Everyone at St. Nicholas is invited to participate in the Good Book Club. Feel free to invite your friends and family to join you!
What is the Good Book Club?
The Good Book Club is an invitation to all Episcopalians to join in reading the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts during Lent-Easter 2018. Episcopalians will start reading Luke on Sunday, February 11 and read a section of Luke’s Gospel every day through the season of Lent. The entire season of Easter will be devoted to daily readings from the Book of Acts. Already, individuals, congregations, and organizations have committed to being a part of the Good Book Club, and we hope you’ll join the journey too!
Why read the Bible?
People who read scripture with an open heart grow in faith through their encounter with the sacred stories of the Bible. We know this to be true in our personal experiences — and we have research to back it up. RenewalWorks, a Forward Movement research-based initiative, has data from nearly half a million participants that identify scripture engagement as a key catalyst for spiritual vitality in congregations and for individuals. In other words, if you want to grow and strengthen your faith, reading scripture is the perfect exercise.
Why Luke and Acts?
We love sequels, and Luke-Acts provides a wonderful two-part narrative. Luke tells the wondrous story of Jesus’ birth, ministry, teaching, death, and resurrection. Acts picks up where Luke leaves off and tells the story of the earliest disciples through the lens of Peter and Paul and the real star of the show — the Holy Spirit. Written by the same author, the books are accessible, and the story is a page-turner!
The Reading Schedule is here: http://www.goodbookclub.org/readings/
The Ministry of Making and Invitating Friends
This is a ministry anyone can do any time. At St. Nicholas Church, evangelism is not about proselytizing but about making friends and inviting them the share in our fellowship.
At St. Nicholas Church evangelism is a way of life. Contrary to popular opinion, evangelism does not mean proselytizing. In the simplest sense of the word, evangelism means to be called and sent. At St. Nick’s we believe that we are called by Christ and sent to be his representatives in the world around us. God is the one who changes hearts, not us. Our job is just to live our faith like we mean it and to do our small part to make the kingdom of God a reality by being conduits of Christ’s love to those around us. We find that if we do these things, God works through us to bring people into God’s emerging kingdom.
Fellowship
There are a number of ways of helping with our Fellowship activities getting or staying connected with the St. Nicholas community:
Fellowship/Forum Time. Do you like to meet new people? Do you like to show hospitality? Can you serve coffee and cookies? Maybe you can help host a Fellowship/Forum Time. Contact: The Hospitality Coordinator(s).Pastoral Care
Shady Grove. A Lay Ministerial Team travels to Shady Grove Adventist Nursing and Rehabilitation Center each Sunday afternoon to offer Communion from Reserve Sacrament for the residents there. We provide the training. If you’d like to help with this, contact: The Shady Grove Communion Coordinator.
Communion Under “Extraordinary Circumstances.” We plan to train more lay people to help with this ministry. If you are interested, contact the Rector.