Charles Town Presbyterian Church

Tomorrow, June 18, we have a big day in the life of our congregation. Downtown Charles Town will be celebrating its WV heritage with a day of activities and street vendors. Our VBS team will be present at this event, handing out information about Vacation Bible School, the church, the Yokefellows barbecue, and the bell concert.

Throughout the day, the Yokefellows will be making available a barbecue dinner. If you’ve been to other Yokefellow events, you know that the food is spectacular, and the fellowship is incredible. In the evening, at 7pm, the Geneva Ringers Bell Choir will be putting on a bell concert for the community.

Friends, this is how we grow the church!

For some time, many of the church leaders, myself included, have been concerned about growing the church. Tomorrow is a day filled with opportunities for us. All any of us needs to do is to invite people. The people working downtown will need help handing out literature and telling people about the church. If you can help out, even for a little bit, let Molly Rogers know. Her email is mrogers@ctpres.org. Bring a friend to lunch (and may-
be even pay for them!) or dinner sponsored by the Yokefellows. What a wonderful way to introduce people to our congregation. Bring a friend or two to hear the Geneva ringers in what will be, I am sure, an excellent musical event!

Church growth does not happen by accident. The days of opening the doors and expecting people to come in are long gone. We have to invite people and make them feel welcome.

Tomorrow is a great opportunity for every one of us to do something for the gospel and for our congregation. Extend an invitation, and pray for God to work!

Blessings,

Pastor John

We are only two weeks into the summer months, and already there are great things for which to thank God!

Every year, our wonderful fellowship team schedules a banquet for either the men of the church or the ladies of the church. Last Saturday, we celebrated the ladies of our church family with a banquet that was wonderful and fun! The men of the church, with significant help from the Yokefellows class, served a fantastic dinner to almost 100 women and young ladies, and Allen Rogers gave a heartfelt talk on prayer.

On Sunday, we started our summer schedule with fellowship beginning at 9:00am, Sunday School beginning at 9:15, and worship beginning at 10:15. What a joy it was to celebrate the sacrament of baptism with Caroline Lutman and her family! This coming Sunday we are going to celebrate the baptism of Jackson Smith, Diane and John Mayhew’s grandson, and we will be celebrating the service of Connie Adams, who is retiring in July after 21 years as business administrator of our church. After worship there will be a light reception in the fellowship hall for Connie.

We still have most of the summer ahead of us, and I am excited for what’s coming: the youth mission trip, a visit from missionary Drake Williams, Vacation Bible School, just to name a few things!

Blessings,

Pastor John

Social media. Phones. Portable music. Ongoing commentary on everything from the presidential election to the tragic outcome of the gorilla in the Cincinnati zoo. Sometimes it seems like there is so much information to take in, that it all gets so overwhelming.

Last week I had the good fortune of spending two days of my study leave at a conference for pastors held at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. The speakers were great, the fellowship was great, the food was great. It was one of the most refreshing and challenging conferences I’ve ever been to. But the best part was the morning I did devotions by the lake. I found a quiet place and read some scripture and listened. No phones (though I did use my phone to snap a picture – see above), no email, no social media, no…noise.

In Psalm 46:10 we read these words:

Be still and know that I am God.

How often we do the opposite? We try to know God more by doing more and more. As an old friend told me long ago, God did not creating human doings, he created human beings.

Sometimes, all we need to do is be.

Blessings,

Pastor John

We’ll be switching over to our Summer hours June 5, 2016 through September 4th, 2016:

•  9:00 Coffee Hour begins
•  9:15 Sunday School begins
• 10:15 Worship begins

We look forward to seeing you!

The school season worship schedule resumes on September 11th, 2016.

See the life of our church on our calendar.

[IMPORTANT – if you’re looking for the 2017 VBS page, click HERE.]

PreK – 5th Graders and parents, JOIN US for some Deep Sea Discovery July 10 – July 14, 6-830pm each night for Bible lessons, Music, Games, Skits, Crafts and SNACKS!

God KNOWS me!
God HEARS me!
God STRENGTHENS me!
God LOVES me!
God SENDS me!

To enroll, contact the church.

Sometimes I feel like life is so much easier for non-Christians. Sometimes it seems like life is really, really hard. There are times when the difficult stuff we are journeying through is never, ever going to end. Much like we do with the recent weather pattern, we wonder if it will ever end. This Sunday I am preaching on one of my favorite passages – Romans 5:1-5. In this passage, the apostle Paul outlines a process. That process includes suffering, and Paul says we should be thankful for this. The reason we should be thankful is simple: every time we are going through something challenging, God has a chance to work in our lives in significant ways.

Think of it this way: Which have you learned more from, your successes or your failures? Success comes with the temptation to trust our own abilities, and when things are going well, we have a tendency to cruise along and enjoy the moment. Failure and struggle catch our attention, and in that, God has a chance to teach us more than during the times when life is easy! I hope you’re able to join us this Sunday, and we will learn more about this
amazing process that teaches us about God’s grace.

Blessings,

Pastor John

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in
which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has
been given to us.

Romans 5:1-5