Monday, February 28, 2011

Lent Begins March 13th

From the very earliest times, Christians took time out before Easter to reflect on their faith, cultivate it, and prepare for a most joyous celebration of Easter.

Remembering that Jesus took 40 days off to prepare for the beginning of his ministry, the church sets aside these 40 days prior to Easter for us to get ready.
This is a time for us to explore the mysteries of the universe,
looking beneath the surface – within ourselves --
examining our own motives and desires,
and ascertaining exactly what our commitment is:
to what, to whom, and what it means.

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus went out into the desert for 40 days.
For 40 days he lived without food or, presumably water.
For 40 days he confronted his demons.
For 40 days he prayed.
For 40 days he communed with his God.

Suffice it to say, upon completion of his 40 days in the desert, Jesus had a clearer picture of his purpose in life,
of his reason for being,
of his God-given mission.
And he embarked on his course of demonstrating the reign of love on earth.

On the first Sunday in Lent, March 13, we will be looking at a proper Presbyterian way to observe the Lenten season -- as we remember to his followers who wanted to make a show of their fasting and ritual prayers: wash your face and comb your hair!
Don't let on and don't make a show of what your do.

You are invited to join the congregation of Christ Presbyterian Church in Drexel Hill as you prepare for the coming of Easter this year.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Great News for CPC

Great News!!!
As of January 24, 2011, Christ Presbyterian Church is out of the real estate ownership business.

On that date a settlement of the Agreement of Sale occurred and Beulah Tabernacle assumed ownership of the buildings.

You may recall that as part of that agreement of sale, our congregation is able of use and occupy the portion of the building that consists of what we are now using – for a period of three years at no additional cost to us.

Over the past year we have made certain adjustments to our way of doing church to accommodate the new arrangement – including the creation of the new church office and pastor’s study.

So, what will we notice different now that the sale has been completed?
Not much.
We will continue our schedule of services in the Chapel every Sunday.
We will continue our Sunday School program.
We will continue the Dorcas group for their regular meetings.
We will continue the office hours for the pastor and church secretary as before.
Various community groups that we have supported in the past will continue to meet in our facilities: the Brownie Troop, and Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous groups.

But, we will no longer by trying to come up with the $74,000 it cost each year just to keep up and maintain the building.
Now, if the heater doesn’t work, or the plumbing backs up, we call the landlord.

Additionally, and this is huge for us, the proceeds of the sale is invested and will provide a constant income for the church to continue in ministry for a long time to come.

So, you need to keep your church in your prayers – as well as those who are leading us.

This settlement was a long time coming and provided for many moments of uncertainty as renegotiations were required to hold the deal together through the course of past 18 months.

A huge weight has been lifted from our shoulders and we can now breath easier as we gain our strength to look forward to the times ahead.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

17 Reasons to Be A Part of CPC 2.0

● Sooner or later we all get tired of going it alone.

● You are welcome here – no matter what!

● It’s a place where you would feel welcome.

● You can experience forgiveness here.

● You can openly express compassion here.

● Where else can you sing out loud?

● It’s a place where everyone knows your name – and cares about how you’re doing.

● It’s a diverse group of people – young and old, from all backgrounds, living in many communities.

● You will experience “authentic” worship service – with elements familiar to most Christians.

● There are people here who believe that Jesus loves you – and we do too!

● You can be a part of a congregation that is given an exciting opportunity to develop and become Church 2.0.

● It’s a place where your input is valued.

● It’s a place where you will be listened to.

● It’s a place where you will matter.

● The stories of our faith are valued here – and you may hear and learn new things about our common faith, new ways of looking at the world, new ways of behavior, and new values for your life.

● You can be a part of a congregation’s renewal and rebirth – helping to ensure the continuance of a progressive expression of Christian faith reflecting the implications of the latest Biblical scholarship and scientific studies of human behavior.

● You can be a part of a new ministry to meet a need dear to your heart.


What about you?
What would you add to this list?
Which would you pick as the 3 or 4 most important?

Check out www.ConnectOnLine.us . Email: CPC@ConnectOnLine.us .

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Vision 2012

Please commit yourself to offer a daily pray for your church as we try to ascertain what God may be calling us to do and to be as a church in the days and years ahead.

May we all dream dreams and conjure visions of what could be and how we may make it so.

Hear our prayer, Lord, for your church:
help us to see more clearly what our work may be.
Give us wisdom to discern your will for us,
vision to see what we could do,
courage to pursue it,
and stamina to continue with it.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Vision 2012


With the new year and the impending culmination of the sale of our building, it is time to think seriously about the future ministry of Christ Presbyterian Church:
what might it look like?
where might it be?
what might it mean (for you and me and whoever else we might be serving)?

My hope is that by the time the next new year rolls around, we would have a pretty clear vision of what this ministry (or ministries) might look like, and even be on our way implementing the new vision.

Looking over my notes, I see that some fifteen years ago I wrote of four groups of people that
I saw with a particular need that a church like us could dedicate ourselves to fulfill.

In January of 1995, I wrote:

All around us, people are in need:

Children are growing up amidst societal forces we have never even dreamed of.
For the most part they know no place to get their bearings for a moral compass. Morality, ethics, and even good manners, have vague description.
They don’t even know there is a Golden Rule, much less what it may be.

Parents need so much help with the almost impossible task of raising children in today’s world.

Older Adults need safe, caring, stimulating places to be.
Loneliness is an incubator for a whole host of physical, mental, and emotional problems.

Single Young Adults need ways of exercising their souls as well as their bodies and minds. Care for their needs is paramount as self-esteem lessens as years of aloneness go by.

I firmly believe that our faith has a message for all of the folks around us.
People need what we have to give. People need to hear what we have to say.

Not only do people need what we have to offer, but we have a stake in offering.
We have an obligation to enable all people to be more fully who God intends for them to be.
It’s a Christ-like thing to do.

I am reminded that when Norman Vincent Peale first went to the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, he preached to 40 or 50 people each Sunday morning.
After about six months, he told his wife that people needed to hear what the faith has to say,
if they won’t come to hear it, he would have to get it to them in other ways.
And so he wrote, and published, and spoke in public forums at every opportunity.
Of course, a by-product of getting the word out to everyone is that more people will come.

Norman Vincent Peale realized that Marble Collegiate Church had to reinvent itself in order to continue to be in ministry. And they did. And the rest is history as countless millions of people all over the world have been influenced by their work.

This is our time of opportunity here at Christ Presbyterian Church.
We need everyone praying for this church and the vision that might revealed to us about what our ministry may look like in the years ahead.

Please commit yourself to take time to pray.
And as ideas come to you, jot them down and pass them to your pastor.

Lets all work together on Vision 2012.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Order of the Golden Cross


On our Anniversary Sunday, February 6, we will again recognize and honor the members of
Christ Presbyterian Church who have been a part of our community for fifty years or longer.
We are fortunate and thankful for their long witness among us.
This is an opportunity for the rest of us to seek them out and let them know of our prayers for them.

The Golden Cross Class of 2011:


Catherine (Clark) Guiles
Nason Clark
Connie (McGann) Hodnett
George Guiles
Virginia Briner Anderson
Dorothy (Weber) Clark
Clara de Orsay
Eleanor Bechtel
Jean (Smedley) Stump
Barbara Anne Daebler
Eleanor Rebman
Deborah Harkins
Katherine Tannahill
Robert Reber
Clara Riddagh
Edwin Riddagh
Mary Raterink
Janet Gille
James Gille
Carolyn Mills
Marianne Weening
John Adamson

Capturing A Vision We Can Believe In

This is our time of opportunity here at Christ Presbyterian Church.

This month we celebrate 84 years of Christ’s ministry in Drexel Hill.

In 1927, 47 people petitioned the Presbytery to charter a new church in the new community of Drexel Hill.

Those “pioneers” were enthusiastic.
They exhibited a strong faith.
They were hope-full.
They were optimistic, to be sure.
But, perhaps even more importantly, they had a strong sense that a church should be here in the heart of their community.

And, they dedicated themselves to the cause.

Who among them could have foreseen the deep depression that struck the country within months?

In the past few months, I have thought often of the folks that were trying to build a church here – only to find the bottom fall out of the whole economy.

For them, priorities changed rapidly.

Certainly, monetary resources dried up.

But, somehow, in some way, their faith, their hope, their dream did not.
In fact, in many ways, the church thrived.

Within ten years talk turned to expansion.

A new building was deemed necessary – and while the economy was still depressed, plans were made to start construction.

These folks believed in the future.
These folks believed they needed a church in their community.

And then, a world war broke out.
Even in the midst of a war those people financed and built a facility dedicated to “the worship and service of Almighty God”.

The past 84 years have seen wars and rumors of wars, faltering economies, uncertain times, and changing populations – and through it all, the community of Christ continued and witnessed and worked and worshiped.

There is no way those 47 folks in 1927 could have foreseen all that was to befall them and their neighbors.

But, they had a vision.
They had a belief.
A church was needed.

And what about us?

84 years from now what will be said about us?

I know, there are some among us who say, “Who cares?”
Then, I think:
84 years ago, there were people who cared.

Time was, folks here had a vision.
Time was, folks here had a belief.
Time was, folks here were convinced that a church was needed in their neighborhood.
But, what about now?

The opportunity is for us to capture a vision that we can believe in:
a vision that projects out into the days and years ahead.

Oh, the church of tomorrow may not look like the church of yesterday.
The church of tomorrow may include shared ministerial leadership.
The church of tomorrow may use different space to worship in and to conduct ministry out of.
The church of tomorrow may include younger and younger people as well as older and older people.
The church of tomorrow will certainly rely on the internet more and more.

I invite you to join me in conjuring a vision of Christ Church for tomorrow:
a vision that we can believe in,
a vision that will inform our work and witness here in the days ahead.

Last month I wrote of Vision 2012
With the new year and the culmination of the sale of our building, it is time to think seriously about the future ministry of Christ Presbyterian Church:
what might it look like?
where might it be?
what might it mean (for you and me and whoever else we might be serving)?

My hope is that by the time the next new year rolls around, we would have a pretty clear vision of what this ministry (or ministries) might look like, and even be on our way implementing the new vision.

I firmly believe that our faith has a message for all of the folks around us.
People need what we have to give. People need to hear what we have to say.

Not only do people need what we have to offer, but we have a stake in offering.
We have an obligation to enable all people to be more fully who God intends for them to be.
It’s a Christ-like thing to do.

I am reminded that when Norman Vincent Peale first went to the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, he preached to 40 or 50 people each Sunday morning.
After about six months, he told his wife that people needed to hear what the faith has to say,
if they won’t come to hear it, he would have to get it to them in other ways.
And so he wrote, and published, and spoke in public forums at every opportunity.
Of course, a by-product of getting the word out to everyone is that more people will come.

Norman Vincent Peale realized that Marble Collegiate Church had to reinvent itself in order to continue to be in ministry.
And they did.
And the rest is history as countless millions of people all over the world have been influenced by their work.

This is our time of opportunity here at Christ Presbyterian Church.
We need everyone praying for this church and the vision that might revealed to us about what our ministry may look like in the years ahead.

Please commit yourself to take time to pray.
And as ideas come to you, share them here.

Christians Putting Their Faith On the Line in Cairo


Among many unnoticed heroic actions - Christians form a human chain around Muslims at prayer during demonstrations in Cairo.

Facing the Day Ahead

The new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.

It is good that we begin a new year every year about this time, don’t you think?

As strange as it might seem, the new year did not always begin on January 1!

To be sure, there almost always has been a celebration of the beginning of the new year, but it used to begin March 25. Yep, going back to the ancient Babylonians, some 4000 years ago, and for long periods of time since then, folks celebrated the new year in conjunction with Spring – marking the end of winter and the beginning of new growth.

In fact, it wasn’t until 1752 that England decreed that January 1 would mark the beginning of the new year there and in the colonies.

But, still, the fact is that most people in the world do not mark the beginning of the new year on January 1.

Jews the world over mark the beginning of the new year in September or October.

Hindus in different parts of India celebrate the new year on various dates.

Muslims use a calendar that has 354 days in most years so their new year falls on different dates as well.

The Chinese New Year begins between January 21 and February 19.

The Thai New Year is celebrated in April 13 to April 15.

The Vietnamese New Year is the TĂȘt Nguyen Dan and is celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year.

But, we take time just after the darkest time of the year, just as the days get longer, as things change, as more and more light illumines our lives,
to remember where we’ve been,
to remember what we’ve done,
to remember what has happened,
perhaps to evaluate our experiences,
perhaps to celebrate the moments of epiphany,
perhaps to grieve at what has been lost,
and then to look ahead to the days to come.

It is in the looking ahead that our faith gets expressed.
One study has concluded that on average each American makes 1.8 New Year’s resolutions each year.

Well, I know some don’t make any resolutions, because they don’t need the guilt attached to failed expectations.
But, resolutions can be powerful tools for behavior and attitudinal change.
I have seen it work time and time again.

Resolutions can be powerful tools if you write them down.
Resolutions can be powerful tools if you display them prominently on the refrigerator door or the bedroom mirror.
Resolutions can be powerful tools if you refer to them daily,
if you say them out loud,
if you include them in your prayers.

New Year’s Day may be the most active-minded holiday, because it is the one where people evaluate their lives and plan and resolve to take some kind of action.

It is no accident that the ancient Romans named this month January – after Janus, the god of gates, doors, and beginnings.

Janus is always depicted as having two faces, one looking forward and one looking backward.

And, that’s what we do, isn’t it?
We look back on the days past.
And we look forward to the days to come.

As we look forward to the days to come, let us remember that the Psalmist reminds us that each of our days are God-given. What we do with them is up to us. How we spend them is up to us. How we get through them is up to us.

Frets and anxieties and regrets have a way of festering and infecting our lives with unhealthiness. Let’s rid ourselves of them. Misplaced allegiances and unrecognized debts foster unhappiness, unpleasantness and, ultimately, an unfulfilled life.

Let us follow the clue left by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
Because, that’s what we believe, isn’t it?
That’s what we hear and say each Sunday in church.

He or she is rich who owns the day,
and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
Finish every day and be done with it.
Some blunders and absurdities
no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can;
tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely,
with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
The new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.


Yes! Yes! Yes! With its hopes and invitations, the new day is too dear to waste a moment on the yesterdays.

This is a call to each of us.
This is a call to our church.

Resolve to pray for your church each day in 2011.
Resolve to pray for all who worship here in 2011.
Resolve to pray for those who need to hear the message we proclaim in 2011.