Archive for the ‘Newsletters’ Category
February 2012 Newsletter
January 28th, 2012 | 
Author: See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again. Mark 10:32-34
The gospel of Mark tells us that Jesus spoke of his suffering, death, and resurrection to his disciples at least 3 times before He actually began His passion. And each time His disciples did not quite understand what He was explaining. Perhaps things were going so well that the 12 did not want to consider that their beloved rabbi would suffer and die. Maybe they could not quite grasp how their teacher, who had cured people of their sicknesses and even walked on water, could come to such an awful end. And yet, Jesus knew Himself that He would have to suffer in order to fulfill His mission to save us from the evils of sin and hell. Only Jesus could fully grasp what was about to happen to Him, whether or not His followers could. Every year, I actually look forward to Lent and the 40 days of preparation for Holy Week and Easter. For us, the Church of Christ, this is the highest and holiest season of the year, more important than Christmas! This season forces us to remember all that Jesus endured for our sake…how He suffered and died to grant us God’s forgiveness and to reconcile us to our heavenly Father. This is at the heart of what we believe, what the gospel is all about – Jesus’ death and resurrection. To have faith and fail to spend time reflecting on how much Jesus went through to save us is to fail to grasp how personal this all is. God in the flesh in Jesus, God’s Son, felt pain and anguish in order to free us from suffering for our own sins. How much more beautiful Jesus becomes to us as we contemplate what He went through for us in His suffering and death. How much more personal He becomes to us as we think about his death and resurrection! To not simply gloss over it, but to really spend time, even 40 days, reflecting on what Jesus’ sacrifice means to us! I pray that you too will be moved deeply in your hearts this Lenten season as you begin this 40-day journey with Jesus and your church family. Your time spent preparing your heart, confessing your sins, seeking the Lord’s forgiveness, looking for a new way of life, will not be time misspent. Come Easter, you will have a brand new outlook on your life. You will approach the Lord with a renewed faith and vigor as His disciple. And your Easter celebration will reach a new level of joy as you truly participate in Jesus’ call to new life through His resurrection. May God bless you as you prepare your hearts!
Pastor Michele
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January 2012 Newsletter
I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:18-19
Sometimes being a Christian can make us weary. The weekly worship service early on Sunday mornings…the monthly session meetings…the work of ministry that never seems to stop…the special calls and letters, asking you to consider helping with this project or donating to that endeavor…demands on your time and your energy. Being a Christian is not something for slouches. It requires a longstanding commitment which lasts a lifetime. Knowing this, it is good to periodically rededicate ourselves to our Lord and His work. As the apostle Paul once prayed, we need to constantly know how great Jesus’ love is for us, because that is the sole driving force behind all that we do for Him. When we forget His love for us, our work and ministry becomes dry and wearying. But when we take time to remember His love and revel in that rich relationship He has invited us to be in with Him, we become renewed and inspired to take up the mantle of servanthood yet again, with the ultimate desire of our hearts being to be filled with all the fullness of God. Therefore, come ready to recommit yourself to Christ on Sunday, January 8thduring worship. This will be our Recommitment Sunday for 2012. The sermon will be based on the above passage and there will be a time during worship to rededicate yourself to Christ and His mission. Plan to bring your entire family as it will be a very special Sunday for us as individuals as well as a church. Come to be filled with the love of Christ our Lord and His Holy Spirit!
Pastor Michele
January Newsletter 2012 (In MS-Word Format)
December 2011
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. Luke 1:32-33
We worship an awesome God! The words of an angel proclaim some amazing things about this Jesus we love. Coming from the presence of Almighty God in heaven, Gabriel visits Mary, who will give birth to our Savior. He reveals that Jesus will be called the Son of the Most High God. He will have a throne of power, which reaches back to the promise of God to King David that someone would always sit on his throne, and even further back to the promise that there would be someone to reign over the house of Jacob, the grandson of Abraham. But the most amazing thing of all is this: Jesus and His Kingdom will live forever! Imagine this! We worship and serve someone who will be around forever, and His kingdom will be around forever. There is nothing else like this, and there is no one else like this Jesus. Though He may have come to us in humble beginnings, once He sets out on His mission, there was no stopping Him. He came to give His life so that we could live with Him forever and ever – even us, sinners one and all, whom God could have cast off, but whom instead, He showered with the grace of Jesus Christ. What a wonderful Savior we honor! No matter where we come from, in our baptisms, we all belong to this wonderful Prince of Peace. Regardless of what sins we have committed, in Jesus, we are forever forgiven! While we will exchange many gifts this Christmas, the greatest exchange of all took place when God’s Son went to the cross for us. When He died there in our place, that was the greatest exchange of love and mercy we will ever know. Dying with our sins upon Him, He established Himself as Lord of all! Who else can we worship and serve? This Christmas, when you gaze upon the little baby in the manger, while you listen to the stories surrounding Jesus birth, don’t leave out the glory of heaven that broke in upon us! As you celebrate Christmas with trees and gifts and family and food, don’t forget the majesty of it all – how God sent His only Son to save us! How amazing He is!!!
Pastor Michele Allen
November Newsletter
And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. Luke 2:7
The season called Advent begins this month on November 27th. It lasts for 28 days. It is a season of days meant for us to prepare our hearts and minds for the celebration of Christmas, the birth of God’s Son, our Savior, Jesus. For many, this season is nonexistent, primarily because our society celebrates Christmas apart from the coming of Jesus, but also because even Christians become caught up in the secular ideas of what the coming of Christmas is all about. As your pastor, it is my prayer that you set aside these 28 days to prepare yourself spiritually for the celebration of Jesus’ birth and what that means to us as Christians. If we look back to the verse above from the story of the days before Jesus was born, we hear of how Mary and Joseph were “interrupted” from the life they had known, forced to move to a different place, and set out into a manger to receive their first child. The bible says, “…because there was no place for them in the inn.” When it comes to the 28 days of Advent, when we are asked by our church to prepare ourselves spiritually for the birth of Jesus, it may feel like we’re being displaced from the typical experiences we usually enjoy this time of year. To prepare a quiet place to pray each day of Advent for insight into what Jesus’ birth means to me, to make time each day in this season to read a portion of the stories surrounding Jesus’ birth – this will mean that I may have to forego the hectic pace that others want me to keep this time of year. It may mean that I will have to learn a new rhythm of living in these 28 days before Christmas, so that I will be able to feed my soul with prayer and scripture and a focused listening for what the Spirit of God is telling me in my life. It may mean that I and my family will be intentional in setting aside time together to read the stories of Jesus and pray together to Him. The season of Advent will require us to slow down, quiet down, and pay more attention to what the birth of Jesus means to us. So this year, I invite you to light a candle every day and make time to say a prayer to the Lord to prepare your heart and soul for His coming. I encourage you to gather your family each day, perhaps before you go to bed or before you watch your tv programs, so that you can read a part of the bible to learn about Jesus’ birth. I pray that you enter into these 28 days purposefully to allow the Lord to prepare your heart and mind for Christmas. Let the world race forward, while you and yours slow down and quiet down intentionally for the sake of God’s Son.
Pastor Michele Allen
October Newsletter
“But these are written so that you may come to believe that
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing
you may have life in his name.” – John 20:31
I recently went to the movies with some friends of mine. It was a movie based on a book that had been on the bestseller list for quite a few weeks. It was a book I had not yet read. After the movie was over, my friends sitting next to me told me, The movie was good, but the book was even better. Have you ever had somebody tell you that – that the book was even better? I’ve seen a lot of movies and I’ve read a number of books; and I can tell you that when it comes to the book called the Bible, it’s better than all the rest. I was recently informed by research materials that more than 50% of church members have never read through the entire bible. Have you? Have you ever read through the entire bible, from front to back? In the gospel of John we read the verse printed above. The bible was written so that people would be able to read about Jesus. From the start of the very first book called Genesis, where God creates the world, and through the entire Old Testament, is Part I of the story behind Jesus’ coming. And from Matthew to the end of Revelation in the New Testament is the story of Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection, with a lot of great evidence that He was God’s Son in between. The bible even tells us about the very end of this world. What people THINK God is about and who most people THINK Jesus is may sound terrific, but the book is even better. I can’t imagine going through this life as a Christian never having read the bible from front to back. It unnerves me that less than 50% of church people have never read the scriptures. No wonder there are some crazy ideas out there about who God is and what Jesus did. If we have time to check our emails every day, we have time to read the bible. If we have time to text messages throughout the day, we have time to read God’s word. If we have time to watch hours of television each day, we most definitely have time to read the bible. I hope that Friendship Community Church is made up of people who want to know the Lord so much, that they make the commitment to reading through the bible at least once in their lifetimes. And if you already have, I hope that you are reading a passage of the bible each day and praying over it so that your soul will be nourished with God’s word for you. Let’s end the vacuum of biblical knowledge that has crept into the Lord’s Church. Let’s be the people of God who tell the world that THE BOOK IS EVEN BETTER!
Pastor Michele Allen