UPCOMING EVENTS April 19—Good Friday Service-8PM B1 21—Easter Worship & Potluck—There’s No Taste Like Home 21—No afternoon service 27-28—Father-son Camping Trip How to pay thes by Wire Transfer You can transfer your offerings to Victory's Postal account , the bank code is 700, follow by the account number - 0061021 0478485. Contact Secretary Hubert Hsieh at 03-571-6803 or Yu-Hwa at [email protected]. Please make sure to contact one of them to make sure the money goes into the VEF account and transfer was properly made. Next Week: TBA - Pastor Darren Carter April 7, 2019 “ Humility ” Philippians 2:1 - 11 Pastor John Olson Last Sunday's (3/31) • Morning Worship attendance – 114 • Afternoon Worship attendance— 43 • Sunday School attendance – 33 • Offering - $59,150 • YTD Giving - 724,595 • Remaining amount needed to meet budget - 2,775,405 ($69,385 weekly giving)
Transcript
UPCOMING EVENTS
April 19—Good Friday Service-8PM B1 21—Easter Worship & Potluck—There’s No Taste Like Home 21—No afternoon service 27-28—Father-son Camping Trip
How to pay tithes by Wire Transfer You can transfer your offerings to Victory's Postal account , the bank code is 700, follow by the account number - 0061021 0478485. Contact Secretary Hubert Hsieh at 03-571-6803 or Yu-Hwa at [email protected]. Please make sure to contact one of them to make sure the money goes into the VEF account and transfer was properly made.
VEF is searching for a new secretary as Hubert will be returning to the Netherlands this summer (thank you for your service). A successful candidate must have good communica-tion skills, ability to communicate in English and Mandarin, and a servant’s heart. A more detailed job description is available at www.vefellowship.com.
Thanks you for your prayers and support for Stephanie Praytor. She was finally able to go home at the end of March after spending over a month in the hospital. Pray that she will stay healthy and return to full strength. There is a box on the back table if you would like to financially help out the Praytor family (please note donations are not tax deductible).
Children’s Sunday School is available (9:30am-10:30am). Children will be with their par-ents during the music and be dismissed to their class before the sermon. We have three classes—the Lambs (pre-school: 4-6 years old) - classroom B105; the Eagles (Grades 1-3) - classroom B103-B104; and the Lions (Grades 4-6) - classrooms B102. We have volunteers for a staffed nursery for the 1st, 2nd, and 4th week of the month, but are looking for peo-ple who can help the 3rd week of the month. If you are willing to volunteer and help out with the nursery please talk to Pastor John.
VEF Needs you! Additional people are needed at the both services for keyboard players as well as other musicians and vocalists. We are also really in need of people for AV. Register online at www.vefellowship.com/home/serving/ There will be a training session for the AV on Sunday, April 14th from 3PM-4PM in B1.
The Epic of Eden: Isaiah Bible Study meets on Sundays from 11:00AM-12:30PM in B1-103-104.
VEF will be having an Easter potluck on Sunday, April 21st at 11:30AM in B1. Please note that there will be no afternoon service that Sunday.
There will be a father-son camping trip on April 27-28. It will be held at a campground approximately 45 minutes from Hsinchu. Registration forms can be found on the back ta-ble. Please talk to Pastor John for more information.
The 2018 tax receipts are now available (records of giving). Please see Hubert to get your
receipt.
Cell Group Feature
This Week Volunteer Workers 9AM: Set-up and Greeters: Kristy, Sohpia— Worship Team: Edmund, Mone, Fiona, Elie PPT: Bachir — Sound: Justin 1:30PM: Set-up and Greeters: Mariaan — Worship Team: Videos PPT: William Kwan — Sound: Timothius
Next Week: 9AM: Set-up and Greeters: Candy, Susan— Worship Team: James, Dora, Anne, Dennis, Elie PPT: Hubert — Sound: Justin 1:30PM: Set-up and Greeters: Mariaan— Worship Team: Videos PPT: Sam K — Sound: David
Men’s Breakfast
Men, start your day right! Meet with other brothers for fellow-
ship over a simple breakfast as we share with each other our
victories and concerns. We will spend some time in prayer to-
gether offering to God our praise and petitions before starting
out day each Thursday. We meet at Ikari Coffee House near
Mackay Hospital each Thursday ay 7am till around 8:30am.
How the Entitlement Mentality Crept Into Our Churches https://thomrainer.com/2017/02/entitlement-mentality-crept-churches/ In 1974 Burger King made a bold move to take market share from McDonald’s. At the time, McDonald’s made burgers en masse. If you wanted a special order, you had to wait interminably while it was cooked separately.
I remember. I’m a ketchup-only kind of guy.
So Burger King announced that each order would be cooked at the time of the order the way the customer wanted. Their new slogan was “Have It Your Way.” Burger King, at least at the time, understood the consumer entitlement mentality.
So what does this story have to do with our churches?
It provides a brief historical backdrop of the mentality that has crept into our churches, where many of our members think church is a place where I can always “have it my way.” For now, let me share some key reasons many of our congregations have be-come more like country clubs than churches, a place where some members demand their way instead of serving and self-sacrificing.
1. Failure to state clearly the expectations of church membership on the front end. A membership class, or some similar entry point into churches, should not only give information about the church, it should provide expectations about member-ship. Membership without expectations becomes membership with entitlements.
2. Failure to make certain as possible that members are Christians. Sadly, we church leaders often neglect to discuss the spiritual conditions of prospective mem-bers. Are they truly followers of Christ? As a result, many of our churches have un-regenerate members.
3. Seeking numerical growth at all costs. We certainly should be Great Commission churches. We certainly should be inviting people and sharing the gospel. But if our end goal is numbers, we will make compromising statements to bring people into our churches. We should seek to grow our churches out of obedience to God, not to create our own kingdoms.
4. Failure to remind the congregation regularly what it means to be a part of the body of Christ. All of us church members have the potential to lapse into self-serving, entitlement members. We all need to be reminded that church membership is not about perks and privileges, but serving and sacrifice. I have been encouraged to see many churches have annual renewal and commitment services.
5. Allowing the most entitled members into positions of key leadership in the church.One of the more common manifestations of an entitled church member is a person who seeks to gain power and leadership positions in a church so he or she can control and get his or her own way. We yield to them too often because they might be big givers or because we don’t have the fortitude to resist their bullying behavior.
6. Failure to deal with difficult issues. Church leaders too often are conflict avoid-ers. And while we shouldn’t pick a fight over every issue of minutia, neither should we allow a pervasive culture of entitlement, bullying, and manipulation to grow una-bated. A problem not handled now is a larger problem later.
-continued on next page
The biblical mandate for local congregations is counter-cultural. In many passages of the New Testament, such as 1 Corinthians 12, we are clearly taught that members are to be sacrificial, giving, and serving.
Such a mentality goes counter to the culture in which the church ministers.
Church is not about having it our way. It’s about bringing glory to God by having it His way. ——————————————————————————————————————--
Sermon Notes—Philippians 2:1-11 1. What is the difference between having humility and being humiliated? 2. It appears that there are some difficulties in the church in Philippi. Can you read be-tween the lines and guess what those problems might be? (vv. 1-4) 3. What does it mean to consider someone “better than yourself”? (v. 3) Practically what does this look like? 4. What are some things that can help us to have an “attitude the same as Jesus Christ” (v. 5)? 5. Why is a sense of entitlement (that we deserve something) bad? How does it nega-tively affect our faith and life in the church? 6. How does this passage challenge the world’s definition of “success”? 7. How can we balance meeting the needs of others with meeting our needs?
