Grace Presbyterian Chelsea: Chelsea, AL http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog Announcements for May 13th http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/announcements-for-may-13th- Tue, 15 May 2012 09:40:00 -0400 http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/announcements-for-may-13th- Grace at Shoal Creek - May 27th at 9am - We will be offering another worship service in addition to our 10:45am service at our current location. Please note that no childcare will be available at Shoal Creek and that we will meet in their chapel. This is a great opportunity to expand the family and ministry of Grace so please plan to join us at one of these services!

Fellowship Luncheon – Sunday, May 27th - immediately following the service.  This luncheon is to celebrate our 2012 graduates. Bring your favorite casserole/veggie dish or two. Grace will provide drinks & paper products

Clarkston - If you are considering going or just want to learn more about the Clarkston mission trip, please stay after church on Sunday, June 3rd. The dates of the trip are July 29th through August 4th. Youth age 13 or older may participate while children 6-12 must have a parent attend with them. The cost of the trip is $250.

Summer Cleaning – if you would like to volunteer to clean during the summer – sign up on the board by the coffee station

Camp One Rock by Wise Man Construction - June 15-16 – at Hargis Retreat – He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.-Psalm 40:2 - Join us for an exciting two days of camp at Hargis Retreat for an intense time of fun and learning! Through this unique opportunity, your child (ages 3-11) will be challenged to build a wise life on the Rock of Christ while building meaningful relationships with children their own age in a safe outdoor environment. Go to http://www.gracechelsea.org/camp-one-rock for more details and to register!

Student Wednesday - We would like for the students to meet in homes again this summer. If you would like to host the Youth this summer, please sign up on the “Youth” bulletin board or email Lynn at lhartley@gracechelsea.org (dates June 20th, July 11th, & 18th).

Gridirons Men’s Conference! - Gridiron Men's Conference is committed to spiritual growth through discipleship, accountability and worship believing that when many men come together seeking the one true God, great things can happen. Join the men of Grace, Joe Gibbs, Rick Burgess, Kyle Idleman, Phil Waldrep, Ken Bevel, Charles Billingsley, and Wes Yoder July 27-28, 2012 at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, AL. Cost is $79-$129 depending on accommodations. Contact Don Sears for more information.

Save the Dates! (Details Coming)

August 14th – Hosting Evangel Presbytery (volunteers needed)

]]> Announcements for May 6th http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/announcements-for-may-6th Mon, 07 May 2012 12:10:00 -0400 http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/announcements-for-may-6th Grace at Shoal Creek DATE CHANGE - May 27th at 9am
We will be offering another worship service in addition to our 10:45am service at our current location. Please note that no childcare will be available at Shoal Creek and that we will meet in their chapel. This is a great opportunity to expand the family and ministry of Grace so please plan to join us at one of these services!

Fellowship Luncheon – Sunday, May 27th - immediately following the service.
This luncheon is to celebrate our 2012 graduates. Bring your favorite casserole/veggie dish or two. Grace will provide drinks & paper products

Summer Cleaning – if you would like to volunteer to clean during the summer – sign up on the board by the coffee station

Student Wednesday - We would like for the students to meet in homes again this summer. If you would like to host the Youth this summer, please sign up on the “Youth” bulletin board or email Lynn at lhartley@gracechelsea.org

Student Ministries – Last meeting Wednesday meeting - May 9th Jr. & Sr. High students meet on Wednesday evening meetings at 6:30pm for a time of worship, discipleship, and incredible and awesome games! Come grow deeper in your relationship with Christ and one another!

Gridirons Men’s Conference!

Men's Conference is committed to spiritual growth through discipleship, accountability and worship believing that when many men come together seeking the one true God, great things can happen. Join the men of Grace, Joe Gibbs, Rick Burgess, Kyle Idleman, Phil Waldrep, Ken Bevel, Charles Billingsley, and Wes Yoder July 27-28, 2012 at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, AL. Cost is $79-$129 depending on
accommodations. Contact Don Sears for more information.

Camp One Rock by Wise Man Construction - June 15-16 – at Hargis Retreat – Watch for more information!

Save the Dates! (Details Coming)

July 29-August 3 - Clarkston Mission Trip

August 14 – Hosting Evangel Presbytery (volunteers needed)

]]> Praying for Your Children http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/praying-for-your-children Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:35:00 -0500 http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/praying-for-your-children In closing, never approach the throne of grace with your own wants without remembering your children's. who are no less helpless and needy than you. Let us resolve that we will give ourselves more intently to the work of interceding for our children. Whether we pray for our offspring or not must decide what our distant decedents are to be, and what kind of influence they will exert. Surely our fervent prayers for God's blessing on our children would be offered without ceasing were we able to fully comprehend the far-reaching results of such prayers...continue reading here.

Based on "An Appeal to Parents to Pray Continually for the Welfare and Salvation of their Children" by William Scribner. The original work by Scribner was published in 1873.

]]> Joel & Devastation http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/joel--devastation Sun, 11 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/joel--devastation This is a link to the article by John Piper referenced in the sermon on Joel:

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/taste-see-articles/dont-waste-your-cancer

]]> Addicted to Diverson http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/addicted-to-diverson Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/addicted-to-diverson I found this to be a very helpful post from Justin Taylor about the the addiction of diversion and explains why so many are unhappy in suburbia.

Some people write out of their strengths; others out of their weaknesses, because they care most about what they struggle with most. I’m aware of my own temptations toward distraction and busyness, so I care about calls away from our cultural addiction to diversion.  Keep Reading
]]> Rick Warren on the Church http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/rick-warren-on-the-church Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/rick-warren-on-the-church These "tweets" from Rick Warren last week (pastor of Saddleback and author of Purpose Driven Life) were thought provoking as we have been considering "church" during the last few Sunday mornings:

Saying"I'm in the invisible church" likely means your support,ministry,tithe & accountability are invisible.They dont exist

If this generation loves Christ's CHURCH with the intensity past gens served PARAchurch orgs,God will use them far greater

Every church is flawed.Still,you'd better learn to love it, since its the only group Jesus said he's taking to heaven.

The Church is the only thing on earth that will last for eternity. God wanted a family, not merely saved individuals.See Eph 1:21

If you want to know how much the CHURCH matters to Jesus, just look at the Cross. "Christ died for his church." Eph 5:25-27

Telling Jesus "I love u but dont need your church" is like telling your wife "I love u but dont need your Body. Fake love.

Only in our culture of idolatrous individualism are believers think they can follow Jesus without belonging to a Body.

"The family of God is the Church of the living God. It is the SUPPORT & FOUNDATION of the truth" 1 Tim. 3:15

You simply CANNOT love Jesus without loving his Body, his Bride, & his Family who he died for. Period.Case closed. Gal6:10

]]> Refugees http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/refugees Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/refugees A small snapshot of what some of the refugees may have experienced as we prepare to serve them in Clarkston next week:

The world’s biggest complex of refugee camps is already so full, there are about 70,000 people living outside it. Mostly women and children, they shelter from the elements in domelike huts made from sticks, plastic sheeting and discarded cartons from aid packets. Toilets are scarce, and water is delivered periodically by truck...

Read more: http://lightbox.time.com/2011/07/21/haven-and-hell-the-worlds-largest-refugee-camp/#ixzz1TKSG0fDE

 

]]> The Anonymous Holy Spirit http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/the-anonymous-holy-spirit Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/the-anonymous-holy-spirit From Steve Brown in "Follow the Wind, Our Lord, The Holy Spirit" page 109-110:

1. When you find that you are feeling more love for unlovely people, people you don’t particularly like, it is the work of the Holy Spirit.

2. When you find there is a sense of joy about your life, without necessarily a change in your circumstances, know that the Holy Spirit has been at work.

3. When you find moments of peace that circumstances can’t destroy, you’re not going crazy, it is our Lord, the Holy Spirit.

4. When you find yourself being patient in areas where before you would have been quick-tempered and angry, you will know that the Holy Spirit has been doing His work.

5. When you find yourself kinder than you have been before, maybe even in the face of people who aren’t kind to you, that is the Holy Spirit doing what he does.

6. When you notice that you are better than you were before doing right things just because they are right things to do—balancing your actions, not against the bottom line, but against God’s commandments in your life, and working for what you know to be right—you know the Holy Spirit has been at work.

7. When others, who were supposed to be holding the rope for a brother or sister, got distracted by the pretty flowers…and you held on and were faithful, it is Him.

8. When you are surprised with the gentleness with which you turned away and angry friend or family member, when before you would have been quick-tempered, you know the Holy Spirit has been working.

9. When you are strongly tempted but are able to say no, though you wanted to say yes, you have seen the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.

I just thought you ought to know.

]]> Why "Dear Grace Family?" http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/-why--dear-grace-family- Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/-why--dear-grace-family- Almost all of our communication starts with the salutation "Dear Grace Family." That greeting is to serve as an intentional reminder that Grace Presbyterian Chelsea is not simply a random gathering or civic club.  Grace Presbyterian Chelsea is the gathered people of God functioning as the body of Christ modeling the transformation that the gospel makes to every area of life. This is called community. Community is hard work and difficult to develop. A Christian community functions as a family.

Tim Keller quoting Randy Fraze from The Connecting Church:

Princeton's Robert Wuthnow has found that small groups mainly 'provide occasions for individuals to focus on themselves in the presence of others. The social contract binding members together asserts only the weakest of obligations. Come if you have time. Talk if you fell like it. Leave quietly if you become dissatisfied.' In 'Overcome Loneliness in Everyday Life," two Boston psychiatrists...suggest that...groups 'fail to replicate the sense of belonging we have lost. Attending weekly meetings, dropping in and out as one pleases, shopping around for a more satisfactory or appealing group--all of these factors work against the growth of true community.'

Tim Keller

Christians expect to find community by attending church services and coming to a small group. As the quote above points out, however, it is possible to hold a weekly small group meeting without adding the elements that create real community. Because of our idols and the habits of our heart church events simply become places that individuals 'focus on themselves in the presence of others.' It takes deep reflection and costly commitment to live in community.

He describes Christian community in three ways. The second is:

A Christian community...consists of people who deliberately share life together. The controlling biblical metaphor for this aspect is that Christians are God's 'family' and 'household' (Gal. 6:10; Eph. 2:19; 1 Peter 4:17; Rom. 12:10). A family shares all of life together, eating, living, and working together. The other controlling metaphor is 'the body,' another powerful way of saying that Christians are not an aggregation of individuals but a coherent organism, with each member playing his or her part and deeply, integrally connected to the rest.

-From "Gospel in Life" 

]]> Be Faithful to Your Church this Summer http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/be-faithful-to-your-church-this-summer Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.gracechelsea.org/our-community/blog/post/be-faithful-to-your-church-this-summer A helpful post from Thabiti Anyabwile to be faithful to your church. Don't take a vacation from Jesus and his people:

Summertime features a lot of family vacations, travel, slowing of routines, and laziness. Mention the word summer and most people begin to imagine the beach, cool drinks, and anything but the “normal” routine. All too often, Christians imagine “breaks” from their churches and spiritual devotions. They travel and vacate and they take a holiday from Jesus. Somehow we manage to rationalize by saying, “I’m on vacation,” as if Jesus isn’t Lord while we’re “on vacation,” as if Jesus didn’t afford us the vacation, as if He can’t return while we’re on vacation. I’ve even seen this attitude happen at religious holidays like Christmas and Easter!

So, this morning, I thought an exhortation from John Piper’s letter to Bethlehem was appropriate reminder of what to keep first during all the busyness and vacating that most of us will do this summer. It’s the concluding paragraph from a letter updating the congregation on succession and other plans being prayed for at Bethlehem.

Here is my request to you all as I am away for the next several weeks on writing leave and then vacation. Be faithful to your church. If this is your church love her. Support her with your prayers and your giving (we are within $5,000 of where we were last year at this time, but $200,000 below our $9.7 million dollar budget). People come and go during summer. That’s good. God loves to see his people getting the rest and recreation they need. But don’t go on vacation from Jesus and his people. Keep worshiping wherever you are, keep giving, keep praying, keep loving. God has amazing things in mind for us as we enter this next chapter together.

It’s good to take vacations and rest. The Lord gives His saints rest. But our soul’s find rest in God alone. We mustn’t forget that because it’s summer and we’re “on vacation.”

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