Follow Me Continues Tonight with the Sermon on the Mount

FollowMe Advert 2Tonight at seven o’clock Fr. Scott Looker will continue his insightful survey of the Gospel of St. Mathew with a discussion of St. John the Baptist and the Sermon on the Mount.  This will be the third session of Church of the Messiah’s summer Bible Study series Follow Me: An Introduction to the Gospel According to Saint Matthew.  Tonight promises to be even better than previous sessions with key verses that unlock whole sections of the Gospel and provide new insights and ways to see both St. John the Baptist’s contribution to Christ’s ministry and how to focus the Sermon on the Mount into one cohesive message.  You will never look at these chapters of St. Matthew’s Gospel the same way again!

Follow Me: An Introduction to the Gospel According to Saint Matthew is part of Church of the Messiah’s regular Wednesday night worship service.  Each night begins with anointed praise and worship and concludes with a time of intercessory prayer.  Childcare is provided during this service.  The service dismisses by 8:30 so that everyone can be home in order to get kids in bed and prepare for work the next day.  Set your DVR’s and watch it when you get home, because Wednesday nights are amazing at Church of the Messiah!

2014 North American Convocation Sermons Online

convocation

On July 16th through 18th, the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church (ICCEC), hosting the North American Convocation.

Keynote speakers were the Patriarch Bishop Craig Bates, Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, Fr. Terry Gensemer of CEC For Life and other pro-life leaders.

The Patriarch’s Sermons and ALL guest speakers are available on the Bishop Best Audio tab or click here: Bishop Best 

Fr. Looker Announces Topic for Next Bible Study

FollowMe AdvertLast night, as Fr. Melanson concluded his extremely insightful study The Nicene Creed Unplugged, Fr. Looker announced the topic the the next Bible study which will begin next week.  Follow Me: an Introduction to the Gospel According to Saint Matthew is an 8-week study in the first Gospel beginning July 16th.  A study of St. Matthew’s Gospel is timely since, after Pentecost, almost all of our Sunday morning lectionary readings will come from St. Matthew.  Since we will hearing from the first evangelist until the end of November, it makes perfect sense to study the book itself and see how the evangelist uniquely presents his perspective on the life of our savior.  The title “Follow Me” comes from the words Our Lord used when He called St. Matthew to be one of His Apostles and occurs more times more times in St. Matthew’s Gospel than any other book in the Bible.

Follow Me: an Introduction to the Gospel According to Saint Matthew will be part of our regular Wednesday night services.  Each service begins with anointed praise and worship and concludes with a time of intercessory prayer.  Childcare is provided during this service.  In order to be respectful of time commitments and the need to prepare for work the next day, we always end this service be 8:30.  Everyone is invited to attend.  We know that you will never look at St. Matthew’s Gospel the same way again!

Tonight We Celebrate the Ascension!

The Ascension of Our LordThe Bible study might have ended but the Fifty Days of Glory are not over yet!  Tonight, Wednesday, May 28th, Church of the Messiah, will observe the Ascension of Our Lord into Heaven.  The Ascension is the culmination of Our Lord’s ministry on earth and the scene of His final words to His Apostles before returning to the right hand of His Father in Heaven.  The Ascension also marks the start of the ten days of waiting until the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost!  This is truly a momentous event in the Life of Christ.

The service begins at seven o’clock and will be a Eucharistic service as we will celebrate this occasion by partaking in the Body and Blood of Our Lord.  Childcare will be provided tonight.  Make plans to fellowship with Our Lord and one another tonight as we commemorate this powerful moment in the history of salvation.

This Tuesday Is the May Ultreya

UltreyaThe May Ultreya for North Florida will be this Tuesday night, May 13th, beginning at 6:30 in the evening with a covered-dish potluck meal.  Groupings will begin around 7:30 and we will conclude the evening with the Holy Eucharist.  The Ultreya will be hosted at Church of the Messiah (click HERE for a map and directions) and is open to anyone who has attended a Tres Arroyos weekend or similar 3-day weekend retreat (Cursillo, Walk to Emmaus, Lighthouse Via de Christo, etc…).  If you are interested in sharing a brief (5-10 minute) example from your own 4th Day walk, please e-mail Greg Looker. We are also beginning to plan ahead for the next Tres Arroyos weekends coming up in October!  We look forward to seeing everyone this Tuesday night.

Loads of Love This Sunday May 4th

Loads of Love AnnouncementThis Sunday, May 4th, we will be bringing in a very special offering to support Emergency Pregnancy Services.  Sunday will be our annual “Loads of Love” offering where we will bring in a laundry basket, a pre-rolled roll of quarters, and a bottle of Dreft laundry detergent.  Dreft is a baby-safe brand of detergent; please do not substitute different brands.  This is a tremendous blessing to EPS for two reasons: first, many mothers have to do their laundry at laundromats and this offering enables them to do so; second, it helps the volunteers at EPS clean and sort the many generous donations of baby clothes which they receive so that they can provide them to needy children and mothers when they come in looking for clothes.  Your offering this weekend will be a excellent way to make sure that Christ is Risen in deed in many lives this Easter as people we may never meet will experience this blessing.

Fifty Days of Glory Bible Study Begins Wednesday Night

Fifty DaysThe first Wednesday in Easter, April 23rd, Church of the Messiah will begin our Easter Bible Study Series on Fifty Days of Glory, the newly released book by the CEC’s own Canon Mark Pearson.  This book is incredibly insightful and will be sure to change the way you think about the days between Easter and the Ascension.  All of the priests who preach this Easter are sure to have read the relevant chapters because Canon Pearson has done such a thorough job of preparing this work.

As part of the regular Wednesday Night Service, each service begins with a time of Praise & Worship and concludes with a time of intercessory prayer.   During the same time that the adult congregation will be studying Fifty Days of Glory, Church of the Messiah’s Youth Group will be working their way through the Teen Edition of the Bible Study Not of Fan by Kyle Idleman.  Childcare is also provided for children fifth grade and younger.  The service will end by 8:30 so that everyone can be home in time to prepare for work and school the next day.  The next Fifty Days promise to be an amazing time at Church of the Messiah and we want you to be a part of it!

Church of the Messiah and Prince of Peace Leading Holy Saturday Vigils

Birmingham-Clinic-after-license-renuncedChurch of the Messiah and Prince of Peace, our sister parish on the west-side Jacksonville, have been asked by the organizers or the 40 Days for Life campaign to lead three consecutive Liturgies for the Pre-Born on Holy Saturday morning in front of A Woman’s Choice abortion clinic (click HERE for a map).  This is especially significant because Saturday is one of the days that this facility performs abortions and these are the hours that this clinic performs abortions.  We will praying for those women and children who will be entering this clinic and dying or having their lives changed forever.  The Liturgy for the Pre-Born is a modified form of the Litany at the Time of Death which is prayed on behalf of those children who will have no one to pray for them as their government, their society, and even their own parents betray and murder them.  Please join Fr. Looker starting at 8 o’clock, Fr. Bill Jordan at 8:45, and Fr. David Paysinger at 9:30 for this moving a prayer service.  Please consider coming for one vigil or staying for the entire time.  Parking is available at Prince of Peace Roman-Catholic Church (click HERE for a map).   On the day when Our Lord rested in His tomb and completed His atoning work on our behalf, it is a tragedy to think of children dying without so much as a single prayer offered up on their behalf.  40 Days for Life is a focused pro-life campaign with a vision to access God’s power through prayer, fasting, and peaceful vigil to end abortion.

No Services This Wednesday Night at Church of the Messiah

come backThis Wednesday Night, April 16, we will not have our usual Wednesday Night mid-week service.  Instead we will have services throughout the rest of the week!  Be sure to join us Thursday night at 7 o’clock for our Maundy Thursday Service and Friday from noon to 3 o’clock for our Good Friday Vigil.  Just Tuesday we finalized details with our sister parish on the west-side Prince of Peace to lead a series of Liturgies for the Pre-Born in front of the Planned Parenthood Facility on Powers Avenue on Holy Saturday morning as they open up and begin performing abortions.  We will have more information on that shortly!  On Easter Sunday we will have two services: our Sunrise Service begins at 6:15 on our property on St. John’s Bluff Rd. N. and our Easter Sunday Family Service will be in our regular location starting at 10 o’clock with all of the stops pulled out to celebrate the Resurrection of Our Lord.  Invite your friends and we hope to be seeing a whole lot of you over Holy Week this year!

Holy Week Schedule at Church of the Messiah

Holy Week begins this Sunday, April 13!  Don’t miss any of these amazing worship services!

palm-sunday-title-slide053Begin Holy Week with Palm Sunday!  Celebrate Our Lord’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem with the waiving of palms before the crowd turns on Jesus and we hear the Passion Gospel.  Be sure to get to Church on time this Sunday as we process into the Sanctuary waiving our palms and palm crosses!

 

 

There are no services Wednesday night, April 16.

Maundy ThursdayThursday night, April 17, at 7 o’clock, we will observe Maundy Thurday.  This is the annual service where we commemorate Our Lord’s Institution of the Lord’s Supper, Washing the Feet of the Disciples, and ultimate Betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane.

 

 

good_friday_009The powerful services continue on April 18 from noon until 3 o’clock with the observance of Our Lord’s hours on His Cross in our Good Friday Service.  This is always one of the most powerful services of the year and includes the Passion Gospel , meditations from both lay and clerical speakers, veneration of the Cross, and Communion from the Reserved Sacrament.

 

 

SunriseOur celebration of the Feast of the Resurrection begins at 6:15 with a Sunrise Service on our property on St. Johns Bluff Road (click HERE  for a map).  This moving service begins in darkness and candlelight and concludes with the light of the first day shining down on us as we celebrate the Risen Lord by partaking of His Body and Body at the very break of day.

 

 

ressurrection.icon.englishAt 10 o’clock our Easter celebration continues (and will for 50 more days!) with our Easter Sunday Family Service.  This will be a service to fully celebrate with Risen Lord and exalt in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We will have special events for our children and a great time is sure to be had by all!

 

 

Be sure to invite your friends and family to each of these special events in the coming week!  Church of the Messiah has created a Facebook event for each of these services.  You can go to the events by clicking on their names and invite your friends via Facebook or other Social Media!  Childcare is provided at all services.