For faith leaders, educators, parents, youth leaders, and students who want to make congregations more welcoming by supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and allied youth!

Sessions include:

• Harm reduction & suicide prevention
• Youth ministry outreach
• Support for parents
• Youth sharing their stories
• “Breakthrough Conversations” training

Admission includes lunch:

• $25 – General Admission
• Free – Youth 18 and under

Register at www.cwcbay.org/events/youth.

Quiz question:  Who do most people at our church name as the first person who welcomed them on a Sunday morning?   If your answer is “Art Gifford,” it’s probably because you, like many of us, have first-hand experience of Art’s amazing way of making you feel you’ve come home.  As you might know, Art is moving to a new home of his own near Dallas, Texas.  This Sunday is his last time to worship with us before setting out on a new adventure at the age of 92!  Please join us in honoring Art and saying, “Bon Voyage!”

Blessings in this Easter Season of New Beginnings!

Pastor Michael

Jesus called his followers ”friends,” not family.  But his teaching on friendship actually helps families of every kind  become stronger.  Find out how in this Sunday’s message.  And in the class before worship, learn how to negotiate family disapproval in your life by seeing how it’s done in the Bible.

This Sunday morning at College Avenue is a great way to begin Mother’s Day, when our thoughts often turn to family pains and joys.

Blessings in the Easter Season of New Beginnings!

Pastor Michael

Did you know that real wages in the US continually increased between 1820 and 1970 and then stopped increasing altogether—even though worker productivity continued to increase?  (Real wages are the money adjusted for the prices you have to pay.)

Want to know why that happened and what it’s got to do with economic justice in the U.S?  Want to know what that wage phenomenon has got to do with the Occupy Movement and why communities of faith like ours should participate in Occupy?   Then read Richard Wolff’s succinct, short, clearly-written book Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism, published by City Lights Books.

The book has really helped me understand basic economic stuff and opened my eyes to the important role of the Occupy Movement.   If you’d like to try the book yourself,  maybe a bunch of us could read it together at College Avenue.   If you’re interested in a book discussion of Occupy the Economy, let me know!

Blessings in this Easter Season of Hope!

Pastor Michael

 SPRING ART & QUILT FESTIVAL

Our beloved CACC is such a lively, growing and wonderfully diverse congregation! But have you ever wished you were better acquainted with some of the folks you shake hands with at the beginning of worship or drink coffer with after church? Have you ever yearned to have a leisurely informal time to connect with others in your church family with no official agenda, in a creative, inspiring setting?

Our Women of Wonder affinity group, with the much-appreciated expertise of the Men of Might and our youth groups, will present our first Spring Art and Quilt Festival on Saturday, May 12. For our church community it will offer a leisurely opportunity to enjoy being together, surrounded by an impressive array of art created by our members/friends and young people. For the wider Modesto area community, it will allow people to know who we are at CACC, as they enjoy the creative work of local artists.

This free event will take place in Fellowship Hall and our church grounds on the Saturday of Mothers’ Day weekend, from 11 am to 4 pm. and will showcase quilts made by our congregation’s Quilting Group, as well as a variety of paintings, drawings, photographs, sculpture, and mixed-media art, and a display in memory of past CACC artists Glenna Anderson, Karen Cox, Evelyn Mayman and Paul Sesser.

It will be family-friendly, with paint easels and sidewalk chalk offering children an opportunity to create their own artwork. Some art will be for sale, a quilt hand-made by Liz Carota will be raffled, and a silent auction of beloved artwork will add support to our budget.

You will be able to read about our festival in Stanislaus Connections, look for a notice in the Modesto Bee, and see posters around town. And, yes, you may volunteer to help make this event a glorious success, by taking a 2-hour shift as a greeter, docent or cashier, or helping with children’s activities, feeding the volunteers, or helping with set-up, take-down, or clean-up. To volunteer, e-mail modpatti@yahoo.com or call 521-1080. Also look for our table after church where you can buy a raffle ticket for the beautiful quilt and can sign up to volunteer to help with the fun.

It will indeed be a grand occasion! See you all there! And many thanks to WOW, MOM, our young people, and those of you who will join us at the Festival and/or offer to help!

Come and experience spiritually and the arts thru the process of Soul Collage. Thru this process of choosing images and open reflection, each participant will create a card that reflects who they are as a person of God.

All materials are provided–everyone is invited.

Contact person is Erin King

What is wholeness?  Is it perfection or something much richer and more attainable?  Our hearts know the answer to that question.  Let’s listen to our hearts together in tonight’s conversation on “Healthy Congregations” at 6 pm in Fellowship Hall.  Part One of this series explores the meaning of wholeness for a community of faith like ours.  The leader of tonight’s conversation is Mary Richardson, a specialist in congregational health.  Light refreshments will be provided.

Blessings in this Easter Season of New Life!

Pastor Michael 

“Families in the Bible: Their Issues and Yours,” 9am, the Sundays of May and June. Youth Room, next door to Café Esperanza.

Topics include:

• Family Disapproval
• In-Laws
• Sibling Rivalry
• Mothers and Sons
• Fathers and Daughters
• Elder Care
• Cranky Older Relatives
• Family Favoritism

Medieval alchemists searched unsuccessfully for a way to turn common lead into precious gold.  Did you know you have the power that eluded those alchemists?  Find out more in this Sunday’s message.

Blessings in the joyful season of Easter!

Pastor Michael