AND I BELIEVE ONE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH
Alfred Sawyer, Rector

By Apostolic, the Creed means a Church based on the Apostles’ teachings. Where do we find the teachings of the Apostles?  The New Testament is the teaching of the Apostles. Any Church which rejects the Bible as its supreme authority cannot call itself a true Church in the biblical and creedal sense of the word. Elements of the Church have through its history tried to jettison portions of the Bible with which it disagreed.  These attempts have always heretofore resulted in that element being branded as heretical and expelled from orthodox Christianity.

By “one Catholic” the Creed does not mean “Roman Catholic” but “Universal”. Jesus only founded one Church. This Church is made up of all individuals who have believed that Jesus took upon Himself our sins as He suffered and died on the Cross. Having believed, these people turned from their sins and were born again by God’s Spirit. The means whereby one is made a member of the Church is faith--not just a vague, amorphous  faith--but a specific trust in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross and His resurrection from the dead.

This saving faith is itself a gift from God. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God--not because of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9) God’s grace enables us to believe, and once we have believed, God’s Spirit enters into our spirit. This is what Jesus meant by the “new birth” in John’s gospel when He told Nicodemus, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3) It is only this New Birth from the Holy Spirit which qualifies us to be a member of Christ’s Church.

The word “Church” itself comes from the Greek word “ecclesia”. Ecclesia has the same meaning as the Hebrew word Kehilah. The English translation is “congregation” or “assembly”. The modern Israeli parliament, the Knesset, derives its name from the same Hebrew root word.

The Church is both visible and invisible. It is visible in the sense we can physically see its members who are alive here upon earth. But is is also invisible in that only God knows those who have truly trusted in Jesus and have been born again of His Spirit. The Church also transcends time. Those faithful Old Testament believers as well as all of those who have trusted Jesus down through the centuries and are now with the Lord, are also part of the Church. This is what is meant by the Communion of Saints. There is the Church Militant here on earth and the Church Triumphant in heaven.

How do I become a member of the Church? There is only one requirement for membership. You must acknowledge you are a sinner in need of God’s forgiveness. Then you must repent of your sins, i.e., turn away from them. And you must believe that Jesus took upon Himself your sins when He died on the Cross, and that three days later He rose from the dead.

If you have done that, then you have the assurance that your sins have been forgiven and that you have received eternal life.

Alfred Sawyer

[top]

HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE YOUR FEET?
Jeff Taylor, Associate Rector

I inherited “Taylor feet” and they “ain’t” too pretty!  Add a dozen years of being in a swimming pool for 4-5 hours/day and then 15 years of running 5 – 7 miles per day, mix in arthritic toes and very dry soles and you have a picture of why I am not a big fan of foot washing ceremonies!

Nonetheless, I need to ask myself daily if my feet are beautiful?  Why? Because as Isaiah stated, and as Paul repeated, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’.”

Day after day and week after week I reflect on the notion of beautiful feet and I search within my heart and upon my calendar, to see if I have taken the time to “bring good news” to those who are seeking, searching or simply lost.  I want beautiful feet; how about you? And so I pull out my day planner and I review my appointments, phone calls and various spontaneous conversations and I ponder, Have I “proclaimed salvation” this day? Are my feet getting any more beautiful than they were yesterday?

Just to make myself feel even more wonderful I take my self-reflections up one more notch and ask, “Now Jeff, when did you last pray for the salvation of another world-traveler and when did you set time aside for an evangelistic encounter.” It is at this point in time that I am either crying in my milk or hearing Satan whisper in my ear, “And you call yourself a Priest!” And yet, there is some truth in my personal examination: are my feet beautiful?

Hyperbole is good for some purposes, and guilt is not one of them, but I wonder how beautiful our feet are at Christ Church?  As a point of comparison I met recently with a wonderful woman at one of our neighboring churches and asked her what the secret is to their success? The numbers of new members they have brought into the church over the last decade or so is staggering and I was confident that their feet were beautiful. Susan shared with me that their own investigation into the remarkable growth in membership stemmed from two major sources. #1, they discovered that 30% of their membership first entered the church building because of the building! Folks said that they drove past the church a number of times, saw the beautiful façade and gained enough courage to walk through the front door. #2, they discovered that a staggering 40% of their new members entered the church building by way of a personal invitation. Susan went on to explain that a large percentage of those whom they polled stated that they believed churches to be like country clubs; you only enter upon invitation from an existing member. This sounded like a lot of beautiful feet!
I am very glad that we have a beautiful building (temporary, I know) at AIS, but the job is up to each of us to pursue beautiful feet by inviting our colleagues, neighbors and friends to worship with us at Christ Church. In fact, if you have not already noticed, my redundancy in the weekly emails about “inviting a guest to worship at either 8:30 or 10:30” is quite intentional….it is our job and our privilege.

Jesus promised that we would be “filled with the Holy Spirit and be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” As believers in Jesus Christ, we are to be filled (controlled and empowered) by the Holy Spirit, and a key indicator of His filling is that we would be His witnesses. As His witnesses we would then have beautiful feet!!

Sometimes I hear people say that they like our church size just as it is because it is intimate. I have to agree, I like that too. However, proclaiming salvation to those who do not yet know Jesus is never an option for us. As some have wittingly said, “God gave us the Great Commission, not the Great Suggestion.”

Now it is not always easy to find someone to bring to church or to invite to coffee where you can discuss the good news of Jesus Christ, but on Sunday mornings you can help others who have invited friends and guests to worship with us.  Look for the name tags that are written in red ink; this is our helpful reminder that this person wearing the red ink name tag is an honored guest in our home! Reach out to them in the love of Christ, help them make other contacts within the body of Christ and look down at your feet….they are getting beautiful!

Jeff Taylor

[top]

CHOOSE TO SERVE
Jan Robinson, Director of Children's Ministry

At the beginning of one summer, I promised to take Matthew, our youngest son, to an amusement park.  Finally, we came to the last week of summer before school started and we still hadn’t gone.  So, we chose the last possible day and tried to invite a friend to go along.  No luck.  Thus it came about that I would be Matthew’s riding companion.  With a little trepidation (okay, fear) on my part and deliberately avoiding the really-scary rides of Six Flags, we headed north to Lake Winnepausaukah, a more family-oriented amusement park.  An additional attraction was a lake in the center of the park which reportedly contained monster-sized carp.

As we drove north, I counted the years it had been since I’d been on a roller coaster—twenty years!!  The first ride we went on was the Tilt-A-Whirl.  That first ride showed me the reality of what lay in store for me.  I really did wonder how I was going to get through the day.  But Matthew was having a blast!  On to the Pipeline Plunge, the ferris wheel (great view of the white carp in the lake—yep, they were monsters!), the Scrambler, and the Cannon Ball Roller.  After three hours and just after riding the Paratrooper, I felt like I was going to be sick.  Matthew couldn’t understand why I didn’t want to go on the Wild Lightning ride again.  It was a fun day for Matthew.  And I had enjoyed the day with him, but I was most proud of the fact that I had actually survived.

Well, guess what our setting is going to be for our tenth annual Vacation Bible School?   An amusement park!  Thankfully, we won’t have actual roller coaster rides, but we hope it will be just as thrilling for our participants.  Our set-up day will be Monday, June 23, and our actual VBS days will be June 24, 25 and 26 from 9 a.m. till 12 noon.  For those of you who have never experienced our Vacation Bible School, we all gather at 9:00 for an Opening Worship time.  We then break into different age groups (Preschool, Early Elementary & Upper Elementary) for Bible Study exploration and rotation through the Crafts, Games, Snacks and Missions stations.

Remember all those park attendants who run the rides and help people get on and off?  Well, we need some “park attendants” for our SonWorld Adventure Park.  I can promise you good fun, good fellowship, plus it’s safe and you won’t get sick!  There are many ways for you to help: lead Bible exploration, help prepare and serve our snacks, supervise games, teach crafts, lead singing, present skits, help decorate, take pictures, be a greeter. (For those adult volunteers with infants/toddlers too young to attend VBS, there will be childcare available.)  For those of you new to Christ Church, this is a fantastic way to get to know people in our congregation, while serving to help encourage children in their walk with Jesus Christ.

Even if you can’t help with the actual event in June, you can help us get the word out about our VBS.  Consider the children in your lives—neighbors, grandchildren or other relatives, children of co-workers, friends of your children—and invite them to come. Also, you can pray for the participants, for the volunteers, for safety during the week, for preparations and for hearts to be turned toward Jesus and lives to be changed.

Our VBS theme verse will be Joshua 24:15 “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.”  Please choose to serve at our Vacation Bible School. There are Registration Forms/flyers now available and there will be sign-up sheets in the “narthex” for adults and youth to indicate interest in helping out. 

Jan Robinson

[top]