Thank you to all of the wonderful volunteers who helped to make our first summer of service middle school outreach camp so successful. ![]() Hi all, It is awesome to see a 15 month old vision spring to life! Camp SOS (Summer of Service) is on a roll! A wonderful and diverse group of young people…tremendously dedicated, hard-working, patient, talented, fun-loving adult volunteers… memorable visits with the library, the police and fire departments, Wilkinsburg Community Ministry, our own FPCE FROGS and Food Pantry ministries, and a very informative visit to the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. Our young people and adult volunteers have learned a lot about how a community works together. Camp SOS Community Dinner This coming Friday (July 15) from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. in the social hall. Grilled hamburgers, sausages, probably some hot dogs and drink will be provided. Please bring a side dish (nothing fancy, keep it simple) and join us. We will be fed, enjoy the fellowship, share memories of the week and The young people will perform some intriguing, dramatic acts inspired by the events of Camp SOS. You are invited to the closing celebration of our 1st annual Camp SOS! See you at 5:00 p.m. this Friday. Bring a friend. Pastor Michael Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We need to pray together. Maybe we even need to talk – and listen. The storm clouds of violence are hovering over our nation. We are surrounded by the fog of senseless loss. Raw emotions are simmering and, sometimes, erupting with frightening consequences. Church is a place and a people where our hurt, fear, confusion, doubt, and loss can emerge and the powerful process of repentance, healing, and redemption can begin. This coming Sunday, our church really will be a sanctuary. Providentially, the scripture lesson this week is the story of the Good Samaritan. (see Luke 10: 25-37.) We can no longer walk on by, pretending all is well. Instead of walking on by, we can become instruments of healing. A SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY: You will hear more about this on Sunday. A special offering will be received to help the family of the young man who was shot and killed this past 4th of July. Kinnear Parr was growing up to become a very special and wonderful young man. Two families in our congregation knew Kinnear very well. They, along with hundreds of others, are grieving. We will mourn with those who mourn. Please worship with us this Sunday. Bring friends. Bring those who are confused, angry, and hurting. See you in church, Pastor Michael Adult Sunday School at 8:45 a.m. ![]() Hello sisters and brothers and friends of FPCE, We are sliding into the summer time. Perhaps we will find a week or two or three to catch our collective breath and have some fun; as in recreation, as in re-creation. I do wish each of you a summer full of blessing and peace. This past May, I attended a conference for preachers called The Festival of Homiletics (which is a fancy word for the art of preaching.) The conference leadership decided to focus on the theme, Prophetic Preaching in Changing Times.. As the theme’ suggests, the preaching and teaching we heard was not to make us preachers feel good, or successful, or comforted, or entertained. As I re-read my notes, I see even more clearly that the week’s preachers and teachers laid out some tough challenges to those of us in the pulpit on Sunday morning. Here are just a few points that spoke to me:
A lot to think and pray about. The good news? Change happens, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Pastor Michael Join us for our first free community dinner of Summer 2016 on Wednesday, June 1 from 6-8PM on the Side Lawn. Come early to help set up, bring a side dish to share, or stay late to help clean up. Bring friends and family and join in the fellowship as we live out our mission as the community church to love God, love each other, and love our neighbors.
Within weeks of beginning my work as Interim Pastor, I had the unexpected and profound blessing of getting to know Jeff and Tina Nine. They love God and this church.
Many of you know that Jeff Nine has served us as Student Pastor while attending Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan. Tina’s strength, encouragement, and fantastic sense of humor have supported Jeff through the more trying times. His journey as student and candidate for becoming a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church USA is at an important crossroads. On Monday, May 9, Jeff and Tina will attend the graduation ceremony from Western Theological Seminary. Two days later, accompanied by Tina, Gregg Baldwin, Pastor Michael and his wife, Heather, Jeff will read his statement of faith to the Pittsburgh Presbytery’s Committee on Preparation of Ministry. These are long-awaited and important steps in Jeff’s journey of faith. To be sure, there is more work to be done before Jeff is ordained, but milestones are worth celebrating, aren’t they? Hello resurrecting sisters and brothers,
We will continue our Easter celebration this Sunday. A lovely and meaningful service that I am looking forward to spending with you. If you want to get a sneak peek – see Revelation 1: 4-8 and John 20: 19-31. I am planning a very meaningful spiritual exercise for us to enjoy together. Nothing unites the hearts of people of all ages, races, generations, political persuasions, and social status as well as worship. In God’s eyes….nothing matters more than you…and us….together. See you Sunday at 11:00 a.m. in the sanctuary. Pastor Michael PS. There will be no adult Sunday School this week. The staff and session are very much looking forward to hosting a Sunday luncheon, immediately following worship within the next month. As a congregation, we are looking at some significant issues that will go far in setting the direction that FPCE. The leadership of this church will not make any major decisions without input and insights from you, the congregation. We will be addressing two issues in our meeting together: the renovation of the building and the newly developed strategic plan. The discussion will be moderated and facilitated by Pastor Michael.
With plans in hand, the people who have worked the most and the hardest on the renovation plan will be present. The elders will all have an opportunity to share their thoughts and understanding of the strategic plan. YOUR THOUGHTS ARE ESSENTIAL TO US! MORE LATER. KEEP PRAYING! Hello members and friends of the FPCE community,
An important question for every pastor to ask her/himself is: “Where will I go to be fed? Who will be the shepherd that keeps me on the right path? Who can I turn to when my spiritual life becomes an arid, depressing, and meaningless wasteland? (Yes, this happens to Pastors, too!) I will confess in my earlier days of ministry, I was too proud or naïve to believe I needed anyone outside of me and my God. Guess what? It didn’t work. So I began to develop a list of names who I can turn to for spiritual direction. After Heather and I were married, she introduced to another spiritual writer, Joan Chittester. She is a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, PA. Joan is a woman of depth, candor, and wisdom. Below is a resurrection reflection followed by prayer. It is powerful. I pray it is an inspiration for all of you. ***************** To say ‘I believe in Jesus Christ . . . who rose from the dead,’ is to say I believe that the Resurrection goes on and on and on forever. Every time Jesus rises in our own hearts in new ways, the Resurrection happens again. Every time we see Jesus where we did not recognize him before — in the faces of the poor, in the love of the unloved, in the revelatory moments of life, Jesus rises anew. The real proof of the Resurrection lies not in the transformation of Jesus alone but in the transformation awaiting us who accept it. To say, ‘I believe in Jesus Christ . . . who rose from the dead,’ is to say something about myself at the same time. It says that I myself am ready to be transformed. Once the Christ-life rises in me, I rise to new life as well. ‘Christ is risen, we are risen,’ we sing at Easter. But it has a great deal more to do with life than with death. If I know that Jesus has been transformed, then I am transformed myself, and as a result, everything around me. Until we find ourselves with new hearts, more penetrating insights, fewer compulsions, less need for the transient, greater awareness of the spiritual pulse of life, resurrection has not really happened for us. Jesus has risen but we have not. Resurrection is change at the root of the soul. It marks a whole new way of being in life. Jesus, help me to understand that in every life, something good fails, something great ends, something righteous is taken unjustly away, something looms like an abandonment by God. Give me the wisdom to know that You rose from the dead as a sign to us that every one of these ‘little deaths’ is life become new all over again. Be with me in living Your Resurrection over and over again. Amen. |
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