February

Did you know? WAVE is launching a new sermon series, “Book and a Bible,” this month! At each service in this series, a pastor will delve into a special book, talk faith, and tackle important questions. Topics such as Chernow's Grant and the NYT's best-selling book The Collapse of Parenting will be covered.

I will be kicking off the series on February 11^th by preaching on acclaimed author Sara Hagerty’s newest book, Unseen: The Gift of Being Hidden in a World That Loves to Be Noticed. Discover the redeeming value of life’s hidden moments and seasons, when God can be richly growing us if only we’d notice. It’s in these times — the job we feel stuck in, the children we’re raising alone, our private experience of loss — that God can become Friend and whisper life-changing promises to our hearts.

WAVE is a special service that’s intergenerational with children and adults worshiping together in a relaxed atmosphere. The service will be at 5 PM in the auditorium on 2/11. Chili will be served, and the children will be making special valentines for shut-ins. See the February KEY for WAVE’s full spring schedule and instructions on how to view its recent televised services. Attendance is increasing, and everyone is welcome!

Also, coming up in February is Ash Wednesday. Did you know that it’s on Valentine’s Day this year? I can’t think of a better way to honor God’s love for us than to begin the Lenten season intentionally with worship. Come to the Chapel at 9:30 AM on 2/14 for a short service that will include the disposition of ashes. I will be officiating along with Pastor Deborah.

We are blessed to be a part of a church community that is so active. Join with me in praying that Central will serve as a light to the community through these services and its many offerings!

God Bless,

Pastor Noelle

Who Do You Love?

February is the month of love - with little paper hearts and dollies, shoe boxes decorated with red paper and timeless messages Be Mine, UR Cute, or Text Me printed on candy hearts, we celebrate our friendships and take time to tell our loved ones how important they are to us.

As important as this question is for us - Who do you love? We also need to consider the other question- who loves us? Of course, we hope to be loved by our friends and our family, but we also should pause to consider the love that God has for us, and for the whole world.

God’s love, scripture tells us, is the power behind creation and the reason behind the coming of Christ into the world. It’s God’s love that has the power to transform the world. God’s love isn’t based on whether or how we return our love to God- it doesn’t decrease if we forget to send a card, or even if we haven’t talked in a while- God’s love is enormous, and when we join into God’s love, we find that we are a part of that love- claimed by it, part of it, loved by it.

This February, as we think about love in so many ways - I pray that we know that we are loved by God - and part of that enormous and powerful love for the world.

At Central we have ways for you and your family to respond to God’s love this month:

Everyone

Souper Bowl of Caring on 2/4 is a great way for us to support our partners at Fountain Baptist Church as we collect canned goods and cash to support their ministry- with the fun of the big game, it’s important to remember those in need.

Stockpile Sunday is 2/11, and this month we are collecting TOILETRIES. Please bring items to the gathering area.

Young Children

Mission with Mommy- Preschool and kindergarten-aged children are invited to join us on February 28^th at 11:30 with a care giver to prepare for our next Midnight Run. The Children are collecting granola bars for lunches for the homeless.

Music and Mission Sunday School-

On February 11^th we will be making cards for our college students and preparing for the Midnight Run in March.

Middle School

Service at Central is going strong with activities every Friday Evening from 5:30- 7:00 to support our community. Highlights this month are the Tackle Hunger Event at The Connection on 2/2 (7:00-9:00 pm) and making sandwiches for Midnight Run on 2/9.

High School

Midnight Run will be on 2/9. Drivers and participants are invited to sign up here: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0e4faaaf29a4fc1-cpchigh

A Stone of Hope

“I have a dream,” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that day 55 years ago this summer. He said it over and over again in what is, by far, the most well-known speech given in my lifetime. And when he said those words, it was a difficult time in our country. Racial segregation was the law of the land in some parts, and despair that things would ever change was deep. But Dr. King spoke that day about a faith, rooted in the Bible that empowered people “to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”

And I think it was Dr. King’s faith and hope that gave his message such power to inspire us still today. To be sure, Dr. King’s was not a blind faith or a naïve hope. He knew all too well the reality of the evil of racism. But his faith gave him the power to hope, despite all the evidence, contrary to all the evidence that he had seen during his lifetime.

It’s the sort of faith that we need today. As is clear from the headlines, the civil rights movement of the 1960’s did not end the “starless midnight of racism and war”—that it did not usher in “the bright daylight of peace and brotherhood.” As is clear from the headlines, racism is still a powerful force in our culture, and we’ve grown almost numb to the violence. And we need a faith that can empower us, not simply to accept “that’s just the way it is,” but to hew out of that formidable “mountain of despair a stone of hope”—a stone of hope that we can carry into the struggles that we continue to face, those of us who continue to have a dream of “freedom and justice for all.”

--Pastor Don Steele

New Year Resolutions

Every year, we hear about people making New Year Resolutions. They are going to lose weight, go on a diet, and visit the gym more often. And every year, by the end of January, most of those rather self-centered resolutions are broken—so much so that the whole concept of New Year Resolutions has become little more than a joke.

And yet, there is one New Year Resolution that I think it is highly worth making, and it comes in the form of a Facebook post that I’ve seen from a number of friends, linking it to the whole celebration of Christmas. It is a quote from Howard Thurman, an African American preacher and early civil rights leader. “When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and the princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace on earth, to make music in the heart.”

This past year, Christians have left a lot of people scratching their heads, wondering what we believe, what we value, as they have watched the news coverage of TV preachers and megachurch pastors. And yet, it seems to me that Christians like us have been remarkably consistent. In season and out, we have quietly been doing the work of Christmas, as Dr. Thurman defined it, and if you want to join us in that work this year—if you want this to be your New Year Resolution, we would love to welcome you and to help you actually to turn your New Year Resolution from joke into reality.

--Pastor Don Steele