Good Shepherd Update, Thursday June 3rd, 2010

Dear Good Shepherd, 

Good morning. The Neighborhood Festival is This Saturday. This has, in the last two years, become the biggest, most elaborate, community outreach event we do all year round. The purpose of everything we will do on Saturday is to build relationships. There will be an evangelism table and opportunities for prayer for those who need it but the focus is on building relationships with the people who live around us because relationships between believers and nonbelievers, church and community, generally speaking, serve as the foundation through which God works to bring lost people to faith in Jesus Christ. So let’s model Christ in all that we do. Let’s bend over backwards to pass on to others and reflect in our words and deeds the generosity, kindness, joyfulness and love that we have received from Jesus Christ. I encourage you all to help in some way. If there are no more places on the sign up sheet, then come and just be here meeting people and helping out in any way that you can.

Prayer on Saturday Morning: We’ll be meeting at 9:00am on Saturday morning to pray before the festival for God’s presence and power in this endeavor.

Summer changesNow that summer is fast approaching and Systematic Theology is no more until September, I’ll be moving my office hours back from Saturday to Tuesday and for the duration of the summer, Saturday will be my study day and Tuesday will be a regular office day. Beginning next week regular Tuesday open office hours will be from 9am to 1pm (Weds and Thurs open hours will remain the same). To see me at other times, please call first and set up an appointment.

What is going on this Summer? All of the ministries that go on during the Fall, Winter and Spring will continue this summer with the exception of Systematic Theology which will be taking a summer break. Bible Studies, adult ed, Sunday School, youth group…etc, all of it will continue throughout the summer. God sets his people in congregations as a way to be fed, nourished, loved, taught, and sanctified and so the call to participate extends to all followers of Jesus. I pray that we will continue to embrace that call throughout the summer. “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Heb 10:24-25)

Good Shepherd Summer Festival: Live music, free ice cream, free medical examinations, a car show, pony rides, clowns, and much more at this year’s Summer Festival at Good Shepherd. The festival is a great opportunity to meet and form relationships with our neighbors and the community in general. More information will be coming soon but for now, be sure to mark your calendars. The Festival will be held on Saturday, June 5th.

Good news: This Sunday I included in the Update a request for $600.00 for a parishioner in need of help in order to pay his apartment rent. I am pleased to report that the need has been met. Thanks be to God who inspires such generosity at Good Shepherd.

Home groups: Some of you may remember that we are planning to launch a number of home bible study and fellowship groups this Fall. The time is fast approaching when we will start training leaders for these groups and promoting the launch. If you have forgotten the plan, here’s an overview from an earlier update:

Small Groups: In the Fall, we’re planning to launch a number of weekly small bible study groups that will meet in peoples’ homes. Presently all biblical instruction and application takes place at Good Shepherd from the pulpit or in one of the five Bible Studies. I’ve noticed that as we’ve grown the percentage of people participating in the bible studies has decreased.

This is not good. The life, growth and maturity of Good Shepherd and your personal maturity as well, rests on our willingness to know and follow the word of God.  It is, for that reason, our goal to have every member of Good Shepherd actively participating in some kind of group fellowship and bible study during the week.

This raises a number of questions: Who will lead these groups? What will happen to the bible studies? What will these groups do? Does everyone have to belong to a group? Let me try to answer each of these in turn:

1. Who will lead these groups?: The plan, as it currently stands, is to tack a big city map to the wall and start identifying the locations of every member member of the parish. This will give us an idea of who lives near who. Small groups work best when they are made up of no more than 6 to 10 people who meet in homes nearby. Once we identify who lives near who we’ll be able to see how many groups we can have and who, based on location, should be in which group. Finally, we’ll appoint a leader for each group and invite everybody who lives in a given area to join in and meet with the group once a week. If you are interested in hosting one of these groups, please let us know (the leader and the host are usually two different people)

2. What will happen to the bible studies?: Nothing. They will continue to meet. If you attend a Bible Study you’ll be invited to attend attend a small group during the week as well. If you feel you do not have time for both, the choice between the two will be yours. Other churches moving to this plan have found that many enjoyed attending both since the purpose of each and structure of each is a bit different. We hope the same proves true here.

3. What will these groups do? This is another benefit of preaching expositorily through a text of scripture. The small group studies will focus on the same text used in the sermon. This will make it easier on everyone since the sermon will do the heavy lifting of interpretation and exegesis and the small groups will focus primarily on dealing with difficult questions, digging deeper in the text, and applying the text personally. Small groups meet, pray, discuss and apply the biblical passage for the week, pray and then go home. It is a way for you to stay connected during the week and for the whole church to inwardly digest what God has said through his word on Sunday.

4. Does everyone have to belong to a group? We invite and encourage everyone to join the small group meeting in their area but, of course, it is not a requirement. We believe that Jesus sanctifies, encourages, builds up, convicts and trains us through his word and the more you open yourself to hearing his voice, the more like him you will become.

You’ll be hearing more about these throughout the summer. The target date is mid-September…

Acolyte practice: We’re heading into the summer and since the acolytes have been doing so well we’ve changed from monthly to quarterly practices. This quarter’s practice will be coming up on June 27th after the 10:30am service. All acolytes are asked to attend.

Clothes for the Needy: One of our neighbors has a expressed a need for women’s clothing (tops-size large, skirts or dresses-size 16).  Please see Carmen or Kay for details. 

ACW: The next ACW meeting will be Saturday, June 19.

Parish Picnic: The Annual Good Shepherd picnic will take place on Sunday, June 20th, 2010 from 11am to 2pm at Nathaniel Cole Park (see directions here). Everyone is welcome. The picnic will begin with an outdoor worship service before lunch. There will be an 8am service at the church as usual.

Meals for the Deans (from Anne): Thank you to everyone who signed up for this ministry. It is fantastic that every date has been filled

Thursday Night Bible Study: There will be Thursday night bible study tonight after the Shepherd’s Bowl at 6:30pm. We are still in John 8. All are invited.

Women’s Bible Study (from Carmen) Women’s Bible Study:  There will be no Women’s Bible Study May 29th or June 5th. Women’s Bible Study will resume on June 12th when we will continue our study of the book of Isaiah.  The New Testament says that Isaiah “saw the glory of Christ, and spoke of Him” (John 12:41).  Indeed!!

Men’s Breakfast and Bible Study: The Men’s Bible Study meets at 6:30am every Friday morning for breakfast and discussion. We are presently working our way through 2nd Samuel. Charles Hadley is cooking…

Tuesday Morning Bible Study. This is Good Shepherd’s first bible study. I started it 8 years ago and all the other bible studies grew out of it. Presently this study is led by Chris Vail. It meets every Tuesday morning at 9:00am in the parish hall. A basic but comprehensive verse by verse study of the scriptures. Presently this group is working through Acts in an effort to piece together Paul’s missionary journeys before turning to his Letter to the Romans. Ultimately, this group will work through all of the New Testament epistles and letters.  All are welcome!

First Light Bible Study: Meets every Tuesday evening beginning at 6:30pm. The First Light bible study is designed for intermediate and advanced students of scripture. The group takes the time necessary to delve as deeply as possible into the text, learning the art and science of biblical exegeisis. Ife Ojetayo leads the group which is currently working its through Ephesians. All are welcome.

Worship Team schedule: Team Galatians is scheduled for this week. Pauline King is the captain. I know there is some confusion at present about how this works. 1. Basically, if you are on a team its your responsibility to know what team you are on and when you serve and to contact the team captain if you cannot make it. 2. At the same time, the team captains are ultimately responsible for making sure everyone on their team knows when they are serving and checks in on team members who have consistently missed their duties. 3. We’ve tried to set the teams up so that there is no overlap and so that members of one family, for example, do not have to serve on different teams. At the same time, we do want to encourage people to get to know other people outside their comfort zone. And, just as a note, let me say that it is never acceptable, if you are a follower of Jesus, to simply come to church only when you are scheduled to serve. So if you are upset that you have to come more than once a month, well, I don’t have much sympathy for you. I do, on the other hand, want to give as much relief as possible to those who are always here and who do the bulk of the work. So, we’ll be reviewing the team schedules to see if we can make some changes and help people who are already overburdened. By the way, if you are not doing anything to serve, please consider joining one of these teams. Presently we need tellers most of all, but acolytes, ushers and greeters are always needed and appreciated. 4. There will be a team captains meeting on June 13th after the 10.30am service to discuss some of these things.

Prayer Shawls:The Good Shepherd Knitting group will meet on Saturday, June 26.

Last Sunday’s Sermon: Here’s Sunday’s sermon: The Trinity: God’s Self Disclosure…the video recorder is on the fritz so we just have text this week
http://goodshepherdbinghamton.org/index.php/main/page/85/

This Sunday’s sermon will be on the work of the Holy Spirit. What does the Holy Spirit do in the church and in you and I as believers. How can we hear the Spirit’s voice? How do we know when we are being “led by the Spirit”? We’ll discuss these questions and more Sunday morning

Provincial Synod: From June 7 - 11: Good Shepherd’s denomination, the Anglican Church in North America will hold its second Provincial Council and College of Bishops Meeting. Over 100 Bishops, delegates and laity will attend from all over the U.S. and Canada will attend. The Synod will be held at the home church of our own diocese, the Anglican Diocese in New England, which is headquartered in Massachusetts. I have been ordered to be there for the installation ceremony of our bishop as a bishop in the province on the tenth and two reps from our vestry have been asked to be there as well. But you are all invited. Here is a link with more information.

Adult Christian Education: As a lead up to confirmation classes and to help our new members understand Anglicanism, we’ve begun a new series on the 39 Articles of Religion. The 39 Articles is the Anglican confession of faith. They are very broad and basic and cover a good deal of Christian doctrine so they are a good platform for reviewing and discussing some basic Christian beliefs for anyone who needs a refresher.

Last Sunday we finished setting the theological setting for the Articles. This Sunday we’ll dive right in and cover the first three articles:

I. Of Faith in the Holy Trinity.
There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker, and Preserver of all things both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

II. Of the Word or Son of God, which was made very Man.
The Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, and of one substance with the Father, took Man’s nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance: so that two whole and perfect Natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God, and very Man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men

III. Of the going down of Christ into Hell.
As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also is it to be believed, that he went down into Hell (I wrote a commentary on the third Article here).

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