Wonderful Weeks of Reflection and Worship

We are in the midst of some amazing events here at Providence. This past Sunday, we just got finished celebrating our sixth annual chili supper at the Kelly’s farm. (Congratulations to Susan Herder on winning our competition!). It was a pleasant evening with a delightful fellowship. Thank you to Amelia Kelly and all the members that organized the gathering. But there are wonderful moments ahead of us that I want to highlight for the congregation.

This Sunday, October 31, we will celebrate Reformation Sunday. On this date in 1517, Main Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenburg Castle Church. It must be admitted that many other factors were already happening to bring about the Reformation, not just what Luther did. But Martin Luther’s public notice to debate his Theses is a good occasion to mark this event that turned the tide of the Church to a solid Biblical stance. Celebrating this day can be compared to memorial events in the Old Testament that marked when God’s people repented and returned to him. We want to honor what God did for us through this great historical moment. In addition to Reformation Day, we want to acknowledge and pray for the new church plant in Franklin County, TN. Grace Fellowship pastored by Robert Smith will hold her first official church service! You can read about their ministry here: https://gracefranklincounty.com/

Then the following Sunday, November 7, we will be marking two other occasions. The first is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. You can learn more about that event here (https://www.persecution.org/idop/). We will have a special time of prayer during the service for our brothers and sisters around the world who suffer for the name of Christ.

Also, on that date, we will be collecting a special offering to help pay down the debt for the church building. We chose this Sunday because it was close to the birthday of one of our beloved church members, Jim Milby. Before his passing, Jim was a faithful and generous member of the Financial Ministry Team. He had a vision for us to retire the debt of our building quickly so that we can be free to use all of our funds for other ministries. The Jim Milby Memorial Fund (which is the second Sunday of giving emphasis to debt retirement- the other is in February) was established last year to honor Jim’s vision. Perhaps you will consider giving an extra gift above your tithe for this purpose.

And last, the following weekend on November 12-13, we will have our Church History conference. Dr. Timothy Larson from Wheaton College will be with us to deliver three lectures on how the church has celebrated the incarnation over the centuries. Tim is an expert on the subject as he was the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Christmas. You can read more about that work in this article.   https://www.wheaton.edu/news/recent-news/2019/december/dr-timothy-larsen-becomes-an-expert-on-christmas/

I hope you will join us for the next three weekends. The Lord always blesses when his people are gathered.