July 24, 2017

                                Summer Concert Edition     

                           

 

The News in a Nutshell

          ·      David Crossman in Concert- This Friday @ All Saints 7/28

          ·      Concert Volunteers- Be at church Friday @5:30

          ·      Our Vision for All Saints- Article

          ·      !!!New Adult Sunday School Class- Is Underway

          ·      Live Midday Prayer Service- All Saints Facebook

          ·      Like and Share- All Saints Facebook Video Devotion

·      Prayer Desks- Everyone Once this Month

·      Web feature- A Short History of Anglicanism

 

For more information see the full announcements below

 

 

David Crossman in Concert- This Friday, 7:00 @ All Saints

Mark it on your calendar, share our All Saints Facebook announcement about it, plan to attend, and invite a friend for this evening of great music and praise

Also, I have included a copy of the poster in the attachment to this newsletter so you can email it to any you would like to invite

 

 

Concert Volunteers - Be at church Friday @5:30

All those who are helping with the concert (setup, snacks, greeting, parking, etc) please plan to be at the church at 5:30 on Friday- Thank you

 

 

Our Vision for All Saints- Article by Gary Liederbach

If someone were to ask me what is my vision for All Saints and each one of its members, it would be something like the article below written by Gary Liederbach of the ODC Church.

Before reading it let me warn you, the language is a little strong at the beginning. I have not cleaned it up because the world into which we are sent won’t be sanitized either.

May God make each one of us a light like this in our offices, schools, neighborhoods, and the various circles in which we move. -Fr. Charlie

To read the Article click here: LINK

 

 

!!!!New Adult Sunday School Class- Is Underway

Our Adult Sunday School class has just started a new series. Now is a great time to jump in and join the study. Sunday School begins at 9:30. Invite a friend and plan to attend! I know it will be a blessing to you!

 

 

Live Midday Prayer Service- All Saints Facebook

We are excited to announce a new online feature that we offering on our All Saints Facebook page. It is our live broadcast of Midday prayer. We will offer this Monday-Friday at 1 pm during the week. It is intend to be a time in the very midst of your day when you can join with other believers from all over to pray. To join in be sure to like and follow our All Saint’s Facebook page. The broadcasts will be transmitted from there and you will receive a Facebook announcement on your phone, tablet, or desktop that All Saints is live. Also even if you do not have a Facebook account you can still join us (our page is public) you just won’t receive the announcements

For a sample of what to expect and an explanation of what our Midday Prayer is all about you can watch one of our past services on our All Saints Facebook page here: LINK

If you like the Midday service, be sure to share it with a friend and invite them to join us. We intend this ministry to grow primarily through word of mouth

 

 

Like and Share- All Saints Facebook Page

Remember to like and share our All Saints Facebook page with your Facebook friends. Also, since our Facebook page is public (meaning, you don’t have to have a Facebook account to view it), you can share any of its features (VDevs, Midday Prayer, Articles, and etc…) by simply cutting and pasting the following link and emailing it to someone you know.

https://www.facebook.com/All.Saints.Greenville.SC/

 

 

Prayer Desk- Everyone Once This Month

Scripture calls us to be a people who not only pray for one another but who also pray with one another (James 5:13-16). Therefore, I am calling and encouraging each person in our congregation to take part in our Eucharist time prayer ministry at least one time this month. Come forward and pray with one of our prayer team ministers for our church, one of its ministries, an area of service, a special need of someone in our congregation or an area in your own life. Our objective is to pray our church and its various ministries alive. Our hope is that you will make the prayer ministry a regular part of your Sunday worship

        

                 

Web Feature (www.allsaintsgreenville.com)

This week’s web feature is the REC Foreign Missions Page. Here you will find current updates from the Reformed Episcopal board of Foreign Missions. These updates will include information about various REC mission works around the world as well as particular prayer requests for these works. I encourage you to stay informed about what God is doing through our Church and to keep all these works in your prayers.

To find the Foreign Missions page, go to the All Saints’ Home page (www.allsaintsgreenville.com), locate the tool bar at the top right of the screen, find the Services tab and select Foreign Missions from the drop down menu. Enjoy!!!

 

 

Spread the Word about All Saints’

If All Saints’ has been a blessing to you, invite someone you know to church!

 

 

30 (Trinity 7)

Usher/Greeters-

Alan Brown

Adam Black

Lector- Gary Cobb

 

Acolytes-

Sam (A)

Tim (G)

Don (C/Ch)

 

 

How can we pray for you?
If you have any special prayer needs or praise reports that you would like to share with the group, feel free to email them to me (or you can call me if you prefer) and I will be glad to include them in our weekly newsletter.

Prayer Requests

That God would bless our new phase of ministry and that we would be faithful stewards of His many blessings

 

That God would grant Spiritual renewal to our church and all the churches of the REC

 

Palmer Brown- who is suffering from a back injury

 

Pat Childers who is suffering from back and knee issues

 

Mrs. Parks (Mac’s mom)- for health issues

 

Palmer’s Cousin who has kidney failure but who is improving

 

The Wright’s son-in-law, Josh that he will find work

 

Steven Wright- heart and health issues

 

Don’s father who has been diagnosed with cancer

 

Blythe who is having eye surgery on Wednesday (07/05)

 

Ray and Betty Froman for health concerns

 

Anna Parks- strength in body and mind

 

All those serving in our armed forces, especially Brad Coffey, Matthew Orders, Eden Basinger, and David Willis.

 

 

~Dates to Remember

Please, email your events to Fr. Charlie with a brief description. Your description should include: date, time, location, cost, as well as the name of the parishioner participating in the event (when applicable).

 

David Crossman Concert                                 July 28, 2017

 

Diocesan Synod                                     September 16-17^th, 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Picture of our Vision for All Saints

~Article by Gary Liederbach

My morning office is the Waffle House. About 3 months ago I went into the Waffle House (WH) and I sat down in a chair at the “low bar,” the bar you can sit at that is at normal chair height.  I did not notice the used coffee cup that was on the bar in the back next to the menu rack in front of the chair I sat in.  It belonged to a man I will call Chuck., who happened to have gone outside to smoke a morning cigarette.  Chuck is a man who comes frequently to the WH.  He is a “rough” and crude man in his late 50’s.  He cusses allot and gives the waitresses and customers a hard time and is sharp with them when he is “in that mood.”  Chuck walked back into the WH, saw me sitting in “his chair,”  walked up to me and said coldly “Hey mother F*% you are in my seat!”  I turned to him and before I could say a word the two waitresses who were standing there almost jumped over the bar and verbally attacked Chuck.  One said, “Now you listen here you mother F*% this man here is a f*ing man of God and if you ever talk to him like that again I will kick your f*ing @ss!!“ The other waitress jumped in, “ Ya you d#ck, he is my f*ing pastor! What the f@ck is wrong with you.!”  Show some f@cking repect!  The waitresses high fived each other and one said to the other. “Sword of the spirit b#tch!”  And Chuck turned and walked out.

 

I sat there and processed what had just happened!  First, the waitresses have never come to an ODC gathering, though I have invited them many times.  And I never told the waitresses I was their pastor.  But because of my coming into the WH four or five mornings a week and talking, listening, and praying with them it appears that is how they saw me.  The other day the waitresses were talking about how life seemed to be attacking them.  I took out my phone and I read to them from Ephesians 6 about the armor of God and explained it to them.   And the one waitresses shouting “Sword of the spirit b#tch” shows they were listening and retaining what I told them, I just need to work a little more on their application of that verse!

 

Fast forward to a month ago.  I was walking in the WH and Chuck was outside in the front smoking.  I said good morning to him as I was walking by and Chuck kind of quietly and nicely (especially for Chuck!) asked if I had a moment.  I told him sure and stopped by him.  He said quietly as he looked at the ground, “I know you are kind of a religious guy and it’s not that big of a deal but I was wondering if you would pray for me for something. “I said, “Sure what’s up?” And he went on to say that the Doctors think he may have prostrate cancer and he had a test today to confirm it.  I said, “of course,” but before I could say anything else he opened up and told me a story for about 10 minutes.  The short summary of it was that he used to go to church a long time ago and was kind of close to God.  Then he was drafted to Vietnam to fight in the war.  He said he did some things there he was not proud of, things God could not forgive him for.  He said in attacks on villages he shot and killed enemy soldiers who were just kids, also women, and elderly.  He saw children killed and witnessed and participated in other atrocities of war.    He stopped praying after the war and has never gone back to church since he came back to the states.  When I asked to pray with him there he said no, he had to leave, but for me to pray as you feel God will listen.

 

As he walked away my heart both mourned for him and was convicted for me.  I had joined in with others at the WH at times commenting on Chuck and his behavior.  However, the reason Chuck was an angry, and hurtful man is he was filled with guilt that separated him from God. Guilt from things he did he thought were not forgivable.  And I thought I know and preach that God can forgive anything,  I have never put him to “the test” of his forgiveness like Chuck has to.  If I was the one looking down an M-16 and watching bullets splatter bodies of kids and women from my gun and trigger I was pulling,  the event might make me an even bigger, hateful, guilt filled ass than Chuck.  It reminded me that people are never the enemy.

 

Fast forward to yesterday morning.   I was in the WH at the bar talking with customers and the waitresses when Chuck walked in.  He walked over to a side bar he never sits in by himself and sat down. No cussing, no loud comments to people as he came in the restaurant.   He looked devastated.  One of the waitresses said they heard his son had died the previous night.  My spirit told me to go sit in the chair next to him and I did.  I said good morning to him and he said hey, and his eyes began to fill with tears.  I told him I had heard that his son had died and if it was true, and if so I was so sorry.  We talked again for 20 minutes. Summary, he told me his son who was 31 years old and some of his friends, Chuck, and Chucks wife, (his son’s mother) were out on the front porch talking.  His son told his friends how he had bought a new pistol.  They asked to see it.  He went into his truck and got it out, removed the clip, and thought the gun was empty.  It was not.  He came back to the porch and in handing the gun to his friend when somehow it went off and the bullet hit is son in the head from less than 2 feet away.  They rushed him to the hospital but he died a few hours after he arrived.  Chuck said he and his wife witnessed it.  He could not get the sight out of his mind.  It reminded him of the war.  He had to come home from the hospital and clean his son’s blood, hair, and other parts from the side of his house and porch.  Tears were flowing down his face.  He asked me if this was God’s punishment for the kids he killed in Vietnam.  I said of course not and we talked awhile.  His son had a wife and two kids 8 and 10 years old.

 

After we finished, I went home and my wife and I took the chicken I had grilled for dinner, along with sides, bread and a dessert, and I put it in a box and took it up to the WH.  I also wrote a note to the family stating I was praying for them and asking to let me know if I could help in anyway with my phone number on it and put it in the box as well.  I pulled into the WH just in time as Chuck was walking to his car to leave.  I parked, got the box and gave it to him.  Chuck teared up again as he took it.  He said I did not have to, but I insisted, told him I was praying for him, and I left.

 

Fast forward to today.  I received a call today from Chuck.  He thanked me for the food.  He then said he and his family do not have any money.  They are getting the cheapest cremation they can, and just going to do a remembrance service at their home.   Their family does not attend a church, they do not know many church people, let alone preachers, and he asked if I would be willing to come to their house and share from the Bible and some words over their son and their family.  I told him I would be honored to.

 

“I have been going to the WH regularly for over 3 years now.  Sometimes I wondered if I needed to continue going.  Only one or two people, employees or customers, have ever came to an ODC gathering. So if you go by traditional church metrics, my time investment has not led to “church” growth or increased “numbers in the pews.”   It has not resulted in one penny going into our offertory plate or pastor support.  Yet God reminded me of my prayer I say to him every morning, which is, “God, please send me today the ones that no one else wants.”  No one wanted Chuck, even I found it hard to be around him.  But God through just being faithful has given me an amazing opportunity; to be welcomed into his house; a house, a circle of family and friends that no other pastor has ever been invited into, and share the love of God with them.  And that is my heart’s desire, not to see them as an “evangelists projector opportunity” but a family in pain that simply needs the love of God, and to love them.  I pray I may honor this.

 

I pray today you will be led by the Holy Spirit not to seek and enter into some structured ministry with people, but just simply enter into life and the lives of people.  That in your daily set schedule you will allow and come to expect, even long for interruptions from two things: God and people.   Please pray the same for me.  God bless you my friends!

 

Gary Liederbach

Lead Follower: ODC

 

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