February 25th

WEEKLY

COMMUNITY
FREE CHURCH
!

This weekend Community

Evangelical Free Church of
Mahomet supported missionary,
Brent Ressler, will be coming to
share a ministry update and a
message out of 1 Samuel 2:1-11
at the 10:45am service.
Come and be blessed by Brents
heart to see all churches work
together for the sake of the
Gospel!

Prayer request from Amir (Syria):

"Peace to you in Jesus' name, In the last 4
days, 16 Christian young girls were
kidnapped in Homs city, please pray for
them and for their parents, it is a difficult
time for us all, they kidnapped just
because they are Christian. God be with
you!"

Pray for the

This weekend Pastor Jason and Tasha are
traveling to a conference on discipleship in
Louisville, KY and using the opportunity to
get away together for a few extra days.
Please pray for this trip.

Prayer Training Reminder:

Praying Like the Jew Jesus study meets
March 7th at 9:00am in the foyer!
The next meeting to discuss the
book will be Saturday, March 7th
at 9:00am at the church.
We will be looking at chapters 7-10.
There will be coffee, treats, and lots
of great conversation to drive us
towards God confidently in prayer!
If you havent been able to attend
come out and be blessed. We still
have a few books left and would
love to have you pray with us as we pray for one another!
!

Lord God, It's been 7 days now since the

world first saw The 21, since their
sacrifice stirred us to live like they
kneeled, to withstand like they stood fast,
to be bold like they believed,
to love like they died- Christ-like.
It's been Sunday to Sunday, 7 days to let
their martyrdom fan into flame a wildfire
of Gospel-love in the Kingdom, to let the
way they turned to You in the end, cause
us to return to our First Love now, to let
the way they actually died for their faith fuel us to actually live for ours. Lord, it's
been 7 days since The 21 died for being
People of the Cross. Cause us to wake and
live like People of the Cross now, as they
did not recant of their love of Christ let us
repent of our lukewarm love for Christ.
As they kneeled on those shores and
sacrificed their lives to You, let waves of
revival make our lives living sacrifices to
You. And let the blood of the martyrs be
the seed of a revived Church.
In the name of Jesus-- the only one who
has ever loved us to death, and back to
the real and forever life. Amen.
8Thirty8

Whats Happening This Week at Your Church?

Tuesday

2/24

Thursday

2/26

Ladies Bible Study 9:30am at CEFCM

Congregational Prayer 6-7:00pm

Finding Hope in the book of Revelation.

See Deb Henrikson for more information!

Worship Practice 7:30pm

Womens Bible Study Fellowship 9:10am

at First Christian Church
The Life of Moses. See Michelle Shafer!

Community Groups 6:00pm Schifo Home

More information email:tschifo@gmail.com

Community Groups 7:00pm Wright Home

More information email: bhenrikson@parkland.edu

Wednesday 2/25
Youth Group 6:00pm Pastor Jake Barrett
Community Groups Piasecki Home 6:15pm
More information email: mikejanp@msn.com

Saturday

2/28

Act Like Men Breakfast at the Church.

Continuing the Act Like Men Discussion!

Basketball 8:30am

Sunday

3/1

Christian Education 9:30am

Childrens Sunday School 9:30am
Childrens Church 10:45am
Worship Gathering 10:45am
Special Guest: Brent Ressler
AWANA 6:00pm.

Thanks to Bob Tompkins and Jeremy Barrett for

sharing their gifts and talents at AWANA!

Isaiah says that in the latter days the Lord, on a

day of His choosing, shall manifest His glory and
call all people to Himself. The passage tells us that
this will be a migration of people that is greater
than any one race, color, creed, ethnicity,
tradition, or nation. This is what the presence of
God does. It destroys division and reconciles all
people to His vision of them.
This past Sunday our family left the church at the
usual time, around 1:00pm, and decided to head
out to lunch rather than do our usual leftovers at
home. As we were getting off the ramp onto
Prospect Avenue to go to Chipotle (one of our
favorite places), I said to Tasha at the last minute:
Wait, what about chicken from Popeyes?
But, you dont even like chicken, Tasha said.
But, it sounds good, I replied.
So we drove over to Popeyes.
As I entered and ordered, I noticed a nicely
dressed older African-American couple waiting in
line. The husband and I looked at each other,
smiled, and shared a fun exchange about needing
a side order of chicken after filling up on Jesus at
church.
They asked where I went to church, and I told
them that I pastored at CEFCM, and he shared that
he is an associate lay pastor at at a predominately
African-American Church in Champaign. We
shared some small talk about a kids program they
were attending that afternoon before I looked at
him and said very plainly, Isnt it silly, that you
are worshipping Jesus over here, and we are
worshipping Jesus over there, and we look nothing
like the gospel, and everything like the picture the
media paints of us?
Then I shared the passage we talked about at
CEFCM that morning out of Isaiah 2:
2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the
mountain of the house of the Lord shall be
established as the highest of the mountains, and
shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the
nations shall flow to it, 3and many peoples shall
come, and say: Come, let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of
Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we
may walk in his paths. Isaiah 2:2-3

a great multitude that no one could number, from

every nation, from all tribes and peoples and
languages, standing before the throne and before
the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm
branches in their hands. (Revelation 7:9)
I believe that as the big C church we need to be
a strong voice over anything that creates division
both in the church and out into culture.
Thomas Brook, in his book Precious Remedies
Against Satans Devices, says: Be the first to seek
peace and reconciliation. You are a Christian today
only because God was the first to seek peace with
you. You are now called and equipped to be the
first to seek after peace and to attempt to pursue
and maintain unity. As you do this you have the
high honor of acting as an imitator ofGod.
As they called my order number my new friend
and I shared contact information, and as he shook
my hand he looked me in the eye and said,
I dont think we met here on accident.
I smiled and said to him, I agree, I dont even like
chicken that much, and should be eating a burrito
right now.
God is good and is calling us towards truth and
unity for His glory ~ Lets go.

Current Sermon Series:

ACT LIKE MEN Study Group Now Meeting at the Church each week!
1st and 3rd Saturday - Coffee
2nd and Last Saturday - Full Breakfast
Have you missed gathering with us? No worries just come out and jump right in. We will
have books and copies of the weekly questions available for anyone who didnt get them
yet. Lets have an ongoing honest conversation about leading and loving as men.

The Act Like Men Conference Date Changed - Added Speaker!

The Act Like Men Conference in Chicago, June 12-13th will be held at the historic Moody
Church in Downtown Chicago, with the addition of Erwin Lutzer as a speaker! Tickets are
$115, which includes a shared hotel room.
The exciting addition of being at Moody with Erwin Lutzer is a huge blessing. We would
love for you to join Pastor Jason as we learn, listen, and wrestle together what it means to be
men.
This year we will spend time together reflecting and discussing what we learn each day.
There will be a group meal at Carsons Ribs in Chicago (Bring a bib!) to close out the
conference before we head home.

Ladies Bible Study: Find hope in Jesus

Christ through the Book of Revelation!
This will be an 8-10 week study:
Tuesday 9:30 a.m.-11:00 a.m.
(There will be no babysitting provided.)

Some of the topics will be:

Hope when you are depressed,
Hope when you are deluded,
Hope when you are discouraged,
Hope when you are distressed,
Hope when you are defeated, and
Hope that ignites your heart.
The first class will be an orientation class and the last class
will be an overview of the book of Revelation using a time
line. We will plan a fellowship get-together for in May.
If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact Deb Henrikson at (217) 586-2918.
Please let Deb know if you are interested so that she can order you a book.