A MESSAGE FROM REV. KAREN KINNEY: WELCOMING JUNE
Grace and peace to you,
This Sunday we begin the month of June and embark on summer worship in earnest!
Sunday, June 1: We explore Galatians 5:1, 13-25.
This passage is from the longer letter that Paul wrote to the Galatians after some folks tried to come in and undo all the things that Paul and his apostles had taught them. In this section, Paul speaks to the freedom we have in the love of Christ to love ourselves, our neighbor and God.
Following this love and desiring this freedom helps us to make a choice to live in a way that produces fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Have you ever thought about how we have freedom in Christ to choose love and the fruits that choosing to be love yields? Where have you seen those fruits manifest in you or in others?
We will also hear a Minute for Mission for Lemonade on the Lawn, a time of fellowship after church that begins this Sunday.
Sunday, June 8: Pentecost! You are invited to wear red, orange or yellow or any combination to celebrate the birth of the church! Hear the story from Acts 2:1-22. How are we called to birth the church in new ways where people can hear and understand the good news of the Gospel? Where we ourselves can hear and understand? Let’s celebrate and rejoice that God is still calling us to be the church!
Sunday, June 15: We begin a series that will go through July 20 featuring the Prophet Jeremiah. What can we learn from this prophet who addresses the people during turbulent, traumatic times? There is despair, there is hope, there is the attempt to erase memory, there is the desire to remember the goodness of God.
And there is the promise of God who never leaves God’s people, even in exile, and the hope of planting and building anew. What does this book hold for us? During the series, one of our worship services will be a Service of Healing and Wholeness, providing an opportunity for us to bring what grieves us and through prayer, song, and anointing, hopefully to find healing and wholeness. More will be written about that service slated for June 29.
Thursday, June 19: The office and Preschool will be closed in observance of Juneteenth, a federal holiday that commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States.
The holiday’s name, first used in the 1890s, is a portmanteau of the words “June” and “nineteenth”, referring to June 19, 1865, the day when Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas at the end of the American Civil War. Imagine waiting two years to know freedom. It is an important day to remember.
June is full of exciting things as we come together to worship in one service at 10 a.m. each Sunday, combining elements of both Holy Ground and the Traditional services. Find someone you haven’t met before and take the time to know each other. Enjoy fellowship at Lemonade on the Lawn and then join a discussion group. It’s a great opportunity to experience something new!
Blessings,
Pastor Karen