The NEWSLETTER Newsletter CONTENT January 1997 Page 1
God reigns
When we deliberate, God reigns; when we decide wisely, God reigns; when we decide foolishly, God reigns; when we serve God in humble loyalty, God reigns; when we serve God self-assertively, God reigns; when we rebel and seek to withhold our service, God reigns — the Alpha and the Omega, which is, and which was and which is to come, the Almighty.
— William Temple
at the Lamberth Conference, 1930
Youth and their church
Many kids drop out of their congregations as teenagers. Religion — or organized religion — no longer seems relevant to their lives. Their parents may want them to keep attending services, but they get so tired of arguing that they eventually give up and stop making them go. If you feel that your congregation is out of touch with young people, don’t drop out. Speak up. Talk with the people who lead the youth program. Come up with ideas and offer to help....
[And youth], don’t expect your congregation to serve you. What can you contribute? For example, if you would like your place of worship to offer one service a month especially for young people, maybe you could help to organize it. The more involved you become, the more meaningful the service will be for you and the less likely you are to walk away.
— Peter L. Benson, et. al. in
What Kids Need to Succeed
Never forgotten
The anxiety of having to die is the anxiety of being eternally forgotten. Is there anything that can keep us from being forgotten? That we were known from eternity and will be remembered in eternity is the only certainty that can save us from the horror of being forgotten forever. We cannot be forgotten because we are known eternally beyond past and future.
— Paul Tillich
Special dates
· New Year’s Day, January 1
· Epiphany, January 6
· Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday observed, January 20
Words of welcome
(Feel free to use these in your worship bulletins.)
(New Year) Dear visitor: whatever else this new year may mean to you, we hope that it reminds you of
God’s patience and love. God has not given up on you or on any one of us. God accepts our repentance and
our promises to do better with his help. With God,
any day can be New Year’s Day for us. May God grant you grace to grow and keep growing in the likeness of our Lord Jesus!
(Epiphany) Ages ago three pilgrims set out on a long and uncertain journey in search of the promised Messiah. Their quest was gloriously rewarded, thanks to that guiding star. Whatever led you to our church today, we believe that God rejoices in having you in this place, and we pray that your search for God and his will may be rewarded beyond your expectations.
“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!” (Philippians 1:2) We greet you in the words and spirit of the Apostle Paul. We look
forward to meeting you after the service during the
coffee hour.
· Getting me into hot water is often God’s way of keeping me clean.
— Ruth Zimmerman
· What is defeat? Nothing but the first step towards something better.
— Wendell Phillips
· Time is more valuable than money because time is irreplaceable.
· You can accomplish more in one hour with God than in a lifetime without him.
· Do not follow where the path may lead. Follow God instead, where there is no path, and leave a trail.
· The difference between a conviction and a prejudice is that you can explain a conviction without getting angry.
· The winter of Adam’s discontent came directly after his fall.
Ministry is...
Ministry is people assisting people in Christian faith development. Ministry doesn’t happen just in the church, but it does happen in the church and through the auspices of the church. Ministry is the reason the church exists.
Ministry is people offering Christ to one another and serving Christ and one another. In the church, ministry is accomplished through worship, the church school, special groups, the sacraments and much more. Everything the church is and does is a system that delivers ministry.
— Ezra Earl Jones
in The Church: A New Paradigm
The right way to live
I sin when I live ...
in spite of you in individualism and ignoring or apathy;
against you in hostility or enmity, making you my enemy;
without you in isolation, rejection or withdrawal;
over you, in controlling, directing, superiority, by playing God;
in you in absorbing love, over-invested caring, total commitment or over-attachment;
for you in taking responsibility for and feeling responsibility to rather than being responsible with;
off of you in parasitic clinging and attachment;
under you in submissive dependency by making you my idol, final good or god — rather than with you in loving and leveling, in caring and confronting, in grace and truth.
— David Augsburger
in Caring Enough to Not Forgive
For God so loved
One of the hallmarks of John’s short sermons is that they almost always contain the plan of salvation in a single verse. Here it is verse 16: “This is how God showed his love to the world. He gave his one and only son, that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have life eternal.” In perhaps the most beautiful words ever written, this verse presents the why as well as the how of God’s redeeming love. Later, in his letters, John will betray a preoccupation with the question “What is the meaning of love?” Here he gives himself and all of the answer.
— Michael Card
in The Parable of Joy
For the new year
H old fast to your faith (Hebrews 4:14)
A ssemble with the saints (Hebrews 10:25)
P ray earnestly every day (1 Thessalonians 5:17, 18)
P ray for great blessings (Malachi 3:10)
Y ield not to temptation (1 Thessalonians 5:22)
N eglect not your talents and opportunities (Galatians 6:10)
E xamine yourself daily (2 Corinthians 13:5)
W ork diligently for the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58)
Y ield your members to righteousness (Romans 6:11,16)
E xercise yourself in godliness (1 Timothy 4:7)
A im at sinless perfection (Hebrews 6:1)
R edeem the time (Ephesians 5:15, 16)
— Gus Nichols
We gather to worship
When we gather together to worship, we are celebrating the most important events in human history — the events through which God brings salvation to the world. Through our celebration, these events become contemporaneous to us. That is, the saving and healing power of God becomes available to the worshipping community. How do we do it? We tell the story; we dramatize it, sing it and festoon it. In this way we celebrate God’s saving deeds.
— Robert E. Webber
in Learning to Worship With All Your Heart
A Christian is...
A Christian is one who makes it easier for other people to believe in God.
The closest relative
Some local pranksters dragged a dead mule onto the parsonage lawn and left it. Bright and early the next morning, they telephoned [my grandfather]. The spokesman said, “Parson, I believe it is the duty of you ministers to take care of the dead, and I noticed a dead mule in your yard. Are you going to bury him?”
“Yes, if you’ll give your consent,” replied the parson, “because I need the consent of the closest relative!”
— Leroy Brownlow
in Grandpa Was A Preacher
Morning prayer
You have given me another day, O God, untouched and new. I ask you to renew me, too!
Forgive the many errors that I made yesterday and let me try again, dear God, to walk a little closer to you.
But Father, I am well aware I can’t make it on my own. Take my hand and hold it tight for I can’t walk alone.
Amen.
— Ebenezer Lutheran Church
Columbia, SC
Passing by
I was enjoying my outing when I saw him. His wheelchair was set against a pillar; he was young, his eyes unguardedly somber as he watched the passers-by.
“God, I’m going to face him in a moment, what’ll I do?”
“Wink,” said God. As our eyes met, his eyes showed compassion toward me. I winked.
A boyish grin swept over his face and its warmth uplifted me.
We laughed, for a moment we were children together, we accepted our simplicity joyfully.
— Ruby Saunders
Growing old with the Lord
Strong religious beliefs make growing old easier, say researchers at Southern California College. They found that the elderly who actively practice their faith tend to be more optimistic and cope with illness better than their non-religious peers. In a study of senior citizens, with an average age of 73, more than 90 percent said prayer was important and God was a source of strength and support in hard times; 84 percent said their relationship with God helped prevent loneliness ... Lead researchers said the findings are another positive correlation between faith and aging, and that medical professionals and religious leaders should not discount the spiritual needs of older people with failing health.
— National & International Religious Report
November 15, 1993
Or to put it another way:
When we realize that God is in the future as well as in the present, we worry less and smile more.
When the church ceases to be in touch with another world, it is no longer in touch with this world.
Humility and excellence
When I am willing to be set aside or used for the gospel, when I am willing to say, “He must increase, but I must decrease” — that is humility and that is excellence.
When I seek God’s will and not my own well-being, when I take from God’s hand whatever he has to give with a happy heart attached to the Giver and not to the gift — that is humility and that is excellence.
When I know that my life is within the context of God’s grace and that I live as one who claims nothing but excellence.
When I go into the world as one who seeks to be a neighbor to every person I meet and the next person I meet — that is humility and that is excellence.
When I am able to say, “My God and my all” — that is humility and that is excellence.
— Thomas Langford
in Christian Wholeness
A Teen’s Prayer
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray my stereo to keep.
I pray my cordless has speed dial,
And that my clothes will stay in style.
That “you know who” will notice me,
And that I will always zit-less be.
That my phone will often ring,
And weekends lots of fun will bring.
I pray my peers will see in me,
Something different that they need.
That when they ask about my life,
I’ll have the courage to share Christ.
I pray the “in” group thinks I’m cool,
And Christian friends stick close at school.
And if I somehow come in late,
I pray my car keys they won’t take.
— Gayla Thornburgh
Saginaw Park Baptist Church,
Fort Worth, TX