Oct 2010 Lamplighter Newsletter, LaFayette Alliance Church

8/8/2019 Oct 2010 Lamplighter Newsletter, LaFayette Alliance Church

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War has a way of bringing outthe greatest concentrations ofhuman suffering. It also has away of polarizing peoples view ofGod. There are some people

who witness the horrors of warand walk away insisting that suchatrocities prove there is no God.Others have come to very oppo-site conclusions (e.g. AlexanderSolzhenitsyn). Solzhenitsyn

knew that the evilthat so characterizedwicked people andtheir wars also ran inhis own veins tosome degree. Hewrote: If only therewere evil people some-where insidiously com-

mitting evil deeds andit were necessary onlyto separate them fromthe rest of us anddestroy them. But theline dividing good and

evil cuts through the heart of everyhuman being. And who is willing todestroy a piece of his own heart?

The Bible reminds us that all ofthe suffering that takes place inthis world is NOT arbitrary. TheBible takes suffering seriouslybecause it takes sin seriously.

Suffering exists because sin ex-ists. Dont let that fact escapeyou when you see or experiencegreat suffering. All of creation isgroaning under the weight of sin.War and its resulting suffering isa manifest evidence of thatgroaning.

Christians are not called tomuffle the groan! We do noone any good to either downplay

(Continued on back page)

For I consider that the sufferings ofthis present time are not worthcomparing with the glory that is tobe revealed to us. [19] For thecreation waits with eager longing for

the revealing of the sons of God.[20] For the creation was subjectedto futility, not willingly, but becauseof him who subjected it, in hope[21] that the creation itself will beset free from its bondage to decayand obtain the freedomof the glory of the chil-dren of God. [22] Forwe know that the wholecreation has beengroaning together in thepains of childbirth untilnow. [23] And not onlythe creation, but we

ourselves, who have thefirstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as wewait eagerly for adop-tion as sons, the re-demption of our bodies.(Romans 8:18-23 ESV)

Recently, I have had the opportu-nity to watch Ken Burns out-standing documentaries on boththe Civil War and World WarTwo. If you have not seen eitherof these, it would be well-worththe time investment to do so.

Ken Burns has mastered the artof making documentaries by notonly distilling all of the pertinentfacts for his audience, but in alsoputting a human face on each ofthese terrible wars. After all,these wars were not just aboutplaces, battles, strategies, dates,and etc. They were about PEO-PLEpeople very much like youand me!

The thing that has especiallystood out to me in viewing thesedocumentaries is the incredible

amount of suffering that inevita-bly results from war. Civiliansdie. Children are left orphans.Men writhe in agony on thebattlefield as limbs are blownaway. Brains are scrambled foryears to come by war experi-ences that refuse to fade frommemory. It was Civil War Gen-eral William T. Sherman whomemorably stated: War is Hell!

On another occasion Shermanstated: "War is cruel and you can-not refine it" and "War at best isbarbarism." Ill take his word forit!

One scene sticks in my mind. Ittook place during one of themany battles at Anzio, Italy. The

Germans were relentlesslypounding the Allied Forces withheavy artillery. One man, soshaken with fear jumped out ofhis trench and began to pray. Hescreamed for God to come downfrom heaven into this viciousbattle. He then added thesewords: God come down here yourself. Dont send us Jesus. Thisis no place for children! Obvi-ously this mans understanding ofJesus Christ was greatly skewed!

The Muffled GroanI N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

From Pastor

Brians Desk

2

Letters to

Katie Wells

4

From the Church

Library

4

Quizzing

News

5

AWM

Fall Refocus

5

Birthdays/

Anniversaries

5

Church Lockup

Schedule

5

VBS

The Egypt File

6

Annual Fall

Church Picnic

6

Bulletin Board 7

Wednesday

Prayer Meeting

3

The LamplighterS E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 9


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P A G E 2

The Lord

desires that

we as a

church

become

unified as we

worship and

serve Him.

One of the

ways to

obtain unity is

to put aside

our personal

preferences

for the sake of

the body of

Christ.

From Pastor Brians DeskUnity of the church

I therefore, a prisoner for the

Lord, urge you to walk in a man-

ner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with all

humility and gentleness, with

patience, bearing with one

another in love, 3eager to

maintain the unity of the

Spirit in the bond of peace.

4There is one body and one

Spiritjust as you were called to

the one hope that belongs to your

call 5one Lord, one faith, one

baptism, 6one God and Father of

all, who is over all and through all

and in all. Ephesians 4:1-6

The Lord desires that we as a

church become unified as we

worship and serve Him. One

of the ways to obtain unity is

to put aside our personal

preferences for the sake of

the body of Christ. A specific

example that we can all relate

to is in the area of worship

music. Some churches have

shot themselves in the footby programming separate wor-

ship services based on music

styles or preferences. We

(the pastoral staff) believe that

this is counter-productive to

the scriptural mandate to

maintain the unity of the spirit

in the bond of peace. It seg-

regates the body of Christ and

diminishes the best of what

God offers to us as His people.

Coral Ridge Presbyterian

Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Flor-

ida is a case in point. I have

included an excellent article

this month about how this

church dealt with this crucial

issue, showing us how the

grace of God impacted their

decision to change their ap-

proach to worship music.

We Are One

Today was a monumental,

historic day at Coral Ridge.

For many years Coral Ridge

had two very distinct worship

servicesone contemporary

and one traditional. The result

was the unintentional develop-

ment of two different churches

under one roof. It wasnt

healthy. So back at the end of

Spring we started talking about

what we could do to unify our

one large church.

Given our desire to re-plant

Coral Ridge around a holistic

and comprehensive under-

standing of the gospel we con-

cluded that we needed to

make a change. After all, since

the gospel is the good news

that God reconciles us not

only to himself but also to one

another, the church should be

breaking down walls, not

erecting them. God intends the

church to be demonstrating

what community looks like

when Gods reconciling power

is at work.

Most churches would agree

that any segregation arising

from racial or economic big-

otry runs contrary to the na-ture of the gospel and should

not be tolerated. But theres

another kind of segregation,

perhaps more subtle, that

many churches today have

unapologetically embraced.

Following the lead of the ad-

vertising world, many churches

and worship services target

specific age groups to the ex-

clusion of others. They forget

that, according to the Bible,the church is an all-age com-

munity, and instead they or-

ganize themselves around dis-

tinctives dividing the genera-

tions: Busters, Boomers, Mil-

lennials, Generations X, Y, and

Z. Many churches offer a tradi-

tional service for the tribe who

prefer older music and a con-

temporary service for the tribe

who prefer newer music. The

truth is, however, that if the

only type of music you employin a worship service is old, you

inadvertently communicate

that God was more active in

the past than he is in the pre-

sent. On the other hand, if the

only type of music you employ

in a worship service is new,

you inadvertently communi-

cate that God is more active in

the present than he was in the

past.

The only way to musically

communicate Gods timeless

activity in the life of the church

is to blend the best of the past

with the best of the present. In

other words, we must remem-

ber in our worship that while

contemporary only people

operate with their heads fixed

frontwards, never looking over

their shoulder at the stock

from which they have come,

and traditional only peopleoperate with their heads on

backwards, romanticizing

about the past and always

wanting to go back, the

Church, in contrast from both

extremes, is called upon to be

(Continued on page 3)

T H E L A M P L I G H T E R - S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0


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P A G E 3V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 9

(Continued from page 2)

a people with swiveling heads: learningfrom the past, living in the present, andlooking to the future. Thats the onlyway to avoid in worship what C.S.Lewis called chronological snobbery.

You see, when we separate peopleaccording to something as trivial asmusical preferences, we evidence afundamental failure to comprehend theheart of the gospel. Were not onlyfeeding toxic tribalism; were also say-ing the gospel cant successfully bringthese two different groups together.Its a declaration of doubt about theunifying power of Gods gospel. Gen-erational appeal in worship is an admis-sion that the gospel is powerless tojoin together what man has separated.

Building the church on stylistic prefer-ences or age appeal (whether old oryoung) is just as contrary to the reconcil-ing effect of the gospel as building it onclass, race, or gender distinctions. In arecent interview J. I. Packer said, If wor-ship services are so fixed that whats

being offered fits the expectations, thehopes, even the prejudices, of any one ofthese groups as opposed to the others, Idont believe the worship style glorifiesGod. One of the leading ways thechurch can testify to Gods unifyingpower before our segregated world is toestablish and maintain congregations andworship services that transcend culturalbarriers, including age and musical styles.

So, I am thrilled that as of this morningCoral Ridge broke down a thick wall thathad been separating this church family for

years. Because of our firm commitmentto and love for the gospel, we wor-shiped together as one body around onetable united to one Christ by one Spiritand we felt Gods infinite approval!

The gospel revolution at Coral

Ridge continues!

Wednesday Prayer Meeting"May Your way be known on earth, Yoursaving power among all nations. Let thepeoples praise You, O God; let all the peo-

ples praise You!" Psalm 67:2, 3

The month of September has quite anumber of notable days to remember

with our prayers:

September 9th marks the end of Islam'sholiest month, Ramadan. In the finalweek of the month, the "Night ofPower" is a strategic night of prayer forMuslims. Pray that they will havedreams and visions of Jesus and willtrust in Him. Ask God to inspire believ-ers to become more intentional inreaching out to Muslim neighbors andcoworkers. Pray that God would raiseup people with various spiritual gifts tohelp the believers, and to help Muslims

to discover the Good News.

September 9th is also Rosh Hashanah, aholy day of judgment of sin and repen-tance, and the first day of the JewishNew Year. September 18th is Judaism'sholiest day, Yom Kippur - the Day ofAtonement (see Lev. 16:29 - 34). It wasa symbol and a foreshadowing of theeffect of Jesus' suffering, death and res-urrection in bringing about the recon-ciliation of God to man (Heb. 9:7 - 12).

And September 23rd is the start of Suk-kot or the Feast of Tabernacles (Booths)(see Lev. 23:34 - 43), a reminder of the40 years of wandering in the desert afterthe Exodus from Egypt. So pray, as Pauldid in Romans 9 and 10 for the salvationof the Jewish people, that they would

know God's righteousness.

In another line of thought, September 12is Grandparents' Day (and the churchpicnic!). Praise God for praying grandpar-ents - continue to be faithful in prayingfor your grandchildren: for those who arefollowing the Lord and for those who do

not yet know Him.

And that brings us to September 22nd -See You at the Pole, when Christian stu-dents annually around the US and theworld will gather before school to praytogether for one another, their class-

mates and their teachers.

As young people are back in school, col-lege or university, we all need to pray forGod to guide and protect them. Here aresome Scripture prayer suggestions to

pray for them:

Father, may integrity and honesty be their

virtue and their protection (Ps 25:21).

God, may my children always be strongand courageous in their character and in

their actions (Deut. 31:6).

Lord, teach my children perseverance inall they do, and help them especially torun with perseverance the race marked

out for them (Heb. 12:1).

Father, please instill in my chil-dren a soul that 'follows hardafter Thee' (Ps 63:8), one that

clings passionately to You.

God, please help my children todevelop a desire to see Yourglory declared among the na-tions, Your marvelous deeds

among all peoples (Ps 96:3).

And, as always, you are invited

to join us Wednesdays at 7 pmin the Butternut Room as wepray for the church, its minis-

tries, members and missionaries.

Prayerfully Yours,

Larry Petry

So pray, as

Paul did in

Romans 9

and 10 for

the salvation

of the Jewish

people, that

they would

know God's

righteous-

ness.


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P A G E 4

The deadline for

the October issue

of the Lamplighter

is Sunday,

September 19th.

Please submit your

articles to the

church office.

Another book we own by F

patrick is Because He Loves

How Christ Transforms O

Daily Life (248.7 Fit). Also n

are Hudson Taylor's Spiri

Secret (B Tay) and R

Sproul's The Righteous S

Live by Faith: Romans, a Co

mentary (227.1 Spr)

Please take the time

sign out your books:

structions and a box w

cards to fill out is on

shelf behind the Butt

nut Room door.

Good reading!

Jean Palmer

Some of the books Jody blogged

about this summer have been

added. We snitched from her

blogs to whet your appetite, but

you can see her complete blogs

on our church website by scroll-

ing down to Links.

Comforts from the Cross: Cele-

brating the Gospel One Day at a

Time, by Elyse Fitzpatrick (242

Fit). Jody said "Do I celebrate

everyday God gives me? or am I

just running? ...This book is a

month's worth of daily celebra-

tions. Reminding us to take com-

fort in the cross of Jesus Christ.

How the facts of Jesus' birth,

death and resurrection should'free, gladden and enliven our

soul every day - when you're

struggling to balance the check-

book, stuck in traffic or in a hos-

pital bed, or just bored with the

same-old-same-old."

Love to Eat, Hate to Eat by Elyse

Fitzpatrick (616 Fit) About this

book, Jody says that Elyse thinks

God would have us think about

food and our eating habits. Shemakes suggestions for a new way

to think about food, including

these: Will eating this food dem-

onstrate a heart of idolatry? Can I

eat this food with thanks and

gratitude?


From the Church LibraryLetters to Katie WellsIf God calls you to serve Him in a remote area

of the world, you PRAY, and then you GO.

It is a lonely life when your only contact withpeople who speak your language is a daily

radio conversation with a mechanic or pilot.

Katie will receive mail only once a month

when the SAMAIR pilot brings in supplies.

Katies Encouragement and Accountability

group would like to SEND her many letters,

cards, and notes of encouragement each

month so she can feel the support she has

from people who are PRAYing. Her mail will

go to the post office box in Santa Cruz, just as

it always has. The pilot will bring her mail to

her.

If the Lord is nudging you to GIVE Katie

some encouragement, you can find envelopes

already addressed to her on the table near the

door to the sound booth. We dont know

the date on which the pilot will be flying to

San Fernando, so if you could send your first

card/note to her ASAP, that would be

great! It takes about ten days for a letter to

get to Bolivia. Post offices carry 98-centstamps, which is what your letter will need. If,

for any reason, you would like the EA group

to send your letter for you, just bring it back

in the envelope and put it back on that ta-

ble. Be sure to write your return address on

your envelope. We will take care of the post-

age and send it on its way to brighten Katies

day!

Please call or email Becky Mintz if you have

any questions.

Katies Encouragement & Accountabil-

ity group has a monthly time of prayer

for her. The next one will be Thursday,

September 16th from 7:308:00 pm in

the Butternut Room. We will begin and

end promptly at these times. ALL ARE

WELCOME!!!!


5/8


Fall RefocusIf you missed our Alliance Women's Spring Refresh back in April and weredisappointed, don't feel too bad. An exciting opportunity is coming your wayon the weekend ofSeptember 24-26, 2010.

Our annual Fall Refocus retreat, held at Delta Lake Bible Conference Centeris just around the corner. In addition to that, this year we will also be extend-ing our stay at Delta by one night in order to increase our time of spirituallyencouraging one another, along with our fellowship. Special guest speaker willbe Mrs. Elaine Miller, wife of our District Superintendent Rev. Dan Miller. Allwomen and teens are encouraged to attend.

Becky Mintz has graciously offeredour group the use of her cottageagain this year. For more information,see the poster and sign-up on theButternut room door, or speak toDiane Smith, or Shaun Standford.

September 2010

1 Seth Woodford

3 Andrew Sharp

4 Dave Trexler, (Jon & Becky Rogers)

5 Pat Andrews, Maggie Dunsford

7 Rachel Johnson, Cody Elmer

11 Sue Maloney

12 Jane Taylor

13 (Carl & Barbara Olcott), (Randy & Beth Ortlieb)

16 Jerry McNeill, Becky Rogers

17 Joe Murgia, Martha Trout

18 Bob Trout, (Patrick & Chris Buff)

19 Nick Benedetto, Kirk Kolceski

20 William Bitler, Donna McClain

22 RJ Shaver , Enoch Bastian, (Gary & Betty Lauzon)

23 Benjamin Smid

24 Carolyn Kolceski, (Jeremy & Tina Culver)

25 Joyce Phillips, Gerrit Vanderwerff III, Karen Reahr, (John & Aline Coye)

27 Jessie Mondore

28 Lauren Gates, Pastor Rob Gates

29 Carl Olcott, Jon Rogers

30 Stephen Bitler, Dylan Reahr

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Church Lock Up

ScheduleThis is a reminder for church officers who are onthe lock up schedule for the month of September:

September 5 Mike MaloneySeptember 12 Clayt Roberts Sr.September 19 Matt CoulterSeptember 26 Jim Phillips

If you are unable to be at church on the day you arescheduled for lock up, please arrange to change withsomeone on the schedule.

QuizzingBible quizzing is under way for this year. We will bestudying the Gospel of John. At our team orienta-

tion we had 13 Senior quizzers and 8 Junior quiz-zers. Two senior quizzers couldnt make it. Thekids are so excited about the start of a newyear. We will be practicing on Fridays at 3:30 p.m.

This year weve changed how quizzers make it toDistricts where the International team is decided. Inthe past, quizzers just needed to have a 40 averageat our Zone quizzes. This year quizzers who wantto make Districts will be given a list of 300 versesthat they will need to memorize in order to makethe team. This is really great since its in their ownhands whether they make it or not. Theoretically allSenior quizzers could make it to Districts. Alreadyquizzers are busy memorizing and studying Gods

word.

This year our District will be sending ten quizzers toInternationals. More of our quizzers will have achance at making the International team.

Many quizzers purchased a Study Guide which hasdaily devotions from the material they are study-ing. They all want to understand and implement Hisword in their lives, not just repeat back what theyhave memorized.

We look forward to working with these young peo-ple again this year. Please pray for all our quizzers,helpers, and coaches.

Marie Murgia, Junior coachGeorgia Phipps, Senior coach


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P A G E 6

VBS - The Egypt File


Our visit to Egypt was a success. Each evening we had an average of 80 children thatattended. It was exciting to see each one learning more about God and having such a great time.Here is a quick review of our week.

One of the highlights of each evening was Design Time. Throughout the week we had atime where kids learned about their incredible, God-designed bodies. One night they examined howall the parts of our bodies work together. Did you know that there are 10 billion cells just on your thumb?Showing these facts helped instill that we have an amazing God that has created us special. In addition to Designtime the kids sang praise songs that got them up and moving.

There were four stations that the kids rotated through. At the Craft Market, the children made itemsthat they could take home to remind them of what they learned that evening in VBS. Sunsational Games en-couraged them to apply what they learned while having lots of fun. It was warm thatweek so of course the kids loved the water games. Each night they had great snacks atthe Snack Oasis prepared by the kitchen staff. Kids enjoyed digging into Gods Word atthe Dig Site lesson time. The first night the children learned that the world teaches weevolved from ape-like creatures, but the Bible shows we were created by God, in Hisimage. They looked at some of the myths such as Lucy and Java Man.

As our missions project this year we selected a missionary from our ownchurch, Katie Wells. Becky Mintz was able to share a little about Katie and her work inBolivia with the children. Our goal was to raise $200 to help with the cost of buildingsome furniture for her home. We went over our goal and raised about $210!

It sounds like it was a great week doesnt it? VBS wouldnt have happened though without all the sup-port and prayers from our church. There were so many people involved, many of them behind the scenes.Thank you to all those that helped make The Egypt File happen. I cant list them all but I really appreciate yourdedication to serve God by reaching out to the children of our community.

Our adventure in Gods Word at this years Vacation Bible School has ended but we pray that thisjourney in Christ is just beginning with the children that attended The Egypt File.

In Christ,Sherry Negley

Sunday, September 12th at 12:00 pm

You wont want to miss this special day in the life of our church!! We are planning anexciting day of fun and fellowship following the morning worship service.

Featuring:

Chicken BarbequePlease bring an EXTRA LARGE side dish or dessert. This event is designed as an out-reach, so we will need plenty of food! We are basically inviting our neighbors over fordinner and we want to show them our LAC hospitality! (We also will gladly accept dona-tions to help cover the cost of the chicken and rental items.)

Moonwalk Jumper House for the kids

Games & PrizesThere will be 10 Game Stations this year. There is a sign-up sheet on the Butternut Room door for volun-teers to help facilitate these games.

PrayerThis is an amazing opportunity to truly minister to our community. We need to pray that the Lord will blessthis event and we will be able to reach many families.

Please sign-up on the Butternut Room door for food and game helpers.


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Senior Ministry Luncheon

Missions Conference 2010Tom Hennigan Presentation

Our home schoolfamilies invite ourcongregation to hearTom Hennigan pre-sent an hour longprogram about histrip to the Galopogas

Islands on Friday September 17th at 7:00pm. Be looking for more details around thechurch.

October 3rd10th

We have two International Workers who willbe with us this week from South East Asia andWest Africa. There will be many church events

where people can get toknow the missionaries, in-cluding a covered dish din-ner, cottage meetings, ques-tion and answer session, anda men's breakfast. More in-formation and sign-up sheetswill be coming soon!

LIFE 2010 Presentation

On Sunday, August 8th, the teens who attendedLIFE 2010 in Louisville, KY shared with the con-gregation about their trip:

Our first luncheon is scheduled forThursday, October 7th. Keepwatching for additional details

The luncheons typically occur onthe FIRST Thursday of the month,except during the summer.

Awana Returns!Awana isabout tobegin again!

Come out on

Wednesday, September 22nd at6:30 pm as we begin another funyear of Awana!

BattalionBattalion will be starting back up on Sep-tember 20th at 6:30 pm. All boys are wel-come who are at least 12 years of age orstarting 7th grade. Come and join us. Dadsare welcome to come and see what it is allabout.


8/8

Were on the web!www.lafayettealliance.org

Our mission is to know Jesus Christ; exalt Him as Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, Coming King,and complete His Great Commission.

LaFayette Christian & Missionary

Alliance Church

P.O. Box 1506069 Cherry Valley TurnpikeLaFayette, New York 13084Phone: (315) 677-9810

Rev. Robert Gates, Senior [email protected]

Brian Mandigo, Associate [email protected]

Ellen Coulter, Office [email protected]

(Continued from page 1)

suffering or to remove God from suffering

(i.e. God had nothing to do with such-and-

such!). Rather, we recognizewith

GREAT hopethat God is going to dealwith suffering BECAUSE God is going to

ultimately deal with sin. However, until

that day comes (and it will!), our confi-

dence does not spring from some escapist

view that because we are Christians we will

never face suffering. No! Our confidence

as believers is that for those who love God

all things work together for good, for those

who are called according to His pur-

pose. (Romans 8:28 ESV)

Suffering is real. God is real. For thosewho are committed to a Biblical world-

view, those two statements are NOT

contradictory. They make perfect sense

in the world as it now exists. But thanks

be to God! It will not always be this way!

But according to His promise we are waiting

for new heavens and a new earth in which

righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3:13 ESV)

Pastor Rob

The Muffled Groan

Oct 2010 Lamplighter Newsletter, LaFayette Alliance Church

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Transcript of Oct 2010 Lamplighter Newsletter, LaFayette Alliance Church