The Messenger December 2007

Click to read North Branch Reformed Church’s monthly newsletter:
The Messenger December 2007

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The Shepherd’s Kids and Young Adult News December 2007

Click to read the latest issue of North Branch Reformed Church’s monthly newsletter for children, teens and college students:
The Shepherd’s Kids and Young Adult News December 2007

Note: You need an Adobe PDF reader installed to read a PDF document. If you don’t have one installed, you can download a free PDF reader at www.adobe.com.

Sermon 11/25/2007

GOD’S ADVENT SONG: Joy to the World the Church is Here!Rarely is this said about organized religion today, but I Love the Church!  And, I Love This church!! With Bill Hybels I agree that the church is the hope of the world! 

Now I know that this isn’t an opinion shared by as many today.  What with televangelists raking in millions, not to feed the poor but to feed their luxury.  What with clergy scandals—both Protestant and Catholic.  And what with religious extremism fanning the flames of war, religion has a lot for which to repent.  So as a member of the clergy let me admit:  there is nothing worse than bad religion.  But hear also: there is nothing better than good religion.  If you agree that there is much more good religion than makes the news let’s investigate this morning:  what’s right with the church.The Psalmist sets the theme for chapter 122 in the verse 1.  Read it gladly with me…  Now some scholars believe that this happy song was sung by the pilgrims return-ing home from one of the three great feasts in Jerusalem.  During an eight-day festival like Passover the pilgrims would experience the grandeur of the city, the blessings of temple worship, great food and fun like Thanksgiving. A healthy break to the daily grind. In the same way participation in church has great healing benefits.  Take a look at this chart from the Director of the Duke University’s Center for the Study of Religion and Health, Dr. Harold Koenig.
    

Wow!  To sum up the healthy effects of church: weekly worship attendance has the same health benefit as to quit smoking!!  (Now don’t attend church to smoke more…!)

What’s right with the church?  Not only does God bless your health through church, God blesses the community through you.  Church people are consistently among the most likely to volunteer in their communities.  Historically we know that many insti-tutions that we take for granted got their start through the church: hospitals, social service agencies, universities, etc.  The church is God’s means to heal people and communities.But the most important thing that’s right with the church is that it’s the house of God.  In the Old Testament the house of the Lord was the temple. In the gospels the temple was Jesus of whom we’ll read at Christmas, the word became flesh and [literally] tabernacled among us.  For God most closely lived among us in Jesus.  In the epistles the temple is the church about which the apostle Paul said you are the temple of the Holy Spirit!   Jesus lives with us and in us!  God shines out our soul’s windows.

Let me tell you how that works.  Norma Fausak is one of our members who is frequently in and out of the hospital, most often to get her heart in rhythm.  Last week before the procedure to scope out around her heart, whatever that’s called, Norma was talking with her doctors.  As each came to her bedside one by one she would say: Are you here to join my team?  Your team?  Yes, my team.  But you have to do one thing to be on my team.  What’s that? one by one they’d ask.  You have to be willing to ask the Great Physician to guide your hands.  One by one they’d smile… and join her team.  Shining out the cracked window of her soul was Christ’s light because she is the temple of God. That’s what’s right with the church, and why I love it and why I believe it is the hope of the world!  Will you love it with me?  Will you join my team?!  Amen.

Men’s Breakfast at St Bernard’s on December 8 at 7:30 AM

Once again the members of the St. Bernard Men’s Club invite the men of The North Branch Reformed Church to join them at their annual Christmas breakfast. As in the past, the breakfast will consist of steak and eggs and good olde Christmas carol sing-a-long. 

The breakfast will be held on Saturday morning, December 8, 2007 from 7:30 to 9a.m. in the Parish Center. Please advise Pastor Todd or Wes Frueh by December 3rd if you are planning to attend.

Sermon 11-11-2007

That’s Random! Or, The Names of God: Sovereign Lord
Acts 4:23-31

That’s random! is a comment that I often hear among youth these days. It’s a fun, harmless comment that seems to translate into old peoples’ language as something like:

Now taken to it’s adult, logical extreme that’s random could lead us to believe that the heavenly throne is empty. 150 years ago Frederich Nietzche popularized the God is dead philosophy. By this he meant, not that God is laid out in a coffin, but that the idea of God can no longer order life and morality. Nietzche took life to be, well, random. Without a divine center life becomes meaningless. Nihilism, Neitzche called it. However, his own philosophy drove him mad so he spent much of the last 11 years of his life in the German version of Carrier Clinic, never recovering from a mental breakdown.

CHANGE. Trin, Trin, denkt daroom wat je doet! My grandmother heard Trin’s mother yell from across the road as Trin was about to enter Grandpa’s church. What did Trin need to think about before entering, not a bar but, the sanctuary? She needed to consider whether God would not toss a lightening bolt her way because she was entering an English service to sing hymns—rather than the inspired psalms that they sang in the afternoon Dutch service. Dutch psalms sounded like funeral dirges, Gram said. 75 years ago Grandpa weathered the last major worship music change from psalms to hymns.
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Sermon 11-04-2007

THE NAMES OF GOD: The Holy One of Israel
Ps. 71:22, 78:41, 89:18

As baby names have shifted over the years so have Gods names. In `52 my oldest brother was named, Jack Allen. Brother Jack named his son Matthew Peter. Pete, as he prefers to be called, just named his son, Grayson Noah. (I wasnt consulted.)

In those same 55 years we have gone from calling God holy to calling God love. Every Sunday 50 years ago we sang todays closing hymn: Holy, holy, holyto keep us morally pure. Today we tend to think that Gods love is so complete our beliefs or actions dont matter. So we tolerate everything, and judge nothing. All we need is love!

We see this in the areas of salvation, sex and violence. In salvation weve gone from worrying whether recent fire victims will get into heaven before a holy God to expecting a loving God to, per one Surveyor, send everyone to heaven except those who reject him. In sex weve gone from good boys/girls dont before a holy God to a casual love is sex before a loving God. In violence weve gone from a reluctance to enter World War II before a holy God to threatening Iran with World War III before a tolerant God.

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Logo Contest Entries Due By 11-18-2007

Logo Contest: For several years, this sketch of NBRC has appeared on our letterhead. With the exciting changes happening at NBRC, it is time to update our image with a new NBRC logo. The logo we seek will symbolize the feel/concept of NBRC and may be more than the building.

Please submit your ideas for the logo to Doris in the office by Sunday, November 18th. The winner will be announced on Sunday, December 2nd.

Sign Up For Annual Blood Drive

The annual Blood Drive will be held Saturday, December 1st, from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

Sign up in Fellowship Hall. Call Sandy Urstadt at (908) 369-4333 for any questions. Please help us have a great turnout for this very important mission!

From the Pastor - November

“I think we made a very good choice!” said one of the youth sponsors that was able to spend a little time with Mark Swart this past Sunday. “I agree,” I replied. So I want to use my article this month to help introduce Mark as I am getting to know him because I believe him to be God’s choice for North Branch. And, as of this writing, it looks like he’ll be here in early November.
Mark is…
…passionate about youth. Three months ago I would have thought, That’s nice, but having spent the last two months with the Senior High youth group, I think this quality is critical. God has given us this abundant blessing of many youth in our church. We need one pastor who is deeply committed to stewarding this gift. For these young people need godly guidance.
…comfortable in his own skin. I’m sure that preaching on Sunday, and meeting so many new people might have been somewhat nerve-wracking for him, but I was impressed how he stayed within himself. He didn’t seem to try to be anyone that God hadn’t created him to be. He came to the ‘Ville football game on Friday night when he wanted to meet people, and he turned down an offer on Monday night to eat supper with us because he needed alone time. I like and respect that.
I also found that “skin” is a significant part of his theology since I would describe it as incarnational theology. That is, one of the organizing principles of his thought is that the church needs to be the body of Christ as the hands and feet of Jesus today. Reminds me of that 99.1 song, if we are the body…
…trained as a teacher. Don’t quote me on this, but I believe his undergraduate focus was on teaching. At least I know that he thought about teaching as a calling for a while. When I hear him preach, I see a teacher. One way we probably complement each other is that when I preach I often seek to inspire, I think that he may seek to teach.
…enjoys sports. Especially the same teams that I root for from Michigan. Go blue! He played tennis in college and has coached the game. I could see that he understood football strategy really well as we watched the game Friday night. Connect over sports, if you can.
Look forward to getting to know him better; for in getting to know each other better we get to know Christ better. And Mark, above all, will help us know Christ better.
Peace and joy,
Pastor Todd

The Shepherd’s Kids and Young Adult News November 2007

Click to read the latest issue of North Branch Reformed Church’s monthly newsletter for children, teens and college students:
The Shepherd’s Kids and Young Adult News November 2007

Note: You need an Adobe PDF reader installed to read a PDF document. If you don’t have one installed, you can download a free PDF reader at www.adobe.com.

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