Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 27th, 2009 No Comments »
Pastor Byron Pellecer and his family left Honduras and moved to Miami, and recently to Harrisonburg, VA, to be church planters. In Harrisonburg they are a part of the Mennonite Hispanic Initiative. They have come to help start a congregation of Spanish-speaking Christians.
Pastor Byron reminded us that we have 86,400 seconds in each day. God has called us to use those seconds to fulfill a mission in this world, to spread the Good News of God’s Kingdom. This is the day that God has given us. What are we going to do with it?
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Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 20th, 2009 No Comments »
1 Kings 19:1-18 relates the story of Elijah’s flight to the desert, fleeing King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. At Mt. Sinai, Elijah is given the opportunity to be in God’s presence, which comes not in the wind or earthquake or fire, but in the silence or still whispering.
How can we seek God’s face in a culture of noise? When and how do we find a time and a place for God? Pastor Barbara Moyer Lehman suggests that these times do not just happen. We have to plan for them, or the spaces fill up. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus offers us just such rest, the chance to listen to God’s voice.
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Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 13th, 2009 No Comments »
Why would God entrust flawed humans to be his agents in this world? Surely God could have done something more efficient! Pastor Phil Kniss says that throughout history God has used imperfect humans to spread the Good News of God’s love. The book of Acts is the story of humans working to be the people Jesus commissioned them to be, day in and day out. They worked at this in small groups or house churches; through face to face interactions.
But then the church became embedded in the state and developed into an institution. That is where we are today, and God can use such an institutional church. But this is not the church envisioned in the Bible. Pastor Phil asks how Park View Mennonite Church can grow in the characteristics of the church of the New Testament. Can we come back to the table - back to meeting each other face to face, breaking bread together, studying scripture, discipling each other, a community of communities?
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Posted in Uncategorized on Sep 6th, 2009 No Comments »
On this Labor Day Sunday, Pastor Phil Kniss spoke about the holy nature of work. Whether our work is paid or unpaid, church related or purely secular, we cannot divide it into being either God’s work or our work. If we are doing honorable labor, work that is aligned with God’s mission in the world, then all work is God’s work. We were encouraged to begin to view our work as a part of God’s mission. The writer of Ecclesiastes says in chapter 5 that work is a good thing, a gift of God when we can find joy in our work. If our work is a co-laboring with God, then we can celebrate.
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