Monday, February 28, 2011

Neighbourhood Lent 2011

One group is planning a two level fast:
-Hard Core liquid only cleansing fast for the Godly.
-"Give up tea" or something for the 'faintly spiritual';)

Anyone want to join a few of us neighbourhood folks as we plan to fast for 5 to 7 days over Lent?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent

March 8th is Shrove Tuesday (Pancake supper and planning at my house at 6:00 pm), the 9th is Ash Wednesday and 10th we start the fast in earnest. I think we could plan to connect a few times to hammer back a couple glasses of juice together and pray (quietly, five minutes or so, perhaps a few guys could pray for us all).

The plan would be to do a cleansing fast i.e. juice and soup broth - if you are desperate or grumpy you can have a Tim Horton's Ice Cap (They keep you going for about a day!).

I have done the fast a few times and it is a great experience.

Jesus says somewhere in the bible when speaking to his disciples "when you fast..." so the implication is that, disciples fast.

Here is a link re fasting: http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/detox-diets-cleansing-body-feature

Let me know if you want to give it a try. (HL)

Matthew 6:16-18
When you practice some appetite-denying discipline to better concentrate on God, don't make a production out of it. It might turn you into a small-time celebrity but it won't make you a saint. If you 'go into training' inwardly, act normal outwardly. Shampoo and comb your hair, brush your teeth, wash your face. God doesn't require attention-getting devices. He won't overlook what you are doing; he'll reward you well.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Profound Thoughts From Tony Kriz...

If you are responsible for everything then you are responsible for nothing.

I have been a life-long church-goer. It is one of the tremendous gifts of my life. From a wooden pew I was taught that Jesus loves the whole world. It only makes sense then, since everybody wants to be like Jesus, that I need to also love the whole world. I used to go to a church where the handsome and charismatic pastor would courageously proclaim, “We are bringing the whole gospel to the whole world”. The idea would echo in my soul. It inspired me. It inspired me, at least for a moment. But in the wake of his inspiration, came… well…nothing. A numbness. It was like the slogan, in all its grandeur, actually gave me permission to forget, or maybe permission to ignore. For a guy like me, my soul is simply too small to wrap itself around the whole world. I am indebted to religious leaders who delegate the world out in consideration of my limited soul-space. But even a goal like, “Love Portland,” is more than my mind can handle. A city like Portland is a divine-circus of communities, dreams, economic forces, injustices, cultures, policies, sorrows, histories and most importantly stories. Just thinking about it all but crashes my spiritual operating system.

I remember taking a youth-group field trip to the big city. We piled in church vans and headed to, and I am not making this up, the largest mall in Oregon (and I wonder why I continually fight a gospel of consumerism). It was on that trip, sitting with my clique in the food-court, that I first saw the MTV video, We are the World. All of our musical messiahs on one stage, arranged like a church choir, in a cathedral-studio, preaching with perfect harmony of message, messenger and method. After only one hearing I had memorized the sermon, “We are the World, We are the Children, We are the ones to make a brighter day so let’s start livin’.”

More than twenty years have passed. And while I can still ‘hear” Bruce’s rasp, Cyndi’s strain, and Michael’s innocence, We Are The World’s limitless message now seems as unaccountable and shallow as the collective-fame that made it the top-grossing song of the 1980s. It seems that reality, my growing activism, and the Living Word are collaborating on a new song. I am sensing that this song may never be completed, but each new stanza is laying a soundtrack for my family and our community of faith. The song’s title is a moving target, but it goes something like: We are our Neighborhood or We are Malachi’s Grade School or We are Peninsula Park Community Center.

This is an ancient process. “What does it mean to be a neighbor?” I know that if I am not careful, this eternal question could exist as impotent as trying to love the “whole world”. My neighbor is not a concept or a platitude. My neighbor is a person. A real person with a real name: Alex, Niki, James, Don, Hans…. And if I am not careful defining that love might just question everything. How will I spend my time? How will I choose my associations? Where will I spend my money and how much will I live on? How will I advocate? How do I love those who are not “like” me? How do I utilize and preserve resources? How does my home become a center of community? What meetings do I attend? How do I consume?

I want to be a part of the stories of my time, be they found on a front-porch, in a dog park, at a neighborhood association meeting, in my kid’s cafeteria, at a political rally, or simply across the table from a beautiful someone who, apart from intention, I would never otherwise know.

To know (be it a person or a place) is to love, to love is to feel, to feel is to act, and to act is to take responsibility.

A village-conspiracy. (from Tony Kriz)

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Maybe the single most important thing we can do if we want to grow spiritually is to stay in the place we are.

Stability is a commitment to trust God not in an ideal world, but in the battered and bruised world we know. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

What if we Christ-followers really prayed for the Kingdom of God & then committed ourselves to that reality in our own neighbourhood?

Friday, February 25, 2011

Why not settle down & invest in your neighbourhood?

Repeated millions of times, the decision to move out robs communities of their memories and their social relationships. It leaves them shallow rooted, ill equipped to provide their residents with sustenance during hard times.

Any human relationship takes time for seasoning, for testing, for the kind of slow, casual knitting that will not break apart under the first signs of strain. John Killinger

Sociologists have discovered that longtime residents make a disproportionately large contribution to a community; they do much to define its character and create a sense of continuity.

Rapid mobility...'does not afford the kind of time - years and years of time - that are necessary to become rooted in a place, to really know the neighbors, to truly belong to the community, to celebrate the great milestones of life..., to feel, deeply and responsibly, that there is a bond between ourselves and the land, ourselves and the house, ourselves and the neighborhood, that nourishes and replenishes our being.
 Philip Langdon

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Making Room For Our Neighbours...

... calls for commitment and change on our part. That’s where we start—not doing life the way we’ve always done it before.

We need to break some old habits and hesitations and open our lives in new ways to others. We soon discover that real people live an arm’s length from us!

What a wonderful gift it is to learn to enjoy our neighbours next door and under our own roof. Its a lot like watching people get into a swimming pool: some just dip their toes in while others start with a cannonball!

Which one are you?!

Have you ever considered living a neighbourhood-centred life of faith?

Have you ever considered taking seriously the opportunity to show Jesus to your neighbours?

Why is Neighbourhood Life so important?

That's where Jesus is. It's the WAY of life.

Why not help create an atmosphere that spreads welcome, joy & happiness to all who live in your neighbourhood?

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Where are you leading in such a hurry?!

Recently I saw an ad for a Christian conference called 'Drive' with a stick-shift outline as the image.

How about one called, 'Walk'?

Or even 'Pedal?'

Neighbourhoods are where life of the city, and the lives of its individual residents, play out. Strong neighbourhoods make for good leadership training!

Monday, February 21, 2011

You don't have to be a genius to love your neighbour.

Its really not that complicated to figure out.

God moves history forward differently from the way we think and plan it. The fact that someone came from Nazareth, one of the most insignificant villages in Israel, and began to call disciples; that one day he placed twelve of those disciples before the others and said, "this is the beginning of the eschatological Israel," is a completely improbable and, on the face of it, an "impossible" story. Most certainly many at the time gave their prognosis: "nothing will ever come of this." They were wrong. In the decades that followed, hundreds of Christ communities arose everywhere around the Mediterranean basin. Gerhard Lohfink

Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Neighbourhood Engagement Weekend

Have you been hanging out in your neighbourhood, wondering what God is doing right where you live; asking what is my role?

Then, this weekend is for and all about you!

Together with others on this journey consider the implications of being present in your neighbourhood, what it might mean to love your neighbour, and what practices we might engage in as neighbours. Through the discussion of Scripture and other texts, story, prayer and encouragement, we’ll be better equipped and empowered to be all we’re called and made to be where God has placed us!

March 11-13th, 2011 ~ Camp Nakamun

Sponsored by Forge Canada: Neighbourhood Life, The River Community Church and South Edmonton Alliance Church

Camp Nakamun
is situated in a beautiful outdoor setting on the north shore of Lake Nakamun, approximately 1 hour northwest of Edmonton.

Please bring baking and other snacks to share.

Don’t forget your sleeping bag and pillow, Bible and pen, bathing suit and towel, skates and other outdoor gear, board games....

$89/adult
$25/Ages 3-10
$51/Ages 11-17

Price includes accommodations, all activities, meals and materials.

Accommodations vary- Limited # of rooms with private baths (first come, first served) and male/female bunk cabins.

Tentative Schedule

Session One (Friday Evening)

6:30 PM Registration, Room assignments
7 PM Welcome, Community builders, Music and Prayer
7:45 PM Introduction: Why Neighbourhood?
Scripture Sit, video, teaching & table talk, prayer.
9:30 PM “Coffee Time” and Activities.... Pool; Gym; Skating (?), Games...
11:00 PM Quiet Time (for the sake of those of us who need our sleep )

Session Two (Saturday Morning)
9 AM Community builders; Music and Prayer
9:45 AM Neighbourhood Practices:
The Practice of “AMONG”
12 Noon Lunch and Recreational/Free Time

Session Three (Saturday Evening)
6:30 PM Community builders; Music and Prayer
7:15 PM The Practice of “IN”
9:15 PM “Coffee Time” and Activities....
9:45 PM Special Activity
11:00 PM Quiet Time (for the sake of those of us who need our sleep )

Session Four (Sunday Morning)
9 AM Greetings, Music, Prayer [After which kids go to their ‘group’...]
9:30 AM Neighbourhood Practices:
The Practice of “WITH”
Scripture Sit
Table Talk: Take Home Commitments and Prayer
11:30 AM [Kids re-join...] Communion
12 Noon LUNCH and farewells....

Check out your neighbourhood PROFILE & INDICATOR from the City of Edmonton KNOW YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD website.

Friday, February 18, 2011

These are the people in your neighbourhood.

Automobile Audio Specialist. General Contractor. Pastor. Addictions Counselor. Sales Manager. Romance Consultant. Stay at home mom. College Student. Golf Teacher. Basketball Coach. Disk Jockey. Butcher. Beauty Shop Owner. Restaurant Server. Customer Service Representative. Alarm Engineer. Singer. Cosmetic Salesperson. Landscaper. Paralegal. Elementary School Teacher. High School Student. Security Guard. Community Organizer. Candy Store Owner. Massage Therapist. Investment Advisor. Operator. Public Servant. Entrepreneur. Hairdresser. Retiree. Job Searcher. Barber. Barista. Computer Technician. Block Captain. Health Care Employee. Case Manager. Clothing Designer. Proprietor. Junior High School Student. Missionary. Preacher. Therapist. Insurance Sales Person. Social Change Agent. Construction Worker. Event Organizer. Daycare Operator. Computer Analyst. Banker. Program Coordinator. Administrative Assistant. Youth Worker. Artist. Professor. Arborist. Professional House Cleaner. Aero-engineer.

Do you know them?

Some of them?

Any of them?

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Get in touch...

...with your neighbours, your community, & what God is doing where you live.

Living local - there's no life like it!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The story of the people of God never took place according to a model.

The Bible does not concern itself anywhere with pastoral plans and strategies. Instead on almost every page it reveals that God does not act anywhere and everywhere, but in a concrete place. God does act at any and every moment, but at a particular time. God does not act through anyone and everyone, but through people God chooses. Gerhard Lohfink

Rediscover the hand of God.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Do you care about your neighbourhood & your city?

Liberals are never less generous than conservatives, and are, by some measures, better neighbors than conservatives. Liberals, for example, work more often on community projects, cooperate more to solve community problems, and volunteer more often to help the sick, the needy, and neighborhood and civic groups, whereas on none of our measures of generosity and civic engagement are conservatives more active.

Holding religiosity constant, ideology has little significant effect on total giving or total volunteering, nor on any of the fifteen good deeds discussed earlier, but liberals assuredly give and volunteer more for nonreligious causes than conservatives do. According to the best available evidence, the "civic good guys" are more often religious liberals, not religious conservatives.
Robert Putnam

Monday, February 14, 2011

Whenever you nuture friendship with a neighbour...

you nurture the possibility of an encounter with God - for both of you & others in the neighbourhood!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

There are new ways of being church.

The church. What was supposed to be the main proof of the love of Jesus has become the main objection. Brandt Russo

What if church wasn't a building or a group of people who protested everything, but neighbours helping neighbours in the local community?

What if church wasn't just a place to go on Sunday, but helped you have a place to go on Monday?

Luke 10
"Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?"

"What's written in God's Law? How do you interpret it?"

He said, "That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself."

"Good answer!" said Jesus. "Do it and you'll live."

Looking for a loophole, he asked, "And just how would you define 'neighbor'?"

Jesus answered by telling a story. "There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.

"A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man's condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I'll pay you on my way back.'

"What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?"

"The one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded.

Jesus said, "Go and do likewise."

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Proximity does not equal community.

I came across that quote from Ed Stetzer & immediately thought about it in context of neighbourhood.

My first response was, "Yes, especially if you don't try."

Another commentator mentioned, "And distance does not equal a lack of community."

YIKES!! That's exactly the thinking that has helped so many Christian people jettison the idea that we need to love our actual neighbours & live in community with them.

PT Barnum once quipped, "No one has ever gone broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."

I think that comment could be extended to include us Canadians as well, especially around the idea making it a priority to 'love your neighbourhood.'

What Stetzer was emphasizing was the need for "Relational intentionality" in church-based small groups.

Relational intentionality is a very good thing, & is a hall mark of the life & ministry of Jesus. And Jesus has passed that along to us.

What if those in churches focused a little more on relational intentionality with their neighbours?

What would be different in your life if you made loving your neighbours a priority?

What would it look like in my life to more fully embrace the Greatest Commandment?

Matthew 22:37-40
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Friday, February 11, 2011

Better a neighbour nearby than a brother far away.

Doing life together in neighbourhood community is like rehab for everyone - we all have something to fix and you can't hide it there. We all have patterns of dysfunction in us that lead to unhappiness.

The fundamental commitment of the follower of Christ is both to Love God and to love our actual neighbour.

Do you have a collective hope for your own neighbourhood?

"Nobody lives unloved" is what gets me out of bed in the morning to pursue.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Executive Director of Weekend Experiences?!

Yes, that's a staff position in a church I recently heard about.

What if you & I took it seriously that God has asked us to be ED's of Neighbourhood Experiences in our local community?

How would your life change?

What would it look like next year?

Just askin'...

To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul. Simone Weil

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Are you tired of going to 'church' & doing the 'church thing' only to realize you're completely estranged from your local community?!

We need a movement of God’s people into neighborhoods, to live out and be the new future of Christ. It must be a movement that demonstrates how the people of God have a vision and the power to transform our world.

This is not the same as current attempts to grow bigger and bigger churches that act like vacuum cleaners, sucking people out of their neighborhoods into a sort of Christian supermarket.

Our culture does not need any more churches run like corporations; it needs local communities empowered by the gospel vision of a transforming Christ who addresses the needs of the context and changes the polis into a place of hope and wholeness.

The corporation churches we are cloning across the land cannot birth this transformational vision, because they have no investment in context or place; they are centers of expressive individualism with a truncated gospel of personal salvation and little else.
Alan Roxburgh

Say "NO" to being disconnected from your neighbourhood any longer.

One family we know has loved their neighbourhood in small & significant ways, especially when a neighbour underwent a tragic accident with a band saw. After organizing much care that helped the family overcome numerous challenges throughout the fall & winter the man said,

"So I'm not really religious but I don't see the miracle as being the fact that they were able to sew my hand back on, that is science nowadays. The miracle is that I live a community like this that have cared for us in this way."

And Jesus smiled...

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

What's God up to here?

Will you slow your life down enough to notice what's happening in your neighbourhood?

Who else is having their heart stirred by life in the neighbourhood?

Do you pray for your neighbourhood, especially the ability to see what God is up to?

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Let's get rolling!

It is a tragic error to think that Jesus was telling us, as he left, to start churches, as that is understood today. From time to time starting a church may be appropriate. But his aim for us is much greater than that. He wants us to establish “beachheads” or bases of operation for the Kingdom of God wherever we are. Dallas Willard

In your NEIGHBOURHOOD.

Matthew 28:18–20
I have been given say over all things in heaven and in the earth. As you go, therefore, make disciples of all kinds of people, submerge them in Trinitarian Presence, and show them how to do everything I have commanded. And now look: I am with you every minute until the job is done.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Newly engaged?

(to your neighbourhood)

Congratulations!!


Now what?

Don't ask,

Who will follow me?
Who will support my dream?

Who is our enemy?


Ask instead,

What are our common challenges?
How can we meet them?

How can we share our dreams, improve our community, and find real meaning in our lives?
(J. Lipman-Blumen)

Friday, February 4, 2011

Walk this Way...

We are living in an obesogenic environment, especially when we choose to de-neighbour and pursue a culture of automobility.

According to Stats Canada, only 7% of school-aged children get the bare minimum of daily physical activity needed to stay healthy. We're not just talking about push-ups, running, or weight-lifting. We're talking about basic stuff like climbing stairs and walking.

According to new guidelines, kids aged 5 -17 do at least 60 minutes of "moderate to vigorous" exercise every day, while adults should clock 150 minutes a week.

Only 9% of boys and 4% of girls made the minimum, while 17% of men and 14% of women made it.

The study also found that adults spend 9.5 hours a day, or 69% of their waking hours, doing "sedentary pursuits" like sitting at desk or on a couch.

Their children are learning from that example. They spend 8.6 hours, or 62% of their waking day, on their butts. Teens aged 15 - 19 are immobile for nine hours a day.

This is about much more than big bellies and broad behinds. Our kids' lack of exercise (even "low-end exercise" like walking to school or playing tag) can lead to all kinds of problems later in life, including diabetes, cancer and cardio-vascular disease.

"We have a dangerous physical inactivity crisis in Canada, it is urgent that all Canadians take action so that we can reverse this dangerous societal trend." (Kelly Murumets, ParticiPACTION)

Many kids are driven to school, driven to sports, driven to the mall, and they learn this pattern of driving everywhere, losing touch with walking, biking and connection to the natural environment.

When we re-discover our neighbourhood and surrounding area, and begin to develop patterns of inhabiting it, we discover that we can walk to school, bike to meet friends and even discover ways to be outside when it's cold and snowy!

Would Jesus have it any other way?

Colossians 2:6-7
My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You're deeply rooted in him. You're well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you've been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Measuring Shalom (HL)

Our hope in Neighbourhood Life is to encourage the formation of a people of peace, or shalom, within every neighbourhood. We believe that neighbourhoods matter to God and that there is a plan afoot to have in every neighbourhood a group of people who would live into God’s dream for that neighbourhood.

What does Gods dream look like in your neighbourhood?

Well we are not entirely sure, but what we have observed is that in many neighbourhoods were people are attentive and active; there is lots of what we would call “vitality” or life.

Recently, the United Way of greater Toronto produced a paper entitled

“A Neighborhood Vitality Index, An Approach to Measuring Neighborhood Well-Being.”

Just the title of the paper indicates that it may be very important for us. The fact that this enterprise is interested in the Vitality of neighbourhoods is encouraging. We could legitimately say that in measuring the “Well-being” of the neighbourhood that we might be getting at the Shalom of the neighbourhood.

“Shalom” as you know is a profound concept that is at the heart of the Gods Good News. So in many ways this paper provides a lens through which we can look at neighbourhoods to see just what God is up to and where neighbours are at and how healthy the community might be. I think that this paper provides us with a great way to appreciate where God is at work and how he might be calling us to participate in our neighbourhood.

The paper begins by giving us a rational for why neighbourhoods matter and therefore why, full of life, or “Vital” neighbourhoods matter. They say that,

“For the past 20 years researchers have been increasingly concerned about neighbourhoods. Beginning with research on the impacts of concentrations of poverty and 'neighbourhood effects'
on children’s learning and health outcomes, researchers have identified the neighbourhood as one significant determinant of success for individuals and for families."

Neighbourhoods are the constituent elements and are determinants of the cities’ ultimate success, as expressed in the Strong Neighbourhood Task Force Report:

"If our city is to remain strong and vibrant in the years to come, then its neighbourhoods must be places where people want to live. Parents must feel that neighbourhood streets are safe for their children to walk, and that local parks are safe places for their children to play. They must be assured that there are places for their teenagers to meet and get involved in sports and social events. They need to be confident that the shops and services that are a necessary part of daily life will be nearby and accessible. And they want to know that they will be welcomed and have a connection to their neighbours. Where we live matters to all of us.”

It is as if the paper is making a case for what we already know but have been unable to act on. In our western cities it has become easy to live as though neighbourhoods don’t matter, and build our lives around the consumption of goods and relationships. Some of us have become very good at crafting lives that transcend “place”, and so we land on the stage of networks and affinity groups. In our speaking we talk of our “community” when we should be speaking of our “neighbourhood”. We do this and so distort our experience of relationships and neglect our neighbourly obligations. We opt out of the neighbourhood and into the nowhere networks of relationships. Clearly the general flow of the dominant culture has been away from neighbourhoods and neighbourhood relationships. The first chapter of the report is summarized by words which point us back to our neighbourhood:

“Neighbourhoods are where life of the city, and the lives of its individual residents, plays themselves out. Because of this, strong neighbourhoods truly do matter. This sentiment echoes recent research on the significance of neighbourhoods across the English speaking world. Jim Ife, an Australian expert in community development, argues that there should be a renewed emphasis on local communities and away from communities of interest. He notes that many issues have physical manifestations or are based on relationships that occur in particular areas. As a result, efforts to address them should be rooted in a specific locality (Black and Hughes 2001: 11).”

Ministry is done by neighbourhood in the city.

Jeremiah 29:7
Seek the welfare of the neighbourhood where I have sent you, pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Loathe thy neighbour?

Get out a blank piece of paper and draw a square in the middle. Write your name in that square and then draw eight squares around that square.

Try to write in the names of the people who live in the eight houses or apartments nearest you, your eight nearest neighbour households, and write any facts you know about them such as the names of their kids, their occupation, etc.

In each square where you actually know the people, write about anything meaningful that you know about them or any meaningful conversations you've had with them.

Try & recall a time that you've talked with them about their hopes, their dreams, their disappointments, their fears, their struggles, their fulfillment, what they're living for - the stuff that gives purpose to their life.

Any squares that are blank are strangers.

Anyone that you know some facts about are acquaintances.

For anyone that you can identify meaningful conversations, you actually have a relationship.

A lot of us choose isolation over developing relationships time and time again.

The Art of Neighbouring is the journey from being strangers to having authentic relationships with our neighbours.

1 Peter 4
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.

To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.