Boice, and Ryken
Boice Booklet - $3
Tenth History - $5

Marathon Sunday

The Philadelphia Marathon is Sunday. The race begins at 8:00 am and the course is closed for 5 and 1/2 hours. Click here to see the map of the race. Those of you in the north are most affected. You will want to take 95 down past Washington Avenue or 76 down to South Street. NJ folks should come across the Walt Whitman Bridge. The race starts and ends in front of the Art Museum.

Fine Italian Cuisine

That is what the restaurant will offer that is moving into the building on the corner of Spruce across from the church. It is good to see someone occupy it after years of being empty.

Colonoscopy

I will be having one Friday now that I have turned 50. I announce this because there are many of you who should have one and yet put it off. Make that appointment!

Staff Away

Bruce McDowell is away this week attending a missions conference in North Carolina on unreached people groups, and then heading to Atlanta for further missions meetings. Jonathan Olsen will also be at the Atlanta meeting. David Apple leaves tomorrow for the annual meeting of the Christian Community Development Association in Indianopolis. Next year the meeting will be in Philadelphia.

Prayer Request

This came in from Jeff White of New Song (PCA) in New York City:

Friends of New Song,

This is the first time I have sent out a call to prayer for a specific issue at New Song. However, I believe this is crucial.Later today, the New Song Community Partnership, our community development organization which is directed by Robye Patrick, will be turning in a proposal to the city to develop over 50 units of affordable housing. Hundreds of hours have been put in to developing this proposal and we think it is very strong. If accepted folks with lower incomes in our community will have a genuine opportunity at homeownership. This will also prepare the way for even more opportunities in the future. However, many other organizations will be going after the same project. We are therefore calling on the church community to pray on a regular basis for this proposal to meet with favor and be chosen as the winning proposal. The selection will not be known until February.

From the 1977 Annual Report

Tenth Chamber Orchestra

The Tenth Chamber Orchestra is now in its third year of playing for worship services. Composed of instrumentalists from nearby schools of music, the Tenth Orchestra has utilized the services of more than sixty young and talented musicians. It has provided fellowship for many gifted artists and drawn into its membership those for whom the Gospel has not yet become a personal reality. Thus it has become a vehicle for the edification of Christians and the evangelization of the lost. Ensembles from within the orchestra have been regular performers at special church functions such as the Joyful Sound and the Conferences on Reformed Theology. 1978 promies to be an exciting year as the orchestra reaches more symphonic than chamber proportions.

For the Orchestra,
Stuart D. Sacks, Director

ETS Begins

Christianity in the Early Centuries - that is the theme of the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, which begins today in Valley Forge. Click here if you want to check out the conference.

New Head Sexton

Our new head sexton arrives tomorrow. He is Jonathan McCarthy, Tenth member. Jonathan is coming from another church where he served in the same position. Pray for his initiation into the busy, hectic world of Tenth staff.

All the World's a Stage

I've asked Linda Boice if she would send in periodic reports about whatever she would like - CCA incidents, book recommendations, etc. Just got this incident which took place on Monday:

I have to relate this incident from English 12 today. We were well into Act III of Hamlet, students reading the parts well. (We begin every class with fierce competition over who gets to read the "best," i.e. the longest parts. I feel like a referee.) The "play within the play" was unfolding, the king's guilty deed about to be acted out in front of Claudius and all the court of Denmark. Suddenly the bell rang, signalling the end of class, and immediately everyone went "oh-h-h." No one wanted to stop reading. Shakespeare was once again weaving his magic spell. None of us can wait until tomorrow, and I am wondering why people aren't clamoring to teach these teens as the teens are clamoring to be Polonius and Ophelia, King Claudius and Hamlet himself.

In the Mail

The staff is busy preparing the congregational mailing to go out this week. It will include a letter from our senior minister, the list of nominees for elder, deacon/ness, and nominating committee. And it will have a condensed version of the church budget.

Why condensed? So you can more easily get the whole picture of the budget and how it is apportioned. I think you will find it helpful. Copies of the detailed budget will be available as always in the lobbies and at the congregational forum (Nov 27, 12:30) and congregational meeting (Dec 2, 7:30 pm).

What you will not be getting are the pledge cards. Instead, you will receive later materials that will help you determine how to apportion your giving to the budgets and help you in planning how to give. We believe that you want to tithe, and we will be providing aid throughout the year to help you achieve that goal. We will do that by being more publicly accountable in our stewardship (how the budgets are carrying on the ministry of the church) and by providing practical assistance in helping you be accountable to God for your stewardship of what he has given you.

A Trip to the Tripps

The staff is escaping today, at least some of us. We are heading over at noon to Gallery Siano, the art gallery for which Louella Tripp is curator. Check out the site at www.gallerysiano.com. Paul Tripp, whose work is included in the show, will be there as well.

Voilà!

So, late Friday afternoon, as I wait for the concert of French music sponsored by the Hugenot Society, I am looking through ancestral papers, researching a question for my sister. Lo and behold, I come across a history of the Pattillo family from whom I am descended and discover that my ancestors were French Hugenots who escaped from persecution to Scotland. George Pattillo stayed in Scotland, raised three sons, two of whom immigrated to America. This adds to my illustrious ancestry which includes a signer of the Declaration of Independence, William Hooper. Voilà!

Christmas Bazaar

The New Life Thrift Shop will be having our annual Christmas Bazaar (selling a year of Christmas donations-more than enough to fill the church) at New Life Glenside, 467 N. Easton Rd, Friday and Saturday, December 2nd and 3rd.

Scaffolding Coming Down

The scaffolding has started coming down. By Sunday, the building should be free of its bondage.

Hey, Buddy, Can You Spare 68 Cents?

Scene: (Aaron Messner and Phil Ryken riding to presbytery in Quakertown; Aaron is driving)

Phil: Gee, I forgot my wallet. You do have money for the toll?
Aaron: I was hoping you'd have some. All I've got is 82 cents.

Scene: (They get to the ticket booths; Aaron accidentally goes through the EZ pass lane. They drive on and finally come to the exit booth.)

Booth operator: Ticket, please.
Aaron: We don't have a ticket.
Operator: (Sighs) Then where did you get on.
Phil: We don't know. We came from Philadelphia.
Operator: Then you got on the Mid-County Exit. Okay, well just pay the toll. That will be $1.50.
Aaron: (Holds out his hands with change.) All I've got is 82 cents. Can you take a credit card?
Operator: No, but I can take a personal check.
Aaron: I don't have a check.
Operator: (Sighs; he then closes down his booth, redirects traffic, and calls his supervisor) All right, let me see your drivers license.
(Aaron shows him the license still in his wallet.)
Operator: No, no. Take it out of your wallet.
(Aaron then drops the license outside the window. Gets out and hands to operator. Finally, they leave wiser and humbler with a form to fill out and only an extra $1 to send in.)

I've Got to Brag

how about my South Carolina Gamecocks! We beat Florida for the first time Saturday. It was our fifth straight SEC conference win (never before done). We are actually in the Top 20 (#19) and second in the SEC East. Now, we have to take care of Clemson next Saturday, our hated arch-rivals. Stay tuned.

Friday Night Live

Friday night has three special events to add to the TIF Conversational English class. CCA is hosting an open house from 4:30-7:30. Carroll is hosting a “Stanford Reid Seminar.” We’ll get him to explain. And TenthWomen are having their finale of their Friday teaching series. Ed Welch will be speaking.

Through the Wardrobe

To Lucy Barfield

My dear Lucy,

I wrote this story for you, but when I began it, I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound, you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand a word you say, but I shall still be

your affectionate Godfather,
C. S. Lewis

If you are not too young or too old to enjoy the Narnia Chronicles, come out and invite your friends to "Reading Narnia with C. S. Lewis." Professor Leland Ryken will speak on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Bryan Glass will perform a dramatic reading from the chapter "The Triumph of the Witch."

It will be 7 pm, this Thursday at the church. We are still deciding what room. Perhaps the sanctuary if we think enough will attend.

Beautiful Weather

It is November 14, and I have my windows open to cool down my study. Did I wake up back in Florida? But then I see the beautiful golden leaf tree across the street. I didn't have that in Florida.

Last Night's Sermon Message

"I will not offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing."

This is the line George Murray had us recite, taken from 1 Chronicles 21:24.

Men's Prayer Meeting

How did the men's prayer meeting Saturday morning go? I had to go out of town to a funeral and missed it. I'd also like to hear about the ladies teas.

Missions Conference

What a great missions conference! Bruce and the Missions Commission must be commended for choosing an excellent them (Spiritual Warfare and Prayer) and superb preachers. I knew something was up when George Murray asked for a wireless mike! If you missed the conference, be sure to get a tape or go to the webcast and listen to Clive Calver's and George Murray's messages. I don't know if a copy is available of the evening message on November 6. I will look into it.

Our prayer meetings were overflowing. The Sunday prayer meeting at 4:00 for the Persecuted Church at 30 people, and the 5:30 meeting had over 20. Pray that these numbers are but the start of an increase participation in corporate prayer throughout the church. Some of my readers have noted the inconvenient meeting times. I encourage you to start other meetings at other locations. It would be great to have monthly prayer meetings in each parish.

Let me hear your comments on the conference.