Upcoming Dates
|
|
4/5 @ 6:15pm
The Youth Group hosts the potluck dinner.
4/13 @ 9:45am
Take It To the Limit Men's Sunday School begins.
4/19 @ 8am to noon
Leadership Workshop.
4/19 @ 9am to 4pm
Roots & Wings Workshops @ St. Mark
4/21-23
Pictorial Directory photos. Sign-up for your photo shoot time.
|
Worship Schedule
|
|
Saturday
5:00pm - contemporary worship
Sunday
8:30am - worship
9:45am - Sunday school
11:00am - worship
Wednesday prayers
noon & 6:30pm
|
|
What's the Big Idea?
|
The Big Idea at Peace is a team-based approach to planning worship. We've been planning worship as a worship design team for several years now, but The Big Idea book by Dave Ferguson, Jon Ferguson and Eric Bramlett gave us some new ideas and direction for adapting our approach. Some specifics include:
- focusing on one big idea for worship instead of several smaller ideas
- planning several weeks in advance which really gives us time to incorporate more creativity & greater participation
- taking a series theme approach to worship that can spill over into children, youth, adult and small group learning
We started Big Idea planning in August 2007 and kicked off the first series theme of Faith & Doubt in October 2007. Do you remember the other big ideas? Peace on Earth?, FaithWalk, Wilderness Training School and this week we start Can U Hear Me Now?
|
Dear Church Mailbag
|
We've gotten amazing, sometimes agonizing, but always heartfelt letters. These are letters from our friends, our family and ourselves. Here is an excerpt:
"Some things get better as they get older, but I'm not sure this adage applies to you. There was a time ... sad to say it was something like 2,000 years ago ... when you were the hottest thing going. There was this guy, see, who the media today would love ... he had a nice clear message about helping the poor and while he was kind and nice most of the time, he would really get worked up whenever he ran across people who were hypocrites. But to tell you the truth, Church, you yourself seem to have become many of the things your own founder was most against. You spend much of your time arguing with yourself, really, about obscure abstractions that you then turn around and call "theology." And as for the poor, who your founder was so anxious to help ... didn't he once say something like 'go sell what you have, give the money to the poor, and come follow me?' ... you rarely give the poor the time of day."
Write your own Dear Church letter @ peacepods.blogspot.com.
|
Roots & Wings Workshops
|
Attention all parents, teachers, grandparents - and anyone who loves children! Don't miss the Roots and Wings Workshops at St. Mark on Saturday, April 19. Registration is due April 5.
These are excellent workshops for learning how to nurture a child's faith. The themes include: Baptismal Ministry, Rituals and Traditions, Theological themes in Children's literature, Worship in the Home, Service, and Faith Moments. The cost also includes lunch!
|
Christmas Miracle Offering Update
|
Christmas Miracle Offering for 2007 totaled $17,226.37. Your generous response continues to make a very big difference in the lives of those reached through our ministry partners supported by the Miracle Offering. Locally, Peace granted a gift of $2,000 to the IAHC (InterFaith Action for Homeless Children) in support of a day school program to homeless children through the Salvation Army's Day Care Center. The gift has been earmarked to purchase new toys, tables, and furnishings for the center. An additional $3,000 was gifted to AIM (Alliance for InterFaith Ministries) for its fuel assistance program. The primary purpose of AIM is to provide emergency assistance to needy families at risk of homelessness.
The Miracle Offering grants are above and beyond our regular local benevolence giving, which includes support for PACEM, IMPACT, the Salvation Army, the Bridge Ministry, the Chaplain Service of the Churches of Virginia, the Thomas Jefferson Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity, and other designated giving to sponsored families in need; we are truly blessed by the many gifts of love from members of Peace to others in need.
In terms of Global Mission support, Peace granted $7,000 to assist the New Life Association Ministries of Narayan Paul in Andhra Pradesh, India. The funds are earmarked to support the field work of Dr. Paul's ministry to the remote tribes of that province, specifically a very active ministry to orphaned children. Peace is already an active prayer partner for this ministry, and members of Peace have sponsored children in the Mercy Home orphanage through ANM (Advancing Native Missions). Members of Peace have also actively supported the medical mission at Bethany Hospital, the only medical facility accessible to the tribals of this remote area.
Last, a $5,000 grant has been earmarked for the Gerizim Mission Home project in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Peace has enjoyed a deepening relationship with Pastor Roberto Ventura's ministry in Honduras, sending medical mission groups to work alongside Brothers and Sisters in Christ from that country to go into the field -- sometimes the barrios of the city, sometimes the remote countryside - and be hands and feet for God's mission to the poor of one of Central America's least developed nations. The Gerizim Mission Home is best described as a multi-purpose facility, intended to be a place for mission teams to stay while at Gerizim, for pastors and their families to stay when getting training, for volunteer teachers from here in the US to stay and teach English at the school, for medical clinics (possibly specialty clinics), for classes and for fellowship.
|
|
