What’s Happening at Good Shepherd
Thank You! Mary Lindsey and her family wish everyone to know how much we appreciate everything you did to make her 100th birthday special. Also, for all the ongoing visits, prayer, and caring.
Life Choices Baby Bottle Drive With the number of babies that have been born within the Good Shepherd community this year, this effort feels particularly important. Life Choices is a local charity that helps mentor women who are working through the effects of abortion, encourages teens to set boundaries for healthy relationships, equips new parents with the skills to care for their babies, explains options to women who have just found out that they are pregnant, gives young women a chance to see the life inside their wombs, and much more. Last year, the abortion total in the US since Roe v. Wade broke 59,000,000. That’s fifty-nine million children whose lives were taken. Pastor Matt has recently been appointed a board member at Life Choices, so this is a cause that Good Shepherd really believes in. Please be sure to stop at the usher’s table on your way out of the sanctuary to pick up a baby bottle. Give what you can to help this worthy cause, and return the bottles by the end of February.
March for Life, January 27th March for Life is an annual series of events that includes a conference (January 20th), the world’s largest pro-life rally (January 27th), and a march on the US Capitol (January 27th). If you are interested in attending the rally/march, there are still bus groups leaving from Horseheads and Syracuse that have openings. You can go to http://marchforlife.org/ to see the contact information (scroll down to find NYS). For more information about the March for Life organization and event.
“Thousands upon thousands of Americans flock to the Nation’s Capital every January to remember the more than 55 million Americans who have been lost to abortion. We march to remember the moms and dads who have suffered from the pain of abortion. We march with the vision of a culture of life, one where every child is welcomed into life, and protected by law.” –
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 into 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.
Update and Announcements If you have an item you’d like to have announced on Sunday morning, or included in the update, please be sure to forward the item to Stephanie by Wednesday afternoon, and specify if you’d like it announced or just listed in the updates. It will then be edited and forwarded to Anne/Ife to announce on Sunday and/or added to the paper and digital update.
Annual Meeting The 143rd annual meeting will be held this Sunday in the parish hall after the 10:30 service. If you are a member please do make every effort to be there (non-members are, of course, welcome to come and watch if you are into that sort of thing). The vestry will present the budget for 2017, written reports from various ministries, and Matt will discuss the past year’s attendance and membership numbers and review our mission and ministry structure. Jason Carlton will also present plans for the campaign which will begin this year to pay off the church mortgage, hopefully in less than two years. We will also (re)elect vestry members and a warden. The meeting should not last more than an hour. Lunch will be provided.
New Members and Attenders Class If you’ve decided to become an official member of Good Shepherd, or would just like more information about Good Shepherd, and what we believe, there will be a new members class session starting on January 29th after the 10:30 service in the youth room. Please call or email Stephanie at the church office for more information or to let us know if you’d like to attend. Meetings typically last around an hour.
Concert coming to Good Shepherd On Thursday March 9th of this year at 7pm Good Shepherd will be hosting a free concert by the Northwestern College Symphonic Band. We hope to use this event as an outreach to the community. Northwestern College is a strong Christian college (Jason Carlton’s alma mater) and the concert will include some brief testimonies by the musicians. And the music is excellent. The orchestra includes about 53 student members and we are looking for volunteers who would be willing to open their homes for Thursday evening, providing breakfast on Friday morning and perhaps a sack lunch for their departure. If you are willing and interested in supporting this outreach and opening your home, please contact the church office at 607-723-8032.
Ongoing Ministries
Children’s bulletins are available to help your children follow all parts of the service today. Please pick one up from an usher.
Bread and Wine If you are interested in joining a group of moms for a monthly supper and discussion of women in the bible, please contact Liz Hull.
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.
Member Food Pantry If you have looked into our Member Food Pantry recently, you will see that we have an abundance of cereal, crackers, cookies, peanut butter and jam, apple and cranberry sauce, and some veggies like peas and green beans. Thank you so much for your generosity, these items are all well stocked.
Items Needed: Canned meats and Tuna Fish, Assorted Salad Dressings, and cooking oils such as Vegetable, and Canola oils; Ketchup, mayonnaise, relish, pickles and olives, Stews, one box meals other than mac and cheese, Bread Crumbs, Canned fruits, Coffee, Tea, cocoa, powdered milk, Canned corn, creamed corn, carrots, beets and asparagus or anything else you care to bring.
Note: Please don’t bring flour or sugar, or leave any open packages of pasta or rice in the pantry, as it attracts mice.
Last Week
Last Week in Christian Ed we discussed Articles 35-37 which range in topic from sermons in the vernacular to the validity of ordination and the relationship between church and state. You can listen here.
Last Week’s Sermon, ‘A Warning Against Unbelief’ was based on Hebrews 3:12-19. It can be listened to or downloaded here.
Mission Group Discussion Questions
Read Hebrews 3:12-19
1) Distinguish between an “evil, unbelieving heart” and a heart renewed by and for Christ.
- What does each type cause a person to do?
- What are some specific examples of choices made that lead someone to “fall away from the living
God”?
- Instead of falling away, believers are drawn into the living God. What is the reason for this response
to God?
2) How is sin described in verse 13? What does this mean?
- What is the power of deceitfulness? That is, how does deceit work?
- What are believers commanded to do for each other so that the “deceitfulness of sin” has no power?
3) What is the meaning of the word “exhort”? (Look it up if you’re not sure!)
- Discuss examples of exhortation. How does it look?
- How should this be done in the body of Christ?
- How can you specifically exhort the believer next to you for Christ’s sake?
4) What is this “original confidence” mentioned in verse 14?
- How has the confidence in Christ of the Hebrew audience changed? Why has it changed?
- How does holding on to “our original confidence” make believers sharers in Christ?
5) Why is Israel used as an example of rebellion and hardening of hearts?
- What can we learn from their rebellion and unbelief?
- How must we act differently?
Tuesday Morning Bible Study was called ‘Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters’, and was based on Ecclesiastes 11.
This week we moved into Ecclesiastes 11 and discussed the ultimate futility but temporal use of work and effort. If we all die, why try? What is there under the sun worth striving for?
You can catch up on the last month’s videos here.
This Week
This Week’s Sermon is based on Hebrews 4:1-10.
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,
“As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest,’”although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this passage he said,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
Team Galations is working on the altar this Sunday with Ife Ojetayo.
Shepherd’s Bowl Team 2 with the Osgood team will be working this week (1/26).
Altar Guild Christine Osgood is serving this Sunday.
The readings for this week are: Amos 3:1-11 and Hebrews 4:1-10.
The PDF Bulletin for this Sunday’s 10:30 service can be downloaded here.
Have an item for the Update or an Announcement?
Email the secretary at:
gs.binghamton@gmail.com
by Monday night.