Church Family,
This past Sunday, as we continued in the book of Acts, we learned something that may be shocking to some: the early church wasn’t perfect. While there were tremendous generous efforts to meet the needs of those in the church, it turns out that some people were being overlooked, namely the widows among the Hellenists. It should not be surprising that there were issues in the early church; people were sinful then just as they are now. But the early church did not let the inevitability of problems become an excuse to let those problems continue. They dedicated a few godly men, seemingly Hellenists, to oversee the distribution and ensure that everyone received what they needed. This is a wonderful model of what it means to be serious about obedience to God. This week as we reflect on this passage, let us pray that our eyes would be opened to issues that exist in our church and in our individual lives, and let us take real steps to address those issues rather than excusing them and letting them persist and fester.
Christian Challenge
This week marks the start of the semester for ASU and so also marks the start of our efforts to undertake the Christian Challenge ministry at the Polytech campus. As a reminder, Christian Challenge is an organization that focuses on bringing the Gospel to college campuses and bringing college students into the local church. You can read more about the organization here. We ask that you would pray for our efforts during this first week of ministry. Pray that God would give energy to our volunteers, especially Kyle Villa who is taking on much of the responsibility for this ministry. Pray that we would make connections with students and establish ourselves as a presence on campus. Pray that we would be effective ministers of the word both to believers and non-believers at Polytech. Also pray that God would keep you open to serving in this ministry should your efforts and abilities be needed in some capacity or another.
Grace be with you,
Logan Murphy
Pastoral Intern