Weekly Word from Pastor Curry: March 19, 2021
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Hey there Friendship Family!
I trust and pray you are all doing well right where you are! I pray you are receiving every spiritual blessing God has for you and that you are encouraged and not discouraged.
Do you know that we serve a GOOD God? Do you know we serve a GREAT God? Well, we do. We served a GREAT God who is worthy of GREAT praise! You do not need a full band and praise team to praise God. You should praise God right where you are. Yes, I’m serious. Why don’t you pause your reading and give God praise? Praise Him for His goodness, His greatness, and His faithfulness. Amen! Praise the Lord!
So, I went back and looked at the archive of these weekly messages. I sent the first one on March 12th. It announced that we would not have worship in the sanctuary on Sunday, March 15th. The 3rd Sunday of March. Last Friday was the anniversary of these weekly messages. This past Sunday, the Second Sunday in March, was the last Sunday we had traditional worship in the sanctuary here at Friendship. Yes, it has been a year since we were able to fellowship together in the sanctuary. It has been a year of variety, creativity, and yes, it has been a year of uncertainty. Yet God has faithfully seen us through the last year!
And, as Hezekiah Walker said, “We made it! We’ve survived!” I know we are not entirely OUT just yet, but we are coming out, so I will repeat it! Our God is GREAT and GREATLY to be praised!
Look, there are several things I need to update you on this week, so please patiently read what is here and use the information to your benefit, and share it with others!
WOMEN’S FELLOWSHIP
First, tonight is the VIRTUAL Women’s Monthly Fellowship at 7pm, held via ZOOM. Ladies, you should have received information via email and push notification regarding this event. Please plan to join our Women’s Ministry this evening. The speaker is our own Rev. Dr. Barbara Smith-Mustin. She will share from the topic, When Our Waiting Ends . . .or Doesn’t based upon the book Wait and See – Finding Peace In God’s Pauses and Plan by Author Wendy Pope. For more information, please go HERE.
SUPPORT LADY KARIMA
Ladies, if you can, I invite you to support our First Lady and my wife, Lady Karima, tomorrow, Saturday, March 20th, as she speaks for the First Institutional Baptist Church of Phoenix, Arizona, in their Virtual Women’s Conference. It starts at 10am and is absolutely FREE. To register, simply go to www.fibcaz.org/womensconference.
MOBILE VACCINATION CENTER
Tomorrow is the Vaccination Clinic at Second Baptist in Santa Ana. Please be sure you are there for the time slot we gave you! There are no walk-ups. This event is FULL, and I want to be sure the individuals who signed up get their vaccinations. If you missed out on registering, don’t worry; there’s another one coming on Sunday, March 28th, at New Hope Presbyterian Church in Anaheim. I will send you more information on that next week. Please, please pay attention to your app push notifications, as this is the fastest and easiest way for me to get information to you!
TALENT SHOW POSTPONED
The Student Ministries Talent Show was due to stream tomorrow, March 20th. Unfortunately, we had slow responses, so we have postponed the event to a later date, and we will get information to you when it occurs.
YOUTH MONTH MOVED
I know some of you are accustomed to March being Youth Month. We have decided to move Youth Month to June this year and may make this a permanent move for years to come. Right now, our Minister of Children, Youth & Young Adults (CYYA), Rev. Jaron Singley, is making a plan to make June a great Youth Month. Stay tuned for more information.
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION TEACHER’S MEETING
Calling all teachers in the FBI. The Friendship Bible Institute that is! Don’t forget; we have our first Teachers Meeting of the year on Sunday, March 21st, at 1pm via Zoom. I look forward to seeing you and discussing our Christian Education & Discipleship Ministry’s future, God’s call, your role, and our partnership.
SINGLES MINISTRY NEWS
HOLY WEEK HAPPENINGS
Holy Week is coming! Holy Week takes place the week before Easter and includes Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. We will offer those two virtual services as we did last year. Maundy Thursday is April 1st and will include a round table on the meaning of Christ’s Crucial Conversations with His Disciples before He went to the cross and His Resurrection. The service will start at 7pm. Our Good Friday service takes place on Friday, April 2nd, and we will offer a traditional Last Seven Sayings service. I am excited to announce that our preachers will be the Rev. Belinda Wheaton-Wright, Rev. Kameron Durham, Rev. Fredia Travis, Rev. Eric Archer, Rev. Orienthio Flowers (my best friend in New York by way of Atlanta), Evangelist Francie Jones (my mother-in-law), and Rev. Jaron Singley. We will also have music from our Music Ministry. It promises to be a good time of worship and reflection.
Remember we will celebrate Easter, Resurrection Sunday in the sanctuary at 9am and 11:30am! You need to register for the service just as you do for the Drive-In Worship Service. Registration opened on Monday, March 8th, and spaces are filling quickly. So don’t delay register HERE today. Remember, masks and physical distancing will be REQUIRED and ENFORCED! Both services will stream live. THERE IS NO SUNRISE SERVICE!
Those are my announcements this week. Thank you for your prayer, and thank you for reading this week.
General Church things to remember:
I look forward to worshipping with you Sunday! I love you, Friendship, but God loves you, BETTER! Stay Safe, Stay Healthy, Stay Connected!
In His Service,
Rev. Kenneth C. Curry, Jr.
Your Pastor
I trust and pray you are all doing well right where you are! I pray you are receiving every spiritual blessing God has for you and that you are encouraged and not discouraged.
Do you know that we serve a GOOD God? Do you know we serve a GREAT God? Well, we do. We served a GREAT God who is worthy of GREAT praise! You do not need a full band and praise team to praise God. You should praise God right where you are. Yes, I’m serious. Why don’t you pause your reading and give God praise? Praise Him for His goodness, His greatness, and His faithfulness. Amen! Praise the Lord!
So, I went back and looked at the archive of these weekly messages. I sent the first one on March 12th. It announced that we would not have worship in the sanctuary on Sunday, March 15th. The 3rd Sunday of March. Last Friday was the anniversary of these weekly messages. This past Sunday, the Second Sunday in March, was the last Sunday we had traditional worship in the sanctuary here at Friendship. Yes, it has been a year since we were able to fellowship together in the sanctuary. It has been a year of variety, creativity, and yes, it has been a year of uncertainty. Yet God has faithfully seen us through the last year!
And, as Hezekiah Walker said, “We made it! We’ve survived!” I know we are not entirely OUT just yet, but we are coming out, so I will repeat it! Our God is GREAT and GREATLY to be praised!
Look, there are several things I need to update you on this week, so please patiently read what is here and use the information to your benefit, and share it with others!
WOMEN’S FELLOWSHIP
First, tonight is the VIRTUAL Women’s Monthly Fellowship at 7pm, held via ZOOM. Ladies, you should have received information via email and push notification regarding this event. Please plan to join our Women’s Ministry this evening. The speaker is our own Rev. Dr. Barbara Smith-Mustin. She will share from the topic, When Our Waiting Ends . . .or Doesn’t based upon the book Wait and See – Finding Peace In God’s Pauses and Plan by Author Wendy Pope. For more information, please go HERE.
SUPPORT LADY KARIMA
Ladies, if you can, I invite you to support our First Lady and my wife, Lady Karima, tomorrow, Saturday, March 20th, as she speaks for the First Institutional Baptist Church of Phoenix, Arizona, in their Virtual Women’s Conference. It starts at 10am and is absolutely FREE. To register, simply go to www.fibcaz.org/womensconference.
MOBILE VACCINATION CENTER
Tomorrow is the Vaccination Clinic at Second Baptist in Santa Ana. Please be sure you are there for the time slot we gave you! There are no walk-ups. This event is FULL, and I want to be sure the individuals who signed up get their vaccinations. If you missed out on registering, don’t worry; there’s another one coming on Sunday, March 28th, at New Hope Presbyterian Church in Anaheim. I will send you more information on that next week. Please, please pay attention to your app push notifications, as this is the fastest and easiest way for me to get information to you!
TALENT SHOW POSTPONED
The Student Ministries Talent Show was due to stream tomorrow, March 20th. Unfortunately, we had slow responses, so we have postponed the event to a later date, and we will get information to you when it occurs.
YOUTH MONTH MOVED
I know some of you are accustomed to March being Youth Month. We have decided to move Youth Month to June this year and may make this a permanent move for years to come. Right now, our Minister of Children, Youth & Young Adults (CYYA), Rev. Jaron Singley, is making a plan to make June a great Youth Month. Stay tuned for more information.
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION TEACHER’S MEETING
Calling all teachers in the FBI. The Friendship Bible Institute that is! Don’t forget; we have our first Teachers Meeting of the year on Sunday, March 21st, at 1pm via Zoom. I look forward to seeing you and discussing our Christian Education & Discipleship Ministry’s future, God’s call, your role, and our partnership.
SINGLES MINISTRY NEWS
- Singles Chat & Chew:
The Singles Ministry will host a VIRTUAL Chat & Chew on Saturday, March 27th at 2pm. This event takes place via Zoom. The guests for this event are Rev. Roxanne Banks, who will share on Financial Peace amid a Pandemic, and Dr. Laseanda Wesson will share on Creating a Personal Rule of Life. Please go to our events page HERE for more information and to register.
- New Singles Bible Study:
There is a new Singles Bible study starting on Thursday, April 15th at 7pm. This class will be a virtual class via Zoom. The teachers are Deacon Allen Gobert and Sister Elona Brown. They will teach the book, They Were Single Too. They Were Single Too spells out concrete steps for a healthy, God-approved attitude toward unmarried life and how one can truly serve God without a spouse. Again, go HERE to our Bible study page to sign up for this class.
HOLY WEEK HAPPENINGS
Holy Week is coming! Holy Week takes place the week before Easter and includes Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. We will offer those two virtual services as we did last year. Maundy Thursday is April 1st and will include a round table on the meaning of Christ’s Crucial Conversations with His Disciples before He went to the cross and His Resurrection. The service will start at 7pm. Our Good Friday service takes place on Friday, April 2nd, and we will offer a traditional Last Seven Sayings service. I am excited to announce that our preachers will be the Rev. Belinda Wheaton-Wright, Rev. Kameron Durham, Rev. Fredia Travis, Rev. Eric Archer, Rev. Orienthio Flowers (my best friend in New York by way of Atlanta), Evangelist Francie Jones (my mother-in-law), and Rev. Jaron Singley. We will also have music from our Music Ministry. It promises to be a good time of worship and reflection.
Remember we will celebrate Easter, Resurrection Sunday in the sanctuary at 9am and 11:30am! You need to register for the service just as you do for the Drive-In Worship Service. Registration opened on Monday, March 8th, and spaces are filling quickly. So don’t delay register HERE today. Remember, masks and physical distancing will be REQUIRED and ENFORCED! Both services will stream live. THERE IS NO SUNRISE SERVICE!
Those are my announcements this week. Thank you for your prayer, and thank you for reading this week.
General Church things to remember:
- Phone Line for Worship: For our members who may have a tough time connecting to our worship service online for whatever reason, we are now offering a way for those members to dial in and listen to service over the phone. To access the service via telephone, members and guests need to dial 1 216-930-8774 and enter the PIN: 464 267 559#. It is live for the 9:00am worship service.
- Our College and Career Prep Initiative (CCPI) has produced an excellent and comprehensive one-stop virtual academic and education assistance resource for parents and families of K- through 12 and college-bound students. Click HERE to access our Google Classroom. Feel free to share with others.
- EX HOUR: Ex Hour meets weekly on Sundays, and we are studying Luke. Remember, EX Hour takes place every Sunday through the video conference app, ZOOM. Join us for class on Sundays at 10:30a via this link HERE. Also, there is a YOUTH EX HOUR: Our youth Ex Hour takes place during our designated EX Hour time via Google Meet. Parents, please encourage your students to join youth teachers for this biblically fun opportunity to learn God’s Word, connect with others, and grow. To join Youth Ex Hour, follow the link HERE.
- WEDNESDAY Prayer Day: Join us each Wednesday for Prayer. We pray at 6:30a, 12p, and 6:30p. To connect with our prayer services, please follow this link HERE or dial in at +1 (413) 418-4274 and use the PIN 287683504#.
- FBC FOOD BANK OPEN: The FBC Food Bank is OPEN with a new drive-thru system where our clients will receive a pre-packaged food box and bag of groceries. The Food Bank’s hours of operation are Tuesday - Thursday 2:30p-4:30p.
- COVID Membership Assistance Fund: We are STILL accepting applications for the COVID Membership Assistance Grant. If you are experiencing financial distress due to COVID19, we invite you to apply for one of our $500 assistance grants. The guidelines are available HERE, and the application is available HERE.
- 2021 Bible Reading Challenge Issued: Continuing our Church Legacy, I would like to encourage ALL MEMBERS to read through the Bible in 2021 in one of the six ways we suggest. You can read the entire Bible, just the Old Testament or the New Testament, the first five books of the Old Testament (the Pentateuch), Psalms & Proverbs three times, or the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John).
- Church Calendar Available: The 2021 Church Calendar is NOW available online, and it’s available for you to download to your device. The 2021 Church Calendar is digital-only. There are no paper (or hard) copies. HERE is a link to the church calendar.
I look forward to worshipping with you Sunday! I love you, Friendship, but God loves you, BETTER! Stay Safe, Stay Healthy, Stay Connected!
In His Service,
Rev. Kenneth C. Curry, Jr.
Your Pastor
Posted in COVID-19