Who Cares? I hope we all do! |
|
|
Care is a many-splendored thing. In some ways it is easy, in other ways hard. Caring for ourselves is one thing, caring for others is totally different. As a church I believe it is part of our "religion" to care for one another, and to whatever degree we can, to extend care beyond our own community. As the Dalai Lama is quoted as saying,
"My religion is kindness."
Spirituality, in essence, is caring about the Lord and caring about others. We often hear this expressed in the two great commandments - the first to love the Lord above all and the second to love the neighbor. All the other commandments and teachings are based on these two and revolve around them.
My long-standing
personal mantra is "encourage healthy relationships." By that I mean continuously improve our relationships with the Lord, with the Word, and with others. This Sunday I'll focus on this mantra as an activity of "spiritual caring," and I invite you to consider what it means to you!
After the service, during the luncheon, I hope you will join me and others in a meeting to explore how we, as a congregation, can work intentionally
to increase our care in various ways. See below for more information.
Nathan
|
|
|
UPCOMING CHURCH ACTIVITIES: 11 am Sunday
Worship Service 12:00 pm Luncheon - Everyone Welcome!
12:30 pm "Who Cares? We do!" Meeting - all welcome (see below)
MONDAY 6/5/2017 No Go For It! Meeting today 11 am Tai Chi Balance BASICS
TUESDAY 6/6/2017 6:30 pm Spiritual Growth Group on PEACE, led by Frank Rose
WEDNESDAY 6/7/2017 9:30 am Worship Team - 8th meeting - open to anyone interested THURSDAY 6/8/2017
11 am Tai Chi - Yang 10 for
Beginners 7 pm Women's Group. Contact Elise G, Betsy G, or Kelly W for location 11 am Sunday Worship Service 12:00 pm Luncheon - Everyone
Welcome! 12:15 pm Sunrise Chapel Annual Meeting (see
below)
New Direction for "Serving More People Team" |
Showing We Care - Sunday, June 4There's an old saying: "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." Isn't this true in general? And
the more deeply you care about someone, the more important it can be to share information and experiences with each other.
About a year ago, a small team of people at Sunrise Chapel started a new effort to serve more people. As a church we want to be serving people in a variety of ways, including members and friends, but also extending that care to others beyond our own church
family.
That team quickly took up the challenge to serve more people through a big, weekend-long 30th anniversary celebration which we successfully pulled off in March. CONGRATULATIONS, EVERYONE! It was a blast, and we accomplished a variety of goals!
Now it's time to get together
again and refocus our efforts to serve more people in ongoing ways.
Our first meeting will be Sunday, June 4 at 12:30 pm. Everyone is welcome as we brainstorm and make some plans.
My vision and hope is that our next efforts will focus on
INCREASING OUR CARE FOR ONE ANOTHER. I am working on a series of spiritual growth tasks around the theme of THE JOY OF SPIRITUAL CARE. Maybe it will become the third in the series of Spiritual Growth books. I truly feel that we can do better to care for one another in ways that foster spiritual community, which is a core value of Sunrise Chapel. Sometimes it happens spontaneously, but other times it takes effort and coordination to care in appropriate and effective
ways.
Please consider coming to the meeting on June 4 at 12:30 pm, and helping Sunrise Chapel increase our care for one another and for the surrounding community.
Nathan
|
|
|
New Series of Spiritual Growth Meetings - Tuesday nights |
|
|
I welcome you to join me for a new series of Spiritual Growth Groups on the theme of Peace Tuesday nights at 6:30 - 8:00 pm
In the Children's
Chapel
This is a small group experience, revolving around discussion of life-oriented tasks designed to encourage reflection about spirituality in down-to-earth practice. It is a new series on the topic of experiencing peace. Everyone is welcome to participate. Looking forward to another series.
Note: We will not meet on July 4 or 11. Love, Frank Rose
|
|
|
Notice of Annual Meeting - Sunday, June 11 at 12:15 pm |
Our By-Laws specify that Sunrise Chapel shall have two organizational meetings per year - one in May or June
The "spring"
meeting is especially for the sake of voting for Officers and Trustees for Sunrise Chapel (the incorporated non-profit in the state of Arizona) and for approving the financial budget for the coming fiscal year. We also have a pastor's report and reports from other leaders about various special and ongoing uses and services. As we have done recently, we will hold this meeting during the
luncheon. Everyone, whether a full member, an associate member, a friend, or a newcomer is welcome to attend and participate. Everyone can provide input and opinions. If you want to be part of official voting, you need to enroll as a member of the church. For information about membership, please contact me or any Board member. Nathan Gladish
|
|
|
Fiscal Year-End Fundraising |
|
|
Our church’s fiscal year-end is fast approaching—June 30. Please consider a gift to help us meet our annual giving goals. Every donation, large or small, will help us continue our mission to help people experience heavenly joy through spiritual growth. This mission is a message of
love and hope for all people to turn to the Lord God Jesus Christ in a life of faith, love, and service. Your donation to Sunrise Chapel and to our central office, the General Church, matters and it makes a difference.
You can make an online donation to Sunrise Chapel through the General Church's system at www.newchurch.org/donate. If you write a check, our headquarters’ mailing
address is: General Church C/O Advancement, PO Box 708, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009. Just specify Sunrise Chapel as the recipient of the donation.
Questions? Contact Bill Smith, our local treasurer, or Mark Wyncoll at the General Church Office of Advancement: Mark.wyncoll@newchurch.org
|
|
|
|
|
Good Care vs No Care Luke 10:25-37
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify
himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when
he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one
who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise."
Be Kind to One Another Ephesians 4:29,30,32
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what
is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ forgave you.
Heavenly Joy is Directly Connected to Kindness
Secrets of Heaven 454
The opinion of some is that heaven consists of a life of leisure and being waited on by others. But happiness never consists in seeking satisfaction directly from doing nothing. If it did, we would inevitably want to take others’ happiness for our own, and if everyone did, no one would be happy. Such a life would
not be active but idle, resulting in sluggishness — when as anyone can see life holds no joy unless it is active.
Angelic life consists in usefulness and acts of neighborly kindness. Nothing makes angels happier than giving information to spirits newly arrived from the world and teaching them; serving people on earth, making sure that the evil spirits present with them do not go too far, and inspiring them with good; and reviving the dead as they enter eternal life, eventually taking them to
heaven, if the condition of their souls allows it. Angels find more happiness in these activities than could ever be described. In performing them they become images of the Lord. In performing them they love their neighbor more than themselves. This makes heaven.
|
|
|
|
Helping people experience heavenly joy through spiritual growth www.sunrisechapel.org
nathan@sunrisechapel.org Office 520-298-1245
|
|
|
|
