Tag Archives: presidential election

Jano07

Chase

0

Agape Newsletter, November 14, 2008:

Hello Friends,

Welcome to a somewhat abbreviated, as well as late edition of the Agape e-newsletter.

Ultra-quick summary of this week at Agape:

1. Sermon this week: The Great Romance Part 2.
1A - Coming December 7 and 14 - Agape’s Vision for 2009
2. Don’t forget to bring spaghetti noodles or meat this Sunday to give to the food pantry. (we have lots of sauce, not so many noodles)
3. Crossroads Sunday night at 5:00 pm - Subject: Christ In You
4. Christmas Shoe boxes are due November 22 (for more details, see display in the back of the sanctuary)


Sunday morning at Agape, we are going to continue looking at the Great Romance, specifically, how our love for each other should be a reflection of God’s love for us. I’m also going to share with you how I was almost killed this week in a high speed police chase (no kidding!), and some of the thoughts that have come from being that close to eternity. This might be something good to bring a lost friend or family member to come hear, so be encouraged to do that! (in case anybody is wondering, I was not the one who was being chased).

Sunday night, David will be continuing his series on the Gospel, specifically looking at doing the will of the Father - and how Christ dwells in us. Every week, David puts a lot of time into seeking God and digging in scripture in order to bring us the deep truths of God on Sunday nights - and he does an excellent job! John Talley is serving as the worship leader for Crossroads, and he is also doing an excellent job, leading worship on Sunday nights with a dynamic creativity that is refreshing. If you haven’t been yet, let me encourage you to come!

Please know, as I mentioned last week, that this current sermon series is laying the foundation for December 7 and 14th - the two Sundays that will be our Vision Sundays - in which we will be examining what God is calling this body to in 2009. I know that some of you who receive this email are infrequent at Agape - please let me say to you that the next few Sundays are critically important in the life of our fellowship! I encourage you to come and worship, pray and listen to what God is calling us to. If you are bored with religion, and normal “church stuff” I can assure you that 2009 will be quite different from the norm. The economy is crashing around us, and many are fearful. They are like sheep without a shepherd.  It is time for the people of God to step forward and shine the light of God to the lost - you are invited and called to be a part of that!

This Week’s Schedule:  (This month’s schedule online at: http://agapepinson.com/calendar_of_events.htm)

Sunday, November 16, 9:15 am - Please remember that we’ve changed corporate prayer time from 8:30 to 9:15am
Sunday 9:45 - Small groups
Sunday 10:45 - Corporate worship, prayer and word. This Sunday: The Great Romance, part 2.

Sunday night: 5 pm Sunday night at Crossroads, David will be teaching on:  Christ IN You. In Matthew 7, Jesus tells us that not everyone who calls Him ‘Lord’ will actually enter the Kingdom of Heaven. He goes on to say that it is only those who do the will of His Father that will be rewarded with eternal life. While these verses may be puzzling at first, if we clearly understand what it means to experience the Gospel of Christ, then the warning of Matthew 7 will become crystal clear in our lives. Join us on November 16th as we seek to understand the depth of these words: ‘Christ IN You - the Hope of Glory‘.
Wednesday night, November 19 - Correcting last week’s newsletter, we will not actually be having our fellowship meal this Wednesday night - to accommodate folks who don’t like to drive at night, we are moving our fellowship meal to Sunday, November 23rd, directly after church. This will be a Thanksgiving fellowship meal/celebration, so make plans to join us after church next Sunday, and bring some food! Actually, since we’ve invited some of our friends from the community, you might want to bring extra food.


Next Sunday, November 23 (right after worship: Thanksgiving fellowship meal and celebration.

This Week’s Links:

*****    The Cell Phone Challenge: How many unchurched people’s contact info do you have in your cell phone? http://www.thinkchristian.net/index.php/2008/11/12/cell-phone-challenge/

*****     Do you remember hearing on the news that Sarah Palin didn’t realize that Africa was a continent? Well, that was a hoax: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/arts/television/13hoax.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.


*****    This is interesting; a very candid interview of Barack Obama on his religious beliefs. Perhaps not as shallow as some might expect, but definitely quite far from a Biblical understanding of Christianity. : http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctpolitics/2008/11/obamas_fascinat.html

Here’s an excerpt: “This is something that I’m sure I’d have serious debates with my fellow Christians about. I think that the difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and prostelytize. There’s the belief, certainly in some quarters, that people haven’t embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior that they’re going to hell. I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell.I can’t imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India who never interacts with the Christian faith to somehow burn for all eternity. That’s just not part of my religious makeup.”

*****    Can you be busy and lazy? Why being busy doesn’t automatically mean we are being diligent: http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Blog/post/how-busyness-and-laziness-coexist-cj-mahaney.aspx

*****    My favorite site for finding online bargains: http://slickdeals.net/


*****     Some interesting thoughts on surviving the economy from a Christian perspective: http://www.thinkchristian.net/index.php/2008/11/11/secret-to-surviving-economy/

I look forward to seeing you this Sunday! 

Chase

Jano07

Chase

0

Agape Newsletter 10-29-08: Free Family Movie Night

Hello and welcome into another action and announcement packed edition of the Agape E-newsletter!

We have several events and announcements this week, as well as one significant change of plans. You’ll recall that last Sunday during the message on the economy, that I said we would have an expert panel this Sunday to answer any questions that you might have? Sadly, we are going to have to postpone our expert panel until next week, due to the inability of one or two of our key panelists to be able to make it this Sunday. They are, however, on for next Sunday, so we will shift our question and answer time until then. We will have bankers, accountants and attorneys on our panel - all with the expertise and knowledge to answer your questions. So then - that puts the ball in your court: What questions do you have about the economy? About getting a new job? About your 401 k? About your savings and investments? I do realize, like I said last week, that the economy is an odd thing to be talking about during church, but if you will listen to the opening minutes of the first message on the economy (posted at: http://agapepinson.com/sermons_online.htm) you will hear why I believe it to be an important issue for Christians to be knowledgeable on. Mainly - we are called to be a light in these dark times, and we shouldn’t be ignorant of all the shaking that is going on in the world right now. As I type this message on Friday afternoon, I see that the Dow Jones average has dipped more than 300 points and is coming dangerously close to the 7000’s.

Three other notes of interest for this week: 1. TONIGHT IS FREE FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT!!! (at 6:30, see below for more details) 2 PRAYER TIME IS MOVING - beginning next Sunday (not this Sunday) we will be changing our Sunday morning corporate prayer time to 9:15 am, instead of 8:30 am. It is hoped by this move that more people will be able to come and pray together before corporate worship. I will write more about that next week. Finally, 3. Deacon nomination papers will be available in the back of the sanctuary this Sunday morning, on the Crossroads table. In fact, they were available this past Sunday morning, but I neglected to mention that at the end of my message, as I was supposed to. There is space for four names to be nominated - feel free to take the form with you this week, and bring it back next week.

Also: Please remember to pray for Mark Jones this week, as his father died Tuesday morning. Pray for peace and comfort for Mark and Traci, as well as peace and wisdom for his brother’s and sisters. Also, pray for Ron Franks as he had surgery this week, and is recovering at home.

On to this week’s schedule

This Week’s Schedule:

Friday, October 24 (TONIGHT!) at 6:30pm: FREE Family Movie Night in the sanctuary at Agape. Cost? Surprisingly cheap! Tonight we’ll be having food, movies, fun and games at church as your missions team treats us to a free movie and much more. The movie on tap for tonight is the Veggie Tales, Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything. I had the privilege of watching this movie recently, and absolutely loved it. (No Kidding!) It was funny, and inspirational enough to bring a small tear to my eye at one point. A very small, manly, and tough tear. The kind that Hercules or Superman might have shed.

Saturday, October 25, 9:30 am: Angel Food orders will be at the church to be picked up -don’t forget to come by and pick up your box! November’s orders are due by November 8th; David has placed a menu online at: http://agapepinson.com/angel_food_ministries.htm

Sunday, October 26 - 8:30 - Corporate prayer. Prayer is so critical in the life of the church, so please join us in the back of the sanctuary to lift up our hearts to God. Don’t forget that corporate prayer moves to 9:15 am next week!
Sunday 9:45 - Small groups
Sunday 10:45 - Morning worship and word. This week we will take a very brief break from talking about the economy, and watch an interesting video, and hear a message on the power of our words.

Sunday night: 5 pm Sunday night at Crossroads, David will be bringing a message that everybody in the church, as well as their friends and neighbors, needs to hear. The title of the message is: When Belief is Not Enough, and here is his description of it: The end of John chapter 2 shows us a group of people who believed in Jesus, yet the Bible says that Christ would not entrust himself to them. He knew their hearts and He knew they were following Him for the wrong reasons. According to scripture, simply believing the Gospel is not sufficient to be saved. Satan believes the gospel. So what does it take to be saved? Jesus said the answer was to be born again - the question is: what does that mean? Join us October 26th at 5pm as we seek an answer.

Tuesday night, October 28: The Nest, homeless ministry at Agape. More information on the Nest: http://agapepinson.com/nest_ministry.htm.

Wednesday night, October 22nd - Back to Matthew this week, as we’ll be tackling the 10th chapter of Matthew - a most challenging, yet refreshing passage of scripture. We will also have food pantry that night, beginning at 6:00.

This Week’s Links:

*****     Here’s a completely free CD of Advent and Christmas songs (the one catch? You have to tell 5 friends about it). It sounds beautiful from what I’ve heard of it. http://www.sojournmusic.com/2007/12/05/advent-songs-2007/

*****     Why is Christianity at it’s best in the midst of disaster: http://www.newmanmag.com/newmanreport/2008/09/christianity-in-midst-of-disaster.html

*****     John (Amazing Grace) Newton on Not Being Afraid (via James Mcdonald): http://familyreformation.wordpress.com/2008/10/21/do-not-be-afraid/

*****    A Civics review: How we elect our president. http://www.welt.de/english-news/article2605119/How-the-U-S-A-elects-its-President.html

*****    Ben Patterson on learning how to pray by using the Psalms: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/october/34.87.html

I look forward to worshiping with you this Sunday!

Chase