"Do Good" Rule # 2 of The Three Simple Rules

Good Morning Church and Community,

God's blessings this beautiful day from sunny Butler! It has been a beautiful weekend! Saturday, I had the honor of officiating the wedding of Melissa and Joe Suders. Melissa and Joe are relatively new to the Butler area and found Christ Community to be the perfect place for their wedding! We welcome them to Christ Community!

Our choir launched into the fall with a beautiful piece, "Come Lift Up Your Voice!" We thank our choir and Jon Pincek, interim director for leading us in worship.

Butler Dad made another appearance as he tried to understand the concept of "doing good!" You can see it here: Do Good Rule # 2 from Butler Dad

Yesterday, we centered on Chapter 2 of The Three Simple Rules by Bishop Reuben Job. Chapter 2 relates to "doing good." Our text came from John 13:34-35 a call by Jesus to "love one another." Jesus' command was an imperative one, that is, one that came with absolute necessity to follow. In two short verses, Jesus commands us to "love one another" three times. John Wesley once wrote, "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can." John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement had a vision of grace. The grace of God extending itself to us via the means of grace: prayer, fasting, study of Scripture, healthy living, Communion, Baptism, and Holy Conferencing. Wesley also was attuned to works of mercy: doing good, visiting the sick, visiting the imprisoned, feeding and clothing those in need, earning, saving and giving all one can and the seeking of justice.

We were encouraged to live in a way of living good that will require us to live in continual assessment of life: that is, to do good and to make a wise decision to follow Christ in all we say and do.

Over this past year, our church, has had the opportunity to do good when it applies to extravagant generosity. Pledging for 2012, increased our pledging contributions tremendously. Our receipts YTD, surpass our expenses by over $20,000 and our spending is approximately $2,500 below our YTD spending expectancy.

This faithfulness on the church's part has allowed us to do more good, living into our mission even more faithfully! This has allowed our church to give a gift of the Three Simple Rules to each family unit in the church so that each of us are growing together in discipleship. Our children/youth ministries are working on the Three Simple Rules too! Your goodness has allowed us to launch new ministries like Wednesday Nights @ Christ Community, giving people of all ages an opportunity to study, fellowship and grow. These are just a few examples of how you are reaching out in faith and showing God's grace and goodness! Thank you church for your response!

Have a blessed week church! It is an honor to serve and lead as your pastor!