As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21) One of my favorite movies is Mission Impossible. It’s a movie that keeps you on your toes with lots of thrills and mysteries that make you sit on the edge of your seat. When I think of the mission of God I can’t help but think of God sending his Son into the world on a mission; a mission that involved the people of God. It involved reconciliation and restoration of souls. It involved the love of the father to redeem us from sin and to restore our lives to wholeness. Is this mission impossible or is it possible? I’m here to tell you that the mission of God is possible if we come together as a church with the goal of making people; the people of God our mission. Before we can make people our mission, It means as we’ve talked about for several months that we become a community for a community, which means that we learn how to live in community. My feeling is that once we’ve moved to a place where we make people our mission as a response to the mission the father has given us, we will begin to see the impact that the “good news” of the gospel has on the lives of God’s people. In learning how to live in community it means as a church family that we practice the art of reconciliation. Jesus modeled this and lived this out, why can’t we as his followers? Living in community means that we become more trusting of the father and his work. It means allowing for the Spirit of God, the ruach of God to move as the Spirit freely wills. Finally it means that as a community when people look into our house, we’re always living like we’ve been forgiven. Jesus forgave us, so, we can forgive others. Most of all the church will grow if we can become a place where when the “good news” is shared, the love of God is seared on a persons heart. This is done when the church truly responds to the mission of God, which is never impossible when you have God in our lives and it’s never impossible when the Holy Spirit is trusted to do the work of transformation. Impossible? By all means possible!Because of him,Pastor K.C.
The church I had the privilege of attending as a youth had a wonderful ministry to children and youth. What made the church a wonderful place for me was that as a youth I could call the church my “home away from home.” I can recall on several occasions walking to church, anxiously waiting for the youth leaders to arrive for that next awesome youth group event. As a youth group we went to the beach every Tuesday during the summer months. I remember attending a Christian camp called Forest Home with my youth group and friends from church during the summer and winter months. It was at Forest Home Winter Camp, while in Jr. High, that I gave my life to Christ and to serving his church. It was also in the youth group that I learned the importance of mission, by regularly attending a youth group mission project to Tijuana, Mexico, one Saturday a month, throughout most of Jr. High. We learned the importance of what Jesus meant by saying in Matthew 28, “go out into all the world and make disciples of all nations.”Children, youth, and families. Did you know that your session, the elders you elected to help lead and govern the church under the authority of Christ have been called to provide for the Christian Education and nurture of all those who attend our church, especially children, youth, and families? And did you know this can’t happen if we don’t have Sunday School teachers and volunteers who are ready to give of their time and their heart to teaching our children and youth what it means to be a follower of Jesus? As we come up to the summer months, we have a couple of challenges ahead of us as a church, for the future. We need to pray about and plan to make sure that our church is offering regular Sunday morning opportunities for children, youth, and families. We already have a wonderful Sunday morning Bible Study led by Rick Whitehouse. We still are lacking in having the help we need to support Annie Kahramanian in Children’s ministry and Caleb Whitehouse in youth ministry (Saturday night and Sunday morning). I also have a desire as your pastor to make sure that families with babies and toddlers have a place to be cared for here at our church, while parents with children are in Bible study and Sunday morning worship. In the months to come I want us to ask a few questions as a church, “how do we effectively teach our children and youth what it means to follow Jesus with the current ministries we have on Saturday nights for the youth, and on Sunday mornings for the children?” How do they defend their faith and still model Jesus? And most of all, how do we equip our families to help raise their own kids and prepare them for imitating the love of Christ? We desire that our kids, from day one, begin to learn the basics of the Christian faith. We want our kids once they enter college or the employment world to know how to face the challenges they will encounter in their walk with Christ.
If you are interested and would like to prayerfully consider helping volunteer in our ministries to children, youth, and families please let me know. We still currently need extra volunteers for Vacation Bible School which is July 16-20 this Summer ,and help on Sunday mornings. Again, pray for our kids and the kids of Littlerock and the Antelope Valley. Would it not be a cool thing if the church, of all places, could be called a home away from home by our children and youth? I certainly don’t know where I’d be if the church weren’t that place for me while growing up. Finally, the apostle Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:8, “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only gospel of God, but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.” People who love Christ, have time, and care about modeling Jesus, YOU are who we NEED. If you just can’t help for whatever reasons, I ask that you’d pray for God to raise up new leaders to help us with this challenge.
Our friend Eugene has reorganized our audio sermon page on the church web site. Thanks Eugene. I can also lay each weeks sermons into my blog here for you to listen to. The Easter sermon will be ready soon.
Thanks friends for making Easter morning such a great day. It was wonderful to celebrate the risen Lord together as a church. Special thanks to those who brought goodies to share between services and after church. It was neat to see everyone stay after worship to fellowship together. Don’t forget to pick up your Easter lilies. We still have a few left in the sanctuary. I was thrilled and honored as your pastor to be in worship together with you all on our first Easter together. I look forward to many more. He is risen!!!!
Webster’s dictionary defines community as a “unified body of individuals”. As the new Pastor here at the Community Presbyterian Church of Littlerock, I’ve found this definition of community to be true in many ways.
We’re a “come as you are” kind of church. On a typical Sunday morning you will notice that you’ll feel right at home. The people are friendly and come from different walks of life. We’re a community for a community. We care about people and we care about imitating God’s love in all that we do and say as followers of Christ. No matter what kind of week you’ve had, you’ll know that the church, of all places, will be a safe place for you to find refuge from the chaos of the week.
We’re a church that preaches Christ and his love. When you come to our church you’ll hear like the other churches here in Littlerock, the love of God preached in a way that assures you that you are loved, and that Christ loves you in spite of what you’re going through. You’ll hear GOOD NEWS!
We’re a church that cares about the community. Most of all we’re a church that cares about our community and about making a difference for the kingdom. In Matthew 28, Jesus told his disciples to go out into the entire world. I believe this also means right next door. We care about the mission of God which calls us to love and care for those who are in need, both spiritually and physically.
One of our ministries here at Community Presbyterian is that we have a food pantry. We care about feeding the hungry. If you know someone who would benefit from our pantry please invite them to contact the church office for more information at 944-3231. We also have a wonderful outreach to the youth of Littlerock. Knowing that there are things that distract the youth of “today”, we care about offering a place for the youth of today to come as they are. The youth group here meets on Saturday nights at 7:00 PM. Please contact our church office for more information.
Finally, knowing that our fellow churches here in Littlerock and the surrounding areas would agree that we all have one purpose in mind, and that purpose is to lift up Christ here in the Antelope Valley. If you are looking for a church home you’ll find several from which to choose here in Littlerock. Here at Community Presbyterian Church we have Christian Education at 8:45 AM on Sunday mornings for folks of all ages and Sunday morning worship at 10:00 AM. This year on Easter Sunday morning, April 8, we will be joining some of the other churches in the area as “one church” by gathering at the Juniper Bowl for a 6:00 AM Sunrise service. Here at Community Presbyterian we will have two worship services Easter Sunday morning, one at 8:00 AM and one at 10:00 AM. I invite you to come as you are and join us as we seek to follow Christ and to preach the love and grace of God to all that we meet and greet. For more information about our church you can visit us on the web at http://www.cpclr.org
Don’t forget to welcome Gail our new office person. We very excited to have her join us. Please welcome her when you see her. We continue our study of the Gospel of John this Sunday. John 1:19-35. This weeks sermon is titled, “A True Scout.” You can find last weeks bulletin here and sermon notes here.
Last week we began our Study of the Gospel of John. We’re experimenting with an idea in which I told you we would mirror what the Bible study folks are doing on Thursday evenings. I also told you that you’d find more of an in-depth study of the Gospel on Thursday evenings and more of an application on Sunday mornings. This week we continue with the theme, “God the giver of life and the light of the world.” We will deal with this text. I’m also looking forward to this Study as we begin the season of Lent together as a community of faith.
Recent Comments