CPCHill20 Each year we partner with Living Bread Ministries & Freegrance to both raise needed funds for our Hill church plant and ministry and to support the work of LBM among women vulnerable to human trafficking. For every purchase and with the use of CPCHiLL20 on www.freegrance.com, twenty percent (20%) will go to our CPC in The Hill account that supports our church plant in the Hill community of New Haven, Connecticut.
Imagine “Women and girls find themselves selling the only commodity they have, their bodies, in order to provide for themselves and their families. They enter the sex industry and are trafficked for someone else’s profit. They make a small sum with which they scrape out a meager existence for themselves and their extended families.” Living Bread Ministries, as a component of their church planting ministry, gives the ladies the opportunity to start a business. Then these women entrepreneurs in Thailand use their skills to make soap and ear-rings, in turn which they sell to Freegrance, Inc. then sells through their website (freegrance.com). Please take the time to peruse the freegrance website and consider supporting these ladies—and our church plant in the Hill >> www.freegrance.com/shop << Use the Code: CPCHill20 in the promo code discount box during purchase so Lisa and I will get credit for your purpose. The ladies who make the soap and run the businesses have already been paid, so the 20% doesn't shrink what they earn–it helps market their product! This year (and into future years) all the support we gain through this fundraiser will go directly to support the ministry of Maxine Harris, our CPC in The Hill administrative assistant. She is a long time Hill resident and is a vital part of our Hill ministry. Please help, buy some soap (and maybe an earring or two), and support Maxine! And, please share as well . . . And don't forget to use CPCHiLL20 in the promo code at check out! Here is our CPC in The Hill monthly News Update > > Click Here
0 Comments
![]() “Happy New Year.” After last night, I’m not sure what that clichè means anymore. Each NYE our congregation, CPC in The Hill, has a late watch service–no music, lots of reflection on what God in Christ means as we finish up another calendar year and begin another. We don’t usually have new-comers or random guests. But she doesn’t count, I guess because she had visited on Sunday for our service. I suspected she was homeless, but that won’t be confirmed till later just before our NYE service. For the Sunday morning service, she sat in the back, against the wall for the whole time. She surprised me when she showed up at our NYE’s watch service at 10:30pm. She was there a little before it started. She told me she very much enjoyed our Sunday service. I asked her where she was living, where she was staying. She, with a little embarrassment, said, “I’m homeless.” Yes I kinda figured that I told her. She said she had a spot nearby (she actually gave me the specifics, but you don’t need to know that) and it was somewhat protected from the rain. She said her stuff is probably gone by now, but she wanted to come for the NYE service. And, then, here it goes, what often happens when a homeless person comes . . . “May I ask you something?” This happens almost every time, so I began to be disappointed (on the inside already). She was going to ask for money, I just knew it. Here we go . . . “The songs we sang on Sunday morning, can I get a copy of the words? They meant so much to me.” She stayed for the whole service. She worshipped with us. Confessed sins with us. Put her own written sins, the ones she wrote on her three sticky notes (just like we all did), on the small cross up from just like the rest of us. She eat with us. (We eat in the middle of the service.) She asked God three requests, which she wrote on sticky notes (like we all did) and stuck them on the cross over all our sins (on those sticky notes that) we had written, just like the rest of us. She shared a holy kiss with us—and we with her. After some post-service fellowship and cleaning up, she left. She said she’ll be ok. She thanked me and others for the service. Multiple times. Later, after everyone went home from our service. I slept in a warm bed, safe from the elements. This is the part that gets me about ministry in the Hill. I feel so helpless to actually help. No brilliant idea is going to solve the homeless crisis. (I know that. I have been in the work of social action for 20 years.) No dynamic increase in ministry will suddenly shelter all those who are homeless and make the nooks and crannies of the Hill their bedroom for the night. But, God willing. We’ll made a difference. Somehow. In some way. So my resolution, borrowing from the young Jonathan Edwards, who was a Yale student now long ago just down the street from us: “Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.” Because others need me to. Others need us to be so resolved as a church. Give us a hundred more of these ladies (and men) who just want the words to the songs we sang on Sunday morning.
![]() “Greet one another with a Holy Kiss” (Romans 16:16). The theme and sermon of our service at CPC in The Hill yesterday was centered on the reason and nature of the "holy kiss" (aka, Peter, "kiss of love"). The Kiss had deep, cultural significant that was harnessed by Paul (and Peter) to bind the gathered-church of unequals and strangers together in unity, as a family in Christ. This act (the Kiss) was soon incorporated into the liturgical flow of the gathered-church's worship, which was actually a fair (albeit physical and symbolic) application of the commands in the NT to greet one another (at the gathered-church) with a holy kiss (cf. Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:26; 1 Peter 5:14). The kiss was positioned just before communal prayers and the celebration of the Lord's table in order to give space to welcome each other as family and to allow for any moments of reconciliation between congregants to happen before they, together as equals, shared in the Table of the Lord. The power, the spiritual power, of this moment isn't simply passing the peace or saying "hi," but to physically demonstrate a true welcome (Romans 14-15) and reconciliation among unequals and strangers, now as God's family. This kiss provided . . . ▸ A physical act toward reconciliation, publically, personal, and demonstratively Right there, at that moment, amid worship, instruction, and fellowship of church, of CPC in The Hill, rests, demonstrates, and provides a solution to every wound, every harm, every social problem facing us . . . the gathered-church is the way in which God changes everything . . . for the good and for his glory.
All in that kiss. Greet one another with a holy kiss. ![]() Cinco de Mayo, today, is a celebration (not of Mexico’s Independence Day, which is September 16th, but to) commemorate the Mexican Army's difficult victory over the French Empire at the Battle of Puebla, on May 5, 1862. Ironically, I was watching Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and it was a little weird to hear Captain Picard narrate the final defeat of the Borg, “Captain’s log April the 5th, 2063 . . .” We certainly like commemorating war victories . . . soon we will celebrate Memorial Day, this year, May 28th (and rightly so to remember those who died while serving in our country’s armed forces) and, of course, the 4th of July (our own independence day). Today, at the Anderson’s in Bridgeport, we will have our own celebration: We have an open invitation to a simple backyard BBQ to celebrate that Jesus Christ defeated our mortal enemy, the devil, on that cruel cross and has opened the door, giving, to all and anyone who believes in the gospel, access to His house (the church), the forgiveness of sins, and life eternal (I mean real life, forever and ever). Our backyard BBQ is our one time a year fundraiser to help us ensure we have the resources for our church, Christ Presbyterian Church in The Hill, for our Summer Park BBQ. For 8 Wednesday we roll a grill into Trowbridge Square Park in the Hill community to serve hot dogs and hamburgers to whoever is in the park that evening. The average night has been between 65-70 served (even in the rain) and a few nights, 90+. For some, it will be their only meal that day and maybe the only real food for a few days. The enemy has been defeated and we want the good people of the park to know this. I always preach and share the gospel before we eat (and the come, the almost all come and listen); I pray, we eat, and for about two hours CPC in The Hill loves on our Hill neighbors who are fighting battles most of us can’t even imagine. This is the last call . . . the BBQ is today at 3:30 at our home in Bridgeport, come join us if you have the time and want to help . . . we turn our backyard into that park for an hour and a half or so . . . FYI, if you can’t come and God is pushing you to help, we do have a GoFundMe as well . . . https://www.gofundme.com/2018-cpc-in-the-hill-bbq-ministry ![]() We have friends and family–and of course my blog readers (thank you)–all around the world and here in the USoA. We are using a GoFundMe to help raise some funds for our summer park ministry. Lisa, my wife, and I are also having a BBQ fundraiser in our backyard (we turn it in a mini-park experience) this coming Saturday, May 5th, for this ministry and we know many of you are too far to come join us–but may want to help us out. This is a particularly powerful ministry we call "In His Midst," because when we, CPC in The Hill, show up in the park, Jesus walks among the most vulnerable of us who have, that evening, decided to be in the park–those that enjoy some Park Preaching, a meal that evening, and some neighborly fellowship. If you are too far to come to the BBQ and would still like to help ensure we have the resources for this summer, please consider helping us out. Here's the link to the GoFundMe page >> https://www.gofundme.com/2019-cpc-in-the-hill-bbq-ministry Thanks. We can't do this without you! “Alright good people, hot dogs and hamburgers are on, so come on over!” I shout this out on Wednesday summer evenings during our church BBQ ministry, where we bring a grill into Trowbridge Square Park in the Hill (in New Haven, CT). The good people of Christ Presbyterian Church in The Hill bring dishes, fruits, a salad, and some dessert. We offer a small feast to whomever happens to be in the park that evening. Sometimes, for some, it will be there only meal for the day. Anyone in the Park at that time is invited to join us for a short message (i.e., some park preaching) and prayer—and they do, indeed, come to hear the Word. 40, 60, and even sometimes, 80 gather. Listen. Pray. And, then, eat. It is a remarkable 90 minutes. Our BBQ park ministry is called “In His Midst.” When we refer to the summer ministry as “In His Midst,” there are two meaning behind this: 1) God is already there in the Park. He has been working in the lives of the people who are there—already. We aren’t starting something so He’d show up. We are showing up in a place He is already working. We are going to be “In His Midst.” We don’t show up so God will be there; we show up because God is already there in that park. There is another reason we call our BBQ Park ministry “In His Midst.” The Bible tells us that somehow Jesus is among the hurting, marginalized, and the stranger. So, we choose to be “in His midst” at Trowbridge Square Park on at least eight Wednesday evenings during the summer. The good people in the Park are both strangers and family (a slice of the Hill). At the 6:00pm hour on Wednesday summer evenings, there are dad’s spending some time with their kids (just trying to do right and make the best of things), plenty of single mom’s with their kids (just trying to get some relief from the day and give their kids some energy release), drug addicts (some even smoking 420 right there), dealers, alcoholics (some who can’t even walk and some just so happy we’re there), too many homeless hanging on a thread, hungry, and at a loss for what they should do (and some with kids who will be outside that evening—well, at least it’s summer, right?), and way too many unparented teens just hanging out. Did I mention gang members? And, there are a number of Park neighbors, good families who love seeing something good and positive happening that evening. We cannot solve all their issues or problems, not even a few of them, but we can feed them, love on them, and open up some space for strangers to be a large family of neighbors just for an evening. "In His Midst" teaches us who we are as His body and puts us right in the middle of where Jesus said he'd be, in the midst of strangers.
|
Wasted Blogger, Chip M. AndersonI am the pastor and church planter for Christ Presbyterian Church in The Hill; a flawed practitioner of Wasted Evangelism. I am learning about Wasted Evangelism through my experience in The Hill and through the good people of CPC in The Hill. Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
|
Pages |
More Pages |
|