Seven Mission Goals for 2007

1. An active youth ministry in place by the end of the year

2. Hosting a quarterly Friends and Family Sunday (where we invite non-believing family and friends to church)

3. 100% parish participation in the Franklin Graham festival (i.e. everyone gets trained and brings a non-believing friend to the festival itself)

4. The vestry is seeking100% participation in Bible Study.

5 At least 30 new believers by this time next year.

6. An active discipling program by the end of the year with at least 4 leaders in discipling relationships.

7. gathering at least 100 people for worship every Sunday.

Dear Good Shepherd,

Good Morning,

There are alot of repeat items in this week's Update because many events are still pending, but read carefully, because there is also alot of new news. The article this week is the 6th in my series on the Thirty Nine Articles:

Article V: Of the Holy Ghost

Commentary by the Rev. Matt Kennedy

"The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory, with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God.”

“My girlfriend and I have been praying about it and we both feel the Holy Spirit saying that even though we aren't, technically speaking, ‘married' our love is so deep that in God's eyes we're spiritually married. So, we've decided that it's okay for us to have sex.”

This declaration, or some variation of it, may be familiar to you if you've ever worked or volunteered as a youth minister or leader. I remember hearing it at least twice during my two-year stint as a youth minister prior to seminary. In fact, to be perfectly honest, as a baby Christian in my early and mid-twenties, I personally thought it made a lot of sense.

And, unfortunately, the example above does not represent an uncommon form of “Christian” reasoning even among those who claim to be mature. There is little difference between the adolescent declaration above and the relatively recent General Convention claim to have discerned after much prayer and conversation that the Holy Spirit has revealed that it is “okay” for two people of the same sex to sleep together.

It has become increasingly common both in mainline denominations and in some (not all) of the more radical charismatically inclined bodies to blame all sorts of odd practices and aberrant behaviors on the Holy Spirit. Apparently, the “Holy Spirit” has caused many to flop backwards onto the floor, rained gold dust from convention center ceilings, provided golden tooth fillings and called the various leaders of Trinity Broadcasting Network to amass great personal wealth so that through their “prosperity” they might show forth the glory of God.

It seems that for all the contemporary talk of spiritual gifts (and there are indeed spiritual gifts) and spiritual power (which is real) and claims of being a spirit-filled this or a spirit filled that, the Holy Spirit has in truth been largely reduced to a religious euphemism for “what we want to do.”

An individual, a group, a denomination, wants something or wants desperately to do something. He/they “pray about it,” perhaps for an extended period until he/they feel a sense of “peace,” and thereupon rise justified and rationalized, claiming to himself/themselves and to others that the Holy Spirit has indeed affirmed that it is “okay” to do whatever it is he/they wanted to do in the first place. All this often without any reference whatsoever to Scripture, the historic doctrines of the Church, or even godly reason.

In truth, though we profess and confess otherwise, many contemporary Christians and Christian bodies behave as if the Persons of the undivided Trinity are at war, the Holy Spirit militating against the Word the Word against the Spirit.

Article 5 of the Thirty-Nine Articles, thankfully, cuts the legs out from under this sort of “spiritual” reasoning. The Holy Spirit is of “one substance,” one being, one nature, one essence with the Father and the Son. The Persons of the Trinity are One God. Therefore, the character and attributes, the glory and majesty, which we commonly associate with the Father and the Son belong also to the Holy Spirit.

This is a crucial affirmation. It means that the Holy Spirit cannot be understood as acting in a way that is inconsistent with or independent of the Father and the Son. If the Son, for example, says, “Do not divorce your wife except for marital unfaithfulness” (and he does) the Spirit will not say, “Do not divorce your wife unless she no longer meets your felt needs or you happen to fall in love with your secretary” as some seem to think that he has. The Holy Spirit, being God, will not reveal anything to you, or to me, or to General Convention, or the Trinity Broadcasting Network in dream, vision or prayer that subverts God's revelation in Scripture.

This is not at all to say that the Holy Spirit will not speak directly to contemporary circumstances (he does) or that he will not give guidance, strength, encouragement, discernment, rebuke, conviction, etc in a very personal and experiential way (he will). It is to say that you can be certain that if ever you hear a voice in your heart or experience a strong urge toward some action or behavior or decision that will put you in opposition to the Word of God, that that voice or experience or leading, no matter how peaceful, beautiful, and/or rapturous, is not of the Holy Spirit.

“for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” ( 2nd Corinthians 14:11 )

The best way to learn to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit is to tether or to re-tether your personal experience and knowledge of the Holy Spirit to a deep, daily, diligent, and devoted study of the revealed Word of God. The scriptures, being the Word of God, tune your heart to the voice of God so that the more you study the easier it is to distinguish between the rather loud voice of desire and the guidance of God.

Our cognitive knowledge of the Holy Spirit is first and foremost a revealed knowledge. God tells us about himself and that telling conditions and interprets our personal experience of him. Being fallen creatures, we must not construct a theology of the Spirit grounded in our own experience.

But what exactly does the bible tell about the Spirit? What basis is there for the 5th Article's insistence on the divinity of the Spirit and what does it mean to say that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

The affirmation of the divinity of the Holy Spirit is grounded in Scripture. Perhaps, the clearest declaration of the Spirit's divinity is found in the Lord's baptismal formula given to the Church in Matthew 28 which sets the Holy Spirit apart from the Father and the Son as a distinct entity and yet includes him equally within the context of divinity:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”

It is difficult to imagine the Lord setting an angel or an impersonal force within same context as himself and the Father and equally difficult to conceive him commanding disciples to baptize sinners “into” any entity other than God.

This explicit revelation of the divinity of the Holy Spirit in Matthew 28 is consistently confirmed both explicitly and implicitly throughout the bible.

In 1st Corinthians 2:10-13 , for example, Paul refers to the Holy Spirit: 1. as coming from or of God (verses 10, 11, and 12), 2. as an entity within God (vv 11, 12), and 3. as the source of a believer's knowledge of God (vv 10,11, and 12):

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

No angel or created power is ever identified as the “source” of divine knowledge. God alone is the source of all things and God is one. And yet the Holy Spirit in verse 10 is presented as the source of our knowledge of God. God reveals himself “through the Spirit” and this Spirit, though an entity within God (likened to the human “spirit”), has the distinct personal capacity to “search” even the deep things of God.” Just as in Matthew 28 , the Holy Spirit is said to be both one with God and yet a distinct, personal, entity within him.

Far more might be said at this point regarding the biblical basis for confessing the Spirit's divine and personal nature (perhaps the best place to begin a serious study of the Holy Spirit in scripture would be with St Basil ) but the above texts are sufficient to make the matter clear. The Scriptures reveal the Holy Spirit to be “of one substance, majesty, and glory, with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God.”

It is necessary at this point to address a rather difficult matter. Though it is short and seemingly innocuous, the 5th Article is rather bold and somewhat controversial.

For centuries Christians in the west and Christians in the east have disagreed over the wording of the Nicene Creed as it relates to the Holy Spirit.

Originally, the Nicene Creed said this about the Holy Spirit:

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.

But sometime after the 4th Century, in the West, the words “and the Son” (Latin: filioque) were inserted into the Creed after the words, “who proceedeth from the Father…” so that the western Creed, the Creed with which most westerners were likely raised, reads:

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son , who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.

To understand the “filioque controversy” aright requires grasping two important principles.

First, the Father is the ground of divinity. During our discussion of Article 2: “The Word, or Son of God, which was made very Man” we noted that the Son is “eternally begotten” of the Father. The Father is the “source” of the Son's divinity. This does not mean that the Son became divine at a certain point in time. The Son is “eternally” begotten. He has no beginning nor does he have an end. Nor does it mean that the Son is any less divine than the Father. The Father and the Son are of one substance, one nature, one being. It does mean that the Father is “the Father”. Divinity is grounded in his Person. He is the eternal source of divinity. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father. In the same way and by the same reasoning, you will notice above that the Holy Spirit, originally, was described as eternally “proceeding” from the Father alone. The Son is eternally “begotten” of the Father and the Spirit eternally “proceeds” from the Father. Both formulations and this is the point, set apart the Father as the source of divinity.

Second, in the west, the Holy Spirit has been understood primarily in relational terms. This is quite biblical. The Spirit indwells the believer and by virtue of this indwelling the Christian is spiritually bound at once to the Church and to the Lord. The Holy Spirit establishes and, over time and for eternity, deepens the bond of love between you, God, and your fellow Christian. This is why it is often effective to pray about conflicts among believers. Because we share the same Holy Spirit, we can expect that God can work conflicts out spiritually that we cannot resolve naturally. The relating function of the Holy Spirit is not, at least according to St. Augustine of Hippo in his work on the Trinity, limited to human interpersonal relationships nor to human-divine relationships but it reflects the eternal source of the Holy Spirit within the Godhead. The Holy Spirit is the eternal bond of love between the Father and the Son. In this “relational” way, the Holy Spirit is described in the west as proceeding from the Father “and the Son.”

Dr. Alister McGrath, in his Introduction to Christian Theology (p.285) points to this passage from St. Augustine 's De Trinitate (On the Trinity):

“Scripture teaches us that he is the Spirit neither of the Father alone nor of the Son alone, but of both; and this suggests to us the mutual love by which the Father and the Son love one another…Yet Scripture has not said: “the Holy Spirit is love.” If it had, much of our inquiry would have been rendered unnecessary. Scripture does indeed say: “God is love” ( 1st John 4:8,16 ); and so leaves us to ask whether it is God the Father or God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit or God the Trinity itself who is love.”

St. Augustine goes on to argue, based primarily on 1st John 4:7 for the identification of divine love with the Person of the Holy Spirit.

Now, perhaps, you can grasp the disagreement. To eastern Christians, the addition of the filioque clause seemed and seems to undermine the Nicene emphasis on the Father as the source of divinity. But in the west the clause seems to be understood as properly descriptive of the function or role of the Holy Spirit but not necessarily indicative of the “source” of his being.

In fact, as Dr. McGrath goes on to point out in his summary of the controversy (pp 313-316), St. Augustine's argument from 1st John, identifying the Holy Spirit with Love, assumes that the Father is the lone source of divinity. The passage from which he argues reads:

“7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. ( 1st John 4:7-12 )

St. Augustine argues that the Holy Spirit is the Person in whom divine love is grounded. It is one of the Spirit's functions to “love” as it is one of the Son's functions to “Redeem” but it is not simply a function. The Spirit is love. He is the Love between Father and Son and that “proceeds” from or out of this love.

How does St. Augustine come to this conclusion?

1st John 4 teaches that God is love and love is from God. Since the text reveals that God is “love” (v.8) St. Augustine reasons that “love” must be located or grounded within the Trinity and, specifically located in a single Person of the Trinity.

But, and this is important, since love is “of” or “from” God (v.7) the person from whom or out of whom Love flows cannot be the Father.

Why?

Because, as Dr. McGrath explains (p.315), St. Augustine believes that the Father is the source of all divinity. Love must proceed from him to the Son. He cannot proceed from love. McGrath points us to the following passage, again from On the Trinity:

“There is good reason why in this Trinity we speak of the Son alone as the Word of God, of the Holy Spirit alone as the Gift of God, and of the Father alone as the one of whom the Word is begotten and from whom the Holy Spirit principally proceeds. I add the word ‘principally,' because we learn that the Holy Spirit proceeds also from the Son. But this is again something given by the Father to the Son—not that he ever existed without it, for all that the Father gives to his only begotten Word he gives in the act of begetting him..."

Whether St. Augustine's exegesis of 1st John 4 is valid and regardless of whether his reasoning above is universally accepted, at the very least we can recognize that St. Augustine affirmed the place of the “Father alone” as the eternal source divinity.

It seems then that in the west the emphasis following Augustine has been to describe the Holy Spirit as proceeding from the love relationship Father and the Son and, flowing out of that, to understand the Holy Spirit relationally as the bond of love between believers and between the Lord and his Bride. But, in so far as the west rightly follows Augustine, this relational emphasis does not imply a denial of the Father's place as the lone source of divinity.

One final note in defense of the filioque clause this time from Dr. David Scott, former professor at Virginia Theological Seminary. In a lecture given during his last year at the seminary Dr. Scott argued that with regard to the Spirit's “role” or “function” (as opposed to being) within the Godhead and the created order, the western addition of the filioque clause points to and grounds the biblical principle that the Holy Spirit cannot be known apart from Christ. This is not to say that the Holy Spirit cannot and/or does not act where Christ is unknown. Obviously, he can and does. It is to say that the Spirit only “indwells”, makes his home, within those who have come to a living faith in the Son. Biblically speaking, the Spirit comes to human beings from the Father through the Son. Without the filioque, Dr. Scott suggested, the Church risks a descent into a compromised pluralism wherein the Father might be experienced through the Spirit apart from the Son.

I think it best for Christians at this point not to come down too firmly on either side. I do think the following can be said and affirmed:

1. Ontologically speaking (ontology is the study of “being”), the Creed without the filioque clause secures the principle that God the Father is the source of all things; that the Father is the ground of divinity.

2. Functionally speaking the Creed with the inclusion of the filioque clause affirms the relational role of the Holy Spirit both within the Godhead, within the Church, and between the Church and her Lord and it secures the principle that without the Son one cannot be related to God through the Spirit.

This does not, of course, settle the disagreement. The debate over whether the Spirit, even in a derivative or secondary way, proceeds from the Son as well as the Father remains unresolved.

But at the very least, I believe, the first clause of 5th Article of Religion, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, can be affirmed with regard to his function or role within the Godhead and within the Church.

As I noted at the beginning of this essay, the work and role of the Holy Spirit in the Church has become somewhat controversial. But there are some important basics that we can and must affirm regarding the functional role of the Spirit before moving on to the next Article. But because this has been so long and I have a great deal of work to do, I will cover those in the second essay on the 5th article to be published next week.

end

 

UPDATE CONTENTS

MISSIONS FAIR

CHICKEN BBQ AND RUMMAGE SALE

BIBLE STUDIES

ANGLICAN NEWS

ANGLICAN COMMUNION NETWORK WELCOMES CONSECRATIONS

YOUTH STUFF

NEW MEMBERS POTENTIAL MEMBERS GATHERING
GOOD SHEPHERD LIST-SERVE

CHOIR

ADULT EDUCATION

SUNDAY SCHOOL

CHILDREN'S CHAPEL

SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER GROUP

NEWS

MISSIONS FAIR: On Sunday the 9 th of September Good Shepherd will hold her second annual Missions Fair. Between services there will be various booths set up around the parish hall representing all of the ministries and services at Good Shepherd. All members are asked to sign up to serve (and then, of course, actually serve) in at least one ministry in keeping with your gifts. A growing, healthy believer establishes habits that facilitate growth. In addition to your daily prayers and bible reading, this involves worship on Sunday, a weekly bible study group, and the use of your gifts to build up the Body of Christ

 

There was a problem with last year's missions fair. The problem was that there was only one person assigned to make sure that those who signed up to serve in a particular ministry were hooked in and connected with those in charge of that ministry. Me. As you can imagine things fell through the cracks. This year, we will iron that problem out. If you signed up to help last year and were not called, please do volunteer again and there will be a number of people helping you connect with that ministry. Here is a partial list of ministries, repeated from last week,…to which more will likely be added:

 

Sextons —we don't pay anyone specially to clean the church. We do this important work ourselves. But that means everyone pitching in a little. You have the option of signing up for an individual weekly job (mopping a floor, vacuuming a room) or signing up as a family or group of people to be on a monthly rotation. The teams do a more in depth cleaning of the church each week.

 

Shepherd's Bowl —the original teams are still in place from when the Soup Kitchen first began. Some of them are well overdue for a sabbatical from this ministry. If you've never served in a soup kitchen before, or have and would like to do it again, Please look for this Sign up!

 

Calling Committee —This is an important and little known ministry in the church. Calling Committee Members are given a Short List (short being the operative word) of church members to call when information needs to go out quickly. The more Calling Committee Members there are, the shorter each list. Happily for everyone, the church is getting bigger and so many more people are needed for this job.

 

Altar Guild —This group prepares the altar for worship each week as well as cleaning and maintaining the linens and brass. It is, at this point, made up of women, but men are welcome to join. Without the Altar Guild, Sunday morning worship would be much impoverished. Please consider signing up.

 

Eucharistic Ministers —these are the people who serve on the altar during worship, both at 8am and 10:30 am each Sunday. If you have always wanted to be in the thick of the action, or to serve in worship particularly, please pray about this opportunity.

 

Readers —Another opportunity during worship. Readers read the lessons before the Gospel. Proclaiming God's Word aloud in church is an important part of Anglican Worship and an excellent way to serve God.

 

If you are in charge of one of these ministries please check to see if you still have your display from last year. If not, please prepare one. Anne and I or someone associated with us will call around this week.

CHICKEN BBQ AND RUMMAGE SALE: Coming September 29th. As usual, we need volunteers and helpers. There will (I believe) be a sheet downstairs this Sunday

BIBLE STUDY (this list went out last week, but I am repeating it this week for the benefit of those who were not here) All of the Bible Studies will be up and running this week. If you are new to Good Shepherd, or if you have been here for years, the bible studies are great ways to deepen your relationship with God, to learn about him, to see the way that he acts in the world and the way he can and does act in your own life. Just as a reminder, there are five studies.

 

TUESDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY: We're working backwards through the New Testament and are currently in Philippians. If you're at home during the day or start work late or have some free time, this is an excellent study. 9:00am in the Parish Hall

 

FIRST LIGHT BIBLE STUDY: Tuesday Nights 6pm in the Parish Hall. This is for people who know their Bible's fairly well or who have been through the New Beginner's Bible Study. We're currently reading through Proverbs.

 

BEGINNERS BIBLE STUDY: Thursday Nights, 6:30pm in the Parish Hall. If you have no experience with the Bible or are intimidated at all and don't know where to begin, this is the study for you. We discuss where things are in the Bible, how to find your way around, how to read the Bible and how to apply it to your own life. Even if you have some experience but feel like you need a brush up, we'd love to have you.

 

MEN'S BREAKFAST AND BIBLE STUDY: Friday, 6:30am in the Parish Hall. I know its early, but if you can get up, we'll feed you breakfast. We're currently reading through Matthew. All men, and their sons are welcome.

 

WOMEN'S BIBLE STUDY: Saturday 10am in the Parish Library . Besides tea or coffee and usually a little something to eat, we've been looking at the life of Elisha the prophet in the Old Testament. We'll be done with this in a couple of weeks and will be starting a new book. Women of all ages and interests are welcome!

 

ANGLICAN NEWS   As you know we are currently in the process of disassociating from the Episcopal Church and we have been received in the Province of Kenya pending the resolution of our negotiations with the diocese. The two men who will likely be our bishops, Bill Atwood from Texas and Bill Murdoch from Massachusetts have been consecrated in Nairobi . If you would like watch the service or see photos from the service please click on the link below to Anglican TV:

http://www.anglicantv.org/blog/

 

ANGLICAN COMMUNION NETWORK WELCOMES CONSECRATIONS

from here: http://www.acn-us.org/archive/2007/08/network-welcomes-consecrations.html

The Anglican Communion Network welcomed the consecrations on August 30 of the Rt. Rev. Bill Atwood and the Rt. Rev. Bill Murdoch by the Anglican Church of Kenya and looks forward to the consecration of Bishop-elect John Guernsey by the Church of the Province of Uganda on Sept. 2.

“The Episcopal Church's intransigence has left thousands of Anglicans in North America in need of pastoral care and the oversight of bishops. We welcome the generous decisions by the Anglican Church of Kenya and the Anglican Province of Uganda to help us in our time of need,” said the Rev. Canon Daryl Fenton, the Network's chief operating officer. The consecrations, noted Fenton, were attended by the leadership of 10 Anglican provinces.

All three new bishops are committed to the Anglican Communion and to a biblical, missionary and united Anglican presence in North America. They will be part of the Common Cause Council of Bishops scheduled for Sept. 25–28 in Pittsburgh, PA.

 

YOUTH STUFF FROM MICAH (Week of Sunday September 2 nd ) There will be no activity this weekend due to the fact that I am still in the process of moving into New York City . That gives you time to start planning for next weekend's activity, which is actually just bowling. And it's on a Saturday afternoon instead of Sunday night, since most of the bowling places don't have any open lanes until 8pm on a Sunday night (due to leagues). So, Saturday September 7th, from 3pm to 6pm , mark your calenders. Bring as many friends as you can. Until then, you can always email or call me if you have any questions: micahtowery@gmail.com or 607-621-2876 .
Micah

 

NEW MEMBERS and POTENTIAL MEMBERS GATHERING: There are a number of new faces around the church and we would like to help ease your way into the parish. If you have just joined Good Shepherd or you are thinking about doing so, there will be a gathering in September to welcome you, let you get to know each other, and give you information about Good Shepherd. More information about this gathering will be coming soon.

 

GOOD SHEPHERD LISTSERVE: I want to again encourage you to join the Good Shepherd list-serve. A list-serve is a discussion forum that is generally carried forward by email. Someone will open a topic by sending an article or by posing a question to the list. All others subscribed to the list receive that article or question by email and have the opportunity to address the topic and participate in the general discussion simply by replying to the message. Your response will automatically be sent to all who are subscribed to the list.

If you would like to be included on the discussion list, please follow this link to subscribe:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/COT_GoodShepherd/join

 

CHOIR PRACTICE :  Reminder: Choir is now being held on Thursday nights at 7:30pm .

 

ADULT EDUCATION SERIES: HERESIES AND CULTS:   Last Sunday we had a number of guests so I did not give the update on Anglican News as I promised. I hope to do so this Sunday. It will be brief and afterwards, we'll pick up our discussion of Arius. You can read about him here:

http://mb-soft.com/believe/txo/arianism.htm

 

Arius rejected the divinity of Jesus Christ, claiming that Christ was the firstborn and highest of all creatures, but, nevertheless a creature. Arius' heretical following grew powerful and many people followed him. But a courageous minister of the gospel named Athanasius rose up to challenge him. We'll hear his story this Sunday. For background reading please look here:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02035a.htm

 

or, for a shorter read, here:

http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/152.html

SUNDAY SCHOOL (second notice): This year will see a few minor changes in the realm of Elementary and Jr. High Sunday School. The first change will be one of space. The 3 to 6 year olds will be moving into the small Atrium on the third floor, in order that the 6 to 9 group can share space with Jr. High. Each class will have its own curriculum and teachers, but our space issues are such that we will have to share. None of these changes will take place until after Ingathering/Mission's Fair, September 16 th . Until then Summer Sunday School will continue as it has been.

 

CHILDREN'S CHAPEL : Another new and exciting ministry beginning this year is Children's Chapel. As most of you know, I am committed to having children in worship, both as participants and as ministers (acolytes, musicians etc.) but we've found that the sermon time can be a little bit long, especially for the little ones. So this year, after the gospel children aged 3 / 4 (who are beginning to speak well) and 8 will be invited to go down stairs with Mrs. Carmen Swoffer-Penna to hear a Bible Story, sing some songs and worship together before coming back up in time for the Birthday Prayer time and Eucharist. You'll notice we're already arranging a space downstairs in the Parish Hall to make this time possible. Thank you in advance to Mrs. Swoffer-Penna and her willingness to undertake this new ministry.

SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER GROUP—Update:  The following is a story, I am not sure whether it is true, about prayer for the movement of the Spirit during worship. A visitor once asked the late famous preacher Charles Spurgeon where his sermons were crafted and what made them so powerful.  Taking the visitor down to a small room below the sanctuary, Spurgeon pointed to a small circle of chairs. “This is where my sermons are made.” Every Sunday morning before the service a group of men and women gathered to pray for the Holy Spirit to descend and use the worship, the preaching, the music to turn hearts and transform lives. Every preacher, every church, needs such a group. We have one that meets for about 10 minutes between 10:15 and 10:30am in the library on Sunday Morning. I hope you will join them.

HAVE YOU…. shared your faith with a friend? The vestry has challenged all of us to share our faith in Jesus Christ with at least one non-believer each month.

Good News for the Week

" For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. " (Colossians 2:9-12)

Don't forget to....BRING A FRIEND TO CHURCH!

Daily Schedule for the week of Sunday September 2nd, 2007

Monday:
pastor's day off

Tuesday
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
9:00 a.m. Tuesday Morning Bible Study
6:00 p.m. First Light Bible Study

Wednesday
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer

Thursday
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
5:30 p.m. Shepherd's Bowl
6:30 p.m. New Beginners Bible Study


Friday
6:30 a.m. Men's Breakfast/Bible Study
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
Pastor's sermon prep day

Saturday:

10:00 a.m. Women's Bible Study

4:30 p.m. Hebrew Class

Sunday September 9th, 2007 SUNDAY MORNING WORSHIP (SEASON OF PENTECOST)

8:00am Worship, Holy Communion and Sermon

9:15-10:15 a.m. MISSIONS FAIR

10:15-10:30 a.m. Prayer in the Library

10:30am Worship, Holy Communion, Music, Sermon

God bless you all
In Christ,

Matt+

 

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