This Summer we are looking at the Gospel of Mark in Worship. I love this Gospel I find it challenging and life giving every time I read it. Here is one of my favorite scriptures from Mark 8:34-35.
“34 After calling the crowd together with his disciples, Jesus said to them, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. 35 All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me and because of the good news will save them.” ~Mark 8:34-35 (CEB)
How can we take up the cross and follow Jesus? How can we say no to ourselves? It’s as simples as Do No Harm, Do Good and Stay in love with God. These are the General Rules of The United Methodist Church. With one change. The last rule is written as “By attending upon all the ordinances of God.” (pg. 79 of the 2018 UMC Book of Discipline) Ruben Job in his book the Three Simple Rules calls the last rule, Staying In Love with God. Job’s book Three Simple Rules has made a huge impact how I live my life as a follower of Jesus Christ. A disciple of Jesus Christ follows these three simple rules. If you want to pick up a copy of this book. I have a free copy in my office drop by and I will give you a copy at no cost.
Here are somethings around the Church that I want you to be aware of.
This fall we are going to do another all Church Study starting on September 9th on Adam Hamilton’s book called Forgiveness. We have some copies in the office that can be purchased for $15.00 if you want us to order some for your Sunday School class please let the office know how many we can order for you. We will do this a lot like we did when we did the Moses Study.
Are you interested in being a part of our Sunday Evening Service? If so, please contact me so we can put together a new design team to help reboot our Sunday evening service.
If you are interested in leading a small group or a short-term study, please talk to Pastor Shana. We are going to have a training for Sunday School teachers and Small Group leaders July 29th after worship. We know that in order to help people grow in their faith we need to have places for this to occur and we want to help those established groups to figure out what could they do better.
Are you interested in serving in Worship? We could always use Ushers, Greeters, Computer people, sound people and many other areas for you to serve in worship. If this is where God is calling you to serve speak to me.
Thank you. I have had a fun year serving as your Pastor. We are doing great things living into our mission of being a Church of Open Hearts, Open Minds and Open Doors as we make Disciples of Jesus Christ who transform the world. I am excited to come back for year two as your Lead Pastor. Let’s make this year even better than last year.
Peace Be with you,
Pastor Matt Franks
matt.franks@tahlequahumc.org
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