Dear Brothers and Sisters at Messiah,
As February becomes March and winter begins its journey toward spring ,we hope that these reminders of upcoming opportunities for worship, education, fellowship and service will be helpful for you!
LENT AND HOLY WEEK
Our Lenten midweek services continue through Wednesday, March 20th at 11:00 am and 7:00 pm. Each Wednesday's 7:00 pm service will also be livestreamed at www.youtube.com/messiahgr and www.facebook.com/messiahgr; afterward they will be viewable on our Worship Resources webpage for two weeks.
The theme of this year's Lenten midweek services is The Marks of the Church; our remaining services will meditate on Confession and Absolution, The Office of the Ministry and Worship, Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving to God. Senior Choir will sing at the evening service on March 6th; we are also delighted to welcome young instrumentalists Julia Meyette and Coby Hoese for the evening service on March 13th!
PLEASE NOTE: There will be a Fish Fry (with french fries, coleslaw, macaroni and cheese, and desserts) before the evening service on Wednesday, March 20th at 6:00 pm, presented by the Board of Elders.
Our Holy Week schedule will be as follows:
Maundy Thursday, March 28th – Divine Service at 7:00 pm (also livestreamed). Sign up at the Welcome Center to help with the traditional Stripping of the Altar.
Good Friday, March 29th – Chief Service at 11:00 am; Service of Darkness (Tenebrae) at 7:00 pm. (The 7:00 pm service will be livestreamed.)
Easter Sunday, March 31st -- Divine Services will be held at 7:30 and 10:00 am. (The 10:00 am service will be livestreamed.) Our annual Easter Breakfast will be held in the Fellowship Hall between services. There will be no Bible Class on Easter Sunday.
WEEKLY WORSHIP AND CLASS SCHEDULE
We continue with one Divine Service held at 10:00 am on Sundays, with Bible Class beforehand at 9:00 am. Services are scheduled to be livestreamed at
Our Facebook page. www.facebook.com/messiahgr
The most recent service is viewable on our website's front page, www.messiahgr.org
Bulletins formatted for use with our livestream are available for downloading and/or printing at home. These are posted at least two days before each service at www.messiahgr.org/worship-resources.
Readings and hymns for each service are also listed in the informational note found on the same web pages as our livestreams.
Our weekly Bible studies also continue:
Shirley Hoese leads a LifeLight class on The Minor Prophets throughout March on Tuesdays at 10:30 am. Click here to learn more about this class.
Our weekly women's group CARES (Caring, Active, Reaching, Encouraging Sisters in Christ) is meeting on Wednesdays at 9:45 am, reading and discussing the book God’s Provision in a Wilderness World by Lindsey Hausch. Click here for a book sample.
NEW! Dan Bohlinger and Pastor Hoese will lead a LifeLight study of James and Jude, beginning Wednesday, April 3rd at 6:00 pm. Click here to learn more about this class.
MARCH NEWSLETTER - PLUS WHAT'S NEW & NEXT
Our March newsletter is now online!Click here to preview or download it in its entirety. Paper copies of the newsletter are available for members and guests at the Welcome Center. We also post the newsletter (including monthly calendars) online at www.messiahgr.org/news; calendars are also online separately at www.messiahgr.org/calendar
Check our weekly announcements and the March newsletter for details on these and other events:
Bowling Sunday, March 3rd &17th at 3:00 pm.
NEW! Daylight Savings Time begins on March 10th; set your clocks ahead one hour before going to bed on Saturday, March 9th!
Our annual Lenten Prayer Breakfast Saturday, March 16th at 9:30 am. Sign up at the Welcome Center or by calling the church office.
Urdu Worship Service Saturday, March 16th at 5:00 pm. Led by Pastor Afzal Masih, this service will be held in the fellowship hall, with a Pakistani meal following. Urdu services are being held on the third Saturday of each month; Messiah members and friends are welcome to attend!
NEW! Palm Cross Making Saturday, March 23rd at 9:00 am. All ages welcome! Sign up at the Welcome Center.
Messiah's annual Easter Egg Hunt, sponsored by the Board of Outreach, is set for Saturday, March 30th at 10:00 am. Sign-ups for volunteers and donations, along with publicity materials for you to share, are now available at the Welcome Center. Families can RSVP for the Egg Hunt online by clicking here!
Rick Krueger, Parish Assistant
FROM PASTOR ERIC (excerpted from the March newsletter)
I wrestled with the topic of this article as March this year is mostly dominated by Lent, but ends with Easter! Repentance, the midweek focus on the marks of the church, the resurrection, so many choices! After much prayer and thought, I went with the only logical conclusion, Transfiguration! ...
The church in the 1400s was watching steeples literally torn down, churches turned to mosques, their world looked like it was falling apart, and in a single battle between two kingdoms, they saw hope in that victory of arms, and tied the glory of Christ to that worldly victory. But the move of Transfiguration to right before Lent, right before the season of denial, of testing, of temptation, of wrestling with the world and with ourselves, strips away any trust in worldly glory. We go through Lent not hoping in ourselves, but clinging to the glory of Christ and His promise that by grace alone, through faith alone, He saves us. We enter Lent already clothed in that robe of glory that we do not deserve. We are besieged by disease, by broken relationships, by temptations of every stripe, by pride, by apathy, by sin, by death, and yet this robe, this righteousness, Christ Himself, is our mighty fortress, our good shepherd, our conquering king. This glory of Christ, this is what awaits us at the end of our Lenten journey, and the end of our journey here on this side of heaven. Secure in His victory we press on toward the empty tomb, and life of the world to come, amen.
Pastor Eric
