Join Us in the Parlor Next Sunday!

Prime Timers is a St. Martin's Adult Christian Education (A.C.E.) group for people in the Prime of Life, ages 50-64. We now meet in the Parlor near the Church Offices from 10:15am to 11:00. The Parlor is a comfortable room, we have coffee and donuts, and Prime Timers is fortunate to call the Parlor our new home. We are starting a new course from the United Council of Churches titled The New Testament Community. While September was interrupted by Hurricane Ike, October is a journey through the book of Acts, and you are invited!

Prime Timers Celebrates Good News.

We celebrate our members Good News at Prime Timers with a $1 contribution to Henny Penny, our Good News chicken! Periodically Henny donates the money she collects to a worthy charity, currently its the Amistad Mission in Bolivia.

Today Lynne gave thanks that we were all back together and that our damages from the hurricane were light, and our teacher Donn was thankful to be back in the saddle teaching.

Empowered to be a Community

Donn Fullenweider conducted class today, exploring the Book of Acts and the famous meeting where everyone heard the words being said in their own language, despite their being from far and wide.

The day of Pentecost comes from a Greek word that literally means "fiftieth day." In the reading for today the Pentecost came to refer to a Jewish harvest festival known as "Feast of Weeks." The group of people referred to in the reading is most likely not just the twelve disciples but the group of 120 believers mentioned in Acts 1:15 "In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty)" The multitude of nations and places mentioned includes on race, the Arabs, and two nations that had ceased to exist before the time of the feast, Parthians and Elamites! This is a reminder of God's ability to breathe life into people who have been forgotten or abandoned. Donn pointed out that while this story is often thought of as speaking in tongues its maybe more accurately that they heard in their own language.

When some in this crowd believe that speaking in tongues might be the result of too much to drink, Peter recites this prayer from the prophet Joel 2:28-32:

²⁸ "And afterward,
   I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
   Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
   your old men will dream dreams,
   your young men will see visions.

²⁹ Even on my servants, both men and women,
   I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

³⁰ I will show wonders in the heavens
   and on the earth,
   blood and fire and billows of smoke.

³¹ The sun will be turned to darkness
   and the moon to blood
   before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

³² And everyone who calls
   on the name of the LORD will be saved;
   for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
   there will be deliverance,
   as the LORD has said,
   among the survivors
   whom the LORD calls.

Donn asked the class to think about the distinction between believing in the spirit and being in a community of believers. George indicated that the spirit kind of snuck up on him over the years, possibly because he is in the natural world while the spirit exists in the supernatural world. He gave as an example of what he was talking about the movie "The Bishop's Wife," a 1947 movie starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven.

Donn concluded class with a short benediction.

The Lesson for Sunday, October 12th is "Expansion of the Community"

Key Verse:  Acts 6:7

Focus of the Lesson: Increased responsibilities in our personal and professional lives cause us to experience stress and conflict. How do people of faith handle these responsibilities in order to reduce conflict? The expansion of the early church provides a model for delegating responsibilities and handling conflict through its selection of the first servants of the church.

The reading is Acts 6:1-5, 8-15. This text is from the New International Version. (NIV)

Background Scripture:  Acts 6:1-15; 8:1-8

   ¹In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. ²So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. ³Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them ⁴and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word."

   ⁵This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.

   ⁸Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. ⁹Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. These men began to argue with Stephen, ¹⁰but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.

   ¹¹Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, "We have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God."

   ¹²So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. ¹³They produced false witnesses, who testified, "This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. ¹⁴For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us."

   ¹⁵All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

NIV