PASTOR'S WORDS FOR JUNE 2011
Dear Sisters and Brothers in
Christ,
"The
church exists by mission as a fire exists by
burning!”
Emil Brunner
“The church is
the only institution whose primary purpose is to
serve those who are not her members.”
William Temple
“We work
together to share God’s love by word and service in
our community and beyond.”
2nd sentence of the Vision Statement of Prince of Peace
As we move
from Easter to Ascension and on to Pentecost we
celebrate what it means to be
Easter People, the Church of Jesus Christ created and empowered by the Holy Spirit to
serve God in Christ in the world.
Jesus calls us into a community to be his
voice, his hands and feet in the world. As my
favorite quote by Emil Brunner affirms: a
congregation that does not share the good news in
its community and beyond by word and deed is
NOT a true church!
I celebrate
the mission and ministry of Prince of Peace.
Not only did we pledge $9,000 toward the
mission of the denomination at the regional,
national and international level, members and
friends donated $1365.28 to the One Great Hour of
Sharing Offering – these gifts will be put to good
use in places like tornado torn Joplin Missouri, the
flooded lands around the Mississippi, and to feed
the hungry around the globe.
For a cause near and dear to many we gave
$1,250 to fight MS and thus far we’ve contributed
$608.23 on the three Sundays we received the
Centsability offering to fight poverty and hunger
locally, and $239 for the PCMA Food Pantry through
the Souper bowl Offering.
But mission is more than
giving money – through POP Arts we reach out to
children, youth and adults in the Pickerington area.
A small grant from Presbytery will allow us
to expand the program this fall in light of the
cutbacks in arts programming in the schools.
In February Bob Clegg joined volunteers from
Glen Echo Church to bring much needed medical care
to people in Haiti.
Twice this year volunteers have packed food
at the Mid-Ohio Food Bank and we’ll have two more
opportunities this fall.
A crew recently went to Portsmouth to prep an
elderly widow’s home for painting; a return trip is
planned later this month (with youth from Eastside
Vineyard joining us). Dorothy Peterson was honored for her volunteer work at the
PCMA Food Pantry and this summer the Pantry will
need many volunteers as it moves to its new location
in Pickerington. Finally, you’ve heard about the
mission trip to Montgomery WV for months now – over
$3,500 has been raised by fundraisers, member
contributions and the participants themselves. A great crew of volunteers enabled us to raise $1,365.28 at
the Monster Mission Garage Sale.
I thank them all.
But more importantly, later this month 17
adults, college and high school students will give a
week of their time and much hard labor to help
elderly and poor residents of southern WV.
I celebrate that we are a congregation
aflame
with mission.
God Bless,
Pastor Jeff
