I hope you’ve already noticed the signs at the Route 5 Churches that invite you to Wake Up and be a part of our Community Revival, September 11-13, 2016 at Four Mile Creek Baptist Church. Each night we will enter God’s gates with thanksgiving and go into God’s courts with praise at 6:45 PM, then our service will begin at 7:00 PM. You don’t want to miss this move of God in our midst.
You also want to be aware of all that God is doing this month at Laurel Hill so see and read our newsletter and see our Calendar.
Sunday, May 1st, Laurel Hill is happy to welcome back the American Youth Harp Ensemble who will share with us during our 11:00 AM Worship Service and perform in a concert at 1:30 PM. In between, they will share 1st Sunday Lunch with us in the fellowship hall.
You are invited to join us for our worship and fellowship and/or the wonderful concert the young people will give. We look forward to enjoying their music with you Sunday.
As we move through these last days of Lent I am struck with how the Word of God has been working in me these last few weeks, causing me to think of things in a different light. The first thing is how individualized and personalized God’s correction is. What looms large is the “beam” in my own eye, not the “speck” in someone else’s.
Is God making large the things in your life you need to correct? If there is nothing “big”, we may have to ask, am I really seeking the Lord for His correction and guidance? I put big in quotation marks because the work God wants to do in me may seem small and insignificant in someone else’s eyes, but little becomes much when God is in us to conform us into Christ’s likeness.
The second thing that has struck me this Lenten season is how intentional God’s commands are to be followed by us. Several studies show that people consider faithful attendance in church worship to be showing up a little less than half the time. Yes, our intentions may match our vows to “uphold the church with our prayers, presence, gifts, and service” but our intentional acts of obedience may not.
So, I ask you to help me conduct an experiment of Lenten commitments. Get your calendar out (whether it is on your phone or hanging on your refrigerator). Schedule the weeks when you and your family will be active in public worship with all the other members of Laurel Hill. I would ask that you commit to being here at least 80% of the time. This will allow you to schedule 10 – 12 weeks when you may be somewhere else. Being intentional in this, I believe, will put you into a place of being blessed by the Lord
For those of you who see being in worship as a weekly given for your scheduled appointments, I give thanks to the Lord for you and I will look forward to seeing you each Sunday. Look for these weekly opportunities for worship and mission in our newsletter and our March Calendar.
We finally got back into the church building after the snow and discovered we had snow come down on the inside of the church as well as outside. But, thanks to everyone for responding quickly and we hope limiting the eventual damage. Now, we work on fixing the problem.
Because of the clean up and drying out work that needs to be completed by the Richmond ServPro we will use our Fellowship Hall as our worship space this Sunday, January 31st. Come on and share in Sunday School as normal. Step over any chords you see in the hall or running from the classrooms and then come on downstairs as we worship together. Worship times remain the same- 8:45 AM and 11:00 AM. See you Sunday!
This Saturday morning at Laurel Hill will be a time set apart for prayer and pursuing the vision of ministry God has for us. We’ll start with breakfast at 8:00 AM. Thanks to Doug Singlemann and other men of God for preparing this meal for us before we meet together. We will begin with a time of devotion and worship at 8:45 AM, preparing our hearts to hear from God and each other and then formally begin our focused time at 9:00 AM.
This is more than planning our calendar. This is a time of agreed upon focus and mission where we mark our year with the ministries we believe help us fulfill God’s holy purposes for Laurel Hill within the kingdom and within our community.
At 11:45 AM, we will share in Holy Communion to conclude this sacred time.