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CrossPoint Community News 10/27/2023

by | Oct 27, 2023 | Announcement, CrossPoint Community Ministry, FrontPage-News | 0 comments

halloween, pumpkins, decoration-21498.jpg
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 
 
     To be clear, CBCGL does not endorse Halloween as a holiday, nor do we support the pagan and demonic history of the event. Rather, in the hope of reclaiming the culture for Christ, we are seeking to use Halloween as an opportunity to build relationships with our neighbors, to show love to them through kindness, and to share the truth about Jesus Christ. The reason we are using Halloween is because this is probably the only time of the year where your neighbors willingly come to your home and knock on your door! This is a great time for you to be prepared to introduce yourself and show kindness and love to your neighbors in order to build relationships and model Christ-like love. To put it another way, this night is a night to plant seeds for gospel sharing in the future. 
     With this in mind, there are a number of ways that you can reach out to your neighbors. We recommend that you do one (or more) of the following: 
 
     1. Stay home and hand out candy.
          a. Hand out good quality candy; don’t be cheap. 
          b. Introduce yourselves and get to know the names of the parents and the kids so that you can talk with them when you see them around the neighborhood later.  
          c. Hand out gospel tracts along with the candy. (For myself and family, we will be attaching tracts to large candies and handing one out to each kid who can read and giving a couple of smaller candies to each kid as well). 
          d. Let them know that you have something better than candy and the offer to pray for your visitors. (If they agree, great! Pray for them right there. If not, tell them to have a good night and then pray for them after they leave.) 
     2. Go door to door with your kids and rather than ask for candy,  
          a. Give out candy and tracts or other quality gifts. 
          b. Introduce yourselves and get to know the names of the parents and the kids so that you can talk with them when you see them around the neighborhood later. 
          c. Offer to pray for the host. 
          d. Be kind and gracious and perhaps even invite them to church. 
 
     Again, we are seeking to use this unique opportunity to reach out to our neighbors, to get to know them, to treat them with kindness and love so that they would know the kindness and love of Jesus Christ. We, as a church, are not endorsing Halloween’s pagan history (so don’t have your kids dress up as something associated with evil – such as witches or ghosts or devils). We are encouraging you to live in a way so that you see every opportunity as an opportunity for Christ. 
     May we be excellent witnesses for Jesus Christ, especially on Tuesday, but also throughout our lives. 
 
Also, please continue to pray for the nations of Israel and Ukraine. Pray that the wars would end. Here is a suggested list of prayers if you are at a loss for words in how to pray: https://send.org/story/hh_pray_for_ukraine. And https://worldrelief.org/blog-prayer-for-israel-and-gaza/ Thank you for kneeling on behalf of the people of Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine and taking a stand (or a knee in prayer) against the forces of darkness in this present age.

This Week (Oct. 27 – Nov. 2, 2023):

1. Tonight, Oct. 27, 2023, the Living Stones Friday Night Bible Study is meeting from 7:30-9:30 to study the need to pray with passion. You can read Daniel 2 to prepare. Join in person in Room A-216 or online via the following link at 7:30 pm:

https://zoom.us/j/685376249?pwd=cWtyUk1pckJiRHJxZVZCSGdJZWw2UT09  
Meeting ID: 685 376 249   
Password: 840840   
Join by phone:  +1 929 436 2866 US (New York)  

2. The Living Stones Sunday School and Grace Ambassadors Sunday School are meeting this Sunday. The Grace Ambassadors will continue a discussion of “The Pilgrim’s Progress” in the Community Hall (A-202). The Living Stones will be studying an Overview of the NT in the Koinonia Room (A-216). They will use the following link for those who wish to join online:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/491248585?pwd=RnpLcnpjQ01nTGZLSmhaZ3l4L3dKQT09 
Meeting ID: 491 248 585 
Password: 403767 
Join by phone: +1 929 205 6099 US (New York) 

3. This Sunday, Oct. 29, 2023, at 11:25 am, Pastor Nathan Willems will be preaching. Pray for him! Join us for worship at CBCGL!

Text: Mark 10:32-45
Title: To Be Served or To Serve
Live stream via Youtube: https://www.cbcgl.org/live-stream/

4. Each Wednesday, such as this week (Nov. 1) at 7:45 pm, you are invited, encouraged, and requested to join our weekly prayer meeting. We will not grow in Christ without growing in our dependence on God through prayer. The link is found below in the section on prayer.

Administration / Events

1. We have a missions update (so check out the missions tab from the bulletin)! You can provide support for COCM (in England), for James Liang (at UConn), or Chris and Emily who are serving in Japan with OMF.

2. Did you know that our buildings have been named/renamed? Check out the church announcement tab in the bulletin for more information.

3. Baptism Classes are starting up in November. If you’re interested in the next baptism (which will be on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24) talk with Pastor Nathan! He is glad to lead a class covering why we baptize, what is required for baptism, what are your rights and responsibilities as someone who is baptized and more!

4. Sunday Lunch Service is available at CBCGL with $5 lunchboxes. To place an order, please use the following link: https://forms.office.com/r/nCwQnMruKv Orders are preferred to be placed as soon as you know, but need to be placed by Saturday night so that the kitchen can prepare the correct amount of food. Note: The selection which states “Number of Meals” refers to the cooked food/lunch box/Chinese food option.

5. All other announcements can be found here (in our CrossPoint Community bulletin).

For Prayer:

From Bishop J.C. Ryle – “To be prayerless is to be Christless, Godless, and in the high road to destruction…It will always be found that when prayers are few, grace, strength, peace, and hope are small.” Please join our Wednesday night prayer meeting (7:45 – 9:15 pm) even if you can’t participate the whole time.

https://zoom.us/j/758587937?pwd=aS9sZUdxcm1janNNM2I2aXJ6Smx2QT09
Meeting ID: 758 587 937
Password: 030086
Join by phone: +1 929 436 2866 US (New York)
 
We’d be glad to pray for you. If you need prayer, you can submit your prayer request via the following link: https://www.cbcgl.org/pray/

In Christ, your servant, SDG,
Rev. Dr. Nathan Willems
Associate Pastor of CrossPoint Community – A Ministry of CBCGL