Are you in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area and interested in giving to others in our community who are in need this Thanksgiving season? Consider making a food donation to “Roof Above,” a non-profit focusing on ending homeless and serving those affected by homelessness.
Roof Above is looking for a variety of food items, details are in the attached screenshot and in this Instagram post.
“We believe that home is critical to provide safety, stability, and dignity in people’s lives. Each day, we serve 1,200 people in our community –half we serve through our homeless services, and half are formerly homeless served through our housing programs.
It’s not just about what we do but how we do it. Our approach is personal; relationships drive our services and help to heal the trauma of homelessness. We strive to honor the profound worth of each life, and for our work to reflect that belief.”
This is recorded audio from Pastor Morris at the Friday Morning Men’s Group at First Presbyterian Church in Edmond, Oklahoma on January 20, 2017. Pastor Morris is a church planter in East Africa and has helped plant 🌱 120 churches since the start of his ministry.
This morning our pastor, Jen Howat, preached on Acts 1:1-9. Her sermon focused on how we are called to BE the church, which means doing the work of Jesus & not necessarily gathering in church buildings. This is my sermon sketchnote and narrated sketchnote of her sermon. I integrated a couple tweets which I shared during the first part of the sermon.
"God comes to people through people. You are a SENT people. You are to GO!" Acts 1:1-9 via Jen Howat @fpcedmondhttps://t.co/G1qDDOdlKF
“This is the kind of fast day I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The GOD of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, GOD will answer. You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.'” (Isaiah 58:6-9 MSG)
These verses are on my heart as I think about the challenges schools so close to our home face, and my own prospects for teaching in the year to come.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
While these issues are extremely important and timely for Christians in the United States to consider today given our recent events, I was surprised that the “closing prescriptions” offered by Patrick did not include any citations or references to Scripture. Because of this, his message overall was not differentiated from secular “calls to action” for social justice which we hear from different non-profit groups and organizations. The message itself is and was good, but it was essentially “missing Jesus.”
In his sermon, Patrick read verses from Colossians and Ephesians, but his message sounded and felt like more of a history lecture on social justice rather than a sermon in a mainline church. In the sketchnotes, I inserted the words “Let our hearts be transformed by God’s Love and His Word.” Patrick emphasized the importance of us loving each other, and put the focus of action on what WE as human beings could and can do. This made his message strike me as somewhat Gnostic, since it did not emphasize our need for Christ and the idea that WE cannot do anything (including change race relations in our communities and culture) without God’s power and actions.
I think this was the first time I’ve heard a pastor give a personal, racism-based “confession” during a sermon, and I think there was value in this. It took courage for him to admit mistakes he had made as a youth, which particularly focused on using the “N word.” I totally agree that we need to be having dialog within our churches and our communities about how we can constructively move forward with improving race relations. Patrick’s suggestions about “listening to the stories of others in our communities” and “sitting down at the table to eat together” particularly resonated with me. As a Storychaser, I especially agree with the first one, but the second one is an important strategy I don’t think we discuss or utilize nearly enough to promote understanding and the overall strengthening of relationships.
From a technical standpoint, I was able to use a stylus for these sermon sketchnotes (unlike last week) and again used the iPad app ProCreate. I exported my finished sketchnote as an image to the photo roll and uploaded it to Flickr, and also exported it as a video. I imported the video into iMovie for iPad and added voice narration, doubling the time for the playback so I had more time to talk. Lastly I uploaded the combined video using YouTube Capture. Here’s the narrated version:
Sixty-six men had signed up to record video messages for their children on May 15, but because of security conditions at the prison not all those inmates were allowed to record their messages. Redeeming the Family will return to the Cimarron Correctional Facility again in the fall to record more messages which will be delivered prior to the Christmas holiday in December.
The Christian life is not about escaping evil and seeking complete separation from the world. Rather, our focus is and should be on confronting evil.
John 17:14, 15 NIV
“I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.”
Some clear teaching here from Jesus about the way we should act when we give to others and do good deeds. We should not do these things to seek recognition from others.
“Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. (Matthew 6:1-4 NLT)
