September 2014 – Pastor Anthony’s Letter

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

With September quickly approaching on the calendar, it is that time of year again where we begin a new program year. Last year, in our infancy as a parish, we worked on answering the question, “Who are we?” We did this by working through 1 Peter 2:9.

“…you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

What we learned through this verse is that we have been chosen by God through our baptism for a purpose, and that purpose is to proclaim God’s mighty acts. Now this year, we will explore the question, “What are we do-ing?” along with “What should we be doing?” We again will work through this question in our monthly newslet-ters and weekly worship services. But this year we will also be having a few special events through the year.

To help guide us through our year, we will be looking at Acts 2:41-47.

“So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

As we move through this year, there are 5 words or themes that we will focus on from Acts 2. These 5 words are: SHARE, REJOICE, FELLOWSHIP, PRAY, and WORSHIP. There will be a special event tied to each word as we go throughout the year. We begin this fall with the word SHARE. More details on our word SHARE in the coming weeks, but our special event tied to the word SHARE is our God’s Work, Our Hands Sunday projects. Some of us are doing our service projects on September 7th. While others are waiting and doing their projects later this fall. De-tails on each congregation’s projects are listed in this issue of Ripple of Faith.

Baptized children of God, will you join us this year as we Share with others, Re-joice in the Lord, Fellowship together, Pray to God, and Worship the Lord?

In Christ,

Pastor Anthony