The bulletin has always been handed out at our services many years before Eliana and I came to Hope Chapel as pastors eighteen years ago this very month. If you are new to the Hope Chapel family, you might not have known that there has always been a bulletin message for about the past eighteen years, similar to what you are reading at this moment.
After our arrival, for about the first three or four years the bulletin message was primarily an excerpt from a book that not necessarily had anything to with the topic of the sermon that Sunday. Then in 2005, the Lord challenged me to start writing the bulletin messages in my own words that related directly to the topic of Sunday’s Sermon. About two years ago, Hope Chapel opened our Facebook page in which we started to publish the bulletin message on Facebook. You can easily visit us on Facebook by typing in the search bar, Hope Chapel Oak Lawn Foursquare Church. About three months ago, we initiated our website, www.hopechapel-oaklawn.org, which also contains the bulletin message. If you have not seen either one yet, please check them out. Also, do not forget pass the word on to friends and family that Hope Chapel is on these sites.
Also, do not forget pass the word on to friends and family that Hope Chapel is on these sites.
Initially, when I first started writing the bulletin message I never realized that many from our church family who are physically unable to attend our services read the Hope Chapel bulletin message in one of these multiple formats. These people continually want to stay in touch with us desiring to know what God is doing in our Hope Chapel family. Presently there are about fifteen people who are part of our extended Hope Chapel that receive the bulletin in the mail or in an email. There are also many from outside our church family who also read the bulletin message because of the multiple electronic formats or just because someone has given them one of our bulletins.
Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. James 3:1
You might be wondering, why am I saying all this? We feel that it is important that you realize what we write in the bulletin message is for the most part, what is preached or taught in our Sunday morning service. We do not write a bulletin message just to fill a space on a piece of paper for the sake of tradition. What is written in every bulletin message is always done with much prayer and consideration to Biblical accuracy. Our desire is that those who read the bulletin message are encouraged to grow deeper in their relationship with Christ and that they are instructed Biblically about spiritual truths that should be part of their daily life in Christ Jesus. But most importantly our desire is when Christians read the bulletin message, God would use it to motivate them seek to experience in their lives and express to others the first and second greatest commandments. Matthew 22:36-40, 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
This past May we received a telephone message from one of our Hope Chapel family members who receives the bulletin each week by mail because she is physically unable to attend our services. In the bulletin message of May 23rd about the subject of Encouragement I made mention of it.
“I was writing a letter to one of the many Hope Chapel family members who is unable to attend our services and Bible studies, who greatly misses the regular fellowship of our church family. This person left an encouraging and well-timed message on the Church’s answering machine telling us how she is grateful to receive in the mail Hope Chapel’s bulletins. As I was writing her a letter, answering her message, it really made me think about what the New Testament says about the subject of encouragement.”
The Hope Chapel family member who left the message that day on the church’s answering machine is in an assisted living facility. She said that when she gets her mail that there are others around her, who in the past when they were physically able to attended a church, made the comment that they wished the churches they use to attend would send them a bulletin.
I realized that it is not only the content of the message in the bulletin that is important but the simple fact of receiving the bulletin is also important to some.
The writer of Hebrews in verse 10:25 stated a reality that the church was facing back in his day which still continues in the church today. There were some who were able to come to church but didn’t, not because they couldn’t. As a result, for some, not coming to church to worship God with others became a habit. Verse 25, Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
We thank God for the many means He is allowing us to use to continue to “encourage” with the bulletin and it’s message, those who would come worship with us here at Hope Chapel but are physically unable.
Pastor John
