Tomorrow is board game night at Joanna and Ryan’s house! You’re invited to join us starting at 6:30 on January 31. Bring games and/or snacks to share if you’d like–we’ll have plenty on hand. (Note that the 2024 church directory has an old address. Contact Joanna if you need her address: joanna@bethelcollegemennonitechurch.org.)
BETHEL COLLEGE MENNONITE CHURCH
WORSHIP SERVICE AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
February 1, 2026
Our faith in a God of love leads us, by the power of the Spirit,
to follow Jesus in doing justice, loving mercy,
and walking humbly with God.
To livestream the worship service for Sunday, January 18:
On Sunday morning, around 9:20 a.m. go to BCMC’s webpage at bethelcollegemennonitechurch.org and click the green button labeled LIVE STREAM on the right side of the screen, which will take you to the worship service. If you get a message in the black box that the video is unavailable, click the gray box below that says “View Live Stream on YouTube”. Anytime after the service concludes, you can watch a recording of the service at your convenience by clicking the same green LIVE STREAM button. Again, you will probably have to go to the gray box that says “View Live Stream on YouTube”. That will transfer you to the BCMC YouTube Channel. You will have to click on the tab “Videos” to see all of the BCMC videos. Click the red button to see the bulletin/order of service.
OR – click on this link for this Sunday: https://youtube.com/live/gNbc-S7wTqU?feature=share
Use extra caution when coming to the church this Sunday, even though the temperature will be 51 degrees on Sunday, Saturday will only have been 24 degrees with a low of 17 degrees. There might be icy spots here and there. We have most sidewalks cleared (thank you Kevin Neufeld!), but there are mounds of snow that we haven’t been able to move.
BETHEL COLLEGE MENNONITE CHURCH
February 1, 2026
Christ Candle Lighting
Centering Music—My Lord, What a Morning (arr. R. Lau)
Will Wiebe-Friesen
Welcome and Land Acknowledgment—Erin Brubacher
*Hymn—O Worship Our God, All Glorious Above—VT 74
Children and Youth Conversation
Worship Music–Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing (arr. J.R. Martin)–Will Wiebe-Friesen, piano
Scripture Reading–Matthew 5:3-12 (VT 295)–Richard Friesen
*Hymn—We Praise You, O God, Our Redeemer—VT 34
Scripture Reading—Micah 6:1-8–Richard Friesen, Dorothy Nickel Friesen, Joanna Harader
Sermon—Generous Worship—Joanna Harader
*Hymn—What Does the Lord Require of You?–VT 207
Receiving the Offering and Prayers of God’s People—Erin Brubacher
*Hymn—Go My Friends in Grace—VT 810
Those with January birthdays are welcome to come forward during this hymn to receive a birthday blessing.
*Benediction
Postlude–Little Prelude and Fugue in C Major (J.S. Bach)
* You are invited to stand
VT—Voices Together
Keyboard—Will Wiebe-Friesen
Audio visual—Ken Lamp
Land Acknowledgement from words by Mark Charles and VT #878
As we do on the first Sunday of each month,
we acknowledge that we worship
on the land of the Kanza, Osage, and Wichita.
We thank them for their care and respect for this land
and acknowledge the injustice of their forced removal.
We ask the Spirit to heal our histories
and find new paths of right relationships with them
and all of creation
GOING BEYOND LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
—Have you read the BCMC land acknowledgement, history and prayer available at the doors to the church? Find it, read it, and share it.
—New hope for Oak Flat and the sacred lands of the Apache Stronghold. As her first bill after she was seated, newly elected Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva put forth the Save Oak Flat from Foreign Mining Act. We are being asked to contact our representatives and ask them to co-sponsor this bill as well as to call co-sponsors and thank them for co-sponsoring. BCMC Indigenous Task Group will be sponsoring an event to carry out these actions in February here at BCMC. Watch for the date and come join us. This gives us a chance to work on behalf of saving Oak Flat!
The Week at BCMC: February 1—8, 2026
Sunday, February 1, 2026—Worthy Worship
Worship 9:30 a.m.
YouTube Link for the worship service this Sunday:
https://youtube.com/live/gNbc-S7wTqU?feature=share
10:45 a.m. Membership Information Session in Fellowship Hall
11 a.m. Fellowship Group Potluck Lunch in Fellowship Hall
Monday, February 2, 2026–Happy Groundhog Day!!
Wednesday, February 4, 2026
7:30 p.m. Chancel Choir Rehearsal—Sanctuary Chancel
Thursday, February 5, 2026
4 p.m. Staff Congregation Relations meeting—Room 14
6 p.m. Chancel Bells Rehearsal—Rm B7
Note: Church Board meeting is postponed to February 12.
Sunday, February 8, 2026—Worthy Worship
9:30 a.m. Worship with sermon by Nathan Koontz
10:30 a.m. Congregational meeting in the Sanctuary
The congregational meeting scheduled for January 25 has been postponed to February 8 during the Sunday School hour in the sanctuary. Agenda items include: Church Board recommendations on proposals from the Finance Committee and from Witness Commission, and the approval of the annual church budget. Details of the budget and proposals were sent by email and are available in the Gathering Place. There will be live streaming of the meeting. The youth will provide a fundraiser meal after the meeting.
2025 Giving Update
Thank you to all who contributed financially to our church for 2025! Your
generosity is much appreciated as we seek to do justice, love mercy, and
walk humbly with God. The Finance Committee is pleased that our financial
contributions for 2025 were close to our 2025 expenses. A full report will be
forthcoming in the lead up to our congregational meeting February 8.
BCMC Offering for January 25: General $11,593.34; Library Reserve Fund $10.
Joanna’s 1887 Cafe office hours this semester will be on Thursdays from 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. You are welcome to stop by for a chat!
“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” will be Sun, Feb. 22, at noon. You can email the office to indicate whether you would like to be a host or a guest. Hosts provide main dish, beverage, and maybe bread. Guests are assigned a side dish (vegetables, salad, dessert) or maybe bread. Experience this event interacting with some of our congregational members, as assigned, on a social level. There will be sign-up sheets in the Gathering Place, this Sunday, Feb. 1 and next Sunday, Feb. 8.
We offer sympathy to Homer Goering, Vern Goering and Helen Nachtigal and their families on the death of their sister Jo “Josephine” Schmidt, who died Jan. 28. She was a resident of Kidron Bethel Village Health Care. Memorial plans are pending.
We offer sympathy to the family of Joan Brubacher. Joan died Jan. 11. Please continue to remember Joan’s husband Wade, their children Anne, Kate, and Jacob and their families in prayer. The memorial service for Joan will be Sat., Feb. 14, 11 a.m. at BCMC.
MC USA request for prayer
On Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington, D.C., will hear opening arguments in an appeal for injunctive relief in the “sensitive locations” lawsuit, Mennonite Church USA et al., v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, et al. Representatives from MC USA leadership will attend the hearing. Read this article for more information.
Faith Formation has set our Wednesday night schedule for this semester. (See below.) Thank you to those who shared their thoughts with us through the survey and through conversations. We recognize that the six-week meal and fellowship schedule is valued by many people and also received very positive feedback about the monthly intergenerational worship–particularly from our families with school-aged children. As you will see on the schedule, we are preserving both elements. The “Messy Church” from last year is now called “Open Table,” but the idea is the same: a time to learn, worship, and connect across generations. On Open Table Wednesdays, all ages–including high school youth–are invited to participate. The youth group will have a brief gathering after Open Table in the youth room upstairs.
Bethel College/Kauffman Museum Announcements
· Now in the Regier Art Gallery in Luyken Fine Arts Center at Bethel College: “Reclaiming My Roots,” works by Marco Hernandez Guillen from Wichita State University, through Feb. 12. Gallery hours are Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Sun. 2-4 p.m.
· Sun., Feb. 1: The Bethel College Chamber singers present a program entitled “Resound!”, 4 p.m., Shalom Mennonite Church, 800 E. 1st St., Newton
Chamber Singers personnel are: Maddie Anderson, Lucy Burch, Emma Graber,
Abigail Grittman, Kyra Linenberger, Bethany Schrag, sopranos; Anna-Joy Jones,
Abby Koontz, Faith Peterson, Dalaina Schutte, altos; Caleb Garber, Riley
Hartvickson, Liam Ortman, Jacob Schrag, Timothy Schrag, tenors; Seth Balzer,
Henry Harrington, Ben Janzen, Ethan Wilcox, basses; Dr. Russell Adrian,
director
· Life Enrichment, the series at Bethel College for adults age 60 and older, resumes for the spring semester on Wed., Feb. 4, with Larry Hatteberg of KAKE TV, Wichita, and Joe Fred Perez of Brownsville, TX. See https://www.bethelks.edu/academics/life-enrichment/ for details and a link to the complete spring schedule.
· Sat., Feb. 7: Kauffman Museum bird walk, 8 a.m. start time in the museum parking lot at the corner of Main and 27th streets (2801 N. Main St., North Newton). Experienced birders lead a walk of 1-1.5 hours in Chisholm Park and on Sand Creek Trail.
· Sun., Feb. 8: Sunday-Afternoon-at-the-Museum, 3 p.m., with Prisca Barnes, founder of Storytime Village Inc., “The Dockum Drugstore Sit-In,” Kauffman Museum auditorium. This program is in conjunction with the special exhibit “Voices of Conscience: Peace Witness in the Great War.”
· Tues., Feb. 10: Bethel College Organ Recital Series: YunJung Lee, 7 p.m.
Administration Building chapel
· SAVE THE DATE: Bethel College’s biennial Justice Symposium, Feb. 25-27, with a focus on immigration and with special guest speaker Karen González, author of Beyond Welcome (2022) and The God Who Sees (2019).
· SAVE THE DATE: Bethel College spring musical, Alice by Heart, March 6, 7 and 8 in Krehbiel Auditorium in Luyken Fine Arts Center
A Good News Message from Max Ediger in Cambodia
In the midst of a seemingly never-ending civil war, the staff of Max Help invited the community around Hope Farm 2 to join them for a Christmas celebration. Over 200 people gathered, representing at least 4 churches in the area as well as members of the Buddhist community. This was the first time Max Help was able to bring the community together for a celebration of peace and justice.
The entire celebration can be found at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cpLPkyR0uTlVwiRxp6Eje5-de7gptr-D/view. It is quite long, so if you want to watch it you might just skip through to get a general idea of the event. And, like a Mennonite meeting, it ended with food and fellowship.
Max Help is very thankful for the support BCMC has given them, and we do hope that we can have cooperation in the future. Max Help has a vision of developing an Anabaptist Church at Hope Farm 2, and BCMC most certainly can encourage that vision.–
Visit my blog at http://calebandshalev.wordpress.com/
I CHOSE THE PATH LESS TRAVELED, AND THAT HAS MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE – ROBERT FROST
“The globe shrinks for those who own it; for the displaced or the dispossessed, the migrant or the refugee, no distance is more awesome than the few feet across borders or frontiers.”
-Homi Bhabha
The reason that Camp Mennoscah was able to immediately begin repairs on the retreat center was because we maintained a healthy reserve fund. But what would happen if a similar repair was needed today? If each of our donor households gave just $20/month over the next 12 months, our reserve accounts would be replenished and ready to respond to the next emergency building repair. And our website allows you to easily set-up a monthly recurring investment to do just that. Visit CampMennoscah.org, or text “RECURRING” to our Development office at 620.755.2583 to begin the process.
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Announcements
Across the U.S.–Mexico borderlands — and in communities far beyond them — people of courage and compassion are responding daily to the realities of migration. MCC believes that listening to these stories helps us live more deeply into our values of peace, hospitality, and justice. Join us for Borderlands & Beyond Monthly Charlas, a new conversation series led by the MCC U.S. Immigration Network featuring MCC partners, community leaders, and borderlands practitioners who will share their work, struggles, insights, and hopes. Each charla provides a welcoming space to learn, ask questions, and explore how we can participate in faithful advocacy and accompaniment. Find out more and register for the Zoom link: mcc.org/events/borderlands-and-beyond-monthly-charlas-mcc.
Date: Every 3rd Thursday of the month (January to December 2026)
Time: 4:00 PM PT / 5:00 PM MT / 6:00 PM CT / 7:00 PM ET
Location: Online via Zoom
Share the love this Valentine’s with Offender Victim Ministries & Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). Feb. 12 from 6-8 p.m. In the spirit of Saint Valentine, help us pack 350 MCC prisoner care kits for men on the indigent list at Hutchinson Correctional Facility. Hear impact stories at 7:30, design a note to go into each kit, enjoy snacks and give a monetary donation to help cover the cost of the kit items. All ages are welcome to join us at MCC, 121 E. 30th St., North Newton. Find out more at mcc.org/prisoner-care or contact
brociamueller@mcc.org.
Lunch and Learn at Mennonite Central Committee Tuesday, Feb. 17, 12-1 p.m. join the Global Voices Speaking Tour to hear firsthand stories of the intersection of climate and peace. Speakers Dr. Arefur Rahaman with MCC Bangladesh and David Waiswa with MCC East Africa and Sahel Region will share how they are working toward peace and climate resiliency, especially around food security. RSVP by Feb. 10 at mcc.org/global-lunch or contact patsydirksen@mcc.org, 316.283.2720. Suggested $10 donation per lunch.
Mennonite Central Committee Central States annual meeting – You are invited to the MCC Central States annual meeting on Sat., March 7, 11 a.m. at MCC Central States, 121 E. 30th St, North Newton.
WANTED—Cars, Trucks, Motorcycles, RV’s, Campers, Tractors, Modern Farm Equipment, etc. for the KS Mennonite Central Committee Sale. Items you no longer need help feed and clothe thousands in desperate living conditions. ALL donations are tax deductible. Call Jerry Toews for info: 620 367 8257. Help make a difference. Be a part of the growing number of folks donating vehicles to the Mennonite Relief Sale.
Each of us has a role to play in this pivotal moment, whether in quiet mutual solidarity or bold public action. Read the latest issue of the Peace & Justice Journal to find rich examples of peace and justice work in 2025 and inspiration for even more creative and courageous peacemaking in the months and years to come.
The Newton Mid Kansas Symphony Orchestra Winter Classics Concert will be Sun., Feb. 15, 4 p.m. at Bethel College Memorial Hall. This concert features the Dwight Beckham Young Soloist winners, Seth Balzer (tuba, Bethel College) and Ryan Antle (horn, Newton High School). Advance tickets for sale online, and at Faith and Life Bookstore. Tickets will also be available the day of the concert at the door. https://nmkso.org/tickets/“
Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp Announcement
Save the dates! Men’s Retreat is coming February 27- March 1 with Paul Unruh leading conversations on “The Power of Service and Story”. Women’s Retreat March 6-8, 2026 will be led by Anita Amstutz exploring “Breathing through Transition”. Please visit rmmc.org for more details and for registration.
| Western District Conference invites you to visit our website to read the latest news, stories and announcements. |
For Mennonite World Conference press here
For Mennonite World Conference “Info” press here
For Mennonite Mission Network “News and Beyond” press here
For Mennonite Church USA Women’s Voices press here
For Anabaptist Disabilities Network press here
Just Peace Pilgrimages — Christ at the Border
Embark on a life-changing journey to Calais, France to witness and learn alongside organizations that are doing justice and relief work among the migrant population there. Fleeing for their lives, thousands of people converge in Calais hoping to cross the English Channel to find a new life in the United Kingdom. Dates: April 6-18, 2026
Registration deadline: February 15, 2026
Contact Stephanie Weaver at StephanieW@MennoniteMission.net or visit MennoniteMission.net/JustPeace to learn more!
Mennonite Church USA Announcements
Mennonite Church USA is requesting prayer for the hearing for injunctive relief in the “sensitive locations” lawsuit, Mennonite Church USA et al., v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, et al. Oral arguments will be heard on Feb. 5, 2026, in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington, D.C. Representatives from MC USA leadership will attend the hearing. Please note that no further action is requested at this time. Read the opening brief here: https://bit.ly/3M0LtVN
If you are a Mennonite working or teaching in a public-school setting, you are invited to join the upcoming Mennonite Public Educators Zoom meeting on Monday, Feb. 2 at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET. The topic will be student behavior, discipline and restorative justice within your classroom and your school as a whole. Register here: https://forms.gle/CdbeMF1kKfroTfft8
This Black History Month, explore “Black History in the Mennonite Church” — MC USA’s timeline of remarkable firsts, leaders and milestones in African American Mennonite history. Visit the timeline online and deepen your understanding of our shared story: https://bit.ly/4r8ZLCP
Buhler Mennonite Church’s Annual Chicken Noodle Soup Supper is Wed., Feb. 11 with a carryout meal featuring chicken noodle soup, bread and pie. Orders will be accepted through Wed., Feb. 4. Call or text 620-664-7699 to let us know how many meal orders you want. Pickup will be at the north entrance of the church from 4 to 6 p.m. on Wed., Feb. 11. Enter from the south side parking lot on B Street to pick up your meals. This is a freewill offering with all proceeds going to Mennonite Central Committee Meat Canner and Outreach Meals. Checks may be made out to Buhler Mennonite Church. Cash donations will also be accepted that evening. Note the change in traffic direction.
Mennonite Mission Network Prayer Request: Pray for the people of Venezuela, and Mennonite Mission Network’s partner Network of Mennonite Missions of Venezuela, amid the political instability caused by the forceful removal of Venezuela’s president by the U.S. last month. Pray that the new governmental leaders will reflect the will of the Venezuelan people and bring peace to the country.
Western District Conference Prayer Request: Give thanks for participants joining the zoom book-study of Woven: Nurturing a Faith Your Kid Doesn’t Have to Heal From, hosted on zoom by WDC’s Kids Meet Christ program this spring. Pray for all caregivers, parents, families and ministry leaders seeking to nurture healthy faith in children!
Bethel College Mennonite Church is an open and affirming
congregation centered in the life and teachings of Jesus. Embracing the divine within each person, we warmly welcome any and all into fellowship without regard to race, ethnic background, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability, economic status, marital status, or age.