Following last weekend’s All-Church Retreat to Twin Rocks Friends Camp and Carol-Joy Brendlinger’s visit to Reedwood, we’re back on schedule for our extended look at the letter of James in our Sunday morning Meeting for Worship. Clerk Pastor Ken Comfort returns to the pulpit to share a message from James 1:12-18 (read text here) entitled Hook, Line, and Sinker.

Hymns this week include Wonderful Grace of Jesus and Jesus! What a Friend For Sinners. The choir will also be singing Make me an Instrument of Thy Peace.

Below are some queries to help prepare your heart and mind for worship:

What temptations lure and entice you?

How do you live in the power of the Lord to overcome temptation?

Meeting for Worship begins at 9:30am on Sundays. Sunday Evening Worship Gathering begins at 7:00pm.

The coming weekend of February 17-19 marks our annual all-church retreat to Twin Rocks Friends Camp. We’re very excited for a weekend away with our worshipping community.

Carol Joy Brendlinger

Yet, some will not be able to make it for one reason or another and so we will also be having a regularly scheduled meeting for worship this Sunday at 9:30am. Carol Joy Brendlinger, of Portland State University’s spiritual life center, will be leading worship musically, as well as sharing a spoken-word message.

Worship songs include As We Gather and the Taize tune Come and Fill Our Hearts. These songs will be followed by a scripture reading exercise of Matthew 11:28-20:

 ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

Carol Joy will then share a sermon entitled “Come to Me” followed by the hymn There is a Balm in Gilead and an extended period of Open Worship.

We hope to see you either at Twin Rocks for the retreat, or with Carol Joy Brendlinger on Sunday morning at 9:30am.

NOTE: There will be no Education Hour or Sunday Evening Worship Gathering this week.

This coming Sunday brings the beginning of a new spring focus on the letter of James. Clerk Pastor Ken Comfort will deliver a spoken message entitled “Nothing But Joy” based out of James 1:2: “My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy…”

Silas and Catherine Olson will lead worship this week with the help of Marty Arrigotti and Katie Comfort. Songs include Let Us Adore, Father of Lights, and Be Still My Soul.We will also be treated to a recitation of Mother Teresa’s writings entitled Love.

Below are some queries to help prepare your heart and mind for worship:

How do I typically respond to tough times? How might Christ be calling me to adjust my response to trials?

How do we as a meeting respond to tough times? How might Christ be calling us to adjust our response to trials?

Meeting for Worship begins at 9:30am and is followed by Education Hour at 11:00am.

Can’t do Sunday mornings? Join us for our Sunday Evening Worship Gathering ay 7:00pm!

February is upon us and the first Sunday of the month brings about Children’s Sunday. Children’s Choir director Michelle Collins will be leading worship this week, including the songs What a Friend We Have in Jesus, Oh Breath of Life, Love The Lord, Because of Your Love and You Gave.

Youth Mark Davenport with give a recitation of Hebrews, chapter eight verses eight through twelve. Clerk Pastor Ken Comfort will follow this with a message based on this text entitled, Implications of a New Covenant.

Below are some queries to help prepare your heart and mind for worship:

What freedoms do you have from living in the new covenant of Christ?

Where are you tempted or used to living under the legalism of old covenants?

Meeting for Worship begins at 9:30am.

Also, don’t forget about Sunday Evening Worship Gathering at 7pm!

George Fox University professor of literature, folk musician, and North Valley Friends member Bill Jolliff will be visiting Reedwood this Sunday for the final week of Peace Month. Bill will speak on and sing folk songs centering around Luke 10:25-37:

 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’

 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’ Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.” Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’

Connor Frisby and Andrew Mills will chip in, presenting a recitation of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s The Conscientious Objector.

Below are some queries to help prepare your heart and mind for meeting for worship:

How is your life marked by simplicity? How does simplicity infect every area of your life, from finances to relationships to work?

How are we as a community focusing in on simplicity in our relationships and communal work? Where have we created complexity rather than simplicity?

Meeting for worship begins at 9:30am in the worship center.

We hope you will join us this Sunday morning as we continue our observance of peace month this January. This week’s theme is equality and our very own Jade Souza will be sharing a message from Jeremiah 6:14, “They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying, ‘Peace, peace’, when there is no peace.” Jade is the founding director of Resurrection City Cafe in Vancouver, Washington and has previously served as Clark Country Director for Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights.

Below are some queries to help prepare your heart and mind for worship this Sunday:

Where do you see inequality present in your life?

How is God calling you to live out a life of equality and justice?

Meeting for Worship begins at 9:30am on Sundays.

Cherice Bock

Cherice Bock is visiting Reedwood this weekend to share with our community as part of our Yearly Meeting-wide observation of Peace Month. Cherice is an adjunct professor at George Fox University and editor of Northwest Yearly Meeeting’s Peace Month daily reader for 2012. Cherice studied as an undergrad at George Fox and as a seminarian at Princeton. Speaking from Romans 12 and 13 as well as The Declaration to Charles II, she will be sharing a message entitled This is Our Testimony to the Whole World.

Below are some queries to help prepare your heart and mind for our meeting this Sunday:

How are you living out the Friends testimony of peace?

What does peace look like? What are the different ways in manifests in your daily life?

We are blessed to be meeting twice in less than 24 hours this coming weekend. Saturday evening, we will come together ay 6:30pm for our Candlelit Christmas Eve service. It will be a simple time of singing traditional Christmas hymns, beautiful music, reading of the Christmas story, and sharing a Christmas tale. The service will conclude with candlelit singing.

On Sunday morning, we will gather to celebrate Christmas Day. The start time of our meeting for worship will be delayed to 10:30am to accomodate family Christmas morning traditions.

Our scripture reading will be from Colossians, chapter one, verses 15-20:

He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

You may use the following queries to help prepare your heart and mind for worship:

How have you been setting aside time and space to contemplate and enter the Christmas story?

We often talk about what we “got for Christmas,” but how are we turning our attention to what we “get from Christmas?”

We look forward to worshipping with you this weekend.

Gather with us as we continue to walk through the Christmas season at Reedwood. This week we turn our attention to the declaration of the angel chorus to the shepherds in the field in Luke 2:

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’

Our Christmas hymns will be While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night and Gentle Mary Laid Her Child. We will also have special music performances by the handbell choir and solos by Olivia Glanville and Bob Smith.

Below are some queries to help prepare your heart and mind for gathering:

What are your expectations about how God communicates with humanity?

How would you react to an angel’s sudden appearance?

How are the Christmas tidings of great joy present in your life?

Join us at 12:15 pm in the Friendship Center for Fiesta Navideña, a traditional Mexican Christmas dinner.

There are several Christmas Season Events in the coming days, please look through the events page to see how you can celebrate and experience Christmas with us at Reedwood Friends.

“What can I give [Jesus], poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; If I were a wise man, I would do my part; yet what I could give him, give my heart.” ~ from the hymn In The Bleak Midwinter.

This Sunday, we continue our focus on the birth of Jesus and the Christmas season. Karl Hutchinson will lead the congregation in singing Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, In The Bleak Midwinter (quoted above), and Some Children See Him.

The scripture reference this week comes from Luke 1.76-79:

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
to give knowledge of salvation to his people
by the forgiveness of their sins.
By the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Clerk Pastor Ken Comfort will offer words on the theme of Christmas or Culture? Looking back at the roots of the cultural elements of the Christmas holiday and how they effect our understanding of Christmas. Below are some queries to help us prepare our hearts and mind for worship:

How does culture affect my experience of Christmas?

What are you hearing from Christ about the essence of Christmas?

We’re also excited to have Matt Burg and Irv Brendlinger sharing a trumpet duet of Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.

Holiday Music & Dessert

Celebrate the season! Beginning at 6:30 pm this Sunday evening, attend a Christmas cantata/concert presented by Reedwood’s music ministry including brass, bells, cello and choir. This year’s cantata is Tapestry of Light: A Celtic Christmas Celebration. Afterward we’ll move downstairs for holiday desserts served in the Friendship Center. Bring family, friends and a favorite dessert to share!