Food Pantry Needs

FOOD PANTRY NEEDS 2009

BAKED BEANS
CARROTS
CEREAL(ANY VARIETY)
CHILI
CORN
CRACKERS
FRUIT--APPLE SAUCE, PEACHES, FRUIT COCKTAIL
GREEN BEANS
PEANUT BUTTER
JELLY
MACARONI AND CHEESE
MIXED VEGETABLES
PANCAKE MIX
SOUP--VEGETABLE, CHICKEN NOODLE, TOMATO, BEEF, ETC.
SYRUP
SPAGHETTI SAUCE
PASTA FOR SPAGHETTI
PINTO BEANS
RICE
TUNA

Please feel free to donate money for pantry items by contacting Marie Stratton. If you have any questions about the pantry contact Angela Copeland at adcf99@yahoo.com or 571-330-7390.

"If you give to others, you will be given a full amount in return. It will be packed down, shaken together, and spilling over into your lap." Luke 6:38

Needs and Wants List

More Immediate Needs

• Replace Sagging Side Entrance door on lower level

Longer Term Needs

• Resurface parking lot ($65K+)
  

Current Wish List

• Increase in Food Pantry funding
• Replace Exit Door near room 15
• Replace remaining basement classroom windows
• Add windows into classroom doors

Trust His Promises

As we learn to develop the skills for ministry we have been discussing over the last several weeks, it will be our trust in God to keep the promises he has made that will both sustain us and call us deeper into ministry. This prayer by Walter Brueggeman, an Old Testament scholar, asks God for help trusting his promises in order that we might answer his call to ministry:

You are the God who makes extravagant promises.

We relish your great promises

of fidelity

and presence

and solidarity

and we exude in them.

Only to find out, always too late,

that your promise always comes

in the midst of a hard, deep call to obedience.

You are the God who calls people like us,

and the long list of mothers and fathers before us,

who trusted the promise enough to keep the call.

So we give you thanks that you are a calling God,

who calls always to dangerous new places.

We pray enough of your grace and mercy among us

that we may be among those

who believe in your promises enough

to respond to your call.

We pray in the one who embodied your promise

and enacted your call, even Jesus. Amen.

-Walter Brueggeman

Sharing Our Faith

I got into the sharing my faith business a little differently than most Christians. I got hired into it as a missionary! We planned and trained to share our faith for a long time. It took years! I even raised money so I could share my faith and still feed my family. It was a long process of packing up all our stuff, moving to Uganda, buying a used truck, renting a house....all for the purpose of sharing my faith.

Then I arrived and started the job and realized I had no clue how to do what I was supposed to do. Sharing my faith, evangelizing, preaching, still felt awkward and unwelcomed and ... well, to tell you the truth... not all that fun.

Today we will talk about sharpening the sharing part of our ministry skills. We have talked about prayer and talked about caring and now comes the hardest one of all. Actually speaking to people about our faith.

The problem we have in America is that evangelism (sharing our faith) makes us feel like hucksters. We feel like that unwanted salesman we find at our door, or that pesky telemarketer we hate to speak with. Even if we are pedaling a good product, what's to differentiate us from the average AMWAY salesperson who is also convinced of their wares? After all, there is a "price" to the gospel, that's why the Bible has all those stories about "counting the cost".... and in that regard we are "selling it" when we try and convince others.

Most preachers, at this point, would try and re-convince you that the thing you are selling is the most important thing in the world! There is a lot of truth in that, and the fact we are not all more ambitious about telling our friends is perhaps a commentary on our faith. However, I think the "sharing" part is not something we need to make an effort. It is the result, the product of a life of caring and prayer. If we pray for others and genuinely care for them, then we will share with them as well.

Mark

Even the Waves

That day when evening came, [Jesus] said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” (Mark 4: 35-39)

Jesus removed the danger. He stopped the boat-sinking waves, but you can sense he hoped he didn’t need to. You can’t overlook what Jesus was doing when the disciples came to him: sleeping. How? He knew Who was in control and trusted Him fully. If only the disciples could have dozed! How extraordinary it must be to have no fear when life’s storms surround us. Can you even imagine not worrying when trying to stay afloat in rough waters? God does desire for even the waves of fear in our hearts to be calmed, whatever happens around us. Physical beings that we are, though, and if we’re honest, we know we aren’t there yet. Still, how good is God for wanting such freedom for each of us. As we mature in Christ, we become more and more like Him and do progressively experience God’s perfect will for us. In the meantime, when we don’t always rest easy on boats being tossed about, it’s nice to know God hears our cries and faithfully responds.

CTL

Welcoming Strangers

Like every kid in America, I knew that it was a bad idea to talk to strangers. We watched these creepy videos in school of bearded men in oversized sedans pulling up to little kids to offer them candy, and we all knew that the correct response to that hypothetical situation was to run away.

While telling one’s children not to talk to strangers is probably good parenting practice, John gives the church somewhat different advice in his third letter. In fact, he commends them for doing just the opposite: giving support to strangers. You can imagine how this scene might have unfolded. Demetrius shows up in a small town in Asia Minor and wants to be involved in the church. He’s some kind of traveling missionary who claims to know John, but no one in the church has ever met him. One group in the church wants to welcome and support him and another group is more reserved. Perhaps they’re concerned that he might teach something false or put the congregation in danger (Christianity is not exactly popular among the Romans at this time). Whatever their reason, this group, led by Diotrephes, takes a stand, refusing to welcome the strangers and trying to kick them out of the church. In our safety-conscious culture, we can understand their caution. John, however, sides with the first group, saying that they ought to welcome and support even strangers in order to be co-workers in truth with them.

After telling this congregation to welcome strangers, John makes another surprising statement. He writes to the congregation that they should imitate what is good, not what is evil. (No surprise there.) He goes on to say that whoever does good is from God (still no surprise), and whoever does evil has not seen God. He does not say whoever does evil is not from God, or whoever does evil is from the Devil, or whoever does evil ought to be kicked out. He simply says whoever does evil has not seen God, implying that what evildoers really need is not to be feared and shunned, but to have an encounter with our God. And what better place exists for that to happen than inside the doors of a church.

Tera

“I’m Church of Christ"

That's what I normally say at the Catholic University of America when asked by my peers (Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Mennonites) to describe my church affiliation. The name definitely takes some explaining since we're not one of the easily recognizable mainline churches, and we're also not an evangelical or Baptist church. But taking the time to explain the history doesn't bother me, so I usually do. What does make me uncomfortable, at times, is the "of Christ" part of our name.
It's not because I'm embarrassed. It's because I'm nervous. It is a bold name. A name says a lot, of course. Names are a powerful part of our language. The name Church of Christ can make me nervous because of what the bold meaning of the name implies. The "Church of Christ" is a powerful name because it highlights that our church belongs to Christ; that it is his church; that it is a gathering of people which represents the Messiah. The name Church of Christ makes our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ front and center. The name highlights a supposed proximity to Christ. And this should cause us to pause because a relationship to Jesus Christ is costly.
Taking on Christ's name requires that we give up what we hold dear to become part of his covenant family of others-focused communion. The name Church of Christ should always cause us to ask: "Are we of Christ?" "Are we Christ-like people?" "How well do we live up to a name that describes a people belonging to him?" If we claim to be the Church of Christ, we must recognize that we'll have to conform our American way of life to His death and resurrection way of life, not the other way around. The life of Christ was full of sacrifice and service on behalf of others who were "enemies and sinners" (Rom. 5). It is a narrow path. The life of Christ was a life begotten by the Father and sent into the world to seek and save the lost. Christ is the great reconciler of the divided and embattled. How tragic that Churches of Christ have, at times, become known for splitting rather than reconciling.
As we reflect on Randy Harris's retreat message that the church must "leave the building" to bring God's relentless, reconciling love to others (rather than expect them to come to us), we should think about what the name Church of Christ means for the Springfield community. We should let the name challenge us, and I think it's good that it make us a little nervous. To be a church that is worthy of the name Church of Christ will require relinquishing power and becoming vulnerable in order to serve others who are different from us. May the Lord give us the grace we need to more fully become a Church of Christ.

Matt