Note: the actual recording of this sermon was made after the gathering, because we failed to press “record” during the sermon. This is why you don’t hear the usual children chirping in the background. But we felt like the recording should be available, so Ben re-preached the sermon later that evening for the recorder, which felt weird. But the result is a recording of the sermon!

Here’s how we’ll gather in the month of May:

SUN MAY 6 – COMMUNITY CELEBRATION MEAL
5pm @ 300 E Wayne St.
All MCs gather together once a month for celebration, storytelling, a word from Scripture, communion and prayer together.

SUN MAY 13: MISSIONAL COMMUNITY GATHERINGS
See individual MC pages for gathering times/places:
Northside | Open Door

SUN MAY 20: MISSIONAL COMMUNITY GATHERINGS
See individual MC pages for gathering times/places:
Northside | Open Door

SUN MAY 27: MISSIONAL COMMUNITY GATHERINGS
See individual MC pages for gathering times/places:
Northside | Open Door

Here’s how we’ll gather in the month of April:

SUN APR 1 – PALM SUNDAY WORSHIP CELEBRATION
5pm @ 300 E Wayne St.
All MCs gather together for worship, storytelling, a word from Scripture, communion and prayer together.

SUN APR 8 – JOINT WORSHIP CELEBRATION
11:15am at Grace Gathering (3157 Minnich Rd, New Haven)
All MCs gather together with Grace Gathering for a worship celebration.

SUN APR 15: MISSIONAL COMMUNITY GATHERINGS
See individual MC pages for gathering times/places:
Northside | Open Door

SUN APR 22: MISSIONAL COMMUNITY GATHERINGS
See individual MC pages for gathering times/places:
Northside | Open Door

FRI APR 27 – PRAYER FURNACE
7pm @ 7116 Tanbark Ln || More info

SUN APR 29: MISSIONAL COMMUNITY GATHERINGS
See individual MC pages for gathering times/places:
Northside | Open Door

Here’s how we’ll gather in the month of March:

SUN MAR 4: MISSIONAL COMMUNITY GATHERINGS

• Northside MC – Worship & Prayer
  10:30AM @ 312 Taber St (Ashley’s)
  Intimate worship and prayer. No need for food. Kids welcome.
• Open Door MC – BRUNCH & WORSHIP
  11AM @ 7306 Tanbark Ln (Harveys’)
  Bring food to share. Participatory worship, encouragement.

SUN MAR 11 – LENT WORSHIP CELEBRATION
5pm @ 300 E Wayne St

SUN MAR 18 – MISSIONAL COMMUNITY GATHERINGS

• Northside MC – Brunch & Worship
  10:30AM @ 505 Stadium Dr (Steurys’)
  Bring food to share. Then participatory worship.
• Open Door MC – Brunch & Worship
  11AM @ 5211 Delaware Ave (Noorthoeks’)
  Bring food to share. Then participatory worship.

FRI MAR 23 – PRAYER FURNACE
7pm @ 312 Taber Ave || More info

SUN MAR 25 – JOINT WORSHIP + MC LUNCHES
All MCs will worship at Grace Gathering’s 11:15am service (3157 Minnich Rd, New Haven), where Mike Breen will be preaching. Afterward MCs will gather for lunch and processing together.

SUN APR 1 – PALM SUNDAY WORSHIP CELEBRATION
5pm @ 300 E Wayne St

Our general gathering rhythm goes like this:

+ MC Gatherings (1st and 3rd Sundays)
+ Worship Celebration (2nd and 4th Sundays)
+ Small Groups (Midweek)

Epiphany looks like this, specifically:

FRI JAN 6 – PRAYER FURNACE
7pm @ 7116 Tanbark Ln || More info

SUN JAN 8 – EPIPHANY WORSHIP CELEBRATION
5pm @ 300 E Wayne St

SUN JAN 15: MISSIONAL COMMUNITY GATHERINGS

• Northside MC – 3:30pm at Holy Cross
• Open Door MC – BRUNCH & WORSHIP
  11AM @ 7116 Tanbark Ln
  Bring food to share. Participatory worship and sharing on Epiphany themes.

SAT JAN 21 – CHARIS HOUSE MOVIE NIGHT
6:30pm at 431 Fairmount Pl
Popcorn-making party beforehand at 5pm at 7116 Tanbark Ln.

SUN JAN 22 – EPIPHANY WORSHIP CELEBRATION
5pm @ 300 300 E Wayne St

FRI JAN 27 – PRAYER FURNACE
7pm @ 312 Taber Ave || More info

SUN JAN 29 – MISSIONAL COMMUNITY GATHERINGS

• Northside MC – 10:30am at 4034 Arlington Ave. Bring brunch food to share.
• Open Door MC – 11am @ 5211 Delaware Ave. Bring brunch food to share.

SUN FEB 5: MISSIONAL COMMUNITY GATHERINGS

• Northside MC – 10:30am @ 2220 Alabama Ave. Bring brunch food to share.
• Open Door MC – 11am @ 7306 Tanbark Ln. Bring brunch food to share.

SUN FEB 12 – EPIPHANY WORSHIP CELEBRATION
5pm @ 300 E Wayne St

SUN FEB 19: MISSIONAL COMMUNITY GATHERINGS

• Northside MC – 10:30am at 1816 Alabama Ave (Gaines’ house). Bring brunch food to share.
• Open Door MC – 11AM @ 7116 Tanbark Ln (Sternkes’ house). Bring brunch food to share.

SUN FEB 26: LENT WORSHIP CELEBRATION
5pm @ 300 300 E Wayne St

We encourage everyone at Christ Church to read Scripture daily. There is something powerful and unifying about all of us reading the same Scriptures each day, too. Up until now we’ve been using the Daily Office Lectionary from the Book of Common Prayer, but we’ve decided to make a switch to the Moravian Daily Texts, starting in 2012. You are encouraged to make this move with us!

We’re doing this for a few reasons.

Firstly, using the Moravian texts gets us through the entire Bible in two years (and the Psalms twice), whereas the Daily Office skips portions of Scripture that are deemed difficult to understand or awkward to modern sensibilities.

Secondly, the Moravian texts simply go through Scripture from beginning to end, whereas the Daily Office jumps around a bit in an effort to be seasonal.

Thirdly, using the Moravian texts provides us with more opportunities to engage in a devotional reading of Scripture, because of the resources available, which will be outlined below.

Here is how you can access the daily texts, as well as some of the devotional material available:

1. Subscribe to the daily email. For those who simply want to get the texts day-by-day, along with a prayer, the email is the way to go. Fair warning, though, the email usually doesn’t come until 7:30am or so.
2. Order the 2012 Daily Texts in paperback. This book will give you all the readings for the year, as well as devotional material (“Watchword for the week, watchword of the day, doctrinal texts, a few hymn verses, and a prayer). This makes for a great family devotional every day. You can also download the Guide to the Daily Texts [PDF].
3. Check out the 3DM Facebook page, where they post short devotional reflections on the texts each day. There is also sometimes an audio recording of their morning devotions, which are always focused on the texts of the day.

Also, you can read some interesting information about the history of of the daily texts, which have their origin in a “great spiritual awakening” in 1727 in Herrnhut, Germany, led by Count Zinzendorf.

Let’s continue to read Scripture every day, seeking to listen to receive from the Father, hear his voice and respond in faith and obedience in 2012.

Also, in groups you can use the pamphlet below to ask questions of one another to spur on discipleship to Jesus.

• Discipleship Questions Pamphlet (PDF)

Christ Church is committed to changing the atmosphere of the Fort Wayne region and the world through prayer.

We are going to be expressing this value in 2012 by meeting on the fourth Friday of every month at 7pm for an evening of worship and prayer for the Fort Wayne region. This “prayer furnace” will be a space for people from the Fort Wayne region to gather together to intercede for the church and our region. We gather corporately to agree with God in prayer, declaring who He is and proclaiming His desire for the Fort Wayne region.

We’ll also be reading through Andrew Murray’s book With Christ in the School of Prayer as a church. Order a copy so you’re ready to go the first week of January. Below is the reading schedule. We’ll spend the first 15 minutes of each prayer furnace discussing the past few weeks’ reading.

READING SCHEDULE

Week of January 1: Chapter 1 (Prayer Furnace Jan 6)
Week of January 8: Chapter 2
Week of January 15: Chapter 3
Week of January 22: Chapter 4 (Prayer Furnace Jan 27)
Week of January 29: Chapter 5

Week of February 5: Chapter 6
Week of February 12: Chapter 7
Week of February 19: Chapter 8 (Prayer Furnace Feb 24)
Week of February 26: Chapter 9

Week of March 4: Chapter 10
Week of March 11: Chapter 11
Week of March 18: Chapter 12 (Prayer Furnace Mar 23)
Week of March 25: Chapter 13

Week of April 1: Chapter 14
Week of April 8: Chapter 15
Week of April 15: Chapter 16
Week of April 22: Chapter 17 (Prayer Furnace Apr 27)
Week of April 29: Chapter 18

Week of May 6: Chapter 19
Week of May 13: Chapter 20
Week of May 20: Chapter 21
Week of May 27: Chapter 22 (Prayer Furnace June 1)

Week of June 3: Chapter 23
Week of June 10: Chapter 24
Week of June 17: Chapter 25 (Prayer Furnace June 22)
Week of June 24: Chapter 26

Week of July 1: Chapter 27
Week of July 8: Chapter 28
Week of July 15: Chapter 29
Week of July 22: Chapter 30 (Prayer Furnace July 27)
Week of July 29: Chapter 31

This past Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent, when when we start telling the story again, the story of how Jesus Christ fulfilled the story of Israel in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, and how we now live with him by the Spirit and await his final return.

Every year we tell the story again, basically because we need to immerse ourselves in it, because it is the true story of the world. It is the report of what God is doing in the world to redeem and restore all things, the proclamation of how God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.

We immerse ourselves in this story every year because our identities come from the stories we tell and the rituals we participate in. We immerse ourselves in this story because our culture loudly proclaims quite a few alternative stories that vie to tell us who we are, and thus claim our allegiance. Some of those stories (from McKnight’s The King Jesus Gospel):

• Individualism — the story that “I” am the center of the universe
• Consumerism — the story that I am what I own
• Nationalism — the story that my nation is God’s nation
• Moral relativism — the story that we can’t know what is universally good
• Scientific naturalism — the story that all that matters is matter
• New Age — the story that we are gods
• Postmodern tribalism — the story that all that matters is what my small group thinks
• Salvation by therapy — the story that I can come to my full human potential through inner exploration

We combat these competing ideologies by immersing ourselves in the True Story, which is another name for the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is why it matters what holidays we celebrate, and how we celebrate them. Our very identities are stake, because we live by the stories we tell ourselves. Thus it is actually a matter of life and death.

There’s nothing magical about celebrating the church year. There are plenty of lifeless churches that commemorate Advent “faithfully” (i.e. read the right Scriptures, fly the right colors, stick to the right themes). But the church year is essentially organizing time around the gospel story, which seems like a great idea to me, because the alternative to organizing time around the life of Christ is to organize it around something else, like when it’s time to shop, which is a disastrous way to live.

So may you immerse ourselves in the True Story once again, and have a blessed Advent! Come, Lord Jesus!