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5/31/2017 0 Comments May 31st, 2017 A Day of Celebration - Sunday Worship at 10am! With spring giving way to summer, the school year will soon be over. That is a cause for celebration - not just for the children and teachers looking forward to a well-earned break after a year of hard work but also for those who are graduating and taking a major step forward into their lives. This Sunday in worship, we are going to celebrate with the families and friends of our graduates as we recognize and bless them. We have more to celebrate as well - we also have a large class of youth coming to commit their lives to Christ through baptism and confirmation. To celebrate all this in fine fashion, we are moving our worship outside to Bradburn Park and changing the time to 10 am! We will have limited seating available so bring a comfortable camp/lawn chair. If you are able, please park at the church and walk to the park, so that we can reserve the lot at the park for our older members and guests. If the weather is not cooperating, we will move the service back to the sanctuary - still at 10 am. We will try to announce a decision by Saturday evening on location. There will be no Sunday School or Children's Church. The celebration will continue with a potluck lunch starting at about 12 noon at the picnic shelter. Please bring a large dish to share so that there will be plenty for our guests. Again, if the weather is not cooperating, we will move the potluck to the fellowship hall. We hope that you will be able to join us this Sunday at 10 am for this great day of celebration! Living in CommunityThanks to Ralph for preaching and leading worship this past Sunday! Congratulations to Brad and Becca on their marriage! Blessings of healing to the families to all those who have lost their lives defending freedom. Due to availability of room assignments, we are moving our VBS Training and Walkthrough from June 11 to June 25. We apologize for any inconvenience. This Week at Port ChurchTuesday, May 30 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Thursday, June 1 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Sunday, June 4 10:00 am - Praise at the Park Graduate Recognition and Confirmation Picnic to follow - Bring a dish to share Sunday School and Children's Church cancelled Looking AheadJune 24 - Maker Fun Fest VBS Kickoff Party
June 25 - VBS Training and Walkthrough at SRES June 26-30 - Vacation Bible School
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5/15/2017 0 Comments May 15th, 2017 Happy Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day to all of our mothers, aunts, sisters, teachers, and other mothers! I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day full of celebration of the women in your life and of good memories of the women now gone who have made you who you are today. May we be thankful for them all each and every day, and give thanks to God for the gifts they are to us! Pastor Jim Sunday's Sermon: Family Heirlooms Proverbs 1:8-9, 3:1-4: We all have those precious family treasures that have been passed down to us and mean so much to us. Whether it's a pocket watch or locket, a tool or a bonnet, a picture or a dish, they are special things to have and to pass on to another generation. The Book of Proverbs tells us about the most precious of family treasures that we have - the teachings and wisdom of our parents. In the opening chapter of the book, Solomon, encourages his son to listen to his instruction and not forget the teaching of his mother. He compares them to a wreath for the head or beads for the neck - in other words, to jewelry. While some may wear jewelry to flaunt their wealth, most of us wear jewelry for other reasons - to express a part of our personality (fun earrings or a pin), to reveal and reflect our inherent beauty, and to act as a token of belonging (a wedding ring or locket). Proverbs tells us that the teachings we cling to from our families act in a similar way - they say who we are and to whom we belong and reveals our inner nature. In chapter 3, Solomon returns to this image of jewelry and goes a step further saying it is not enough to wear our teachings on the outside but we must also write them on the tablet of our heart. In other words, it is not enough just to go around quoting and speaking the teachings handed down to us merely flaunting them as wealth. We need to make them a part of who we are at our core, and then they truly become a part of the beauty of who we are. If we do this, Solomon tell us, we will find favor with both God and other people. What is the greatest treasure of wisdom that your family has passed on to you? Coming Up This Sunday: One simple question: How are your flocks doing? Join us this Sunday, and find out why this is an important question we should ask every day! Port Church ProverbsThese are a few of the treasured words of wisdom that you shared on Sunday: Treat everyone else as they want to be treated. - My Grandmother (Chris) No matter how poor you are or how little you think you have, you can always find something to share with those in need. - My mother Edith Hooke (Jean) Always tell the truth. It is easy to remember. (Rita) Don't be afraid to be who you are, because the people who love your true self will always be there. (Isaac) Be humble. - Grandaddy John (Ashlyn) Always think before you do. (Dylan) If you missed sharing some of the words of wisdom that were passed down to you or if you have another that you have thought of since our worship service, please give them to Pastor Jim by email or on Sunday. Living in CommunityThanks to Hunter for helping to set up our sanctuary for worship on Sunday! Thanks to the Burns and Williams families for preparing and serving lunch for our VBS training! Please keep the Dean, Kyger, and Chandler families in your prayers as Jared heads out for boot camp this week. If you know of a church member or family member serving away from home, please let the church office know their names and addresses. Congratulations to Becca on her graduation from EMU! This Week at Port ChurchTuesday, May 16 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Thursday, May 18 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Sunday, May 21 9:30 am - Worship - "Words of Wisdom: How Are Your Flocks?" 11:00 am - Sunday School Looking AheadJune 4 - Graduation Sunday
June 24 - Maker Fun Fest VBS Kickoff Party June 26-30 - Vacation Bible School 5/8/2017 0 Comments May 08th, 2017 Stained Glass Window UpdateIf you have worshiped with us in the last couple of weeks, you have surely noticed the missing stained glass windows that have been sent off for restoration. Since then, I have heard a few questions about the remaining work, so I want to take a minute to catch everyone up on where we stand on this work. A couple of years ago, we found the window in bell tower - above the red front doors - was bending and breaking, so we had it repaired and restored. In addition, we had a new cover installed - a really great one. The new cover is made of safety glass so that it will not yellow or fade but also protecting the stained glass effectively. The window can also be seen more clearly from the outside. Check it out if you have not already! This was the first step of our work. We have just begun work on the second step - to restore the largest window. It is original to the building and is about 100 years old. That is the typical lifetime on stained glass before it needs to be restored. This window and the small one above it will be taken apart, cleaned, out back together, and reinstalled in the coming weeks. A new cover will be installed to let more light in and protect it effectively. The work that remains to be done consists of two different items that we hope to complete over the next five to ten years. First, the windows in the overflow and balcony areas need some repair work done and new covers installed. This work will cost $4,000-6,500 for each panel, for a total of around $27,000. Second, the picture windows, which are newer and were installed between 1944 and 1946, need new covers. This will both allow more light to shine in these windows and protect the vibrant colors from the sun's rays. These will cost about $1,500 per window. Thank you to everyone who has helped us complete these first two steps so quickly! Your generosity and dedication mean that people who gather here at Port Church can enjoy these windows for generations to come. While we obviously have a lot of work yet to do, we know that God will continue to be faithful to us as God has been for the last 224 years! Blessings on the journey, Jim Sunday's Sermon: Run for Your Life!This past Sunday, we kicked off our new worship series "Words of Wisdom". Over the next few weeks, we are going to look at a few verses from the Book of Proverbs to see what wisdom they hold for how we can grow in our faith today. Proverbs 6:1-5 This passage opens with a promise of a plan of what to do if we find that our words have gotten us into debt. While the particular situation it describes is one where we have secured a debt for another, the plan it outlines is one that can apply whenever we have dug ourselves a hole that we are caught in as a result of our poor decisions. Perhaps it is something as trivial as the overwhelming pile of laundry to be folded or maybe it's something far more important like our physical, emotional, or spiritual health that we have neglected for far too long. When we fail to take care of our bodies, when we succumb to addiction, when we ignore our spiritual needs because things are good, we dig ourselves a hole that is not easily overcome. But we have these words of wisdom from the Proverbs. First, we have to humble ourselves. If we are overly indebted to another person, we humble ourselves to them and plead our case for mercy. If we are indebted to a problem we have created in our lives, we have to humble ourselves by admitting to ourselves what we have done to create it. This is difficult because it involves a certain amount of shame over our decisions, and we might rather close our eyes, ignore the problem, and hope for the best. We have to get past the shame and the inertia by humbling ourselves. Only in admitting we created the problem can we embrace that we can also work to solve the problem. Second, Proverbs tells us not to rest and even sleep until we have gotten out of our hole. This means that you do not rest until you have humbled yourself and begun to climb your way out. In other words, start today. We cannot put off fixing our problems until tomorrow, because tomorrow never comes. It also means that you do not rest until you are finished. You cannot take a day off. It is not good enough to exercise today and then let up tomorrow. This takes dedication to getting out of the hole. The third step that Proverbs outlines is a curious one - to escape like a gazelle from the hunter. If we imagine a cheetah - the fastest animal on land - chasing down a gazelle, this image comes home. The only way to escape from our debts is to run for our very lives. Whatever we need to do to work ourselves out of the holes we have created for ourselves, we need to do it as if our lives depended on it - because they very well may! To get out of the debts of our bad decisions, we need humility, dedication, and intensity. If we tackle our problems with these three things, we can work with God to get out of the holes we have dug for ourselves. Coming Up This Week With Mother's Day coming up this week, we are going to reflect on our "Family Heirlooms". Think about what items from your family are the most precious to you, and come ready to share if you like. Living in CommunityThanks to Dianna, Makayla, and Lauren for helping to serve communion this week! This Week at Port ChurchTuesday, May 9 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Thursday, May 11 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Sunday, May 14 9:30 am - Worship with Celebration of Mother's Day "Words of Wisdom: Family Heirlooms" 11:00 am - Sunday School Looking AheadJune 4 - Graduation Sunday
June 24 - Maker Fun Fest VBS Kickoff Party June 26-30 - Vacation Bible School 5/3/2017 0 Comments May 03rd, 2017 The Smell of MoneyWith spring fully upon us, there is a flurry of activity all around getting the fields ready for a new season of growth and harvest. If you have any doubt, just open your window, and the wind is likely to gift with a waft of proof - the smell of manure that has been sprayed on the fields around us! When I was growing up in Middle Georgia with dairy farms scattered around us, we called it "the smell of money!" I've been told that many folks around here call it "fresh country air." Whatever cute name we give it, there is no denying that the smell of manure freshly sprayed on a field - no matter how beneficial it may be in the end - is not a pleasant one. In life, there are plenty of times that feel as bad as those fields smell. These are far from pleasant times to live through: broken relationships, grief over lost loved ones, health crises, stress added upon more stress. While we would never choose such times, they often wind up being times that both try us and help us grow. We figure out who we really are. We find the true measure of our strength. We grow to be able to endure even greater burdens. We hear God's voice even more clearly calling us forward. Like manure on a field being prepared for a new crop, the trials of life are unpleasant but help us to grow stronger in time. May God bless you with renewed and growing faith even in the midst of the most difficult of times! Blessings on the journey, Jim Words of Wisdom - New Worship Series How do we overcome the things standing in the way of our getting to a deeper faith? What do we need more than anything else to be able to grow in faith? How do we prepare ourselves and our faith for the uncertainties the future holds? Which directions should we choose in our journeys of faith? Join us in worship over the next few weeks to delve into the wisdom of the Book of Proverbs to answer these questions and more. This Sunday, we kick it all off by learning why it is wise to "Run for Your Life!" Living in CommunityThank you, Ralph and Liz, for helping to lead worship during the Pulpit Swap this past Sunday! Thanks to Lee and Mike for painting the nursery! Thanks to Dianna for leading and hosting our Bible Study! Thanks to Ralph for representing our church at the Food Pantry and leading devotions this week! If you would like to lead devotions at the Food Pantry one Monday this month, please let Pastor Jim know. This Week At Port ChurchMonday, May 1 9:30 am - Bible Study at Dianna's Tuesday, May 2 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours 7:00 pm - Bible Study at Dianna's Thursday, May 4 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Sunday, May 7 9:30 am - Worship with Communion "Words of Wisdom: Run for Your Life!" 11:00 am - Sunday School 12:00 noon - VBS Training Looking AheadJune 4 - Graduation Sunday
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