Archive for the ‘The Weekly’ Category

October 18, 2011

Dear Church,

Here is what is happening in the life of the church this week. May you be blessed as you journey toward Jesus.

Recapping Last Sunday Morning

We wrapped up our “Fair Weather Fan” series last Sunday by considering just how radical the words ‘Your Kingdom come, Your will be done’ are that we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus gave us this prayer so that as we pray it our eyes would be opened to see the world as God sees it and we would become people motivated by the Kingdom. If you missed it and you’d like to hear it, you can listen to it on our website.

Treat the Street

On October 31, many of your friends and neighbors will be dressing up in a costume and bouncing from house to house to gather candy. We see that night as an opportunity to bless the neighborhoods of Lafayette by hosting parties for our neighbors. We call it Treat the Street. It’s neighbors and friends celebrating and enjoying each other and their neighborhood. In the gospel of Mark chapter 8, Jesus teaches us that if we really want to have a blast we’ll free up some time and bring a smile to someone’s face. That is our hope with Treat the Street.

Here is how you can help: we need candy. Lots of it. Bring it by the truckload to the basket in the foyer. Also, if you’re interested in hosting, contact the Staff for more information.

2nd Annual Chili Throwdown

The air is getting brist and it is time for a hearty bowl of chili. After the service on November 13, we will hold our 2nd annual Chili Throwdown. It’s a great time of fellowship and fun to raise some extra funds for our students. Free samples of chili will be available and if you’d like a bowl, simply give a donation to your favorite chili. The chili that collects the most donations will be judged against Pastor Matt’s chili. If you’re interested in entering your chili for the chance of winning the “Golden Ladle” please sign up at the Welcome Center.

Pray For Fall Retreat

On October 21-23, many of our students will be traveling to Lake Placid Christian Conference Center for our Fall Retreat. We would love your specific prayers for our students. Pray God moves before their eyes and they will make decisions to pattern their lives after the life of Jesus.

Go to a Purdue Football Game, Help a Student

The students of LFCN are partnering with Congress Street UMC to run a concession booth for Purdue home football games. The dollars earned working in the booth will go towards a scholarship fund to help students in need go on Fall Retreat. Not only is this a great opportunity to help our students, it will also be a great time together. If you are interested in helping work a game, please contact Gloria Powell for schedule and additional details.

Women’s Shelter Project

Summer was very busy and we were able to make a lot of packages. We are really in need of additional supplies to get us started on the winter months. You may bring items such as deodorant, hair brushes, toothpaste, lotions, and shampoo/conditioner combo packets or donate money for this project. Donated items may be placed in the basket in the foyer at the Missions Table. If giving a monetary donation, please write “Women’s Shelter Project” on your check or offering envelope.

Thanks for being on mission with us,

Pastor Troy

Series: Week #5 of It’s Like This.

Scriptures We Read: Romans 12:1-2; Psalm 141:8-10; Matthew 16:21-27

Sometimes Peter, the disciple, is so like us. He is quick to say the things we are thinking but are hesitant to say. So when Peter hears Jesus say that He when He goes to Jerusalem He will suffer and die Peter is quick to say ‘no way. God forbid. It shall not happen to you.’ It is simply too much for Peter to imagine his wise, young teacher coming to such a quick and bloody end. Especially, because that end could have been avoided. Why take a risk you don’t have to take?

Jesus was having none of it. He explodes on Peter. ‘Get behind me Satan!’ – all Peter did was suggest that there could be another way. And that’s the thing – from the beginning of time Satan has been offering people alternatives to God – easier alternatives, safer alternatives, flashier alternatives.

God is not interested in our comfort. God is interested in us living a quality life. But we never get there if we let suffering and death throw us off track. We can try to save our life. We can try to stockpile it. We can try to guard it. That’s a miserable way to live.

Jesus offers us an alternative: ‘whoever saves his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.’ Following Jesus means receiving our lives as gifts not guarding them as possessions; it means sharing the life we have been given not bottling it for our own consumption; it means spending our life not saving it.

It means living eternally. Now.

Songs We Sang:
All Who Are Thirsty – Brenton Brown
Fairest Lord Jesus – Christy Nockels
From The Inside Out – Hillsong United
O To Be Like Thee – William Kirkpatrick
Let Your Kingdom Come - Trinity Grace Church

{Don’t forget to check out the podcast}

The Weekly, a once-a-week blog post from Lafayette First Church of the Nazarene, highlights event information, offers opportunities to get involved, and shares some of the story of what God is doing. For more information, visit us on our website.

This Sunday

As we continue our “Awakening” series where we are recognizing what life is like when we are awakened to the reality of the resurrection, we’ll consider what the resurrection has to say about families.

As parents we give our children the horizons of their lives. We teach them to love and laugh or we teach them to be negative and critical. We create pictures of God by the way that we live – and they become like us.

The Weekly, a once-a-week blog post from Lafayette First Church of the Nazarene, highlights event information, offers opportunities to get involved, and shares some of the story of what God is doing. For more information, visit us on our website.

This Sunday

This Sunday is “Palm Sunday” – the day the church remembers Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. We’ll read and reflect upon that story and we’ll be challenged to imagine the kind of Kingdom that Jesus brought to the city of Jerusalem 2000 years ago as well as the kind of Kingdom He might have in mind for Lafayette today.

Good Friday

The Friday of Holy Week has been traditionally called Good Friday. On this day the church remembers the arrest, trial, crucifixion and burial of Jesus.

In an effort to remember the loneliness, pain, humiliation and suffering of Jesus, our Savior, we will be gathering for a Good Friday worship service on April 2 at 7 PM. The worship service will be an adapted version of a “Tenebrae” service. “Tenebrae” is the latin word for shadow or darkness. Throughout this service the lighting will be continually dimmed, eventually leaving the room in darkness. This powerful service will include Scripture readings, hymns, and worship songs.

The Weekly, a once-a-week blog post from Lafayette First Church of the Nazarene, highlights event information, offers opportunities to get involved, and shares some of the story of what God is doing. For more information, visit us on our website.

This Sunday

This Sunday we are continuing in our series called “Savior” by reading and reflecting upon some of Jesus’ last words: “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

We’ll notice that believing in God when we do not ‘feel’ him; calling on God when everything tells us that God is not there; crying out to God in the midst of our darkness is what faith is all about. It is what Jesus demonstrated in his darkest hour.

Because Jesus has been there, none of us needs to ever feel alone, forgotten or forsaken.

Good Friday

The Friday of Holy Week has been traditionally called Good Friday. On this day the church remembers the arrest, trial, crucifixion and burial of Jesus.

In an effort to remember the loneliness, pain, humiliation and suffering of Jesus, our Savior, we will be gathering for a Good Friday worship service on April 2 at 7 PM. The worship service will be an adapted version of a “Tenebrae” service. “Tenebrae” is the latin word for shadow or darkness.

Throughout this service the lighting will be continually dimmed, eventually leaving the room in darkness. This powerful service will include Scripture readings, hymns, and worship songs.

Please plan on attending with your family. It is hard to celebrate a resurrection if you have not first experienced death. Participating in this Good Friday service will help to make your Easter experience even more significant.

Family Easter Celebration

This Easter season we are planning a fun event to celebrate with our church family and with the community on Saturday, March 20 at 10:00 AM. We will be start with a special presentation of the Veggie Tale’s “An Easter Carol” followed by an Easter Egg hunt for kids through 6th grade. We would love for you to bring your family and friends and have a great time.

The Weekly, a once-a-week blog post from Lafayette First Church of the Nazarene, highlights event information, offers opportunities to get involved, and shares some of the story of what God is doing. For more information, visit us on our website.

Good Friday

The Friday of Holy Week has been traditionally called “Good Friday.” On this day, the church remembers the arrest, trial, crucifixion and burial of Jesus.

In an effort to remember the loneliness, pain, humiliation, and suffering of Jesus, our Savior, we will be gathering for a Good Friday worship service on April 2 at 7 PM. The worship service will be an adapted version of a “Tenebrae” service. “Tenebrae” is the latin word for “shadow” or “darkness.” This powerful service will include Scripture readings, hymns, and worship songs. And throughout the service the lighting will be continually dimmed – eventually leaving the room in darkness.

Please plan on attending with your family. It is hard to celebrate a resurrection if you have not first experienced death. Participating in this Good Friday service will help to make your Easter experience even more significant.

Family Easter Celebration

If there was ever a time on the church’s calendar that calls for a celebration it is Easter. Join us on Saturday, March 20 at 1o AM for an event that will help the whole family celebrate Easter. The Family Easter Celebration will include the Veggie Tales film “An Easter Carol” as well as an Easter Egg hunt for children through 6th grade.

Daylight Saving Time

Daylight Saving Time begins this early in the morning this Sunday (March 14). Be sure to set your clocks forward 1 hour before going to bed on Saturday evening.

Last night at First Church University we had a great discussion centered around Jesus’ pronouncement: ‘blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.’ We were challenged to participate in that Kingdom this week.

The materials for week three of First Church University: The Kingdom Experiment can be found here. I look forward to gathering this Wednesday to hear how God has been using these discussions, explorations, and experiments to shape our hearts and extend His Kingdom.

The materials for week three of First Church University: The Kingdom Experiment can be found here. I look forward to gathering this Wednesday to hear how God has been using these discussions, explorations, and experiments to shape our hearts and extend His Kingdom.

For the next 10 weeks during the Winter Semester of First Church University, we’re going to be looking at the words of Jesus in Matthew 5 in a study that we’re calling ‘The Kingdom Experiment.’ Last night was week 1 and it was a really good intro conversation regarding what Jesus was actually saying with these words and how we should approach talking about them.

In an effort to extend this conversation beyond just Wednesday evenings, each Thursday we’ll post the materials that we used to help us better discuss Jesus’ words in Matthew 5. If you weren’t able to join us last night, we’d love to have you next week.

The materials for week 1 can be found in PDF form by clicking HERE.

Fortunate are those who are poor. Truly privileged are those who mourn. Favored by God are those who are persecuted and oppressed. It with these words, normally called the beatitudes, that Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount.

You can sense the tension we feel when we read these words by the way we normally try to explain them. We know that the poor, those who mourn, and the persecuted and oppressed are not really blessed. So we often say that Jesus meant that these people are spiritually blessed in spite of not being physically blessed. Or we turn these statements into a checklist of Christian morality. In other words, the Christian must be a gentle, merciful, pure in heart, peacemaker. There is some truth in both of these statements but I think somehow they miss the point that Jesus is really making.

Only in a world completely different from ours could these statements be true. In our world, the powerful, influential, and violent inherit the earth, not the gentle. In our world, the merciful are usually taken advantage of rather than receiving mercy in return. In our world… well you get the idea.

What Jesus is describing in the beatitudes is a world which operates by different rules than our own. He is describing the Kingdom of God, a kingdom which is backwards and upside down in comparison to the kingdoms of this world. These words are not an observation about how things are or a checklist of Christian virtues. They are a promise of what is to come, a promise that one day things will really be different. They are a promise that one day those who mourn will find real comfort and that the violent and powerful will not always control everything and that mercy, purity, and peace are really possible.

As followers of Jesus, we live in the hope of these promises. It is the promise of God’s kingdom which sustains us as the Church. However, it is not our mission to simply sit around and wait for this kingdom to show up. We aren’t called to just get by in this life until Jesus fixes everything. Instead, the hope that we have for the future impacts how we live today. Because we believe that our world will play by different rules when God’s kingdom finally comes, we want to live by those rules now as witness to the new reality that we anticipate with eager expectation.

This Winter at First Church University, we will be participating in a study of the Beatitudes entitled The Kingdom Experiment. It is a study centered on the beatitudes but it is much more than just a Bible study. It is an experiment in intentionally living out our hopeful anticipation of the Kingdom of God. In addition to a lesson on one of the beatitudes each week, there will also be experiments from which to choose. These experiments are challenges to live out the kingdom value of that beatitude throughout the week.

Each week we’ll discuss the meaning and implications of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5. We’ll also be challenged to try a ‘kingdom experiment’  - a tangible and practical response to who Jesus is and what He is calling us toward with His words.

First Church University: The Kingdom Experiment begins this Wednesday at 7PM.

I believe that this study can help us to see the Kingdom of God in new ways and I hope that you will prayerfully consider participating.