Last Sunday’s message in our Living in Exile study through 1 Peter was what I would call a “doozie” –one of those singularly complex texts that have left believers, scholars and lay-people alike, scratching their heads and wondering about deep spiritual matters. In the span of five verses Peter tackles the Atonement (the work of Christ on the cross and its application to us as believers), Jesus’ proclamation to the spirits in prison from Noah’s day, the issue of baptism and its application and purpose, and the present and future victory of Christ over all creation. Pretty easy stuff for one day’s work. : ) Although you may have left feeling a bit overwhelmed, my hope is that at the very least you walked away knowing that Christ’s work is accomplished in our lives, and that God is reigning on his throne, whether we believe Jesus went to Hades and preached a message of victory to demonic spirits, or whether the Spirit of Jesus was actively proclaiming hope and good news through Noah to the people of his day. For believers, the atoning work of Christ on the cross, as portrayed through our spiritual death and resurrection in baptism, is efficacious, and we reign even now spiritually in and through Christ and will do so physically in eternity. That is good news, even if the particulars are a bit mysterious to us.
And now to a lighter topic…our move to the Multi-Purpose Room for the summer. If you were not able to be with us Sunday, you missed the announcement that this coming Sunday, May 15, will be our last Sunday in our current Worship Center for at least 11 weeks. On Monday, May 16, S&B Construction will be back among us and will begin demolition of the interior of the Worship Center. While they spend the summer expanding and renovating that space, we will spend each Sunday this summer worshipping in three identical services in the Multi-Purpose Room. We will worship at 8:00, 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. The 8:00 a.m. service will be a stand-alone service, meaning we will not offer any childcare or children or adult classes during that worship time. If you choose to bring your children (which you are welcome to do), they will need to sit with you through the worship service. Our 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. services will be identical to what we have been doing, with childcare offered in the nursery, our full children’s ministry and middle school programming, and our Plan & Promise and Fundamentals classes meeting in their regular locations. If you have any questions, please call us in the church office (881-4010), and we’ll answer any of your questions. So far our pledges for the building expansion have been coming in steadily and we thank you for your generosity. If all of our pledges come in as promised, we will only need to take a few short-term construction loans in order to maintain our construction schedule, and then we will pay off any balance at the end of our pledge cycle.
Finally, two quick housekeeping items to address. First, our First Impressions Team goes through the Worship Center after each worship service to tidy things up a bit for the next service, and they have been finding quite a few coffee cups, water bottles, gum and candy wrappers, etc. Please be mindful of what you brought into the Worship Center with you, and kindly pick up after yourselves when you leave. This will expedite the work of the First Impressions Team and will be a good way of caring for your brothers and sisters in Christ. This will be even more important this summer in the Multi-Purpose Room, when our time between services is shortened. Second, we traditionally have more difficulty filling the adult caregiver spaces in our nursery during the summer due to vacations and family travel. Please consider signing up for a turn in the nursery on a Sunday that you know you will be in town this summer and help our childcare team minister to our children and families. If you do sign up, please do everything in your power to be in attendance on that/those Sundays. Nursery signups will be available this Sunday, May 15th, at the ministry booth in the Commons. Thank you for your consideration in both of these areas!
Looking forward as always to a wonderful Sunday morning of worship with our church family!
Grace and peace,
Pastor Jym