Community and Mission Team First Meeting

Mark your calendars!

On Sunday, November 10, from 6:30-8:30 PM, in the church sanctuary there will be a first meeting of the Community and Mission Team. Anyone with an interest in, or curious about, outreach to our local community and beyond is invited to attend. We will be exploring the topic, What Is the Missional Church?

Among the issues explored will be "The Missional Paradigm," "Eras of the Church," "The Times They Are a-Changin'," "Becoming Missional," and "Next Steps." Lots of interesting insights for all.

Along with the program will be a variety of potential projects from which we may choose how to move forward, including material from a guest speaker.

For more information, please contact Jeff Snyder.

See you Sunday, November 10th!

Isaiah 58:5-12

Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? ⁶Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? ⁷Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
⁸Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of theLord shall be your rear guard. ⁹Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, ¹⁰if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. ¹¹The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.¹²Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.

Will you be the restorer of streets to live in? 

Meditation on a Charitable Outlook toward Others by Reverend M.L. Hall

Rev. Hall's book of sermons, 1937-1938

Given in a sermon in Sabraton, West Virginia, on October 31, 1937, Reverend M. L. Hall reflected on the Christian need for a charitable approach to the varying views of others. Using the analogy of the Christian mariner, he wrote:

The Christian's conscience, like the mariner's compass, is more or less influenced by early associations. We can never permanently settle ourselves from the effects of the moral direction in which our prow was set, or the spiritual atmosphere that surrounded the laying and shaping of our keel. Because of these great channels and laws of influence no two Christians look out upon the sphere of duty from exactly the same standpoint; and we need nothing so much as charity to enable us to patiently meet and rightly construe the opinions and conduct of others, who, though perhaps equally conscious, may not be able to see eye to eye with us in many things pertaining to Christian character and conduct. 

Weekly Bible Verses: 2 Timothy 3:14 - 4:5: Equipped for Every Good Work

2 Timothy 3: ¹⁴But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed,knowing from whom you learned it, ¹⁵and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
4In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: ²proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. ³For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, ⁴and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. ⁵As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

Weekly Bible Verses: 1 Timothy 2:1-8: So That We May Lead a Quiet and Peaceable Life ...

1 Timothy 2 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, ²for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. ³This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁵For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human,⁶who gave himself a ransom for all—this was attested at the right time.⁷For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. ⁸I desire, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument;

Weekly Bible Verses: 1 Timothy 1:12-17: The Grace of our Lord Overflowed for Me ...

1 Timothy 1: ¹²I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, ¹³even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, ¹⁴and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. ¹⁶But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. ¹⁷To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. 

Weekly Bible Verses: 1 Thessalonians 5:14-24: Rejoice!

1 Thessalonians 5: And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them.¹⁵See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all.
¹⁶Rejoice always, ¹⁷pray without ceasing, ¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ¹⁹Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰Do not despise the words of prophets, ²¹but test everything; hold fast to what is good; ²²abstain from every form of evil.
²³May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this. 

A Prayer For God's Presence and Influence

This fifteenth century prayer is found in the French Book of Hours:

God be in my head, and in my understanding;
God be in my eyes, and in my looking;
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking;
God be in my heart, and in my thinking;
God be at my end, and in my departing.