Join us as we celebrate the dedication of our
Starting at 2pm on Sunday, we will be having a service of dedication, open house, tours, and time for fellowship and dessert!
Don’t miss out on this exciting time for our church and school!
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We are sorry to have to postpone our “Parenting with Love and Logic” class which was to begin this Sunday (Feb 3). Our teacher Meg Feicht is dealing with the failing health of her mother. We ask you to keep Meg, Emily, Kyle, and the entire family in your prayers. We will update you on when the class will begin through this website, email, or on Facebook. Please keep checking back. We thank you for understanding and for you prayers.
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During our Peace Month focus in January, we discussed Family Conflict Resolution. As part of that, Pastor Bob mentioned that a new class was beginning for parents or those simply wanting to learn more about parenting with “love and logic.” Not only does this fit our theme for the year of learning to live out The Jesus Creed – to love God and love others, it also helps a specific group, parents, who often wrestle with these issues.
If you are not familiar with Love and Logic® it provides simple and practical techniques to help parents with kids of all ages:
Love and Logic® is a philosophy founded in 1977 by Jim Fay and Foster W. Cline, M.D. It is the approach of choice among leading educators, parents, and other professionals worldwide.
We are excited about offering this class during the Adult Sunday School hour beginning this Sunday at 9:30am. Meg Feicht, our SCS preschool teacher and dedicated parent will be teaching the class. We guarantee it will be a great time of learning a growth! Child care will be provided!
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On Sunday (1/27/13), Pastor Bob shared the following video as a way to close out our focus on conflict resolution during Peace Month 2013. In this video, internationally known speaker and author, Shane Claiborne shares about a Biblical perspective of reconciliation. He speaks from local community and international perspectives. Our hope is that it helps bridge the gap between our local awareness and our international needs and what our role in conflict resolution is to be.
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That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Genesis 2:24
The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was. Exodus 20:21
Early on in our delightful marriage, I came face to face with the tension between “leave and cleave” (Gen 2:24) and “honor your father and mother” (Ex. 20:12). It was our first year together, as well as our first year away in Kansas at Barclay. It had been tough on us to be cut off from the people who love us. To make matters worse, Liz’s grandfather died unexpectedly a couple months before Christmas, and we were too broke to come home for the holidays. It had been Liz’s grandfather’s wish that we could come out and her grandmother generously paid for our trip. Our family dynamics were polar opposites, with her family a tight knit group of planners and mine a loose confederation of last minute decision-makers. I had no idea the amount of emotional quicksand I was walking into. My one—though unspoken—expectation was that I would get to see my parents on Christmas day. Liz’s expectation was that we were coming back to be supportive of her grieving grandmother as she went through her first Christmas without her husband. As the train-wreck unfolded I did not have eyes to see it coming. From my perspective, I felt hurt that Liz and her family were cutting straight to planning, making decisions, and pulling strings opposite of me. It soon became apparent that for the first time, I was not going to see my family on Christmas day. I felt wounded that my voice had not been heard. I remember thinking that if taking the money had come at the cost of my voice as a husband it was not worth it. After a lot of insensitivity and immaturity on my part, we eventually sat down to hash things out and make peace. Most of it boiled down to unspoken expectations. How we made decisions as a couple was still being worked out.
I learned a lot that day, about diplomacy and communication, and about grace and forgiveness. The desire to make peace often comes after bitterness and woundedness, but love calls us to a fresh start. Peace is not absent from this tension, but love is the binding force that holds a family’s paradoxes together. With God’s grace we gain eyes to see new beginnings for ourselves, as well as offer them in our families. We see how gospel order is lived out in the messiness of community. Together, we begin to practice resurrection within our families when we let brokenness die, and be born again the day after the mushroom-cloud of meltdown. The next day the yoke of love calls us back together to work through it a little bit better next time.
Prayer:
Lord, help our families be yoked together in love, that we might reveal your Gospel of Peace to the world around us. Amen.
By James Tower
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22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.” Mark 2:22
Over the years, I’ve been in a lot of church meetings and ministry settings in which the image of new wineskins flows as freely as bad coffee and doughnuts between services. We apply the concept within church structure, however, discussing the “new wineskins” of programs, strategic plans and denominational ideals.
I rarely hear the concept of new wineskins applied to a life, as in your life or my life.
Don’t we often try to put new wine into old wineskins when it comes to our Christian journey?
This is an example: We place a new wine of “slowing down the pace of our lives” and pour it into an old wineskin of “extreme busyness.”
The good news is that God pours the new wine of the Holy Spirit into the new wineskin of our renewed lives, and that sets us steady on our kingdom walk. But too often we reach back into our closets and pull out our old wineskin, trying to put it back on and make it work in our new life in Christ.
At a recent silent retreat, I reflected on making changes in my own life. That meant I needed to consider some things about new wine and my old wineskins. I realized there are new wines that we try to pour into our old wineskins that leave us on the verge of calamity because we haven’t allowed the Holy Spirit to give us new wineskins. These are a few examples:
Query:
How open am I to the new wine God wants for me and the new wineskins that only the Holy Spirit gives?by Pastor Bob Henry
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Convergence exists for the growth and creative engagement of women who lead in the way of Jesus.
We are women who lead others in following the way of Jesus. We come together to connect, encourage, and empower one another. We lead in a variety of ways, in a variety of settings, from a variety of theological traditions. We come together to learn from one another, build friendships, and explore our experiences as women leaders together.
For more information on Convergence contact Kate Pattison
Mission ConneXion Northwest is the “Great Commission in action!” Sponsored by churches from the region, it is a two day event challenging the Church to fulfill the Great Commission. Its three-fold purpose is to inform, celebrate, and challenge people of all ages to get involved in missions by sending, praying, giving and going.
During Mission ConneXion Northwest, people of all ages participate in a variety of missions-related experiences: Dozens of missions agencies host exhibits providing information about work being done — and needing to be done – in countries around the world; Keynote addresses are delivered by world-class speakers; Workshops offer a wide variety of topics ranging from visionary and inspirational to very practical.
For more information on Mission Connexion contact Rick Williams.
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