BELONGING, 

           BEHAVING,

                       BELIEVING:

                                    Blessings!
Soon, the season of Lent will come to a close as the stone is rolled away on Easter morning, and we will celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, and the new life with God, Jesus’ rising promises for each of us!

  “So, what will happen on the other side of resurrection?” you may well ask. I would like to invite each and every one of you to make it a point to be in worship on each Sunday during the month of April to find out. April will be a month of gratitude and celebration as we lift up the blessings of this community and offer our grateful response for all that God, in Jesus Christ, has done and continues to do here in this place.

  In her book , Christianity After Religion, Diana Butler Bass suggests there are three aspects of the life of faith: Belonging, Behaving and Believing. We are first welcomed into a community where we form trusting relationships with others... we belong. Then we begin to adopt the behaviors of that community, letting the practices that have been life giving for God’s people shape our lives. Having been welcomed into belonging and shaped by these new practices and behaviors, we grow to believe and trust in the God who has brought the community into being in the first place. This, according to Bass, is the path of transformation.

 Here at Community of ChristChurch, we give thanks for the blessings of belonging, behaving and believing in this congregation. When you stop and think about it, all of our ministries reflect at least one (oftentimes all three) of these aspects of faith, and in so doing invite each of us into transformation and new life in Christ.

  We are going to spend the month of April lifting up these three aspects of our faith. The schedule will look something like this:

April 7: Belonging

We will lift up the ministries that welcome people into community and relationship. We will pray over and ask God’s blessings on all those who have been involved in the past year in the ministries of the First Touch Team and the Front Porch Team.

 April 14: Behaving

We will lift up the ministries that encourage the behaviors and practices that are the marks of a faithful church: prayer, worship, service, and stewardship. We will pray over and ask God’s blessings on all those who have been involved in the last year in the ministries of the Online Prayer Team, the Tech Team, the Worship Team, the Guitar Team, the Finance Team, the Coin Counters and the Service and Mission Team.

April 21: Believing

We lift up the ministries that encourage belief through learning and faith formation. We will pray over and ask God’s blessings on all those who have been involved in the past year in the ministries of the Nursery, ChristKids, Friendship Club, CREW, OPUS, Adult Faith Conversations, Small Groups and Bible Study Groups.

 April 28: Blessings!

We will bring it all together in a celebratory worship that will include the opportunity for each individual and family to show their gratitude to God for all the blessings of belonging, behaving and believing by offering their pledge of financial support for all the ministries of ChristChurch for the coming 2013-14 fiscal year. That’s not all! We also invite everyone to join together after worship for a celebratory, old-fashioned potluck brunch in the Commons!

Belonging, Behaving, Believing: Blessings! These things are not complete without you. I hope to see you all here!

 Peace,
Pastor David Eppelsheimer