Ordination Service for Audrey Lin - June 6th

Ordination Service for Audrey Lin
St. John's Episcopal Church (400 Humphrey Street)
Saturday, 6/6, 7:00-8:30pm

As you all may know, in July we will be sending Audrey Lin to work with an OMF team among Taiwan’s urban marginalized people. While the Church has made some inroads in Taiwan, this progress has been limited almost completely to the Westernized upper class, leaving the working-class and poor unreached by the gospel. Audrey’s work will focus on reaching the homeless, prostitutes, AIDS patients and the like.

As an expression of our support and an affirmation of God's call to her, we will be ordaining Audrey as a Cross-Cultural Minister of the Gospel (feel the power) this Saturday evening at 7pm at St. John's Episcopal. It will be a great time of sharing stories about the work God has done through Audrey in her time in our community and blessing and praying for her. Please come and join us.

Holy Spirit Ministry Conference - SAVE THE DATE: July 17-18

Dear ECV:

This summer we are going to host a small conference on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The focus will be on hearing from God, life in the power of the Holy Spirit, and following Jesus against the odds.

There will be practical teaching from scripture, lots of great stories, and plenty of time for prayer and listening to God.

We have some wonderful (not to mention massively gifted) folks coming out to facilitate this meeting, including Jordan and Sonya Seng (pastors of Bluewater Mission, Hawaii), Robin Morrison (prophetic guy from Anaheim Vineyard), and David Ruis (worship leader / church planter / justice nut). These are our kind of people...you will love them.

The conference has come together in such a way that we have a strong hunch that it is going to be a really significant time for many of us. You should be stoked about this!

We may charge a nominal fee to cover some costs....but it will not be prohibitive at all. Also, there will be a small meeting for current church leaders (groups, worship, teaching, etc.) happening on Thursday night. So if that is you, please save Thursday night as well.

We will send more info nearer the time, but for now, please do two things.

1) SAVE THE DATES: Friday July 17th (evening) -- Saturday July 18th (9am-9pm)

2) SEND ME AN EMAIL TO RSVP SO WE CAN GET A SENSE OF THE NUMBERS

right on. lots of love,

-caleb.

ECV Partners 2009-2010

As many of you may know, in order to seize the unique opportunity we've had as a young church to commit ourselves to the advancement of God's Kingdom beyond our own community, this past year, we committed a significant percentage of the ECV budget (~30%) to what we call ECV Partners: organizations—either "Christian" or "secular"—that are doing God's work here in New Haven and around the world. This first year has been a tremendous success; the work that these groups do is fantastic and relationships that we're developed have been (and continue to be) really valuable; we're getting connected to what God's doing and learning a ton.

Anyway, we're coming up on time to review our partnerships from this past year and maybe pursue a some new ones for the coming fiscal year.

So, two takeaways:

1. If you are (or represent) a current ECV partner, it's time to check in on how things have gone this past year and (if desired) submit a application for renewal.
2. 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 Application.
   

All applications are due May 29th at 5pm. (The trustees and the leaders of the local and global outreach teams will be meeting June 1 to select the partnerships we will pursue for the 09-10 fiscal year.)

Men's BBQ in Edgewood Park

Date: Saturday, May 15th
Time: 1:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Place: Edgewood Park by the large swing-set away from the main playground

Come hang out at Edgewood Park for a relaxed time of meeting and fellowship. We are kicking off a summer of deepening authenticity and fun. We will eat, play frisbee, toss around a football, play chess and anything else you would like to do on a sunny afternoon in the park.

We will discuss ideas and plans for the summer as we seek to build a community of friendship and fellowship among the men of the church. Bring friends!

We will provide meat, buns, condiments and snack food. Please bring any additional snacks and any beverage of your choice.

Questions? Call Robb Evans (203) 543-4525 or Tim Sargeant (312) 771-9811

"Future of ECV Children's Ministry" Forum!

Date: Saturday, May 9th

Time: 10:30am - 12:00noon

Place: 530 Norton Parkway (Blum/Saperstein House)

(Childcare will be provided).

Calling all Parents, Teachers, and anyone else interested in the future of ECV's Children's Ministry!

You are invited to a "Future of ECV Children's Ministry" Forum next Saturday morning - As the number of children and families grows in our ECV community, we are seeking what is best in terms of helping our children grow to become devoted followers of Jesus. To that end, we are looking for your input as we are thinking of implementing some changes to our current Children's Ministry structure!

Particularly, we are looking for creative solutions to provide the best opportunities for our children to grow in their faith (on Sundays and beyond!), support Parents in raising their kids, and how to do that without overwhelming the church with volunteering and staffing needs.

We hope you can join us to dream, brainstorm and pray with us!

Questions? Contact Hannah - hannah [at] elmcityvineyard [dot] org