Agape Newsletter - November 6, 2009 - Packed to the Gills.

Hello everybody and welcome to another Agape newsletter. I hope everybody is enjoying a rare week without rain so far. There is a lot going on at Agape this week, prayer wise, and this month, event wise, so I will launch right in.

Please pray for Tim and Jennifer (one of our new families), and their newborn, Phoebe, who was born this week. Phoebe was admitted to the NICU with a low blood platelet level. Please pray for Phoebe’s complete healing, as well as for the peace of God to cover Tim and Jennifer!

Please pray for Laurie Knowles’ dad Tom. He was found to have thyroid cancer a few weeks ago, and his thyroid was removed. Cancerous cells have been found in some of the lymph nodes that were removed along with his thyroid. Please pray that ALL of the cancer was removed, and that God would completely heal and restore Tom, while calling him into a deeper relationship with Himself.

Please also pray for our friends, Mike and Nikki Symasek. They are in the process of adopting from China, and are having a difficult time getting the necessary travel arrangements approved in a way that would work for Mike’s job and his time off. Pray that something would break through for them, please!

Please also continue to remember and pray for Paul and Ruth Marshall.

Upcoming events: November and December

Saturday, November 7: John Mark McMillan (He Loves Us)  free concert this Saturday!  Several years ago, Sam Knowles (on our worship team) began a monthly extended worship time at our old church called Fire in the Night. This Saturday, beginning at 7pm, John Mark McMillan will be leading worship for Fire in the Night from 7-10pm. This church is located in Irondale, and several of us from Agape will be going to this concert Saturday. Would you like to come? Click here for the Google Maps directions from Pinson to The Bridge church in Irondale. Email me if you need further directions. If you aren’t sure who John Mark McMillan is, here is a video of his song, How He Loves (AKA He Loves Us). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0luHiWwi08

Wednesday, November 11, Wednesday Night Bible Study, Focus: Matthew 23 - Jesus Contra the Pharisees.

Saturday, November 14: Food Pantry Sunday. Please come join us as we help distribute food to our community during this critical economic time! (from 8:30am-11:00am)

Saturday November 21: Thanksgiving Feast!! We will be feasting on Turkey and Stuffing and some great side dishes as we celebrate Thanksgiving with our Agape family, and with the community of Pinson. More details will be forthcoming, but I can tell you now that our feast begins at 11:00am, and we will be bringing desserts, just like our Wednesday night feast in October.

Wednesday, November 25 - No Agape services, due to Thanksgiving.

Agape Newsletter - 10-30, 2009 - Special The State of Agape Edition

Welcome into another Agape newsletter! I have just returned home from a very fruitful night camping out on Oak Mountain. I am not yet ready to share about it (via email), but am looking forward to bringing a new message to you this Sunday.

Speaking of this Sunday’s message, it will be called: The State of Agape. The gist of the message will focus on looking back to where Agape came from, where we are now, and where God seems to be aiming us. We’ll also look at a picture of the New Testament church - what made them so vibrant? What did they do with their time and money? How did they impact their cities so much more than today’s church does? This will be the second in a series of mountain top messages, as we seek God on what His specific vision and purpose for Agape is.

I can say one thing about my mountaintop trip - God gave me some exciting revelation into an area that I have never been able to teach about, because I never felt like I had God’s heart on this particular issue. Many have asked me why I have never taught on this subject before, and urged me to do so, but I honestly couldn’t until the very end of this trip, when God blew my mind on several things. I am very excited, and can’t wait to share parts of it with you Sunday!

One other thing: I want to say THANK YOU for those who helped this Wednesday night. We served almost 150 people dinner at Agape Wednesday night, the bulk of whom were not native Agapeans. I was so encouraged and elated to see all of you interact with the people that came to us for food. I saw laughter, tears, fellowship, love and conversation. It was beautiful!!!   I felt like God was saying “Home Run” to me all night about how things went. I can’t express to you how good this past Wednesday night was. For those that missed it, don’t despair. We’re going for it again in November, this time on a Saturday afternoon, so that many of our senior citizens might be able to join us.

This is from Greg, about our upcoming Live Nativity:

Agape Newsletter - 10-23-2009. Special Message From the Mountain Edition.

Brothers and Sisters of Agape,

I greet you from my tent high atop mount Cheaha in eastern Alabama. As I mentioned Sunday, I believe God has been calling me to go to the mountaintop to meet with Him, and here I am. He has been calling me here for a long time, and this obedience should have been done long ago.

As I write this message, it is 4:18am. I actually went to sleep around 11, but was awakened around 2 by the cold and gale force winds outside the tent. Or perhaps it was by the snow, polar bears and Arctic wolves? Ok, that is an exageration, but it is quite cold up here and extremely windy!

The good news about being awakened at 2, is that the Father led me into a good time of prayer, and maybe the most fruitful time in His Word that I have had in years. I wanted to write you now, while it was fresh on my heart and mind, though you won’t  read it until later today, because Janet will have to send it from my computer.

The fruitful time in God’s word this morning centered on His heart for justice. I am literally blown away, almost anyway, by a new and deeper understanding of God’s fiery love and passion for the poor, widows and orphans, and what He would have us do about that. This Sunday’s message will focus on this, with Micah 6:6-8 being foundational. What does it mean to “do justice and love mercy?” What does it mean for you and I and Agape? I believe that, as we approach the time when we grasp God’s specific vision for Agape, this message will be foundational and critical. Please, please make plans to join us this Sunday, as we hear, what I believe to be God’s word for us in this current hour!!!

In other very important news, this next Wednesday, we will be expanding our food pantry ministry to include a meal, both for those who come for food, and for our church body. It is time we go beyond feeding the hungry, into the realm of loving them, inviting them in and introducing them to Jesus. WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! We need all of you to come and eat with us, so the people of Pinson will feel welcomed and loved. We need some of you to come and help cook and set up, starting as early as five. If, for some reason, you can’t make it wednesday, one other way to help is to cook or buy a dessert, and bring it this Sunday to be used.

Well, my iPhone battery is running a bit low, so I should sign off for now. Grace and Peace to you, and I look forward to seeing you this
Sunday.

Chase

Agape Newsletter, October 19 - Special Communion Sunday Edition.

Hello all, and welcome in to this better late than never newsletter. As I write this, it is fifty degrees outside, snowing in the Northeast (of the country, not our state), and we are looking at temperatures dropping into the thirties on Saturday…I understand that some might even see the twenties by Monday morning!! It seems like just last week, I was sweltering with temps near 90. Oh yeah, that was just last week!!  Continuing with the forecast, Tomorrow should be colder as the upper trough deepens over the eastern U.S. We will struggle to get out of the 40s tomorrow, with clouds hanging tough and a north wind continuing…..oh wait a minute…..this isn’t a weather newsletter, is it? My bad - sometimes I get confused.  :)  Continuing with Agape news, I will let you know that this Sunday - yes, in two days, we will be having a special communion service at Agape. We will have worship, and a sermonnette (sermonette=cute and short sermon), and the focus of our meeting will be communing with God, and communing with each other. I hope you can all make plans to joins us, and invite your friends and family!

Though we are still working on some possibilities for October, I can tell you that the Nest, our outreach to the homeless of Birmingham, will be Tuesday, October 27 and our Food pantry outreach into Pinson will be Wednesday October 28. Speaking of our Food pantry outreach, things are going to be quite different this month with it. Stay tuned for more exciting details!

That’s all for now - don’t forget the communion service this Sunday morning!

See you then,

Chase

Agape Newsletter, October 2nd, 2009