Hey Engage Community,
This past Sunday we started a conversation called “Letters to Imperfect People”. We are spending this month in the book of James in our Sunday worship gatherings. The book of James is really a sermon written by James the half-brother of Jesus. James grew up a skeptic of Jesus’ claim to be God en-fleshed in skin and bone. Imagine, as James watched and listened to his older brother’s teaching and way of life–even if from a distance. After Jesus resurrected 1 Cor. 15 says Jesus appeared to James and James was convinced that everything Jesus had done and taught was all true. He bought in and spent the rest of his life, thereafter, as a “Servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ” (James 1:1).
The book of James is written as wisdom literature–shining the wisdom of Christ on to the pavement of every day life and reality. During our worship gathering we invited the Engage Community to copy this short book in our own handwriting. We want to collectively say in one voice, each with our unique contribution, that we want the wisdom of Jesus to permeate our lives and our church. It was exciting during our worship gathering for me to watch you. So many of you lined up ,spanning the whole width of the Ribbon Mill, to copy this book in your own hand. The first chapter was started and finished. Above are pictures of what you wrote: our symbolic desire to grow in Jesus-shaped wisdom.
Please continue this over the course of this month. We hope we can copy all 5 chapters of James this month. We hope this project can reflect the age span of Engage. At the end of the month we will have it printed up and give out copies of this book in our handwriting. Pretty cool.
Read James
Please read this book together as a church this month. It’s only 5 chapters so read 27 verses each week and we will have read this book together this month.
Making Space in our hearts
If you were at Engage on Sunday you noticed quite the crowd. We had 208 packed in our worship space. It was fun and crowded in a good way. While there is certainly more to ‘church’ than Sunday mornings, we are excited that God keeps bringing more people to Engage. Two weeks ago we created a special prayer time asking God to make space in our hearts for others. If Christ is taking up space in our hearts and minds the Sunday morning ‘living room’ of Engage will be an imperfect, yet, compelling space where people far from God and skeptical of organized religion can find life-changing trust in Jesus Christ the Lord.
This is happening each week. I spoke with a person from Carlisle who visited Engage this past Sunday for the first time. They said, “Engage was so friendly. I felt a sense of welcome like I was visiting old friends even though I’d never been to there before.” That’s pretty special!
MAKING SPACE IN PRACTICAL WAYS
1. We are starting a new experiment on Sundays by creating the Engage Cafe. The Cafe is our attempt to make more space for people to experience community at Engage. We are still working out the bugs but hope to have sound, images, and video streaming into the Cafe. We think the Cafe will provide a safe place to talk, pray, and just BE. We invite you to consider being a ‘pioneer’, grab a posse of your friends or family, and begin sitting in the Cafe. Jesus asks us to ‘wash feet’ as he has served and forgiven us (John 13). Giving up your space on a crowded Sunday and moving to the Cafe is one small way for you to ‘wash feet’ and leave space for someone else to begin to encounter Christ at Engage.
2. You can, also, practically make space at Engage by parking at Weis and walking over so that our new friends and guests can have a shorter less intimidating walk to the front doors. Also, if you see someone who looks lost or out of place at Engage…please go up to them and introduce yourself. Ask them if you can help them find a seat or answer any questions they might have. We all share the responsibility for helping people feel a part of the family.
I love being your pastor,
Jon Hand
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