Invitation to Good Friday Drive-in service
April, 2020
From Pastor Bryan
“Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”
– Deuteronomy 31:6
It seems like a million years since I last wrote to you in a newsletter. It seems like the world has changed since the last time we were in worship together, on March 8th. The fact of the matter it has! The term “Social Distancing” held no meaning in our vernacular a month ago but now it is the rule of the land, the rule of societal interaction. It is a brave, new world out there; socially, emotionally and spiritually. We have had to be isolated from friends, family, other people and from our Christian brothers and sisters.
Lent is supposed to be a time that we become introspective, to understand our brokenness, to plead for forgiveness, to seek a better angel in all of us, to reach beyond our disobedient nature and secure a heart for all things good and divine. To prepare ourselves to acknowledge the challenges that lay ahead of us and to become the person God needs us to be. Little did we know at the time that we were going to get all of that and much more!
Our faith tells us that we are going to be challenged beyond what we could have possibly imagine. We read story after story of the Apostle Paul going from one town after another in fulfillment of his call to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. Acts is full of stories Paul going into towns and being cursed, spit at and physically beaten and sometimes literally left for dead. But he always got up, with the help of friends and with the help of God!
“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.”
–Isaiah 41:10
Over the past few weeks I have watched as members of the church have had to face fears and trial that nobody has even had to face, ever. Sure there have been pandemics in the past but never have people had a 24/7 front row seat to the misery. We live in a real-time connected world, with 24 hours news bringing us the dark side of the news and the risk to ourselves. Social media has been a spiritual lifeline for many of us, it has been the platform we have attempted to have some semblance of worship services and we find loving, caring, supportive and spiritually encouraging words from friends, family and fellowship brothers and sisters. But social media can be a dark hole of endless pain of others which can dim our own countenance and knock us down. However like Paul we can always get up, with the help of our friends and with the help of our God!
Here is the Good News however, I have seen many of you growing in your faith, taking the time to care for each other, pray for people that a month ago you wouldn’t have thought to pray for. You are reading your Bibles, attending Bible Study, growing in your faith, growing in Christian maturity, being sanctified through the fire and trails that we are facing and trusting God to help us become that better angel that we long to be.
“The Lord is my light and my salvation—so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?”
–Psalm 27:1
As we approach the Easter season, we need to remind ourselves that Jesus came to face trials and challenges that one human before him had ever faced, setting aside his divinity to come to suffer and die to repay a debt that he did not owe. He is our light and salvation, we need to fear nothing! He is our fortress and will protect us from everything!
Blessings, Bryan
Planning ahead to Worship our Lord
These are the lessons planned for the coming month. Please take the time to read the scriptures (the message lesson is always the last one listed), review the message preview and consider what the scriptures are teaching us as you prepare to come to worship each Sunday.
April 5: Palm Sunday
Scripture Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29, Matthew 21: 1 – 11, John 11: 17 – 27
Message: I AM: The Resurrection and Life
Description: When Jesus arrives at the home of Lazarus at the beckoning of his sisters, Jesus is met by Martha. Martha tells Jesus if he had only come quicker that Lazarus would still be alive. But keeping Lazarus alive was not the plan of Jesus, raising him from the dead was! Jesus tells Martha “I AM: The Resurrection and Life”. The story of Lazarus being raised from the dead by Jesus is a confirmation of the power and authority of Jesus Christ, it excites his followers and hardens his enemies against him, In fact it is the reaction to the raising of Lazarus that 1) convinces the Jewish elite that Jesus must be killed and 2) it empowers the throngs of people to line the streets, hailing Jesus as Messiah on Palm Sunday. In the coming few days we will see Jesus face death on our behalf, and yet rise again. It is a foreshadowing of a rebirth and future resurrection for all of us.
April 9: Maundy Thursday Drive-In Service, 7:30 PM, Chatham UMC
April 10: Good Friday Drive-In Service, 7:30 PM, St Louisville UMC
April 12: Easter Sunrise Drive-In Service, 7:30 AM, Liberty UMC
April 12: Easter Sunday
Scripture: Psalm 118:1 – 2, 14 – 24, Acts 10:34 – 43, John 14:1 – 6
Message: I AM: The Way, Truth and Life
Description: As we have seen over the past five weeks, the Gospel of John tells the story of Jesus’ life a little differently. John begins his Gospel not with the birth narrative but rather in Eternity past, when God created the universe and brought the light of the universe into being. John also gives more details in his account of the Last Supper. Among the stories that he tells is Jesus comforting the disciples after he had told them, “I will be with you only a little longer”. The disciples are confused and bewildered. How, they ask, can we come to where you will be? Jesus declares “I AM: The Way, Truth and Life”. What a glorious message for Easter Sunday that we have “The Way, The Truth and The Life” as a guide to an Eternity in Heaven!
April 19: Second Sunday of Easter
Scripture: Psalm 6, 1 Peter 1: 3 – 9, John 15:1 – 8
Message: I AM: The Vine
Description: The grapevine is a prolific plan. One vine supports many branches and produces much fruit. In the Old Testament grapevines symbolized God’s goodness to the Jews. Jesus says in the last I AM statement, “I AM: The Vine” because Christ has come from God to be for the Nation of Israel the vine from which much fruit, blessings and goodness come. We, as believers, are the branches, fed the righteous nourishment that we need to grow into fruit bearing Christians. Some these fruits are enumerated in our scripture today as “answered prayer, joy and love”. It is our fruitfulness that we glorify God!
April 26: Third Sunday of Easter
Scripture: Psalm 116:1 – 4, 12- 19, Luke 24:13 – 35, 1 Peter 1:17 – 23
Message: Reborn by Precious Blood
Description: Peter is writing to the Diaspora, the Christian Jews that left Jerusalem, in fact left Israel after the religious elite began the persecution of believers which is exemplified by the stoning of Stephen. Actually Peter is one of them, he is in Rome as he writes this, under the oppression of Jews and Emperor Nero, he will be martyred by Nero. But he is telling the Christians that being an expatriate, an exile is ok because they have been rescued, redeemed by something more valuable and imperishable than gold or silver they have been redeemed and Reborn by Precious Blood!
The Life of the Church Coming Events
April 8 – Bible Study, 2PM, dial 508- 924-5730
April 9 – Drive-In Maundy Thursday Service, Chatham 7:30PM
April 10 – Drive-In Good Friday Service, St Louisville, 7:30 PM
April 12 – Drive-In Easter Sunrise Service, Liberty, 7:30 AM
April 15 – Bible Study, 2PM, dial 508- 924-5730
April 22 – Bible Study, 2PM, dial 508- 924-5730
April 29 – Bible Study, 2PM, dial 508- 924-5730
Happy Birthday!
4/4 Arnold Pope
4/8 Jeff Bennett, Linda Wright
4/10 Betty Street
4/12 Ernestine Spradlin
4/14 Sam Ewers, Bryan Miller
4/18 Corbin Austin, Richard Gwin
4/19 John Prather
4/20 Jessie Baldwain
4/22 Celeste Nichols
4/26 William Austin
4/30 Sara Warner
Please Keep these Friends in Prayer
St Louisville Church
St Louisville
Mark Soter Bryan Miller
Warren Parsons Teri Schaller
Dick & Mary Ann Power Bonnie & Gerald Pound
Chatham
Frances Garno Suzann Warner
Jane Smith
Liberty
Sally and Dave Lindsay Janet Bryant
Sandy (Nancy’s sister) Jason White
Larry Allen, Jennifer (Larry’s daughter)
Ruth and Rick Wilson
Things you need to know!
The Governor and the President have asked to continue to refrain from gathering together in groups of 10 or more because of social distancing concerns until at least May 1. The Easter season in particular Holy Week, challenge us to stay away from worship in some community sense. But we have a unique solution to that. For Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunrise we will be having Drive-In Services!
Here is the plan; come to the church parking lot and find a spot (by the way you can listen up to a half mile way if you wish). Stay in your car, tune the radio to 91.1 and we will be broadcasting the service which will include music, scripture and a devotional. You can see your friends, wave to your friends but keep your distance!
Maundy Thursday will be a communion service but we have your health concerns covered there as well.
These are repackaged communion sets, sealed and sanitized. You will be offered these as you arrive on Thursday but it is up to you as to whether you want to take it.
I hope to see all of you (from a distance) at one or more of the Drive-In services this week!
Live Streaming
Starting Palm Sunday and going forward we will be having services for the Chatham Charge streaming live on the internet on ChathamCharge.com and on Facebook. Because of the cost and needed facilities we will be broadcasting from only one of our churches and that is St Louisville. So the Live Streamed service will begin at 9 AM. It WILL be recorded and available to watch later on Facebook and ChathamCharge.com as well.
We will be posting the information for the live services and the recorded version on the Facebook pages. You can use ChathamCharge.com/live to watch the service live and ChathamCharge.com/sermons to watch recorded sermons. The live version gives you the full Order of Worship including the hymn lyrics so that you can participate in the service!
*** Supporting the Churches ***
I know that this time has been difficult for people in many ways; emotional, physical, spiritual and financial. I am ALWAYS available to support you in any way that I can, please just call on me.
As far as financially supporting the churches goes, I have been asked to remind you that the churches remain in need of your support. Nothing is dire at this point but we have been away from the churches for four weeks now and will be out for at least three more weeks.
We will have offering plates available at each of the Drive-In services this week. That is another reason to come to one or more this week. For St Louisville you can mail your offering to P.O. Box 1, St Louisville. At the other churches Donna Tate @ Liberty and Sandy Bennett @ Chatham can help you make an offering.
One last option, we do now have a secured, online giving option at ChathamCharge.com/give that allows you to choose which church to give to and use a credit card to pay.