We pray at prearranged times.  We pray spontaneously.  But rarely do we pray when we are in the very act of rebellion against God.  Jonah did—and it was a good thing!  By turning to God and getting rid of any pretense, he was able to see God working in ways that were good.  God’s response was to set him back on the right track—albeit temporarily.

Betrayal is a strong word, and it evokes strong emotion in the person who feels betrayed. Jonah felt betrayed by God—and by God’s very nature. Yet it was Jonah who betrayed God. Like Jonah we tend to betray God and then try to lay the blame on God Himself. But like Jonah, God doesn’t respond in kind to our betrayal.

Many of us have heard the tales of Jonah and how her ran away from God's plan, but we often don't put ourselves into his shoes. When God calls upon us, what is our response? Yes, it is scary and hard, but it is asked by God! We, as Christ followers, an't say no to his plan. We must accept the Mission.

When a community is strong, its members are not self-centered. Rather, they voluntarily put others—and the community as a whole—as a priority. Jesus made it clear that service both in this community and to those in the world was essential to Christian community.

The very words “community” and “communication” tell you they are related.  Communication is the sharing of thoughts/feelings/etc. between two or more people.  For true community to exist, communication must be good.  Perhaps that's why the scripture is so full of guidance on communication.  When we are effective communicators, it not only builds community between us, it helps us to reach out to those who are not part of our community.

Human beings are created to live in relationship with others.  We need to be with others—we need to know we belong with others.  But Christians don’t belong in the world—the very word translated “church” in the New Testament means “the called out”.  So who do we belong with and to?  And knowing we belong, how do we related to those who feel alienated from others in the middle of millions of people?

Jesus said the basis of our community is love for one another.  So, our community has to be characterized as love.  How do we do this?  And what does our loving one another have to do with loving someone outside the church?

An Intergenerational service.  This means we will have all ages (with the exception of birth-two years old) together in the worship service so we can communicate the importance of community in the Christian body and see what God has been doing in all age groups of our congregation.

What is worship?  When we think about worship and when we think about coming to worship our Lord, we tend to think of it as the music of the church, the singing of the church.  But is it really?  What does the word “worship” even mean?  And does it equal music?  Let us come prepared to focus on the Lord together.  Let us be able to leave all the distractions behind us, so that there’s only one thing on our minds, because it’s all about our God and not about us.