Partnering with the Lord and Each Other
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The Lord Longs for the Best Connections
The simplest statement of our local church's strategic plan is to serve more people. This is based partly on the teaching that “Angels really do love everyone. They want nothing more than to help people, to teach them, to lead them into heaven. This is their highest joy.” (Heaven and Hell #450 - Swedenborg)
The Lord longs for us to create good connections and build healthy relationships. Especially for our spiritual well being. And what if the spiritual community that we refer to as "church" is actually a "place" or situation where we practice being like angels - loving, helping, teaching, leading into heavenly states? What can we do together in this new year, with so many new opportunities to serve the Lord and one another? Let's consider this in
our worship service this Sunday.
Holy Supper toward the end of the church service
Join in this beginning-of-the-year opportunity for "communion", which is another word for community in the activity of worshiping the Lord.
A Big Fundraising Event in Just One Month - "Transformations"
I hope you have already received a beautiful, informative, printed invitation to Sunrise Chapel's first-of-its-kind benefit fundraiser being held at La Mariposa on February 8! If you haven't received yours, please let me or Elise or Gail Benton know, and one of us will send one to you.
The deadline for your RSVP is coming up on the 15th of January. Please use the handy reply card to let the team know your intentions. The sooner we know how many people to plan for, the better!
Planning Meeting for February Fundraiser After Church this Sunday
There is quite a list of things to do in preparation for this big event! Please come and consider how you can help make this event successful.
Congratulations on Meeting an important Match!
See below for GREAT news on the end-of-the-first-year effort to get a Sunrise Chapel Endowment Fund up and running. This is a way of investing in the future of Sunrise Chapel, and I'm grateful for everyone who has generously contributed already!
A Prayer for the New Year
As we begin this new year, I pray for each and all of us as a congregation that we thrive in our efforts to work together, to help one another, to cultivate spiritual growth, and to choose heavenly joy!
With love and respect,
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UPCOMING ACTIVITIES AT SUNRISE CHAPEL
10 am Music rehearsal
11 am Worship
+ Holy Supper
12 noon LUNCHEON
12:45 Fundraiser Planning Meeting
MONDAY 1/7/2018
11 am Tai Chi class (Basic)
6:30 pm Bereavement Support Group
WEDNESDAY 1/9/2019
9:30 am Worship Team
11 am Tai Chi (Yang 24)
7 pm Women's Group
5 pm Teen Mtg + Volunteer Campus Cleanup
SUNDAY 1/13/2019
9:30 am First Small Group in new series on Love Over Ego
10 am Music rehearsal
11 am Worship - First in the new series on Love Over Ego
Join a new "Journey
of Spiritual Growth"
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Six-week program starts Sunday January 13
Each Sunday will feature one topic and spiritual growth task connected with the text, Love Over Ego
Join a weekly small group starting the week of January 13
Love Over Ego offers a 6-week program for people to come together and learn how to access their higher selves, even in challenging situations.
This program follows the biblical story of Daniel from his early days as a child captive in Babylon, to becoming one of the most respected leaders of the nation. Throughout each chapter, we witness the clash between the ego of the Babylonian rulers and the humble confidence of Daniel and his friends. As Daniel
and his friends boldly face the powerful Babylonian rulers, we glimpse ways that vanity, manipulation and desire to control never hold up to the grounding power of confidence, love, and true self-worth. In times when we find ourselves getting lost again in a self-focused mindset, Love Over Ego challenges us to remember what matters most.
The program workbook includes meditations, discussion questions, and daily readings to help participants bring the power of the story’s message into their own lives. The themes of Love Over Ego will also be featured in our youth programs with amazing array of projects and activities accompanying each of the
Biblical stories.
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Fundraising Gala Friday February 8, 2019 |
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Location: La Mariposa
Activity: Dinner + Musical Entertainment + Auction fundraising event!
NEW INFORMATION:
Just a little over a month away! Want to help?? Come to a planning meeting after church this Sunday, January 6. There are a lot of tasks to do to be fully prepared for this special event.
Promotion for this event is becoming a big priority. You can help by personally talking it up! This coming week will see more online updates. Check www.sunrisechapel.org for the beginnings of a page to promote the various activities of the event. Let me know if you think of other things to include or ways to make a good impression!
Although the deadline for turning in your RSVP is January 15, the sooner we know of your interest and how many to plan for, the better! Thank you for your love and support!
The idea of this event is to provide a fun, social evening, including a meal, entertainment, and an auction of goods and services that a broad audience will bid on. This kind of event is not only fun,
but it can also be morale-boosting as we work together on a common project. It can also be an opportunity to welcome friends and others who appreciate Sunrise Chapel.
It will take collaboration and lots of planning to pull it off.
Put a big star on your calendar for Friday February 8, 2019. Consider it a big "date night" or some special event with family and friends. It's gonna be great! ~Nathan
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Guess what?! We met our current matching goal for the new Endowment Fund!
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So this happened! In the last notice just before the New Year we announced the need for $325 to fulfill someone's generous match of $1,000. Since then we received FOUR donations that took us over the goal! This means that in just 12 months we have accumulated $8,000 in this new fund. Isn't this great?! I am amazed and pleased!
Such a great start!
There will be more opportunities coming up to continue to build up this investment fund. The plan is to let it grow for several years before tapping into the interest for supporting Sunrise Chapel's day-to-day operating fund (budget).
Meanwhile, regular donations to Sunrise Chapel's day-to-day Operating Fund are low. When you give an unrestricted gift in the offering basket on Sunday or by any other method, you are helping keep the doors open and the ministries thriving in our down-to-earth efforts to serve more people.
Thank you for considering Sunrise Chapel in your charitable giving
If you write a check, make it to Sunrise Chapel.
The PayPal button here takes you to an option for either a one-time or a monthly donation.
Thank you from our Treasurer, Bill Smith
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Readings for this
Sunday's Church Service
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Three Things to Learn and Do
Micah 6:6-8
With what shall I come before the Lord
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Jesus Teaches the Need to be Regenerated
John 3:1-7
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’"
The Importance of Spiritual Education and Rebirth
The New Jerusalem #177, 178 (Swedenborg)
We are born by our parents into an earthly life, but not into a spiritual life. A spiritual life is loving the Lord above all and loving our neighbor as ourselves, and doing so by following the precepts of faith that the Lord has taught us in the Word.
We cannot be regenerated (become spiritual) unless we know the kinds of teachings that lead us to a new life, a spiritual life. What we must be taught in order to gain a new, spiritual life are the truths that we need to believe and the good things we need to do—the truths that need to become part of our faith and the good actions that need to become part of our caring.
There is no way any of us can know these on our own. It is only from revelation, for example, that we learn that the Lord who is God from eternity came into the world to save the human race; that he has all power in heaven and on earth; that everything that has to do with faith and caring, that is, all truth and goodness, comes from him; and that there is a heaven and a hell.
These and much more are matters of faith that we need to know if we are to be regenerated, since if we know them we can think about them, then intend them, and finally do them, thereby having a new life.
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Your church home for partnering with the Lord and each other in the practice of cultivating spiritual growth and choosing heavenly joy www.sunrisechapel.org nathan@sunrisechapel.org Office 520-298-1245 |
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