Hills To Die On
How do you categories or prioritize your beliefs? Are there some things you believe more strongly than others? Which beliefs are non-negotiable? What areas are you willing to overlook as personal conviction and/or opinion?
Know Your Hills
In his book, Finding the Right Hills To Die On, author Gavin Ortlund describes what he calls “theological triage,” the process of discerning theological essentials from non-essentials. An exercise on how to distinguish essential doctrines of the Christian faith from our personal convictions.
Finding The Right Hills To Die One - Gavin Ortlund
You can order Ortlund’s book online, or swing by the church bookstore and grab a copy. Find a friend or someone from church to read through the book together and share what you are learning. Or better yet, come join us at 8:30am on Saturday, May 30th at the Mill St. Cafe to discuss the book together. Let this exercise serve as an opportunity to help us learn to grow together and engage in helpful theological dialogue, even in areas where we might disagree. Together we can help one another learn to discern essentials of the faith from mere opinions and preferences.
Ascension Day
This will be a simple evening to celebrate, reflect and focus on the One who went up. We will begin by gathering out front to send our prayers and our voices upwards. And then enjoy some ice cream floats!
Thursday, May 14th @ 7:00pm
We will have a brief moment to release many things up into the sky as a symbolic way to recall the promise that just as some standing by watched Jesus go up, in the same way He will come again!
Jesus Went Up
““When he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” ”
When We Come Together
We are walking through three weeks focusing on the Lord’s Supper. We first considered the Continual nature of the Lord’s Supper. Last Sunday we explored the Communal nature of the meal, our togetherness. One of the most beautiful pictures of our togetherness is manifested in the meal Jesus gave us.
Christ died alone for many, so that we would be together as one.
Five times in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 Paul writes the phrase “When you come together.” Paul did not write if you come together, or when it’s convenient for you to come together, or if it fits your schedule to come together. Paul assumes that God’s people will, and do, come together. This is what it means to be the church. By myself, alone, I am not the church. You, on your own, are not the church. We are only a “church” as we “come together.” It is in our public worship, wherever it happens to be, that God’s people are visible to all “as the church.” This togetherness is a beautiful picture of our unity and brings glory to Christ!
Togethering is Supernatural
When I say I am “together” with you, but I don’t make “togethering” a priority — I need to be reminded that my absence weakens the body. I need to be reminded that being together with all of you is one of the best things for my soul. Most importantly, I need to be reminded that Christ died alone for many so that we would be together as one.
Listen to the sermons on the Continual and Communal nature of the Lord’s Supper
The Meaning of Life
We begin a new sermon series through the book of Ecclesiastes in May. The book of Ecclesiastes is composed of a first-person autobiography. Throughout the book, the main author who refers to himself as Preacher (or Teacher), describes his search to understand life and its meaning.
Jesus Gives Life Meaning
One of the key words throughout the book is vanity. This word is essentially the motto of the book and is used to characterize many of the activities the author examines. The basic idea of the Hebrew word is “breath,” but in this context it is understood metaphorically in reference to time as something that is “fleeting” or in reference to the meaning of life as meaningless, futile, or senseless.
“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”
Pray Without Ceasing
While we continue to encourage you to gather regularly for prayer during our small groups and in our corporate gathering on Sunday mornings, we remain committed to pursuing additional opportunities to call God’s people towards unity in prayer.
24 Hours of Prayer
Come join fellow brothers and sisters for a special time of prayer at Grace Hill Church. Everyone is welcome to participate however, whenever, and as often as they feel led by the Spirit. The doors of the church will open from Friday, May 8th, beginning at 7pm and then continue through Saturday evening, May 9th at 7pm.
May 8-9th | 7pm-7pm
Whenever you arrive at the church you will find several prayer stations set up throughout the building with guided prayer needs for you to follow at your own pace. In addition to the ongoing self-guided prayer, the pastors will also be providing a guided time of corporate reading of Scripture, responsive reading, and prayer at the top of every hour in the main auditorium.
Love Your Church
What is the local church? With all the options available online that allow us to watch church services and listen to pastor’s sermons, why would we even consider meeting in person? Why would anyone waste their time becoming a member of a local church? What are the benefits and joys of belonging to a local body of believers? How do we really and tangibly love the church?
In his book, Love Your Church, author Tony Merida highlights what he considers to be Scriptures eight great reasons to be a church member. He does this by focusing our attention on the following eight verbs: Belonging, Welcoming, Gathering, Caring, Serving, Honoring, Witnessing, and Sending.
Love Your Church - Tony Merida
You can order Merida’s book online, or swing by the church bookstore and grab a copy. Find a friend or someone from church to read through the book together and share what you are learning. Or better yet, come join us at 8:30am on Saturday, April 25th at the Mill St. Cafe to discuss the book together. Let this exercise serve as an opportunity to help us learn to grow together and encourage one another to love the local church.
Do This
This coming April we will take three consecutive Sundays to explore the Lord’s Supper. We will endeavor to provide answers to several questions, including: What is this meal? Why we do eat it? How often do we eat it? and, How we do celebrate this meal?
Continual
Collective
Celebrate
“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
Spring Cleaning
You’re invited to come and help with many projects located both inside and around the church grounds. We want to be good stewards of the facility God has graciously provided for Grace Hill. Though we have endless opportunities throughout the year to maintain our building, this is the one day each year that we all gather and work together!
Saturday, April 18th | 9am-12pm
We need people who love to scrub, sweep, dig, pull and even some to pull up a chair and supervise! If you have any special interests or skills that you would like to contribute to our all church Spring Cleaning Day, then please contact Deacon Cody Hagfors.
Its All Greek To Me
Pastor Jimmy Beevers over at our sister church in North Philadelphia teaches Greek and New Testament exegesis at Westminster Theological Seminary. He is currently gauging interest in launching a New Testament Greek Course for TFC pastors and members (no seminary background required) looking to go deeper in their study of the Scriptures. The course will cover the equivalent of Greek I, II, & III course in a seminary setting, and deliver a functional knowledge of Biblical Greek (aka 1st century Koine Greek) with an eye toward New Testament interpretation. This is a wonderful opportunity for individuals who love God’s Word and want to explore the original text, for aspiring pastors, for someone who wants to learn a foreign language, or for someone who needs an academic challenge to sharpen their minds.
Greek New Testament
The pace will be intentionally slower than a typical seminary semester. The plan would be to meet 1-2 hours every other Saturday morning for a new lesson and some in-class participation. Pre-recorded instructional videos will be uploaded and available for students to watch when convenient and to maximize the effectiveness of the in-class time. Due to this slower pace, the course is anticipated to run approximately 48 calendar weeks.
Read Your Bible In Color
The class will have a one time tuition fee (around $550 per student). That cost will cover the entirety of the course (the equivalent of 9 seminary credit hours, or three courses). Scholarships will be available for those who are interested but have financial constraints.
Please let us know if you are interested: