Eden Prairie United Methodist Church
Connect with Us!
  • Home
  • Being Church
    • Crops For PROP
    • Serving Our Neighbors
    • Fellowship >
      • Women's Retreat
  • Children | Youth
    • Nursery
    • Sunday School (Preschool through 7th grade)
    • Especially for Families
    • Rooted (3rd - 4th grade)
    • Vacation Bible School
    • Middle School Youth (Grades 7-8)
    • Confirmation (8th-9th grade)
    • Higher Ground (10th-12th grade)
  • Music
    • Adult Music Opportunities
  • About EPUMC
    • Worship
    • Staff
    • Notes from Pastor Becky Jo
    • Lay Leadership
    • A Reconciling Congregation
    • Tumbleweed Newsletters
    • Videos
    • Annual Report
    • Calendar
  • Prayer
  • Online Giving
  • Contact Us

Weekly Memo for February 23

2/23/2017

Comments

 
One of the seven places where I believe we will find the Holy Spirit awaiting us this year is as together and individually we read the book of Acts.
 
I believe there are a lot of hidden lessons to be found in our reading of the book of Acts. Some of these stories are so obscure like last week’s, or take so long to develop that we don’t take the time it takes to read them all the way through in worship. And that is why I’ve asked all of us… at our own pace, to read the book of Acts.
 
Sunday was the first experience of what I am anticipating happening more and more as we move through this year of “Opening ourselves to the Holy Spirit” with the book of Acts as our model.  Sunday was the first day we used a difficult, mostly unknown scripture to make an important statement about our church.  If sitting in church was the first time you encountered this story in Acts 5, as I know it was for many of you, it was very hard to get beyond the plot…And you probably had a little less “bandwidth” to be open to the message that… like the early church, we cannot bear deception and hidden agendas and be all that God intends for us to be together.
 
So today I want to do everything to both inspire and motivate you to read Acts. Here are some suggestions. If you need a Bible let me know…we are a church…we have Bibles to give away. The Gideons do a great job with this, but they do not have a corner on that market.
 
 You can get the Bible on whatever device you’re reading this memo on.  There are so many versions out there I want to remind you that I am using two…The Message and The New Revised Standard Version.
 
You can click at the listed scripture at the end and go directly to the scripture for Sunday morning.  You can check out the worship page in the newsletter for the Sunday morning scripture readings a month in advance or find them on the home page of this website. Maybe read a few chapters or verses before and after each one of those readings.
 
If after reading the scriptures you have some significant question or wonder what was that… Come to the Sunday morning 8:30 Bible Study that Drake Talbert and I lead.  The nursery is staffed, and older kids can hang out together.  We have a great core group for this study, so you won’t feel like you are the only one in the room.  We will spend the hour talking about the context of scripture and bringing that context to our lives.  It’s a very interesting hour. Those who have been in this study often comment that it deepens not only their understanding of scripture, but also their experience of worship. (We also have our own coffee pot.)
 
If you want to give me a text, email or a phone call or even a get together about your questions or concerns about the scripture…do it.  I would be overjoyed to spend time on a couple of emails or at a lunch or two every week.
 
This week is another example of how important is your reading ahead of time to deepen your worship experience and to participate in Opening Ourselves to the Holy Spirit.  So how about it…check out the story of Stephen in Acts 6 and Acts 7.

Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan

 
Comments

    Archives

    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2012

    RSS Feed

Connect with us!
office@prairiechurch.org
(952) 937-8781

15050 Scenic Heights Road
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
Picture
Picture