The Sheep and The Goats Cont inued from Page 3

those areas for the sake of min-istry. Once the church has gone, they cannot get back in again and the ministry opportunities to help the most desperately poor are much harder to create. Glenn really liked what he saw in our outreach efforts and he was tremendously excited to see the impact we are having on the poor in our area. This is some-thing that was near and dear to his heart during his time as president.

Glenn got a chance to work in our kitchen, serve some food and meet many of our regulars. Street people of all kinds took time to speak with him and share what their experiences have been through our ministry. Glenn spoke with several of these peo-ple and he hopes to actually bring some of them to the na-tional meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Annual Meeting this

In the month of April we had the distinct pleasure of hosting our former denominational president for a weekend. Glenn Palmberg came over from Seattle to spend some time with members of our congregation, our leadership team, and our pastor and his wife. Glenn stayed on for an extra day to attend services with us and experience an afternoon partici-pating in feeding the poor through our outreach.

It was great to get so much en-couragement from Glenn. He spoke to our leaders about how much the denomination really wants to see a thriving church here in the downtown area of Spokane. On a national scale, in all the cities where older churches abandoned the downtown areas, the prices of real estate made it impossible to regain a foothold in

A Visit From Glenn Palmberg

Special points of interest:

> Former De-

nominational

President

lends his sup-

port

> One member’s

thoughts on

Matt 25

> Bible Verses

to ponder

212 South Division

St.. Spokane, WA,

Zip 99202

Phone

509-747-2818

Inside this issue:

Glenn’s visit with us continued

2

Thinking thru Matthew 25

3

Ministering to The Least of These - cont.

4

Good Friday

and Easter

Reflections

4

The GrapeVine

April 2010 YEAR 121 - Issue 4

212 South Division, Spokane, WA. Zip: 99202 Phone: 509 -747-2818 E-mail: Office@fccspokane.org / Rob@fccspokane.org

People Accepted! Lives Changed!

Year #121

Issue #4

cook and serve food, or set up tables or even sit at ta-bles with them and know what to say. There are still things that you could do; give financial support. Don’t have funds? Do a fund raiser! You could commit to pray for those of us on the front lines. You might be able to help write grants, or help spread the

pretty intimidating. Home-lessness is not a conta-gious disease. Yes a lot of these folks made bad choices and some are caught in a life of addic-tion. Every week the least of these come to us and we feed them a meal and try to build relationships, and encourage them. You may not be able to help

Page 4

word about what God is doing. Don’t just sit back and say there was nothing you could do. That’s just what the goats did. They were completely oblivious to any needs except their own. I challenge you to pray and see how God would have you help make a dif-ference in the lives of the least of these.

Margot Cioccio

GOOD FRIDAY AND EASTER SERVICES REVISTED! time of prayer. We came forward during communion to drop the sins in water as a reminder of baptism in that our lives have been purged and cleansed through faith in Christ. The whole evening was appropriately somber and intimate as we each met Christ in our own way. Easter service was very unique and quite a departure from a normal service. Pas-tor Rob’s sermon was inter-active, laying out the room in the form and style of the ancient tabernacle. He used

For those of you who missed the Good Friday service, we had a very intimate time to reflect, pray and encounter Christ. Songs and hymns were sung along with a great video presenting the harshness and beauty of the crucifixion. We had time to contemplate on an ancient work of art, de-picting the crucifixion and all that our Lord was doing for us. We also were given the experience to hold stones symbolic of our burdens and sins during a

people and props to demon-strate what the tabernacle looked like and how each piece was symbolic of something God wanted us to know about the heavenly realms. The focus on God’s holiness and his power was really thought provoking. All in all the day was a very good celebration!

miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ It makes me want to look a lot closer on what basis the sheep and goats were divided. It was not how good they sang worship songs, or even how much Bible they could recite from memory. Take a look at what is on the list in the box below. Have you done any of this in the past week? Verse 40 sums it up. ”The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Are you so busy eating spiritual food, the latest books, or conferences that you miss the day to day opportunities to be the hands and feet of Jesus? I know that the idea of sitting down with a bunch of homeless guys can seem . . (continued on back page)

has been pushing it’s people for many months now to find places to serve the underprivileged. First Covenant has been very fortunate to be one of the Spokane area ministries they recommend. All of these wonderful young women came with

great hearts and servant attitudes. They complained about nothing, did all that was asked of them, even the dirty jobs, and stayed until all the work was completed and the place was fully cleaned up. We were proud to work with them and hope to have them return soon.

By the time Glenn departed from us to head back to Seattle Sunday afternoon, he had gotten several tips about teeth cleaning, which tooth pastes were the best, and how to stuff a pita bread properly with meat and vegetable stir fry!

Page 3 YEAR 121 - Issue 4

Bahhh . . . Are You A Sheep Or A Goat? by Margot Ciocccio

Page 2 The GrapeVine

Visit from Glenn Palmberg —continued

and I think if you are abiding in Jesus you can’t help but be aware of the needs around you. This is more about having a clue of what is important to Jesus. We all have choices about what we do with each day of our lives. If your goal is to be more like Jesus; he was not worried about getting his holiness dirty. He put on an apron and washed icky dirty feet. When I think about some of the statements made by Jesus about true religion being caring for widows and orphans and then in Mat-thew 7:21-23 ”Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the king-dom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many

When I think about the story of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25:31-46 I see a bunch of farm animals being cared for by the shepherd. If I was a farm girl I might have even deeper insights but there is a lot that speaks to me and deeply challenges me about my focus as a Chris-tian. The Shepherd let the sheep and the goats live together and do their own thing. At some point he divides them just like he divides the wheat and the tares. At some point, time is up just like in Noah’s day. The rains came and the ark doors shut. Some-one once said “Live like you’ll die tomorrow and die knowing you’ll live for-ever”. On the surface it seems that this story seems to be all about works. I have often pondered this story

year. His words to our leaders said that our church’s attempts to revitalize through urban outreach can serve as a model for the many other churches across the nation. A lot of Evangelical Covenant churches face similar problems trying to reinvent themselves while being surrounded by troubled neighborhoods. He was incredibly encouraging to us and wants to work closely with us in the future to develop plans and strategies for more ideas.

Glenn Palmberg is personal friends with a couple of authors who are tackling the subject of ministry to the poor. He is also very connected to other ministries which are way ahead of us in many year’s ex-perience working in tough urban areas. Jesus People USA are actually an affili-ated Church with our denomination and Glenn had several ideas about connecting us with them and their work in inner city Chicago. It will be great to see what the Lord brings to us through his network of friends.

The Sunday that Glenn came we had the good fortune to include several students from Eastern Washington University’s Dental School. Six of these young ladies found out about our feeding program by searching on Life Center’s web site. They all attend that very large church, which

“Live like you’ll die tomorrow. Die knowing you’ll live forever!”

Matthew 25

• When I was hungry you gave me something to eat • When I was Thirsty you gave me something to drink • When I was a stranger you invited me in • When I needed clothes you clothed me • When I was sick you cared for me • When I was in prison you visited me

Have you done any of this lately?

”The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’