Thursday, September 16, 2010

The Hole in Our Gospel for $5

The book "the Hole in Our Gospel" for the Thursday Night "Shepherd's Path Bible Study" is at Family Christian Store for $5 this week.
See the store location in Robinson here

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Our first Study

Here's a link to the website for the subject of our first Study.

Check it out.

http://www.theholeinourgospel.com/

What are your initial thoughts? What do you expect to hear?

In Christ and on the Shepherd's Path,
Mark

New Bible Study in Oakdale

Just wanted to comment on the new element of the Shepherd's path which is an in person Bible Study for anyone, in Oakdale PA, at the ROCK Youth and Family Center, Wednesday Nights at 7:15 PM. We'll be beginning this week, September 15 and for the following 6 weeks studying the book "The Hole in our Gospel" by World Vision President Richard Stearns. Additional discussions can occur online here and can be used for those who are too busy to connect with us for the live study.
The Shepherd's Path is about the element of Discipleship which involves following Jesus. our various short term studies will be focused on connecting with and supporting one another as we look to follow Jesus "the Shepherd." The studies will be short term 4-6 weeks to allow people to come in and out as their schedule allows or to look and different topics within our broader calling to discipleship.
In Christ and on the Shepherd's Path.
Mark

Friday, September 10, 2010

Small World Moments

On facebook it's not all that surprising that you have a "small world moment" as your network is usually populated by people who run in the same circles as you and often may have some of the same friends even if you've never encountered the two of them in the same setting...but every once in a while you have a genuine small world moment where two tiny networks connect.
I had two in less than a week. In my Adult life I've been a part of small towns mostly with large distances between them. The first happened when PJ and I stopped at a yard sale in Portersville PA, to buy some ridiculously large posters of superheroes for an event later in the fall at the ROCK. The guy who sold them to us was none other than the cousin (Fathers were brother's) of our police chief in Oakdale.
The second was more obscure. I attended a conference for pastors and church leaders yesterday and I, out of character for my "ghost rat" self, invited myself to sit at a table with an older gentleman who I found out was a pastor from somewhere here in the Western PA area. As we talked about where we'd lived and worked I mentioned that I had come back to Pittsburgh after a period of years that took me from Virginia to Kentucky to Kansas "with a brief stop in Indiana." "where in Indiana?" he asks. Sure he would not know the town I said "a little town called Monroe City, near Vincennes." Vincennes being the only recognizable feature on the map since Monroe City could be mistaken for a cigarette ash or pepper flake on the map. His eyes lit up. Turns out his wife was from Monroe City and "was saved" in the Church of Christ there. Here I had lived there a whole year and a half and yet such features as the logo PJ and I designed for the community center there were recognizable to him.
Amazing that it truly is a small world.
If there is any point to this story it also surprised me how easily we talked and recognized each other's common call to ministry when at the time I lived in Monroe City the only Church that wanted nothing to do with us an didn't even recognize our common status as Christians was the Church of Christ. What a difference distance makes. I imagine in heaven we'll have a lot more small world moments where what unites us (Jesus) matters more than those things that divide us.
In Christ and on the Shepherd's Path,
Mark