What’s Happening at Good Shepherd
Youth Group Missions Trip The Youth Group will be having their first official service project at Arrowhead Bible Camp from February 9-11. They will be trained on how to set tables, clean toilets, sweep floors, prep food, run dishes through a machine, fold laundry, and many other hands-on things as well. In between their times of serving they will play games, study the bible, pray, talk, and just hang out.
Please be in prayer for them as they serve, that they would be faithful servants and that they would strengthen their relationships with God and each other.
Shrove Tuesday Shrove Tuesday (known in some countries as ‘Pancake Day’ or ‘Fat Tuesday’) is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. This year it will be on February 13th. ‘Shrove’ comes from the Latin word shrive and means ‘absolution’. It is thought that the tradition started when families would eat all of the fatty, rich foods in the house so as not to be tempted during the penitent season of Lent.
Mark your calendar and plan to attend and bring friends! There will be pancakes and sausage, fresh fruit and homemade applesauce. There will also be mask-making, face-painting, and live music too! Please let Carmen know if you can contribute your homemade applesauce / fresh fruit. We will also need servers and pancake makers. Look for a sign-up sheet in the Parish Hall.
PS: Closing the event there will be a solemn burning of last year’s palms to use for ashes on Ash Wednesday.
Please bring your old palms to church to add to the fire!
Ash Wednesday Services Ash Wednesday is a day of reflection in the Christian tradition. On this day that begins the Lenten season, Christians all over the world come together and have ashes imposed upon their foreheads as a reminder that we are all sinners and to “remember that we are made of dust, and to dust we shall return”. The ashes are imposed in the shape of a cross to remind us that Christ bore the weight of our sins on the cross and ultimately defeated death to offer salvation to all who would come to him. The Ash Wednesday services this year will be held at 7:00am and 6:30pm.
Scheduling Reminder If you need to make an appointment with Pastor Matt, please be sure to contact Stephanie directly at gs.binghamton@gmail.com.
Often when people come to speak with Matt after the service on Sunday, he’s already been working for over nine hours and doesn’t always remember to put it on the calendar. This can cause double bookings or forgotten appointments. Please keep in mind that the office is closed on Mondays and Fridays, but you can always leave a message. Thank you so much for your understanding.
Life Choices The baby bottles are here for donations for Life Choices! Last year we raised $653.61 with our loose change and donations for services such as pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, parent education (smart choices), relationship mentoring, baby store visits, emergency aid, and more. Life Choices helps teens and college students facing unplanned pregnancies before, during and after. Please take a bottle home and put your loose change in it and return it to the church (empty or full) by Feb 25. Any questions can be directed to Christine Osgood.
An Offer of Prayer The prayer team prays for the needs of the church on a weekly basis. If you have a specific request (Praise or intercession) please fill out a card and place it in the “prayer box” by the bulletin boards in the parish hall. All prayers are kept confidential.
Ongoing Ministries
Good Shepherd Youth Group Each Sunday evening, the youth of Good Shepherd meet for fellowship and worship. Any young person between the ages of 12 and 18 are welcome to attend. Led by Good Shepherd member Tyler VanFossen. For more information, contact the Good Shepherd office at (607)723-8032. There will be no youth group on Sunday February 11th.
If you’d like to know how to help or be involved, please contact Tyler VanFossen.
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 will be beginning a new study on a book called Money, Possessions and Eternity, by Randy Alcorn.
Health and Wellness Our bodies are “the tents” that the Lord has given us to house our souls. Begin to take care of the body which God Has given you. Check your blood pressure, blood sugar, and weight every Sunday in the Parish Hall 9-10AM. Please see Dolly Shaller or Carmen Swoffer-Penna for more details.
Good Shepherd Member Food Pantry Just like an old house that needs a coat of paint, our food pantry needs updating every week. The more food we bring in the more food can go out to help others, and that is what God wants us to do. We are doing his work, and our work helps to bless others.
Items needed: cold and hot cereals, canned meats and tuna, pasta and spaghetti, canned vegetables and fruits, canned or boxed juices, rice in 1-lb bags, kid-friendly foods, powdered milk, coffee, tea, and cocoa, and anything else you’d like to bring.
Last Week
Last Week in Christian Ed we continued our series, “Christian Basic Training” discussing the “means of grace”, those practices through which Christ promises to feed and sustain believers. We began with two sessions on prayer, then we discussed the importance of Bible reading (listen here). Last Sunday we discussed the church. In Hebrews 10:24-25, we read: “let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near…” Note that stirring one another up to love and good works is intimately tied to the congregation meeting together, as is “encouraging one another”. What happens when the church gathers? How does this encouragement and stirring up take place? Can the same sort of thing happen when we meet with any group of friends? We discussed these questions and more.
Last Week’s Sermon was called ‘Striving for Peace With Everyone’. It was based on Hebrews 12:12-15. You can download or listen to it here.
Mission Group Discussion Questions
Read Hebrews 12:12-15.
1) How can we, as believers, be more aware of the suffering and hardship faced by others in our own local church?
- Why do the troubles and hardships of so many in the church go largely unnoticed by the church?
- Have you been helped through suffering by another person in the church? How did they become aware of your need? In what specific ways did they help?
- How do you contribute to helping others lift up their hands and strengthen their week knees through their suffering? In what ways can each of us be better at these things?
- How does being part of a mission group, bible study, prayer group, or any small group of believers, benefit a believer who’s facing hardship? How do these ministries build up the larger church body?
2) What does it mean to strive for something?
- Why does striving for something require so much effort?
- Why are peace and holiness worth striving for? How can believers strive well for these things?
- How does being part of a ministry contribute to striving for peace and holiness?
3) What is the “grace of God” mentioned in verse 15?
- How can you see to it that no one fails to obtain it? What must you choose to do?
- How does failing to receive grace allow a root of bitterness to spring up and cause trouble?
- Do you have a root of bitterness growing in you right now toward someone in the church? What must you do to restore peace?
- How can being part of a ministry help you to obtain and share the grace of God?
Tuesday Morning Bible Study we began our study of Exodus 32 and the golden calf. You can watch here or in the window below.
Posted by Matt Kennedy on Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Preventing Grace Podcast Did you know that Matt and Anne have a podcast? They talk about everything from church polity to rustic breads. In this week’s episode, ‘Three Streams Anglicanism, Decreeing Flu Shots, The Superbowl’, Matt and Anne Kennedy answer a question about the “three streams” within Anglicanism, review Gloria Copeland’s flu remedy, and discuss God’s sovereignty over the Superbowl.
You can catch up on all of the older podcast episodes here.
This Week
This Week in Christian Ed This Sunday we will continue our series, “Christian Basic Training”. Class starts at 9:15am.
This Sunday’s Sermon will be based on Hebrews 12:15-25.
See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken
For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.
Team Galatians is working on the altar this Sunday.
The readings for this week are 1 Kings 19:9-18 and Hebrews 12:15-25.
Karen B. will be serving on the altar guild this Sunday.
Shepherd’s Bowl Team 5 is serving this week with the Rice team (2/15).
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.