Blood Drive
April 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment
| May 7, 2008 | ||
| 3:00 pm | to | 8:00 pm |
There will be a Blood Drive on Wednesday, May 7th from 3-8 p.m. This will be different from our usual drives. A blood mobile will be outside the double doors in the fellowship hall to serve you at your convenience. To secure a time slot, sign up on the main bulletin board.
Camp Idlewild Applications
April 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Camp Idlewild Applications are now available in the Welcome Center. There is a discount for registering early. See Brandi for more information.
Ladies Book Club
April 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment
| May 3, 2008 | ||
| 7:00 pm | to | 9:00 pm |
Join us Saturday May 3rd as we continue our discussion of Girl Talk. Discussion starts at 7 p.m. If childcare is an issue, please see Brandi.
Turn Around
April 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I’m kind of a grammar geek. I was that weird kid in grade school who loved diagramming sentences. There’s just something comforting about figuring out how each word fits into the sentence and charting it accordingly. It’s the only way I can connect with those of you who like to look at budgets and financial reports, but for some reason it’s just not the same for me.
I also like to study how language changes through the years. Language formation and grammar are always in flux. “Standard” English today is not the standard English of 100 years ago or even 50 years ago, for that matter. What is acceptable today might not have been acceptable in the writing of our parents or grandparents.
That’s because language can be driven from the bottom up. What I mean to say is that rules of grammar can be changed by general usage. As much as grammarians might complain, correct word usage is not always determined by the rules. It takes time, but if a majority of the people of a certain language adopts a way of saying something, it will eventually become the standard. It doesn’t matter if it’s right or wrong.
A good example is the word irregardless. Right now, if you were to use the word irregardless in a paper for school, your paper would come back to you bleeding red ink. Irregardless is not technically a word in standard usage. Irregardless is a combination of two words that have overlapping meanings-irrespective and regardless. But I would bet that in another 50 years or so, the word irregardless will be a standard word, simply because so many people are using it.
English teachers can complain if they want, but you might as well try keeping the tide from coming in. Unfortunately for an English snob like me, the tide is coming in on the pronunciation of the word nuclear. It still drives me crazy to hear it pronounced nu-cue-lar. But it’s probably here to stay.
In the same way that words can change, they can also fall out of use. This morning we’re going to be talking about a word that we’re hearing less and less. And we Christians (particularly we preachers) are probably to blame. It’s a word that is prominent in the Gospels but is not very prominent in our conversation. I would guess that’s because it was used so extravagantly and so loudly, people just became tired of it. This word just began to lose its punch.
Today I’d like to try and bring that word back, especially because it is among Jesus’ first words to His followers. When Jesus begins to change lives, He invites us to change in a specific way. He invites us to repent. I hope you’ll get a clearer picture of what that means this morning.
Liberty Call
April 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment
| May 10, 2008 | ||
| 6:00 pm | to | 10:00 pm |
Military Members: Drop your children off and enjoy a night out. Contact James and Anna for details.
Vacation Bible School
April 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment
| June 23, 2008 | to | June 27, 2008 |
VBS is coming soon. Workers are still needed for VBS week June 23rd-27th from 9 a.m. to noon. We also need people to help with set and decorations.
If you are interested, please see Jill Lowell.
Elder’s & Deacon’s Meeting
April 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment
| May 1, 2008 | ||
| 6:30 pm | to | 8:30 pm |
Ladies Craft & Book Night
April 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment
| April 26, 2008 | ||
| 6:00 pm | to | 10:00 pm |
Ladies, come out for a great night of fellowship with the women of Granby Street! Contact Brandi for more info.
Tell Your Story
April 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Good morning! Rachel and the kids and I are out of town today. We’re at Keith and Deborah’s farm with the rest of Rachel’s family. I’m really glad to be taking a weekend off and spending it with my family, but I will also miss being with my church family. I look forward to worshiping with you next week. For now, let me give you a preview of the morning you’re going to have…
I love to read the first sentences of some of my favorite stories:
• “I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice.” -A Prayer for Owen Meany
• “It was a dark and stormy night.” -A Wrinkle in Time
• “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” -The Hobbit
• “All this happened, more or less.”-Slaughterhouse Five
And my new favorite…
• “I told you last night that I might be gone sometime, and you said, Where, and I said, To be with the Good Lord, and you said, Why, and I said, because I’m old, and you said, I don’t think you’re old.”-Gilead
Of course, what makes a story good isn’t just the beginning but the rest of it, as well. I love every one of the stories quoted above. I’ve read them all multiple times, with the exception of the last one (which I read for the first time just last year). I don’t remember a thing about the beginnings of stories I have not cared for.
And, as good as those first sentences are (I wish I had come up with any of them), I really love them because I know the rest of each story. I know the depth of the narrator’s memory for Owen Meany, the boy with the wrecked voice. I know what adventure awaits Meg Murray on that dark and stormy night. I know the playfulness and the seriousness with which Vonnegut says everything in the story happened. And I know the beautifully heartbreaking words of farewell that John Ames is about write to his young son.
This morning you’ll get to hear a couple of stories that I love. The first is the story of Paul and of his conversion to the Way of Christ. I think that someone ought to write a modern version of Paul’s story. It’s amazing. There’s a great novel in it, just waiting to be brought forth.
The other story you’ll get to hear is the story of Bill Hromada and of his conversion to the Way of Christ. It is also an amazing story. Bill’s story is a rousing example of how a life can be changed through Jesus.
As you worship this morning. As you reflect on your life during the Lord’s Supper, let me invite you to also reflect on your story. How has Jesus changed your life? How is Jesus changing your life even now? I also invite you to share that story with others. We need to hear these stories. They can be a great source of faith. They can inspire. They can spur us on to let Jesus have a hold of our story.
Connections Sunday
April 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment
From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:16)
Just before Ruth Ann was born, Rachel and I took a two-day trip to DC just to get away. As luck would have it, “Bodies: The Exhibition” was on display in Arlington, so we got tickets. Perhaps you’ve heard about “Bodies.” Part science and part art, it features approximately 20 human cadavers captured in different poses and dissected in different ways so as to shed light on human anatomy. The point of the exhibit is to educate viewers about the wonderful complexity of the human body.
As far as I am concerned, the exhibit was a success. I came away realizing just how intricately God has made us. The psalmist says it well: “(We are) fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).”
One of the most impressive aspects of the display focused on the musculoskeletal system. Standing in front of a complex web of muscles, ligaments, tendons and bones, it was amazing to me all that was involved in even the simplest of tasks. For every bone that had to move there was a muscle or system of muscles for that movement. And each muscle was attached to its respective bone in just the right place so as to enable mobility. Finally, for every muscle that performed one action, another performed its opposite. Otherwise we would only be able to, say, open our mouths rather than close them or bend our knees rather than straighten them. Of course these muscles usually do their things without us even thinking of them.
But it’s really amazing when you think about it. That system of muscles is able to keep us moving. It lifts and pushes and propels our entire body in very subtle and complex ways. And it does so by working in concert. If the muscles didn’t work together, human movement would be impossible. No one muscle is strong enough or sitting in the right place. It takes the entire system.
Today is Connections Sunday. It’s a chance for you to be better connected to this church. We hope that today you will find new friendships and new ways to serve God. Both are important. They are important to the church and they are important to us as individuals.
It’s no coincidence that Paul uses the metaphor of a body to explain the church. It takes a system of organs working together to make the church move. Without all of its parts, the body doesn’t work as well. But at the same time, without the rest of the body no individual part can live up to its full potential.
Today, if you haven’t already, I hope you’ll find your place hear at Norfolk Church of Christ. I hope you’ll make connections. If you can, it will be a blessing to you and to this church.