Pastor's Message- Wonderful Wednesdays

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

“If anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink.”

— John 7:37-38

I can't wait for WONDERFUL WEDNESDAYS this Summer! As we look forward to 'Splashing' into God's Kingdom with people of ALL ages on Wednesday evenings, I want to share with you why I am so excited for this wonderful adventure!

As a continuation of Faith Formation during the school year, we will SPLASH into the summer with gusto. God has compelled the Faith Formation Team, to re-think how we do Vacation Bible School during the summer and they have had the innovative spirit to dream about something for ALL AGES! YAHOO!

This summer we will designate five Wednesday evenings to learning across the generations. Cross-generational Faith Formation (AKA- faithful biblical learning for ALL AGES!) is not some strange idea out of the blue, this is the pedagogy of theological education. This approach is the vital way of faith formation across the board and across the Church universal. With this move toward innovative faith formation, we are thrilled to invite our congregation and community of faith to reach out, invite your friends and engage in a summer of fun with water themed biblical learning. This opportunity will create community, offer faithful learning and conversation for people from birth on up.

There will always be a service component to our time together. This year, as the need for clean water and justice is still very real for our sisters and brothers in Flint, we will be collecting water bottles, money and we will me making cards of care for our family in Flint at Salem Lutheran Church. This congregation has become the center of caring for the community and we have promised to help too. So we will! What better way to celebrate the gift of water, by giving the water to those who desperately need it!

We will gather all together to enjoy a meal, then engage cross-generations in reading the same biblical story together, then we will break out into various age groups for age-designed experiences. Young ones will enjoy Art, Science and Games to really dive into the biblical stories. With help from our older youth and young adults we will create fun relationships and creative ways to engage the Bible! Adults will be invited to join me for faithful Bible Study and conversation around the biblical narrative.

Here is what we will gather to enjoy together...

• THE CREATION STORY

• MOSES AND THE PARTING OF THE RED SEA

• WOMAN AT THE WELL

• BAPTISM OF JESUS AND JOHN THE BAPTIST- WATER FUN DAY!

•  CALMING OF THE STORMS: JONAH & JESUS

As we gather back together in the Sanctuary, at 7:30pm, we will enjoy a relaxed, family-friendly, interactive worship experience with engaging 'camp-style' songs. You will be encouraged to dance, play and be free as God wishes us to be! We will share communion in new and creative ways that keep our focus on God's presence in the Holy Eucharist and we will pray and experience the Holy Spirit in amazing ways. This worship experience will offer a midweek opportunity to reinvigorate your faith and fill you with the Holy Spirit as you finish out the week. I hope you will ALL join us as we SPLASH into God's Kingdom this summer and celebrate the gift of water with WONDERFUL WEDNESDAYS - WATER & THE WORD!

Peace +

Pastor Greer

Pastor's Message: Wonderful Wednesdays

Wonderful Wednesdays is an exciting new adventure we are THRILLED to begin this summer at Amazing Grace! With combined efforts of Faith Formation Ministry Team, Worship Team and anyone who desires to participate in a church wide learning and faith exploration, this is sure to be an INCREDIBLE summer!

What is Wonderful Wednesdays you might ask?! Well, I can’t wait to tell you!

Wonderful Wednesdays will combine a Vacation Bible School approach with Bible Study and Worship, for people of ALL AGES! You may have heard the term Intergenerational?! Which means that ALL ages come together to learn, grow and experience God’s Amazing Grace together. This approach is not something we just made up, but has been studied by many and is proven to be an important way to learn and grow in faith together. With people of all ages we pray that God will use our youngest hearts and our more experienced lives to create meaningful relationships as well as impactful conversations and life-long opportunities for a shared faith experience.

On every-other Wednesday evening, anyone who comes to Wonderful Wednesdays, are invited to a shared meal in the fellowship hall, then break out small groups (by age) for Bible Study (adults) led by Pastor Greer and Vacation Bible School Learning for (kiddos) led by our excited and talented Faith Formation Team. As each age group explores the same Bible story and Living Water theme, we will find creative ways to connect those stories to our shared experience. To close the evening everyone is invited to join in a beautiful worship service that combines faith, fun and fellowship. Be prepared for an interactive and experiential worship with lively songs, interaction and opportunities to share faith.

This approach is exciting and innovative and will offer opportunities for new and exciting worship experiences, intergenerational relationships, learning for all ages and a summer full of fun and faith. God is alive and active and what better way to embrace God’s exciting activity then to worship, wonder and wiggle together?! We are so excited and can’t wait to get everyone excited with us! Since we will continue to worship on Sundays with Traditional and Contemporary worship services, this mid-week (every other) approach will be different and engage the senses and invite everyone into a deeper learning in new and exciting ways.

As your pastor, I invite you to invite people in your neighborhood, bring your families and share the good news of what God is up to at Amazing Grace! As summers get busy and people go on vacation, I want to strongly encourage you and yours to remember that God doesn’t take ‘time off’ from us, and our faith should not take ‘time off’ either. The church continues to work hard to serve God’s people and Wonderful Wednesdays is an important way that God reminds us how important it is to get together as people of faith and to continue to build up God’s kingdom in this world. Please get excited with me and the wonderful ministry teams that aremaking this summer one to remember! Watch for information in the weeks ahead as we ask for volunteers, helpers and ask for people to sign up for summer fun!

We invite you to spend your Wednesdays at Amazing Grace alongside one another and in prayerful and faithful fun! I am so excited for this adventure and hope you will invite, reach out and get pumped to share God’s amazing grace and experience a summer filled with fun and faith!

Peace,

Pastor Greer

Pastor's Message: Why Easter Matters

“Jesus said, “It is finished.”
Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. ”

— John 19:30

Now, if this is where our story stopped, we would not be living as people of the resurrection. We would be stunted at the crossroads, having no clue where to go and what to do. We would not know who we are or where we were going. But, thanks be to God, that is not where our story ends, that is just the beginning. God does something miraculous through Jesus Christ, so we are able to shout with joy-filled hearts on Easter Sunday, "CHRIST IS RISEN!"

“He is not here; for he has been raised.”

— Matthew 28:6

This is what we proclaim on Easter Sunday and every day following. Because of God's greatest promise, that he is not dead, but Christ lives! And through Christ's life, death and resurrection we are granted grace upon grace. Through this unfailing, unfaltering, unparalleled love, we are set free to be people of the resurrection, covered by grace and forgiven. No longer finding ourselves at a crossroads, but rather, covered in grace.

Therefore, in this grace we receive from Christ Jesus, we give God our praise and thanksgiving. For the light of Christ is found in the resurrection, we see Christ in his glory and we receive the gift of grace. We sing and we trust the light of Christ will never burn out, it will never be dim, it will not let us stumble in the darkness, no Christ's light will shine and guide our steps. This is why Easter matters. Because we are never to be forsaken, we will never be left alone to wander in the darkness. True light has come and God has done something extraordinary through Jesus Christ. God, the creator of the world and liberator of all people has brought Christ to new life, and through the resurrection of Jesus we are freed from our fears, and ignited with the light of Christ. It is through Jesus Christ that we are forgiven, set free and saved by grace. There is no greater love than this and nothing compares to this grace. Almighty God has restored humanity and in God's mercy, we are called to share this love and grace with all whom we encounter. Let the light of Christ shine in your hearts, illumine your path and guide your comings and goings so that you might always know the way, the truth and the light. Because we know this only through Jesus Christ, who is, who was and who will always be our Savior and Lord. Thanks be to God.

Remember the true meaning of Easter, which is the resurrection. As the world brings out fluffy bunnies, sweet treats and eggs, be rooted in the promises of forgiveness and grace that comes from a crucified and risen Savior. Remember that when you come to worship, we worship together, with trumpets and song a God of unparalleled love. We worship a God who gave everything so we might know the comfort and promise of grace. Remember that when the trumpets and fanfare fade away and the work week resumes that we are still covered in God's abundant grace. Remember that as we go about our daily lives and the glorious nature of Easter Sunday fades in your memory, God is still loving us and Christ still died and rose again so we might know this AMAZING GRACE! Savor the sacred moments of Holy Week and let the Holy Spirit wash over you as you worship on Easter Sunday and know that God's love is why Easter matters. Thanks be to God. I look forward to Easter Worship and the blessed sacred journey of Holy Week.

Peace,

+Pastor Greer

Pastor's Message: Lent- Spring Cleaning for the Soul

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

As we anticipate a time of reflection during the Lenten season, we prepare our hearts for a time of reflection, repentance and a so-called “Spring Cleaning for the Soul.” We will enjoy Shrove Tuesday together as a way of indulgence and reminder of the many blessings we enjoy in abundance, and then we will move into Ash Wednesday. And on the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, hundreds of millions of Christians receive ashes on their foreheads in churches all over the world.

Why ashes? Since Old Testament times, ashes have been used as a symbol of mortality. When ashes are placed on our foreheads we hear the words: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” It’s a reminder that the world, that often seems so important to us at this moment is passing and we need to give more thought to what comes at the end of our earthly life, which is: eternal life.

Ashes are also a sign of our need for repentance and a heartfelt acknowledgment that we are sinners and fall short of the glory of God. To many in the modern world, the very concept of sin seems old-fashioned. Yet, sin is part of our human nature, brokenness is our human condition and we NEED Jesus. We need to repent and trust the Triune God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) will show up for us again and again.

If you intentionally hurt a good friend, whether you are religious or not, something deep inside of you tells you that you need to say you’re sorry. What’s more, whether you say it out loud to your friend, or just think it to yourself, you’ll resolve not to hurt them again. But chances are good that someday you will. And that is similar to the all-too-human cycle of sin and sorrow and sinning again.

As the Church points out, we are all sinners and we all need repentance. We all need to confess our sin and sinfulness and ask for God’s forgiveness. And as people of the resurrection, we trust and lean into God’s gift of abundant grace. Lent gives us an intentional time of the year to do just that (although our prayer is that we practice confession/repentance year-round).

The word “Lent” comes from an old English word for springtime. Think of it as a form of spring cleaning for the soul. In the early years of the Church it was confined to a few days before Easter. But by the fourth century it was extended to forty days before Easter, a period associated with the forty days and nights that Jesus spent in the desert, tempted in the wilderness, just after his baptism (Matthew 4:1-11). “Forty days before Easter” may be somewhat misleading. The Church doesn’t count Sundays among the forty days, so the period of Lent, lasting from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, actually covers 46 days. Whether 40 days or 46 days, in the great scope of things Lent is a momentary pause to rethink the fundamental purpose of our lives. But it can also be the occasion of a momentous transformation; a first step on the path, at the crossroads, of becoming the people God has called us to be. I’ll see you at the crossroads of this journey.

“You are my righteousness, I am your sin In Christ we can become what we were not. Amen! Lord Jesus, You are my righteousness, I am your sin. You took on you what was mine; yet set on me what was yours. You became what you were not, that I might become what I was not.”

— Lent Prayer- Martin Luther

Peace +

Pastor Greer