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A Beautiful Night: A Concert of Prayer and Praise
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
7:00 – 8:15 p.m.
Fellowship Hall

Every once in a long while, Christ Church hosts an event designed to bless our entire church family. Wednesday, July 30 is one of these big events where you can expect a great evening of heart-felt worship and fellowship.

To celebrate the conclusion of our “A Beautiful Life” sermon series, our Music & Worship Ministry is designing a unique and creative encounter with God. You will enjoy some familiar favorites and be introduced to some creative, new expressions of music, prayer, scripture and praise.

Our bookstore is offering a great resource that will help you spiritually prepare for that evening while breathing new life into your prayers. Drop by and ask for Bill Hybels’ “Too Busy Not to Pray.”

Also that night, we will announce a very special concert that Christ Church will host on September 14. One of Christian music’s living legends will join our morning worship lineup and perform an evening concert. Mark your calendar!

Childcare is available for “A Beautiful Night” but reservations need to be made by calling 214-291-5081.

In other news…

Being Anglican means being a part of a worldwide church. So we pay attention to the important conversations and actions taking place beyond our Plano campus.

GAFCON, the Global Anglican Future Conference, met in Jerusalem this past June in hopes of clarifying how Anglicans can cooperate around a common faith while building a network of relationships centered on mission. Southern Cone Primate Gregory Venables said, “While there are many calls for shared mission, it clearly must rise from common shared faith.”

With 1,148 delegates representing more than 35 of the 55 million Anglicans around the world, the conference concluded with a final statement and the Jerusalem Declaration (www.GAFCON.org) Bishop T.J. Johnston of the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMIA) felt the conference unified various Anglican groups in the U.S. and Canada. The Declaration paints where Anglicans around the world can link around the values of Gospel faithfulness and Truth instead of geographic proximity and institutional unity.

The Lambeth Conference kicks off this week. (www.lambethconference.org) This regular assembly of Anglican bishops is convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury every 10 years.

Since the last conference in 1998, room does not permit to list all of the headlines, issues, challenges and doctrinal controversies that have been detonated in Anglican life. Alas, not much resolution is expected to happen at Lambeth.

One reason for low expectations is that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has declared there will be no votes or resolutions this conference. The Archbishop continues to demonstrate great patience and gentleness. But by creating the conditions for a cease fire, the confusion and wounds arising from a decade of intense warfare in the North American provinces remain unaddressed.

The Archbishop hopes that “indabas” will help. The conference website explains, “Indaba is a Zulu word for a gathering for purposeful discussion and is both a process and method of engagement, and offers a way of listening to one another concerning challenges that face the Anglican Communion.”

So in light of the need to clarify the Gospel, define mission, and design a system of church discipline, Lambeth 2008 will pull out the big guns of “discussion that is not only a process AND a method of engagement, but one that offers a way of listening.”

While “indabas” tip the hat in respect to the culture of our African family, too bad that nearly 200 bishops, including our own Archbishop Kolini of the Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda, decided to sit this Lambeth out.

Nonetheless, “we do not grieve as ones without hope.” Pray for our Anglican leaders and bishops who are meeting and have met. Jesus still has the power to calm storms and command weakened faith to rise and walk.

A handful of times in my marriage, I have dared to ask my wife, “OK…as your husband…How am I doing?”

I back into those conversations expecting to get bashed, but as best as I recall, they didn’t turn out too bad. Steff usually appreciated me asking, and I gained valuable insights on how to love and care for her better. All in all, our relationship deepened and developed.

We have put together a survey designed to help us know how to deepen and develop our relationship with you. Our parish ministers, Susan, David, Jeff, Jed, Clint and Andy, are asking you, “How are we doing?” We hope to catch your answers by this survey.

For those of you new to Christ Church, over a year ago we moved to an innovative way of caring for one another and working together. We arranged our 4,500 members living in 47 different towns and cities into six geographical areas or parishes. Each parish is assigned a parish minister to provide spiritual support while helping you find a meaningful place in our church family.

This year of parish ministry has provided a better way knowing and caring for our members and guests. We want to do even better. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey so we can serve you more effectively in the future.

Giving thanks for our family of faith,
Father Greg

For many people summer is a time to kick back, relax with a slower pace and enjoy having the kids around without homework. That is not the way it is at Christ Church. While we are enjoying having the kids around there is no time to relax because so many ministries are in full swing.

Here are a few highlights of the past few weeks and a peek into the future.

Vacation Bible School concluded a very successful week with 400 children being ministered to by a gifted team of 170 adults & youth volunteers. The theme for the week was “Power Lab – Learning About Jesus’ Miraculous Power in our Lives.” The children were able to raise money for four mission projects including: Buckner Christmas Orphan, Orphan Outreach, Casa Hogares and The Mission. We want to express our heartfelt thanks to Jennifer Morrell for her leadership and personal sacrifice that made it such a wonderful week.

Sixty (60) middle school students along with 10 adults attended camp at Jonathan Creek Camp in Hardin, Ky and all returned safely inspired by the Christian fellowship and teaching which centered on the theme of “Blue Print – Laying the Foundation and Building Upon It.” There were many newcomers attending camp this year! Thank you to Pam Coghlan and her team for the great example of the love of Christ and direction they have given to our young people.

Two teams traveled to Guatemala where they ventured into very remote sections of the country to build stoves for some of the poorest people in the region and to share the love of Christ Jesus. It may not sound like much to those of us who have never had to cook over an open fire in the living room, but this one simple gift will dramatically change the quality of life for these people. The health and safety hazards which produce serious respiratory problems are eliminated and the cost of fuel is significantly reduced. Praise the Lord for the gift of love which the 16 men and women and 10 high school youth took to Guatemala on behalf of Christ Church. The high school youth will return this Sunday, July 6.

Looking forward, we still have several mission teams heading out: From July 26-Aug 2, the Casa Hogar team will travel to Arequipa, Peru. A men’s construction team will head to Lima, Peru on October 11 and return on the 18th. We have a women’s retreat team that will be in both Lima and Arequipa, Peru from October 23-November 3. The New Orleans team will leave on Nov 5 and return on the 9th. The Buckner Christmas Orphan team will travel to Lima and Arequipa, Peru from December 5-14. To learn more about joining these teams, click here.

This summer there will be two camps in Colorado: High schoolers will go to Buena Vista in July and the Men’s Mountain Encounter will be held at Silver Cliff Ranch in Nathrop, Aug 1-6. There is still time sign up and escape the Dallas heat for a wonderful week of refreshing high mountain air and rewarding study of the Scripture. Contact Brian Mountjoy for the high school trip and Fr. Jeff Rawn for the men’s trip if you are interested in going along.

One of the most important parts of the Chapter Two campaign was a commitment to help the Diocese of Peru to purchase a building to house the Seminary and offices as well as to provide much needed ministry space. The Christ Church Vestry recently sent a team to speak with Bishop Godfrey and to complete our “due diligence.” The team came back with a glowing report. The Bishop’s health is much improved, the vision for the new facility is exciting, and though the progress getting the legal paperwork is predictably slow, things are moving along and the purchase documents should be ready for completion within the next few weeks.

Please join us in thanking the Lord for His grace in returning Bishop Godfrey to health and for the progress on the Seminary building. We hope to be able to let you know in the very near future that this important phase of Chapter Two has been completed to the Glory of God.

Thank you again for your faithful stewardship in support of Chapter Two and the other ministry needs of Christ Church during these summer months. I know that with travel and other unusual expenses it is easy to let our commitment to the support of the church slide a bit in the summer, but you have continued to be generous and faithful making the ministry projects above possible. Praise the Lord.

Cordially in Christ’s Service,
Howard Clark
Executive Pastor

This has been a fun summer so far, learning from the Bible how an obedient, holy life is our best hope for the beautiful life. But last Sunday after the 11 a.m. service, lofty talk about the beautiful life landed with a thud as I listened to a young man describe what he had witnessed on the way to church just moments before.

As you are probably aware a family of five, heading home after worshipping at Custer Road United Methodist Church, were killed at the intersection of Legacy and Custer after a driver ran a red light at high speed.  I know many of you saw the mangled machinery scattered in the intersection on your way home from church.  I saw it too, as I live only a few blocks from there.

This young man with whom I spoke had been sitting with his family four cars deep at the intersection when it all happened. Even after a beautiful service at Christ Church focusing on the beautiful life, he was having a hard time letting go of the horrible images in his head and the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. Who could blame him?

With this tragedy fresh on our minds and knowing that many of you are grappling with other kinds of hurts as well, I think it is important for us to address this question: “If God promises a beautiful life, why is there so much pain and hurt around us and sometimes in us?”

When I preach this Sunday, I plan to break from more descriptions of The Beautiful Life and respond to the realities of The Busted Life that we see and sometimes experience.

Meanwhile, our church staff has sent a personal note of sympathy and support to our sister church down the street. We prayed for them and those touched by this tragedy at our Tuesday Eucharist service. Join us in continuing to pray for them and all those in our circle of influence “who suffer in body, mind, and spirit.” Gather with us this Sunday as we search for wisdom and grace to deal with the tough times Jesus said come to us all.

Grace and peace,
Father Greg

Growing up in Northern Arizona on the Navajo Indian Reservation exposed me to several cultures, modern and ancient. The children with whom I grew up were Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Hualapai, Havasupai, Apache and Ute, each with their own language, culture and unique view of the world.

My grandfather graduated from Princeton in 1907 and after a short pastorate in New Jersey, moved west to plant a church in Flagstaff, Arizona. He began to minister among the Navajos in the 1920s so to the kids I grew up with, we “Belagonas” (white men) as they called us, were newcomers to “the land of the rising sun.”

Then in high school, much to my surprise, I learned that my Indian friends and their ancestors were also newcomers. The Anasazi (“Enemy Ancestors” as the Navajos call them) were already living on that land when King David was living in Jerusalem. They had a thriving culture spread across the southwest United States that came to an abrupt end in the early 13th century. We know a lot about them because they left their story in the hieroglyphs painted on the walls of canyons, on the roofs of caves and in their pottery.

I remember as a child hiking into remote canyons with my father and finding cliff dwellings. I marveled at the stories told in pictures on the walls and longed for a chance to talk with one of those artists to learn about their world.

As I walked into the Fellowship Hall last Sunday and saw all of the people enjoying the “cookie moment” (as the staff calls it) I was reminded of those hieroglyphs as I looked at the west wall with the three new plasma displays. They will be used to tell the story of Christ Church, our history, our current ministry and mission opportunities.

Please get in the habit of looking at the displays and literature nooks under each screen and use the information there to stay informed about the life of Christ Church. You will begin to hear it described as the “Great Commission Wall” because it will illustrate the mission God has given us to “make disciples and teach them to obey the commands of Christ.”

While I am talking about the Fellowship Hall, I want to tell you about one other change that is coming this week. The stage has been empty since we opened a few weeks ago but we are now ready to use the space for worship, study, receptions and meetings as well as for fellowship. That means that sound equipment, pianos and other furniture will be appearing in the next few days and we need to respect the space as a place of worship and training.

As with the Sanctuary, we ask that you not allow little ones to explore behind the curtains where equipment is stored or allow them to play on the stage. We do want our children to feel comfortable and welcome in the room but we do not want them hurt or the equipment damaged. Please help us by keeping little hands wrapped around cookies and feet on the main floor.

Grab a cup of coffee, come to the Great Commission Wall and learn the Christ Church story that is being told there. I look forward to seeing you there on Sunday.

Finally, I want to make sure that you know how much your recent $40,000 contribution to CITY House’s “My Friend’s House” project was appreciated. On June 13, at CITY House’s Ultimate Gift event, Christ Church was one of ten organizations that received their Ultimate Gift Award in recognition of our efforts to protect children and strengthen families. Barbara Holmes and Stacy Mading from Christ Church accepted the award (see photo at left) which belongs to all of you!

Cordially in Christ,
Howard Clark, Executive Pastor

Is Christ Church getting smaller?

I certainly hope so.

Don’t worry! Our attendance is not plummeting. In fact, we are enjoying full worship services in our first couple of weeks of summer. But while we continue to offer big opportunities to grow and serve this summer, we are also taking the time to draw closer to one another as a church family.

For example, each Sunday we are listening to the amazing things God is doing in the lives of our members. Throughout June and July, our Parish Ministers are introducing us to people you sit by in church but may not know very well. I’ve been inspired and encouraged by the testimonies we have heard so far from members like Joel Roper and Dode Worsham!

You will also be seeing a lot of our Parish Ministers this summer. One year ago we decided to try to put our arms around our large church, by placing a Parish Minister in charge of a geographic region. With our 4,500 members spread out over 45 cities and 102 zip codes, we needed a better plan to care for our church family and a bold strategy to extend our reach to new neighborhoods and cities.

Our six Parish Ministers have done a great job this past year. They have been able to make over 5,000 contacts to people inside and outside the church, personally visit each small group, and help us mobilize for ministry.

Be on the look out for Parish Ministry rallies happening in the Fellowship Hall. This will be a great time to meet or catch up with your Parish Minister. Also don’t miss the community events happening in your specific parish. This will give you the unique opportunity of getting to know other Christ Church members who live in your neighborhood and area. And if you don’t know or have forgotten which parish you’re in, click here to find your parish by zip code.

I love the big opportunities we have at Christ Church, but I cherish the rich friendships we are making as well!

Fr. Greg Methvin