What’s inside?

p. 1 – message from Pastor Ron

p. 2 – Messages for children and youth from Kristie Cocking, children’s minister, and Reggie Camarse, youth minister.

p.3 – Activities calendar for the month of November.  Remember to vote on Nov. 4!

p.4 – Bible readings for the month of November, a summary of the New Orleans mission trip, and announcements of children’s, youth, and women’s mission programs.

p.5 – Birthdays and Anniversaries for November, and the Operation Christmas Child mission project.

p.6 – November Church servers calendar

p.7 – Student ministry page especially for youth and young adults – Reggie Camarse – youth minister

p.8 – First announcement of the 2008 Christmas Drive Thru. Volunteers needed for many things.

Click on the link below to access the full newsletter.

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In the month of October we recognize a tradition that has been popular since we understood that sugar was sweet.  It’s funny to think that even the youngest of children can grasp the possibilities of free candy.  Traveling from house to house, gathering as much candy in the quickest manner possible.  With age, kids can even begin to decipher where the “good” houses or blocks are.  However, it may be a little bit more difficult for children to understand that this candy is essentially from strangers and that taking candy from them opposes one of the fundamental rules we teach the young… “Don’t take candy from strangers”.

In our Wednesday Night Program we have been teaching our students about the need for Truth in our post-modern world, where truth is considered relative; where truth for one person isn’t necessarily truth for another.  We have been teaching our students that the Bible transcends these false pretenses and that the Bible offers the only real Truth.  The reason that we are going through these lessons is because of different “truths” that our teens are exposed to.  They receive “truth” ranging from little tidbits to full lessons from various teachers, friends, friend’s parents, neighbors, television, books, anything and everywhere.

Much like the candy that our neighbors pass out and our children quickly grab and stuff into their orange plastic pumpkin heads (which certainly do not hold enough), different, unfiltered truths are being put into their actual heads and minds.  When our kids get home from a night of trick-or-treating, we hopefully take the time to go through their candy, and make sure that they do not have anything that looks suspicious or questionable, or maybe even dangerous.   We try to filter out the bad stuff so that they can enjoy the good stuff.  This is the goal of our Wednesday Night Program, to help our students filter out the “bad” stuff, the various false “truths” that our students are exposed to, and help them to enjoy the good stuff, the absolute truth of the Bible.

In Romans 12:2 it says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing, and perfect will.” Out of this passage, we can see that we shouldn’t just accept the various “truths” that are handed out to us by strangers.  We shouldn’t take their candy.  So why, without careful biblical consideration, should we take their words?

New Brighton Christian Church has always been a strong supporter of missions. It is a privilege and an honor to extend the ministry of our congregation across the country and around the world.

We may never meet them, but there are children at a ranch in Montana who will find family and a saving relationship with Jesus through our support of Pinehaven Christian Children’s Ranch. Our support of the Minnesota Christian Evangelizing Association extends and expands the Restoration Movement through the planting of new churches. Fellowship of Associates of Medical Evangelism and International Disaster Emergency Services respond with Christian love and resources to catastrophic events around the world. Some of us have spent time in the Dominican Republic with Kingdom Builders Christian Ministries. We are supporters of Christian Student Fellowship at the University of Minnesota, over the last five years 37,900 students have made decisions for Christ through the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.

Campus ministry is very strategic. It focuses on college students, who to a great extent are in a personal time of searching and change. For those students who are already Christian these ministries provide a caring, supportive group of likeminded students. For those who are not Christian, campus ministries provide an opportunity for seeking students to find answers to spiritual questions. And for those students who come from other states, or even other countries, they will return home as a new person, sharing with their family and friends their new life in Christ.

God has been working in this way for a long time. In Old Testament times God more than once dispersed the Jews among the nations, and one of the effects was to make known the name of the Lord. Ezekiel 36:23 says, “I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.” Acts 8:1 tells us that in a persecution of the church in Jerusalem and almost all the believers were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria, and Acts 8:4 says, “Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.” This looks like a partial fulfillment of Jesus’ command in Acts 1:8 that “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”, and his commission in Matthew 28:19 to “go and make disciples of all nations.”

Not many of us can go to the ends of the earth, and how do we go to all nations? Colleges and universities are places where the nations come to us. And through campus ministry we can reach people from the ends of the earth.

Reaching students and visiting scholars from Korea is the ministry of Korean Grace Church. Korean Grace Church is the newest ministry we are supporting, but in a different way than we support our other missions. We are inviting Korean Grace Church to share our facilities, to worship in our building, to help people we would never meet come to a saving relationship with Christ.

In the same way that we may never see those who are ministered to as a result of ministry in Montana or the Dominican Republic, we may never see those who come into a relationship with Christ as a result of the ministry of Korean Grace Church.

Until we get to heaven.

Yes, we are sharing a physical building. But more importantly, we are sharing the love of God and the gospel of Christ for all eternity.

Imagine that you are a Christian living in a time and a place where being a Christian is barely tolerated, in a “don’t ask, don’t tell” kind of way. One summer evening a fire breaks out, and even with the best efforts of the firemen and the National Guard the fire burns for 7 nights and 6 days. Then when it looks like the blaze is finally contained, it flares up again and burns for another 3 days. By the time it’s done, almost ¾ of one of the largest cities in the world has been destroyed; the extent of the devastation is just inconceivable.

Nobody knows for sure how the fire started. Many people believe that the king started the fire himself. And it’s possible. After all, he is a psychopathic madman. He’s already murdered his mother, his brother, 2 wives, and his teacher, along with many other prominent citizens. But the official story, the story that comes from the king himself, is that it was the Christians who started the fire. And with that pronouncement comes an official persecution of Christians unlike any other.

In the aftermath the king is described by one writer as a “proverbial monster of iniquity”. Another writer portrayed the persecution as a “carnival of blood”. Some Christians are crucified, mocking the death of Jesus. Others are sewn into wild animal skins to be attacked by wild dogs. The tragedy reached its climax when Christian men and women, covered with pitch or oil or resin, were nailed to posts of pine and burned as torches to light the king’s garden party. Imagine that it’s your wife being torn apart by the dogs. Imagine that it’s your husband being burned alive to light the path in the king’s garden.

You think it’s tough to be a Christian today? Try being a Christian in Rome about 30 years after the death of Jesus, living under the insanity of Nero. That’s where the apostle Peter was living, and it was against this backdrop of malicious persecution that he wrote the first letter that bears his name. It was in the midst of cruel torture and under the sentence of brutal and merciless death that Peter urged Christians to be different.

1 Peter 1:17-21. Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. ¹⁸ For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. ²⁰ He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. ²¹ Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

God, speaking through the apostle Peter, says in verse 17 to “live your lives as strangers.” And in the very first verse Peter addresses his letter to “God’s elect, strangers in the world.” And in chapter 2, verse 11, Peter addresses his dear friends as “aliens and strangers in the world.” I have some friends who are strange – maybe you do too – but do you call your friends strangers? Does that seem odd?

It’s always been that way for God’s people. In Acts 7:6 God told Abraham “Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own…” In Psalm 119:19 the writer describes himself by saying, “I am a stranger on earth.”  And going all the way back to the beginning, Hebrews 11:13-16 says that Abel, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham all admitted it. That they were aliens and strangers in a strange land.

Now that’s pretty good company. And the question I have for you today is, Do you belong on this list? Would God call you a stranger?

God calls us to be different. Jesus said in a world of darkness we are to be…what? The light of the world.

Jesus said in a tasteless world we are to be…what? The salt of the earth.

Jesus said in a world of hate we are to show love. In a world of immorality we are to have integrity. In a world of sexual filth we are to model purity. In a world of revenge we are to offer forgiveness. In a world of liars we are to be honest. In a world that says go along to get along, God calls us to go against the flow. God calls us to be different. To be strangers.

When Peter wrote this letter he knew what he was talking about. He didn’t write this letter as someone watching from the outside and simply giving advice; Peter was living in Rome and experienced the persecution he was writing about. In fact, Peter died in this persecution. It has been reported that Peter was crucified, but felt unworthy to die in the same way as Jesus, and so requested that he be crucified upside-down. Why would you do that? Why would you make a bad situation even worse?

It’s because he knew the best was yet to come. Peter knew that he was an alien on this earth, a stranger in a strange land. He knew that he was just visiting here while his eternal home was being built in heaven. Have you ever had to live somewhere while your home was being built? You put up with a lot of stuff, you go through a lot of inconveniences, but it’s worth it because it’s temporary. You’re a stranger in someone else’s house but you know that someday you’ll be moving into your brand new home.

In this world there will always be Neros. There will always be someone to harass you for your faith, someone to ridicule your beliefs, someone who wants to blame you for their problems. You might be tempted to give in, to hide the fact that you are a stranger. Or you might just stand your ground, knowing that for the Christian who is born again and lives his life as a stranger, the best is yet to come.

With the launch of the recent New Brighton Christian Church web site there are 5 new ways of receiving and sharing the messages, news, and events of the church. Many folks may not be familiar with these new methods yet but they are rapidly becoming popular and even mainstream in today’s online world and well worth the effort for spreading love and faith.   

• Email Updates: This is an easy one to start with. If you have an email address you can have every article that is posted on nbcc.cc delivered to your email address. Simply click on the email updates icon at the bottom of the nbcc home page and submit your email address. Be sure to confirm your subscription by clicking a link in a confirmation email that the subscription service will send you. Once you do this, each day that nbcc.cc has an item posted to it you will receive an email of that day’s posts. You can cancel your subscription any time and your email is kept private.
• RSS Feed: RSS readers are a great way to receive and read news and information from all sorts of sources in a fast, easy and orderly way. If you are unfamiliar with RSS feeds you will find a great summary at this Feeds 101 help page. The new nbcc.cc web site publishes a feed of all its content. All you need to do is click the RSS Feed icon at the bottom of the nbcc home page and subscribe to the feed using your choice of feed readers. Most browsers have some sort of feed reader capabilities but you will find that Google Reader or Bloglines are easier applications to use. Give it a shot, you will be glad you did!
• Calendar: The NBCC calendar is power by Google Calendar and is shared to the public which allows you to add the whole calendar or individual events to your own Google calendar and also your Outlook calendar, your iphone, or other calendars. Click the Google calendar button at the bottom right of the calendar and get signed up today or take a look at the Google Calendar tour for more information.
• ShareThis: At the bottom of every post written at nbcc.cc you will see a ShareThis icon. Clicking this button will open a panel of options for you to share the post you are viewing with the world. I counted ShareThis as only “one” in my list of 5 new ways to Connect with NBCC but in fact within it, it contains almost 50 ways to share. There are 3 tabs to the share panel; Social Web, Post, and Send Email. The Social Web option contains popular social sites such as Facebook, MySpace, StumbleUpon, Google Bookmarks, Technorati and many more and prepopulate fields with the current NBCC post’s url making it easy to share and comment on. The Post tab creates an easy way to start a post to your own blog or even micro-blog such as Twitter. The Send Email tab gives you an easy way to send a quick email that contains a link to the NBCC post and a short note to your friends and family.
• Google Map: The New Brighton Christian Church map page contains a google map showing folks where the church is. Google maps has a feature where people can post reviews of places that are on the map. This means you can post your review on Google and share the good news of NBCC and how you appreciate your church! This kind of word of mouth communications can help NBCC grow. To post your review: Click on the ‘A’ pin marker in the church map locating NBCC to center the word cloud. Click the New Brighton Christian Church title in the word cloud which will take you to the Google Maps page for NBCC. Towards the top of the Google map page for NBCC just under the New Brighton Christian Church text you will see a link saying “Write A Review“. Click on that link, log into or create a Google account and write your review. Let’s spread the word on Google about NBCC!!!

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10-26-08

Matthew 6:16-18

To go without food for a day, or three days, or forty days, sounds pretty radical, doesn’t it? The society we live in encourages us to satisfy our desires, to go get whatever we want, and get it now rather than later. 

We’re not used to going without our soup, or our Big Macs, or much of anything else, for that matter. So why should we fast? What can we possibly gain spiritually by going without food physically?

Download “No Soup For You!: nbcc_sermon_08_10_26

or…press the play button to listen.

In B.O.L.D. Kids, we’ve been going through a series of lessons entitled “Flipt.”
Being “flipt” means that when we meet Jesus and understand what He teaches, we change (or flip) the way we think and behave. Each week, there has been a Flipt Family Challenge – a way to continue the learning & the flip at home.

October 22
The Flip:
Flip What’s First
Bible Verse:
But put God’s Kingdom first. Do what He wants you to do. Then all of those things will also be given to you. (Matthew 6:33)

Flipt Family Challenge
Discuss what things are most important for each family member. Look at your schedule together as a family and see if your time is spent doing the things that are most important. If not, choose one or two ways you can make more time in your schedule for the things you want to be priorities.

10-19-08

1 Thessalonians 5:17

The most desperate need in the church today is not for more dedicated volunteers or more talented musicians or more gifted preachers; the most desperate need in the church today is for more deep believers. When the ancients wanted to go deeper in their relationship with God they practiced something called spiritual disciplines. The first discipline we want to talk about is the one we’re all probably most familiar with: prayer. 

Download “Miracle on 34th Street”

 or…press the play button to listen.

Rehearsals for the Children’s Christmas Program will begin in mid-November. We will practice on Wednesday nights. Please contact Kristie if you’d like to participate.