“they want to know you and what you are?”
“tell them I am a non-denominational protestant mission pastor, and that everyone who is a believer in Jesus is welcome to worship and come to the Table…”
Twenty-plus showed up, and friends called friends saying “come here quick! There is a pastor with communion!”…more walked, walker-ed, and pushed to come. It reminded me of how our friends “blowup” each other’s phones downtown texting “lunch is on now!”
“I haven’t had communion since the pandemic started”
…ma’am, that’s four years ago now…
“yes, yes it was”… and we both got teary-eyed“
I’m sharing the Community Church news first here because I want us all to understand and grasp this reality; we are NOT Street Church….we are “The Street Church Collective”…
We are a family collected by God from the far ends of the margins, and brought into the center of His life and will…to rend our hearts towards Him and each other.
Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.”
NB… “what are you?”….I like that!
Last Week’s Update…stay connected!
Hope you're having a great week. Here's the note from Saturday's wonderful Street Church service.
Logistics
Served: ~65
Last week's leaders: Bryan, Kenny, Chino, Curtis
Next week's leaders: Bryan, Kenny
Gifts
Last week's: underwear, socks
Next week's: TBD
Looking Ahead
Bryan is out March 30 and April 6. I am also out April 6. Please let us know if you can help that day
Miscellaneous
Praise for Jeff and he is being released from UConn this week (stem cell treatment seems to have been a success so far). He'd like to seek new housing so prayers for that
Prayers for Sue as she's fighting pancreatic cancer
Prayers for Rick as he mentioned he has osteoporosis in his feet and the docs said they might have to amputate. He said he would refuse surgery and rather die than have them take his feet.
Bryan and Kenny will be staffing a table at Valley Brook this weekend
Kenny will be staffing a table at Hillside Church in Bristol
Praise God Kenny delivered a great message to the Valley Simsbury youth outreach event
Service
It was a lovely day Saturday. Karen helped us at storage. Thankfully we didn't need to pack any lunches as a men's group from New Life Christian Fellowship packed them all on their own and brought them downtown. So it was a slow, easy and peaceful load time.
We were joined by many people downtown, both familiar and new. Crystal, Curtis, Raheem, and Isis gave the readings. Raheem stopped by at the beginning asking Jody if we were doing communion. Jody mentioned we were but not until after the message. To his credit, he stuck around. I gave a message on names: the meaning of a name, the importance of your name, and the power of THE name. It seems to have been received well, praise God.
It was a very peaceful day… but [Bryan’s addition] the question arose again what to do when a person shows up who claims to be a man or woman when they are not biologically and they are medically transitioning to a non-birth assigned gender… (only at Street Church, right?)
Here is where we land; Grace, grace, and more grace…
Know that the leadership team has had conversations with people. Everyone clearly knows that we believe God assigns gender to us and we cannot change that, that sex is reserved for marriage, and that marriage is between a man and a woman. We have shared this after our friends have been with us for a long time.
Thankfully, we have friends who feel comfortable enough to still join us and we love them. We pray that the kindness of God shown through us will lead to them turn to the ways of God (Romans 2:4). We love because He first loved us…
Crystal, Julie and Shanae gave out the remainder of the sandwiches with such joy and aplomb. It was wonderful seeing them seek to feed others with such excitement.
I think that's it for today. Hope you all had a great day.
Kenny
The Clairbridge Community Church @ Brookdale
The Community Church at Brookdale
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The Clairbridge Community Church @ Brookdale/Chatfield
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