Skip to main content

Update and Weekly Word

 Friends of Shalom,

It's been a busy month. I hope things are well in your life and ministry. Here are some updates on our end.

  • Ordination: I've finished all my ordination exams for the priesthood. Most of you know I was ordained to the diaconate last summer. Deacons are full members of the clergy in the Anglican Tradition with specific roles in the church service and in ministry. All clergy including Priests and Bishops begin as Deacons. But some deacons are "transitional" on their way to the priesthood. That was my path. I hope to be ordained as a Priest in the coming months!
  • New Bishop: The Diocese of Cascadia ordained a new Bishop to lead our churches last week. Bishop Jake Worley is the second Bishop of our missionary diocese up here in the PNW (Washington, Oregon, and Alaska). Please keep him in prayer as he begins his ministry. 
  • New Day and Meeting Time: Starting March 31st Easter Sunday we'll begin meeting on Sunday morning at 10am. Please pray for this change and for this new season for us! 
  • New People: At the beginning of the year I began praying for God to send us 10 new folks over the next 2 months. I counted them up... and He's answered that prayer! We've seen exactly 10 adults and kids begin worshipping with us! Please continue to pray for God to connect us with folks interested in our plant and those He is drawing to Himself.
  • Personal News: Our youngest daughter got engaged! We couldn't be more excited for Ellie and Zac! They are also key members of Shalom and we're so thankful to God for bringing them together. 
  • Prayer: Please continue to pray for the ups and downs as well as the discouragement that's a real part of church planting as well as protection from the enemy. 

Here's the Weekly Word



What is Lent? As most of you are aware, we are now in the season of Lent. Here's an article that helps lay out the basics of Lent. I pray this is a rich season in your life of entering into the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and giving (Matthew 6) as we prepare for Holy Week! 

What is Lent?        

Thanks again for all your support and prayers.

For the Shalom of Kitsap,

-Rob and Beth  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

June Newsletter

My wife and I have been building a garden… well, mostly my wife ;)  I underestimated how much work it would be.  We had to get stones out of the soil, lay down Beth's Garden mulch, then build a fence to keep the deer out. After that there was ordering dirt, wheelbarrowing the dirt, building planters, filling the boxes, and finally planting. This got me thinking about the work of ministry and specifically the balance between working hard, but then trusting God with the growth. In our garden we are working hard, but after we do our work we can’t make the plants grow. That’s outside of our realm. This partnership we have with God that began in Eden is a hard one. It seems like we’d rather just work hard and make it all up to us… or throw our hands up and just “let go and let God” to do it all.  But neither is how it all works. We do work hard. We do build. At the same time, only God brings the growth!  We see this in a wonderful text in Paul’s first letter to Corinth. T...
Post a Comment
Read more

October Newsletter

 Friends of Shalom, Through the years, I've had many friends who are teachers. And what they've all told me is that the first few years of teaching are the hardest part because you have to prepare ALL your lessons from scratch. Of course there's curriculum to pull from, but each lesson must be curated and put together. Once the new teacher has those lessons worked out and developed, the following years are much easier.  In many ways, the early years of a church plant are like that. Like a new teacher, a church planter has to develop many "lessons." We have to work on websites, discipleship plans, policies, statements around key practices/beliefs of the church, etc. And that's the work I've been doing over the last month and it will likely continue for some time. Of course this work only makes sense if you have a "class" to teach. I'm so thankful that we have one! Over the last few months I have consistently heard from our folks how much they ...
Post a Comment
Read more

May Newsletter

 Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!  Palm Sunday begins outside with the liturgy of the Palms . This is our Eastertide acclamation and how we begin each service through Pentecost (June 8th). It's meant to orient us to the reality of our resurrected Lord who is reigning now. Easter isn't simply one special Sunday, but a whole season of being drenched in the joy and glory of Jesus' victory over his own death and now ours as well! If you find yourself drifting from the power of the resurrection that we celebrated on Easter, here is a link to my message on Easter Sunday to stir up hope once again! I have to say, this last month was simply AMAZING! God has been so good to us. Here are some highlights. Updates: We held our first Triduum (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil) and it was a rich time of worship that culminated in a Taco Potluck on Saturday night with most of our church joining in! Through these three services as well as Easter Sund...
Post a Comment
Read more