Friday Evening Worship Rev. April Casperson Rev. Juan Huertas Speaker: Rev. Adam Hamilton
"It doesn't matter if you were there for the events; you're supposed to ponder the effects and how they shaped you as you moved forward in your life."
"Churches today look more like a typewriter than a laptop. Young people are the ones who are going to teach us how to do church for this generation."
We don't believe that when bad things happen, it was because God intended it. "The Bible is the story of humans doing exactly what God doesn't want them to do, and His redemptive work to restore their lives."
God wants us to engage with our brains and ask questions, while at the same time using our hearts to feel compassion. You need grace and holiness, not one without the other.
"Are you a liberal or conservative? My answer is always the same - yes, of course."
Be the kind of church that would welcome a complete outcast into the congregation without judgement.
Luke 3:21-22
Matthew 9:35-38
Isaiah 6:8
Jonah 1:1-3
Exodus 4:10-13
Saturday Morning Small Groups: Holy Restraint and Holy Calling Becca and Won Chul
Acts 16:1-15
How have you experienced "Holy Restraint?" To what other regions might God be calling you? What is keeping you from journeying to these new places? Today, how will you open yourself to God's new possibilities?
I wait to talk to people about God until they get to know me and not see me as scary, but they know I go to church. Eventually, they will either ask what makes me so happy all the time or I get to bring my faith up in a way that is less intimidating to them like suggesting books to read or just answering questions without being judgmental. People tend to open up and be more receptive that way. I think I'm called to children's ministry, especially, but I've been reaching out to people my age recently as well. Right now, I'm called to be a student at WVU. "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to help you, and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." - Jeremiah 29:11
This is such a great time to be with God. I've missed Him - He's hard to feel at school. But it's about serving when you can't always feel Him, because He's still always there. This excitement is like the adrenaline rush you get before you have a really good workout - likewise I'm preparing for a great spiritual workout. My spiritual muscles were definitely out of practice and weak.
I hope to come out of this learning how to love more. I learned how to love from Christ's example and now what I believe is being affirmed in a religiously organized setting?!?!?!
"I think it's important to not be religious totalitarians." - Sarah
I have new faith in the Christian population - if we always lived in this artificial environment then we wouldn't need Christ. But I think what I'm scared of in ministry is dealing with all the crazies and people who just don't get it. Frustration comes with serving...
Saturday Evening Worship Bishop Robert E. Hayes, Jr.
I believe in the sun even when it's not shining. I believe in love even when I don't feel it. I believe in God even when God is silent.
You are my beloved. You are my child. And I will be with you always, yes I will. When you see the lightening flashes and you pause, look to the sky and just remember My promise. Peace, be still. You are my beloved. You are my child. And I will be with you always, yes I will.
Anne Sullivan apparently tried to explain God to Helen Keller. Helen said thank you for telling me His name and who He is, for He speaks to me often, but I did not know who He was. God makes the same claim and has the same hold on our lives - that's why we're here. So often the call doesn't make any sense.
1 Peter 2:1-10
1 Samuel
I can't see myself being ordained and getting into all those religious politics just because there are too many I don't agree with and I wouldn't be able to tough it out, I don't think.
Everyone else was up celebrating their commitments and the two girls I was sitting with had marked "undiscerned," but they changed their minds and went up to the deacons etc. to pray for them. I took the safe route. What would I have felt like it I took the leap and committed my life to Christ? He deserves it. Why won't I give myself?
Saturday Night Small Groups A Chosen People
1 Peter 2:1-10
What does it mean to you and your future to be "a chosen people?" What passions are you willing to offer in ministry to the church and the world? List three things you are going to do hen you return home.
The best thing to hear, especially now, is that it's OK to feel confused. It's OK to feel this way.
I feel like the more educated professionally I am about religion, the more that separates me from being able to reach out to the religiously uneducated?
You can't let God down. You were never holding Him up. He holds you up, never the other way around.
"I've been justified, I'm being sanctified, and I will be glorified."
Passions to offer to the church/world: Justice, love, hope in Christ, musical worship, joy, artistic expression, mission work, advocacy
3 things to do when I go home: 1)Research ways to form my life around Christ 2)Seek more leadership in my church 3)Tell my friends about this amazing experience
"You don't do this so others are patting you on the back and saying you're doing great, but you do it for God. You have a servant's heart." - Hannah
"Our relationships aren't built on classes we have together or mutual friends - they're based on Christ, and this is what the body of Christ should be." - Leeann
I'm a former control freak. I thought I was reformed, but I'm seeing remnants. Coming into this, it was only to learn some new things (God warned me right off the bat in the prayer room with Jeremiah 29:11, so I was open) and now I'm considering my call. I'm still being SO stubborn!
Am I awaiting another heartbreak to completely break me so I'm ruined for all other men but Christ?
I'm being very unpractical right now.
Sunday Morning Worship Rev. Shalom Agtarap
If I don't keep up my idealistic, impossible dreaming, then I'll never get anywhere. Yea, I won't get hurt or disappointed, but I won't feel fulfilled either.
Luke 24:46, 49
Do you ever mistake the beginning of something for the end? Jesus' "end" was His beginning.
J Dubb - John Wesley.
This is not about getting your Jesus fix and heading back out into the world.
Prayer first, then scripture, which is the word of Life and not of death.
Don't let the fire sparked in your heart smolder because of lack of doing something about it.
"I became human for you. If you do not become God for Me, you do Me wrong."
I don't want to carry the name of United Methodist in the world. I want to carry the name of Christ.
Sacred Space/Prayer Time
"I observed, `love is the fulfilling of the law, the end of the commandment.` It is not only `the first and great` command, but all the commandments in one. `Whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise,` they are all comprised in this one word, love." - John Wesley, from "The Circumcision of the Heart" 1733
"The people who talk the most about God are the ones most in danger of taking Him for granted, of letting God become just a comfortable word in their lexicon, a piece of furniture, rather than a reality, a friend, a constant surprise." - Brian McLaren, from A New Kind of Christian: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith 2010
"It is Christ Himself, not the Bible, who is the true Word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit, with the guidance of good teachers, will bring us to Him." - C.S. Lewis 1952
Types of prayer: I ACT - Intercessional, Adoraction, Thanksgiving, Confession
In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. - Proverbs 16:9
When you love someone so much and want to give your life to them, you make that commitment, right? Well, what if I'm hopelessly in love with Jesus and I want to devote the rest of my life to Him? I can't love another human being the way I love Jesus. What does that mean for me?
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. - Psalm 119:105
Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you. - Psalm 55:22
Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. - 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose. - Romans 8:28
...for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. - Romans 11:29
"Vocation does not come from a voice 'out there' calling me to become something I am not. It comes from a voice 'in here' calling to me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God." - Parker Palmer
Vocation is "the place where your deep gladness meets the world's deep need." - Frederick Buechner
"We only know emotional maturity and resilience when we learn to open our hearts to God and to one another. There is no other way to discover and sustain emotional growth and health than with a strong vertical connection to God and a vital horizontal connection to others. The first speaks of the priority of solitude, of the individual, of the private encounter with God. The second speaks of community and conversation. We need both." - Gorden T. Smith
For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. - Jeremiah 29:11
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? - Psalm 27:1
Afterthoughts
...Well?
<3
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