We are in a new Summer Series from Laura Degroot’s book: Live Wide Awake
Impossible!? Mission Possible!
Galatians 5
Crestview Family,
Grace, Love, and Peace to you in the name of Jesus.
Seems that everyone is thinking about the fall schedule as college students are returning to campuses and schools at all age levels are figuring out what the education schedule/structure will look like. This deeply affects educators and students alike. Families seem particularly challenged as they try to balance home, work, school patterns in this new atmosphere. Shifts and changes continue to affect people’s employment situations on many levels. Small businesses particularly find this season difficult. Churches across our city and country are facing challenges in reopening. The dance is difficult. Starting up what has been halted is difficult, just like I remember from an assembly line at Steelcase during my summer employment. (Isn’t there a physical law about inertia that explains this?) After a chaotic spring and disjointed summer of isolation and cancellations, where do we go from here?
Why mention these things? Because they are real. The ‘list’ of challenges we are presented with each day could be much longer and described in much more discouraging detail of course, but that would be… unfruitful.
This Sunday, August 2nd, we will begin our final 4 messages thematically shaped from Laura DeGroot’s book, Live Wide Awake. We will be focusing on Galatians chapter 5, with the theme of Impossible!? Mission Possible! In preparation for Sunday’s message, read chapter 5 of Galatians. It will be the focus of the practices from Laura’s book for next week. Paul basically breaks down the calling for followers of Jesus to walk in the Spirit. He describes it plainly. As you read the chapter, make a list of the ways that walking in the Spirit looks like. Paul also describes the ‘acts of the flesh.’ He likens ‘acts of the flesh’ as being yoked to slavery and walking in the Spirit as being freedom. How do you understand this?
We have decided to move forward with an outdoor worship service on August 9th, 9:30am and scheduled through Labor Day weekend. Looking forward to seeing some of you in the outdoors on site at Crestview. For those of you joining us online, live streaming is in the works. Details will be presented next week for the logistics of the August 9th service. Join the leadership in prayer over this change of venue as we continue to plan for the September through December worship format that would be best.
In other news, we have had two zoom meetings around the topic of youth and children’s ministries for the Sept-December semester with families. Plans are being formulated and prayed over. Also, I plan to gather our faith community around the book of James this fall. And then beginning a series on the Gospel of Luke for Advent and into 2021. Praying into that direction as well.
Our new TQ from now through September 2020: James 1:2-8, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”
May God give you faith, perseverance, and wisdom. He is a generous giver to those who seek and believe.
In Jesus name,
Mark