Snow Hill News Blog

Vacation Bible School - Sharing Jesus by Sharing the Story of God

We are having a great week with young people in our community. A number of people are taking photos. We will post some here soon.

Toni sent us a great video of Casa de los Angelito and the very young children living there at Casa Bernabe. We hope the young people attending here will make the connection that all people are special and we may show them God's care by helping care for them.

Thanks Toni for your commitment to our Triune God in the Name of Jesus as you help us connect what we believe with what we do.

Church as Missionary 2010: Session 2

Here is the second session with Caleb Crider today at 4pm discussion church and mission.

Lent, Incarnation, and Church As Missionary

This year's edition of "Church As Missionary" began well as Caleb led us to think about steps we may consider as we participate in the mission of God led by the Spirit of God. Brad set us up a Ustream channel. If you missed the first session, we will post a link to the video so you may go back and listen in.

Caleb will help us think through Philippians 3:17-4:1 in the morning.

See you there.

Learning Skills for the Church As Missionary - This Coming Weekend!

We have been inviting you to "Save the Dates" for our second edition of "Church As Missionary." We are emphasizing practical skills we may develop as a church as we self-identify as "missionary."

 

Caleb Crider will be with us to walk with us through some potential practices we may develop here at Snow Hill to more deeply connect with the "mission of God" around the world. Consider it an extension of our theme from January and for the year, Love is On the Move.

 

We will have our first session this Saturday from 4-6 p.m. We will host Caleb on Sunday with him participating in our worship service and then an afternoon and evening session.

 

We will discuss some of the following:

 

Learning a Foreign Language in Your Church

Planting a Church in another Country

Connecting with Skybridgers - people living abroad as missionaries without the support of a mission sending agency

Context - What do our surroundings tell us and how do we connect with the mission of God in our own setting (Redux from last year's event.)

 

Our hope is that we come away with some practical steps to move from a self-awareness of the church participating in the mission of God to other expressions of what that may look like beyond the many exciting local things we are currently involved in.

 

Make plans to attend as many of our sessions with Caleb as your are able.

Scriptures for the Week

Keep an eye on the local weather stations for information regarding Sunday activities. While we did not get what was projected for our area, our parking lot becomes quite treacherous as access to it is elevated at nearly every entry point.

Take a look at our Scriptures for the week. You will find them in the right sidebar. Jeremiah relays the call of God into the mission of God. Through his words he will challenge the way people claiming the way of God were indeed living out that way. Some of the adjectives used to describe what would come conjured the image of taking things apart. The last two pointed to planting and building. Once the prophet would reduce the facade of faithfulness to rubble there would be an occasion to take the rudimentary elements from those same people and "re-construct" a people who would live the way of God in faith and faithfulness.

Keeping Jeremiah's call into the mission of God in mind, we may juxtapose the Luke 4 passage where those hearing Jesus challenge as Jeremiah did rejected any intimation of impropriety and faithlessness. Finally, Paul points the Corinthian Christians that their call into the mission of God would require a reconstituted community underscored by the highest expressions of love.

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Should access to our buildings be reasonable, don't forget our "Shine Your Light" Children's Event. We will gather at 5:00 p.m. and enjoy our children and a time of fellowship too.

Thank You Bob!

Here is Pastor Todd's weekly email about our collective "Thank you" to Bob Johnson.

Time. It can get away from you. Sometimes we cannot find enough of it. Occasionally we have too much on our hands.
 
Jesus remarked to the disciples on one occasion he must be busy about his work while it was day - while the time was good. My friend Ed Stetzer, President of Lifeway Research, recently commented, "One of the greatest sins in the church is we have made it ok to sit and do nothing and call yourself a Christ-follower." Much of what Jesus pointed toward and Ed noted pointedly concerns what we do with our time.
 
It is at this point one expects a pastor to suggest some are not spending enough time in church. Certainly I believe we have missed the point of "gathering." Rather than to get noticed for being in attendance, the writer of Hebrews suggested the "assembling" together is for mutual encouragement to love and good deeds. No one could argue this can be done "outside" of church. The question is never "can it", the issue to ask, "is it." Too often we have asked the question of necessity rather than the question of action. But, really that is not the point of considering what we do with our time.
 
You see, I think we will be scrutinized more for what we do "away" from church. Jesus' ministry was not "in" the Temple. Ed's point is not about volunteering for the next announced vacancy in the organizational chart. No, the matter is really about what are you doing with the time you have living in the reality of the Kingdom of God. Has your imagination caught hold of the mission of God in the world? Carrying on the work of Jesus may be done just as Jesus did it. Not with special nights dedicated to service, but with a life lived in service to those around them.

Thank You, You Preached Well

Fifteen years ago, July 18, Patty, me, and the girls began our journey as the "Pastor's Family" at Snow Hill. My pastor growing up, Brother Justice, eschewed surprises. He liked to know what was coming and going on. My mentor, Dr. Rick Davis, taught that it was a good idea to keep abreast of things. Surprises can sometimes go south on you. Not so here.

Yesterday, you surprised us. The ploy was not to cover an unprepared pastor. Instead, you preached the message. While many of the words spoken directed attention to some aspect of our time at Snow Hill, the underlying theme for me was the kind of relationship the Apostle Paul described in a number of places in the Scriptures - a loving, growing, mutual relationship of integrity and respect founded on the response to the love of God in Jesus, the Christ and the activity of the Spirit in the life of the Church.

Patty and I will look forward to our trip. The time away will be fun. New places are always intriguing and exciting. We are different because of our time together and the love we share with you.

Thank you Snow Hill.
We still thank God for allowing us to serve with you in the greatest church in the Country.

Pastor Todd and Patty

The Church As Missionary

Caleb noted we would make the note for The Church As Missionary event online. You may click here to access the notes. Read. Respond. Maybe you would join our Facebook group and want to discuss the notes or the event. Our Facebook group is - Snow Hill.

The Church As Missionary

Justice Now 2008 Video

Video Up Soon

Tomorrow we will post the Justice Now 2008 video created by Andrew. We will post it here and on our You Tube Channel.