Chinese Choir
Chinese Sermon
English Sermon
Monday, March 14, 2016
Sunday, March 13, 2016
English Ministry News and Notes 2016-3-13
- Welcome Kit Updates - Great thanks to all who have signed up and are pitching in. You are welcome to bring your items to church any time up to Good Friday. If you do so, please leave on the stage with your name posted on the items. We're getting close to filling the 4 kits!
- SOUP Gratitude - Today will mark the final Sunday of SOUP. Many appreciations to all our soup makers: Arlene & Ed, Aeri, Becky, Frances, Donna, Adrienne, Leily & Walter, Diana, Jane & Burt, Brenda & Vince. We also lift up our bread queen: Peggy! May the conversation and prayers continue on throughout the year!
- We're Throwing a Party - Please pitch in to enable a well organized, welcoming, festive Easter party for children and families next Sunday. We need kitchen crew folks (we'll be serving a simple lunch), game-runners, craftleaders, and welcomers. Please sign up today AND invite a friend.
- Want to Sing? You're invited to join the Good Friday joint choir. Rehearsals will be held next Saturday, the 19th at 10:30 a.m. and on Good Friday at 12:30 p.m. Please see Pastor Emily today!
- Be a Host on Good Friday - Please help provide some welcoming hospitality on Good Friday by contributing refreshments. Everything is welcome!
- Looking Ahead to Holy Week/Easter (Invite a friend!)-
- Maundy Thursday Worship, Mar. 24th, 7:30 p.m.
- Good Friday Ecumenical Worship, Mar. 25th, 2:00 p.m. (Welcome Kit Mission Project Work Party to follow.)
- Easter Sunrise Worship, Mar. 27th, 7:30 a.m.
- Easter Worship Celebration, Mar. 27th, 11:00 a.m.
Community: God’s Design For Growth (V)
God
never intended for any of us to live the Christian life alone.
FUNCTION OVER FORM - Some Christians feel that they must follow the call to community in rigorous, perhaps even radical, ways. We can thank God for the example of our brothers and sisters in communities such as Koinonia in Americus, Georgia, and Sojourners and the Church of the Savior in Washington, D.C. They help teach us principles that God wants for the whole Christian fellowship.
At the same time, we need to know that the Bible doesn't require—or even give special blessing to—certain forms of community. Structure is not the point; relationships are. We can live together as God wants us to in a great variety of ways—ways that strengthen rather than disrupt our vocations, our families, and the other commitments we have already made under God’s guidance. The good news is that community is a gift God offers to pour love out on us all.
GETTING SMALL - Even though forms may not matter much, size does. For community to be specific and personal enough to reach its potential, we need groups small enough for everyone to be directly involved. The practice of the earliest Christians suggests a small scale. They often met in each other’s homes for meals and teaching, for worship and prayer (Acts 2:44-46, Acts 12:12-17). And it is clear that when Paul advised the Corinthians that "everyone" should be ready with a psalm, some instruction, or a revelation, he expected the meeting to be small enough for everyone to participate (1 Cor. 14:26).
Certainly that doesn't mean that we have to abandon our large congregations end public buildings. It suggests, instead, that we are more likely to find community’s richest benefits in smaller groups—Sunday school classes, Bible study groups, mission groups, worship and prayer groups, and others.
The lived reality of community—in whatever form it takes—holds great promise both for the Christian fellowship itself and for the world at large. For Christians it provides a place where together we can change and grow strong in following Jesus. For the world the life of the Christian community broadcasts the good news and mediates God’s love to those who so desperately seek it.
Howard Macy is a Professor Emeritus at George Fox University. He is the author of Rhythms of the Inner Life.
FUNCTION OVER FORM - Some Christians feel that they must follow the call to community in rigorous, perhaps even radical, ways. We can thank God for the example of our brothers and sisters in communities such as Koinonia in Americus, Georgia, and Sojourners and the Church of the Savior in Washington, D.C. They help teach us principles that God wants for the whole Christian fellowship.
At the same time, we need to know that the Bible doesn't require—or even give special blessing to—certain forms of community. Structure is not the point; relationships are. We can live together as God wants us to in a great variety of ways—ways that strengthen rather than disrupt our vocations, our families, and the other commitments we have already made under God’s guidance. The good news is that community is a gift God offers to pour love out on us all.
GETTING SMALL - Even though forms may not matter much, size does. For community to be specific and personal enough to reach its potential, we need groups small enough for everyone to be directly involved. The practice of the earliest Christians suggests a small scale. They often met in each other’s homes for meals and teaching, for worship and prayer (Acts 2:44-46, Acts 12:12-17). And it is clear that when Paul advised the Corinthians that "everyone" should be ready with a psalm, some instruction, or a revelation, he expected the meeting to be small enough for everyone to participate (1 Cor. 14:26).
Certainly that doesn't mean that we have to abandon our large congregations end public buildings. It suggests, instead, that we are more likely to find community’s richest benefits in smaller groups—Sunday school classes, Bible study groups, mission groups, worship and prayer groups, and others.
The lived reality of community—in whatever form it takes—holds great promise both for the Christian fellowship itself and for the world at large. For Christians it provides a place where together we can change and grow strong in following Jesus. For the world the life of the Christian community broadcasts the good news and mediates God’s love to those who so desperately seek it.
Howard Macy is a Professor Emeritus at George Fox University. He is the author of Rhythms of the Inner Life.
Sunday, March 6, 2016
English Ministry News and Notes 2016-3-6
- Special Offering for Fiji Today! You are invited to give generously for the recovery work needed in the Pacific Islands, particularly Fiji and Tonga, following Cyclone Winston. Thank you.
- Join the Party - We will be hosting our annual children's Easter Party on Palm Sunday, Mar. 20th. Our day will begin with parallel worship at 9:30 a.m. The party itself will begin at noon with a chapel time followed by lunch, games, and crafts. All hands are needed! Please sign up to pitch in today.
- We're Getting Close - What a show of generosity! Thank you to all who have signed up to provide items for the Welcome Kits Mission. We still have a ways to go! Please sign up today...or go a 2nd (3rd) mile. Items brought before the 25th can be placed on the Annex Stage with your name on them.
- Easter Lily Sign Up - Please see Laura today to contribute $10 for an Easter lily plant.
- Looking Ahead to Holy Week/Easter (Invite a friend!)
- Maundy Thursday Worship, Mar. 24th, 7:30 p.m.
- Good Friday Ecumenical Worship, Mar. 25th, 2:00 p.m. (Welcome Kit Mission Project Work Party to follow.)
- Easter Sunrise Worship, Mar. 27th, 7:30 a.m.
- Easter Worship Celebration, Mar. 27th , 11:00 a.m.
Community: God’s Design For Growth (IV)
God never intended for any of us to
live the Christian life alone.
A WITNESS TO
THE WORLD - The value of Christian community reaches even further than bringing
the Body of Christ to strength and maturity. Such communities, by their
character and their action, witness to the power and presence of God in the
world. They are models of what God wants for all of humankind. Jesus' disciples
are to be the light of the world (Mt. 5:13-16), shining like bright stars
(Phil. 2:15), reflecting the brightness [the glory] of God (2 Cor. 3:18). Often
the Hebrews' experiences of deliverance were sent, God said, so that they and
the nations "will know that I am the Lord." In a similar way, the unity
and mutual love that distinguish Jesus' disciples will demonstrate that Jesus was,
in fact, sent by the Father (Jn. 17:23).
Too often,
unfortunately, this beacon of witness has fallen far short in candlepower,
especially where Christians have accommodated darkness rather than penetrating
it. But though the Church in general may fail and though we may be embarrassed
by the antics of some Christians in the public eye, Christian communities
everywhere can radiate the good news of God’s loving intentions for all of
creation. In these clusters of Christians, people should be able to see what they
hope for but hardly expect: people serving rather than using each other. People
of widely different social statuses and professions honoring each other rather
than putting each other down (Gal. 3:28). People who tell each other (and everyone
else) the truth, rather than lying out of convenience or cussedness (Eph. 4:25,
Col. 3:9). They can see a people who are no longer captive to the spirit of the
times. They will see love and acceptance, compassion and kindness, commodities
that are in short supply in any age. And where they see this, the stark
contrast of these communities compared with the world around them is itself a
very compelling witness.
AMBASSADORS
OF GOD'S LOVE - But such communities go further still. They not only
demonstrate God’s love; they also mediate it. They carry "the ministry of
reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:18) to those around them, bringing God’s compassion
and healing power into a broken world.
That work
goes forward visibly in many ways. One Christian community spends enormous
energy trying to meet the plight of the homeless. Another works to rehabilitate
homes of the poor and the elderly. Yet another quietly yet actively pursues a
ministry of prayer and healing. And still others focus directly on evangelism,
on feeding the hungry, on getting justice for the oppressed, and on much more.
Each community with its particular mission is a guerrilla unit establishing a
beachhead for God’s peaceable Kingdom in a hostile world. And from those outposts
God’s love flows freely.
Howard Macy is a Professor Emeritus at George
Fox University. He is the author of Rhythms
of the Inner Life.
Sunday, February 28, 2016
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