{"id":679,"date":"2017-08-25T09:51:21","date_gmt":"2017-08-25T13:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/?p=679"},"modified":"2017-10-07T12:22:20","modified_gmt":"2017-10-07T16:22:20","slug":"ctpress-august-25-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/2017\/08\/25\/ctpress-august-25-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"CTPress August 25, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This coming Sunday we are joining together two important events in the life of the church. During the Sunday School hour, the children will be celebrating <strong>Rally Day<\/strong>. Now if that seems a little early, it\u2019s because&#8230;well&#8230;it is! School is usually in session by the third week of August, but historically, Rally Day has been held on the second Sunday in September. That\u2019s three weeks after the school year starts for the students, and so it always felt a little weird. This year we are attempting to be part of the kick off to the school year, and perhaps it will help the kids realize how important Sunday School is for their faith development.<\/p>\n<p>We are also having a<strong> ministry fair after worship<\/strong>. This is critically important, too. It may even be life-changing. Allow me to share a story&#8230; I came to faith in Christ when I was sixteen. For three years, I studied, grew and worshiped. As I started college, I began looking for a college-age Bible study. I found one at a Presbyterian Church and started attending with friends. About six months later, the youth director enlisted the help of the college fellowship. That began my journey into ministry \u2013 first as a youth group volunteer, then as a youth director, then seminary followed, and the rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n<p>But here\u2019s the point: Outside of the direct providence of God, I\u2019m in ministry <em>because someone asked me to help with the ministry of the church.<\/em> All the committees and ministry areas can use more help. <strong>No area of ministry is overstaffed.<\/strong> The ministry fair is an opportunity to enjoy a time of fellowship and to learn more about the different ministry areas of the congregation. <strong>Perhaps God is calling you to serve in a new area. Pay attention to what excites and ask God to give you direction during the ministry fair.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>God may not call you into full time ministry, but God does expect his people to serve him by giving of themselves by engaging in ministry<\/strong>. The ministry fair this Sunday is your chance to open yourself up to God\u2019s leading and partner with God\u2019s people in the work to which God has called all of us.<\/p>\n<p>See you there!<\/p>\n<p>-Pastor John<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This coming Sunday we are joining together two important events in the life of the church: Rally Day and MInistry Fair! <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/2017\/08\/25\/ctpress-august-25-2017\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":680,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/2017-Ministry-Fair.png?fit=830%2C372&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":681,"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions\/681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}