Westlake Community Christian Church
Westlake California


 

WE'VE MOVED

now meeting at
Redeemer Lutheran Church
667 Camino Dos Rios
Thousand Oaks, California
February Newsletter
March Newsletter (and latest photos)
March Mid-Month Update (and latest photos)
May Newsletter
June Newsletter
July/August Newsletter
September Newsletter

 

 

Join us for worship Sunday Mornings at 11:00 AM
Redeemer Lutheran Church
667 Camino Dos Rios
Thousand Oaks, California

 

Ministry Opportunities

Communion Meditations
Offering Meditations
Greeters
Flower Calendar

 

 

April 2009

WE'VE MOVED ! ! !
  • We can be found on Sunday Mornings at Redeemer Lutheran Church, Thousand Oaks, California. (see map below)

  • Maunday Thursday service April 9th 7PM at the Cox home.

  • Wish Book 2009 - $1441 has been collected so far. There are several gift requests still available. Contact Maggie Boring for more information

  • Midweek Fellowship dinner and Romans Bible study meets next April 21.

  • Choir rehearsal, Wednesdays, 7:30 pm at the Cox home.

  • Tzedakah Box - monetary donations are used to purchase supplies for Manna Food Bank. $72.45 was received in March.

  • Street side banner - we're looking for volunteers to setup a banner each week in front of the church. Contact Pastor Mike for more information.

  • Easter Lilies - will you sponsor a lily for $7 to decorate the sanctuary on Easter Sunday? Monies can be given to Bonnie McPherson.

  • YMCA Community Prayer Breakfast, Thursday May 7th 7AM - 8:30AM at the Gilbert Sports Center, California Lutheran University. Cost is $15 per person. The theme is "Prayer....America's Hope". The keynote speaker is Father Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries of Los Angeles. Contact Pastor Mike for information.

  • Feeding the Homeless program - Friday, March 27th, 6-8 PM at the Thousand Oaks United Methodist Church (1000 Janss Road at Hwy 23, Thousand Oaks, CA)

From The Pastor

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:34-35

When people who have just performed some heroic, life-threatening deed in order to save another are asked how they "felt" about what they were doing while they were doing it, the reply is usually "nothing." Here's a stranger who helped pull three children out of a burning house: "I didn't even think about it. It was happening so fast, and I knew we just had to get them out of there." Here's the mother who lifts a tree off her son's leg: "I didn't even feel how heavy it was - until I put it down." When love and compassion for one another take over completely, it is expressed through actions, not feelings. You cannot gradually and cautiously feel your way toward a loving action. Love is action. Geniune love always leaps before it looks.

Jesus' new commandment to his disciples was precisely this: Show your love. Love one another. By your love, they will know more about you than by anything else you could do. Love each other as I have loved you. Jesus didn't love us by simply feeling loving toward us. Jesus lived a life that embodied love. He healed the sick. He fed the hungry. He comforted the confused. He taught the ignorant. He hugged the little children. Jesus' love was so great that he went to the cross, suffered torture and death as his greatest demonstration of action-packed love. The love Jesus wants his disciples to enter into - not just to "feel" - is action-packed. And love in action is sometimes embodied by the simplest of compassionate responses.

Jesus urged his disciples to have love for one another so that "everyone will know that you are my disciples." The ability to love all - even the most unlovable of sorts, has always been the test of this discipleship - love. How can we prove ourselves disciples of this love? Jesus' own example gives us encouragement and strength to live with this type of genuine love. After the crowds had mocked him, spit upon him, screamed "crucify him," Jesus could still cry out in love, "Forgive them, they know not what they do."

An action-packed faith is the power of love in action, is the power of Christ incarnate in each one of our lives.

With you in Christ's love,

Pastor Mike

From the Missions Team
2008 Update

WCCC has given $20,506.55 to various mission agencies in the first 8 months of 2008!

What a generous, mission-minded family of Christians - thank you and God bless each and every one of you.