Emmanuel Church

Dear Emmanuel Family,

I would like you to join me in praying for and participating in our Emmanuel World Ministries Celebration that begins this Sunday, February 7th.

Emmanuel Church has a long history of participating in and celebrating world missions. As a church we now support missionaries in strategic locations on every continent. Our short term mission trips are increasing in scope and effectiveness. Though missions is at the heart of all that we do as a church, once a year we make world ministries a focus of our celebration in worship.

The theme this year is Seek the Welfare of the City (Jeremiah 29:7) and will feature special speakers. This Sunday, Monty Taylor, our missionary in Budapest, Hungary will speak. On Sunday, February 14, Dr. Keith Phillips from World Impact, Inc. will once again challenge us with what God is doing in “our own backyard.” Sunday, February 21, the Rev. Edmund Chan, the pastor of the Evangelical Free Church in Singapore and the author of Growing Deep With God: Integrating Theology and Prayer, will be our guest preacher.

In addition, this Sunday at 9:30 AM, our Emmanuel Office Manager, Arlene Larson, will be sharing in the Sojourners and Koinonia classes about her recent missions trips to Africa and India. Matt Taylor, from Intervarsity Christian Fellowship will be in the Cleavers class to share about his ministry among college students. All are welcome to attend these special ACE classes.

Recently, I was impacted by something I read in the book, Journey to Jesus, by Dr. Robert Webber:

“ …it is imperative for every congregation to discover its missional character. The church does not ‘have’ a missionary program. It does not just ‘send’ missionaries out to other lands to proclaim the gospel. Instead its true character is its embodiment of Christ’s mission. By its very existence in the world, it witnesses to the mission of God (Mission Dei)…”

This mission of the Church is to be the witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world. Emmanuel Church has historically been a church committed to this very mission: locally, nationally and globally! I think that is worth celebrating and it is always helpful to be reminded and re-energized with God’s heart for all the nations. I look forward to celebrating, remembering and renewing our call together as Emmanuel Church in the coming weeks!

Until Sunday,

Rick Durrance, Senior Pastor