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8/31/2016 0 Comments August 31st, 2016 God's Labor Day! Labor Day is almost here, and we are celebrating early this Sunday with God's Labor Day! What is God's Labor Day? It is an hour (in place of Sunday School ) in which we as a congregation will engage in small mission projects to help change our world. We have several projects to choose from: Meet Our Neighbors: We will go out in teams into the village to meet our neighbors, visit briefly with them, and invite them to join us for Wednesday at the Port this fall. School Prayer Walk: We will walk around South River School stopping to pray over classrooms and asking for God's blessing and protection for our teachers and kids. Cards of Encouragement: We will gather in the social hall to write cards to folks in our community to encourage them and let them know we are thinking of them. Cup of Blessing: We will put together and pray over cups filled with tokens of blessings that we can give away to those we meet the rest of the day. What do you need to do to get ready for this special day? Everything will be provided for your mission project. All you have to do is just sign up if you haven't already and show up on Sunday! Please email or call me with which mission you want to be a part of so we can prepare to have enough materials. Plan to wear comfortable shoes and bring an umbrella if needed in the case of rain if you are choosing Meet Our Neighbors or the School Prayer Walk. It Takes a Village... In Sunday worship, we are currently looking at the importance of community and how we are called to be there for one another. Sunday's Sermon Snippet: to Weather a Storm! (Ecclesiastes 4:7-12) The teacher who wrote the wise words of Ecclesiastes had a relatively pessimistic view of our lives and what he observed of them. Repeatedly he commented on what he saw to be the meaningless pursuits of our lives, the vanities that he compared to chasing after wind. After noting that to eat, drink, and find joy in one's work is a gift from God and one of the only meaningful things in life, he turned his attention to the futility of going at life alone, especially in times of trouble. If one falls and no one is around, there is no one to help them up. One cannot keep warm alone. Two can withstand an oppressor more easily than one standing alone. Simply put, two are better than one. Most of us have faced trials in life in which we have recognized the truth of this - there are times when we can do nothing but turn to the support and love of others to see us through the storms of life. But this wise teacher goes beyond this. In this short bit of wisdom, the teacher does not start with how two are better at weathering the storm than one alone but instead how there is no profit in work for one who works alone. Despite the wisdom that finding joy in one's work is a gift from God, this wisdom points out that such joy is not to be found if we go at our work alone. Even if we were to become exceedingly rich from our solo work, it is meaningless if we do not have those around us with which to share the work. Two are better than one - not just in times of trouble but in the everyday parts of life, not just in the major, devastating storms of life or even in the small daily storms that pass as quickly as they come but even when clear skies prevail. We need each other to weather the storms of life and to enjoy the fair weather in between. Looking Ahead Join us this Sunday for God's Labor Day as we live out how "It Takes a Village to Change the World!" Leading Our ChurchAs we prepare for the upcoming year and the ministries we will undertake in Jesus' name, we will be looking to identify leaders of our church for 2017 and beyond! To help our nominating committee in their discernment, please fill out the short survey that can be found online here. You will be asked to complete a short spiritual gifts inventory, share your interests, and let us know if you feel called to any particular ministries or to step back from ministries you are already involved in. This should take only about five minutes but will help our church tremendously. Your input will help us to better match leaders to roles God has gifted them for. Thanks for your help! Living in CommunityThanks to Teresa for blessing us with your powerful testimony with us in worship on Sunday. We continue to lift you and your family up in our prayers. Volunteers needed for Wednesday at the Port: Servers and cleaners needed - whether you can help one week or many, you are what makes this ministry possible! See Sue for more information. Volunteers needed for Drive-thru Nativity: If you can assist with organizing our Nativity this December, please talk with Davida. We will need three volunteers to make this happen. This Week at Port ChurchWednesday, August 31 9:30 - 2:00 - Office Hours Thursday, September 1 9:30 - 12:00 - Office Hours Sunday, September 4 9:30 am - Worship: "It Takes a Village... to Change the World" 11:00 am - God's Labor Day Looking AheadBlessing of First Responders in worship on September 11
If you know a police officer, fire fighter, EMT, or other first responder, invite them to join us so that we can say thank you for their service to our community! Wednesday at the Port kicks off on September 14! Chili Cookoff and Silent Auction for Youth Missions, October 15 Charge Conference, October 23 Drive-thru Nativity - December 9 & 10
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8/24/2016 0 Comments August 24th, 2016 Back to School!What a great weekend we had here at Port Church getting ready for the new school year! Our youth spent a fun evening in the park playing flashlight tag and eating homemade ice cream on Saturday. On Sunday, our elementary students spent a couple of hours playing games and winning school supply prizes. The games included challenges like eating a doughnut hanging on a string and a relay race carrying a ping-pong ball on a plate. Sunday morning, we recognized our school teachers and staff with a specially made gift and a prayer of blessing. What a way to end summer break and get the new school year started! Please join together this week in praying for the safety, peace, and joy of all the teachers, staff, and students in the schools of our community! Blessings on the journey, Jim Responding to Louisiana FloodsThe scenes coming out of Louisiana the past two weeks have been heart-breaking and terrifying. Flooding from torrential rain has impacted 40,000 homes and forced the rescue of 30,000 people, while several people have lost their lives. What can we do to help? Our United Methodist Committee on Relief is one of the best disaster relief agencies in the world and partners with local groups to deploy our church's resources where they are most needed. Where there is disaster, through UMCOR we are some of the first to respond and the last to leave when the recovery is complete. We can support our brothers and sisters in Louisiana by donating to UMCOR's US Disaster Relief online or by placing a check in the offering plate made out to the church and designated for "UMCOR Disaster Relief". It Takes a Village... Over the next few weeks, we are looking at the importance of community and how we are called to be there for one another. Sunday's Sermon Snippet: to Raise a Child! (1 Corinthians 3:5-11) Our culture celebrates the hero who stands alone against all odds, the self-made person who succeeds entirely on their own, the one who is completely independent. We, of course, acknowledge that there are times when we need help - even the greatest heroes tend to have lesser sidekicks - but accepting help should be a last resort. Yet our Scriptures paint a different sort of picture - one that celebrates community and how we work together for the betterment of the whole. The apostle Paul had formed a new church in Corinth upon his first visit there and had taught them the basics of the faith. After he moved on to another city, he heard of problems in the church in Corinth and Apollos was sent to lead the church. This created division between those who felt loyalty to Paul and those who preferred Apollos. Paul wrote to settle the dispute using the analogy of a crop that is planted by one and watered by another or a building whose foundation is set by one and built upon by another. For the crop, it is God who gives the growth, while, for the building, the foundation is Jesus Christ. Paul's point is that the work of God is greater than any one individual. It is not about who is able to do it all themselves but about how God uses a group of folks each doing their own part to create something great. There are three things we can learn about working in community from these analogies: 1) Each person is called to particular task for the purposes of God. 2) No one person has to do it all, nor is it good if they do. This relieves the burden of having to do it all from our shoulders. 3) It is not about how great we are that brings fruit from our work but about how God uses our faithfulness. We may never see the fruit of our labor - we may even think it a failure, but God is the one who knows how it will be used and come to fruition. So we are not called to go at it alone trying to do everything on our own. We are called to instead be the community that works together do God's work of raising the children of our community in the faith. Looking Ahead We are called to work together in the everyday tasks such as raising our children up. But there are seasons in life where nothing seems to go right and we feel isolated from our community. We may not even feel like sharing our burdens with others, perhaps out of embarrassment, shame, or hopelessness. Come out this Sunday to hear a special testimony and join in the conversation about how "It Takes a Village... to Weather the Storm!" Living in CommunityThank you, Jean, for the beautiful crosses you made to bless our school teachers! Thank you, Lee, for organizing our Back-to-School Bash for our elementary students! Thank you to Melissa, Holly, Tara, Dinah, Kara, Angela, Hannah, Zach, Savannah, and Brenna for helping out! Please keep our school kids and teachers in your prayers as they kick off the new year. This Week at Port ChurchWednesday, August 24 9:30 - 2:00 - Office Hours Thursday, August 25 9:30 - 12:00 - Office Hours Sunday, August 28 9:30 am - Worship: "It Takes a Village... to Weather the Storm" 11:00 am - Sunday School Looking AheadBlessing of First Responders in worship on September 11
If you know a police officer, fire fighter, EMT, or other first responder, invite them to join us so that we can say thank you for their service to our community! Wednesday at the Port kicks off on September 14! Chili Cookoff and Silent Auction for Youth Missions, October 15 Charge Conference, October 23 8/17/2016 0 Comments August 17th, 2016 Training for the Race Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable garland, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified. - 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Over the last week, I have been amazed by the performances coming out of the Olympic Games in Rio. As with so many of us, I find myself watching sports that I have not watched since the last Olympics or even ever at all. Even when I know little about the sport or normally do not take much interest in it, there is something about watching the greatness of a world-class athlete doing what they do so well. In the case of a dominant athlete who leaves the competition far behind and the result is almost a foregone conclusion, there is still much to admire in the sheer greatness of the individual performance against the clock or simply themselves. While the Olympics last just a few days and will become a distant memory for the next four years, we know that for these athletes it is an everyday thought as they train for the race. It takes years and years of training day in and day out for an athlete to compete for the opportunity of competing at the Olympics. What motivates them? To hear their own interviews, the thought of a medal, the push to improve bit by bit, and the desire to meet the next goal along the journey keep them going. Do we take the race of faith seriously? Do we have goals for how we want to grow in faith? Do we want to become more Christ-like in our lives? Do we keep our focus on the prize of faith? Do we train ourselves so that we can win the race of faith? Blessings on the journey, Jim Lazy Days of Summer Sunday's Sermon Snippet: Jubilee Leviticus 25:1-13 The Sabbath is about resting in God and renewing life, but there is more to it than that. In the law, God told the people not only to observe the weekly sabbath for themselves but also to let the earth rest every seventh year. No crops were to be planted or tended, and the people could only eat what the earth provided of itself. Furthermore, every seventh of these Sabbath years marked he beginning of something incredible - the fiftieth year was to be the year of Jubilee, the Sabbath of Sabbaths. The Jubilee began with the blowing of the ram's horn and marked the beginning of a fresh start for everyone. In the Jubilee, all people were to return to their home property; even if it had been sold to another person, it was to be returned to its original family of owners. In this way, the Jubilee provided a fresh start for the whole nation of people. If someone had fallen into poverty and was forced to sell their property to survive, it would have been hard for them to work their way back to prosperity without their land as an asset. With the Jubilee, they once again had land with which to hopefully prosper. Through these Sabbath years and the year of Jubilee alongside the weekly Sabbath, God established rest, renewal, and restart as a pattern of our lives. For us, each new Sabbath is a mini-Jubilee and brings us a fresh start. What has happened in the last week - with its failures, sins, disappointments, and stresses - is past, and we look forward to a new week of possibilities. It is up to us what we will make of our fresh start. Will we try to grow in faith? Will we try to avoid the mistakes we made last week? Will we try to take the next step forward in our lives? This week, I challenge you to consider what goals you have for your life of faith and to use this fresh start God has given you to take the next faithful step! It Takes a Village... Over the next few weeks in worship, we will celebrate our community and how we can make a difference in the world by working together. This Sunday, we kick off with a celebration of our ministry to the children of our community and the work of our teachers. We will have a special blessing and gift for all of our teachers! Looking ahead, we will hear a powerful testimony on August 28th, head out in mission to our community on God's Labor Day on September 3rd, and honor our first responders on September 11th! Join us each Sunday as explore how "It Takes a Village..." to complete God's work in the world! Living in CommunityPlease pray for all of our teachers as they prepare for the beginning of the new school year in Rockingham Country next week. This Week at Port ChurchWednesday, August 17 Office Hours cancelled this week Thursday, August 18 10 am - Sunshine Seniors Saturday, August 20 7-11 pm - Youth Flashlight Tag in the Park Sunday, August 21 9:30 am - Worship: "It Takes a Village... to Raise a Child" Blessing of Teachers and Staff 11:00 am - Sunday School 4-6 pm - Back-to-School Bash for Elementary Students Looking AheadBlessing of First Responders in worship on September 11
If you know a police officer, fire fighter, EMT, or other first responder, invite them to join us so that we can say thank you for their service to our community! Wednesday at the Port kicks off on September 14! Charge Conference, October 23 8/10/2016 0 Comments August 10th, 2016 The Power of CommunityCommunity is a powerful thing! When we live life together, we are never alone in the trials that we face or in the joys that we celebrate. Port Church is a great example of the power of community - from partnering with members of our community for Vacation Bible School to supporting the work of South River Elementary in helping children in need, from praying together and for one another to the celebration of meals together, we are a village church. Beginning August 21st, we are going to celebrate in worship the power of community and our being "The Village Church with a Mission to the World!" Each week, we will have a special part of our worship service to be in community: August 21 - Blessing of Teachers - Join us as we give thanks and ask God's blessing for our teachers as they begin a new school year! August 28 - Story of Faith - Join us as we hear a special testimony from someone we hold dear! September 4 - God's Labor Day - Join us for a special day of worship that will lead us out into the community for small mission projects! Be on the lookout for a sign-up sheet in the coming weeks. September 11 - Blessing of First Responders - Join us as we give thanks and ask for God's protection and guidance for all of our first responders in our community! I look forward to seeing you as we join together as a village church in the name of Jesus Christ! Blessings on the journey, Jim Lazy Days of Summer During these hot days of August, our worship is focusing on our need to take Sabbath time to rest and be with God, especially during these "Lazy Days of Summer!" Sunday's Sermon Snippet: Life Luke 13:10-17 Rest is an essential part of life, so taking the commandment to rest and refrain from work during Sabbath time seriously is a good thing. Taken to an extreme, however, we might wonder if we can possibly do anything because so much of life is working for one purpose or another. On the other hand, our culture has gone to the other extreme, with a day of rest being virtually non-existent. What are we as Christians to do in a world where Sabbath rest seems to be all or nothing? This tension is nothing new, and Jesus faced this same issue when he encountered a woman who had been ill for many years on the Sabbath day. When he healed her (which was considered work), the religious authority was upset and claimed that healing should wait until another day when work was allowed. Jesus replied by pointing out that even the most observant of God's followers would untie a donkey to lead it to water on the Sabbath, so this woman should likewise be unbound from her illness. Far from being an inappropriate day to heal, Jesus claimed that the Sabbath was the right day to do so. In saying this, Jesus reveals a good principle for us to consider regarding work and rest. The Sabbath is meant to honor, preserve, and build up the holiness of life. Resting in God does just this, but so does healing this woman so that she can rest from her illness. In discerning what "work" is allowed when we are trying to take time for Sabbath rest, the law of life is a good guide. Does what I am doing give life to me or drain it? Does what I am doing give life to another person or drain it away? This week, take time for Sabbath rest to do something that fills you with life. Also, find something you can do for another person to give them life and rest. Looking Ahead Taking time to rest is a part of a healthy life and a vital faith, but can't I just get it when I feel tired or really need it? Why should I take time each week to rest when there is so much to be done? Join us this Sunday as we celebrate the "Jubilee" of how God works through rest to give us a new beginning! Living in CommunityBlessings to Tristan who has been playing piano occasionally for the worship service at Mount Vernon Mennonite Church! Congratulations to April on being one of 50 youth from the state selected for the Youth Cadet Law Enforcement Program! This Week at Port ChurchWednesday, August 10 9:30 am - 2:00 pm - Office Hours Thursday, August 11 9:30 am - 12 noon - Office Hours Sunday, August 14 9:30 am - Worship: "Lazy Days of Summer: Jubilee" 11:00 am - Sunday School Looking AheadBlessing of Teachers for the new school year in worship on August 21
If you know a teacher, invite them to join you for this special blessing! Children's Back-to-School Bash on August 21, 4-6 pm, at Bradburn Park All elementary school kids invited for an afternoon of fun! Blessing of First Responders in worship on September 11 If you know a police officer, fire fighter, EMT, or other first responder, invite them to join us so that we can say thank you for their service to our community! Wednesday at the Port kicks off on September 14! Charge Conference, October 23 |
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