A Blessed Ash Wednesday

1^st Sunday in Lent | February 17, 2021
Just these lines, my friends …

… to say “What a special concluding week to our Global Impact Celebration (GIC)!” We began the week with Kathy Izard and her challenge to “trust the whisper.” You can watch here. We participated in virtual mission trips to Africa & India.  You can view the virtual trip to Kenya, which features the Empowerment Group we support, by clicking here.

Then we concluded our week with dozens of you making your way to the church on Sunday afternoon to make your GIC Financial Faith Commitments and Life Commitments. This was wildly inspiring to those of us standing in the rain on that messy day. You have been listening well.

If you haven’t had a chance to fill out your commitment cards for our GIC emphasis, please return them to the bin in the Breezeway or by mail (details). Our Global Impact Team will be building their ministry focus upon the commitments you make. You can also return your Love Notes for local missions (details) through Friday, February 19; and your donation to Charlotte Rescue Mission through March 8 (details)! If you missed my message from Sunday you can watch here.

Our 11th Community Forum on Racial Bridge-Building with Bishop Will Willimon was held last night. If you missed it, click here to watch.

Wednesday Devotional

My Wednesday devotional is titled, “A Blessed Ash Wednesday.” Please click here to watch.  And I hope you will join us for our Ash Wednesday Worship Service tonight at 7:00 pm by clicking here.

New Study to Begin on March 9: The Color of Compromise

I want you to consider being a part of an outstanding study. It all begins on Tuesday, March 9, 7 pm, and continue on the second Tuesday of each month for six months. Our study will be facilitated by Howard Nussman. Pastor Larry Whitley from Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church and I will be joining him as well. This is the best material I’ve seen on how people of faith have historically – up to the present day – worked against racial justice. I have found The Color of Compromise to be both enlightening and compelling as it tells a history we either ignore or just don’t know. It is equally painful and inspirational as it details how the American church has helped create and maintain racist ideas and practices. It concludes by guiding us in our thinking through concrete solutions for improved race relations and a racially inclusive church.

Please know that The Color of Compromise is not a call to shame or a platform to blame white Christians. It is a call from a place of love and desire to strive for a more racially unified church that no longer compromises what the Bible teaches about human dignity and equality. It is a call that challenges black and white Christians alike to stand up now and begin implementing the concrete ways for a more equitable and inclusive environment among God’s people.

I do hope you’ll join us, beginning on March 9. For more information, please click here.

This Sunday in Worship

Our plan is to begin livestreaming worship this Sunday, February 21, from Vimeo to YouTube, Facebook, and our website through a NEW interface with a live chat feature. On demand links will no longer be available but you can always access worship after the stream ends on each platform. Thank you for your patience during this enhancement process. Please join worship Sunday online at 9:30 am (contemporary), 11:00 am (traditional) or 12:30 (Spanish-speaking).

This week our CCH community will gather for worship at 12:30 pm and begin a new worship series, Safe Friendship in Uncertain Times. Pastor Roldan will be preaching from John 1:40-45 with his message titled “A Time Well Spent.”

Then at 9:30 am and 11:00 am…well, here we go again. Just as every other year, our Bible readings for the first Sunday in the Holy season of Lent take us right to the temptation of Jesus (Matthew 4:1-11). It is our annual journey into the wilderness … and it might seem repetitious, if the Tempter weren’t so creative in coming up with new ways of tempting us. Here are a few to think about:

1. Have you ever been tempted to do something you knew was wrong but thought you could get away with it?
2. Have you ever been tempted to cheat on an exam, fudge the figures on your expense account or lie to those unpleasant relatives who wanted to stop in for dinner on their way to vacation?
3. Have you ever been tempted to make yourself look better in someone else’s eyes by lying about your age, your income, your children or your golf score?
4. Have you ever been tempted to follow the links to websites you know you shouldn’t be visiting?
5. Have you ever been tempted to believe that God loves your race, your nation, your church or your football team more than God loves every other race, nation, church or football team?
6. Have you ever been tempted to believe all the things you hear on TV about someone whose politics are different than yours?
7. Have you ever been tempted to gloat over the weaknesses of another while refusing to acknowledge your own?
8. Have you ever been tempted to lie about your own temptations?

Well, it looks like we have plenty of good reasons to follow Jesus into the wilderness again this year. Click here for a snapshot view of the sermons leading through Lent to Easter. I hope to see you on Sunday.

And as always, during these strange, uncertain, tumultuous and perilous days remember … God does God’s best work in moments like this.

We are in this … together,
Dr. Charles (Chuck) W. Wilson II

Did you know that since the beginning of Home2Home Ministries a little over a year ago, 908 items have been received from 140 families and 833 of those items have been delivered to families in need? The team has another delivery scheduled for next week!

Did you know that our United Youth & Young Adult Staff Team delivered a  hand-packaged “Lent in a Bag” to 200 youth & their families? These Lenten bags provided youth & their families with some tangible symbols of Lent for times prayer and reflection that can be used on their own and with their Sunday Night Small Groups during Lent.