Youth at last year's game booth.

It's this Saturday, October 13, at Suzanne Park!  Gospel Life will participate in the parade which will include appropriately identified vehicles in addition to all of you who have signed up to join the parade on foot.

All parade participants will assemble at approximately 8:30 a.m. (not 7:00 a.m. as previously announced) along Lemon Avenue south of La Puente Road (at the vicinity of Chase Bank).  Gospel Life is assigned space S38 so everyone must proceed to that area. Participants are encouraged to wear their Gospel Life t-shirts if you still have them. Candies and flyers will be given out along the parade route.

The parade will "step-off" promptly at 10:00 a.m. Since the pre-staging will occupy a significant period of time, it is suggested that you bring water, sunscreen, fans and other personal comfort items with you.

The parade will extend from the corner of Lemon Avenue and La Puente Road all the way to Suzanne Road where walking people will be directed to turn left onto Suzanne Road, ending at Suzanne Park.  Vehicles in the parade will continue east on La Puente Road to Parking Lot A or the gym parking lot where they can park and join the others at Suzanne Park.

Our Youth Game Booth will be operational at the park in the area designated for games. The youth will set up their tent on Friday evening.  The game they will sponsor is some version of shooting paint balls. The youth will use the proceeds from their booth to fund some of their projects.  Please make sure to come by and support Gospel Life's game booth during the festival.

Please note that due to certain conflicting events, the larger community service booth and its Blood Pressure and Diabetic Screening Clinic will not be held at this time.

Our monthly fund-raising fellowship dinner is this coming Tuesday, October 16. We're going to an authentic Mexican restaurant, the Fonda Don Chon, located at 618 Shopper's Lane, Covina, CA 91723.  As usual, individual tickets are $20 apiece.  However, there is a "special treat" of dinner for two for $35.

Johnny Chua has the menu for the dinner.  Please make reservations through him at 909-228-2162.

Make sure to invite other family members, friends, and people who are part of your small group fellowship who do not otherwise attend church at Gospel Life.  This is a good way to get them acquainted with members of our congregation and perhaps be an opportunity to invite them to join us for our Sunday services.

The Fallacy of Full-Time Christian Work

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." - Colossians 3:23-24

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"I didn't know you were in full-time Christian work," said my close friend as we were driving. "I didn't realize that," she went on. I responded, "Every person who has followed the will of God in their life is in full-time Christian work." God calls some to the mission field, others to be accountants, and others to be advertising executives, and still others to be construction workers.

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God never made a distinction between sacred and secular. In fact, the Hebrew word avodah is the root word having the same meaning of "work" and "worship." God sees our work as worship.

We have incorrectly elevated the role of the Christian worker to be more holy and committed than the person who is serving in a more secular environment. Yet the call to the secular workplace is as important as any other calling. God has to have His people in every sphere of life. Otherwise, many would never come to know Him because they would be separated from society.

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I learned this lesson personally when I sought to go into "full-time" service as a pastor in my late twenties, only to have God thrust me back into the business world unwillingly. This turned out to be the best thing He could have done for me, because it was never His will for me to be a pastor. He knew I was more suited for the workplace.

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We are all in missions. Some are called to foreign lands. Some are called to the jungles of the workplace. Wherever you are called, serve the Lord in that place. Let Him demonstrate His power through your life so that others might experience Him through you today and see your vocation as worship to His glory.
 

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(Today God Is First (TGIF) devotional message, Copyright by Os Hillman, Marketplace Leaders.)

We have several functioning Small Group Fellowships aka bible study groups. How many of our congregation belongs to one?

It is said that it is in the small group setting that our faith, our belief systems, and our spiritual growth are nurtured. It is where we receive our spiritual food during the week, apart from the blessings that we receive when we gather together as a larger congregation on Sundays. 

It is also the place where we begin to feel safe with fellow believers, on whom we can tell our challenges, reveal our deepest thoughts, or offer a shoulder to cry on without being judged.  It becomes a safe haven, a "city of refuge" for those who belong.

At the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA, they once had about 1500 small groups.  After a weekend drive, they upped their number to 5000 small groups.  Of course they have a membership of upwards of 20,000 which means they averaged about 4 persons per small group.

A bible study group doesn't need to be a big one.  In fact groups that enlarge to more than 10-12 are encouraged to break up and form another group.  Everyone can lead a group, or at least host one.  Are you willing to do so?  Are you willing to give up an hour or so one weeknight a week or one lunch hour at your office once a week to start a small group for bible study?  Please let your church staff know, and we'll help you get started.

The most important thing, perhaps, in Small Group Fellowships is that the main goal is to make each of us a better disciple of Christ, and as such only a disciple can lead others to become disciples, too.