One of the benefits Christians of recent decades have enjoyed is doing things in bulk. Sunday morning was a time when everyone was together — in bulk. It was similar on Sunday and Wednesday evenings.

When Carl George and others advanced the small group model of the church, they noted the importance of the Sunday morning service — a time when all the groups came together to worship — along with the importance of small groups. Part of the jargon they used included the terms, cell and celebration. They noted that the celebration of Christ was best experienced in a larger community of believers connecting in worship, and that cell groups gave opportunity for genuine spiritual intimacy.

If you miss out on either of these, you will feel disconnected. But when you embrace both, the experience is generally more fulfilling than doing things in bulk all the time.

So, as you might have guessed, this is a shameless solicitation asking those who call Curwensville Alliance their church home to engage in both the cell aspect (small groups) and the celebration aspect (corporate worship).

Not only does it help you feel connected, it also helps you grow to be the disciple God wants you to become.

Please pray with me that our church would experience the joy of small group interaction with the celebration of corporate worship.

I read today about the essentiality — yeah, that’s a word — of optimism in leadership. Corporations headed by pessimists, whether they be churches or tech giants, seldom overcome obstacles necessary to grow.  I need to be optimistic. What’s frustrating is how easy it is to be negative. It’s easier to say, “Nazareth?! Can anything good come from there,” than it is to say, “We have found the Christ,” (John 1). And it’s easy to be swayed by negative energy. It has a power to stifle both productivity and creativity.

Today I was feeling anything but positive about what God was doing in my life… until the UPS man came to my door. No, he didn’t drop off that 65 inch television I’ve been dreaming about. Instead, he dropped off the cross that we ordered to replace the one Anna bought in memory of her husband. You may recall the original cross had been stolen. Immediately, Laurel and I hopped into the car and headed up to see Anna. As we drove, I shared my negative feelings with Laurel and my struggle to be optimistic.

Then we arrived at Anna’s home. She showed us in and we talked about her health, the church, her home, and her family. I showed her the new cross and told her the story of how God had provided a larger cross for the same price as the smaller one with which we’d all been dissatisfied. We rejoiced together. We then prayed together, taking time to pray that the person who had stolen the original cross would turn to Jesus and find forgiveness. That was a great visit, but probably not for the reasons you would expect. It wasn’t because of the prayer. It wasn’t because of the new cross. It was because Anna epitomizes grace. Grace toward the thief. Grace toward her brothers and sisters in Christ. And grace toward people who crank out negative energy. She was so gracious and positive I left feeling like a completely different person. I said to Laurel, “Every now and then, God surprises you with a person who brings incredible joy.” Such people are people of grace.

As you go to God in prayer, may I suggest praying three ways:

1. Pray that you can be a person of grace, for people of grace are anything but negative.
2. Pray that God would use you to be a gracious influence on people around you so that when they leave they feel like life is a good thing.
3. Pray for those who struggle with negativity — that God will so bless them they can’t help but see him in the world around them.

Oh — and pray for me, that I might have the optimism essential to ministry and life.

Let your conversation be always full of grace… (Colossians 4)

~Pastor Steve

Last night as we concluded our study on the Holy Spirit in prayer meeting, instead of simply sharing requests and then praying for them, I asked this question: What would you do if you found an Aladdin’s Lamp? You clean it off, and as you rub it, a genie appears and offers three wishes. What would you wish for? This got us thinking of James words when he says we have not because we ask not. Then James immediately remarks that we often ask for selfish motives. As the evening progressed, the small group gathered there moved from talking about genies and talked about what we would really ask God for since we can.

Here’s some items from the list:

1. That marriages would be healthy and families healed
2. That we could accept people who are different than us
3. That people who have been hurt would find healing in Jesus
4. That we could be better examples of Jesus
5. That grace would abound in our midst

What a great list of prayer request for our congregation. Join us as we pray for these kinds of things.

~Pastor Steve