Archive for the ‘Newsletters’ Category
December 2011
December 1st, 2011 | 
Author: 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
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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
September Newsletter
He said to them, “Come and see.” John 1:39
According to research done among growing churches, the best way to grow your church is for members to invite their friends and neighbors. This method of “evangelism” is the most effective way to build up a church’s membership. Why? Because if you are excited about your church, your friends will be interested in knowing what it’s all about. If you are getting something out of your faith community, the people who know you will want to know why it’s so important and effective for you in your life. When Jesus first began building His Church, there were people who were interested in Him. When they asked Him questions, He simply said, “Come and see.” This is still a very good way to invite others to find out about Friendship Community Church. Invite them to come and see…to see our worship service and experience what it means to praise the Lord; to come and see our Sunday School classes and what we’re learning as adults and children; come and see our Friendship Circles and how we’re growing closer to the Lord and to one another; come and see what mission opportunities we are working on. As we head into the Fall and renew our church activities, invite a friend or neighbor to “come and see” why Friendship means so much to you!
Pastor Michele
August Newsletter
“Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” And he went away and began to tell others throughout the region how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.
Mark 5:19-20
When was the last time you told somebody something that the Lord has done for you? Sometimes as Christians, we believe that our relationship with Jesus is so personal that it has to remain private, but from what we learn in the scriptures, this isn’t the case. Our relationships with the Lord are deeply personal, uniquely our own; but what’s going on in our life of faith is not meant to be private. It’s meant to be something of which we are proud to relate to others, not bragging in ourselves, but bragging about what Jesus has been up to. It may be a recovery from an illness that the Lord has brought. It might be a peace and an understanding about a situation in our lives that was troubling us. It might be a newly found joy that had been missing before in our lives. It might be forgiveness for something that was weighing down our hearts. It might be a friend whom the Lord brought into your life whom you know is a gift to you. Whatever it is that the Lord is up to in your life, that is something to share with somebody else. The verses above are from a story in Mark when Jesus healed a man who had been possessed. Once he had recovered from this spiritual condition, he returned to Jesus and asked if he could spend more time with Jesus in his ministry. Jesus, instead, told the man to share what had happened with his friends in his own community. In other words, Jesus wanted this man to begin a ministry of his own where he lived. Supposedly, the ministry this man started in his home town led to the development of a tremendous Christian Church where future important leaders emerged in time of crisis almost 300 years later. As we prepare to start up our Friendship Circles this Fall, be thinking about which friends and neighbors you could invite to your circle. Which fellow members of FCC could you invite into your group to enjoy time together learning and growing in your relationship with Christ. Make time to pray about and consider what you could share with somebody about what the Lord is doing for you!
Pastor Michele