Life @ Montrose, March 24, 2010

 

Montrose: Pastor Campbell is preaching from James 4:1 in a message entitled "Conflict and Confession."

 

ADVENTIST HERITAGE CLASS
Southern Adventist University has asked me to develop their online Adventist heritage class, which I will teach this summer. In preparation for this I am going to teach the class for members in our own congregation. College credit will be available for those willing to pay tuition. For anyone else who is interested in just auditing the class just to learn you are welcome to come, too (the majority of our church members who have college degrees already I suspect may find this class helpful as a review). Classes will begin on Tuesday evening, April 6, and continue weekly on Tuesday nights.

YOUTH RALLY IN GRAND JUNCTION
On April 17 there will be a full-day youth rally at the Grand Junction Seventh-day Adventist Church. If you have young people please encourage them to participate. The featured speaker is Jerry Mahn, a dynamic youth speaker from the Kettering Church in Ohio.

ABC BOOKMOBILE
On May 9 from 4 to 6 pm the ABC Bookmobile is coming to our church. Orders can be placed in advance up through April 26 by calling 1-800-765-6955.

WESTERN SLOPE CAMP MEETING
This summer's western slope camp meeting will be held from Thursday evening, June 3rd, through all-day Sabbath, June 5th. The meetings will begin with a keynote by our conference president, Elder Gary Thurber, on Thursday evening. On Friday there will be seminars and presentations by our two featured speakers for the weekend, Elder Jim Nix, director of the Ellen G. White Estate, and Gary Gibbs, the associate director of The Hope Channel. Andrea Jacobsen, a highly desired youth speaker from Andrews University, will be with the youth in the youth tent. The ABC will also be coming out and children's programs are being planned. Please plan to save the date!

 

Tavia Wilson has put together a community service newsletter that highlights the many ways our church has been and has an opportunity to be involved in our community. Please check your box at church for her newsletter so that you can find out how to make a difference in our own community.

 

The spring school yard sale will be on Sunday, April 18. As you do your spring cleaning this month, set aside those items that you don't want anymore and have them ready for this terrific fundraising event. Right now is the time to start sorting and separating and planning--it's a sort of painless way to help the school--and just think you won't have to have your own yard sale!

Last week was a real treat for us to have our friends, the Kuntzes, who came out to visit us from Milwaukee. We were able to take some extra time off last week to just enjoy the western slope. Some times I think we take for granted what a beautiful place we live in and how we need to appreciate that more.

 

Over the weekend Heidi (and David) attended a Pathfinder meeting in Denver so Emma and I got to "batch" it together. We had a great time and we appreciated the hospitality of several church members who made our weekend special. One of the highlights for me was our second church board bruncheon where we continued our discussion about leadership development and the direction of our church. I was so pleased to hear from our church board leaders some of the core values that make up our church. We're going to continue discussing them and eventually take them to a church business session once we are done with this process. But for now, here they are:

We will continue our discussions and try to hone this list of values, but I am proud of what has been done so far. Our next church board leadership meeting will be on Sunday, May 2, at the Carpenter residence. The next step is to continue working on this list and to create a mission statement based on these core values.

 

It is so important that we get back to the basics. As we watch the debate over health care reform as President Obama signed into law the new health care bill we need to remember the things that are really important: for Obama it is making sure that everyone has health care coverage; for us as Adventists it needs to be making sure that we are in a living relationship with Jesus Christ and that we are looking forward to meeting Him when He comes again (and helping others be ready to meet Him, too!). So often we get distracted by the things that are important. A friend shared with me the following quote last night from the devotional, Christ Triumphant: "Every soldier engaged in the spiritual conflict must be brave in God. Those who are fighting the battles for the Prince of life must point their weapons of warfare outward, and not form a hollow square and aim their missiles of destruction at those who are serving under the banner of Prince Emmanuel. We have no time for wounding and tearing down one another. How many there are who need to heed the words that Christ spoke to Nicodemus, . . . 'Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.'" (page 235).

 

As we continue this sermon series on "the peacemaking church" it is my prayer that we will remember that we need to overlook the offenses of others whenever possible and pursue a life of peace toward one antoher. We aren't all going to see everything the same way, but many of these minor things aren't as important as we think they are--they all pale in comparison with the true significance of knowing Christ for ourselves. So, let's get back to the basics and remember that it all begins with knowing Christ. Have you spent time with him recently? I would encourage you to take a few minutes to do a reality check with Jesus.