Sermon by Markus Watson June 29, 2008

This is the first sermon in the series on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

Theme - Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is all about coming together–specifically for Paul, the issue was bringing Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians together.  Today we have all kinds of issues that divide us.  The Good News is that all who place their faith in Christ are united because we all share in the same inheritance.  Jesus is the one who unifies us.

 

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Nate is founder and director of the Urban Youth Collaborative, a network of church and parachurch partnerships that holistically shares the good news of Jesus Christ with ~700 students each week at 18 lunch clubs at middle schools and high schools in San Diego.

Nate has become a regular with us at Northminster.  A summary of our relationship with Nate may be found –> Here

Theme - God is calling us to bring youth back to Jesus.

 

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Solana Beach Presbyterian Church put a video together of the Mexico mission trip that we participated in on Memorial Day weekend. This video focuses on all 375 people that went on this trip and all 22 homes that were built.

When you watch the video, keep an eye out for the folks we sent from Northminster!

Sermon by Markus Watson June 15, 2008

This is the third sermon in the series titled “Generations”.

Theme - What does it mean to age well–to finish well? In looking at the story of Caleb, we discover that three things are necessary: a wholehearted faith, a challenge, and a community.

 

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Sermon by Markus Watson June 8, 2008

This is the second sermon in the series titled “Generations”.

Theme - What does it take for today’s younger generation to start strong in their faith? A generation that is growing up in a world that’s not as safe as it used to be. A generation that has in many ways been abandoned by the culture. What does it take? It takes an older generation that is committed to loving them, caring for them, and doing whatever it takes to pass on the faith to the next generation.

 

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On May 24-26, a team of twelve from Northminster traveled with Solana Beach Presbyterian Church to Tijuana, Mexico, to build homes for the needy through Amor Ministries. It was an incredible trip!

We built a home for the Contreras family. Alberto, the father, 42, is a taxi driver and earns only $80 per week. Marta, the mother, also 42, stays home and takes care of the their five children: Maria, Crecencia, Cenaida, Alberto, and Isaias.

It was truly a blessing for us to be able to work alongside this family to build them a small house. Nothing fancy—just something that will keep them dry and warm.

The entire team, made up of people mostly from Solana Beach Presbyterian Church, as well as Northminster and Village Community Presbyterian Church, built a total of twenty-two homes on that Memorial Day weekend!

If you’d like to see some pictures, you can view them by clicking here.

Below are two videos from this trip.

We’re excited to introduce that brand new Northminster Logo T-Shirt!!

Sizes “Child 2″ to XL are $10; sizes XXL to XXXXL are $12. If you’d like to order a t-shirt, call the church office: 858-490-3995. Order today to have yours for the church picnic on Sunday, June 29, 11:00 a.m.!

Wow, it is hard to believe this is our last month of preschool before we transition into our summer fun program! We are looking forward to seeing those of you who are continuing on in the program for summer and next fall. It will be hard for us to say good-bye to many friends who have been with us for the past few years. We know it is the natural process of life, but we will miss you all.

A few calendar reminders for you for the month of June. We will be having one of our parents, who is a San Diego Life Guard, coming in on Monday and Tuesday, June 9 & 10 to teach the children about water safety. Thank you Mr. Sanders! Monday, June 23, 2008 will be the last full day for our M-W-F children and Tuesday, June 24, 2008 will be the last full day for our T-Th and 5 day children. On Wednesday, June 25, 2008 we will be having an all school picnic at Lindberg Park, from 10:00 a.m.. – 12:00 p.m. Please bring your lunch and we will see you there! PARK IS ON ASHFORD STREET. THE BACK FENCE OF THE PARK RUNS ALONG THE 805 FREEWAY.

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We will be having a quilt raffle at the picnic. The children created their own art squares and we had a generous grandmother donate the material and her time to sew beautiful quilts of each rooms art work. Thank you Audrey Continelli’s grandmother! They will be displayed in the classrooms the week of June 16, or sooner. We will be selling raffle tickets June 16, 2008 – June 24, 2008. You do not need to be present to win. If we pick your name and you are not at the picnic, we will call you on Monday, June 30, 2008 and let you know you won.

The entire staff of Northminster Preschool would like to let you know how much your children have meant to us this year. It has been a pleasure to watch them grow and mature. Thank you for all you have done to help us make Northminster Preschool the best preschool in San Diego!

Shelli Harder

Sermon by Markus Watson June 1, 2008

This is the first sermon in the series titled “Generations”.

Theme - There’s something about the family that brings up deep longings within each of us. That’s because the family was created by God to be a reflection of who God is. Sadly, because of sin, families often don’t reflect God’s goodness. Because of this, Jesus created a new family—the church.

 

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In a Peanuts cartoon, Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn’t. “What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?” asks Linus.

“These five fingers,” says Lucy. “Individually they’re nothing, but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold.”

“Which channel do you want?” asks Linus. Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, “Why can’t you guys get organized like that?”

I don’t know about you, but I think there’s real wisdom in that little joke! As a church, being united is so important! Not that we’re gonna beat anyone up the way Lucy might, but there is real power in unity.

This weekend (June 1) is our first Sunday with a new worship schedule. This Sunday, we begin worshiping together. This Sunday, we begin a new phase in our journey of discovery—discovering who we are, who we can be, who God is calling us to be; discovering together God’s future for our church!

This coming together as a single worship service really has nothing to do with worship styles. Sure, there will be conversation, discussion, maybe even some tension, over the styles of worship that we’ll be experimenting with. But worship style is not the important thing.

What is important is that we are together, united as we move into God’s future for us. We certainly won’t always agree on whether we liked everything about a given worship service—but that would be true even if we all leaned one way or another in terms of worship style.

Instead, let’s focus on what we do agree on: 1) God loves us; 2) God has redeemed us through Jesus; and 3) the reason we, the church, exist is to give God glory and make God’s presence real to a hurting world.

I can’t imagine that any of us would disagree with that! As we move into the future, let’s focus on those things, asking God to help us live out those realities in our lives as we worship, serve, give, and love in every aspect of our lives.

–Pastor Markus Watson