ECC-Evangelical Covenant Church
Touchstones Revisited: Presence as Practicing Resurrection
Our mission is to be a community of people who know God, follow Jesus, and pursue God's purposes in the world. We believe we will do so as we live into our ECC Touchstones of Welcome, Transformation, and Presence. Touchstones are the values, the standards against which we measure who we are and who we are becoming as a people. During this brief series we are re-introducing ourselves to each of our Touchstones. Be sure to join us each week, in person or online, at 10:30am, ecclife.net/stream or facebook.com/ecclife.
Locations & Times
Evangelical Covenant Church
3600 S 9th St, Lafayette, IN 47909, USA
Sunday 10:10 AM
Pre-register for September 13 Service
Please pre-register so we know how many attenders to expect on Sunday. <br>http://bit.ly/ECC_Sept13
Downloadable Bulletin
https://www.ecclife.net/uploads/2/7/2/8/27288883/9.6.20_bulletin.pdf<br><br><br>
Communication Card
Let us know you attended today's service! You can also sign up for newsletters or prayer. <br>https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E054BAAA923A2FC1-20200906
How to Connect at ECC
Click below to explore many opportunities get connected even--or especially--in this time of social distancing.<br>https://www.ecclife.net/connect.html
Adult Christian Formation
Sunday mornings at 9:00 a.m. on Zoom. The Adult Sunday School class is<br>following a video series called <i>Me and My Big Mouth</i>. This series, by Andy Stanley, will talk about how we can prevent our mouths from getting us into big trouble. https://www.ecclife.net/zoom.html
Wednesday Morning Men's Fellowship
Men, please join us each week at 6:30am. The ECC Wednesday Morning Men’s group is starting a new study of Philippians. We will meet by Zoom until face to face group meetings are approved. For an invite, please email Bill Oakes (oakes@purdue.edu). We'd love to see you there!
Youth Cookout
ECC’s Council is hosting a youth cookout for middle school and up. They want to celebrate kicking off the school year and seek youth input on the direction of ECC’s youth ministry. Join us for hotdogs and hamburgers on Sunday, September 13, from 5:30-7:00pm next to the Life Center.
Welcome Videos
Here at ECC, we very much enjoyed seeing your “Good Morning, ECC” videos during this time of social distancing. We would like to see more smiling faces in new welcome videos for upcoming services. Send new videos to ecc@ecclife.net.
Congregational Meeting
Because of the pandemic, we did not hold our May congregational meeting. There is, however, plenty of business we still need to cover. So, on September 20, following our worship service, we will hold a congregational meeting, both in person (with social distancing) and via Zoom. Please watch for details in the coming weeks and plan to take part in whatever way works best for you.
Love Over Fear
On September 13, we begin a 10-week sermon series on the ECC Touchstone of Welcome and learning to love our enemies. We invite you to join us. Order the book, Love Over Fear, by Dan White, Jr., and engage in one of several opportunities for growth and learning. Go to ecclife.net/ LOF to explore the possibilities.
Join MOPS!
Hey mamas – are you looking to connect with other moms in this season of life? It’s not too late to join us for MOPS and MOMSNext! Moms with children of all ages are invited to our first gathering of the year on Tuesday, September 8, from 9:30-11:30. We’ll meet outside, just behind the Life Center on ECC’s campus. Visit our website for more information!<br>https://www.ecclife.net/mopsmomsnext---mothers-of-preschoolers.html
Women's Bible Study - NETam/pm
NETam and NETpm are starting again this fall. NETpm will start Tuesday, September 15, with <i>What the Women Saw</i> on Zoom at 6:30pm. NETam will start Thursday, September 17, with <i>What the Women Saw</i> on Zoom at 9:30am and <i>He Speaks to Me</i> at Bev Wilson’s home. Check ecclife.net/women for more information and to sign up!
Bless Every Home
As an important step in the Touchstone of Presence, please visit the website linked below to sign up with BlessEveryHome.com. You'll receive a map and list of your closest neighbors, along with emails at the frequency of your choice, to pray for your next five neighbors that day. When you get a chance, walk or drive by those homes as you pray for them. You can also find the link in our Bible App live event and at ecclife.net/connect.<br>https://blesseveryhome.com/
Giving Online
You can give your offerings here. You can also give to special areas by commenting in the memo line. https://bit.ly/ECCGiving
September 13, 2020
Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Stacey Littlefield, Lead Pastor
We become a community of people who know God, follow Jesus, and pursue God's purposes in the world as we live out the ECC Touchstones of Welcome, Transformation, and Presence...
Welcome
We are a place of hospitality, grace, and community for all people.
Transformation
We provide resources and relationships for the journey from curiosity to Christoformity.
Presence
We are sent into the world as agents of change and redemption.
Read Genesis 12.1-3. What do you think it means to bless all peoples of the earth? How were Abraham's descendants to bless all people? How was Israel bless all people? How are we, as followers of Israel's Messiah, to bless all people, today? Be specific.
What does it mean to see people from a "worldly point of view" (literally, "fleshly") in 2 Corinthians 5.16? How have you seen people this way in the past? What will help you to see them from a different (more Christ-honoring) point of view?
In what ways can we bring "New Creation" to the world, today? How would you define "New Creation"? (v.17)
What is "the ministry of reconciliation"?
How would you explain the statement in v.19 that God was "not counting people's sins against them"?
What characteristics of an ambassador might inform how we play that role for Christ in the world, today?
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.
And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.
"When God set about his great project of world redemption in the wake of Genesis 12, he chose to do so not by whisking individuals off up to heaven, but by calling into existence a community of blessing. Starting with one man and his barren wife, then miraculously transforming them into a large family within several generations, then into a nation called Israel, and then, through Christ, into a multinational community of believers from every nation—all through the story God has been molding a people for himself. But also a people for others." (The Mission of God's People: A Biblical Theology of the Church's Mission, by Christopher JH Wright, p.73)
"Despite our own brokenness and proneness to wander from living in the love of God, we have a deeper goodness that cannot be obliterated. Our actions may not look like God, but our very essence holds the tselem. This is the deeper truth we look for, we search for, we gain eyes for in others. Beyond the surface of behaviors, we look for God in the soul of another. Is it harder to see in some more than others? Of course. But not only did Jesus come to show us what God looks like, he also came to show us how to look at people. Since humanity is created in the image of God, a human being is a microcosm of the divine.” (Love Over Fear: Facing Monsters, Befriending Enemies, and Healing Our Polarized World, by Dan White, Jr., p.61)
Manifesto: The Mad Farmer's Liberation Front
Follow the link below to read the entire poem by Wendell Berry.
https://cals.arizona.edu/~steidl/Liberation.htmlMemorize the ECC Touchstone of PRESENCE: We are sent into the world as agents of change and redemption.
Make YIELD a part of your regular prayer practice. The following can be done in one sitting, giving time to each of the letters, or they can be divided up and practiced throughout the week.
By the grace of God, I commit to taking part in the following practices on a regular basis. Accepting the invitation to YIELD to the Holy Spirit, I will:
Y - Say YES to God. I will begin with the intent to be present to God and open to the leading of his Holy Spirit. (Hebrews 11.6; Isaiah 64.4)
I - INVITE the Holy Spirit to speak. I will invite the Holy Spirit to lead, teach, and guide me. (John 13.16; Revelation 3.20-22)
E - ENGAGE with the word of God. I will open myself to the riches and wisdom of God's word as I read and reflect on it. (2 Timothy 3.16-17; Psalm 119.105)
L - LISTEN to the Spirit. I will sit in silence and learn to listen for God's voice, and I will be obedient to what I hear from God. (John 14.26; Revelation 3.22)
D - DEPEND on God's Spirit, rather than my own strength. As I begin each day, I will entrust myself to the Spirit's presence and work in my life. (Revelation 3.17-18; Psalm 32.8-9)
God, this day, I desire your forgiveness and mercy; I need your grace and peace to reign in my life and relationships. I confess my sin and selfishness to you. I confess that I cannot do this on my own, and I ask that you grant me your grace and peace, and that you teach me how to live as you lived. I choose daily to surrender myself to you, though I know I will not do so perfectly. I choose daily to rely on your grace to forgive me, to heal me, and to transform me. In Christ’ name, Amen.
Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, as you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so you never forsake those who make their boast of your mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.