Are You A Messy Christian?
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5, ESV)
Mini Devotional
A mini message to take with you this week to help you in your devotion to God.
ARE YOU A MESSY CHRISTIAN?
Devotional by: Elijah Bell
During the summer, when I was a kid, and would spend time at my grandparent’s house, and me and my siblings were splashing in the swimming pool or drawing with chalk on the blacktop driveway, my grandfather would often be working around the yard or in his shop. He’d wear old jeans, or sometimes, overalls.
When he was done with his work, he’d come up to the deck when my grandma would bring dinner outside. We’d always know what my grandpa had been doing. If he was working on something in the shop, he’d be covered in grease or oil. If he’d been mowing, he’d have grass clippings clinging to his clothes and grass stains everywhere. There was no hiding that my grandfather was a worker. It showed. His hands and clothes would be filthy.
I wonder how many of us are afraid to be messy Christians. Not “messy” in the sense of “sinful,” but in the sense of a willingness to roll up our sleeves and getting our hands messy for the cause of Christ. For Christians who are working, and aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty, it will be obvious. Signs of their spiritual growth, and the glory of the Holy Spirit will be everywhere—impossible to miss.
Jesus said you can know a tree by its fruit (Matthew 7:15-20). It makes me wonder, if there’s no evidence of Christians getting their hands messy, have they been working? How are your hands? Are they clean and spotless, like hands washed by the blood of Jesus, but never put to use in His kingdom? Let’s not be afraid to get our hands messy as we work together for the cause of Christ!
News
This section is for any special announcements that are not upcoming events or prayer requests.
Baby Bottles For 'Avenues For Women’ Collection
Please bring in your bottles if you still have them this Sunday or any donations that are not in a bottle. We still have quite a few bottles out. We hope to wrap things up this Sunday. Thanks.
VBS After-Action Meeting (Sunday, July 10th)
Hey Holly Hill!I don’t know about you but I am still fired up after VBS! VBS so far has been an overwhelming success! You should expect to hear more about this soon, but we had 105 participants! 68 of those were visitors! SIXTY EIGHT non-members and non-members children came to our VBS. This is nothing short of amazing and I am excited about capitalizing on that success with a rigorous follow up process for guests and visitors which I hope you’ll be apart of (more on that later).
It's also very important that we meet as a church and develop an “after action report.” This meeting will take place Sunday July 10th at 4PM. Honestly, this isn’t soon enough, but schedules are what they are, since we can’t meet as quickly, as I’d like you to take some time to reflect on VBS this week and think about questions like: What went well at VBS? Why do you think it went well? What was successful? What tweaks can we do to make it more successful? How can we make VBS apart of our emphasis on making disciples? What do we need to improve for next year? What went poorly at VBS and why? These are just some questions to think about! Write down your thoughts while they are fresh and we will get to them in July!
For the Kingdom,
Kurt Montooth
Prayers
Here are some individuals that especially need our prayers this week. Please keep them in mind every time you pray.
Family of Leon Best
Trent family (Dorothy’s brother passed away)
Phil Wilkins
Alyssa Deaton
Janis Friend
John Woodason
Upcoming Events
Here are some events that are coming up that you need to make space on your calendar for.
This Sunday, July 3rd — Study Group Sunday
On this Sunday night, the men will meet in the auditorium for a group session, and the women will meet in room 12 downstairs. Some of the men will teach the children in a separate classroom downstairs in order to allow the mothers to participate in the women's study group. All are welcome! Please bring your family!
Sunday, July 10th at 4pm — VBS After-Action Meeting
Come prepared with a list of what went well at VBS, what didn't go so well, and how we can improve for next year.
Monday. July 18th at 6pm — R.E.A.L. Ladies Devo And Fellowship
PLEASE SIIGN-UP IN THE LOBBY — Val Clarke is organizing a new ladies group. The first devo and fellowship will be at her house. R.E.A.L. stands for: Relationships, Encouragement, Accountability, and Laughter. Please note that the main focus of these meetings is to be warm and inviting so visitors will feel at home. Make sure to sign-up so Val knows how many people to prepare for.
Friday, September 30th at 6:30pm — Trivia Night
Robert Roach is hosting a trivia night at the church building to provide more opportunities for fellowship and community. Please make it a priority to be there if you can.
Saturday, October 8th — Hay Ride & Fall Festival
Games, activities, food, 4pm to 6pm. Hay ride at 6pm. The event will be held at the Bowman residence.
How You Can Serve
There are a lot of ways you can get involved and do the work of God in our community!
For more information or for help signing up for any of these ministries, please call the church office at: (502) 227-7796.
Limited-Time Opportunities:
Food Pantry Donations (Mini Pack the Pulpit events)
To better meet community needs and not overly burden the congregation, the elders have approved a change for the pantry: Mini Pack the Pulpit events — Each with a particular focus:July 24th — Collection for Holiday Boxes
Aug. 28th — Collection for Backpack Program
Teachers Needed (Message From Matthew Woodyard, Deacon of Education):
It's been awesome to see more and more people return to in-person worship each and every week. Covid 19 robbed us of so much and I couldn't be happier to be on the other side of the tunnel. As more people have returned to in-person worship, so have their children. We've not had a full roster of teachers since the pandemic began. For a long time, this wasn't a big deal because we didn't have a lot of students. Thankfully we are seeing more and more students each week, but we still don't have enough teachers to be fully staffed. We desperately need volunteers to teach our Sunday and Wednesday Bible Classes. Our students need to be in the appropriate classes, where they receive age-appropriate instruction. We owe it to our kids to make sure they have everything they need and right now they need volunteers to teach their classes. The following classes need teachers for this current quarter: K-1st grade (Sunday & Wednesday), 2nd-3rd grade (Wednesday), and 4th-5th grade (Wednesday). If you'd be willing to help out, please get in touch with me. We've got a great group of kids and they deserve the best!
Long-Term Opportunities:
Greeter Ministry — We’re looking for people who are friendly and outgoing to welcome our guests and members each Sunday morning. If you are interested, contact Tom Owens.
Card Ministry — Every Sunday there are cards spread out on a table in the lobby that will be sent out to various church members and guests who need encouragement. You can help serve and encourage by making sure to sign these cards each week.
Casey Blessing Box — The Caseys are collecting items to give away to those in need in their Blessing Box. Currently, they are accepting donations of: Can goods of fruit and vegetables. Crackers, or cereal.
Shriners Children’s Hospital — Donna White is collecting soda can tabs to donate to the children’s hospital. Please leave your donations in the lobby.
Bible Class Review
A summary of what we’ve been learning about in our adult Bible classes.
Sunday Morning Class (10am):
Current Class: Making Disciples the Jesus Way. On Sunday, we continued looking at the list of 6 fundamental principles of Christian living that Jesus modeled for His disciples to grow into. So far we’ve looked at: Jesus’ reliance on the Holy Spirit, prayer, the Word of God, His obedience to the Father, as well as Jesus exulting the Father in every aspect of His life. On Sunday, we will finish the list with number 6: Jesus modeled intentional relationships of love and integrity. You can find the latest notes on the class here: https://www.hollyhillcoc.org/resources
Wednesday Evening Class (6:30pm):
Current Class: The Psalms. Last night we continued our look at Psalm 1. We discussed the difference between the person who sits in the seat of scoffers verses the person who delights in the Law of the Lord. We talked about what prevents us from delighting in God’s Word, and we realized it’s because of our many distractions in life, as well as our fear of transformation that keep us from delighting in God’s Word.
Watch Previous Lessons In The Learning Center
To see the latest lessons in our video library, visit www.hollyhillcoc.org/learning-center
Please note: Sunday’s videos are uploaded on Tuesday each week, and Wednesday’s videos are uploaded on Friday.
Holly Hill Church of Christ
1020 Holly Hill Drive
Frankfort, KY 40601
Web: www.hollyhillcoc.org
Phone: (502) 227-7796
Email: hollyhillcoc@gmail.com
Service Times:
Sunday Bible Class: 10am
Sunday Morning Worship, 11am
Sunday Evening Worship, 6pm
Wednesday Evening Bible class: 6:30pm