October 03rd, 2018

Celebrating 225

What a great day we had on Saturday!​ We celebrated our 225th anniversary as a congregation with music, a delicious meal, games for the kids (and youth... and adults!), a youth missions fundraiser, and an incredibly powerful revival service to cap it all off. It was great to see so many familiar faces coming together to simply enjoy the day with one another. I hope you were blessed by the day as much as I was, and if you missed it, I hope you will join us in the coming weeks as we continue to celebrate into our 226th year!

​Blessings on the journey, Jim

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Saturday's Sermon Snippet

Salty Sugar - Mark 9:38-50
As a part of our church anniversary on Saturday, our district superintendent Rev. Dr. Victor Gomez encouraged us to be the salt that our community needs. He began by noting how much we like sweet things - sugar is something to be desired, but too much of it can make us incredibly unhealthy. He compared this to salt which in ancient times was used not only to make food tastier but also to preserve food from rotting and as a healing agent. Without salt, it would have been hard to have a healthy body. Likewise, fire was used to purify all kinds of things from metal to food. Jesus said that everyone would be salted with fire. Salt might not be as desirable as sugar, and fire may be painful, but we need to be salted with fire to be purified so that we can be the salt that transforms our world. Become the salt that Port Republic and the surrounding community needs!

Sunday's Sermon Snippet

Legacy: Blessed to Be a Blessing (Genesis 12:1-4)
In the early days chronicled in Genesis, God repeatedly blessed animals but especially people telling them to be fruitful and multiply. God wanted them to prosper and grow in number. Following the many failures of those blessed people (Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, those living in the days of Noah, those who tried to build a tower to heaven at Babel), God chose from all the world Abram and Sarai (later renamed Abraham and Sarah) and their family to bless in a new way. God promised that they would be parents of a great nation - that is, that they would prosper and grow in number. This is the same old blessing of "be fruitful and multiply" offered to earlier generations. This time, however, God goes further. This couple is to become a blessing; all families of the earth will be blessed through them. This is something new that helps us to understand what God's blessings are really about.

To be blessed is to be marked as special and loved. If we were to truly count our blessings, we would be overwhelmed by how many ways God has blessed us as special and loved. God's blessings are countless, and yet we treat often treat them as something to be counted, collected, and consumed like a glass collecting drops of water. Yet we are told that God makes our cups to overflow, and Jesus came to give us life and that abundantly. Trying to keep our blessings for ourselves is like trying to fill our cup at the bottom of Niagara Falls. Blessings are meant to flow from God through us to others.

We, like Abram and Sarai, are blessed to be a blessing. They are blessed by God, and they choose to follow and go to a new, strange land that God shows them. Being blessed is not just about being chosen by God but also about choosing to follow God, often despite the absurdity of doing so. Like Abram and Sarai, Moses and Miriam, Deborah and Gidron, Ruth and David, Mary and Joseph, and Peter, James, John, and Mary Magdalene, we are chosen by God to be blessed but we also have to choose to become the blessing wants us to be by passing on our blessings. That is what has happened here at Port Church over the last 225 years. We have received the blessing of a legacy from those who have gone before, and God is blessing us in a mighty way today. Will we count, collect, and consume these blessings or indeed become a blessing by passing them on? 

That is at the root of our vision here: At Port Church, we are a family that cares for God's children! We envision a community in which every child is safe, well-fed, nurtured and loved unconditionally. God has blessed us to be a blessing to the children of our community and pass on what we have received!

How has God blessed you? How have you passed on those blessings? Where is God sending you today to become a blessing to others?  

A Prayer for 225 Years

Susie offered this prayer Saturday in worship on the occasion of our 225th anniversary as a congregation:​

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
Serve the LORD with gladness!
Come into His presence with singing!
Know that the LORD, He is God!
It is He who made us, and we are His;
we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving,
And His courts with praise!
Give thanks to Him; bless His name!
For the LORD is good;
His steadfast love endures forever,
His faithfulness to all generations. [Psalm 100 (ESV)]
 
God of our past, we gather tonight to give thanks for those who first had a vision of a church in this place and who gave of their labor, their resources, and their time to make it a reality.  As we remember the efforts of those founders and builders, we offer our thanks and praise.
 
God of our present, we are grateful for the privilege of serving You in this community and the opportunity of growing together in love.

We remember those who have helped us to grow in godly wisdom and to remain faithful to the message of the Gospel . We think of pastors, Bible Study leaders, Sunday School teachers, Vacation Bible School leaders and teachers, music leaders, youth leaders and many others who have provided leadership. We remember Trustees, Council members, staff, and committee members who have stepped forward to provide guidance.  For all these varied forms of leadership, we are grateful.
 
We remember events that have brought us together . . .  potlucks, picnics, Wednesday at the Port, baptisms, weddings, youth services, services of death and resurrection, live nativities, Worship in the Park, and so many more.  For the gift of friendship and fellowship, we say thank You.
 
God of our future, who calls us to be the church in this place and time, we welcome the possibilities and opportunities before us.  Give us Your vision of what could be.  May our time together remind us that the Church is desperately needed in this broken and hurting world.  May we walk boldly into what may come, as people, not only of faith, but also of unshakeable hope and unstoppable love. 
 
God of all history and time, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, continue to bless us with Your Almighty peace, power, and presence.  We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, Who, with You and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns forevermore. Amen.
 
*Adapted from Prayer of Thanksgiving and Hope for an Anniversary Service (Worship Offerings Blog)

​Living in Community

Thank you to everyone who came out and was a part of our 225th anniversary celebration this past Saturday! We are thankful for each and every one of you and all you do as a part of our community.

Special thanks go out to Big City Band, Port Republic Ruritans, and our district superintendent Rev. Dr. Victor Gomez as well as our planning team, cooks, praise band, and youth group! You made it a truly great day to be a part of Port Church.

Thank you to everyone who supported our youth group's silent auction to raise money for their mission projects! Your donation of 104 items raised $2,220, and we received an additional special donation of $600 for a total of $2,820. You all are such a blessing!

This Week at Port Church

Wednesday, October 3
9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours
6:00 pm - Wednesday at the Port
Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Beets
6:45 pm - Cantata Practice
Thursday, October 4
9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours
Sunday, October 7
9:30 am - Worship: "Legacy: Leaving an Inheritance"
11:00 am - Sunday School
Join us for our Philippians Bible Study during Sunday School!
Wednesday, October 10
9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours
6:00 pm - Wednesday at the Port
6:45 pm - Cantata Practice

Looking Ahead

Harvest Table to benefit Food Pantry coming mid-October
Charge Conference Paperwork Deadline - October 17
Christmas Shoebox Packing Party - November 11
Charge Conference - November 12, 7 pm
Drive-thru Nativity - December 14 & 15