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Pastor Jeff has signed on to become a “Still Speaking Voice,” which means that he has voluntarily chosen to be an ambassador of the GOD IS STILL SPEAKING (GISS) outreach and identity project, and of the United Church of Christ at large. His goal is to have at least 10% of our average Sunday worship attendance (12-13 people) also become Still Speaking voices. Please sign up at http://www.ucc.org/god-is-still-speaking/. It is easy, important, and (best of all) you get free stuff!
James, Jesus’ brother, wrote in the letter that bears his name: “You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19, NRSV). It is advice most of us can’t be reminded of enough. I know I need to hear it periodically!
This summer two important sports figures who had massive influence upon the worlds of college basketball and professional baseball, respectively, passed away. Early this summer, John Wooden, legendary UCLA basketball coach, died at the age of 99. Coach Wooden, whom I am proud to say, was a native Hoosier, coached the Bruins to a record 12 national titles, and was a mentor and life coach to hundreds of players over his career, including Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Bill Walton. Many of his former players have stated that even more than basketball skills, they learned life lessons from Coach Wooden.
John Wooden was a man of strong character and principles, who was, at the same time, filled with wisdom and empathy for those around him. He was a soft-spoken man who viewed shouting and profanity as signs of weakness in both himself and others. Yet even without the bluster and wrath so often shown by many college basketball coaches these days, he was able to help good players become great, and make great ones into legends.
A few weeks ago another major figure in the world of sports passed away, George Steinbrenner, the son and heir of an Ohio shipbuilding family purchased the New York Yankees franchise in 1973 for around $10 million. By the time of his death, the Yankees value is purported to be in the neighborhood of $1.6 billion. Other than two league sanctioned banishments, the last of which ended in the early 1990s, Steinbrenner managed the day to day affairs of the Yankees until handing them over to one of his sons in 2005. Since the Steinbrenner family’s involvement the Yankees have won 11 American League East Division Titles ,10 American League Championships, and 7 World Series.
Yet for all the victories, there was the constant fighting with managers, notably Billy Martin, whom he hired and fired three times in the 1970s-80s; the conflicts with players (including Dave Winfield, whom he derogatorily dubbed “Mr. May” in ironic contrast to clutch playoff hitter Reggie Jackson’s nickname, “Mr. October”); and the specter of two suspensions (1974-1976, 1990-1993). Steinbrenner was remembered by friend and one-time enemies alike to be a profane, angry and abrasive boss and adversary. At best, Mr. Steinbrenner’s death had people in baseball responding with grudging respect, and an admission, that for better or worse, he had changed the game in his business management of the Yankees.
Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger – habits John Wooden was known for, and which George Steinbrenner seldom (if ever) exhibited. One will be remembered as a great man who just happened to coach basketball. The other will only ever be known as a baseball owner who brought championships to his city at any cost. Which one would you rather have known? Which one would you rather have been?
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Jeff
Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7) Did you know that Jesus spoke about money more than any topic EXCEPT the Kingdom of God. Eleven of his thirty-nine parables address issues of money or wealth. Jesus did not shy away from talking about material wealth or possessions. The question is: Why do we speak so little about something that Jesus cared about so much? I think that the answer to this is much more complex than this space will allow. However, broadly speaking, I believe that our hesitance to speak of financial issues in the church comes down to three things. First of all we are idolaters – all of us, myself included. We idolize money and possessions, and idolize the system by which we produce these things. Ultimately, we place these things above God. Free Market economists like Milt Friedman and Alan Greenspan have had a massive influence over our thinking on this topic for the past sixty years. Many of them have gone so far as to claim “faith” in the free market system to adjust itself and continually produce well-being for many. Such faith, however, is a form of idolatry that goes against the first two of the Ten Commandments: [Y]ou shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God. . .. (Exodus 3:3-5). Such idolatrous faith, however, has been shown to be misplaced. Although the capitalistic free-market system is, as Winston Churchill once reminded us, “the best, worst way” for us to allot wealth, goods and services, it is still massively flawed by the one thing that those who idolize wealth forget: human sin. Not everything we human beings is within the will of our Living God. Wealth, money and our possessions are not bad in and of themselves. Unfortunately, it is what we sometimes make of them that can be bad. If, for example, we are motivated to buy something just to show someone else up, our system of capitalism becomes sin-tainted. If we use our wealth to destroy the lives and well-being of others, we have acted evilly, and stained our system again with sin. Not accepting that there is such a thing as sin has been the cause of most economically-based sin. Finally, there is the old standby shame. We do not talk about money because we are ashamed about either how much or how little we have. In the past the church has had a history of wielding shame as a weapon in order to gain power. People with too much were made to feel guilty if they did not give more. People with too little were made to feel guilty that they did not have enough to give. This was a complete warping of Jesus’ teachings on material wealth. One episode that captures for me our Savior’s approach to money and possessions is the story of the Widow’s Offering (Luke 21:1-4), He watches as wellto- do people place large offerings in the Temple’s offering box, then seeing a poor widow place two small coins in, he says: “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on” (vv.3-4). In the end, we all give from our poverty. Compared to the Author of Life, after all, we are all destitute. Therefore we learn that it is the attitude, not the amount of the gift that counts. I think we all need to be reminded of these things sometimes.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Jeff
As April turns to May and spring reaches full-bloom, perhaps it is time to
reflect thankfully on the bounteous blessings of God’s creation, and upon the empowering gifts of the Holy Spirit that equip Christ’s church to do ministry
in his holy and blessed name. In my opinion, few days are brighter and filled with more
promise than these mid-Spring days. The flowers are fully bloomed, the trees are
in leaf, farmers have completed (or nearly so) their planting. Time awaits God’s
action in bringing forth fruit. In our human arena, we too await God’s
grace-filled
action in our own lives and the lives of others. But like the farmer who plants,
or
the orchard owner who carefully prunes and grafts, so too are we required to act
on behalf of God in order that human fruits of salvation may be borne into the
world via the miraculous power of God.
The lectionary (the list of Bible texts that many preachers – this one
included
– use to choose the scriptures from which they will preach) turns toward the
Book
of Acts every year at this time. On the Sundays following Easter, as we await
the
Day of Pentecost – when we celebrate God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to the
church –
the lectionary takes us on a quick tour of the Book of Acts. This book, written
by the
same person who wrote the Gospel of Luke, reminds us exactly what it means for
us to engage in Spirit-filled and God-inspired action on behalf of Jesus Christ
and
the Eternal Kingdom that he came to inaugurate.
Acts offers us quick stories of Peter, called by God to put aside some of his
strict Jewish, dietary laws in order that he might preach salvation to non-Jews
open
to the working of God in the world; stories of Paul and his co-workers taking
the
Gospel to Europe for the first time; stories of triumph and persecution in
which,
despite strong opposition, God’s servants bring the Good News and hope to
those
who previously lived without hope. Even today, some two millennia later, the
call of
the church remains the same: empowered by the gifts bestowed upon us in the Holy
Spirit, we are to go forth, leaving our comfort zones and our comfortable pews
to
share God’s love and the Good News of Jesus Christ with others.
In the coming months, stretching into the autumn, we will, as a congregation
be offered many opportunities to stretch our spirits and exercise the gifts of
wisdom 99as we encounter calls to move forward in various areas of our church’s life.
In all of
our decision making and activities, let us all, together, seek to serve God and
God
only. One place to start with this would be to judge each of our decisions
against our
congregational mission statement: “The focus of our life together is to love
God and
our neighbors, with Jesus leading our service, worship, and relationships.”
Every decision we make should highlight our commitments to love God and
our neighbors, and ought to be done with an openness to Jesus’ guidance
through
the power of the Holy Spirit. If we do these things we will witness Luke’s
account of
the early church re-lived in our lives and the life of our congregation.
Faithfully Yours,
Pastor
Jeff
May is a month that is bookended by special days during which we show our thanks to individuals who have had a positive effect upon our lives and our communal histories. On Sunday May 9 we, of course, honored our mothers, grandmothers and those other women in our lives who have been important to us. On Monday, May 31, Memorial Day, we honor those people – men and women alike – who have sacrificed their livelihoods, relationships, well-being and lives to protect the causes of freedom and self-determination in many places throughout the history of our nation. In thinking about these days, and others like them throughout the year (Fathers’ Day, Veteran’s Day), I pondered how great it might be if, in addition to keeping these special days, we would all spend as much of everyday as possible in seeking to give honor and respect to all people. Each of us human beings are, after all, made in God’s image. Being in God’s image, we are all equally worthy of love, respect, caring and consideration. Unfortunately we often fail to fully share these things with others. Using politics, race, culture, religious, physical, emotional and class differences, we sometimes do everything in our power not to share with others the love and respect that they are due. Having been as guilty of this at times, as others, I will confess that this is a difficult set of sins to overcome. Nonetheless, we are left with the command of Jesus that we must “be perfect - just as [o]ur Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:18). So what is a person to do, then? Since it is so impossible to live up to these expectations on our own; since it is impossible to live up to the ideal of the Good Samaritan – who knew that all people were his neighbor, and therefore to be loved – it seems that we might only try and fail. Yet, we are left with the Good News – in fact the Best of All Possible News – that in the life, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we have received grace upon grace, and can call upon him to save us from our sins. Over the course of the next few weeks, I challenge each of us seek ways in which we can more fully honor one another and others in our lives by sharing freely the love, caring, mercy, compassion and peace, that God has shared with us in Jesus Christ. At the end of that period, I’ll just bet that we’ll have all gotten to a place where we find being a kind and loving person easier that we did before. As we take part in this experiment in holy living , let’s share with one another how things are going, for as we encourage one another, we grow stronger in faith together. Looking forward to hearing from you, Pastor Jeff As April turns to May and spring reaches full-bloom, perhaps it is time to reflect thankfully on the bounteous blessings of God’s creation, and upon the empowering gifts of the Holy Spirit that equip Christ’s church to do ministry in his holy and blessed name. In my opinion, few days are brighter and filled with more promise than these mid-Spring days. The flowers are fully bloomed, the trees are in leaf, farmers have completed (or nearly so) their planting. Time awaits God’s action in bringing forth fruit. In our human arena, we too await God’s grace-filled action in our own lives and the lives of others. But like the farmer who plants, or the orchard owner who carefully prunes and grafts, so too are we required to act on behalf of God in order that human fruits of salvation may be borne into the world via the miraculous power of God. The lectionary (the list of Bible texts that many preachers – this one included – use to choose the scriptures from which they will preach) turns toward the Book of Acts every year at this time. On the Sundays following Easter, as we await the Day of Pentecost – when we celebrate God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to the church – the lectionary takes us on a quick tour of the Book of Acts. This book, written by the same person who wrote the Gospel of Luke, reminds us exactly what it means for us to engage in Spirit-filled and God-inspired action on behalf of Jesus Christ and the Eternal Kingdom that he came to inaugurate. Acts offers us quick stories of Peter, called by God to put aside some of his strict Jewish, dietary laws in order that he might preach salvation to non-Jews open to the working of God in the world; stories of Paul and his co-workers taking the Gospel to Europe for the first time; stories of triumph and persecution in which, despite strong opposition, God’s servants bring the Good News and hope to those who previously lived without hope. Even today, some two millennia later, the call of the church remains the same: empowered by the gifts bestowed upon us in the Holy Spirit, we are to go forth, leaving our comfort zones and our comfortable pews to share God’s love and the Good News of Jesus Christ with others. In the coming months, stretching into the autumn, we will, as a congregation be offered many opportunities to stretch our spirits and exercise the gifts of wisdom as we encounter calls to move forward in various areas of our church’s life. In all of our decision making and activities, let us all, together, seek to serve God and God only. One place to start with this would be to judge each of our decisions against our congregational mission statement: “The focus of our life together is to love God and our neighbors, with Jesus leading our service, worship, and relationships.” Every decision we make should highlight our commitments to love God and our neighbors, and ought to be done with an openness to Jesus’ guidance through the power of the Holy Spirit. If we do these things we will witness Luke’s account of the early church re-lived in our lives and the life of our congregation.
Expectantly Yours,
Pastor Jeff
A childhood neighbor of mine with whom I recently reconnected on Facebook sent me this bit of “cowboy” poetry. I hope you like it and its message. Jake, the rancher, went one day to fix a distant fence.
The wind was cold and gusty and the clouds rolled gray and
dense.
As he pounded the last staples in and gathered tools to go,.
The temperature had fallen; the wind and snow began to blow.
When he finally reached his pickup, he felt a heavy heart.
From the sound of that ignition, he knew it wouldn't start.
So Jake did what most of us would do if we had been there.
He humbly bowed his balding head and sent aloft a prayer.
As he turned the key for the last time, he softly cursed his
luck.
They found him three days later, frozen stiff in that old
truck.
Now Jake had been around in life and done his share of
roaming.
But when he saw Heaven, he was shocked-- it looked just like
Wyoming!
Of all the saints in Heaven, his favorite was St. Peter.
(Now, this line ain't needed but it helps with rhyme and meter)
So they set and talked a minute or two, or maybe it was three.
Nobody was keepin' score -- in Heaven time is free.
"I've always heard," Jake said to Pete,
"that God will answer prayer, But the time I asked for help, well, he just
plain wasn't there."
Does God answer prayers of some, and ignore the prayers of
others?
That don't seem exactly square -- I know all men are
brothers."
"Or does he randomly reply, without good rhyme or reason?
Maybe, it's the time of day, the weather or the season."
"Now I ain't trying to act smart, it's just the way I feel.
And I was wondering', could you tell me -- what the heck's the
deal?!"
Peter listened very patiently and when Jake was done.
There were smiles of recognition, and he said, "So, you're
the one!!"
"That day your truck, it wouldn't start, and you sent your
prayer a flying,
You gave us all a real bad time, with hundreds of us
trying."
"A thousand angels rushed, to check the status of your
file, but you know, Jake, we hadn't heard from you in quite a long
while."
"And though all prayers are answered, and God ain't got no
quota, He didn't recognize your voice, and started a truck in North
Dakota."
The moral of the story is, of course, that it pays to keep in touch with God. Charles Allen, who pastored some of the largest mainline churches in the southern U.S. in the middle of the last century said, “The first purpose of prayer is to know God.” Seek to know God more fully by praying more frequently and with more sense of purpose.
And I pray you’ll also come to praise and worship God with your friends at CUCC weekly.
Pastor Jeff
Another year has passed. What have we learned? That may sound like an odd question. Usually at the end of a year, or a decade of life or some other culturally familiar time-marker, we would be more apt to ask ourselves what we have earned, accomplished or otherwise accrued that has tangible, material reality. And yet, in
some ways, it is what we have learned through our experiences of the world and God’s grace that make all of our accomplishments – material, social, and spiritual – a possibility.The late educator and philosopher Mortimer Adler said: “The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as long as we live.” I might add that the concept of mind used by Adler would be equivalent to mind AND soul. For it is true that our souls and minds, inasmuch as they are intertwined and hard to differentiate one from another, both learn and develop over the course of our lifetimes if we allow them to do so.
The dawn of a New Year is a good time to reflect upon what we have learned over the past twelve months – morally, spiritually, socially, and intellectually. So ask yourself in a moment of quiet that you might be able to find between the joy of Christmas and the celebrations of New Year’s: What have I learned.
The Book of Ecclesiastes, which we find among the Wisdom Books of the Hebrew Scriptures can be a remarkably good reflective guide for us this time of year. In it, the writer, known only as “The Teacher” or “The Preacher” mulls over the meaning of life through twelve chapters, finally concluding with this thought: “After this there is only one thing to say: Have reverence for God, and obey his commands, because this is all that we were created for” (Eccl. 12:13).
Indeed loving God and obeying the command to love one another is what we were created to do. Perhaps, God willing, 2010 will be the year that we all learn to do this more fully. But we can only do so if we remain committed to seek God in the quietness of our hearts, through an active life of prayer and scripture reading, and in the worship, service and fellowship offered us through the life of our community of faith.
Make Community UCC an important part of your learning in the coming year.
You will not be disappointed. Hope to see you soon,
Yours in Christ,
Rev. Jeff
Johnston
Pastor
Advent (from Latin, adventus, meaning "coming towards") is a four-week season of preparation for Christmas. The First Sunday of Advent (November 29) marks the beginning of the church's year.
Advent and Christmas focus both on the past--the coming of Jesus as an infant born into poverty in Bethlehem, and the future--the coming of Christ in glory to fulfill God's loving purposes
for humanity. This past and future orientation is reflected in the readings appointed in the church for each Sunday of Advent. Advent is more than just four weeks of Christmas carols
and gift exchanges. It is a season of preparation for our hearts, as we are made ready again to celebrate the coming of God’s eternal salvation into the world.
Advent this year (as always) comes at a time of anxiety and hope. Many of us are struggling and are afraid for our future. It's not easy to hope when times are bad. Mary, as she waited for the birth of her child into an uncertain world, knew how to live with hope--to believe the promises of God. So Advent is a time when we wait, with Mary, for the birth of new life into a world living in the shadows of death. And we do so with the communion of saints, celebrating together, the hope that we have found in Jesus the Christ.
At CUCC we will have many opportunities to share in worship, service and fellowship during the Holy Season of Advent. Check out the worship planner and calendar elsewhere in this issue of the TIE, and pay attention to weekly bulletins and announcements to hear about opportunities for you to gather with your brothers and sisters in Christ to help our congregation prepare for the miraculous Good News of Christmas.
Yours in hopeful preparation,
Pastor Jeff
As we enter the final part of the year of our Lord 2009 we can celebrate many accomplishments that our gracious God has allowed us here at Community UCC. We have been blessed to restart a regular second service at 10:45 AM on Sundays. Additionally our worship life has been enriched by the rebirth of the Unison Choir, and the addition of monthly “pulpit dramas” to our second service.
We are also experiencing the exciting and hope-filled rebirth of our Jr. and Sr. High youth groups and their re-commitment to local and regional service and mission work. Also on the Fellowship front we have the formation of a women’s prayer and study group to celebrate. Also, Semper Fidelis, our longest-lived, continuous fellowship group is experiencing a renaissance as they celebrate their 100th year.
In terms of Christian Education we can feel blessed that the addition of the second service has allowed for the formation of an adult Sunday School option. Careful planning and dedication on the part of the Christian Education Board and among teachers has also allowed for a resurgence in interest in Sunday School among our Jr. and Sr. High Youth. As we renew our worship and fellowship, and continually redouble our Christian Education efforts, we are enjoying a congregation-wide rebirth of interest in our local and regional mission commitments. Connected to this rebirth is a revival in our commitment to the community around us. To top all of this off, we have cut our budgetary deficit by at least 75%, and increased our focus on fiscal stewardship among the congregation’s friends and members.
Other signs of renewal on the horizon include looking forward toward future part-time staffing options involving youth, children and Christian Education; a focus on capital expenses related to the 1952 part of our facilities, the sanctuary’s sound system and the parking lot; and the possible inclusion of more frequent use of different types of music and instrumentation in worship including brass, jazz, and other styles and instrumentation.
All in all we have much for which to be thankful this Thanksgiving season at CUCC. Let us then continue to be steadfast in thanking God through Jesus Christ, and in following the Holy Spirit’s lead in seeking to serve others while giving God the glory.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Jeff
Throughout Community UCC’s history, our congregation has been a place where people of different views and beliefs who share a common commitment to faith in Jesus Christ and to the mission of the church universal in the world can gather to worship, praise, learn, fellowship, and empower one another to engage the world with the saving message of the gospel through service and evangelism. As your pastor, I am proud on your behalf that this cycle of commitment, mission, fellowship and evangelism continues today.
Some of the things that make our own
particular congregational blend of differing beliefs and values and common
mission possible include openness, tolerance, and mutual respect of differing
views and beliefs. Evidence in the New Testament suggests that the various
churches of the earliest Christian era were no less diverse than our own in
terms of their members’ beliefs, values, and practices.
The formation of such models of mission, worship, and fellowship required apostles, local church leaders and rank-and-file friends and members of the various churches spread throughout the Roman Empire to be open and flexible in their approaches to one another and others. Two thousand years later we still find that such openness and flexibility are necessary to the life of any vital and active congregation. The moment we stop listening to one another, or become unwilling to share our views of a particular issue, mission activity, or fellowship event with others in our congregation is the moment that the Holy Spirit can no longer work through us to form our hearts in increasing levels of Christ likeness and to share the Good News with others in more effective ways. When we stubbornly insist on our own way, when we refuse to share what God has put on our hearts with others, we stop the growth of God’s Kingdom by ignoring the work of the Holy Spirit in our own hearts and lives and in the hearts and lives of others.
As long as we remain committed, however, to a vision of our congregation that is grounded in the eternal truths of the life, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and do not begin to get our own peculiar views and approaches mixed up with the things that are of eternal value, our congregation will continue to be a vital and active outpost of God’s Kingdom here on earth. Let’s all remain committed to being just that.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Jeff
Some of you might be aware that the whole catalog of the Beatles’ original albums was recently released. For those, like me, who are Beatle’s fans this has been an exciting time, because now all the original albums (from 1963's Please, Please Me to 1970's Let It Be) have been digitally remastered and brought up to the sound standards of the 21st century. This means that now you can hear the piano that may have been hidden in the mix of a guitar driven song, and the layers acoustic and electric guitars that were even hiding in the mix of some of the very early tracks.
All of this may not make some of you very excited. However, I was thinking about the process of remastering through which these original recording have now gone. First they were laid down track by track by the band itself. For most of the band’s albums they worked on four track recorders. So guitars, bass and drums would be on one track, vocals and acoustic guitars on another, extra percussion and more vocals on a third, and other instruments on the last, for example. Then this would all be mixed down to a master by the band’s producer, George Martin. For twenty years these were the tracks the public heard.
In 1987 Martin (with the help of three living Beatles) remixed and remastered the tapes for release in CD format. For the last 22 years, these have been the recordings available to the public. Now, in 2009, a new set of remasters has been released.
Thinking about this process brought to mind the complex ways in which our lives are knit together. Our genetics, our upbringing, our other experiences and sometimes seemingly random circumstances come together to form the fabric of our existence. Those of us with faith in God through Jesus Christ, however, know that there is more to all this than meets the eye. This is why I think we all might remember to allow Christ to REMASTER our lives periodically. If we do not, our lives begin to decay under the strain of normal events, and we begin to lose the beautiful melodies and sub-melodies composed by God in the mix of our day-to-day lives.
Think about allowing God to REMASTER your life today. It is never too late to “Get back to where you once belonged.”
Pastor Jeff
“From Jesus’ fullness we have all received grace upon grace” (John 1:16)
God’s gifts to us are infinite, and beyond full comprehension. Our Reformed forefather, John Calvin, though not always known for having warm and comforting views of the world and God’s goodness to it once said: “However many blessings we expect from God, His infinite liberality will always exceed all our wishes and our thoughts”
For the next few weeks of this beautiful autumn, I ask you to take a deep look at your life and the blessing of God that bloom in it even during this season of changing weather and colors. Allow the steadfast nature of God’s love shown you and your loved ones through Christ to be your guide as you receive your Stewardship pledge cards.
2010 will be a great year in the life of our congregation. The bonds of fellowship will deepen, our love of God will grow and the ways in which we can together be a blessing to others in our community, our region and the world will increase. The multiplication of these blessings will begin with your commitment to the ministries of Community United Church of Christ. So think not just about monetary pledges as you -- with generosity in your heart -- fill out your pledge card; think also of the gifts of time and talents with which you have been blessed. God gave all for our sake through Christ and only asks for our commitment to His Kingdom in return.
Yours in Christ’s Service,
Pastor Jeff
The strengths of Community United Church of Christ (CUCC) are easily
identified: They are its people. CUCC is a broadly generous congregation with
friends and members of all ages, beliefs and backgrounds. Although we are
unapologetically Christian, we do not claim to hold a corner on the truth market
in our area's rich religious tapestry. Rather we seek to walk the way of Christ
together in order to help ourselves and others more fully experience the Kingdom
of God that Christ came to proclaim and inaugurate. This means that we seek to
love God and to love one another and others in edifying and tangible ways.
We are neither a big church, nor a small church. We could be called a
medium-sized church. Despite this, however, through the grace of God and the commitment
of our friends and members we maintain an activity level more akin
to that of a much larger congregation. On the other hand one cannot easily get
lost in the shuffle as is sometimes common in larger churches. You might say
that we are a smaller-sized church with a MEGA-sized heart.
We would love to meet you, and welcome you to come worship God with us on Sunday
mornings. We worship every week at 9 AM and 10:45.
Hope to see you soon,
Rev. Jeff
Johnston
Pastor
Bible Verse Selection and more
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