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Pastor's Newsletter - October 28 2020
by Pastor Martin

Pastor’s Newsletter

October 28 2020

 

2020 Fall Sermon Series - EXTENDED

 

We are continuing our current sermon series “Songs of Praise” until November 22, 2020.

 

During November we will be connecting songs / hymns to the Liturgical Calendar:-

 

November 1, 2020 – All Saints’ Day – Ephesians 6:10-20

November 8, 2020 – Remembrance Day – Matthew 5:21-48

November 15, 2020 – “All the Way my Saviour Leads me.”

November 22, 2020 – Christ the King Sunday – Psalm 95

 

Sacrament of Communion

 

We will be partaking in the Sacrament of Communion on Sunday November 1, so please ensure you have prepared bread and wine.

 

Catch up on any of our Sunday Worship services you missed on our YouTube channel, which you can access by clicking on the YouTube icon on our church homepage, www.sasspc.bc.ca, or by simple searching for “SASS Presbyterian” on YouTube.

Remembrance Sunday

 

We will be participating in our Act of Remembrance on Sunday Nov 8, 2020.

 

Please ensure you join our ZOOM service on time. We want to extend our thanks to Ret’d Colonel Darrell Smith who will be laying our wreath during our service.

 

 

Sunday Morning “in-person” Worship

 

Would you like to join us in the Sanctuary one Sunday as we continue to livestream our services using ZOOM?

 

If so, you need to contact Angela, in the church office, before NOON on the Thursday of each week. You can contact Angela by email or phone.

 

admin@sasspc.bc.ca

604 987 6800

 

 

 

Breakout Rooms

 

On Sunday October 18th we tried “Breakout Rooms” at the end of our ZOOM worship service. The general consensus was in favour of this opportunity to meet and greet some of the church family.

 

Some lessons we learnt from our first attempt at these rooms …

  1. When we announce that we are about to breakout into the ZOOM rooms YOU need to unmute yourself and start your video feed. Whether you are using a computer or iPad you should see the following icons, on your screen. Simply click on them to ensure that the RED LINE disappears on BOTH. (Please note, it goes without saying that you need a MIC and CAMERA in order to use these features on ZOOM)

 

  1. If you have joined our ZOOM service by calling in on a PHONE you will be automatically connected to a Breakout room. In order to MUTE / UNMUTE yourself within the ROOM you can use *6.

We are going to use Breakout Rooms again on Sunday November 15th

 

 

 

 

 

 

SASS Worship Service information

 

We continue to hold our Sunday worship services online, via ZOOM. The link to all SASS meetings and worship services is easily accessible. Just go to our homepage – sasspc.bc.ca and scroll down and click on the following graphic. The password to access our ZOOM meetings will be “sass” – lowercase, no quotes.

 

The ZOOM Meeting ID for our SASS worship services is – 795 930 7120

 

If you DO NOT have access to a computer / internet then you can phone in and listen to any SASS meeting / service using the above meeting ID.

  1. Dial 778 907 2071
  2. When prompted enter the Meeting ID: 795 930 7120, followed by #.
  3. You will be asked for a participant ID - just hit the # key.
  4. When prompted enter the password: 676824

 

PLEASE REMEMBER on Sundays to check that your MIC is muted and that your video is disabled / turned off, to limit bandwidth usage and potential on-screen distractions.

If you dial in using your phone please MUTE your phone, if that option is available.

 

 

 

All Saints’ Eve – Hot Chocolate @ the Church

 

On Saturday October 31st we are going to be giving out FREE Hot Chocolate to those who are out and about “TorTing”, between 6-8pm. Stop by and say “hello,” but please wear a mask!

 

 

 

SASS Church Finances

 

Last week we emailed an update to you from Jamie and Frances. Can I just add my thanks for your continued financial support during these past eight months.

 

 

 

 

Prayer

 

St. Andrew’s & St. Stephen’s is a “community of faith”, a fellowship of brothers and sisters in Christ. Let’s continue to uphold each other, and share our burdens during these days.

During these strange times we want to pray for you. So we have created a new prayer email account. Send your prayer request to prayer@sasspc.bc.ca

 

The following is a transcript of the opening prayer from Sunday, October 25th, led by Emily Lockhart. Let’s continue to give thanks and pray together …

 

God our Father,

you have filled the world with beauty.

Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works;

that, rejoicing in your whole creation,

we may learn to serve you with gladness.

 

Lord Jesus, we pray for your blessing

on your church in this place.

Here may the faithful find salvation,

and the distracted be awakened.

Here may the doubting find faith,

and the anxious be encouraged.

Here may the tempted find help,

and the sorrowful comfort.

Here may the weary find rest,

and the strong be renewed.

 

Come O Holy Spirit into our hearts,

to rule and direct us according to your will,

to comfort us in all our temptations and afflictions,

to defend us from all error,

and lead us into all truth;

that we, being steadfast in the faith,

may increase in love and in all good works,

and in the end obtain everlasting life;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LifeGroups & Bible Studies

 

Are you part of a LifeGroup, a small group who meets regularly for fellowship, prayer and study? Bless you. Do you meet regularly with a prayer partnerBless you

 

Are you not meeting with anyone outside of our Sunday ZOOM worship with the goal of growing your faith? PLEASE change that habit.

 

Being part of a “smaller-group-then-the-size-of-the-congregation-on-Sundays” permits active discussion, interaction, and learning that leads to growth, that leads to LIFE – hence the name “LifeGroups.”

 

If your LifeGroup normally meets in a home but because of CoVID that is proving difficult, contact the church office. Maybe you could meet here.

 

If you would like to be part of a LifeGroup let us know your availability and we’ll do our best to connect you. Maybe we could start a new group or two during this CoVID season.

 

 

 

The SASS Newsletter has morphed in to two “regular” correspondence. Angela will be sending MailChimp emails to you to keep you up to date with important announcements and information. I am going to continue sending you a “Pastor’s newsletter”, as often as I can. We hope these two methods of correspondence will keep you as connected and informed as possible, during these ongoing strange days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pastor Martin’s Musings

“May the Distracted by Awakened”

 

Last Sunday Emily led us in our call to worship and opening prayer, and right in the middle of her prayer she said …

 

“here – may the distracted be awakened.”

 

I was taken aback by that. Maybe that’s too strong a statement. I was stopped dead in my distractions.

 

Definition of “distraction” – an object that directs one’s attention away from something else.

 

It is so easy to become distracted, isn’t it? How many of us have walked in to another room in the house to get something, but on the way someone says something, or does something, or we see something, and by the time we get in to the room we were going to in the first place, we have forgotten what we were going in there for. We have become distracted and lost focus.

 

How many of us know that we should not ever touch our cell phones while driving? Because if we do we become so distracted that we are not paying attention to the road ahead which is a major safety hazard.

 

How many of us have been typing a sentence in a document and then … the phone rings, and after the call we can’t recall what we were trying to say in that unfinished sentence?

 

How many of us are about to hit the best 7-iron we have ever hit in our lives and in the middle of the back swing we hear something and it causes our entire bodies to react in such a way that in a split second our swing takes on a total new path and timing that causes the best shot to become the absolute worst – ever!

 

It is so easy to become distracted, isn’t it?

 

We all get distracted, because in order to not be distracted we have to have the most unbelievable focus and concentration that is just not humanly sustainable for lengthy periods of time.

 

It is so easy to lose focus, isn’t it?

 

It’s all too easy to lose focus in our faith journeys. It’s all too easy to lose focus on who God is and what He has done for us, and how we should respond to Him. It’s all too easy to become distracted from the commitment we made to God umpteen times in the past.

 

So surely the opposite to distraction is focus? Surely the prayer that we need to say is – God, minimise any distractions that take us away from you and instead help us concentrate on following you, to the very best of our ability, each and every day.

 

Surely that’s the line that we should have prayed on Sunday – right?

 

But something about what Emily prayed stopped me dead in my distractions.

 

She prayed that we would be “awakened”

 

Definition of “awakened” – to cease sleeping, to become aroused or active again, to become conscious.

 

May the distracted be awakened!

 

May those that have lost their focus on God become aware of that lost focus. May they stop being passive and become active. May those that don’t realise they are distracted become conscious of their distraction.

 

May those that are living their lives of faith in a constant state of distraction become aware of that fact and open their eyes and ears to God. May they listen to Him. May they come to an understanding of what He is saying. May they not ignore His word but act upon His word.

 

May the distracted be awakened!

 

Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’m the only one who is all too easily distracted. Maybe!

 

Or maybe Emily was inspired to give us all a good shake on Sunday.

 

Maybe!

 

May the distracted be awakened!

 

Blessings

 

Pastor Martin

 


pastormbaxter@gmail.com


Direct Line in Church Office – 604 770 1025

 

www.sasspc.bc.ca