The youth led every part of a wonderful service yesterday, including a sermon on Psalm 23. Then they served a meal for the congregation afterward.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Youth Sunday
The youth led every part of a wonderful service yesterday, including a sermon on Psalm 23. Then they served a meal for the congregation afterward.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Concert at Mount Olivet - June 26
Live in Concert
From Daytona Beach Florida
The Vander Veen Family
“Gospel Music, Family Style”
June 26th, 7:00 PM
Mt. Olivet UB Church
Mt. Solon, Va.
Free Will Offering Gratefully Accepted
Missions Fundraiser
The Master's Men International along with help from the Women's Missionary Fellowship operated a missions fundraiser food booth at the annual Memorial Day horse auction. The proceeds will help fund mission work in the Mt. Solon area as well as in Kentucky and medical missions in Honduras.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Pastor's Penpoint - "Another Busy May!" - June 2011
During the month of June, we will move from the Easter Season to Pentecost where we celebrate the coming of God's Spirit upon the early followers of Jesus Christ. This is the church's birthday - as we trace the very beginnings of the Christian church back to that day when the Holy Spirit of God descended on the disciples and Peter preached and thousands believed.
Pentecost is then followed by "Ordinary Time" on the church calendar. "Ordinary Time" means that nothing of great significance in the history of the church is happening during these long weeks. While that is true of church history ... it certainly does not need to be true of church present. In the coming months, attendance will rise and fall as families take vacations, family reunions get underway and HOT HOT days envelope us like a thick wool blanket. But there are certainly a lot of significant happenings in the church.
We kick off June with our Youth Sunday - when our youth stand up and lead the congregation in worship. What more significant opportunity than for our youth to assume leadership and responsibility in the building of God's Kingdom? Our children and youth will also have the opportunity to go to Rhodes Grove Camp and the Community Vacation Bible School. All training for future believers in Christ.
Our missions trips get started with Hop and Fonda leading another medical mission team to Honduras and Pastor Dan leading his team to Kentucky in September. In addition plans are underway for our NRMA missions projects.
The UB National Conference is taking place in Sandusky, OH in July and several of us involved in direct pastoral care and leadership will be attending. And finally, your pastor will be ordained as teaching elder of word and sacrament on Sunday October 30th.
So our "Ordinary Time" is anything but ordinary. Please be in tune to God and see how He plans to make your next several months a blessing, and not simply ordinary.
Now let us hold our breath and wait for God to breathe!
~Pastor Todd
Pentecost is then followed by "Ordinary Time" on the church calendar. "Ordinary Time" means that nothing of great significance in the history of the church is happening during these long weeks. While that is true of church history ... it certainly does not need to be true of church present. In the coming months, attendance will rise and fall as families take vacations, family reunions get underway and HOT HOT days envelope us like a thick wool blanket. But there are certainly a lot of significant happenings in the church.
We kick off June with our Youth Sunday - when our youth stand up and lead the congregation in worship. What more significant opportunity than for our youth to assume leadership and responsibility in the building of God's Kingdom? Our children and youth will also have the opportunity to go to Rhodes Grove Camp and the Community Vacation Bible School. All training for future believers in Christ.
Our missions trips get started with Hop and Fonda leading another medical mission team to Honduras and Pastor Dan leading his team to Kentucky in September. In addition plans are underway for our NRMA missions projects.
The UB National Conference is taking place in Sandusky, OH in July and several of us involved in direct pastoral care and leadership will be attending. And finally, your pastor will be ordained as teaching elder of word and sacrament on Sunday October 30th.
So our "Ordinary Time" is anything but ordinary. Please be in tune to God and see how He plans to make your next several months a blessing, and not simply ordinary.
Now let us hold our breath and wait for God to breathe!
~Pastor Todd
Sunday, May 29, 2011
A Day of Rememberence
Today's Memorial Day service included a reading of names of Mt. Olivet members from the past who served our country in the military. We thank them for their sacrifice so we can live in freedom today.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Homecoming 2011
We would like to thank everyone who attended the Homecoming service this Sunday. We especially want to thank Darrin and Daniel Howdyshell for sharing their music and Darrin for bringing the message.
Pastor's Penpoint - "Post Easter Living" - May 2011
"We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So death is at work in us, but life is at work in you." - 2 Corinthians 4: 10-12
Certain events in our lives change everything. The birth of a child. A wedding. A national tragedy on the scale of 9-11. A near-death experience. Natural disasters and ongoing war. The death of a loved one. Can you imagine experiencing any of these circumstances and not being changed in the way you think, act and feel? No way!
I would add one more event to that list: Easter. The influence of Easter in the lives of those who follow Jesus is overwhelming. Since we just celebrated another Easter let me encourage you to reflect on just a few of the promised realities of Jesus' death and resurrection and how they might change us.
First, our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus is a profound demonstration of God's unconditional love for us. I believe that the most difficult part of being a Christian is daring to believe that God loves us as much as the cross of Christ says. How could your lives be different if we believed to the depths of our being that God loved us no matter what? How would it change the way we see ourselves? How might our relationships be different?
Second, our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus means that we are living new lives in which the log book of our past sin has been wiped clean. Our lives are no longer defined by our failures but by Christ's life in us. How would our life be different if we refused to allow guilt and shame to ever sit in the driver's seat of our lives?
Third, our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus means that we are no longer slaves to our sinful desires but are free to live by the Spirit. Scripture promises that Easter people are people who have within them the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of life who promises to guide us into the ways of life and peace. How would we make daily decisions differently if you really believed that we were filled with the Holy Spirit?
Finally, our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus means that we are living eternal life now. For followers of Jesus eternal life doesn't begin when we die; it begins the moment we are born again. How can we invest our time differently if we really believed that our life has eternal value and implications?
I hope your Easter celebration was joyous, but more importantly I pray that the power of Easter profoundly impacts the way that we live!
~ Pastor Todd
Certain events in our lives change everything. The birth of a child. A wedding. A national tragedy on the scale of 9-11. A near-death experience. Natural disasters and ongoing war. The death of a loved one. Can you imagine experiencing any of these circumstances and not being changed in the way you think, act and feel? No way!
I would add one more event to that list: Easter. The influence of Easter in the lives of those who follow Jesus is overwhelming. Since we just celebrated another Easter let me encourage you to reflect on just a few of the promised realities of Jesus' death and resurrection and how they might change us.
First, our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus is a profound demonstration of God's unconditional love for us. I believe that the most difficult part of being a Christian is daring to believe that God loves us as much as the cross of Christ says. How could your lives be different if we believed to the depths of our being that God loved us no matter what? How would it change the way we see ourselves? How might our relationships be different?
Second, our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus means that we are living new lives in which the log book of our past sin has been wiped clean. Our lives are no longer defined by our failures but by Christ's life in us. How would our life be different if we refused to allow guilt and shame to ever sit in the driver's seat of our lives?
Third, our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus means that we are no longer slaves to our sinful desires but are free to live by the Spirit. Scripture promises that Easter people are people who have within them the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of life who promises to guide us into the ways of life and peace. How would we make daily decisions differently if you really believed that we were filled with the Holy Spirit?
Finally, our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus means that we are living eternal life now. For followers of Jesus eternal life doesn't begin when we die; it begins the moment we are born again. How can we invest our time differently if we really believed that our life has eternal value and implications?
I hope your Easter celebration was joyous, but more importantly I pray that the power of Easter profoundly impacts the way that we live!
~ Pastor Todd
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