Grace Community Church Enewsletter | May 2015

SUNDAY MAY 31… …marks the beginning of our second hoagie fundraiser for VBS 2015. Please help us make VBS 2015 a success by buying and selling hoagies to support our program. Allison will have sales forms available beginning Sunday May 31. Please plan to collect all monies and turn them in on Sunday June 14. The pick-up day will then be on Wednesday June 24. Thanks in advance for helping to make VBS 2015 a highlight of the summer for the kids of our church and wider community.

COMMUNION

THIS MONTH… We are gathering at the church and will be celebrating a time of communion. Please make it a point to be in church on these special days when we remember the Lord’s life, death and resurrection.

OUR MISSION FOCUS

THIS MONTH WILL BENEFIT... Our VBS program for 2015…. We are excited about our curriculum and focus on teaching through the book of Proverbs this year, please consider supporting our VBS program this month with your missions gifts.

MARK YOUR

CALENDARS… The Second most important day in the Life of the Church (outside of the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus) is upon us this month as we will celebrate the first coming of the Holy Spirit to establish, fuel and help the church on Pentecost Sunday. Please make every effort to join us on this special Sunday!

ANNIVERSARIES & BIRTHDAYS…

MARK YOUR CALENDARS…

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This month in the life of the church we will celebrate Pentecost. Pentecost is a word that most of us around church have heard before, have celebrated and even have come to a certain level understanding of. But perhaps there’s room to refresh our memories about what Pentecost truly is before it arrives this year. The event of Pentecost surrounds the departure of Jesus (the Ascension) 40 days after the resurrection. Pentecost celebrates the promised helper (the Holy Spirit) that Jesus promises would come to guide the first church. In the Bible we find this amazing promise recorded in Matthew 28 and then realized in Acts 2. As we prepare to celebrate Pentecost once again this year may we never forget the promise made and the provision fulfilled. The promise was made by our risen Savior. The weight of his words in Matthew 28 carry us to find our meaning and purpose as a church… which is to make disciples. To “make disciples” on our own would seem to be an impossible task. Few of us “feel” qualified to lead others. But that’s where Jesus’ words of promise should effect our hearts. Pentecost is not a declaration of self-dependence, it is a promise of a “helper”. The Holy Spirit is the one that will come and do the work that only God can do…leading someone to a knowledge of the truth and to be saved. It is a glorious reality though to know that God can and will use us (inadequate as each of us are at times) to make disciples by equipping us to share the gospel. Indeed the gospel is what changes hearts and minds…because the effect of God is rooted in his word that we seek to echo again and again to our friends, family and neighbors. The Holy Spirit is often the most mysterious part of the Godhead and there is some mystique to the way He operates. To some extent must be intentional by God. His “helper” that he sends to us, is just that… helping us but still calling us to be faithful to share what we know to be true from God’s word. My prayer for each of us this Pentecost season is to find ourselves more open to trust in the word of God to have more of impact because God’s word never returns void (Isa 55:11). Sharing the gospel is never for the self-qualified but IS for the obedient follower who seeks to simply be a tool in the hand of a righteous and holy God by sharing HIS gospel. We were never called to only believe, but we have been called to reproduce ourselves by sharing the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us be a people who will depend of the power of the Holy Spirit this day and every day to build His kingdom. For His Renown,

Snapshots from Palm Sunday:

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Please take a moment of your time this month to lift these prayer requests up to the Lord.

Pray for Bobby Shumaker and Winnie Lane who are residents at Goodwill Home.

Pray for the following folks who have been experiencing health challenges recently: Donna Burton, Sandy Gregory, Esther Stanton, Gerry Beachy, Lillie Walker, Bill Bender, Wilma Hutzel.

Pray for Matt’s cousin’s little boy Ian (2) who will be undergoing several skin grafting surgeries in the next few weeks for burns he experienced recently.

Pray for those who are spiritually lost & going down a wrong path.

Pray for wisdom, patience and opportunities for those looking for work.

Pray for wisdom, healing and restoration of broken marriages.

Pray for our soldiers who continue to defend our country

both at home and abroad.

Pray for all those in positions of authority that they would seek the wisdom of God in all matters so that we might live in a peaceful, quiet, godly and dignified way. (1 Tim 2:1-2)

Pray for the inactive members of our church that the Lord would lead them back into a time of regular fellowship.

Let us regularly give thanks for the ways that we see God’s hand at work in our church community!

We give thanks for George Yoder in covering the pulpit while Matt and Emily attended the Weekend to Remember Marriage Conference this past month in Virginia. Thanks George!

We give thanks for Gerry and Sue Beachy who have been working to advertise and encourage participation in our upcoming National Day of Prayer Gathering. Thanks Gerry & Sue!

We give thanks for our Kids Message preachers who

prepare and are so faithful to the word each week with our kids. Thanks Patty, Shari, Emily and Lori!

We give thanks for Nevin and Wilma sharing their gifts with us this past month!

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Why You Need to Sing Loudly in Church

Five reasons you have no choice but to sing in church on Sunday. by Keith Getty Each week, upwards of 100 million people in America attend church, listen responsively to the sermons, and pray sincerely. But when it comes time to sing the hymns, the level of engagement drops dramatically. There are many proposed reasons for this fall off, all of which hold validity. It could be the wider culture’s waning interest in community singing, the diminishing levels of music education in the West, the role of choirs in schools, the unstable and increasingly narcissistic elements in church music, or even the spiritual state of our nation as a whole. For millennia, music has been an integral part of corporate worship. The first hymns are as old as the early books of the Bible. The disciples and early church leaders sang those songs and added some of their own. Notable thinkers throughout history (and into the current era) — everyone from Luther to Bach to John Newton — have so believed in the importance of corporate worship that they, too, contributed to the grand canon of hymns we know today. As a contemporary hymn writer who travels to cities worldwide, I love to meet pastors and worship leaders and encourage them to lead their congregations in deeper, more passionate singing. Here are just five of the many reasons we should all sing passionately in church this Sunday: 1. We are commanded to sing. We are called to sing — indeed, the Scriptures command us more than 250 times to sing. It’s hardly one of those “controversial” issues that is hard to ascertain precisely what scripture is saying. It’s not a choice. It’s not dependent on “feeling like it.” It’s not our prerogative. Throughout biblical history, in every place and circumstance — in victory and defeat, in celebrations and festivals, in death and mourning — singing was second nature for people of faith. Indeed, the largest

book of the Bible — Psalms — is itself a songbook that explores the range of human experience and interaction with God through singing. In the New Testament, Paul tells the early churches to get together and sing. In Ephesians 5, he reiterates the call of old to engage with each other in the singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, making music from the heart. 2. Singing together completes our joy.

Celebrating with each other is as natural as breathing. At our kid’s soccer game or when we watch football or March Madness, it’s not enough for our team to win. We want to revel in the moment and share it with others. Marking a birthday, winning a prize, or getting a raise are all incomplete until we get to share them with those we love. Similarly, for the faithful, the joy of living, of praying, of studying Scripture cannot be complete until shared. Singing together reminds us — not just intellectually, but experientially — that we are not slaves to the rugged individualism promoted by society. We’re actually responsible to one another. Christian apologist CS Lewis believed that singing completes our faith. In his Reflections on the Psalms, he writes, “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is appointed consumption.” 3. Singing is an expression of brotherhood and unites generations. Singing together is a picture here on earth of the hope of heaven where every tribe, tongue, and nation will sing to God. Throughout history, God’s people have both discovered and affirmed their solidarity in times of celebration and in times of tragedy through singing. Consider again those first churches Paul was leading. They often had little in common — they were culturally different, citizens of national enemies, sometimes with different religious traditions or no tradition at all, and sometimes even lacking common language or dialect. His admonition in Ephesians is not a simplistic instruction; it was a hard thing. But, all the more is the importance of their (and our) singing together as it was an undeniable expression of their brotherhood and unity. It is a curious thing that stats may show the subject of congregational singing (or sadly, perhaps, the larger topic of church music) may have caused more splits within Christian communities than any movement since the Reformation.

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The depth of brotherhood that could have been achieved by something as simple as singing together shines a harsh light on the insensitivity of church members and leadership who have broken congregations over so-called “worship wars.” 4. We are what we sing. Singing affects how we pray, think, and feel. It influences our memory banks and even the deepest parts of our subconscious. My wife, Kristyn, and I have noticed when we sing children’s hymns in the car with our girls they actually behave better than if, say, they were watching television. At the other end of the scale, my grandfather arrived at church early on Sundays — very early. He sat in the pew, opened a hymnal, and rehearsed the songs to himself over and over. And though I was glad when we visited him, quiet reflection early on a Sunday morning was not my forte. But, many years later, when he was in his nineties and unable to remember my name or how to accomplish even the most basic tasks of daily life, he still could recite or respond to the words of those hymns. They were songs he carried for life, and they brought him considerable peace, even at one of the most difficult stages of life, because they were so deeply engrained to his being. In Deuteronomy 31, we read the instruction of the Lord to Moses to write down the words of the song he was given and to teach it to his children so that when many evils and trouble befell them, the song would be a reminder to them lest they turn away. If the songs we sing to ourselves and to each other are just of the moment, detached from Scripture and lacking in history or perspective, we’ve little to keep us moored to Truth. But when we are intentional about singing and the songs we sing, we build up a testimony that will travel with us through life. 5. Singing bears testimony to our faith.

How we sing, if we sing, how passionately we sing — our singing itself — is a witness to those looking on. There is no choice in the matter. In the level of our engagement with the songs and participation in the singing, we testify to the joy of an excited believer or betray the chill of a disinterested spectator. In the New Testament, we read of Christians gathered together who so passionately expressed their faith together in song that the people looking on thought them to be drunk because that was the only explanation for their uniformed experience.

Ultimately, those who may feel they are on the outside looking in will, from the deepest part of themselves, respond to authentic and passionate singing to discover the truth held in the God songs we sing. As we head to church on Sunday — as overworked dads, stressed out mums, grandparents struggling with health, and young people looking for wealth — we can, with integrity and relief, go with repentance and thanksgiving to the One who has created us, forgiven us and who lives within us. How can we not sing? It was King David who, in the aftermath of the debacle of his adultery with Bathsheba, turned to God and said, “ . . . my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise” (Psalm 51).

http://www.faithstreet.com/onfaith/2015/04/09/why-you-need-to-sing-

loudly-in church

AHG UPDATE: Exact dates of meetings

will be announced later.

We will continue to meet

every other Wednesday

unless an activity has

been planned.

Throughout the rest of

the year, we will be

collecting items for Operation Christmas Child. If you would

like to bring in any items, I have listed things you can bring to

the meetings.

May - SERVICE cleaning up at New Germany Park and

GARDENING for Mother’s Day- 2 meetings

(OCC items- jump ropes, balls)

Psalm 147:8 “He covers the sky with clouds. He supplies the earth

with rain and makes grass grow on the hills.”

June - Raising Money at Grantsville Days - end of June

We will have a sign up for working our booth selling fried

veggies. All money will go towards AHG and Trail Life. We

might meet earlier in the month to paint the signs for the

booth. There may also be a yard sale at the church to raise

money for OCC.

July - BREAK We’re taking July off.

However, our church is having

Vacation Bible School the 13-17.

All are welcome to come.

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COFFEE BREAK: 2015 Coffee Time Coffee time should consist of a pastry/cake, donut holes/mini donuts (for the kids) & a fruit. Responsibility of coffee time is to be shared with whomever you are paired up with. Please arrive no later than 9:50 am with the items so that it will be ready to serve at 10:00 am. Any questions or concerns about coffee time please contact Allison Broadwater: 240-362-8074 | allison@grantsvillehurch.com Thank You for serving!! Anyone else who is not already on this schedule and would be interested in helping, we will have a few spots open coming up over the course of the year, please contact Allison if you are willing and able to help.

May

3 Sue Beachy & HELP NEEDED

10 Betty Merrill & Lillie Walker

17 Lori Wilt & Misty Rollman

24 Allison Broadwater & Melanie McFarland

31 Patty Rice & Linda Beal

June

7 Dolly Bender & Wilma Hutzel

14 Theresa Brenneman & Jenny Knauff

21 Sherry Carey & Emily Widder

28 Grantsville Days

July

5 Linda Upole & Rhonda Oates

12 Shari Ross & Jen Barlow

19 Barbara Yoder & Linda Hoover

26 Helen Bender & Amanda Carey

WEEKLY ATTENDANCE:

1/4 No

attend. taken

2/1 60 3/1 57 4/5 60

1/11 38 2/8 44 3/8 55 4/12 62

1/18 45 2/15 snow 3/15 57 4/19 61

1/25 39 2/22 snow 3/22 56 4/26 42

3/29 66

COME WORSHIPING:

MAY 3

Scripture Reading Eccleiastes 6

Reader Helen Bender

Hymn # 615 Seek Ye First

Hymn # 299 Amazing Grace

Sermon Text Luke 15:11-32 (George Yoder)

MAY 10 / MOTHER’S DAY

Scripture Reading Eccleiastes 7

Reader James Moon

Hymn # 54 We Love You and Praise You

Hymn # 469 Trust and Obey

Sermon Text Luke 16:1-18

MAY 17

Scripture Reading Eccleiastes 8

Reader Jen Barlow

Hymn # 111 Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart

Hymn # 71 Love Divine, All Loves

Missions Moment Rachel Stanton

MAY 24 / PENTECOST SUNDAY

Scripture Reading Acts 2:1-21

Reader Travis Brenneman

Hymn # 150 Spirit of the Living God

Hymn # 139 Breathe on Me, Breath of God

Sermon Text Luke 16:19-31

MAY 31 / KID SUNDAY

Scripture Reading Eccleiastes 10

Reader Anna Merrill

Hymn # vbs – Holy is the Lord

Hymn # vbs – There’s Power in the Blood

Sermon Text Luke 17:1-10 (Kid Sunday)

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140 Main Street Sunday Bible Study | 9:00am P.O. Box 147 Coffee Break | 10:00am Grantsville, MD 21536 Sunday Worship | 10:30am 301-895-5256 www.grantsvillechurch.com

Trail Life USA | 301-876-0342 American Heritage Girls | 301-895-5282

If you would like to be removed from the mailing list for this eNewsletter please e-mail: pastormatt@grantsvillechurch.com

Submissions to be included for future eNewsletters are due by the 20th of each month at 2:00pm

[Nevin & Wilma Hutzel]

[Anna Merrill]

[Marthalena Irby]

[Caleb Moon]

[Helen Keim]

[Ben Moon]

[Andy & Jenny Knauff] [Brett Oates]