A Voice in the Wilderness

2020-01-28

Going or Growing

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6) 

I invite you to memorize this verse from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians as we get ready for our annual meeting on February 2, 2020. As we gather, we will have the opportunity to look back at the past year. We will take stock of where we are right now, and we will take some time to look ahead and think about who we are and where we might be headed.

I want to remind us that it is critical for us to focus first on our health, and not on size alone.  The temptation is to ask: “How can we add new members?” “Will we be able to fund the budget?” “How will we grow our church?” 

How big (or small) we are is not the issue.

The critical questions are: Who are we (vision)?  What is our purpose (mission) here in Grand County?  Are we healthy and maturing spiritually?  Are we laying our hopes, fears, needs and wants before the Lord and seeking His will and direction?  Are we thankful for what the Lord has done, is doing and is yet to do?

These are questions that we must focus on in the weeks and months ahead.  These questions draw us up out of survival and maintenance and move us out to join in the life, work, and mission to which God calls us.

Are we GOING to church or are we GROWING as church?

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Acts 2:42 (ESV)

As we press in to 2020 I would humbly ask for our continued faithfulness to our Lord Jesus Christ, and to each other.  Young and old, big and small, we all have an opportunity to grow and mature as we live into our faith in Christ. We do this best when we gather to worship, get together to learn, and go out to serve.

What might it look like for us as individuals and as a congregation:

• to move from going to church to growing in our worship?
• to move from going to a bible study to growing in our study of the scriptures?
• to move from going to get what I can out of church to growing in our giving for the growth of Gods kingdom
• to move from going to serve to growing in our service of others?

So then, my friends, because of God's great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.  Romans 12:1 (GNT)

Blessings,

Matthew+

Coming up...

Annual Meeting

Our Annual Parish meeting will take place after the service on February 2nd. Mark your calendar and make plans to attend. We will have a potluck brunch as part of our celebration together. You can sign up for Main dishes or sides on the bulletin board outside the kitchen.

Habitat for Humanity Open House January 29th.

From Maria Archuleta:

“Hello Fr. Matthew,

I wanted to personally invite you and the congregation to my open house tomorrow from 6 to 8 p.m. if you haven't already seen invitation in the sky high newspaper. I also want to thank you for the housewarming gifts the congregation put together for me thank you so much!!!”

Read the Sky-Hi article here.

Visit the Habitat for Humanity Grand County website here.

This Sunday's Readings

The lectionary readings for this Sunday are:

• Malachi 3:1-4
• Psalm 84 or Psalm 24:7-10
• Hebrews 2:14-18
• Luke 2:22-40

You can read them online here.

Are you on Facebook?

Are you on Facebook? If you are, you can find us @StJohnsGranby. "Like" our page, and find events and pictures of what's happening at St. John's.

Church Directory

We are in the process of updating our church directory. Please click here to fill out your current information.

© Copyright, 2020, St. John the Baptist Episcopal • 390 E Garnet Ave, Granby, CO 80446

You are receiving this email because you requested to receive news from St. John the Baptist Episcopal. 
Click here to leave mailing list