“Micah 6:8 Forgiveness,” by Miss Hannah Shultz
Sermon Series: Community – Letters to the Church in Corinth
Our students will play vital roles in both the 8:45am and 11:00am services today. But in reality, they play a vital role in our congregation every day.
If you were around the church this summer, you probably saw our students volunteering with the community garden or Vacation Bible School, packing grocery bags for the food pantry, heading downtown to lead worship at Church of the Reconciler or to West End to entertain the McCoy Adult Day Care participants or to the First Light Shelter for fun activities with the women and children there. Away from our local church, you’d find our student alumni in ministry and mission through their Wesley Foundations (the United Methodist Church’s campus ministry), in rural Kentucky with Appalachia Service Project or in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Three of our college students (Sammy Slack, Stephen Copper and David Smith) served as summer-long interns leading activities and teaching our students here at Bluff Park.
One hundred and twenty-five different students participated in some type of student ministry event this summer. From outreach events like Monday Sports and Tribes to missions and service like Fun at First Light and Appalachia Service Project to spiritual growth opportunities like leading worship across North Alabama as part of our youth band tour…our students are active as the Body of Christ. We are so grateful to all the parents who assisted as chaperons, teachers and leaders. And we are also grateful to all the members of our church family, who support us through your gifts, prayers and encouragement. We could not have these experiences without you. THANK YOU.
The student leadership in worship today is a testimony to faithfulness of this congregation to our young people.
—In Christ, Bart Styes
The Word
For I wrote you out of much distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.
But if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but to some extent—not to exaggerate it—to all of you. This punishment by the majority is enough for such a person; so now instead you should forgive and console him, so that he may not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. I wrote for this reason: to test you and to know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ. And we do this so that we may not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.
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