Guest Column..

The Fiery Sermon

Author unknown

 

After a month of material from me, I thought I would share some thoughts from others during at least some of Lent. This is the first such article. I have another one I think you'll find worthwhile next week.

 

Fr. Chip

 

A member of the church, who previously had been attending services regularly, stopped going. After a few weeks, the priest decided to visit him. It was a chilly evening. The priest found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for his priest's visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a comfortable chair near the fireplace and waited.

 

The priest made himself at home but said nothing. In the grave silence, he contemplated the dance of the flames around the burning logs. After some minutes, the priest took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone then he sat back in his chair, still silent. The host watched all this in quiet contemplation. As the one lone ember's flame flickered and diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more. Soon it was cold and dead.

 

Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting. The priest glanced at his watch and realized it was time to leave. He slowly stood up, picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow, once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it. As the priest reached the door to leave, his host said with a tear running down his cheek, "Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon. I will be back in church next Sunday."

 

We live in a world today, which tries to say too much with too little. Consequently, few listen. Sometimes the best sermons are the ones left unspoken.

 

Borrowed from a friend's Parish Newsletter 

 

 

This miserable weather is not only, well, miserable...it's breaking the bank!

 

Since mid-to-late January, every week has brought with it weather challenges that have deeply affected our attendance at both churches. This past Sunday was yet the latest example - but even Ash Wednesday's evening service was affected, with half the usual attendance.

 

Spiritually, this has been disrupting - but on an entirely practical note, financially it has been devastating. Both churches have had to spend enormous sums on snow removal - including the shoveling off of roofs in both places. And, with diminished attendance, pledge and plate receipts have been quite low leaving little cash for paying the ongoing bills that do not stop coming in just because church was empty (or nearly so) the previous Sunday.

 

If you can mail your contributions in this week, you have our profound thanks. And, if you can make an "extra" contribution to help deal with the extra snow removal, that would be even more welcome.

 

 

Notes from our Mutual Ministry Review

 

This past weekend, the Bishop's Committees of our two congregations met at St. George's Church, York Harbor, Maine, with our Canon to the Ordinary, the Rev. Hannah Anderson, to review how things are going in our two congregations and in our shared ministry. It was a rich, positive, and uplifting time of prayerful conversation, and I wanted to share with you a few highlights of what we discussed.

 

The day opened with a Bible study on the Gospel passage for the first Sunday in Lent, which concerns our Lord's time in the wilderness following his baptism. Without drawing the parallels too strongly, we were inclined to see the time just prior to our joining in shared ministry - and the early part of that journey itself - as somewhat akin to the wilderness journey Jesus faced. We've had our "wild beasts" along the way - but we have also had angels among us ministering God's healing and strengthening grace.

 

We then broke into small groups to consider each of several areas of our work in each congregation individually and in our shared ministry together. Listening closely to the feedback you, our parishioners, provided us in the questionnaire, we looked at:

• How we are fulfilling our mission
• How we welcome newcomers
• Our worship life
• Our spiritual vitality
• How servant leadership is exercised in our two congregations
• Our Christian Education programs, both for children (such few as we know there are) and adults
• Our sense of community
• How we care for (and are sometimes challenged by) our facilities
• Our communications
• Our stewardship and finances

While the individual observations in these areas are too numerous to outline in full here, the areas we saw as needing the most attention (not necessarily in priority order) were:

• Building trust by drawing the larger congregation into the conversation we are having. The suggestion was made that we have a joint "whole congregation" retreat sometime after Easter to address the questions, concerns, celebrations, fears, and in some cases misconceptions the questionnaire revealed. By bringing the whole community "on board" we can dispel myths while at the same time pull the voices of all of us together.
• We saw the drawing in and education of children and youth as a major weakness of our current life. How do you invite new families to join when there are so few (or, many Sundays at Trinity, no) children already present? Are there possibilities in settings other than Sunday morning? Can we strengthen our ties with Little Blessings and the Village Pre-School - and between those two organizations? Hannah suggested we develop contacts with local pediatricians as a way of getting the word out. And, as two of our children are special needs children, we might look into a program she has experience with called "A Serving of Love" which is geared to their learning abilities.
• One item mentioned by several in the questionnaires was the need to know better who is responsible for what. Who do you call if you want to book a room for an event? Who is our "go to" person for each of the areas of ministry in our congregations? We concluded that we need to create a poster with that information and post it near the entrance of each church for easy reference.
• In our newcomer ministry, we probably could use a bit more organized way of "shepherding" those who arrive at our doors so they feel welcome and would want to return.
• One of our "dreams" was to have a sexton (perhaps a 10 hour/week position shared by the two churches) to keep our churches clean and safe. The volunteers who now take care of this do the best they can - but attention to some areas, like Hobbs Hall, is not consistent.
• One way to share the Bishop's Committee's thoughts (besides publishing our meeting summary each month) might be to start a periodic column in the E-News, "From a Bishop's Committee Member." This might be supplemented by a quarterly "As the Bishop's Committee" session in each church.
• One way to increase "cross-pollination" between our two churches would be to establish an "Agapé Supper" program, with groups of eight meeting in parishioners' homes, four from Trinity and four from Christ Church in each group, with a Bishop's Committee member as host.

At the end of the day, a follow-up team was appointed to keep us on track in following up on these and other suggestions that came out of your input. Craig Davis, Suzanne George, Gordon Lane, Fran Plank, Linda Seward and Fr. Chip will form that team.

Notes by Fr. Chip

 

 

Our Shared Ministry Cycle of Prayer

 

Each week, in both of our churches, we pray for one ministry we share and one or two households in each church. About once every six weeks, we will instead using the Shared Ministry Collect we prayed throughout the opening months of our Shared Ministry.

 

In our prayers the next two weeks, we give God thanks for...

 

Mar. 1	The Bishop's Committees of both congregations; Dorothy Flynn and James Dilts, both of Trinity Church; Roy & Marilyn Bunting of Christ Church
Mar. 8	Online Prayer Ministry of Trinity Church; Gordon Lane & Diana Jodoin of Trinity Church; Suzanne George, Daniel Paul, and Amanda Paul of Christ Church

 

 

Our Lenten series for 2015 continues this Sunday in Portsmouth and this coming Wednesday in Hampton...

 

Our Lenten series for 2015 is titled "The Parables of Lent" and focuses on a series of biblical parables that connect to Lenten themes. Meditations by renowned Lutheran theologian Dean Nadasdy will show us that within each parable's plot is woven a unique message about what we receive through the crucified Christ. Parishioners can take the message with them to enrich their own stories of faith in Christ as they journey through Lent.

 

Christ Church: Soup and bread luncheon and session at noon on five Sundays.

Trinity Church: Soup and bread supper and session on five Wednesday evenings at 6:00.

 

Coming up next: "Receive the Treasure: The Hidden Treasure and the Priceless Pearl"

• Sunday, March 1 at noon, Christ Church
• Wednesday, March 4 at 6 p.m., Trinity Church

Week Two in The Parables of Lent is based on the parable of the hidden treasure and the priceless pearl. In this parable, two men give all that they have to buy objects of great worth. The program includes a reading from Scripture, a meditation, and a thematic Bible study that helps us to remember that we who are priceless to Christ receive him who gave all that he had to call us his own.

 

 

Stations of the Cross

 

On the walls of Christ Church are depictions of 14 incidents in the Gospel accounts of Jesus' death from Pilate's house to being placed in the tomb. They are used for a service called the Way of the Cross, which visits each station in turn with a brief reading, response, collect and on some occasions, a meditation. This Lent, we will be offering this service each Saturday at noon at Christ Church - followed by an informal soup and bread luncheon. You are warmly invited to join us.

 

 

Fundraising for our Shared Ministry

 

We are planning to have the Calendar raffle for the month of April again.  This is a fundraiser for both parishes and we are asking for your donations for the various winning days.  Please email me at spring987@comcast.net, if there is something, such as a gift card, that you would like to donate along with the date or a note that simply says "any date."  This is a joint fundraiser for both parishes so please consider providing a gift.  Due date for all gift ideas is March 10.  We will then be able to have the calendars available shortly after that so that you will all have the opportunity to win some of the daily prizes.

 

Thanks,

Tena Wolf