Weekly Bulletin – January 20, 2008

Posted on January 17, 2008 
Filed Under Weekly Bulletin

THE LORD’S DAY
January 20, 2008
WELCOME!
We extend a kind welcome to all who are present. If you are visiting us today, please fill out a visitor card, found in the pew pocket. We invite you to inquire about our church’s activities and ministries. May your attendance today be a wonderful blessing.

ANNOUNCEMENTS – Todd Smith has been elected to the nominating committee, bring your recommendations to him for an elected position within the church.  He will present them to the board.

PRAISING GOD WITH SONG

GIVING TO GOD  Offering  /  SPECIAL MUSIC    

Jr. Church children (ages 4 – 7) may be dismissed.

HEARING FROM GOD
         “FIRE IN THE DESERT”
             2 Corinthians 8:1-11
       
WORSHIPING GOD IN SONG 

PLEASE JOIN US FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL, NEXT!
There are classes for every age.

TONIGHT – INSTUTUE OF BIBLICAL STUDIES
Please join us back here tonight at 6:00 PM in the chapel, as we delve into the book of Numbers. 
  
TEEN BOWLING – 8:00 PM ~ We’ll be leaving from the church parking lot.

Stewardship Month – See the “Books of the Month” in our library.  Books to help you with your financial woes, books to help you set up a budget. Books for Young Couples, Singles & Parents. Check us out today!

THIS WEEK:
 Mon ~ 1:00 – 4:00 Path of Life Camp Snow Day, sledding at Path of Life.  Free event for the whole family, just bring your sled, they provide the hot chocolate.

 Tue ~  6:00 PM, Church Work Night – any & all are welcome.
 Wed ~  Wed. Night Live – 6:30 PM in the Chapel
              Olympians – 6:30 PM in the Fellowship Ctr.
              Bible Study/Prayer Meeting – 7:00 PM  Come study the Book of Micah with us.

JAN 27 – COLLEGE & CAREER MEETING – 6:00 PM at Will’s Apartment at Davis College.

COMING SOON!
 Pastor Bill will be having a 4 week mini series on Islam during Sunday School in his class room downstairs.  Anyone who would like to attend, may.  Watch for a beginning date.

LADIES BOOK CLUB:
 If you would like to join our book club, please see Terry for our book of the month.  Cost is $3.00.

FEB 17 – BABY SHOWER, 2:00 – 4:00, to benefit Life Choices (formerly All Women’s Help Ctr). Further details next week.

$$ TITHE RECEIPT $$
 If you would like to receive a receipt at the end of the year for your tithes, you MUST use an offering envelope (available in the foyer).  You also must record your name & gift amount on the envelope.  At the end of the year you will receive the envelopes back along with a receipt for the total offerings recorded on them.

THINK SPRING & FASCAR (like Nascar)
 An Olympian sponsored event coming on Sat., April 19, 2008.  A great out-reach for the community for ages 4-99.  We will need your help to put it all together.  Many volunteers will make for a great event.  Details will be forthcoming!  Look for the road signs!

ACTIVE LOVE is looking for helpers for the New Year.  Especially helpers for our luncheons. If you would like to take an ‘active’  role in this ministry, please see Terry Johnson, Linda Coleman or Elaine Schafer.

ONE-ON-ONE SPIRITUAL MENTORING
We are committed to taking interested people and purposefully guiding them through a systematic study of the basic foundations of the faith. This is a personalized approach to bible study, and is geared to fit your time schedule as well as your learning style. Please contact Mike Reed for more information – reeddad@aol.com

SERVICE SCHEDULE
The nursery is provided for children up to four years of age.
Sunday Morning Worship    ……………………..  10:00 AM
Sunday School (for all ages)  ………………………  11:20 AM
Institute of Biblical Studies   ………………………..   6:00 PM
Wed Night Live – Teen Group   …………………    6:30 PM
Wed – Word of Life Olympians  …………………    6:30 PM
Wed – Bible Study & Prayer  ……………………    7:00 PM
Thanks for attending First Christian, please come again!

Protected: Prayer Sheet – January 16, 2008

Posted on January 16, 2008 
Filed Under Prayer Requests

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:


Weekly Bulletin – January 13, 2008

Posted on January 10, 2008 
Filed Under Weekly Bulletin

THE LORD’S DAY
January 13, 2008
WELCOME!

We extend a kind welcome to all who are present.
 May your attendance at this worship service be a
wonderful blessing. We invite you to inquire about
our church’s activities and ministries.

If you are visiting us today, please fill out a visitor card found in the pew Bible and place it in the offering plate. Thank you.

PRAISING GOD WITH SONG

GIVING TO GOD 

Jr. Church children (ages 4 – 7) may be dismissed.

HEARING FROM GOD

WORSHIPING GOD IN SONG

PLEASE JOIN US FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL NEXT!

ANNOUNCEMENTS: 

TONIGHT: Business Mtg/Family Night – 6:00 PM / in the Chapel
 Following the mtg. we’ll have popcorn & a movie, “The
Mountain of God”  A documentary on the Exodus.

THIS WEEK:
 Tue ~  8:00 AM, Pastor’s Coffee, North Rd. McDonald’s

             6:00 PM, Church Work Night – any & all are welcome.

              7:00 PM, Deacon’s Meeting
                
 Wed ~  Wed. Night Live– 6:30 PM in the Chapel 

               Olympians – 6:30 PM in the Fellowship Ctr.

                Prayer Meeting – 7:00 PM in Pastor’s S.S. room.

THIS MONTH:
JAN 20 – INSTITUTE OF BIBLICAL STUDIES – Numbers
What do you know about the book of Numbers? You’ll be surprised!

JAN 27 – COLLEGE & CAREER MEETING, details to follow.

COMING SOON!
 Pastor Bill will be having a 4 week mini series on Islam during
Sunday School in his class room downstairs.  Anyone who would
like to attend, may.  Watch for a beginning date.

LADIES BOOK CLUB:
 If you would like to join our book club, please see Terry for our book
of the month.  Cost is $3.00.

$$ TITHE RECEIPT $$
 If you would like to receive a receipt at the end of the year for your tithes, you MUST use an offering envelope (available in the foyer).  You also must record your name & gift amount on the envelope.  At the end of the year you will receive the envelopes back along with a receipt for the total offerings recorded on them.

THINK SPRING & FASCAR (like Nascar)
 An Olympian sponsored event coming on Sat., April 19, 2008.  A great out-reach for the community for ages 4-99.  We will need your help to put it all together.  Many volunteers will make for a great event.  Details will be forthcoming!  Look for the road signs!

Thanks for attending First Christian, please come again! 

 

THE DESERT OF DEBT (SURVIVORMAN) 2 COR. 8:1-11

Posted on January 10, 2008 
Filed Under Pastor's Blog, Sermons

Our trek into the wilderness of stewardship has begun. Part of what makes stewardship so challenging is that there are so many competing ideas about how we  should view our resources. Nor does it help that everybody wants a piece of the pie. All of this is compounded by the fact that our desires often outweigh our resources. Thus we are a nation in debt. It is woven into the very fabric of our culture. From the government to lending institutions (ironically) to everyday people like you and I. If you find that depressing remember this, grace trumps debt.

God’s grace trumps debt. Jesus talks about this in the Lord’s prayer. “Forgive us our debts (transgressions).” God’s grace is at the heart of living debt free lives (spiritually and financially). The amazing thing about this text in 2 Corinthians is that stewardship is more than being in the black, being a great manager of your money or even tithing/giving. It’s about the quality of one’s walk with God. Experiencing God’s grace and being enabled by his grace to offer yourself and your resources back to God. This grace of God transforms our hearts (attitude) and our minds (perspective) in regards to ourselves and our resources. As Paul puts it so aptly, “we are not our own.” This is what the Macedonian churches (read Philippians) had figured out and what the church in Corinth was struggling with. God invites us to step into the stream of God’s grace and practice obedient faith in how  we manage our resources.                            WHB

Weekly Bulletin – January 6, 2008

Posted on January 3, 2008 
Filed Under Weekly Bulletin

THE LORD’S DAY
January 6, 2008
WELCOME!

We extend a kind welcome to all who are present. May your attendance at this worship service be a wonderful blessing. We invite you to inquire about
our church’s activities and ministries.

If you are visiting us today, please fill out a visitor card found in the pew Bible and place it in the offering plate. Thank you.

PRAISING GOD WITH SONG:

GIVING TO GOD: 

Jr. Church children (ages 4 – 7) may be dismissed.

HEARING FROM GOD:

WORSHIPING GOD IN SONG: 

PLEASE JOIN US FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL, NEXT!

ANNOUNCEMENTS: 

TONIGHT: Institute of Biblical Studies – 6:00 PM / in the Chapel
We will be looking at the book of Numbers.

THIS WEEK:

Mon ~ Olympians Leader’s Meeting, 6:30 PM @ Mike Reed’s

Tue ~ Church Work Night, there’s always something that needs to
be done & you can help. 
                
Wed ~ Teen Group – 6:30 PM / Chapel
Olympians – 6:30 in the Fellowship Ctr.
Prayer Meeting – 7:00 in Pastor’s S.S. room.

JAN 13 – BUSINESS MEETING  / FAMILY NIGHT

JAN 15 – DEACON’S MEETING

JAN 20 – INSTITUTE OF BIBLICAL STUDIES

JAN 27 – COLLEGE & CAREER MEETING, details to follow.

LADIES BOOK CLUB: Ladies, your new book is available.   We will be reading about Gladys Aylward, missionary to China.  If you want a preview of her life, there is an old movie entitled “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness”.   It has many discrepancies, but I found it interesting to watch.  Gladys Aylward didn’t like it at all. The cost of the book is $3.00.  See Terry if you would like one.

Thanks for attending First Christian, please come again!

Protected: Prayer Sheet – January 2, 2008

Posted on January 2, 2008 
Filed Under Prayer Requests

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:


SURVIVORMAN ON THE ECONOMICS OF STEWARDSHIP

Posted on January 2, 2008 
Filed Under Announcements, Pastor's Blog, Sermons

The winter winds of January blow as we hunker down to the inflated price of fuel and an annual series of sermons on the haunting topic of stewardship. Definitely not a word of the 21st century. God calls us as his ‘stewards’ to be faithful with the resources he has afforded us. At the end of the day this world, our valley and FCC are God’s garden. It (we) is overrun, corrupt and rebellious. Unruly if you will. Thus the art and practice of stewardship before God is never over. I suppose that is why I say stewardship can be a haunting topic. Whether it be the ghosts of the past or the future the need for financial integrity is always there pressing against us. Tragically we live in a world that scoffs at stewardship, community, charity and integrity and instead indulges in self-gratification which brings forth DEBT (or you might say death).

I am excited about this series of sermons. God’s word is as always absolutely brilliant. Our primary text will be 2 Corinthians 8:1-11. My excitement is tempered by sobriety though. I tread here cautiously knowing that I too must be transformed by this word from the Lord. I must be a practicioner and not merely a preacher. I am also aware that this can be a painful and confusing subject for many.  Nor are we being helped by the likes of Joel Olsteen and his latest “God Wants You to Have It All” mentality. I stand rather adamantly against such drivel (though I admit to watching him on occassion; my he is slick isn’t he). This extended meditation has prompted me to share words from better men than I.

“We must diligently endeavor to have the power of the truths professed and contended for abiding upon our hearts, that we may not contend for notions, but that we have a practical acquaintance within our own souls. When the heart is cast indeed into the mould of the doctrine that the mind embraceth-when the evidence and necessity of the truth abides in us-when not the sense of the words only is in our heads, but the sense of the things abides in our hearts-when we have communion with God in the doctrine we contend for-then shall we be garrisoned by the grace of God against all the assaults of men.” John Owen

“We live in a day of politicized discourse that puts no premium on clear assertions. Some use language to conceal where they stand rather than to make clear where they stand. One reason this happens is that clear and open statements usually result in more criticism than ambiguous statements do. Vagueness will win more approval in a hostile atmosphere than forthrightness will. But we want nothing to do with that attitude. John Piper

I have never heard the terminology “doctrine of stewardship” but perhaps it is time we did. For Christ’s church is in desperate need of it. In this sermon series I am attempting to use technology (the video we shot), pop culture (playing off of Discovery Channel’s Survivorman) and the exposition of God’s word to reach the body of Christ and beyond (those outside the community of faith). The fluff is to take the edge off of what can be gritty stuff. That is God’s thoughts on the financial resources he has made available to you and I. For those of you who hate the fluff (and I know you are out there and I love you for you contention [didn't you just read John Owen]) I pray you will not be disappointed with the exposition. I have never doubted the deep spiritual nature of stewardship, tithing, giving or acts of charity and service. But I must say that this journey of preparation has taken it to a whole new depth for me. Deeper than you can hold your breath. A depth in which our bodies cannot sustain the pressure. Only in the enveloping person of Christ can we be sustained here. To savor the richness of his glory and participate in the stream of his grace that is stewardship. “He (Christ) who was rich became poor for our sakes.”  There is something truly mysterious about the glory of Christ’s cross enabling us to exercise the grace of giving.                       WHB

← Previous Page