Missionary Messenger North Manchester Missionary Church 806 East State Road 114 North Manchester, IN 46962 Phone: 260 982-6012 [email protected]www.nmmc1.com Christmas in September ? Romans 12: 1-2 Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual ser- vice of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renew- ing of your mind. Then you will be able to discern what is the good, pleasing, and per- fect will of God. (BSB) September is my birthday month. I was born September 1, 1964. My birthday of- ten falls upon Labor Day weekend. This is nice in the sense that I can pretend that the whole country makes my birthday a national holiday and takes the week- end off to celebrate it. I know that this is not true, but it is true that I often get invited to cookouts on my birthday weekend. It is often a long weekend full of celebrating my “birthday”. I titled this month’s article “Christmas in September” for several reasons. One is that it is very possible to start seeing Christmas stuff for sale already. It seems that the stores keep putting it out earlier and earlier every year. I remember when they plowed past Thanksgiving and then they started hawking Christmas before Halloween. I will not be surprised if there will be decorations at the mall before September is over. One of the teachings that I am known for is my distaste for the holiday of X-mas. It is the abbreviation of the Christ-less celebration that has replaced Christmas in our culture. I often call it X-Mess. I do love celebrating my Lord’s birthday however. I enjoy reminding people that December 25 th is not their birthday. (If it actually is your birthday, you are the exception to this.) Can you imagine the ridiculousness of someone claiming to celebrate your birthday by buying themselves a new car? As I celebrate my birthday month let us start thinking about how we are going to celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ. Please do not give in to the temptation to miss the holiday of Thanksgiving and start celebrating X-Mess. Romans 12:1-2 is like the wish list of our Messiah for what He would want for HIS birthday. He would not want us to conform to the overspending, indulgent culture around us. He would want us to continue to make it about His Father and what the Father sent the Son to do. I also know that Jesus Christ would not mind it at all if you gave Him His birthday gift early. Even in September! In Christ, Pastor Ken 2 0 1 7
Transcript
Missionary Messenger North Manchester Missionary Church
806 East State Road 114 North Manchester, IN 46962
Romans 12: 1-2 Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer
your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual ser-
vice of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renew-
ing of your mind. Then you will be able to discern what is the good, pleasing, and per-
fect will of God. (BSB)
September is my birthday month. I was born September 1, 1964. My birthday of-
ten falls upon Labor Day weekend. This is nice in the sense that I can pretend
that the whole country makes my birthday a national holiday and takes the week-
end off to celebrate it. I know that this is not true, but it is true that I often get
invited to cookouts on my birthday weekend. It is often a long weekend full of
celebrating my “birthday”.
I titled this month’s article “Christmas in September” for several reasons. One is
that it is very possible to start seeing Christmas stuff for sale already. It seems
that the stores keep putting it out earlier and earlier every year. I remember
when they plowed past Thanksgiving and then they started hawking Christmas
before Halloween. I will not be surprised if there will be decorations at the mall
before September is over. One of the teachings that I am known for is my distaste
for the holiday of X-mas. It is the abbreviation of the Christ-less celebration that
has replaced Christmas in our culture. I often call it X-Mess. I do love celebrating
my Lord’s birthday however. I enjoy reminding people that December 25th is not
their birthday. (If it actually is your birthday, you are the exception to this.) Can
you imagine the ridiculousness of someone claiming to celebrate your birthday by
buying themselves a new car?
As I celebrate my birthday month let us start thinking about how we are going to
celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ. Please do not give in to the temptation to
miss the holiday of Thanksgiving and start celebrating X-Mess. Romans 12:1-2 is
like the wish list of our Messiah for what He would want for HIS birthday. He
would not want us to conform to the overspending, indulgent culture around us.
He would want us to continue to make it about His Father and what the Father
sent the Son to do. I also know that Jesus Christ would not mind it at all if you
gave Him His birthday gift early. Even in September!
In Christ, Pastor Ken
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You may fill the vacancies in September by You may fill the vacancies in September by You may fill the vacancies in September by You may fill the vacancies in September by signing up on the bulletin board.signing up on the bulletin board.signing up on the bulletin board.signing up on the bulletin board.
WBCL/Trinity Communications
2017 SPRING CONCERT SERIES
in Fort Wayne, IN
09/23 Comedian Mark Lowry
10/26 For King & Country
10/29 Kari Jobe
See info on bulletin board. Order tickets online:
TrinityCommunications.org or 260-484-1029
We are still collecting food sta-
ples, cleaning supplies and pa-
per products for the REACH
Food Pantry.
PRAYER FOCUS
Wednesday, Sept. 6
7:00p.m.—PRAYER
WALK following, if
there is interest
Everyone is invited!
Please pray about &
consider joining us!
The ‘Life Center’ is in need of the following items:
Baby Clothes, In-season—Birth to 4T Diapers—All sizes Training Pants Baby Wipes Formula—All Types Prenatal Vitamins Baby Food Baby Wash, Lotion, Diaper Cream NEW Cribs NEW Car Seats
The library is open and ready for everyone. If anyone has books, CDs, or DVDs that would be good to share and would like to donate or loan to our library, please see me or call 260-578-4891.
Please see the library bulletin board for more info.
Praising God through books! Praising God through books! Praising God through books! Praising God through books!
Karen
From New Horizons Fellowship, Jeff Elliott, Pastor
NEW OFFICE HOURSNEW OFFICE HOURSNEW OFFICE HOURSNEW OFFICE HOURS
Starting September 1st the church office hours will
be Monday through Friday from 8am to noon.
Joanne Sistrunk will be the new secretary.
Want to learn more about our church? Want to get to know Pastor Ken and Joanne better? Please join us for the Connection Class led by Pastor Ken. There are two 6 week classes available starting September 24th: 9am during Sunday school or at noon after church. Contact Pastor Ken for more info. Connection ClassConnection ClassConnection ClassConnection Class
We’ll be helping at 5:15 pm on Thursday September 21 at Manchester Elementary.
SEPTEMBER OUTREACH:
Connection Notes -Taking Next Steps
I have struggled to come up with an Out-reach Connection Note for this month. To be honest, I have written three other versions. Yet nothing has seemed quite "right".
My goals with these notes are to share the things I am being taught, offer encourage-ment to continue in our journey to reach out and to share experiences that I learn about. Doing all of this with the hope that together we will reach out to our community with the Holy Spirit's leading and in the love of Christ. I believe it can be easy to shove aside the ways that, we as individuals, can make a difference. Especially when we compare ourselves to each other. I know that this is true for me.
I wish it was easier for me to meet or get to know people. I used to be the girl who would cross to the other side of Main Street so I wouldn't have to talk to a classmate of mine. I have done that more than once! However, I have not done that for some time.
But you know what? God knew what He was doing when He created me. He knew me even before I was born! And even though I tend to be a little introverted, He still cre-ated me for a purpose. And you know what? He has helped to get beyond my need to run and hide.
And something else I am learning is that my purpose, my God-given life assignment is different than yours. We each have a story. A story of how Christ sought us out, how he demonstrated His love and how He has met our needs. And our own story is rele-vant to someone.
So while our natures, our comfort zones and our stories are different- our purpose is the same. Jeannie Allen summed it up at the 2017 IF:Gathering, "Because you have been with Jesus, go be with people so they can be with Jesus!".Let's use the ac-tivities of this month to go be with people so they can be with Jesus.
Sue
OUTREACH EVENTS:
OUTREACH CHAMPIONS— Outreach Champions Potluck and Planning ses-sion: After church service on Sept. 10th. Bring a dish and share in shaping our outreach ideas and activities. Please pray for this meet-ing. We want to be lead by Holy Spirit to go in His direction. And plan to help us out by at-tending.
COMFORT QUILTS — 9/12/17 – 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM- Come prepared
to work toward completing some of our quilt
tops. Keep October 7th from 10:00 AM to 2:00
PM open for another work day.
FALL WOMEN’S BIBLE STUDY – “Listen, Love, Repeat” by Karen Ehman. It is a
6 week study and we will meet on Tuesday
evenings starting in September. Watch the
bulletin for the starting date.
CHURCH AND PICNIC AT THE PARK — Sunday September 17th. At Warvel Park. 10:00 service followed by a picnic. Meal is potluck. Lemonade will be provided as well as plates and plastic wares. Activities will include fel-lowship, corn hole and Frisbee golf. Plan to attend and invite some friends to join us.
Thank you immensely to all who participated in any way to the "Care for Teachers- ('cause Teachers Care). We were able to provide sup-plies for 27 teachers and breakfast for 25. It was a joy to see them have a relaxing time to-gether. Also, check out the thank you note on the bulletin board.
