Vacation Bible School – July 12 – 16, 2010

The Ecumenical Church of Pueblo West will host our annual VBS this year from July 12 – 16th, from 5 – 8 pm. (dinner is included) Children ages 4 – 12 yrs. will learn the important milestones of the bible through singing, activities, crafts and skits.   There is no charge to attend VBS and every child is welcome.

Each day will be a different theme from an important lesson in the bible.  We will end on Friday with a family bbq so that your children can show you what they have learned, the crafts they have made and the friends they have met. We will end the evening with the children singing songs for you.

We are asking that each child bring a white cotton shirt (t-shirt, tank top, etc…) on Tuesday.  The shirts will be tie dyed and the kids will wear them for the final day of VBS. (each child will tie dye their own shirt)

If you have any questions, please call the church office at 547-3088 or email Ammie Thomas, Children’s Ministry TEAM leader at children@ecopw.com

You can pre-register your children by contacting the church office or you can come early (4:45 pm) on Monday, June 12th and register your children then.

We look forward to seeing you at VBS!!

Community Survey

We have put together a survey for the Pueblo West / Pueblo community to determine how we can better server those in our area.  Please take a moment and help us by answering the questions we have compiled.

Begin Survey

Thank you for helping us better serve you and your family!

The Staff of the Ecumenical Church of Pueblo West

Spring Gardening

Do you play “Let’s make a deal” with God?

“I will bring burnt offerings to your house; I will offer you what I promised.  I will give you what I said I would when I was in trouble.” Psalm 66:13-14

At first when I read this it sounded so positive…and it is positive.  But as I continued to read it again I realized something.  The Psalmist bringing an  offering to God.  That sounds good.  Then the Psalmist says he is bringing the offering he promised to God…again, that sounds really good.  However, then the writer says, “I will give you what I said I would when I was in trouble…”  HuH?  What is that about? I suspect we all can identify with the Psalmist.  Well, all of us who have experienced trouble, anyway.  When bad things come our way, especially if they are bad things of our own making, we have a tendency to play “Let’s make a deal” with God.  God if you get me out of this… or God if you will only do this, I promise to never do that, or promise to change… I’ve been there and done that!

In the Burt Reynolds movie “The End”, there is a great scene where Burt is about to drown.  As he is looking at the shore he begins to promise God that if God lets him live he will give God 10% of everything he makes.  As he grows more tired his offering increases.  When the shore is almost in reach but he doesn’t think he will make it, he is up to 90%!  “God I will give you 90%.  I really mean it this time”, he says.  As he crawls up on the beach he loudly proclaims his thanks to God for saving him by proclaiming, “Just like I said God, I will give you 10% of everything I make!”

Sounds a little like our Psalmist, doesn’t it.  Only the Psalmist is keeping his promise…we hope.

The problem is the when I, Mr. Reynolds or the Psalmist play “Let’s make a deal” with God we do so from a false place.  God can take my life anytime.  God already owns me and all the resources.  As a follower of Jesus, everything I have or will ever have is God’s.  I have nothing to bargain with.  I have nothing to offer God that God can’t just take anytime He wants.  What I am trying to say is that there is nothing I offer to God when I am in trouble that I shouldn’t be offering to Him every day.  My life, my money, my family, my house, my car, anything I am or will ever be has already been bought and paid for by God by Jesus’ death and resurrection.   Praise God!

I should be offering up to God everything every day!  I will be trying to do a better job of that, starting this moment.  I hope you will, too.

Haiti – Help Provide Assistance to Haiti

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.

Give Online Here

Grapevine – January 2010

December 30, 2009

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.