Midweek Message

November 19,2019

Jim Hopkins

November 19, 2019

Family,

There is reason to be grateful following this past Sunday’s congregational meeting. We adopted a realistic budget which supports the ongoing ministries of LABC. We elected a good team of officers and leaders for 2020. We have some folks thinking seriously about emergency preparedness. We are developing a staffing plan to attend to our ministry of Christian Formation/Education as Pastor Tanner continues to focus on the work of justice both locally and globally.

November 24th will be Thanksgiving Sunday as well as Pledge Sunday at LABC. There will be time in worship to present both our Time and Talent Pledges and our Financial Pledges. I will preach from Philippians 1:1-6, in which Paul, writing from prison in Ephesus, chooses to begin his letter by giving thanks for the kindness of the Jesus followers in Phillippi. In so doing he demonstrates for us the power of gratitude, the dynamism of giving thanks in all things.

I see that same power at work in words of my colleague Joe Kutter as he lives with terminal cancer.

My continuing prayer is that God will grant

Wisdom to meet the choices that are ahead

Courage to meet the unknown

Strength to meet the hard days

Faith to honor the one I have tried to follow through the course of my life.

Gratitude has an impact on every life it touches.

Prayers of the Congregation

Those devastated by the shootings in Saugus, San Diego and Fresno; Sheila Sims for her sister Anita, a teacher whose school had been threatened with violence; The people of Hong Kong, Haiti, Nigeria, Chile, Bolvia, Venezuela and Syria; Peace with Justice in the Middle East; A safe and prosperous holiday season for the merchants of  Lakeshore Avenue and Oakland; All who are searching for housing; Dustin and all who live very precarious lives; All who are grieving; All who are healing; All who care for another person; Hospice patients and hospice providers

Announcements

Please join us to fill the Hunger Task Force Thanksgiving Baskets following worship this Sunday. Many hands are neeed!