Life of the Church: Calendar

Check out our many different activities and community support events! Or subscribe to the CTPC calendar on your computer, Android or iOS device  (iCal link).   Click here for instructions TIP: it can show up as a different color on your calendar!  Here’s a sample of some of the activities in the Life of the Church:

  • Church Picnic
  • Vacation Bible School
  • Fall festival
  • After-church socials and meals
  • AA Meetings

Visit the Shenandoah Presbytery Calendar here.

CTPress June 17, 2016

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

CTPress June 10, 2016

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

CTPress June 3, 2016

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