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11/25/2015 0 Comments November 25th, 2015 Giving Thanks Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 "What are you thankful for?" This was a question that my mother posed to our family as we gathered for Thanksgiving dinner many a year, and of course each of us at the table would go around sharing something we were thankful for that day. I don't know that I would call this ritual a family tradition, though, because to my memory it was one of those things we did some years and not others. I am not sure whether there was any rhyme or reason as to why my mother chose to do it or not. Looking back, I wonder if she chose to have us focus on our thankfulness in those years when things were a little more difficult for our family - or maybe it was just in those years when my sisters and I had been especially antagonistic of one another while my mother sweated over the kitchen stove. Perhaps this is one of those years when we all ought to focus on our thankfulness. To look around the world, it has been a difficult year. There is, of course, the recent terrorism in France and Lebanon, the latent fear that it could happen here, and the heart-breaking plight of Syrian refugees. Not helping any of that, there is the continued political gridlock that stymies any sense of progress on the very real problems we face. Closer to home, we have been hit by news of disease and death among our family and friends and the stories of those in our community who continue to struggle day by day. It would be easy to grow jaded and think we have little to be thankful for this year, except perhaps in the relief that so much of the bad news of the world has bypassed us personally. But maybe there is something to being especially thankful in the midst of the more difficult times. Maybe this is a year to be especially thankful, for we have been reminded of just how fragile and precious and beautiful life truly is. Rejoice and pray and give thanks this week! Blessings on the journey, Jim God's Christmas List What does God want for Christmas? This Advent as get ready for the celebration and gifts of Christmas Day, we are going to take a look in our worship services at what might be on God's Christmas list. Each week, we will also take a few minutes to wrap up our gifts to God in honor of Jesus' birthday! Join us this Sunday as we discover the first item on God's Christmas List: Hope! Bible Basics Why are there so many translations of the Bible, and which one should I use? How do I find things in the Bible? How do I read the Bible to help me grow in faith? These are just a few of the questions we will explore in Bible Basics, a class Pastor Jim will lead during Sunday School from November 29 to December 20. Join the Adult Class in the sanctuary to be ready to start the new year with renewed commitment to reading the Bible. Time for Poinsettias Help us decorate the sanctuary with poinsettias! You can order poinsettias in red, white or pink. The cost is $8.75 for a 6" pot and $17.50 for an 8". If paying by check, make it out to the church and put "Poinsettias" in the memo line. Poinsettias can be given in memory or honor of anyone you choose. Please give your order, payment, memorial/honor details to Pam Hargrave. All orders must be in by December 6. Spotswood Choir Christmas Program Mark your calendars! On December 13 at 6:30 pm, the Spotswood High Choir will be coming to share in some Christmas music with us. Come out to hear and sing along with some festive music, and stay for a cookie reception afterwards. There is no cost, but we will be taking a freewill offering to support the Spotswood Choir. Living in Community
This Week at Port ChurchWednesday, November 25 & Thursday, November 26 Church Office Is Closed Happy Thanksgiving! Sunday, November 29 9:30 am - Worship: "God's Christmas List: Hope" 11 am - Sunday School Join our Adult Sunday School Class as Pastor Jim teaches on ""Bible Basics!" Looking Ahead
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11/17/2015 0 Comments November 17th, 2015 Forever Family t is hard to believe that it has been so long now - almost seven years since our two oldest boys were came to live with us as foster children. One year and three days later, on December 17 (which happens to have been my parents' anniversary), the adoption was finalized as the judge signed off on it, and we became forever family. Each year, we celebrate God bringing us together as a family. For a while before meeting our boys, Courtney and I had felt called to adopt from foster care to give a home to a child in need. Feeling this calling and yet wary that we might back out of it if we had biological children of our own first, we decided that we would not give ourselves that option - we would adopt first. As we went through the process and learned more about the fate of so many young folks in our state who enter foster care, we decided to adopt a sibling group so that the children would not be broken up into separate families. What a ride it has been for us all! There have been challenging days and even more challenging days - sure - but there have been days of awe and wonder at what God has wrought in our lives. It has been a blessing to our forever family I share this with you as November marks National Adoption Month. There are around 1,500 kids in Virginia awaiting a forever family of their own. If you have ever considered adoption/foster care or feel that God may be calling you now to become forever family for a child who is waiting, I would be glad to talk with you and to share more about our experiences. May God bless all of us who have been adopted into Christ's family that we may forever be family to those who are most vulnerable and most in need of love and grace! Blessings on the journey, Jim Worship This Week Sermon Snippet: This past Sunday, Ralph Groves shared with us that God is drawn to our weakness. We all have moments of weakness - of doubt, of confusion, of self-doubt, of temptation - but God does not abandon us in those moments. It is in those very moments that God draws near to us and takes care of us, just as God cared for Adam and Eve in the midst of their sin and fed Elijah in the wilderness when he fled in despair and fear for his life. When we are at our weakest and do not even know what to pray for, such is God's care for us that the Spirit is already stepping in on our behalf. Looking Ahead: This Sunday, we kick off Thanksgiving by thanking God for the Scriptures that sustain us. Bring your favorite Scripture, and share with us why it is your favorite! We will also thank God for our ministries and our leaders. We will close with a time of giving thanks for God's abiding presence and asking for God's blessing in the challenges we face. Join us this Sunday as we give thanks to the Lord! Christmas at the PortThe holiday season is upon us, and we have a lot of exciting opportunities to worship God, to spend time together, and to serve our community. Here is a preview of what we are working on for the holiday season.
Bible Basics Why are there so many translations of the Bible, and which one should I use? How do I find things in the Bible? How do I read the Bible to help me grow in faith? These are just a few of the questions we will explore in Bible Basics, a class Pastor Jim will lead during Sunday School from November 29 to December 20. Join the Adult Class in the sanctuary to be ready to start the new year with renewed commitment to reading the Bible. The Widow's Mite: Small Ways of Helping There are so many small ways of supporting God's work in our community. Did you know that Box Tops for Education found on many of the products we buy everyday provide thousands of dollars to our local schools? If you do not have kids at home collecting them for their own school, clip the Box Tops, bring them to church, and we will deliver them to South River Elementary in support of their work with the children of our community! How easy it is to make a difference! Living in Community
This Week at Port ChurchWednesday, November 18 9:30 am - 2 pm - Office Hours Thursday, November 19 9:30 am - 12 pm - Office Hours 10:00 - Sunshine Seniors Sunday, November 22 9:30 am - Worship: "Anointed" Bring your favorite Scripture to share! 11 am - Sunday School 11:30 am - Turkey Egg Hunt for Preschool & Elementary School Children Looking Ahead
11/11/2015 0 Comments November 11th, 2015An Offering to GodThis week, we have held our yearly charge conference. Charge conference is our annual planning meeting in which we report to the district superintendent or someone else from the district about what we have done over the course of the past year and what plans we have made for the upcoming year. To prepare, we draft our new budget, make nominations for leadership, and fill out forms related to many of our areas of ministry. In fact, we collect reports written by dozens of your leaders and compile them into a large folder. It would be easy to look at all of this as busywork or wasteful administrative tasks. I know there have been times I have take this cynical view of the this annual ritual of paperwork and stress. After all, I have never known of anyone to come to faith in Jesus as a result of filling out paperwork. Yet over the years I have come to see all this paperwork and preparation for charge conference in different light: as an offering to God. Each report we submit, however tedious it may be to draft, represents ministry that we have done or plan to do in the name of Jesus Christ. Each piece of paper we submit represents the hard work of our leaders and volunteers alike. The budget represents a vision for ministry to come and the nominations list represents people committing themselves to serve God through various roles in the church. Taken all together, our preparation for charge conference is an offering to God of what we have done and what we dream of doing for God. With that in mind, I want to share a few of the things that we have offered to God this past year. We have witnessed eight youth commit their lives to Christ and welcomed eight more adults and three children into our covenant. We have said farewell to two faithful sisters and entrusted them into God's heavenly care. We have purchased a new bus to continue our ministry to the children of this community. We have blessed almost forty prayer shawls and prayed for the healing and comfort of our friends and family. We have restored one of our beautiful stained glass windows and have developed a plan to restore and/or care for all of our other windows over the course of the next ten years or so. We have renewed our children's church to help them grow in their knowledge and understanding of the Bible. This is but a small number of the things we have offered to God, some of the things that do not stand out as much as some of larger programs and yet are equally important. Thanks be to God for the opportunity to offer these ministries for building of the kingdom of heaven in our midst! Blessings on the journey, Jim Worship This WeekThe next two weeks will bring many opportunities in worship for us to give thanks to God for our many blessings. This Sunday, we will dedicate the offering of our Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes and will hopefully reach our goal of 225. We will also hear from children and youth who have been preparing a special song for just this occasion. Also for our music, Keith Robinson and his friends Randy and Janis along with David Holsinger will be leading our praise team with a special set of songs. Next Sunday, November 22, our worship will center on our favorite Scriptures. Bring your favorite Scripture to share as we give thanks for the transforming power of the Word of God. Join us these next two weeks as we give thanks to the Lord for all that is good! Go Big or Go Home Sermon Snippet: Go Big or Go Home (Matthew 9:35-10:1) Often in our faith lives we are willing to settle for the bare minimum or just good enough to get by. We pray a little, worship a little, give a little, serve a little. We are satisfied with small thinking about how we live our lives. Yet the world around us is facing not small issues but truly big problems: children going hungry, women being abused, the senseless violence of war, children shuffled from one foster home to the next, water supplies being poisoned by greed, illness, loneliness, hopelessness, hunger, poverty, homelessness, despair - the list is seemingly endless. We continue with our small thinking in the face of big problems because we are afraid to try harder: afraid of failing at something that really matters that we have given our hearts and souls to, afraid of being left exhausted and having nothing to show for it, afraid of being alone in bearing the huge burdens of this world. So we stick with small thinking, but deep down we know that God wants more. God wants us to give it our all in the face of these challenges - because it truly matters. God wants us to go big or go home. Jesus saw the problems of his day and looked with compassion on those who suffered. He told his disciples that the harvest was plentiful - the problems of this world are an opportunity for there to be a harvest of hope for the future, faith that we are not alone, and being loved. The harvest is plentiful because of the many problems in our world, but the laborers are few because there are few who are willing to give their all and go big. The harvest is plentiful: will we go big or go home? This Week's Challenge Where is God calling you to go big in your life today? Where does God need you to enter the harvest fully and willing to risk failure? Christmas Baskets for Food Pantry Part of the outreach of the Food Pantry is to distribute Christmas Baskets to their clients during the month of December. This year PRUMC will have 4 baskets set up at various locations in the church and the goal is to fill those 4 baskets with a variety of things. Christmas baskets are not limited to only food – gloves, hats, scarves, games, gift cards, books, soft toilet tissue…whatever you would like to donate. The baskets will be set-up starting Sunday, November 15th, and the deadline to have all baskets filled is Sunday, December 13th. See Davida for more details. The Widow's Mite: Small Ways of HelpingJust as Jesus commended the widow who gave two small copper coins, even the smallest of our gifts for God's work in our community are pleasing to God when we offer what we have to give. In addition to our tithes and offerings in worship, there are many opportunities to give in small ways to promote God's work. One such small way is to donate empty printer cartridges - inkjet or laser - so that we can recycle them. In doing so, the church can get a small bit of money to offset the administrative costs of the office, thus freeing more resources for God's mission in the world. You can make a small offering by bringing your empty cartridges to the church office during office hours or on Sunday morning. Thank you for your support! Living in Community
This Week at Port ChurchWednesday, November 11 9:30 am - 2 pm - Office Hours 6 pm - Wednesday at the Port - Honoring Veterans Thursday, November 12 9:30 am - 12 pm - Office Hours 10:30 am - Prayer Time Sunday, November 15 9:30 am - Worship: "Drawn to Our Weakness" Dedication of Christmas Shoeboxes Children's Choir Singing 11 am - Sunday School 2:30 pm - District Conference and Training at Bridgewater UMC 6 pm MORE Worship at Mountain View Fellowship in McGaheysville Looking Ahead
11/3/2015 0 Comments November 03rd, 2015 Giving a RelationshipHalloween is past and November is here - that can only mean one thing! The holiday season is fully upon us. Soon we will be gathering around the table for turkey and dressing with all the sides that must be there for the perfect holiday. Any day now we'll begin marking off Christmas gifts from our shopping list one by one. It won't be long until trees glimmer through front windows and lights adorn the eaves of our homes. After a two-month long sprint, we'll pack up the decorations and put away the gifts and wait for another November to bring it all back again. What memories will we take with us into the new year? How can we make the most of this holiday season? One way to make the most of the holidays is to think a bit differently about how and what we give to the ones we love. Do we ask them what they want? Do we try to guess - hopelessly at times - what they could possibly want and throw in the gift receipt for good measure? Or do we just give up and go for the gift card? What if instead we gave them our relationship? What if we gave them some of our time and friendship? There are a lot of ways to do this. Buy two copies of book for a friends so that you can read it and talk about it together. Give a grandchild a bat and take them out to the batting cage. Take them for a horse-riding lesson. Go out for a movie or concert together. Instead of buying clothes for them, take them for a shopping trip where you can spend time together. Go volunteer to help those less fortunate together. Whatever it is that you share together, plan to spend time doing that together building up your relationship. What better way to show your love for family and friends while honoring God's gift of Jesus to us than to give a relationship for Christmas! For that is exactly what God gave us that first Christmas - a relationship with Emmanuel - God with us! I hope you have fun thinking of ways you can give relationships to those on your holiday list! Blessings on the journey, Jim Worship This Week: Go Big or Go Home! As followers of Jesus, we are called to feed the hungry, visit the lonely, protect the vulnerable, free the oppressed, and help those is need. Sometimes, it seems that no matter how much we do to make the world a better place there is always so much more that is left to do. In fact, the struggles we face are greater than the skills, the numbers, and the resources we have to address them. So what is a small church to do? How can we make a difference when the problems we face are so overwhelming and we are so few? Join this Sunday as we "Go Big or Go Home!" Weathering the StormThis past Sunday, we celebrated All Saints' Day as we remember God's faithful who have gone on before us into glory. Sermon Snippet: Weathering the Storm (Luke 8:22-25, Psalm 124) The storms of life hit us all eventually, and we need a place of refuge to shelter and find comfort and strength. For many of us that place of refuge is the church and the folks we call our church family. But sometimes the storm hits us all together and affects our entire community. What do we do then? The disciples panicked in the boat as Jesus slept through the storm that threatened their lives. So they woke him in desperation over the situation. He calmed the storm and asked them, "Where is your faith?" He expected more out of them and more of their faith. Over the generations, Jesus' followers have weathered many a storm. Here at Port Church, we have weathered many storms - both literal and figurative storms - over the 220+ years of our existence, and they have made us stronger. Those who have gone before us - the saints of this church - have given us a great gift of God: being able to weather the storms that come our way because we know that Jesus is in the boat with us. While we might wonder when Jesus will calm the storm or why he's waiting, we know he is there, and so we keep calm and carry on. Keep calm and carry on - not just waiting for Jesus to do something but continuing to live in faith - that's way we weather the storm. This Week's Challenge What storms are on your horizon? How can you live through them? Who in your life is facing the perfect storm right now? What can you do to give them refuge and help them weather that storm? Living in Community
This Week at Port ChurchWednesday, November 4 9:30 am - 2 pm - Office Hours 6 pm - Wednesday at the Port Thursday, November 5 9:30 am - 12 pm - Office Hours 10:30 am - Prayer Time Saturday, November 7 2 pm - Fill the Field Begins District Youth Hunger/Homelessness Awareness Event Drop off food for Blue Ridge Area Food Bank Sunday, November 8 9:30 am - Worship: "Go Big or Go Home" 10:45 - Church-wide Operation Christmas Child Shoebox Packing Party 11 am - Sunday School Looking Ahead
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