READY TO RIPPLE!
RIPPLE is an Americana roots-riveted band consisting of Gary Yoder on guitar, Mark Ammerman on guitar and harmonica, with vocals supplied by all (including Maggie Young and Carol Oberholtzer). Ripple leads worship at Grace Church every Sunday morning, and is joined on stage by Glen Hough on piano. The SECOND SUNDAY of each month is a Jesus Jamboree with guests joining in the musical accompaniment to the hymns of the church, as well as country, folk, rock and bluegrass gospel (including originals by Ripple and friends). RIPPLE's longer-range goal is to play to unchurched audiences in bars, clubs, cafes and coffeehouses around the county.
JOIN US EACH SUNDAY FOR THE FAITH-FILLED FUN (clapping and occasional loud whooping encouraged.)
RIPPLE is an Americana roots-riveted band consisting of Gary Yoder on guitar, Mark Ammerman on guitar and harmonica, with vocals supplied by all (including Maggie Young and Carol Oberholtzer). Ripple leads worship at Grace Church every Sunday morning, and is joined on stage by Glen Hough on piano. The SECOND SUNDAY of each month is a Jesus Jamboree with guests joining in the musical accompaniment to the hymns of the church, as well as country, folk, rock and bluegrass gospel (including originals by Ripple and friends). RIPPLE's longer-range goal is to play to unchurched audiences in bars, clubs, cafes and coffeehouses around the county.
JOIN US EACH SUNDAY FOR THE FAITH-FILLED FUN (clapping and occasional loud whooping encouraged.)
(ALMOST) BRAND NEW
PUSH: Is This The End?
by Mark Ammerman and E. Michael Rusten
Fiction isn't always fiction.
The future is sometimes today.
From the streets of Philadelphia to the airspace over Israel, PUSH tells a story right out of this afternoon's news.
This first novel in the ELEVENTH HOUR series is pulse-pounding, page-turning apocalyptic fiction at its finest.
"Extremely well written and exceedingly more responsible in its handling of Revelation than its fictional predecessors." J. Ed Komoszewski, ThM
PURCHASE A COPY of PUSH online. Paperback editions are available at the following linked pages at Amazon.com and CreateSpace. Kindle editions are available at the Push page at Amazon.
For more infomation on PUSH and the ELEVENTH HOUR series, link to www.eleventhhourpush.com
PUSH: Is This The End?
by Mark Ammerman and E. Michael Rusten
Fiction isn't always fiction.
The future is sometimes today.
From the streets of Philadelphia to the airspace over Israel, PUSH tells a story right out of this afternoon's news.
This first novel in the ELEVENTH HOUR series is pulse-pounding, page-turning apocalyptic fiction at its finest.
"Extremely well written and exceedingly more responsible in its handling of Revelation than its fictional predecessors." J. Ed Komoszewski, ThM
PURCHASE A COPY of PUSH online. Paperback editions are available at the following linked pages at Amazon.com and CreateSpace. Kindle editions are available at the Push page at Amazon.
For more infomation on PUSH and the ELEVENTH HOUR series, link to www.eleventhhourpush.com
GOD'S WORD / OUR WITNESS
OLD DOGS have a tough time with new tricks...but old dogs are faithful. Grace Church is predominately a congregation of senior citizens, and new tricks are not on the agenda. Yet we believe God has called us to faithfully and creatively steward those things that He has placed in our hands over the years. We believe he has called us to "strengthen the things that remain."
There are 7 areas of life and faith that are in our hands. They are:
1. ONE ANOTHER: This congregation. This people. Those here, those shut-in their homes, those who come and those who don’t, who consider themselves members of this “one another” that we call Grace Church. As well as those of our own families who no longer come here…or no longer even follow Christ. We have this “one another” reality in our hands…and we are called to strengthen it, called to obey Jesus’ principal commandment to “love one another,” and to strengthen our commitment to one another.
2. OUR SABBATH: Our Rippleiscious worship hour… and the hour that follows as we gather for our Family Bible Hour (Sunday school.) Our hymns and our hootenanny… our time together in the word. Our friendship. Our prayers. Our laughter, our tears. Our Lord’s presence in this time together. We have these Sabbath hours in our hands…and we are called to strengthen them. And on our SECOND SUNDAY, we amp all of this up--with Brunch and Bible in place of Family Bible Hour. Every THIRD SUNDAY, the "Detours, Doubts and Desperados" class also meets during the Sunday school hour (that happens across the street and around the corner in the home of the Bradleys--and they have food too!)
3. THE PRAYERS of this congregation. Here on Sunday mornings. Here on Wednesday mornings at prayer meeting. In our homes. For one another…for those we carry in our hearts together. Prayer for the physical, spiritual and relational needs of our families…of our children and grandchildren. Of our denomination… our sister churches… our missionaries… our neighborhood... our city... our mission in the world. Prayer for whatever the Father calls upon us to intercede for. We are called to strengthen our prayer life together.
4. OUR RELATIONSHIP TO THE EVANGELICAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH: its leaders, its ministries, its mission, its institutions (the seminary, the camps, the conferences, the outreaches.) Our relationship with other ECC pastors and churches, past and present. Our relationship with our missionaries… our conference minister… our bishop. This is our heritage… and a living link to wider Christian fellowship and ministry.
5. OUR MINISTRIES… which are currently four-fold:
1) A precious and strategic outreach to the troubled youth locked in at the Lancaster County Intervention Center… through Randy Rosa and a small team from The Gathering.
2) Our outreach through the ministries and missionaries we support here in America and around the world. These are ministry relationships that God has put into our hands, and are called to strengthen them. One of these ministries is a young church called The Gathering, which meets in Millersville Grace ECC and reaches out strategically to students at Millersville University.
3) Ripple: our worship and outreach band. Roots-oriented gospel-tinged music in many genres.
4) Second Sunday: Two and a half hours of sanctified cool every second Sunday of each month. More music, more fun, and FOOD!
6. OUR RESOURCES:
1) Us…our “one another”…the love of God and the gifts of God that are resident in each one of us… along with the testimony of lives lived long in the Lord. We—you and I—are a precious resource, one that can be strengthened, even if our hands and our legs (in the natural) fail us.
2) Our financial resources, which can be prayerfully and wisely seeded to the work of the kingdom of God as the Lord leads us.
These resources are not really OURS, they are God’s, but we are called to steward them…to strengthen them.
7. OUR RELATIONSHIP with IN THE LIGHT MINISTRIES… we are in this building (which we built and improved for over a century), but we are here with another congregation now (In The Light Ministries), and the building is now theirs
(most of it, anyway.) The potential is great for encouraging one another, loving one another, strengthening one another and ministering together in practical, relational ways. From the perspective of Heaven, "there is one body, one Spirit, one of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:4-6)."
OLD DOGS have a tough time with new tricks...but old dogs are faithful. Grace Church is predominately a congregation of senior citizens, and new tricks are not on the agenda. Yet we believe God has called us to faithfully and creatively steward those things that He has placed in our hands over the years. We believe he has called us to "strengthen the things that remain."
There are 7 areas of life and faith that are in our hands. They are:
1. ONE ANOTHER: This congregation. This people. Those here, those shut-in their homes, those who come and those who don’t, who consider themselves members of this “one another” that we call Grace Church. As well as those of our own families who no longer come here…or no longer even follow Christ. We have this “one another” reality in our hands…and we are called to strengthen it, called to obey Jesus’ principal commandment to “love one another,” and to strengthen our commitment to one another.
2. OUR SABBATH: Our Rippleiscious worship hour… and the hour that follows as we gather for our Family Bible Hour (Sunday school.) Our hymns and our hootenanny… our time together in the word. Our friendship. Our prayers. Our laughter, our tears. Our Lord’s presence in this time together. We have these Sabbath hours in our hands…and we are called to strengthen them. And on our SECOND SUNDAY, we amp all of this up--with Brunch and Bible in place of Family Bible Hour. Every THIRD SUNDAY, the "Detours, Doubts and Desperados" class also meets during the Sunday school hour (that happens across the street and around the corner in the home of the Bradleys--and they have food too!)
3. THE PRAYERS of this congregation. Here on Sunday mornings. Here on Wednesday mornings at prayer meeting. In our homes. For one another…for those we carry in our hearts together. Prayer for the physical, spiritual and relational needs of our families…of our children and grandchildren. Of our denomination… our sister churches… our missionaries… our neighborhood... our city... our mission in the world. Prayer for whatever the Father calls upon us to intercede for. We are called to strengthen our prayer life together.
4. OUR RELATIONSHIP TO THE EVANGELICAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH: its leaders, its ministries, its mission, its institutions (the seminary, the camps, the conferences, the outreaches.) Our relationship with other ECC pastors and churches, past and present. Our relationship with our missionaries… our conference minister… our bishop. This is our heritage… and a living link to wider Christian fellowship and ministry.
5. OUR MINISTRIES… which are currently four-fold:
1) A precious and strategic outreach to the troubled youth locked in at the Lancaster County Intervention Center… through Randy Rosa and a small team from The Gathering.
2) Our outreach through the ministries and missionaries we support here in America and around the world. These are ministry relationships that God has put into our hands, and are called to strengthen them. One of these ministries is a young church called The Gathering, which meets in Millersville Grace ECC and reaches out strategically to students at Millersville University.
3) Ripple: our worship and outreach band. Roots-oriented gospel-tinged music in many genres.
4) Second Sunday: Two and a half hours of sanctified cool every second Sunday of each month. More music, more fun, and FOOD!
6. OUR RESOURCES:
1) Us…our “one another”…the love of God and the gifts of God that are resident in each one of us… along with the testimony of lives lived long in the Lord. We—you and I—are a precious resource, one that can be strengthened, even if our hands and our legs (in the natural) fail us.
2) Our financial resources, which can be prayerfully and wisely seeded to the work of the kingdom of God as the Lord leads us.
These resources are not really OURS, they are God’s, but we are called to steward them…to strengthen them.
7. OUR RELATIONSHIP with IN THE LIGHT MINISTRIES… we are in this building (which we built and improved for over a century), but we are here with another congregation now (In The Light Ministries), and the building is now theirs
(most of it, anyway.) The potential is great for encouraging one another, loving one another, strengthening one another and ministering together in practical, relational ways. From the perspective of Heaven, "there is one body, one Spirit, one of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:4-6)."
Our pastor,
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