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NEW! Click to read CCGB
Stories of Success
Upcoming CCGB events:
Golden Oldies Gala Event
Annual Meeting
The Council of Churches
invites you to come play at
The Downtown Cabaret!
263 Golden Hill Street,
Bridgeport
Thursday, May 15, 6:00 to
10 pm
TICKETS:
(tickets will be held at the box office and
include reception, show and picnic dinner
Platinum Angels: $150 per person
Gold Angels: $100 per person
Silver Angels:
$75 per person
6:00 – 7:15 pm Reception
Honoring John Cottrell
for
his leadership and life-long dedications to
Youth in Crisis
Consider being one of
“Johnny’s Angels”
Tickets for Reception only: $50.00 per person
Invite Friends!
Tables
of 4, 6 and 8
Show begins promptly at 7:30 pm
(runs 2 hours)
BYOB for dinner/show – setups provided
This event will sell out quickly
–
only 290 seats available!
RSVP
ASAP – NLT May 8, 2008! Questions? Call
334.1121 x 233
Council of Churches Annual
Meeting
Tuesday June 3, 6:45 p.m.
Covenant Church of Easton
Keynote Speaker
Cindi Bigelow
President & CEO
Bigelow Tea Company
Award presentations to:
Bonnie
McWain (Salem Lutheran)
Bob
Lindquist ( Covenant Church )
Sr. Margaret Palliser (Dominican Order)
Larri
Mazon ( Fairfield University )
Kathleen Gorelick (President,
ICI )
Greenfield Hill Congregational Church.
Success story of the Month
CO-OP Client
Eugene Chesney
read the full story |
“Reflections”
May,
2008
For
May
3 publication in the Connecticut Post
A
cartoon pictures a pastor and a friend observing
a fan at a sporting event.
The fan is into the game, waving
pennants, wearing the home team’s colors and
shouting “Go, go, go!” After the victory the
fan, index finger raised, trumpets “We’re
number one!”
The pastor remarks dryly: “That’s the
person who says our service is ‘too
emotional.’”
Would that people of faith could get a
little spring in their step and a little of the
cheerleader in their hearts and voices!
Would that “Bear one another’s
burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ”
might become a way of life and not just a
Biblical exhortation.
“There’s power in the
preaching when there’s praying in the pews.”
So declared the worship leader at a
recent church conference I attended.
When was the last time you prayed for
your pastor and for others in your congregation?
Do you encourage others as you might
cheer on your favorite sports team?
Especially in tough times?
Some people think of encouragement as
“just cheerleading”, bubbly but mindless and
not of particular value nor requiring particular
skill. But
take a close look at what cheerleader and pep
squads are doing these days.
They are acrobats!
They are gymnasts!
They are dancers!
The choreography, discipline, commitment
and passion of these young women and men embody
the best of those athletic disciplines.
Part of living the Godly life and showing
God’s love to others is the discipline of
encouragement.
When Jesus declares to his followers that
he is “the way, and the truth, and the life”
he is not only declaring his identity but
coaching his cheerleaders! His
love, his forgiveness, his acceptance, his
reconciliation, his humility, his conviction are
ways we live out the convictions we express.
Encouragement is contagious when we know
the Source of our hope.
Runners call this contagion
“the Bislett Effect.”
More track and field records have been
broken at Bislett Stadium in
Oslo
,
Norway
, than any other place in the world.
Not once, or twice or 20 times, but 62
times! 62!
Why?
The secret is the crowd.
The track is narrow, only six lanes, and
the grandstand so steep that the fans are
practically on top of you.
Ken Moore [Runner’s World, Nov., 2003,]
writes “The sound of 21,000 [fans forces] you
to keep your rhythm, the crowd’s rhythm, for
one more stretch, one more turn.
The frenzied fans keep you going.”
Runners catch the contagion of an
inspired community.
So do people of faith.
Moore
concludes: “Our deepest nature is that we are
at our most majestic when we do for others.”
You’ll see a few runners,
and a lot of walkers, at tomorrow’s CROP Walk
for hunger beginning at 1:30 at United
Congregational Church in
Bridgeport
. You
won’t see many others who encouraged with
pledges and prayers.
Yet all are “doing for others.”
Some scoff.
Who are we, imperfect people, to
encourage others?
Yet God uses our imperfections for holy
purpose. Next
time you are in downtown
Bridgeport
, take a look at
Golden
Hill
United
Methodist
Church
. When
the church was built in the late 1920’s, the
parish house was built intentionally with
“clinkers,” bricks burned too much in the
kiln. Factory
seconds. Rejects.
A cost-saving measure by the trustees.
But stand back and look at the parish house in
contrast to the stone church.
The parish house does not look at all
second-rate, but Tudor-esque.
Church and parish house beautifully
compliment one another!
So our spiritual beauty—flawed,
imperfect and “clinkered” it may be—is
made visible because of the beauty of Christ,
who is our head; the way the truth and the life.
He turns “clinkers” like us into
inspired and inspiring messengers of good news.
And that is certainly
something to cheer about!
The Rev. Dr. Brian Schofield-Bodt, President and CEO ofThe Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport, Inc.
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