Dear Church Family,
We may feel shame when we fail to live up to our own expectations or those of others. We may bring shame on ourselves or on others by our actions. We may feel shame because of the actions of someone close to us. Sadly, because of social media, our mistakes can easily end up in the feeds of many people, which only adds to our personal and public shame as they share and retweet.
The Twelve disciples of Jesus experienced a heavy load of shame on Thursday of Holy Week. By their actions, they brought shame on themselves, on each other, and mostly on their Master. Eleven of them eventually came to believe that Jesus, who died the most shameful death imaginable, had taken away their shame before God.
Their failures are all recorded for the world in the New Testament, yet Jesus was not ashamed to call them brothers, made his power perfect through their weaknesses, and empowered them to live without shame and with a new identity: forgiven children of God! It’s no wonder the Bible therefore declares, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame” (Romans 10:11).
Join us this Sunday at 9:30 am to hear and celebrate the good news that Jesus overcomes our shame and declares us to be his dearly loved brothers and sisters! During the service we’ll also welcome some new members through adult confirmation. So please come and share your love and support.
Where will we worship? We are now in the high school commons for worship services as we begin demo and construction of the new Worship and Ministry Center. The greeters will guide you as you follow signs and enter through the doors that lead to the high school reception office. This will be our main entrance for all worship services and a great place to greet one another and guests, as well as register for DSKids. Feel free to use the high school circle to drop off your family. If you are able, please park in the back parking lot or in any of the spaces along 58th Street. This will allow more spaces for guests along the side of the high school gym. We can’t wait to see you on Sunday!
ICYMI: Watch Pastor Caleb’s sermon from last Sunday as talked about how God recharges us when we feel exhausted.
DSKids Sunday is this weekend! This Sunday, Aug 21, we welcome any new children entering DSKids and celebrate those moving on, with a special Bible presentation during the worship service, while encouraging others moving on to DSYouth! After the worship service all families who participate in the DSKids ministry are invited to participate in one of three Home Builder sessions. Each session will help equip parents to gather around God’s Word in their home, where their family can grow closer together and closer to Jesus.
School-Year Church Schedule: We will continue to have only Sunday morning worship (9:30 in English and 11:30 in Spanish) during this school year. We’ll revaluate having a Saturday service next year after completion of our Worship and Ministry Center. We’ll also continue to livestream our Sunday services and archive them to our YouTube channel for anyone who is unable to worship in-person on Sundays.
Youth Confirmation Orientation – Students in 7th or 8th grade who would like to become confirmed members of our church family can apply to be part of the Youth Confirmation Class taught by the pastors of Divine Savior Church. An orientation meeting will be held Saturday, August 20 from 10:30 am-Noon for all parents and students who will be participating in this year’s class. Please email Pastor Ben if you have any questions. Click here to reserve your spot at the orientation and register for the class!
Harvest Strategy Summit – Have you ever wondered, “How do we connect the families of our school with our church?” “How do we connect these families to Jesus for life?” On Sunday, August 28th after worship, we are going to gather together as a church to talk about our plan as one ministry to reach the families of our school with the gospel. Set this date on your calendar because we want everyone from our church to be there. Get excited to see how we can reach more of our community with the life-changing, life-saving love of Jesus and build our family in Christ! Click here to see a special video invite from Pastor Caleb. Attached is a pdf of the document Pastor Caleb will go through. Feel free to read through it ahead of time.
What’s Going on? We have many exciting new opportunities coming up in the next few weeks! Stay tuned to all of those by using the Divine Savior Church App. Content is updated frequently. Explore the resources you have to grow and connect. Find links and more details to all of our opportunities, etc. Free to download.
“$2,025 for 3 Years” – Now that we are moving into the construction phase of our building project, it is important that we follow through with our funding plan. In order to build our new Worship and Ministry Center we determined as a church that together we would pull “five levers” to make it financially possible. The biggest “lever” is this special campaign whereby we hope many of our members will give over and above their regular offerings at least $2,025 a year for the next 3 years. Please visit our special campaign web page for more info and to either 1) make your total 3 year pledge there, or 2) make a contribution toward your pledged amount. We need at least 25 giving units from our church to participate in this campaign in order to sustain the mortgage and carry out our ministry plan. Currently we have 18 people who have pledged. Thank you to those who are on board and to all who are prayerfully considering it!
Invite a Friend to Welcome Back Sunday! – Who can you invite to attend our special Welcome Back Sunday service on September 11? Maybe it’s a friend or family member, a co-worker or neighbor? Maybe they’ve never joined us for worship. Or maybe its been a while. Bring them with you or plan to meet them at the door. We want to support them and their family, growing spiritually as a family in Christ. We’ll have light refreshments to follow and an opportunity to visit with others!
Save the Date
- Sunday, Aug 21 DSKids Sunday
- Sunday, Aug 28 Harvest Strategy Summit
- Sunday, September 11 Welcome Back Sunday
- Wednesday, September 21 Discover DSC Event
DSC on YouTube: Watch past messages and worship services on-demand on our church YouTube channel.
Giving: To give simply follow this link to go to our secure giving page, or click Give at the bottom of the church app. You can make one-time special gifts or set up recurring gifts as well. Thank you for keeping in mind that setting up your regular giving via ACH vs credit card saves our church over 2% in additional fees.
Changing Lives with Jesus,
Pastor Ben
