September 2018

Dear Friends,     
Do you ever feel like, as a Christian, you just don’t fit into our society?  Your ethics are different from some of those around you.  You want to dedicate Sunday as your Sabbath while society treats it as just another day of the week.  The language that some around you use is just not the way you talk.  Some friends just can’t understand why you don’t do some of the things that you used to do.  You fear that your children and teens are going to be pulled away from God through friends, media, and what they may be taught at school.  You fear losing them to the society around you.

T. Scott Daniels has written a book entitled, “Embracing EXILE—Living Faithfully as God’s Unique People in the World”.  I had the privilege of hearing him speak on this topic at a pastor’s conference at Mt. Vernon Nazarene University and felt like he was really nailing it as far as describing how we should look at the society we are living in today and how to interact with that society.  Rev. Daniels is senior pastor at Nampa College Church of the Nazarene.  Previously, Scott pastored in Pasadena, California and served as the dean of the School of Theology at Azusa Pacific University.  He proposes that, “Exile can be a frightening prospect.  Like the Israelites in Babylon, Christians today may feel they are in unfamiliar territory, surrounded by a culture with customs and practices foreign to their faith.  In these times of dislocation and powerlessness, God wants to help his people experience anew the possibilities of covenantal faithfulness.”  In Embracing EXILE, T. Scott Daniels invites the church to embrace this modern time of “exile” and to seize this unique opportunity to be a blessing to the culture around us.  The world needs a holy people who embody the habits of the coming kingdom.
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We will be starting this 7-week sermon series and group study on Sunday, October 7th.   The topics will be:

• Strangers In a Strange Time
• Now You Are God’s People
• This Is My Story
• Holiness Takes Practice(s)
• Blessing Babylon
• Raising Resident Aliens
• More Than Survivors

The group discussion on the topics will be on the same Sunday evenings of the morning message on the topic beginning on October 7th at 5:30PM (the same time as Children’s Bible Quizzing). 
Books are available at the church for just $6.  See and pay Pastor Connie Young for a book.
UPDATES:  We had a great time at the Albion Fair with the youth and mission groups running the Snack Shack to raise funds for their ministries.  Thank you to everyone who donated supplies, baked/cooked the goodies we sold, worked in the booth, and helped with set-up and tear-down.  Our Back to Church Sunday, “You Belong Here” was a wonderful service with about a 30% increase in attendance!  Many seeds of the Gospel were planted.  Pray for those seeds to grow!
When you aren’t here to worship with us, we really miss you.  We want to worship and fellowship and grow with you!
In Christ’s Love,
Pastor Wayne