Easter Sunday Gathering & Poluck! (3/23)

Date: THIS Sunday, Mar. 23rd
Time: Sunday Gathering starts at 4:00pm, Dinner at 6:00pm
Place: United Church on the Green - Fellowship Hall

Christ is Risen! Come to celebrate, worship, and share communion with us!

Caleb Maskell will be teaching Part 5 of our series on the Kingdom of God.
Also, stay for a yummy Easter Potluck (following our Sunday Gathering)!

If you are part of one of our homegroups, you will find out what sort of dish to bring (Main Dishes, Side Dishes, or Desserts/Beverages).

Otherwise, feel free to bring a dish to share (make something for 10 - 12 people)!

All are invited!
Hope to see you all there!

ECV Partners

As we shared at our Sunday Gathering last week: 

In order to seize a unique opportunity we have as a young church to commit ourselves to the advancement of God's Kingdom beyond our own community, we have decided to commit $1000/month of the Elm City Vineyard's budget (about 30%) to what we're calling Elm City Vineyard Partners: organizations—either "Christian" or "secular"—that are doing God's work here in New Haven and around the world.

To identify these partners, we'd like your help. Do you know of a group doing great work that advances God's purposes who could use some financial support? Maybe you work for such an organization. Let us know by submitting an ECV Partnership form by April 1st at 9am. (The trustees and the leaders of the local and global outreach teams will be meeting April 1st to select the partnerships we will pursue for the 08-09 fiscal year.)

We are really excited to see what God will do through these partnerships—both from the work that will happen as a result of the finances we'll be able to give and from the relationships that will develop.

(Want to know more about how the money you give to the Elm City Vineyard is used? Check out this previous post (be sure to look at the pdf referred to in the post), and this one, and stay tuned for more...)

Good Friday Gathering

Good Friday Gathering

March 21, 7pm 

530 Norton Parkway

Our Good Friday Gathering will be 7pm at 530 Norton Parkway (Andy and Kathy Saperstein's home). Todd Kennedy will be teaching Part 4 of our series on the Kingdom of God. Come and join us as we worship and reflect on the significance of Jesus' death.

St. Patrick's Day & ECV Sunday Gathering

Worship Gathering

Sunday March 9th

4pm (don't forget Daylight Savings!)

A quick heads-up on the hullabaloo you might encounter Sunday:

Sunday is, a week early, New Haven's St. Patrick's Day parade. The parade is set to start at 1pm and end around 4pm. From the parade route, it appears that Elm Street will be closed from College to Orange, and Temple will be closed from Grove to Crown. Here's my best guess (parade route in green, street closings in red):

The police said they'll start opening up streets even while the parade is still going, so some streets will already be re-opened by 4pm.

Anyway, plan accordingly. Come a bit early (come downtown and watch the parade!) and we'll see you at 4.

ECV Forum Reminder & More Info

ECV Forum: Finances
Saturday, March 8th, 1:00-2:30pm
180 Colony Road

As you may know, we're having another ECV Forum meeting Saturday, this one on the topic of finances. Just a chance to get together and talk about how God is calling us to use our financial resources to advance His purposes in our community, our city, and around the world.

If you'd like to get a sense of where we're headed, at least as a starting point for the conversation Saturday, you can check out a file "budget_thoughts.pdf" that I uploaded this morning to the to the "Files" part of the Google Groups site. (You'll need to log in to the group in order to access the file; use your email address at which you receive ECV emails.) This document was the result of a meeting that the board of trustees had a few weeks ago; as I say within the document itself, it is not a final product.

Hope to see you Saturday.

The Kingdom, the Cross, and the Future (or "How To Up-end Your Life Plan in Five Easy Steps")

This past Sunday, Tom Sharp kicked off a new teaching series that will run through the month of March, which Caleb has entitled "The Kingdom, the Cross, and the Future (or "How To Up-end Your Life Plan in Five Easy Steps")"

Here's the grand plan:

march 2: "the announcement": God is in the midst of people! The Kingdom of God is At Hand! What's it mean? (Tom Sharp)

march 9: "the obvious goods": Healing! Deliverance! Freedom! A New Purpose! Etc! (Andy Saperstein)

march 16: "uh-oh!": Why Are You Looking At Me Like That When You Talk About A Grain of Wheat? (Matt Croasmun)

march 21: The Cross, The Kingdom, The Readings on Good Friday (Todd Kennedy)

march 23: "what do you mean go away? and how did you walk through that wall?": The Kingdom and The Future (Caleb Maskell)

Each of these talks should really provide great opportunities for us to grow in understanding the fundamentals of God's invitation to be followers of Christ. Wondering who Jesus is and what all this "Holy Week" stuff is all about? Know someone who's asking those questions? This is a great opportunity to dig deep and see who God shows Himself to be.

P.S. March 23rd is Easter; after our regular gathering, we'll have a potluck dinner together. That's right, Easter dinner with all your favorite folks. Get pumped.