-
1
Growing as Disciples of Jesus Christ Through
Worship, Learning, Fellowship and Outreach
The Messenger May 2015
OF TRINITY ANGLICAN CHURCH
Reaching Forth Our Hands and Growing as Disciples As this month
begins, we find ourselves mid-way through our sermon and study
series Reach-ing Forth Our Hands in Love: Drawing Others to Jesus.
As disciples of Jesus, we are called to share the good news of
Jesus with a perishing world dearly loved by God. Too often, we
have been taught or have come to view the sharing of good news,
evangelism, as a one-size-fits-all endeavor that is frequently
confrontational. A closer look at Scripture, though, reveals that
there are many different ways of sharing the good news, ways that
fit well with our own unique personalities and temperaments. We
have all been equipped by the Holy Spirit to reach forth our own
unique “hands” in love as we share the good news of Jesus. Once we
know our own “style” and a few basic skills, we have all we need to
faithfully reach out to the world.
But why should we do so?
The first sermon in the series reminded us that we should do so
because God does so. God so loved the world that He sent Jesus to
rescue humanity from sin and death. By reaching forth our hands, we
respond to the love that saved us, draw people into a saving
relationship with Jesus, and see the Church, God’s family, grow.
But I would like to suggest a further reason why we should share
the good news: we need to in order to grow.
The life of following Jesus is the life of being transformed
into His image from the inside out. The more we abide in Him
through the exercise of spiritual disciplines, the more we open
our-selves to the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts conforming
us to the image of Christ. So how does that relate to the work of
ministry, mission and outreach? Does the “work” flow out of our
abiding in Christ as a necessary byproduct? Does the work itself
transform us? Or is something else going on?
Not too long ago, we studied how we grow as disciples of Jesus,
and one of the things we sug-gested is that we need to engage
intentional disciplines of weakness. Drawing upon Paul’s
un-derstanding that God’s “grace is made perfect in weakness,” we
come to realize that a key com-ponent to spiritual growth is
putting ourselves in a position of having to trust God to provide.
When we can’t, we come to experience that God can. This active
experience of God’s grace both changes us and strengthens our faith
in His grace. Intentional disciplines of weakness put
us in the posture of abiding in God’s grace.
That’s why ministry, mission and outreach are so vital to
spiritual growth. They become disciplines of weakness. They become
opportunities to experience God’s grace and provision in action in
a way that strengthens our faith. So “work” is not so much a
byproduct of abiding in Christ or even directly transformational as
it is an intentional posture of weak-ness that cultivates abiding
faith in a way that opens us more and more deeply to the work of
the Holy Spirit in and through us. When it comes to the work of
evangelism, we are in a place of special weakness because we can’t
make anyone believe in Jesus, all we can only faithfully bear
witness to our Savior. In the beauty of God’s ways, the more we
become like Jesus, the more we will reach forth our hands, and the
more we reach forth our hands, the more we will become like
Jesus.
To fail to engage in ministry, mission and outreach, is to stunt
our spiritual growth. Sharing our faith, reaching forth our hands
in love, not only grows God’s Church, but furthers our spiritual
growth. Evangelism is not an added extra for the spiritually gifted
and ambitious, it is the call of every disciple. It is our deepest
prayer that we, clothed in the Holy Spirit, may reach forth our
hands in love that God’s family may grow in both numbers and depth.
Yours in Christ, Fr. Karl+
In the beauty of God’s ways, the more we become like Jesus, the
more we will reach forth our hands, and the more we reach forth our
hands, the more we will become like Jesus.
-
2
Trinity Family Ministry Growing Together in Christ
Sunday School
on the Campus of St. John’s Pre-K—8th meet
in the Sanctuary and then process to class at the Gloria
hymn
Youth Group - Sundays: 5:30-7:00 pm 5/3—Youth Group
5/10—No Youth Group (Mother’s Day)
5/17—Youth Group 5/24—Youth Group
5/31—No Youth Group (Parish BBQ)
The Open Harbor: The Family on a Mission (Part 1)
One of the early and perennial objections to the monastic
movement is that monastic communi-ties—with their intense internal
rhythm of prayer and worship, discipleship and work—functioned more
as barricades against the world rather than centers of evangelistic
engagement with the world. Surely the latter is what Jesus
envisioned for his followers in, say, the Great Commission of
Matthew 28:18-20! The ready rejoinder to this is, of course, that
if the body does not seriously build up its own internal life as,
say, 1 Corinthians 12 envisions, then there will be no community
into which the evangelized may enter! Saint Augustine offers a most
satisfying image of the monastic community: it must be envisioned
as a har-bor city. From the harbor ships can be sent out on
ex-peditions and ships can come in for refuge, but a civic
community, with its own internal life, can flourish there too. I
bring this up not to give an apology for or against monasticism per
se. Rather I wish to take Saint Augustine’s image of an open harbor
city and apply it to the family. At the risk of running roughshod
over the fin-er points, I think that Christian families—mine
in-cluded, friends—are often tempted in one of two op-posite
directions. On the one hand, some families take very seriously the
moral and intellectual distinctive-ness of Christianity; they live
serious lives of Chris-tian piety; but they are barricaded against
the world. Let’s call them “inlanders.” On the other hand, some
families are very much engaged in the world, con-stantly brushing
shoulders with unbelievers, but in word and deed, Monday through
Saturday, they blend in perfectly with the world; the Christian
distinctives are distinctly thin. Let’s call them “seafarers.” The
trick is to maintain the distinctiveness of the Christian way of
life (like the inlanders) and to be deeply en-gaged in the world
(like the seafarers). In other words, what if our families were
more like open harbors? What if they ventured out into the world
rather than remaining “safely” barricaded? What if they maintained
a deeply Christian way of life that could offer hope and refuge for
those unbe-lievers searching for a better way? The questions could
go on and on. In the coming months, I will be exploring what it
might look like for us to be engaged in Christian mission as
families, to live family life in the open harbor. Fr. Joe+
{Save the Date}
Men’s
Camping Trip
August 28th-30th
ADULT CONFIRMATION CLASS
The service of Confirmation will be held on May 31st, the day of
the Bishop’s visitation. We are holding one class of preparation
for this sacrament on…
Sunday, May 17th, 9:30-10:15 a.m. @ St. John’s Lutheran
Contact Fr. Joe or Fr. Karl
Sunday School Summer Activities begin Sunday, June 7
Interested in Volunteering? Contact Fr. Joe
-
3
TRINITY STATS
Attendance
April 5 395 April 19 204 April 12 194 April 26
Giving
Year-to-Date March Actual Budget Actual Budget Income $50,053
$47,691 $155,971 $143,073 Expense $48,362 $46,783 $131,022
$140,349
HOLY BAPTISM
The next date for Baptism will be on Pentecost which is on
Sunday, May 24th. If you or your child are ready to be baptized,
please call Fr. Karl in the church office to make arrangements.
SENIOR SINGLES Please mark your calendars for May 3rd. All
single people, who are seniors, are invited to join our group
for lunch at the Double Tree.
COOK BOOKS
If anyone would like to buy a Trinity cook book, we have several
in our of-fice. You may come by and purchase one for $10. They
would make an ide-al gift for Mother’s Day!
FLOOD MINISTRIES
Our next FLOOD drive will be on Saturday, May 30th at 1:30, at
Martin Luther King, Jr. Park. We will be once again collecting
bag-loads of groceries. It will be an-nounced when bags can be
picked up. Each bag will have a list of what is needed to be
purchased by you.
CHURCH BBQ Save the date now - Our church BBQ will be held on
Sunday, May 31st, right after our 10:30 wor-ship service. All
members and friends are invited.
WEAR RED ON PENTECOST
On the day of Pentecost, which is May 24th, when the Holy Spirit
came upon the apostles, it was under the guise of tongues of fire
above their heads. What color do we asso-ciate with fire? Red.
We encourage you to wear some-thing RED for our “Pentecost”
cele-brations. A field of red filling the pews will surely have an
impact, es-
pecially on children, and may create lasting memo-ries for
everyone, memories of the fire of the Holy
ICE CREAM SOCIAL
Our ACW will be hosting a “no host” Ice Cream Social on
Saturday, May 16th, at 2 p.m. We have decided to share an afternoon
of enjoyable ice cream delights at Rosemary’s Creamery at 2733 F
Street. You may R.S.V.P. to Tara in the church office
(861-6020).
We will be going right
after the 10:30 service
If you have any questions,
please call Janet Poteete
at 872-0842
-
4
Andrew Chaffee Aria Poon Ed Taylor Kresten Carroll Chris Hoss
Lisa Thomas Roman De Dios Jeff Roberts Milton Pope Ann Lingo Elsie
Bergman Bette Clark Ken Bomar Jack Salter
MAY BIRTHDAYS In The Parish Family Benita Chase Cindy Bomar
Roxanne Starbuck Bryan Oberg Maxine Chesney Stephanie Faulk Steven
Brown Edwin Camp Mira Landucci Fred Kotowske Ken Pitchford Mike
Chase Patty Page Thomas Smith
Congratulations to …
In Sympathy to…
Gary & Nancy Randall on the death of her son, Richard.
Thank you ...
to all those who hosted our Guest Who ? Dinners. Those offering
their homes were: Jerry & Robin Starr, Stephen & Jennifer
Faulk, Mark & Juliet Smith, Rob & Mary Jo Sawyer, Steve
& Merry McCalley, and R.J. & Donna Chaffee. It was a
wonderful event shared by 66 people.
If we have omitted your birthday, please call the office
(861-6020),
and give Tara the date.
The city has completed their necessary work for the parcel map
to record and escrow will close very soon! A sign, shown be-low,
will shortly be installed on the property to let people know we
will be coming soon! As soon as parking and timing issues are
coordinated, we hope to have a service for the blessing of the
ground. The Architectural Committee is nearing the completion of
their work in Design Development. Work with the electrical and
me-chanical engineering consultants has been refined and should
be
completed soon. Cabinetry for the Fellowship Hall, Learning
Center, and Administration Buildings has been completed. The
initial landscape design for the interior areas has been completed
and will be refined in the beginning of May. Letters were sent out
to Campaign Con-tributors the first week of April in order to
ensure accurate accounting. If you found any discrepancies in the
records, please contact the Ages to Ages Treasur-er, John Cronen,
as soon as possible.
-
5
OUR CLERGY
The Rev. Karl E. Dietze, Rector
The Rev. Joseph Lawrence, Assistant
The Rev. John M. Wilcox, Retired
The Rev. John LaMar, Deacon
OUR STAFF
Sue Wagner, Director of Music
Tara Michaels, Office Manager
Kendi Miller, Bookkeeper
5100 California Avenue #108
Bakersfield CA 93309
661-861-6020 Office
661-861-6026 Fax
[email protected]
www.trinitybakersfield.com
May
2015
Trinity Anglican Church 5100 California Avenue
Suite 108 Bakersfield CA 93309
The Messenger
WORSHIP SERVICES
Sunday Morning
at St. John’s Lutheran Church
8 a.m. Holy Communion (1928 Prayer Book)
10:30 a.m. Holy Communion (Rite II)
Thursday Morning
10 a.m. Healing Service
5100 California Avenue
Suite 108
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Mike Young Sr. Warden Kevin Ray Jr. Warden John Cronen Treasurer
Anne Giles Clerk Marilyn Brown
Ron Christolear
Lynne Hall
Guy Lingo
Steve McCalley
Jeff Mendoza
Chad Savage
Olga See
Mark Smith
