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One of the meanings of “boldness” is standing out prominently.
For the most part, we don’t like to be conspicuous. We like to sit in the
back of the sanctuary instead of right upfront.
When Peter and John were questioned by the high priests and rulers in
Jerusalem for teaching about Jesus and preaching that Jesus is resurrected
from the dead, they stood out. In fact, they spoke with so much boldness that
the council of high priests ordered them to stop speaking about Jesus to
anyone else. After the council realized that nothing was going to prevent Peter
and John from boldly continuing to speak and teach in the name of Jesus, they
let them go free.
Imagine what would happen if we could just be a little like Peter and John
today. Like them, we are mostly “uneducated and ordinary” according to the
rulers, elders, and scribes. But when we do good deeds today like the way
Peter and John healed a man who was more than forty years old then no one
will have any opposition to say about our Christian actions too
The 2004 church theme is Pray BOLDLY2 Go! Its focus is on Prayer
and Missions. When we take time to pray boldly for our witness in the name of
Christ, we will also be boldly sent into missions. After Peter and John were
released, they returned to their friends and prayed to God for all that had
happened. According to Acts 4:31, “When they had prayed, the place in which
they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the
Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.”
The All-Church Leaders Meeting is on Saturday, January 10, 8:30-11:00 AM.
Your church officers, board members, fellowship chairpersons will meet to
launch the new theme for the year. We will exegete the passage, explore its
meaning for today and its implication on the church’s ministry. Following
this time, new Boards and Committees will have their first meeting in 2004 to
select new chairs and set up meetings for the year with our meetings ending
by 11:00.
To live out our theme, there will be an emphasis to explore the meaning and
practice of prayer in our lives. During the Lenten season which begins on Ash
Wednesday, February 25, we will have prayer resources for you to use. Another
idea is to include a “famous” prayer for you to read as a part of your own
devotional life. The Missions Committee is once again considering sponsoring
an opportunity for our church to participate in a short-termed mission trip.
Your ideas and suggestions on how we might Pray BOLDLY2 Go! are
welcome too.
When Bill Leong shared recently about a friend who was miraculously healed
from her cancer and believe that this miracle happened because of prayer, I
was once again reminded on how we can stand out prominently to pray. The
power of prayer in our lives will grant us the daring spirit to do missions
in the name of Christ. If there’s anything we can be conspicuous about, let’s
pray boldly and boldly go in the name of Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior!
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We thank
God for having nine people joined the church on December 14, six by baptism
and three by transfer of membership from the 11:15 Congregation. Through the
two evangelistic meetings on December 19 & 20, we continue to reach out
to our community, friends and relatives. May God grow the seeds of the Gospel
which were planted in their hearts. We ended the year 2003 with Christmas Eve
caroling and sharing the blessings of God on the last Sunday of the year.
The church’s theme for the year 2004 is focused on ‘Prayer & Mission’.
The theme verse is taken from the Book of Acts 4:31, ‘After they prayed, the
place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the
Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.’
As a result of the prayer, not only did they spoke the word of God boldly,
the following verse (4:32) says, ’All the believers were one in heart and
mind… they shared everything they had.’ Prayer is the powerhouse of ministry,
as well as the bonding power of fellowship. When people pray together, they
care for one another too. Therefore, we’ll add a corporal prayer time in the
worship service. Not only for those who have needs, but also practice what
the early church did to build deeper fellowship. We may not want our church
building be shaken (it’s retrofitted!), but we certainly want to be filled by
the Holy Spirit so that we can speak the word of God boldly and build up our
relationship in one heart and one mind. We would also encourage the
congregation to form prayer partners and develop regional prayer cell groups.
In order to enhance fellowship and spiritual support, we’ll select Bible
passages, which focus on relationship building, for all the fellowship groups
to study. Our summer retreat this year will also focus on Prayer.
‘Speaking the word of God boldly’ also means spreading the Gospel. On the
mission side, we thank God for bringing many children and youth to our Sunday
school. Under the teaching and nurturing of our faithful Sunday school
teachers, these kids are growing up in our church. We’ll continue to develop
a spiritual growth path for them and prepare for their transition to worship
services.
We thank God for what He had done in the FNS ministry last
year. We are also thankful for many brothers and sisters who have been
involved in this ministry. The FNS ministry team will have a one-day retreat
on 1/24. Please pray for the team to review the plan and strategy for
developing the community worship service. We’ll also explore the possibility to start a Saturday
Outreach contemporary worship. The target group of this outreach ministry will be those bi-lingual,
bi-cultural youth and young adult, who grew up in America. We hope that we
can work out and share the vision/mission statement, build up the ministry
team, and set the time line for the development.
With these ministries in mind we surely need to pray together and experience the work of the Holy Spirit.
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“The Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people, and you father’s household and go to the land I will show you.’” Genesis 12:1
From the above verse, we can see the very beginnings of mission! God called |
