Sermon titles

One of these days, we should record our conversation about picking a sermon title. Usually, it's pretty straight forward. But, once in a while, we think of a title that's a little edgy or just too funny. This Sunday at ZPV, I will be preaching on grace. So, I thought of the following titles: Lavish Grace, Extravagant Grace, or Chocolate Covered Grace. So it's not a big surprise, I went with the first option. But consider this: Do we really live like we believe in God's grace when it comes to ourselves, our new life in Christ, our interaction with fellow Christ followers, and with a world that is not exactly laying out a red carpet for the church? So, let's start chewing on those ideas now.

And while the "Lavish Grace" title won out, there may be a treat this Sunday anyhow.

In Christ,
Pastor Joe

ZPV August Prayer Letter

August 19, 2009

Dear Zion of Petroleum Valley Prayer Partners,

In just a few weeks, school opens, and we wrap up another summer. Continue to pray for ZPV as we are almost in the middle of our second year. And by the way, thank you for all the support as the Olkowski’s celebrated our second full year at Zion. God is working here, and it’s our privilege to be part of it.

Here are the prayer needs for ZPV:

• Our combination meeting, DRIVE, with both campuses is August 30. Please pray for continued unity for both sites.
• As school starts, so will our youth meetings at our home and after Friday night Karns City High home football games at the church. Pray for God to impact these students.
• Our new EQUIP classes start on September 15. We will have two (yes, we’ve doubled our number of classes!) offerings this year for the adults: Bible story 201 (OT Testament with poetry and prophets) and a Beth Moore study on the fruits of the Spirit for the ladies.
• On September 20, we won’t go to church (ok, we will for a bit). We have our first ever One Day event where we will go out and bless our community with work projects. Both Zion campuses will participate.
• As a whole, Zion would like to see the commitment to pray rise in our church and in the area. We have some ideas, but the best way is for God to convince us! We want to trust Him to work and not just us doing things on our own. Pray for the mission and vision of Zion as a whole.
• For the Olkowski’s, our first birdie leaves the nest over Labor Day weekend. Trish and I will take Jessyca to Boston while she attends Northeastern. Ally’s (sophomore) volleyball season will start soon as well as Mike (8th grade) in football. We are excited about the school year for all three kids.
  
  You receive an update from me each month, but feel free to let me know how you are doing. You can email me at joe@zionlife.com or directly to ZPV’s address.
  
  You are a blessing to us!
  
  In Christ,
  
  
  
  Pastor Joe
  Zion of Petroleum Valley

HG Wells' fiction

H.G. Wells cornered the market on new ideas. In terms of science fiction stories, aliens, time travel, mutations, and space travel are common themes. One could argue that Wells thought of these things first. Every sci-fi movie and book owes a nod to him. However, he also thought traditional ideas kept mankind primitive and from evolving (yes, Wells loved Darwin). Back in the early 1900’s, he shook the world with radical ideas of sexual freedom (he had an “open” marriage), birth control, and especially faith in mankind to grow and improve through education and technology. It sounded good until that pesky WWI started. Wells tried to preach his gospel again, but WWII and Hitler crimped his style. At the end of his life, he was frustrated that no one listened to him.

Wells offered a band-aid for terminal cancer. The cure is beyond ideas. Jesus offers a solution that touches our very nature. Since mankind hit the earth and abandoned God, he has tried new things, but he has needed a nature transplant all along. Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" So, rather than pass death along, we believe in Jesus, and he changes us at the source. We do not just live radically different or adopt a radical philosophy. New social rules or technology or education will not improve us personally or as a race. We become radically different only when our core nature changes. In fact it’s so different, we splash living water on everyone around us.

Pastor Joe

Just an update

Hello ZPV,

Trish stunned me the other day when she mentioned that school starts this month. We are two-thirds done with summer! Where does time fly? Well, I'd better make sure we all know what's going on.

• The Extreme Makeover Series continues this Sunday, August 9 with Pastor Paul.
• Men@Millers continues every Saturday at 7AM for about an hour, guys. Some buy breakfast; some buy coffee. The only Saturdays we don't meet are the first Saturdays of the month.
• Our next DRIVE meeting at the Clarion campus will be Aug. 30 at 6PM. Come hear what God is doing all around Zion!
• The next ZPV BBQ will be Sept. 13 after church!
• Also, later that day, we will have a DZ101 (Discovering Zion). If you've not attended one, this is where you can learn all you've ever wanted to learn about Zion. We meet from 4-6PM.
• Say, why don't skip church one Sunday? Actually, on Sept. 20, Zion will participate in One Day. We are currently meeting with community leaders to see if there are opportunities for us to bless them in Jesus' name: park clean ups, fix ups, helping neighbors, etc. If you happen to see a need in your community, please let me know. We are not committing to anything yet, so please don't make any promises. Yes, we will meet briefly that morning, but the majority of our time will be in service.
• And, there is always need for more prayer (frankly, we don't pray enough!). Trish is at ZPV at noon each Friday (during summer) with one agenda item: pray for Zion and our community. There are only a few meetings left.
• For students, don't forget Thursday nights at our home. Until school starts, we meet from 7-9PM. Yes, we'll open the pool if the weather allows. Come for some fun, hanging with friends, and hearing from God.
• And, also for students, we will open the church up for games and snacks after KCHS home football games. Details later.
• Need to be baptized? What's stopping you? Let me know and we can set it up.

Wow, we often think of summer as a slow time! I'm begging God to work in our lives and in our community. It's so much more than activities; they provide the opportunities. I want to be on board with his plans.

See you Sunday.

Pastor Joe
Zion of Petroleum Valley