Haiti – Help Provide Assistance to Haiti
by admin on January 18, 2010
in Blogs, Ecumenical Church, From Pastor Bill, Uncategorized
The Ecumenical Church of Pueblo West has joined in the need to help Haiti. If you are able to help, we recommend that you go through The Presbyterian Church, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) link below, or you may give during our church service and we will send the money directly to PDA.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is responding in Haiti. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has already sent funds and is working in cooperation with our ecumenical partners on the ground to provide emergency food, water, shelter and medical supplies. Please pray for those affected and give to the ongoing relief through PDA account number DR000064. Gifts can also be made by phone at (800) 872-3283, and checks can be mailed to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, P.O. Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700.
Grapevine – January 2010
by admin on January 4, 2010
in Blogs, Grapevine - Newletter
December 30, 2009
JANUARY 2010
_____________________________
JANUARY EVENTS
Jan 1 – New Years Day
Jan 3 – Guest Speaker, Ron Coffin
Jan 5 – Finance Committee @ 6:30 pm
Jan 9 – Men’s Breakfast @ 8:00 am
Jan 10 – Blood Drive @ 9:00 am
Jan 16 – Remove church decorations @ 1:00 pm
Jan 19 – Worship Committee @ 6:30 pm
Jan 23 – Costume Committee @ 9:30 am
CONTINUING EVENTS
Mon @ 5:30 – Parenting Class
Wed @ 5:30 pm – Fellowship dinner
Wed @ 6:00 pm – Adult Bible Study
Wed @ 6:00 pm – Youth & Children
Groups
Wed @ 7:00 pm – Choir practice
GUEST SPEAKER
On January 3rd Ron Coffin will be our guest speaker. Mr. Coffin is the Director of Development for the Sangre de Cristo Hospice. He earned his doctorate in Sociology of Religion from the University of Strasbourg in France and also holds an MBA from the University of Phoenix. He has more than 25 years of health care experience and directed a hospice for five years. He and his team are responsible for marketing, public relations and fund development. He gets excited when he can share Sangre de Hospice & Palliative Care’s strategic vision to improve access to end-of-life care in Southeastern Colorado with others and believes that everyone has an important story to tell.
FINANCIAL PEACE
UNIVERSITY
Coordinator Randy Schade will again present the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University beginning on February 1st. Class will begin at 6:00 pm and will be about three hours in duration. Financial Peace University consist of a 13 week video curriculum – taught by Dave Ramsey- that incorporates small-group discussion to encourage accountability and discipleship. Financial Peace University is highly entertaining for everyone, with a unique combination of humor, informative financial advice and biblical messages. More than one million families have already had their lives changed by attending FPU. For more information contact Randy Schade at 547-1322.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
NOVEMBER MEETING
The November meeting of the Board of Directors was opened with prayer by Diane Preuss. Tony Schwinghammer led the devotion.
Randy Schade presented the school financial report. The school is reviewing and making improvements to the process of credit card payments for tuition.
Joy Cress reported that an iron gate has been installed and will be soon be ready for use. The school will be undergoing a security and safety review by the Sheriff’s office in the near future. Joy is continuing to review future options for the school as they pertain to expansion and location.
The Thrifty Threads storefront lease was found to be unsatisfactory and will not be accepted by the church. A lease for a different property has been proposed and will be reviewed by a lawyer before future action.
Application for membership by Curtis and Roma Atkinson was reviewed.
GRAPEVINE
The deadline for the February issue of “The Grapevine” will be January 21st. If you have anything you would like published please contact Ron Dexheimer at 647-1717 or email fishermandex @msn.com. If you have an email address and wish to be notified when the newsletter is available online please provide it to Ron. The Grapevine is now online at ecopwgrapevine.blogspot.com.
REPENTANCE
The New Testament word for repentance means changing one’s mind so that one’s views, values, goals, and ways are changed and one’s whole life is lived differently. The change is radical, both inwardly and outwardly; mind and judgment, will and affections, behavior and life-style, motives and purposes, are all involved. Repenting means starting to live a new life. The call to repent was the first and fundamental summons in the preaching of John the Baptist (Matt. 3:2), Jesus (Matt. 4:17), the Twelve (Mark 6:12), Peter at Pentecost (Acts 2:38), Paul to the Gentiles (Acts 17:30; 26:20), and the glorified Christ to five of the seven churches in Asia (Rev. 2:5, 16, 22; 3:3, 19). It was part of Jesus’ summary of the gospel that was to be taken to the world (Luke 24:47). It corresponds to the constant summons of the Old Testament prophets to Israel to return to the God from whom they had strayed (e.g., Jer. 23:22; 25:4-5; Zech. 1:3-6). Repentance is always set forth as the path to remission of sins and restoration to God’s favor, impenitence as the road to ruin (e.g., Luke 13:1-8). Repentance is a fruit of faith, which is itself a fruit of regeneration. But in actual life, repentance is inseparable from faith, being the negative aspect (faith is the positive aspect) of turning to Christ as Lord and Savior. The idea that there can be saving faith without repentance, and that one can be justified by embracing Christ as Savior while refusing him as Lord, is a destructive delusion. True faith acknowledges Christ as what he truly is, our God-appointed king as well as our God-given priest, and true trust in him as Savior will express itself in submission to him as Lord also. To refuse this is to seek justification through an impenitent faith, which is no faith. In repentance, says the Westminster Confession, a sinner, out of the sight and sense not only of the danger, but also the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, as contrary to the holy nature, and righteous law of God; and upon the apprehension of his mercy in Christ to such as are penitent; so grieves for, and hates his sins, as to turn from them all unto God, purposing and endeavoring to walk with him in all ways of his commandments. (XV.2) This statement highlights the fact that incomplete repentance, sometimes called “attrition” (remorse, self-reproach, and sorrow for sin generated by fear of punishment, without any wish or resolve to forsake sinning) is insufficient. True repentance is “contrition,” as modeled by David in Psalm 51, having at its heart a serious purpose of sinning no more but of living henceforth a life that will show one’s repentance to be full and real (Luke 3:8; Acts 26:20). Repenting of any vice means going in the opposite direction, to practice the virtues most directly opposed to it. This article was excerpted from Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs by J. I. Packer.