What’s Happening at Good Shepherd
Good Shepherd Directory You may have noticed last week that there were tables downstairs with contact information for parishioners at Good Shepherd laid out. Tyler has undertaken the task of updating the Good Shepherd directory. He will have these pages laid out again this Sunday. Please stop by the tables and check to make sure that your information is correct and make any changes necessary. The new directory will be released in November.
We are hopeful that having an up to date directory will improve communication, and make it easier for ushers, tellers, altar guild, readers, nursery workers, and ministry teams to contact each other directly when a need to cover an absence occurs.
Potluck There will be a potluck in the parish hall after the 10:30 service. This month we’ll be having a Chili Cookoff Competition! There will be four categories: Hot Chili, Best Chili, White Chili, and Best Cornbread. The signup to compete or judge will be in the church kitchen at the pass-through window.
In addition, we’ll be having a board game day. Bring your friends and family to enjoy a bowl of chili, and a game or two of something fun! Please feel free to bring your favorite board game from home (labeled for ease of identification).
The Good Shepherd Christmas Pageant is receiving some much-needed attention and care this year in the form of some scheduling, rehearsal and script changes. The first overhaul is that we will be inviting all the children of the church to take a script home and think about what part they would like to try out for. We will hold fun and low-key auditions this Sunday after the 10:30 service. We would love all the children to participate and any adults who would like to help. We also welcome children from outside the church to join us. Please pick up a script after church this Sunday and begin to pray for this endeavor. If you have any questions, you can reach Anne through the office or on Sunday morning. Thank you so Much!
Shepherd’s Bowl If you are on a Shepherd’s Bowl team or are interested in being part of the Shepherd’s Bowl ministry, there will be a meeting on November 11th in the green youth classroom after the 10:30 service. A light lunch will be provided. If you are part of a Shepherd’s Bowl team, please make every effort to attend. Please call the office or speak to Martha Rice for more information.
Coffee Hour Update Do you live a good distance from Good Shepherd, but would like to be involved in a ministry at church? Do you have some time to serve, but don’t want to be locked in to serving on a rotational schedule? If so, coffee hour may be a perfect fit for you. Please contact Steph if you are interested in knowing how you can join the hospitality ministry!
Stephanie will be releasing the new coffee hour schedule in the upcoming week.
Trunk and Treat Thank you to everyone who decorated their cars and handed out candy and thank you to all of those that helped in other ways to make Trunk and Treat a success this year. Many families came and enjoyed the event.
Ongoing Ministries
Christian Education Last Sunday we held a question and answer session addressing a number of interesting topics from how to defend the inspiration of the Bible to the question of how the Christian ought to engage in politics.
This Sunday we will complete our Q and A. There are two more questions to address. Christian Ed begins at 9:15 am every Sunday morning.
Missionary Update The next CHE Rummage sale is Nov 30th, and Dec 1st, at the old Lee’s furniture store in Montrose. If you have donations, Bill and Anne will be able to accept them through Sunday, Nov 25th. If you have furniture, or larger items, we can arrange to pick it up. No exercise equipment, please. Thank you!
Lunch with a Missionary Michelle Brown, from Life Choices, is coming to speak on Sunday, November 18th. Lunch will be provided in the Green Room. This church supports Life Choices. Come and get to know Michelle and the work Life Choices does to help parents, particularly mothers, choose life when faced with an unplanned pregnancy.
Good Shepherd Youth Group Dear Youth Group parents and members, can you believe it’s already fall?! With November ahead I wanted to give some calendar updates.
1) Planet 3 Extreme Airpark This month the youth group will be having an outing at a trampoline park!
2) Thanksgiving Time-off Youth Group will not be meeting on the following dates:
NO Youth Group on Sunday Nov. 18
NO Youth Group on Sunday Nov. 25
*Youth Group will resume regular meeting times starting after Thanksgiving break on Dec. 2nd
Youth Group meets on Sunday night from 6:00 – 7:30 pm at Good Shepherd. All youth between the ages of 12-18 are welcome to join their continued study of Romans. Please contact Tyler Van Fossen if you’d like to know how to help or be involved in the Good Shepherd Youth Group in any way. Email: tvf.arrowhead@gmail.com
Bread and Wine If you are interested in joining a group of ladies for a monthly supper and discussion, please contact Liz Hull. The group is currently studying a book called Money, Possessions and Eternity, by Randy Alcorn. The next meeting will be in November, at the Hull home.
Good Shepherd Food Pantry With the holidays just around the corner, it is essential to keep our food pantry stocked with healthy food so that those who use it can feed their families well. Many go without the foods traditionally used at holiday time because they don’t have the money for such luxuries.
For this month and the next, please consider donating canned hams, canned sweet potatoes, instant potatoes, gravy, canned peas corn and carrots, bread mixes, stuffing, pie crust and fillings, cookie mixes, coffee and creamers, powdered milk, and anything else you’d like to bring.
Last Week
Last Week’s Sermon was called ‘The Dead Will Hear His Voice‘, and was based on John 5:24-29. It can be listened to or downloaded here.
Preventing Grace Podcast Did you know that Matt and Anne have a podcast? They talk about everything from church polity to rustic breads. This week’s episode is called, ‘Certainty and Christianity‘. This week Matt and Anne discuss the contemporary Christian allergy to theological certainty.
You can catch up on all of the older podcast episodes here.
Tuesday Morning Bible Study This Tuesday morning’s class was based on Leviticus 14.
This Tuesday morning we finished up Leviticus 14 and the rites for re-admitting a healed leper to the community. The leper must spend the course of his illness outside the camp, he is ceremonially “dead”. But when God removes the leprosy, on the eighth day, after he has been washed and ceremonially purified, he may re-enter, as one risen from the dead. His re-entry on the eighth day is much like a second circumcision. By circumcision an Israelite boy is welcomed into the visible covenant community, a kind of second birth. So it is with the healed leper. He is born again into the covenant. Then the priest offers all three types of atoning sacrifice on his behalf (guilt, sin, and burnt offering), so that, the leper receiving God’s promise of mercy by faith under the sign of these sacrifices, is fully incorporated into Israel, the visible body of God’s people, and fully reconciled to God by the shed blood of the sacrifices. These are, as we’ve seen many times, shadows of the One true sacrifice of Christ and the true washing by his blood. By these, received through faith, sinners are made alive again and bound to the body of Christ, his bride.
You can watch the recording here or in the window below:
Posted by Matt Kennedy on Tuesday, October 30, 2018
This Week
Christian Education Last Sunday we held a question and answer session addressing a number of interesting topics from how to defend the inspiration of the Bible to the question of how the Christian ought to engage in politics.
This Sunday we will complete our Q and A. There are two more questions to address. Christian Ed begins at 9:15 am every Sunday morning.
This Sunday’s Sermon will be based on John 5:30-38.
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.
Team Romans is working on the altar this Sunday.
The readings for this week are Revelation 7:9-17 and Ephesians 1:15-23 .
Mary S. will be serving on the altar guild this Sunday.
Ashley V. will be working in the nursery this Sunday.
Shepherd’s Bowl Anne K. (sub) with Micheline’s team (11/8).
To download a PDF of the 10:30 service bulletin, click on this link.
Have an item for the Update or an Announcement?
Email the secretary at:
gs.binghamton@gmail.com
by Monday night.