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Pastor
Rev. Mark Mong, 937-661-4548
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Clerk of Session
Tena Roler, 937-446-2460
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Circle #2
Deb Tissot, President,
937-442-2781
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Men’s Breakfast Group:
Jack Richey, 937-393-9359
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Memorial Committee
Violet J. Kelley,
Treasurer, 937-442-4122
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Youth Group:
Jill Schelling,
937-393-4134
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Newsletter
Deb Tissot, 937-442-2781
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SERVICE AT 9 AM - SUNDAY SCHOOL AT 10:15 AM -
WEDNESDAY BIBLE STUDY AT 7 PM
Pictures
Pictures are now available for viewing.
Christmas Parade,
Christmas Program
Bright Local Food
Pantry
On The first Sunday of every
Month, we will be taking up a collection of food and money for the school
district's food pantry. A complete list of the needed food is on
the bulletin board by the front doors, or please request a list from Rev.
Mark. God feeds us during communion, so we might then turn and feed
the people in our community. Help us in this new and exciting ministry
of our Lord Jesus to the hungry of our neighborhood.
One Great Hour of Sharing
We will be taking up our annual
collection on Easter Sunday for the one great hour of sharing. this
year will be especially important as the resources collected will go to our
denomination's work in Haiti as well as other needy spots around the world.
Pick up a coin bank to fill over the next forty days, or wait for Easter
Sunday to give to this important aspect of our worship life. Jesus
asked peter, Do you love me? If so, then feed my sheep. Help us
feed Jesus' sheep around the world.
From
the Pastor's Desk
Greetings to you in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,
Another season of Lent has come upon us. It seems
like we just finished Advent no too long ago, and we just took down our
trees and our lights. Now we find ourselves in another period of the church
year where we prepare ourselves for the suffering, death and resurrection of
our Lord. Like Advent we all have those traditions which we do during
Lent. Some of those traditions might include giving something up, maybe
fasting on Fridays, maybe reading a 40 day devotional, maybe even trying to
pray more often and for longer periods.
But the question remains what are we doing all of this
preparing for?
We are preparing ourselves for the Passion and
Re-birth of our Lord Jesus. We are preparing ourselves for hearing about
how God was crucified to redeem us. We are preparing ourselves for the days
when God acted to heal and restore the whole human creation.
How does giving up chocolate prepare us for the
Passion? How does fasting prepare us for the cross? How does taking up a
new spiritual devotion prepare us for the brutal suffering of the
crucifixion? These things don’t prepare us for Holy Week; these things are
signs of the changes going on in our hearts. Our hearts are the problem,
therefore any preparations needs to start there. Our hearts are the root of
all sin, therefore whatever changes need to be made, need to be made there.
Rend your hearts, not your garments, the prophet Joel says to the
people of God.
If you give anything up this Lent, then let it be
sin. Give up your hate, your bigotry, your injustice! If you fast this
Lent, let it be fasting from material things that your heart might feast not
on steak or lobster, but on the body and blood of Jesus Christ! If you take
up a spiritual discipline, let it not be so that you can say you did it to
other people, but take up those things so that you put yourself at the feet
of the perfect teacher Jesus Christ.
Lent is a time of preparation, but we are not to just
prepare our outsides, but we are to prepare our insides as well. We all
know about the fish fry’s, the groups which meet to read Purpose Driven
Life, and the missed meals on Fridays, but what we don’t know or too
often forget, is that we also are to return to the LORD our God with all
our heart. If all we prepare is our stomachs, or our
minds, then we are forgetting the most important part of preparation, the
human heart. That is where the darkness lies, and that is where the light
of the world must enter in. So this Lent let your insides look like your
outsides, and let your outsides look like your insides. This Lent Return
to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger
and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
Who knows? He may turn and have pity. This Lent give God
your heart, not just your stomachs!
In Christ,
Rev. Mark
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