The Church of the Messiah

Tonight at seven o’clock Fr. Scott Looker will continue his insightful survey of the Gospel of St. Mathew with a discussion of St. John the Baptist and the Sermon on the Mount.  This will be the third session of Church of the Messiah’s summer Bible Study series Follow Me: An Introduction to the Gospel According to Saint Matthew.  Tonight promises to be even better than previous sessions with key verses that unlock whole sections of the Gospel and provide new insights and ways to see both St. John the Baptist’s contribution to Christ’s ministry and how to focus the Sermon on the Mount into one cohesive message.  You will never look at these chapters of St. Matthew’s Gospel the same way again!

Follow Me: An Introduction to the Gospel According to Saint Matthew is part of Church of the Messiah’s regular Wednesday night worship service.  Each night begins with anointed praise and worship and concludes with a time of intercessory prayer.  Childcare is provided during this service.  The service dismisses by 8:30 so that everyone can be home in order to get kids in bed and prepare for work the next day.  Set your DVR’s and watch it when you get home, because Wednesday nights are amazing at Church of the Messiah!

On July 16th through 18th, the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church (ICCEC), hosting the North American Convocation.

Keynote speakers were the Patriarch Bishop Craig Bates, Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, Fr. Terry Gensemer of CEC For Life and other pro-life leaders.

The Patriarch’s Sermons and ALL guest speakers are available on the Bishop Best Audio tab or click here: Bishop Best 

Tonight Church of the Messiah will begin its newest Bible Study, Follow Me: an Introduction to the Gospel According to Saint Matthew.  After having taken a brief break following the birth of his son, Fr. Scott Looker will return to the pulpit on Wednesday nights and begin opening up the Gospel up in a way that will help illuminate the rest of the year.  Since the Lectionary moves in a three-year cycle, almost all of the Sunday morning Gospel readings for the rest of this year will come from the Gospel According to Saint Matthew.  As the Bible Study opens tonight, Fr. Looker will explain how St. Matthew arranged and ordered his account of the life of Christ in a way that you have never seen before.  We promise that you will never look at the first gospel the same way again!

Follow Me: an Introduction to the Gospel According to Saint Matthew is a part of Church of the Messiah’s regular Wednesday night worship service.  Each service begins with an anointed time of praise and worship and concludes with a time of intercessory prayer.  Childcare is provided throughout the entire service.  We look forward to seeing you tonight at 7 o’clock for Follow Me!

Last night, as Fr. Melanson concluded his extremely insightful study The Nicene Creed Unplugged, Fr. Looker announced the topic the the next Bible study which will begin next week.  Follow Me: an Introduction to the Gospel According to Saint Matthew is an 8-week study in the first Gospel beginning July 16th.  A study of St. Matthew’s Gospel is timely since, after Pentecost, almost all of our Sunday morning lectionary readings will come from St. Matthew.  Since we will hearing from the first evangelist until the end of November, it makes perfect sense to study the book itself and see how the evangelist uniquely presents his perspective on the life of our savior.  The title “Follow Me” comes from the words Our Lord used when He called St. Matthew to be one of His Apostles and occurs more times more times in St. Matthew’s Gospel than any other book in the Bible.

Follow Me: an Introduction to the Gospel According to Saint Matthew will be part of our regular Wednesday night services.  Each service begins with anointed praise and worship and concludes with a time of intercessory prayer.  Childcare is provided during this service.  In order to be respectful of time commitments and the need to prepare for work the next day, we always end this service be 8:30.  Everyone is invited to attend.  We know that you will never look at St. Matthew’s Gospel the same way again!

This Wednesday, June 4th, Church of the Messiah will begin the first of its Summer Teaching Series starting with The Nicene Creed–Unplugged.  Fr. Scott Melanson will be introducing this new six-week series explaining, line by line, why Christians profess what we do in the Nicene Creed and why it is so important!  We have all affirmed the Nicene Creed practically every Sunday we have been at Church of the Messiah, but we have never taught the Scriptural foundations of what the Creed means.  This Bible study promises to transform the way you think about a part of our service we celebrate every Sunday.  Plus, Fr. Melanson promises to explain what in the world can make Santa Claus so angry that he would punch someone in the face!

The Nicene Creed–Unplugged is part of Church of the Messiah’s regular Wednesday night service, beginning at seven o’clock and including a time of praise & worship and intercessory prayer.  Our Youth Group will be continuing their exploration of Not a Fan: the Teen Edition and childcare through 5th grade is provided.  The service ends by 8:30 so that everyone can be home in time to prepare for work and school the next day.  Make plans to be at Church of the Messiah on Wednesday night!

Saturday and Sunday are shaping up to be one of the most exciting weekends we have had in a long time at Church of the Messiah.

On Saturday, we will have our annual community Fish Fry!  Beginning at 11:30, Earl Shimp and his highly trained crew of sous chefs will be frying up some of the very best local fish the First Coast has to offer.  Bring either a side dish or a dessert to share and Church of the Messiah will provide the fish, tartar sauce, and appropriate goodies!  Janice Paysinger is coordinating this event and can use some help.  You can e-mail her or call her directly at 904-703-9866.  The Fish Fry will run from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm and will be in Showalter Hall, the fellowship hall of Ft. Caroline Presbyterian Church, the same location where we had our Epiphany Dinner.  We will also be joined this year by the bishop of Florida, Bp. David Simpson.

Then, on Sunday morning, we will have one of the most powerful services of the Summer!  Bishop Simpson will join us on his annual episcopal visit to consecrate and dedicate our new building, preach the anointed word of God, Confirm two new members, and celebrate the Holy Eucharist with us!  Although we have been in our building for close to nine months now, we have yet to have an opportunity for our bishop to come and formally set apart the place to the glory of God and impart an apostolic blessing upon it.  Similarly, the Sacrament of Confirmation is a convergence sacrament wherein the recipients make a mature profession of their faith, receive an impartation of the Holy Spirit, and receive the Bishop’s blessing to minister in the Church.  This will be a very exciting service for everyone involved.  The service begins at 10 o’clock and will begin in the hallway of the church so that we may process in together and begin the process of dedicating the consecrating the building together!

The Bible study might have ended but the Fifty Days of Glory are not over yet!  Tonight, Wednesday, May 28th, Church of the Messiah, will observe the Ascension of Our Lord into Heaven.  The Ascension is the culmination of Our Lord’s ministry on earth and the scene of His final words to His Apostles before returning to the right hand of His Father in Heaven.  The Ascension also marks the start of the ten days of waiting until the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost!  This is truly a momentous event in the Life of Christ.

The service begins at seven o’clock and will be a Eucharistic service as we will celebrate this occasion by partaking in the Body and Blood of Our Lord.  Childcare will be provided tonight.  Make plans to fellowship with Our Lord and one another tonight as we commemorate this powerful moment in the history of salvation.

The May Ultreya for North Florida will be this Tuesday night, May 13th, beginning at 6:30 in the evening with a covered-dish potluck meal.  Groupings will begin around 7:30 and we will conclude the evening with the Holy Eucharist.  The Ultreya will be hosted at Church of the Messiah (click HERE for a map and directions) and is open to anyone who has attended a Tres Arroyos weekend or similar 3-day weekend retreat (Cursillo, Walk to Emmaus, Lighthouse Via de Christo, etc…).  If you are interested in sharing a brief (5-10 minute) example from your own 4th Day walk, please e-mail Greg Looker. We are also beginning to plan ahead for the next Tres Arroyos weekends coming up in October!  We look forward to seeing everyone this Tuesday night.

This Wednesday, April 30th, Church of the Messiah’s Easter Bible study continues.  We are studying Fifty Days of Glory by Canon Mark Pearson, a CEC priest from New Hampshire.  The first week was very powerful and the second week promised to be even more impressive!  We will be discussing chapters 2 & 3 which cover “The Road to Emmaus” narrative in St. Luke 24:13-35.  Reading along in the book is not mandatory and if you are unable to do so, you are still invited to participate in the Bible study.

As part of our regular Wednesday night service, the night begins with praise and worship and concludes with a time of intercessory prayer.  Our Youth Group stay with us for praise and worship and then depart for their own, separate time of study.  The Youth Group is currently studying the Teen Edition of Not A Fan, by Kyle Idleman.  Childcare is provided for children younger than 6th grade.  We look forward to seeing you every Wednesday night at Church of the Messiah.

This Sunday, May 4th, we will be bringing in a very special offering to support Emergency Pregnancy Services.  Sunday will be our annual “Loads of Love” offering where we will bring in a laundry basket, a pre-rolled roll of quarters, and a bottle of Dreft laundry detergent.  Dreft is a baby-safe brand of detergent; please do not substitute different brands.  This is a tremendous blessing to EPS for two reasons: first, many mothers have to do their laundry at laundromats and this offering enables them to do so; second, it helps the volunteers at EPS clean and sort the many generous donations of baby clothes which they receive so that they can provide them to needy children and mothers when they come in looking for clothes.  Your offering this weekend will be a excellent way to make sure that Christ is Risen in deed in many lives this Easter as people we may never meet will experience this blessing.