WITH CHRIST AT THE CENTER
MARCH 2023
CONNECTIONS ON SUNDAYS IN FEBRUARY, CHILDREN MET DURING THE FAITH FORMATION HOUR FOR THE “GETTING READY CLASS” – CELEBRATING THEIR CURIOSITY AND AFFIRMING THEIR FAITH JOURNEYS.
Up Front SHARING OUR STORIES: A WORKSHOP FOR RELUCTANT EVANGELISTS
Join Lee Canipe on Wednesday nights for an interactive workshop designed to help us grow in our ability to talk with others about Jesus and what he means to us. We will meet at 6:15 p.m. in the Upstairs Parlor on March 1, 8, 15, and April 5.
SACRED SPACES
WOMEN’S RETREAT
We are looking forward to visiting St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church for our Sacred Spaces Tour. We will attend the 5pm Vespers service and attend an informal Q & A following the service with Father Andreas Houpas. RSVP on Realm.
All women are invited to join us for a weekend retreat at Fort Caswell March 31-April 2. Come seek rest and enjoy fellowship as we explore the theme “Proximity to Love” led by Sarah Blackwell! The cost is $185 per person. Register on Realm today!
From the Senior Pastor “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put in you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone.” (Ezekiel 36:26) The season of Lent teaches us that our hearts must first be broken before they can be healed. It’s a painful truth that we prefer to avoid, in the same way that we don’t like hearing Jesus say that “if any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). Jesus asks a lot from us so that there can be room in our lives for all that he wants to give us. New hearts, for example, to replace hearts of stone that cannot feel, care, change, or easily be broken. The life of Jesus, who felt pain and often cried, shows us that our hearts
are not meant to be hard. Maybe it’s a sign of my own hard heart, or maybe it’s a survival strategy, but I usually try to keep a safe distance between me and the world’s pain.
while he was imprisoned by the Nazis. It was written at Christmas, but it feels like a good Lenten meditation for me this year. I hope you will find it meaningful as well. Here’s a fragment of the prayer:
That said, I’ll confess that my heart has been hurting a lot lately as I hear about war-torn Ukraine, earthquake-ravaged Syria and Turkey, and—closer to home— the deadly gun violence that has become a grim, frightening, reality of everyday life in our country.
I cannot do this alone.
I’d rather ignore that pain, but I have to believe that when my heart hurts, it means that Jesus is trying to change it.
In me there is bitterness, but
I recently discovered a prayer written in 1943 by German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
In me there is darkness, but with you there is light; I am lonely, but you do not leave me; I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help; I am restless, but with you there is peace. with you there is patience. I do not understand your ways, but you know the way for me.
May the peace of Christ be with you!