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Vol. 46, No.
43 SOUTHSIDE ORACLE January
9, 2004
The Bulletin Board
The
York College Concert Choir will sing at Southside this Friday night
at 7:00 o’clock. The fifty young people will be staying in homes of members
of the church. Plan to attend. You will be richly rewarded.
Blood Drive. The Southside Church community
blood drive will be Saturday, January 17th from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Those donating should be at least 17 years old and weigh at least 110
pounds. The donation time will be about one hour. If you have not signed
up to donate and wish to do so, come anyway.
The Sick – Elfriede Wandsnider went home from
the hospital last Friday after a month in the hospital and two surgeries.
We rejoice in her improvement….Martha Sepulveda was hospitalized for several
days last week in an effort to diagnose her physical heart problems, but she
is now home….Hank Karbiner is in St. Luke’s Hospital with a staff infection
related to recent knee surgery.
The Parent to Parent
video/discussion is planned beginning Saturday, January 31st. This is for
parents of children of all ages and we encourage friends and neighbors to
attend. For specifics see the printed flyer or talk with John Giemza or
Daryl Miller.
Address Change – Roland Guerra, (please
contact the church
office for details).
ATTENDANCE
RECORD
Two years ago Last year
Last week Goal
Bible classes
153 125
132 170
Morning worship 234 234 *210 250
Evening worship 56 68 54 80
Contribution $4928.44 $4559.29
$8502.87 $4500.00
Guest Speaker - Jim Coehoorn, preacher for the
Elkhorn congregation, will speak at both morning services on January
18th. Southside assists the Elkhorn Church in Jim’s financial support.
Bobby Valentine will preach at Elkhorn that Sunday.
Tuesday, January 13th from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m., will be
Youth Ministry Prayer Night at Southside. This is for our youth,
parents, and anyone interested in praying for our youth ministry.
“Dear Professional
Minister…”
“Dear Professional Minister…” So began the form letter I received in the
mail. Somehow the way I was addressed struck me wrong. I have an aversion
to considering my service to the Lord to be a profession. Quite frankly,
if earning a living was the primary reason I give my time to preaching the
Word, I would turn to other pursuits. I think I could earn more money
without having to share the burdens of so many people. Rather, I chose to
be a minister of the gospel because I believe that ministry - being a
servant - is the highest calling one can choose.
Since ministry involves service, it occurs to me that being a professional
servant doesn’t coincide with the message of Jesus, who taught, “But it
shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your
servant, and whoever would be first among you must be a slave of all” (Mark
10:43, 44). True ministry is not the function of a few select
professionals, but the vocation of every disciple. Jesus speaks of the lack
of commitment of the hireling when he declares, “He who is a hireling and
not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves
the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees
because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep” (John 10:12, 13).
We
need to get back to the Biblical concept of ministry that recognizes every
Christian as a servant of the Lord and of his fellowman. We don’t all have
the same ministries. Our opportunities and talents vary, but each one can
minister to others in his own way.
Come to think of it, though, there is something to a professional
ministry. If I as a disciple of Jesus have committed myself to him, then I
have made being his servant my profession rather than viewing it merely as a
hobby to be practiced only on Sunday. In that light the servant of Christ
who has chosen his way as his vocation is a “professional minister,” not
because that is the way he earns his living, but because that is his
foremost concern in life. Somehow I don’t think that’s what my letter
writer had in mind when he addressed me as “Dear Professional Minister.”
__Monroe
Hawley
Flowers and Weeds
When
I was quite small three of us discovered some pretty wild flowers growing
beside the sidewalk. We picked them and took them home to our mothers. We
later learned that the owner of the property had called our parents to
inform them that we had “stolen” the flowers from his garden. We hadn’t
realized that it was a garden because there were so many weeds. We
dutifully returned the flowers.
That’s the way it sometimes is with our lives. They are so filled with the
weeds of worldliness that others don’t recognize that the few commendable
characteristics we display are the products of the Christian life. If
others aren’t impressed with our message about Jesus, perhaps we should pull
the weeds. __Monroe Hawley
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