Journey to the Cross

I hope you will join us tomorrow night!

Mission & Ministry Night

This Sunday we spent the evening working on mission and ministry activities.  Using the flower pots the children's Sunday school class decorated last summer, we planted flowers to take to shut ins and nursing home residents.  We stuffed all the Easter eggs for the children's Easter Egg hunt this Sunday at 8:30am.  And we folded palm branches into crosses to give out during worship this Sunday to remind everyone of Jesus' journey from palm Sunday to Easter Sunday!  Check it out:

 

Don't forget we will NOT meet next Sunday since it is Easter!

Tuff Stuff: Why All the Bad & Sad Stuff?

This Sunday at FUSION Gathering we talked about the tough topic of "why do bad things happen."  We realized that it was much easier to identify recent bad or sad news stories than it was good stories, and it just doesn't seem fair.  It is especially difficult to understand when bad things happen to good people.  We took a look at Romans 8:28 "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them."  We talked about how God doesn't cause tragedy and bad things to happen.  BUT God does use the difficult and tragic experiences of our lives to grow us and make us more like Christ.  God is concerned about the problems in the world and sends people like us to help!  When we look at Matthew 25:31-46, we see that God calls us each to help those who are hurting and in need.  When we live into this calling, we are not only serving those in need, we are serving Christ as well.  We talked about specific ways we can live into this calling...things like helping at FACES, Meals on Wheels, donating clothing, visiting the sick, comforting a friend or family member and working in the church garden.  We each thought of one thing we would commit to doing this week to help live into God's calling to help those in need.  What will you do?  Comment on this post with your responses.

Dig & Dessert

Even though the ground was too wet to plant, we had a great time at the Dig & Dessert mission event this past Sunday!  We spread fertilizer, weeded around the church grounds and had some delicious "dirt" cake, "dirt" pudding, chocolate pound cake and cookies!  Thanks to all who helped supply sweet treats and drinks, and to all who came out to help.  I will keep you posted on when we will get out there to plant.

Dig & Dessert

Don't forget our "Dig & Dessert" mission event is THIS Sunday!  All are invited to come out and help get our church garden ready to grow fresh food for FACES and fellowship over some sweet treats in the fellowship room!  Hope to see you there!

Tuff Stuff: "Fitting In"

This week we began our new series "Tuff Stuff" in which we will explore what God has to say about some of the tougher questions we might have.  We started our series with the issue of "fitting in".  We talked about peer pressures we face in our daily lives, and took a look at the story of Caleb and Joshua who were sent with ten others to check out the Promised Land and bring back a report to Moses and the people (Numbers 13:26-14:9).  While the other ten spies talked about how big and strong the people were in the Promised Land, and how they would never be able to defeat them, Caleb and Joshua tried to convince them that they could defeat them with God's help.  The crowd sided with the other ten spies, but Caleb and Joshua didn't give in to peer pressure, and continued to stand up for what they believed because they knew God had made a promise to them.

We talked about how maybe being a Christian means NOT fitting in.  Maybe we are called to stand out because we are called to live into God's calling on our lives.  And sometimes that looks very different from what the world says we should be doing.  No matter what, there is ALWAYS a place we fit in, and that's in God's Family!  We are each unique and loving creations of God, and we will always have a place in God's family.  So for reflection this week, is there a place in your life where you are trying hard to fit in, but don't really need to be?  I hope that you will each find comfort in knowing that even if you don't seem to "fit" in other places or groups, you fit perfectly into God's family!