Epiphany Point of Light : A Balanced Budget!

Thank you to all of you who came out to our AGM meeting this past Wednesday! Thanks to God’s faithfulness and your generosity we were able to pass a balanced budget for the new year! Wahoo!    Curious about what you missed? It was suggested we include portions prepared for the AGM in our Southpoint News as a way of sharing vision. Here is your first installment – THE WELL report. If you would like to join our WELL workshop this Saturday, there is still time.  Just let Anne or Angela know!

WELL: Worship @ Southpoint

Prepared by Angela and Anne

We are a church drawn together by our common thirst. We want our worship to be seeped in and flow from the deep well of Jesus’ presence, and we want this presence and our worship to be radically accessible to all who are thirsty.

In 2018 our Lenten theme, The Revelation of Divine Love,  deepened and lengthened as we journeyed through the year.  We welcomed the flow of God’s love in during Lent. Throughout the summer, we watched the flow of divine love show up in one another. During the fall, we saw how this flow is released into the world as we follow the Way of Jesus, articulated in the sermon on the mount. In Advent, we moved from receiving God’s love and witnessing God’s love, to responding to God’s love with a “YES!”.

In November the Saplings group and the Artist Guild summarized the journey through the Sermon on the Mount with a storytelling presentation.  It was a gift to receive from the children and adults who prepared this. Klein and Lucy worked together with Angela to plan Pentecost and an ALL IN service in the summer. It is rich to receive from our children and youth.

The end of the year challenged us to take a closer look at how we have structured our worship teams.  Laura Koch, having lead worship with Southpoint for the 13 years, took a step back, revealing an unsustainable pattern of dependency on a few worship leaders. We realize the need to mentor new worship leaders and include others.  Together with the leadership team, Anne, Angela, and Brian have put together a plan for mentoring that fits and reflects our current community’s needs and skills. We are inviting new folks and mentoring new leaders. We are offering a worship workshop for folk this Saturday. We also hope to see midweek evenings of worship at the Hardy home.  Mentoring, training, and organizing these new teams will require an investment of time on Angela’s part. At the AGM we passed a budget which included an increase in Angela’s hours to 7 hours per week for 2019.

It takes the full community to put the pieces together for our gatherings on Sunday mornings.  It is so great to have set up helpers, greeters, pray-ers, sound and powerpoint leaders, kids group leaders, communion preparers and servers, coffee hosts, tellers, kids conversation hosts, worship leaders, and speakers all contributing to our mornings.  We have a full group of volunteers who come on Sunday morning. This is invaluable. Thank you for all the ways that you engage in these different roles. Many people working alongside one another make a vibrant, engaged, and healthy community. Thank you!!

We are aware that space is tight in our current worship space. We welcome your thoughts and ideas about how to meet our space needs as a growing community. We also welcome your creativity and input into how we can drink even more deeply from the well of Jesus’ presence.

Lenten Artist Guild

Artist Guild is starting up again as we prepare for the beginning of Lent.

This Friday March 8,  7-8:30.

This Artist Guild is open to anyone 10 years old and up.  Contact Angela for more information.

ROOTS

ROOTS is a small group for youth/young adults which includes a book discussion of Searching for Sunday.

All welcome.

Every Monday night at Anne’s, 8:30-9:30

Community Connections:

LIFEAPP

Craig and I have really enjoyed going to the LIFEAPP events. The next one is Friday, March 15th @ 7:30-9:00 at the Chief Sepass Theatre in Langley. We’d love to gather a mix of youth and adults to meet at the theatre for this event. Are you interested?  The topic is  “Shame on You”.

Lenten Bookclub

“Healing Religious Addiction: Reclaiming Healthy Spirituality”, by Matthew, Sheila, and Dennis Linn.    Facilitated by Anne Smith

A Lenten Book Group on Healing Religious Addiction will begin soon. If you are ready to look at these wounds, would like to know more about this book, or are interested in joining me in a lenten conversation around this book, please contact Anne ASAP at aksmith64@gmail.com

March Calendar

Lent 2019 – “VISION”

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noun

*the faculty or state of being able to see.
*the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom.

“As people of faith, we help one another follow Jesus in lifestyles of generosity, peace, and self-emptying love. We pursue a contemplative path that helps us pay attention to how the Spirit is at work in our world. We find joy in unleashing forces of good and recognize such goodness in the work of businesspeople, teachers, civil leaders, politicians, pastors, and countless neighbors who are quietly seeking the peace of our city at work or on their block. We “contemplative activists” practice a way of faith-filled seeing among such neighbors, listening and learning.”

 – Scott Dewey

“Behold, I am doing a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”
Is. 43: 9

Week 1:  Sunday, March 10th “How We See Things Matters” –  Anne preaching

“Darkness is the womb of creation.  Learning to trust in the dark, we trust that God is moving in all the places that we cannot see or manage.  The beginning of the year alls us toward greater depth of vision for God’s providence in the hidden processes of life.” – Scott Jenkins

Deut 26:1-11
Luke 4:1-13

Week 2 – Sunday, March 17th, “The Long View” – Anne preaching

“It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view”
– Prayer of Oscar Romero

Gen 15:1-21
Psalm 27

Week 3:  Sunday, March 24, “Seeing slowly” –  ALL IN + POT LUCK

“Life is a process of dying and rising, of pruning to make space for new growth. It is how the earth is renewed. Without this part of life’s movement, we would not grow or experience newness. Slowing down, listening, reflecting, acknowledging what must change is not easy work – but it is a necessary beginning for us all.” – Scott Jenkins

Is 55:1-9,
Ps 63:1-8

Week 4: Sunday, March 31st – “Spotting Transformation” – Anne preaching

“Some people have wide eyes for abundance intuitively; others of us come resisting, struggling, squinting. We exercise our faith by practicing gratitude.” – Scott Dewey

Joshua 5:9-12
Ps 32
Luke 15:1-3,11b-32

Week 5: Sunday, April 7 – “The Sight for Sore Eyes”– Anne preaching

“With abundance-liberated vision, we can risk. We can risk rest, in the face of pressing need. We can risk and audacious plan, with our credibility at stake, amid fears it might be our only shot. We can risk great sorrow, trusting we’ll be held. We can risk your delight, trusting its own worthiness, and the worthiness of the world to share in it. W can risk a painful path of healing from whatever has us in its grip. We can risk a hard conversation, or a joke that might work if the timing’s right. We can risk a song.” – Scott Dewey

Isaiah 43:16-21
Ps 126
Philippians 3:4b-14

Week 6: Palm Sunday, April 14th  – “Appearances  Can Be Deceiving” – Anne preaching

“Prompted by holy curiosity, we’re sure to discover there’s always more to the story.” – Ryan Taylor

Luke 19:28-40

April 15th – April 20: HOLY WEEK (Stay tuned for Holy Week schedule)

If our vision had cleared a bit in lent, it is about to be scattered, distorted, and lost in Holy Week.  But this takes us way back to the beginning of what we learned in the wilderness:  “Things aren’t always what they seem”.   

April 21, Easter Sunday:   “Beyond Our Wildest Imagination” – Anne preaching

“May the resurrection be experienced here today, as enemies are moved toward reconciliation, exclusion becomes embrace, and as voices of criticism and hate are transformed into encouragement.” – from the Liturgy of Sacred Sight

Have an Announcement?

 

If you have an addition you would like included in this newsletter, please send a prepared announcement as you would like it to appear to: office@southpoint.ca by Tuesday and we will get back to you.

Prayer

If you have a need for prayer that you would like to pass on to the prayer chain, please contact John Hardy.
johnandwendyhardy@gmail.com