Weekly Bulletin – May 3, 2009

Posted on April 30, 2009 
Filed Under Weekly Bulletin

THE LORD’S DAY!
May 3, 2009
WELCOME!

PREPARE TO WORSHIP
Grant us, Lord, the joy of your presence.  May we sense your nearness and love as we worship You in spirit and in truth.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
If you are visiting us today, please fill out a visitors card & drop it in the offering plate as your contribution today. Thank you.

PRAISING GOD WITH SONG

GIVING TO GOD  Offering  /  SPECIAL MUSIC

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

HEARING FROM GOD

WORSHIPING GOD IN SONG

PLEASE STAY FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL NEXT!

TODAY: Olympians Leader’s Meeting Cancelled for today.
The leader’s would like to convey a huge THANK YOU to all who helped out with the Drive-in Movie Night.  Special thanks to Jordan & Colleen for the Power Point, to Pastor Justin, Terry & Sommer for judging, and to Marcy & Amanda for all their hard work with the food. It made for a very fun night for all the Olympians.

TONIGHT :  Institute of Biblical Studies, 6:00 PM in the Chapel. We’ll be starting in the 9th chapter of Judges this week.

THIS WEEK :
Mon – Ladies Softball practice, 6:00pm @ River Park.
Wed – Wed. Night Live, Teens – 6:30pm – Chapel
Prayer Meeting – 7:00pm, Pastor Justin’s SS room.
Sat – Men’s Softball game against 1st Assembly @ 6:00, River Park.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Twitter Note: If you would like to keep pace with Pastor Bill, go to Twitter and do a search under William Berkheiser.

Visitation Team: Members on call this week. If you or someone you know needs a home or hospital visit, please call: Terry Johnson – (570) 967-2288 or Elaine Schafer – (607) 775-3985

Thanks for attending FIRST CHRISTIAN, please come again!

Protected: Prayer Requests – April 29, 2009

Posted on April 29, 2009 
Filed Under Prayer Requests

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Twittering and related stuff

Posted on April 28, 2009 
Filed Under Announcements

Yes, I have joined the twitterverse. If you want to keep up with what I am up to or read what I am reading (web articles) then tune in. Before we start our journey through Micah we will be making a pit stop in the gospels to sit at the feet of Jesus. The Master Teacher will show and tell us how it is done. This coming Sunday it is how to pray from Luke 11:1-13. This is a killer text about how to have a fierce conversation with God. This text will blow your sox off so wear a flak jacket. It takes courage to pray like Jesus. Humble thyself and ask for more of God in your life. See you there.     WHB

BELLY BUTTON EVANGELISM Colossians 4:5-6

Posted on April 25, 2009 
Filed Under Pastor's Blog, Sermons

The Church in the West is due for a wake up call. Assuming it is only asleep and not already dead. St. Paul’s instruction on how the community of Christ should  conduct itself toward outsiders shadows his own request for prayer in his evangelistic pursuits. His own experiences and mission help settle current discussions about the Church’s focus. For Paul it was communicating the gospel and producing disciples. A calling which landed him in prison.

Fast forward to today. As the Church in the West struggles with its mission and identity we continue to slip into twilight. The twilight of our existance (and perhaps usefulness to God). I need not remind you that we are in a post-christian era. We ar the villified minority. There is hostility toward biblical theology. There is hostility toward biblical ethics. We have been reduced to a sound byte which is at best skewed and often blatantly erroneous. Still we have much to blame on ourselves. Our lust for power in politics has blurred God’s image of his people (in the West at least).

This particular text can propel you in one of two directions according to how you read it. You could read it as a treatise on cultural redemption. Paul’s reference to redeeming time and speech seasoned with salt lend to this persuasive philosophy. Yet, it is the wrong direction (reading of the text) to go. Paul was not in prison for trying to redeem the culture. His interest was in people who shape culture. He of all people understood that people had to be transformed by a bloody Savior through the unction of the Holy Spirit. That’s why he was in prison. For proclaiming the mystery of Christ. His intention was to reach people not change politics and policies.

As followers of Christ we are innies in an outie generation. Paul’s admonition is that we live wisely in the hope that we gain opportunity to communicate Christ. Paul is in no way altering the message of the gospel. Though he is advocating multiple methods of communication. The four spiritual flaws (sorry, laws) are not always going to cut it. For too long the Church has depended upon a coulpe of methods of evangelism that may preserve the message but has little concern for the hearer of the word. This text is calling us to live communal/conversational lives. Live in such a way that buys time with people. That mean earning their respect and the opportunity to be heard. Paul’s reference to gracious speech (salty) only amplifies his intent. It’s not just what we say about God, Jesus and the cross but how we say it. Salt of course is a spice. It adds flavor to food. Have flavorful conversation with outsiders about Christ who is Lord of all creation and the firstborn of the resurrection. You don’t have to be the loudest person in the room. But we do neee to be articulate and timely. Oh yeah, it doesn’t hurt if you actually practice what you preach. Your audience may disagree with you, even hate you but it is hard for them to deny you and the subtle existance of a subversive Savior.        WHB

Weekly Bulletin – April 26, 2009

Posted on April 23, 2009 
Filed Under Weekly Bulletin

THE LORD’S DAY
April 26, 2009
WELCOME!

PREPARE TO WORSHIP
Dear Lord, enable us to sense a new dawn in our spiritual lives, that we may glorify you always.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
If you are visiting us, please fill out a visitors card & drop it in the offering plate as your contribution today. Thank you.

PRAISING GOD WITH SONG

GIVING TO GOD  Offering  /  SPECIAL MUSIC

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

HEARING FROM GOD

WORSHIPING GOD IN SONG

PLEASE STAY FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL NEXT!

TONIGHT :  NO EVENING SERVICE

THIS WEEK :

UPCOMING EVENTS:

THIS WEEK’S VISITATION TEAM – Arthur Finch – 607-775-1167  and
Pastor Berkheiser – 607-775-1415  or  607-775-2170
______________________________________
Thanks for attending FIRST CHRISTIAN, please come again!

Protected: Prayer Requests – April 22, 2009

Posted on April 22, 2009 
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Weekly Bulletin – April 19, 2009

Posted on April 16, 2009 
Filed Under Weekly Bulletin

THE LORD’S DAY
April 19, 2009
WELCOME!

PREPARE TO WORSHIP
Remind us again, Lord, of your promise to be present wherever people are gathered in Your name.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
If you are visiting us today, please fill out a visitors card & drop it in the offering plate as your contribution today.  Thank you.

PRAISING GOD WITH SONG

GIVING TO GOD / SPECIAL MUSIC
“Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, give to the Lord glory & strength. Give to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come into His courts.”  Psalm 96:7-8

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

HEARING FROM GOD

WORSHIPING GOD IN SONG

PLEASE STAY FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL, NEXT!

TODAY – Spaghetti Dinner, for everyone, right after Sunday School. This is a fund raiser to benefit our Wed. Night Live Teen Group.

TONIGHT – Institute of Biblical Studies, 6:00 PM / Chapel

THIS WEEK

Mon – Ladies Softball Practice, 6:00 @ River Park

- Deacon’s Meeting
Wed – W.O.L Olympians/Gophers, 6:30 – Fell. Ctr.
“Wed. Night Live” Teens, 6:30 – Chapel
Bible Study/Prayer Mtg., 7:00 – PJ’s SS Room

Thu – Picture Time! 3:00 – 9:00 PM  Have you forgotten the time of your appointment?  Check the sheet in the foyer once more. Volunteer Needed to be a host during the photo session. Please see Pastor Justin if you could be here from 3:00 to 9:00 & close up the church following the session.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Ladies Book Club – Check out the little devotional book that we are reading this month.  It’s called “Mother’s of the Bible”.  There is a copy on the shelf under the bulletin board for you to look at it.  If you would like to join our club, we have a couple extra copies, just let Terry know.  We will be meeting to discuss this book on May 16, so get your copy today.

VISITATION TEAM
~ Members on Call this week if you know someone who needs a visit ~
Pastor Bill – (607) 775-1415 or 775-2170
Arthur Finch – (607) 775-1167

Thanks for attending FIRST CHRISTIAN, please come again!

Protected: Prayer Requests – April 15, 2009

Posted on April 15, 2009 
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THE TWILIGHT ZONE 2 Corinthians 5:1-5

Posted on April 11, 2009 
Filed Under Pastor's Blog, Sermons

He is risen. Such is the exclamation point of our faith. It is the resurrection which makes Christianity distinct. Sure there are other religions that pay homage to resurrected beings. But for Christianity our entire faith hangs upon the theology of the resurrection. The resurrection of Christ being its core from which biblical resurrection theology is asserted. To put it simply the Bible teaches that the whole human race will be resurrected one day. One’s resurrection experience will be in eternal rest and reconciliation with God in a new heaven and new earth. Or your resurrection experience will be in eternal isolation from God in the lake of fire (see Revelation 20). Tragically contemporary Christianity does a horrible job of representing our eternal heritage which is resurrection. Frankly, resurreciton dominates the eternal state in the Bible. While the Christian community has settled for quaint or vague statements about eternal life and heaven. All true of course, just not the whole story (or even the best part). How ironic that God would become man (and God at the same time). Then die. Then come back, the resurrected Godman. He could have come back as anything. And yet he chose to come back as one of us. The very people who put him on the tree. The most unheralded attribute of God is humility.

In 2 Corinthians 5 Paul takes up the subject of our own resurrection. Which rests upon the resurrection of Christ. If Jesus has not risen from the grave then this text is irrelevant and a lie. In this text God guarantees us several things. The first is an eternal building (resurrection body). Jesus’ resurrection is of course the prototype. This body (tent, building) is in storage in heaven. It’s like ice cream which we keep in the freezer. But you don’t eat ice cream in the freezer. You get it out, unpack it and eat it. We don’t usually think of heaven as a storehouse but this text (v. 1) is asserting that there is a lot more to the eternal experience than just “heaven”. Secondly, God guarantees you a better life. That is the resurrection experience will in every way eclipse what we know and experience now. As things are now our tents leak and come with a lot of excess baggage (v. 2-3). Our hope is that these leaky tents will be “swallowed up in life”. The past will be gone, lost in our eternal resurrection with Christ. And third, God guarantees you the presence of the Holy Spirit. So we have gone full circle. We are back to this life. The here and the now. Reality as we know it. The resurrection is the twilight zone. An alternative reality we have yet to enter in. But it is there always just beyond the realm of our perception. Fortunately for us Christ presses into our existence. He invades our reality and he offers us a better life. He becomes our hope, our life our new tomorrow. When we walk in his footsteps we walk into our own resurrection. It’s waiting for you “in the twilight zone.”

If your best days are in front of you make it your aim to please God. Ultimately that is where Paul takes us. Great theology always invokes a response from us. In this case it is to please God (v. 9-10). So be of good courage and make it your aim to please God. Live for his glory. Do not lose heart. There are better days ahead for you. Happy Easter. He is risen.                  WHB

Weekly Bulletin – April 12, 2009

Posted on April 9, 2009 
Filed Under Weekly Bulletin

EASTER SUNDAY
April 12, 2009
WELCOME!

PREPARE TO WORSHIP
As we celebrate our Lord’s resurrection, may we sense the joy of the first witnesses to the risen Christ.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
If you are visiting us today, please fill out a visitors card & drop it in the offering plate as your contribution today.  Thank you.

PRAISING GOD

GIVING TO GOD / SPECIAL MUSIC
“Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, give to the Lord glory & strength. Give to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come into His courts.”  Psalm 96:7-8

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

HEARING FROM GOD
“The Twilight Zone”  2 Corinthians 5:1-10

WORSHIPING GOD

PLEASE STAY FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL, NEXT!

TONIGHT – No Evening Service

THIS WEEK

“Wed. Night Live” Teens, 6:30 – Chapel
Bible Study/Prayer Mtg., 7:00 – PJ’s SS Room

UPCOMING EVENTS

Ladies Book Club – Check out the little devotional book that we are reading this month.  It’s called “Mother’s of the Bible”.  There is a copy on the shelf under the bulletin board for you to look at it.  If you would like to join our club, we have a couple extra copies, just let Terry know.  We will be meeting to discuss this book on May 16, so get your copy today.

Thanks for attending FIRST CHRISTIAN, please come again!

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