Bulletin Apr 25-2015
Bulletin Apr 25-2015
Bulletin Apr 25-2015
A Call to Disipleship
Memory Text: Then He said to them all, If anyone desires to
come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross
daily, and follow Me (Luke 9:23, NKJV).
The Church at Study 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Superintendent: Dawn Williams
Announcements
Notifications
1. Please pray for the members who
have made a commitment to a
church plant in West London. They
worship each Sabbath at the Mount
Zion United Church, located at 471
Ridgewood Cres, off Berkshire, near Springbank and
Wonderland.
WORSHIP HOUR
Praise & Worship..Team 1
Hymn of Praise.................................................
Intercessory Prayer ................................Simone Biggs
Pastoral Family, Thanksgiving GC 2015 and Wisconsin Conference
Skits.................................................................................ACES
Offering...........Ontario Advance...........Elder Bob Reeve
.
Special Music.......................................................ACES
Scripture.......Ephesians 6:10-18.......Akwasi Baah-Frimpong
Special Music....ACES
Patricia Ferreira-Lopez
Hymn of Consecration..............................................................
Benediction....Elder Cameron Munro
Events
10. Womens Conference, St. Thomas - Please join the women from
our district on May 2, 2015 from 2:30 to 6:30 pm for An Experiential
Workshop WOMEN AND THE WORD. We will learn and discuss
how to READ, STUDY, MEDITATE, CLAIM, OBEY and SHARE the
WORD of GOD. The conference will end with a potluck supper. For
more information contact your WM Leader.
11. Mother's Day Alert!!
On May 9th we will be celebrating Mothers. There will be
a chilli cook off so mothers bring your best recipe and let
the judging and the tasting begin. More information to
follow. Keep the date in mind --May 9th.
12. Young Adults Convention,
May 28-30 with NAD
President Dan Jackson @ Mohawk College, Hamilton. Registration
is $120 and includes food & lodging. How
do we encourage young adults to consider the church as their own
mission instead of leaving and walking away? Work with God, and
for others.
Shortfall!!!....................$ 3,065
Available in the bank...................$65,528
Giving into the Conference Treasury.....$44,055
Ontario Advance contributions...........$
533
Church Building Investment Fund.........$
111
Sabbath School Mission..................$
772
Other Union & Division projects.........$
864
Tithe...................................$41,775
This week my heart was wishing that a revolution of Grace would begin
in our church. And then I got a post from a pastor friend, Alex Bryan, which
not just resonated with my feelings, but expressed my thoughts. So, here it
goes Tonight my soul cries out for a revolution. I cant absorb one more loss.
I cant take the look of one more set of formerly bright, young eyes, now dim,
to the possibility of what Church might be. I just cant take it anymore. Can
you? On that note, I cannot abide one more intellectually-stimulating yet
actionably-impotent confab shaped by Boomers and Xers reanalyzing why
the Church is too often failing to capture the imagination of emerging, young
generations, those in the church, and those without. I suspect, instead, we
better start listening, and really listening good, as painful as it might be, to
our offspring. Yes, to our own children, for Gods sake. But more so - but
even more so - to the Gospels Clear Voice. The quintessential quartet
sounds a compelling rhythm of human relevance: care for the poor,
hospitality toward the outsider, repair for the broken, inclusion of the
excluded, and the permanent end of all gated communities.
Studying the quarterly on Luke I thought of how revolutionary Jesus
message was in his time, and then thought about conversations I have had
over few weeks with people, who think that we need something more than
Jesus. That Jesus is not an answer. Again, pastor Bryans blog articulates
best: when people speak of Jesus, He is too often underestimated: Jesus
well theres got to be more. Really? More than giving all that you have to
the poor? More than turning the other cheek, going the extra mile, forgiving
70 x 7, and welcoming Romans to lunch? More than taking up a cross as
the defining description of your lifes substance and trajectory?
When you consider Gospel stories they call us to terrific and terrifying
honesty, integrity, bravery, sacrifice, confession, humility, compassion, and
love. That is the Revolution we need. Call it a Revival or a Reformation; it is
a return to Jesus and His ideals.
Alex Bryan ends with this appeal Jesus called human beings to form not
a religion, but a community. A community coined Church. This community
was designed to become a body unbound by the normal rules of clubs and
cults, an assembly tasked with becoming the single greatest freedom
movement in human history. This is what I believe, or at least what I really
want to believe to the marrow: The Church, above all available alternatives,
ought to capture the imagination of each new generation afresh. If the
"Church" isn't doing this, we, I, am flat out missing it. Tonight my soul cries
out for revolution. The Church of the present age is ours, and ours alone, to
shape. We enjoy the historical testimony of Apostles, Reformers, and
Prophets, but they cannot do the thinking and the dreaming and the acting
for us. This is our moment. This is our time. This is our opportunity. What are
we gonna do with it?
25.04.15