Please take the time to watch this video update from Pastor Jaleesa and Brendan Stanford. Brendan is deploying with the United States Army later this week for the next year. In this short video they share some of what this next year holds and ways you can pray for them in this time. We are grateful for his service!

WORSHIP

 

Community Highlight:

These days, we have an awesome opportunity to participate with the elements of a Sunday Morning within our homes by using the At Home Liturgy. There has been so many encouraging messages and connections that have been made because of this resource! At Home Children’s Worship had a kick off this week!

 

Pictured here: Derek Sterenberg and the Sterenberg children: Asher, Eila, and Brielle. The lesson: God gave Jonah a special message for the people of Nineveh so they could choose to trust and obey Him. When we trust and obey Jesus, we become a part of God’s family and we belong to Him too. God will always be with us. We’re His chosen children! Pictured below are some of the Asher and Eila’s creations as they reflected on being Chosen.

 

 

 

 

 

Communion:

Gold Avenue Church is still planning to have Communion on the first Sunday of the month. With that in mind, please plan to have bread and juice at your home for the April 5 At Home Liturgy!

 

 

 

 

 

CARE

 

Discipleship:

The Gold Avenue Church Discipleship Team would like to invite you to connect with the team (and together) as you continue in the Lent Readings that were provided at the beginning of Lent. Follow the link to the GAC Lenten Calendar 2020 and Lenten Invitation (ways to engage with the readings). A Zoom meeting will be hosted by the Discipleship Team from 10-10:45AM on Saturday morning! At meeting time, locate this blog post and click on the zoom link to join the meeting on your phone or computer. 

 

 

From the Care Elders: 

We want to pray for you!

 

You may have noticed on Facebook that Pastor Jaleesa and the Care Elder team have continued to meet weekly via Zoom in order to pray for our Gold Avenue Church family. 

 

Throughout their times of prayer, the Lord has continued to remind them through his word of his steadfast goodness, protection, and faithfulness to us in this season. 

 

If you have specific prayer requests, the team would love to pray for you! Make sure you add your request to the Sharing in Prayer Google doc so that we can all be in prayer for one another together! 

 

If you would like to chat with or pray with Pastor Jaleesa or a Care elder, please do send an email to pastorjaleesa.gold@gmail.com.

 

 

 

PRAYER

Noon Prayer:


Every Wednesday from 12-1pm, upwards of 10 Gold Avenue Church congregants and leaders join together to pray as the Lord leads for our church, neighborhood, and the world. All are welcome to join in for this Zoom call. It is a blessing to get to join in prayer together! Consider joining next week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

EQUIPPING

Have you found yourself wondering what God might be up to in this unique season? Check out these thoughts from Pastor Dave, who is safely home from his trip to Israel!  Thanks be to God! 

Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and workFor I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty. Haggai 2:4
 
When we heard these words that Pastor Dave preached a few weeks ago, we heard that the people of Judah felt weak and had challenges coming up against them, and yet God was calling for them to take steps of faith to carry on the work of rebuilding the temple.  I’m guessing most of us have felt weak as we have faced the challenges of this past week, and yet God has been with us.  He has met us in our disappointments and all our concerns, and has been strengthening us to carry on in His kingdom work, often supported by the prayers of others!
 
Thank you Gold Avenue Church family for being faithful and strong in the face of much uncertainty and engaging the work of embodying, proclaiming and advancing God’s Kingdom these last few weeks.  You are using your gifts and faithfully serving despite our facility being closed:  
  • You are checking in on one another by phone, text, FaceTime or messaging.  
  • You are praying more often and with more fervor for our neighborhood and the world, particularly praying for revival.
  • You are brave nurses and other front line services, along with Nick who remains on mission in Africa, carrying on serving others.
  • You are reaching out to your neighbors and sharing the hope of Jesus with strangers.
  • You are adapting to changed schedules and seeking to love your children and help them adjust to the many unsettling changes with school and social distancing (which can be so hard!)
  • A number of you are using your gifts of music, writing, and prophecy to encourage others by means of FaceBook posts. 
  • Some have contacted us offering helpful resources to the church. 
  • The discipleship team is creatively thinking of new ways to connect.
  • The Gold Rush team is preparing to resume youth group via Zoom.
  • The admin elders are prayerfully discerning the current situation while also considering how to love our church and neighborhood well with our facility in the future, as they consider a new ministry proposal.  
  • The deacons continue to monitor and serve the needs of our church and community, even as they think ahead about needs that may be coming.
  • The care elders are doing a fantastic job of checking in with people and also praying faithfully for our congregation.
  • Our volunteer worship leaders are continuing to plan meaningful worship services using the new At Home Worship Liturgy, even blessing a church in the UK this past week!
There are many more stories that I could share, but I want to take a minute and ask you to thank the Lord along with me for the gift of our 3 urban missionaries:  Mark, Stephanie and Pastor Jaleesa.  They have put in several weeks of very long hours, using their gifts, skills and backgrounds, to help put technology and strategies in place, with help from Justin Blake, that will help our church remain a strongly connected community now, and will serve us so well long into the future.  Their joyful servant leadership is a great model for us all, and so please consider how you might bless them with a word of thanks, a contribution to their fundraising efforts, and/or most certainly praying for them regularly.  
 
In Haggai, the Lord repeatedly says “give careful thought to your ways.  As I met online with a group of pastors this week from all around the country, we were encouraged to reflect on history.  At times of great trouble and even past quarantine, God has brought forth amazing gifts-books, songs, prayers and stories of sacrificial love that have advanced God’s kingdom and served as inspiration for Christians through history (the disciples, Paul, Luther, the early church caring for the sick during the plague, Bonhoeffer, CS Lewis, Corrie tenBoom, etc…). 
 
Church family and friends, I believe the Lord will gift you and will use us together in mighty ways if we will earnestly seek Him.  This could be the church’s finest hour, if we will humble ourselves, pray, turn from any wicked ways and seek God’s face.  As together we devote ourselves completely to the Lord, I believe we will see the gospel of Jesus Christ transform our lives, our neighborhood and the world. To God be the glory, now and forever, Amen!
 
 
 
With prayerful anticipation,
Pastor Gina