March Perhaps you should fire them up instead! Do you want to leave your church? Perhaps you should be the one to build it up!

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1 Message From Our Pastor Do you desire to fire your pastor? March 2019 Perhaps you should fire them up instead! Do you want to leave your church? Perhaps you should be the one to build it up! The best way to build your church and fire up your pastor is to be involved and pray for them constantly and continually! If you really what to put your faith where it is needed the most, commit yourself to support your Church and Pastoral Staff, and realize that God loves us all, and we are still in His Hands. Pastors and church leaders face many opportunities and challenges each day. They balance the stresses of ministry while they are researching and writing the sermons, managing the affairs of the church, going to countless meetings and counseling other significant problems. They wear many hats as the pastor, priest, counselor, preacher, teacher, manager, organizer, visionary, administrator and janitor all rolled into one with little to no free time. As well as dealing with the stresses of modern life with their family all under personal attack and usually doing life with a lower salary and an ungrateful congregation who expects them to be perfect. They need your help, they need your prayers! When we commit ourselves to pray for our pastors and church leaders, we will have no need to bicker, gossip, slander, withdraw, place blame, or seek to usurp our will as God's (Rom. 8:28, 8:33-34, 37-39). For our confidence in the fact, Christ is our Sovereign Shepherd and He is in complete control of our church and staff, we are in His Hands and all will work out. Our pastors and leaders are here to serve, but they need our prayers and support to make this work! When we pray and come together tighter, we will have no need to fear or stress or remain in our hurts. We can come together triumphantly as a caring, loving community powerfully for His glory impacting our community (Isa. 6:1-12; Gal. 5:22-23; 1 Pet. 3:12)! Praying for your church is like filling a balloon with helium, the more it is filled, the more it will soar and not sore! For us to grow not just numerically, but in what is much more important, spiritually and in the community to one another, requires our discipline and passion to pursue Christ more and ourselves less. We have to grow in Christ in a cherished, intimate growing relationship with Him as LORD over all and LORD over us. We are called to become purpose-driven with His purpose at our helm of leadership and lives so that our trust and intimacy is rooted in Him and not in our personal ideas or distractions (1 Chron. 16:11; John 3:30;Eph. 6:16; Col. 2:6-8). Use the attached prayer guide to pray daily for your church. Take one point each day of every month, and as you grow more in your discipline of prayer, double up by taking two or more. First, praise God and thank Him for His blessings and goodness in all He has bestowed, even if you do not feel or see them. Remember your walk with Christ is all about Him working in and through us so your faith and love flourishes! God s blessing and peace is my prayer,

2 Nurture 03/16 Joann Farrand 03/16 Meghan Kinney 03/18 Betty Hare 03/18 Sean Sundquist 03/20 Betty Ray 03/26 John Ruple Jr. 03/28 Tom Miller Thank you for helping with our mission project. Easter Sunday is April 21st. We would like to do an Easter Egg Hunt. Donations of candy are needed. Please leave in the office or lower Sunday School area. We are also planning ahead for our VBS. This is a wonderful outreach activity. Fundraising for VBS will begin in March. Yvonne Kinney Sunday School Superintendent Esther's 100th birthday party has been rescheduled for April 6. 1to4, no gifts etc. please, as you did so well last time. Shields Comfort Care 9140 Gratiot Ave. Saginaw March Birthdays 03/02 Janet Patrick 03/03 Jason Collison 03/05 Richard Dillman 03/05 Jan Holm-Shaw 03/07 Chuck Hansen 03/07 Jim Pilditch 03/10 Lois Arthur Prayer List Dora Moore, Dorothy Spess, Jill Burk, Betty Hare, Mark Huebler, Jacqueline Matlock, Zella Wallace, Esther Anderson, Steve and Judy Worden, Elias and Tapuwa Mumbiro, Yvonne Garrett, Lila Goff, Lauren Mertz, David Knights, Carol Kanarck, Sandy Hooper, Scott and Gina Seipel, Jackie Burch, Linda Smith, Mona Ault, Tosha Parker, Marcello Rios, The LaMantia family, Marcile Cunningham, Dick and Nancy Regensberger, Bruce Gulliver, Desmond Reynolds, Jewel Chitombo, Jan Holme-Shaw, H.B. and Donna Williams, Justin and Molly Turner,

3 Jay Burk, Baby Eleanor (Ellie) Ruple, Al and Susan Rollier, Cindy LaPlant, Mark Burch, Dawn Stewart, Hannah Turk, Alison Garner, Robert Thaler, Linda Pomaville, Annie Sayong, Vincent Martinez, Katie Collier and the families of Dan Burch, Richard Lentz, Margaret Garner and Bishop Judith Craig blest as we respond to Your nudging s and serve as Your humbled disciples. We Love You Lord and ask these blessings in Your precious Name. Amen. March 2019 Susanne Dillman Susanne s Prayer Blessing Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. Matthew 16:24-25 (NIV) Precious Jesus, You have commanded us to take up our crosses and follow You. As we enter the season of Lent, help us to reflect on the denial of self and Your call to follow. It isn t easy to give up our possessions, our favorite foods, our time spent on self...yet; You have promised us greater blessings if we would truly follow Your will. Help us to become more passionate about our walk with You Jesus as we go through the forty days of Lent. May we surrender all and indeed take up our crosses and follow...and be Many Outreach events are in the works: March 31st - Our annual Soup and Dessert Tasting Event after Sunday service. Look for sign-up sheet to furnish soup and/or dessert. Be sure to put this on your calendar. April 7 th PM- Night Sunday School at 6p.m. Pastor Monique has extended an invitation to area churches to participate in an Ecumenical curriculum and to include a representative who is interested in teaching, with the classes ranging from 4 and below to 55 and up. Look for additional activities to include: Lawn Party in June, Popcorn and movie in July, Family games and Back to School event in August. Other ideas include Men's Pancake breakfast, Chili cook-off and ice cream social. We are also looking for a carpenter or two in our congregation to create a Prayer Box to be located by the outdoor bench, along with a Blessing Box. Lois Arthur for Mary Ann Pilditch Outreach Coordinator

4 The Day Isaiah was Chosen to be a Steward Eight hundred years before Jesus was born there was a very religious man named Isaiah who lived in Jerusalem. Worshipping in the temple one day, Isaiah had a direct revelation of God. Isaiah was totally stunned. He sensed the holiness of God and how God s purity contrasted with his own sinfulness. He felt that he was lacking in holiness and that the people of Judea were as bad as he was or worse. God, however, did not chastise Isaiah. When he admitted his sinfulness, Isaiah was instantly purified. He heard the words: Your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out. Then he heard the following words from God: Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Without hesitation, Isaiah answered: Here am I; send me! (Isaiah 6:8-9) God challenged Isaiah and Isaiah took the challenge. That was the day Isaiah was chosen to be a steward. He became such a dedicated prophet of God that his stewardship is greatly admired by both Jews and Christians to this day. Indeed Jesus himself often quoted from Isaiah and his first sermon was based on a passage from the book of Isaiah. (See Luke 4:18) How did Isaiah serve as a steward of God? He was a dedicated prophet who spoke on behalf of God to sinful nations. He worked hard to turn people away from idols and false gods and to the service of the one true God. He labored to influence persons of greed and wealth to help the poor, the widows and orphans, and the oppressed. He fearlessly spoke on behalf of justice and took personal ridicule in stride. He did so because he knew God would help him, support him, and be pleased with his dedicated service. What does Isaiah s stewardship say to us? Certainly Isaiah serves as an example of how we can serve God as he did. Such service will begin when we are as aware of God s holy and challenging presence in our sincere worship. It will continue as we each say Here am I: send me! It will culminate in our taking a stand for justice, for the poor and helpless, and when we are willing to share our time, talent, financial resources, our bodies and souls on behalf of God and God s Kingdom. After all, if we pray thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth, shouldn t we put that prayer to work personally? How can we do any less? Submitted by: Janice Olafson Stewardship Committee

5 Looking Ahead to Lent and Easter: Mark Your Calendars Wednesday, Mar. 6 Ash Wednesday worship service 7:00 PM Preparation for Lent and Easter To help you prepare for Lent with both: Inward/Personal and Outward/Social disciplines. Lenten Offering Kits are available in the parlor. Please pick one up. Sunday, Mar Lenten Concert Saginaw Area Concert Band at 4:00 pm Sunday, April 21- Easter 9:30 AM Easter egg hunt 10:00 AM Easter Worship Freed-Up Financially Find the peace, joy, and freedom that come through following biblical financial principles. In the Freed-Up course, you ll discover effective tools and develop skills that will help you control your finances so your finances don t wind up controlling you! $10. Wednesdays March 13 through April 17 at 6:00 PM Donate on-line on our website. Look for this button on our website. Please keep your address up to date! Please list name/s of people who will be using this . Send to statestreetcomm@gmail.com with the subject line of: Update Daylight Saving Time begins March 10 Word from the Street Articles for April 2019 Are due March 20, 2019