CLARION ARTICLES OF JULY 28, 2010
Missionary to Japan – We knew him as a youth leader
Our church will welcome a friend when Michael Mason comes as a guest speaker on Aug 8. He will preach at the family worship service at 10:30 a.m.
Michael served as an intern and youth leader while a student at Fuller Seminary. He went on to become a mission worker to Japan under the auspices of the JEMS (Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society). He is accompanied by his wife Chris and their son Luke.
In Japan they carry the word of the Lord at their church, the Sakai International Bible Church in Nara.
Aug 8 is also the second Sunday of the month, our traditional Sunday for the Lord’s Supper. Our church family and friends are invited to share Communion. Join our fellowship and meet old friends.
Jump On IN – Fall Family Festival Volunteer Fair
Sign up for Festival jobs
Aug 22 is the date for the Job Fair, the first Fall Family Festival sign-up time to be held here,
On that day, after the worship service, there will be sign-up sheets for jobs in this year’s bazaar.
People in charge of booths and displays will be looking for workers to help them.
People looking for opportunities to serve in a booth or in some capacity will be able to sign up.
The grand fortuitous arrangement is that one has a chance to do something interesting and to sign up with a friend or fellow worker.
Jobs will be offered.
Signs-ups will be taken.
Be ready to sign up.
Sunday Bible classes break
Both Sunday morning Bible classes will be on a summer break in August. Sue Morris’ Seekers Class, which meets in the library, and Pete Morris’ class that meets in the Fellowship Hall at 9 a.m., will not meet this month.
Also taking a month off is Jim Ishii’s water color painting class.
How we deliberate, function – Know Your General Assembly
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) is the assembly of delegates from every Presbytery in our nation. (A presbytery is a regional assembly of delegates from all the congregations in a geographic area. Our church is a member of the San Gabriel Presbytery.)
The General Assembly delegates form what largely functions as a legislative body which meets every two years to act upon the resolutions which have come to it through the work of the presbyteries.
The actions of the General Assembly serve to guide the presbyteries and congregations of the denomination in their on-going effort to hold to its tradition of being a reformed and a reforming church as it seeks to be a witness to the good news of Jesus Christ’s resurrection as Lord of all and Savior of the world.
The actions that are taken by every new General Assembly provide significant guidance to our Presbyteries and congregations and yet these actions (i.e., the resolutions which are passed) take their place in a very long history of guidance which many General Assemblies have contributed to over the past two hundred years and to the guidance that has been taken by many other bodies of believers since the church’s inception over two thousand years ago.
It must always be remembered that we as Presbyterians seek to be guided by the Holy Spirit and that while we sometimes gauge the will of the Holy Spirit by the vote of a majority of our representatives, we are guided in a much more definitive way by the broader consensus of all believers not only in this country but around the world.
Given this broader perspective, what the General Assembly does every two years should be noted, weighed and taken to God in prayer. As Presbyterians we are to pray for our leaders and to ask the Holy Spirit to guide the body of Christ in the world. We are to pray that we as Presbyterians will be enabled to humbly take our place in the whole body of Christ and with energy, wisdom and love work to build up not ourselves but the witness of the whole church of Jesus Christ.
