Brothers and Sisters of South Hope Community Church,

2012 delivered a variety of opportunities to grow in the study of the Word. We worked through the book of the Kings, II Timothy, and Obadiah in our Sunday morning worship time and also spent time topically looking at several benchmarks of what a healthy church looks like. Those who participated in the Sunday School hour reaped the benefit of looking into the lives of several Old Testament saints, understanding Christian parenting and marriage, and grasping the messages of 1 John and Galatians. Sunday evening time together brought us into a deeper understanding of our Gospel identities in Christ and what their implications are: our identity in Christ as a family that gathers, disciples who grow, servants that give, and missionaries that go. We were also able to have several of our men use their individual personalities and understanding to present the book of Philippians passage by passage on Sunday evenings, and have most recently closed out a study of the joy of heaven with our Pastor Emeritus. Wednesday evenings were designed to challenge us in our theology of prayer as we looked at each of Paul’s prayers in the New Testament and the priorities of content he included in his prayers. This Fall, Evangelist Jerry Svinksty challenged us on 6 different topics from the Word as well. A good question to ask then of each one of us is, did the Word that I heard in 2012 fall on good ground and bear fruit?

2012 also delivered a variety of opportunities to serve in. There were many ministries that carried on as before and some new ones as well. Many things done with the heart of a servant go unrecognized and unnoticed, whether a kind note passed on, a meal for a family, a ride provided, helping with a work project, cleaning, working with the nursing home, teaching a kids class, etc. Some others naturally attract more attention as an event style such as our new MC Hoops outreach, Good News Clubs, Kids’ Day Camp, Awana, Jail Ministry, etc. From the so-called small to the so-called great, Christ is honored with faithfulness and pressing forward. I thank each of you who have served in these capacities and the many others that haven’t even been named.  

As we move into 2013, we would be missing the point of the church’s existence if we did not live to make much of the Triune God by making disciples. The genius of Jesus’ command to make disciples is that it is all encompassing. It includes evangelism and edification. We need to begin seriously thinking like missionaries in a new culture to reach the lost and bring each person closer to the next step in Christ. Jesus reminds us that this commission in Matthew 28:18-20 is done as we lean on the promise that He is with us always. We need to work with the Lord in moving people from the community (unchurched) to the crowd (regular attenders) to the congregation (members) to the committed (maturing members) to the core (ministry-minded). So, what does a core individual look like? Though they are not one who has, by any stretch, arrived, they are working hard in these following aspects, by the Spirit:

• Living consistently under the control of the Holy Spirit, the direction of the Word of God, and the compelling love of Christ.
• Using their spiritual gift.
• Learning to share their faith (word)  while demonstrating radical love that amazes the world it touches (deed).
  
• Giving evidence of being a faithful member of God’s church, an effective steward of life, relationships, and resources, willing to minister to God’s people, and an available messenger to nonkingdom people.
  

In other words they are characterized by being: gospel driven, worship focused, morally pure, evangelistically bold, discipleship grounded, family faithful, and socially responsible.

2013 is a call for a team of SHCC disciplemakers to move the community to the crowd, then to the congregation, then to the committed, then to the core through the Truth, genuine love, and the power of the Spirit. Will you join in God’s mission? What is the next spiritual step you need to take?

Press on,

Pastor Jamie

We're going through the book of Luke on Sunday mornings and have been able to see the book in a fresh way.  The first four verses (1:1-4) tell us what Luke is trying to accomplish with his compilation and his manner of gathering information since he himself was not an eyewitness of Jesus' short life on this planet.  It raises the question then, how did Luke acquire his material? Here's some possibilities that are very interesting:

1. Early tradition stated that Luke was a native of the city of Antioch. Antioch was the first Gentile church (Acts 11:19). While in the church at Antioch  Luke would have had superb opportunities to learn from the founders of the church there and also the visitors that passed through. Peter visited the church in Antioch (Gal. 2:11). Manean, the foster brother of Herod Antipas and a key teacher in the church of Antioch (Acts 13:1) may have had a strong influence on Luke since Luke seems to show a special interest in the family of Herod in Luke's 2 volumes. Certainly Paul, who would have saturated himself after his conversion to learn about as much of the Messiah's life and ministry, would have shared information that he had learned to Luke in Antioch.
2. Paul's visit to Jerusalem that landed him in captivity in Caesarea for two years (Acts 24:27) would have given Luke large amounts of time to grow in his understanding of Jesus' life there in that Israeli region. We know he would have had chances to talk to James, the brother of Jesus and Jerusalem church leader, which could have had afforded more opportunities to talk to other members of Jesus' physical family and those who had lived closest to Him. There seems to be information that Philip and his family in Caesarea (Acts 21:8-9) passed on to Luke as well during that time.
3. Then in Rome, when Luke travels with Paul in his imprisonment, contact with Mark is established (Col. 4:10, 14; Phm. 24), and much of what Mark had compiled from his association with Peter was included in Luke's account also. Luke tell us from the beginning that he had followed this story of Jesus accurately from the start and this following would certainly be from the vantage point of a serious historian that enabled his analytical mind to arrange the information he had received form these sources appropriately  The time in Rome as companion of imprisoned Paul would have afforded the time and the context to put forward an explanation of who Jesus was and why He mattered to the Roman upper classes (as the addressed reader Theophilus seemed to be). Luke wanted his audience to take the claims of Christ seriously and not immediately dismiss them as mere myth in a pluralistic religious society of myths. Moreover, in his second volume addressed to the Roman leader Theophilus, Acts, Luke is describing the validity of the actions of the followers of the Christ Luke explained in his first volume, and what they were willing to die for.