Pastor’s Note 06/01/2023

26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to His disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

27 Then He took a cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:26 & 27)
 
 

On the first Sunday of every month at LCPC we celebrate Communion, The Last Supper, and the above words are used as a part of the service where we remember what Christ did on the cross. This regular part of our worship services is central to what we believe as followers of Christ. We remember the great loving sacrifice that Christ made on our behalf for our salvation, it causes us to repent once again for the sins that we may still be keeping in our hearts and it causes us to rejoice and celebrate this great gift to us from God.

 

I know that many of you reading this may not be able to attend a worship service in-person. You may be watching our livestream, or you may be watching online later in the week but let me encourage you to make time for remembering and celebrating Communion at home. You may want to ask me or one of the Elders or Deacons to come and visit you and serve you communion or you may want to participate at home by getting your own elements and taking communion with us while watching online. The intent is that we want to extend our connection as the body of Christ out from the LCPC campus and into the community.

 

So, as we prepare for this Sunday, as we partake of communion, may each of us prepare our hearts repenting, remembering and rejoicing for what Christ did for us on the cross.

 

Hope to see you on Sunday and do call the church if you would like a visit from me or one of the Elders or Deacons to serve communion to you in person.

 

Have a great rest of the week.
 
 


Pastor’s Note 05/25/2023

I’m not sure if many of you know a little-known translation of the New Testament entitled The Cotton Patch Gospel by Clarence Jordan. Clarence Jordan was the founder of Koinonia Farm located in Georgia, a place that sought to seek racial reconciliation through this farming community during the civil rights movement which eventually influenced the start of Habitat for Humanity.

 

Jordan wanted to recast the stories of Jesus and the letters of the New Testament into the language and culture of the mid-twentieth-century South. He wanted to have the good news of the Gospel in the language and tongue of his time so that the readers would be participants in the faith, not merely spectators.

 

Here is what he wrote about Pentecost and the birth of the church that we find in Acts 2:

 

“When Thanksgiving Day arrived, they were all gathered in one place. Then all of a sudden there came from the sky a rumbling like a tornado, and it filled the whole house where they were gathered. And they saw forked flames as from a fire, and it stayed in contact with each one of them. Everybody was bursting with Holy Spirit and started talking in whatever different languages that the spirit directed.

Now at that time there were a lot of delegates gathered in Atlanta, religious people from countries all over the world. So when they heard this great noise, they all came running together. And then they heard these folks talking to each one of them in their own native tongue, and were they excited! Amazed and astounded no end, they said, “Look, aren’t all these speakers Americans? Then how is it that each of us is hearing it in his own native tongue – French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Italian, Greek, Turkish, Burmese, Hebrew, Swedish, Afrikaans, Hindi – in our own languages we are hearing them tell of God’s mighty doings.” Everybody was dumbfounded and puzzled, saying one to another, “What’s the meaning of this?” But others sneered, “They’re tanked up on white lightning.”

 

There is more to his translation that helps to make the birth of the church come alive. Let me encourage you to go and find a copy of this translation and let it help you see the writings in the New Testament in a new way.

 

As we come to church this Sunday, when the church celebrates the birth of the church and the sending of the Holy Spirit indwelling and empowering the people of God, my hope is that God’s indwelling Spirit might empower you to be a participant in His Kingdom work and not just a spectator. The Spirit’s indwelling is empowering all of us to participate in God’s work right here in Lakeside and East County. So go, be empowered by the Spirit and make a difference in your neighborhood.

 

Have a great rest of the week.