Gospel for the Person who has Everything

Hello Faithful friends, 

I am writing this with a snow covered view of my yard outside and my cat chasing his tail on the floor next to me.  I have found in the solitude of home, that I can get a lot of work done while wearing fuzzy slippers and relying on Girl Scout cookies for sustenance.  : )

My focus has been on our new series for February and preparations for Lent.  In addition, I met with a visitor who wanted to become a member on Zoom last night when our meeting at the church was canceled due to the snow.  Erlan Chapas joined by transfer from another denomination and another country.  He has only been in the US for the last ten months and has recently started playing the bass guitar in our praise band.  I have heard that he is extremely talented by the other band members.  I learned last night that his father is a pastor and he has studied theology in Honduras.  I also discovered his passion for the Lord and his joy to serve as we visited last night.  He told me his family in Honduras has been joining us on the live stream for worship as well.  Who knew?  Once again God amazes me!

My new sermon series for February was inspired by a book I found in the UMW library titled The Gospel for the Person who has Everything.  It was written by Will Willimon and I have found it compelling to consider what is the gospel message that we are telling and how do we define “everything”?  I am pairing it with Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth.  There are similar themes to both books and they are written to churches to inspire and cause reflection. 1 Corinthians is not a very long book if you would like to read it in preparation.

As for my sneak peek into Lent, we have chosen a book and a theme called Witness at the Cross which is paired with videos on Amplify.  Since we are uncertain about how the CoVid case numbers will be in April, I wanted to find a compelling source that had videos that you could access from home.  Some of our Sunday school classes have decided to take the month of February off to watch the CoVid numbers before they gather again. I also signed us up with Amplify for a group study together so those of you who feel safer virtually could still have a study group.  I will send more instructions when we are nearer to March.  

Praying for safety for all,