Online Giving App FAQs for Donors

Online Giving App How It Works

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From the treasurer’s office…

• Thank you to everyone who has continued to offer their financial support to the church’s mission and ministry.  Please note that we will not be ordering offering envelopes for 2021.  If you have been using offering envelopes, please retain your box for 2021.  If at any time you are in need of additional envelopes, please email the office or call at 440-543-1071 for additional envelopes.  Thank you.

• Valley is now able to receive offerings electronically and directly into Valley’s bank account via Zelle with no fees charged to the church or you.  Zelle® has partnered with leading banks and credit unions across the U.S. to bring a fast, safe and easy way to send money.  Check with your financial institution to see if they offer Zelle.

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Sunday Services

To view the November 15 service, please click the link below :

Sunday, November 15, 2020

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January 22, 2021

 

Treat people in the same way that you want them to treat you. (Luke 7:32, Common English Bible)

Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Since much of the focus last weekend was on the heart-breaking defeat of the Cleveland Browns in Kansas City, you might have missed what took place in the game between the Buffalo Bills and the Baltimore Ravens.  After the Ravens’ star quarterback, Lamar Jackson, was injured and left the game, Bills fans helped to raise over $400,000 – from 16,000 individual donors – to support “Blessings in a Backpack,” a nonprofit which provides food on weekends for hungry elementary school kids in Louisville, where Jackson attended college.

Like Cleveland fans, supporters of the Bills have been waiting a long time for their team to be a winner.  And yet, on the cusp of victory, when their opponent was down, they chose not just to gloat (although that may have happened later!!), but to reach out and help.

Last Sunday – in our journey following Jesus through Luke’s gospel – Jesus, in his hometown of Nazareth, read these words from Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free. (Luke 4:18)

This coming Sunday, January 24, Jesus goes to Capernaum – a neighboring village – and calls his first disciples, three fishermen:  Simon (Peter), James, and John.  They decide to leave their nets – and everything else – behind, and follow Jesus.  As his disciples, they will hear him offer these instructions:  that we are to do unto others as we would have them do to us.

An inauguration took place this week:  a new President and Vice-President sworn into office; a new political party in power.  For some people, this represented a victory; for others, a loss.  But, as disciples of Jesus, we are called to remember these words of Jesus: first, that we are to treat people the way we want to be treated – with compassion, welcome, and respect.  And, second, that his mission – his purpose – consists of bringing good news to the poor, release to captives, sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed.

If we are following Jesus as his disciples, the question, then, is:  what are we choosing to leave behind?  Gloating and grievance?  Division and demonization?  What will we need to put down in order to take up Jesus’ challenge to be good neighbors?

I pray that, as people in community, we might commit ourselves – in this time of a new administration, a new beginning , whether the party we wanted to won or not – to the loving and just treatment of one another; as Jesus teaches us to do.

In Christ,
Pastor John

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EXTRA NOTES:
• Below is a one-page outline to the Introduction and Chapter One of Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho:

Online Book Study – Week One

I invite you to join me in learning about and discussing the topic of racism together over the next 15 weeks.  The first zoom discussion group meeting will be on Tuesday, January 26, from 7-7:30 p.m., using the link below:

Online Book Study Zoom Link
Meeting ID: 891 004 0823
Password: 386439
• Our congregation will be supporting the Souper Bowl of Caring on Sunday, February 7.  You’ll find more details in the February newsletter.
• Our next community meal – for take-out and delivery – will be on Tuesday, February 9.  Look for more details and ways to help in the February newsletter.
• Please consider supporting Heart of Valley Preschool through their fundraiser in partnership with Moe’s Southwest Grill on Friday, February 19.  See flyer below for details:

Moe’s – HOV Fundraiser Flyer

• The live-streaming crew for Sunday services could use your help!  In order to be able to live stream directly from YouTube, we need many, many, many more subscribers!  Would you be able to subscribe to Valley Presbyterian Church – Bainbridge’s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYF6JWnNARixsYXmVVp-ImA?

If you have multiple email addresses or have friends, children, parents, cousins, neighbors who would subscribe for us, we would greatly appreciate it!

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Link to Facebook Live

Link to Prayer Request List

Link to Sermons

Link to YouTube Channel

Please click the link below for the bulletin:

January 24, 2021 service bulletin

 

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January 15, 2021

A story of the wonderful harvest of Scripture and history that took place among us… (Luke 1:1, The Message)

Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Luke is the only one of the gospel writers to explicitly tell the purpose – the intention – for his writing. In the opening verses of Luke, he acknowledges that many other accounts from followers of and eyewitnesses to Jesus’ life and ministry have been handed down – Luke has studied these – so that his readers may know the truth:  the good news of God’s great love.

Since December 20, the Fourth Sunday of Advent, we have been looking at accounts from Luke’s Gospel including the birth, infancy, childhood, and baptism of Jesus.  This Sunday, in chapter 4, we will hear the account of Jesus speaking in the synagogue of his hometown, Nazareth, which – in Luke – serves as the launching point for his ministry.  We will continue to journey through the Gospel of Luke this winter and spring, culminating with Jesus’ resurrection on Easter.

Luke is known – among the four gospel writers – for being the most inclusive: already we have heard stories of compelling women such as Elizabeth, Mary, and Anna.  There will be more.  Luke tells of encounters with widows and tax collectors, gentiles and foreigners; parables about Good Samaritans and prodigal children.  Luke certainly wants us to know that the Son of God has come not just for locals and insiders, nor only those with the most power or status.  Jesus comes for each person, calls all individuals, offers salvation to everyone.

This emphasis on the wideness of God’s mercy will quickly come into focus in this Sunday’s reading when Jesus – reading from scroll of Isaiah – proclaims that he has been anointed to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed, and a reset of debts and obligations.  He tells the people of his hometown that these ancient promises are being fulfilled in their midst.  This is great news; they are so pleased with this hometown boy made good!  Until, that is, Jesus suggests that this good news may not only be for them; that, in fact, there likely are others that need it more than they do.  To the townspeople, that’s a whole different story – what good is this news for them?

What about us?  Right now – just days before we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, followed only two days later with the inauguration of our 46th President – may be an opportune time to be thinking about “us” and “them.”  The vitriol and violence of the past days and weeks have revealed what we had already known:  that our nation is divided; that too many of us believe good news is not meant for “them,” for those that are “other” than us.

Dr. King famously said:  Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.  A beloved community does not primarily see “us” and “them” but, instead, people who believe, think, and act in common cause.

Friends, in the days leading up to and then beyond January 20th we must recognize that our nation and our communities need healing to take place and for the dividing walls to start coming down.  Unfortunately, this may not be a smooth or always peaceful process:  there is a lot of mistrust and anger to overcome; changes will need to take place in our souls and in our lives.

But, the good news is that we have – in the words and actions of Jesus – what Luke calls “a wonderful harvest” at our disposal.  The Son of God, come to earth, always embraced the “other” with sincerity, compassion, and respect; no division was too expansive for Jesus to cross.  As we will see – as we continue this walk through Luke’s gospel – the good news can only be truly good if it is for everyone; if it moves us toward beloved community.

May there be peace and healing in this week and in the days to come,

In Christ,
Pastor John

Link about an online book study at VPC:

Online Book Study

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Link to Facebook Live

Link to Prayer Request List

Link to Sermons

Link to YouTube Channel

Please click the link below for the bulletin:

January 17, 2021 service bulletin

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Pass-It-On Mission Store