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February
29, 2008
There
are a couple of changes here at
Hill Point you may have noticed
this past week. First
of all, our Office
Administrator, Joanelle
Phillips, completed her work
here after 10 years of dedicated
service. We
are thankful for her commitment. I know that
10 years is a long time in
church service – especially in
the midst of so much change and
transition that can occur
naturally during that length of
time. We pray
for the Lord’s direction and
leading in her life as she moves
into a new area of service.
Secondly,
I have a new Administrative
Assistant that some of you have
already met. Rhonda
Tesch has come on board to
support me with the various
aspects of my role in pastoring
this wonderful congregation. Rhonda and her husband
Will have been attending Hill
Point since last year, along
with one of their two daughters
(the other one is married and
her family recently relocated
out of town). If
you have not met her yet, please
take a moment and introduce
yourself. She
is working on getting to know
the various individuals in the
church, and your simple
introduction will help to
facilitate that process.
Speaking
of getting to know you, Bill
Crouch and Virginia Riesch have
generated an idea for helping me
to put your names with your
faces. Following
the Sunday morning services the
next few weeks, Virginia and
company will be in the foyer
taking your pictures, which will
then be placed in an
album/directory format along
with your names so that we all
can become better acquainted. As my friend Harold
Stanfield says, “I’m great
with names, I just keep
forgetting them.” Even
if you’ve only been attending
for a short while, please
include yourself in this project
– we all will benefit from it
together.
I’m
looking forward to worshiping
with you on Sunday. And
for those of you who cannot be
present, I pray for God’s
blessing on you and a strong
sense of His Presence with you! You are a precious people
and God is among us J
Walking
together with Him!
Scott
February
23, 2008
I thank
God for the very encouraging
Annual Business Meeting that
took place here on Wednesday
night the 20th. We heard about the great
things God has done in this
place over the past 12 months,
and the ways that He has
faithfully protected, preserved
and provided for His flock here
on the North Shore. We
also were able to pass the
Operating and Missions Budgets
unanimously. I
am especially grateful to Doug
Guffy for the time and effort he
invested in generating the
Annual Report and moderating the
meeting. I am
also thankful to the rest of the
Council of Elders for their hard
work in preparing the new
budgets and ministry reports. God has blessed us
tremendously with such a
dedicated group of godly men
committed to serving and
providing leadership for this
precious body of believers.
I
am also grateful for the
dedication shown by our
congregation last Sunday when we
had such a hazardous ice storm
threatening to shut down the
Sunday morning service. While many were forced to
stay home because of the
treacherous conditions, others
equipped with suitable vehicles
were able to get to the church
and we ended up with 64 people
in attendance. I
am thankful that the Lord could
be with those who were not able
to travel the roads, and at the
same time meet with those who
were able to make it to the
service.
One
of our elders, Bill Crouch, is
in the hospital this week with
some rather intense pain from an
unknown cause. Diagnostic
tests are continuing to be run
while the doctors attempt to
locate the specific source. Please remember to pray
for Bill & Barb as they wait
on the Lord during this time.
We
continue on our Sunday morning
journey discovering what it is
to be a Joshua Generation. Last week and this week
we will be talking about the #1
vision stealer and destiny
killer: FEAR. The
Joshua Generation was given the
specific mandate to “Be strong
and very courageous” for a
reason. Fear
single-handedly disqualified an
entire generation from walking
into the blessing of their
promised land. The
enemy knows one of his greatest
weapons to neutralize us from
stepping into our destiny is to
instigate fear so that we
abandon our faith. By
God’s grace, we are going to
continue saying “NO” to fear
and “YES” to faith – so
that we may keep moving forward
with Him in everything He has
planned and purposed for us.
“Faithful is He who calls you,
and He also will bring it to
pass.”
(1
Thessalonians 5:24)
Walking
together with Him!
Scott
February
16, 2008
Susan
and I had the privilege this
week of being taken to lunch by
one of our long-time Hill Point
missionaries. It
was a real treat to spend time
with this precious couple, and
it is my desire for you to hear
from them briefly at the Sunday
service tomorrow. The
Lord willing, Brother Rob will
share with us for a few minutes
about the exciting vision God is
spreading around the globe
through their lives and
ministry.
It
was also very moving for me to
learn from them a bit more about
the early history of Hill Point
Church, back in the late
1960’s, when it was known as
the Mayflower Congregational
Church. I
discovered that the Pastor back
then, Dr. Leslie Deinstadt, had
an unusual approach to church
growth and development
(especially for the 1960’s!). Rather than employing an
exclusive or rigid orientation
towards church attendance, he
welcomed all who would come,
regardless of where they were in
their spiritual journey – much
like scripture teaches
“whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely”. And apparently many who
came did so without much in the
way of a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ. Then,
patiently and over time, Dr.
Deinstadt would lead them to the
Lord and set them on a journey
with God that would carry them
for the rest of their lives.
What
a blessing to learn about this
very positive, Godly history of
our church from someone who
experienced it firsthand. It reaffirms what we have
been hearing recently:
“The
Lord your God, He is God, the
faithful God, who keeps His
covenant and His lovingkindness
to a thousandth generation with
those who love Him and keep His
commandments.” (Deuteronomy
7:9)
We
can be sure that we are still
here today because of our
faithful God keeping and
preserving us, precisely because
of the Godly heritage of those
preceding us who loved Him and
walked with Him according to His
ways and in His truth! May we be faithful to
continue this legacy for the
generations to come after us.
Don’t
forget the Hill Point Church
Annual Meeting scheduled for
this Wednesday, February 20 at
7:00PM. This
will be in place of our
regularly scheduled prayer
meeting. The
first half-hour or so will be
devoted to a fellowship social
time and you are invited to
bring your favorite dessert to
share if you desire.
Walking
together with Him!
Scott
February
9, 2008
I
was reminded at the men’s
FAITHWALKER’S Bible Study this
morning of the importance of
recognizing and acknowledging
God’s Divine activity in our
lives every time we see His hand
at work. Proverbs 3:6 says
“In all your ways acknowledge
Him.” I want to take a
few moments and do just that.
This
week marks the end of our first
month here in Wisconsin. You may or may not know that I
had first introduced myself to
the Calling Committee of Hill
Point Church at the end of
September, 2007. Somehow,
three months later, I was moving
my family from Pennsylvania to
Milwaukee. Those of you
who are familiar with how slowly
the machinery of church policy
can run, understand that this is
nothing short of Divine
intervention.
When
we arrived in River Hills on the
evening of January 3rd,
we had approximately 12 hours to
catch our breath, and then go
house hunting with Emily Frye
the very next morning. Exactly 1 week later to the day,
we were moving into our new home
in Mequon. It turns out
that our new landlords (a
wonderful, local Christian
family) heard of our story by
the grapevine, and were moved by
the Spirit of God to take their
investment property off the
market and instead rent it to
us. With the rental market
being all but non-existent in
this area, again we can only
attribute this to God’s
supernatural provision.
Where
do I begin to thank God for His
timely and abundant provision of
temporary lodging for my family
during that first week and
beyond? Three families (Soyka,
Guffy and Crouch) graciously
opened their homes to us so we
would not be homeless (!) and so
we could be free to come &
go to look for a place to call
home. Needless to say this
was a major undertaking and
disruption of routine for each
of these families, and we
acknowledge God for working
through them to bless us.
When
we moved into our new home, all
of our belongings were still in
storage in California (it’s a
long story), and we were living
out of our suitcases. Again God intervened through our
landlords allowing us to use
their “staging furniture”
until ours arrived, and through
so many of you who loaned us
items of necessity (kitchenware,
linens, air-mattresses, chairs,
TV, vacuum cleaner etc…) until
we were reunited with our own.
“Thank you, Lord, for bringing
us to such a generous and
welcoming body of believers!”
In addition, God provided Brett
& Roberta, Virginia, Gloria,
Jan, Bill & Barb, Heather,
Jane and others to help us with
the ongoing process of moving
in!
So,
next time you see me, you’ll
know I’m only here by a
miracle and by the grace of God
– for which I am extremely
grateful!
Don’t
forget the Annual Meeting
scheduled for Wednesday,
February 20 at 7:00PM.
Walking
together with Him!
Scott
February
2, 2008
The long awaited moving van from
California
finally arrived Friday morning,
and the
Hull
family was joyfully reunited
with their belongings. With the arctic weather
conditions this past week, there
were a few unanticipated delays,
but God was gracious in
preserving our things and
getting them here safely. I want to thank those who
have been so thoughtful in
helping us with the multi-staged
process of getting unpacked. You’re kindness and
assistance is greatly
appreciated!
Even with the inclement weather,
the Ladies Community Bible Study
had a fairly good turnout on
Wednesday, as did the Thursday
night North Shore Women’s
Bible study. In addition, the men now
have two opportunities for Bible
study each week: the regular
Faithwalkers group on Saturday
mornings, and now a Faithwalkers
II meeting on Wednesday mornings
at
6:30AM . What an exciting ministry
to have these four solid
interdenominational Bible study
opportunities each week under
our own roof! God is blessing us with
an outpouring of the teaching of
His Word. Please be praying
regularly for these spiritual
openings into people’s lives,
as well as for our weekly Sunday
School Bible classes and Sunday
services.
Just
a reminder that this Sunday and
next (February 3 & 10) we
will be receiving the Great
Commission Fund faith promise
cards during the Sunday morning
service.
As you pray concerning
what the Lord would have you
give this coming year to
C&MA missionary endeavors,
in addition to your regular
offerings, simply indicate that
amount on your faith promise
card and place it in the
offering plate. There are more cards
available in the foyer.
And don’t forget the
Annual Meeting scheduled for
Wednesday, February 20 at
7:00PM
.
Walking together with Him!
Scott
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