Month: April 2006

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New Small Group Study

DO YOU DREAD GOING TO WORK?

ARE YOUR RELATIONSHIPS STRAINED FROM STRESS?

DO YOU WISH YOU COULD CHECK INTO A HOSPITAL
JUST TO GET SOME SLEEP?

Business. Stress. Overload. Anyone living in today’s society knows the struggle of trying to handle the demands of life at the turn of the millennium. You don’t have enough time to do the things you have to do⎯let alone those things you’d like to do. You feel tired, worn out, and burned out.
You’re not alone. These symptoms are not a figment of your imagination. They’re signs that you’re suffering from a virulent new disease that affects millions of people⎯The Overload Syndrome.
Where does overload come from? What does it look like? What will it lead to? Most importantly, what can you do about it. The Overload Syndrome examines these questions and offers prescriptions to counter-act its effects and restore time to rest and space to heal.

The above quotes are from the back of the book The Overload Syndrome: Learning to Live Within Your Limits by Richard A. Swenson, M.D.

Jenny and I are excited about a new 8-week small group study on The Overload Syndrome starting the Tuesday after Easter (April 18) at 7 pm. The less time you feel that you have for this study the more you need it. We really encourage everyone to participate. This book has a five star rating at amazon.com Go on over and check out the reviews.

Posted by John

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Friendly Reminder

Just a friendly reminder, because of privacy regulations, the only way Jenny and I can find out that you re in the hospital is for you to let us or the church office know. If we know, we’re happy to visit.

Posted by John

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Prayer Request

I got a call last night from my dad that my grandfather Collins has passed away. Please keep our family in your prayers.

Posted by John

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Help Wanted

We’re coming up on the two largest attendance Sundays of the year (Palm/Passion Sunday and Easter Sunday) and we’re needing some help to get the church spruced up. Are ye able? Give us a call at the church office.

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Jesus, the Disinherited, and First UMC

Bill Moyers made the following remarks as part of a speech accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Baptist Churches:

Jesus has been hijacked. The very Jesus who stood in his hometown and proclaimed "The Lord has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor." The very Jesus who told 5,000 hungry people that all people–not just those in the box seats–would be fed. The very Jesus who challenged the religious orthodoxy of the day by feeding the hungry on the Sabbath, who offered kindness to the prostitute and hospitality to the outcasts, who raised the status of women, and who treated even the despised tax collector as a citizen of the kingdom.

The indignant Jesus who drove the moneychangers from the temple has been hijacked and turned from a friend of the dispossessed to a guardian of privilege, a militarist and hedonist, sent prowling the halls of Congress like a Gucci-shod lobbyist, seeking tax breaks and loophole for the powerful, costly new weapons systems, and punitive public policies against people without power or status.

The struggle for a just world goes on. It is not a partisan affair. God is neither liberal nor conservative, Republican nor Democrat. To see whose side God is on, just go to the Bible. It is the widow and the orphan, the stranger and the poor who are blessed in the eyes of the Lord; it is kindness and mercy that prove the power of faith, and justice that measures the worth of the state. Kings are held accountable for how the poor fare under their reign. Prophets speak to the gap between rich and poor as a reason for God’s judgement. Poverty and justice are religious issues, and Jesus moves among the disinherited.

Amen and Amen. This is the direction I feel Coffeyville First UMC must move in. We have done so in the past (e.g. The Genesis Program), now we must do so again. We must recommit ourselves to those who Christ loves.

Posted by John