The month of March is an exciting and holy time here at the Praise and Worship Center, check out what is going on to deepen your relationship with Jesus and others in our Christian community.
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The School of Change
Starts Tonight
with Fr. Dale
Wednesday, March 1 from
7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Change can be difficult, but it does not have to be. Often the difficulty is in the perspective or how we look at change. Change in behavior, outlook and attitude is a process. We don’t know where we are going and the “in between” often feels messy - like a Holy Collision.
Here are the dates
for the rest of the series:
March 8, 15 and 22
Change your life.
God’s kingdom is here.
Matthew 4:17 MSG
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Before the School of Change starts tonight, join us for Contemplative Prayer with Deacon Karen Klemens
at 6:00 pm.
Contemplative Prayer is a great tradition of the church where we are able to quiet and center ourselves in the loving presence of Jesus. If you have never experienced it, why not give it a try. It is a great way to slow down and spiritually rest.
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Open to all married couples, Marriage Enrichment will meet on Friday, March 3 from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm in the church. This will be an excellent opportunity to grow in your relationship with your spouse through the person of Jesus through a presentation and small group discussion questions! Dinner will be served! Please contact Pastor Mark for more information.
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Men of PWC, this Saturday, March 4, is your opportunity to grow in your Christian faith and support other men in experiencing Christ through the PWC Men’s Group. We are meeting from 9:00 am to 10:30 am in Building 4-12. Refreshments will be served.
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The Women’s Bible Study is also meeting this Saturday, March 4 from 9:00 am to 10:30 am in the church. We have a wonderful bible study planned. We will be serving breakfast.
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PWC Kids is this Sunday, March 5 beginning at 9:30 am in Building 4:12. This interactive bible study will focus on the Gospel reading that is proclaimed to the adults at worship. This is an incredible opportunity for children ages four through fifth grade to learn about Jesus. Parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles: mark your calendar for this Sunday. The kids finish up at the worship service, coming back during the Lord’s Prayer. FYI, we are taking March 12 and 19 off for Spring Break.
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Our website reflections inspire every week! This week checkout a reflection by Jody Serey. Next week will be Deacon Dennis Paschke. Both are great reflections that you can apply to your life! Click on our Weekly Reflection Tile and be nourished. Here is the link: PWC Reflections Page.
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We are running a series entitled, Meet the PWC Deacons, hopefully, this will give you a better opportunity to know our deacons and how they can minister to you.
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Meet the Deacons
Deacon Peter Klemens
I was born in 1947 in Portland Oregon, my parents were Paul and Margaret Klemens. There was also my sister, Judy, five years older. We lived my first six years in the apartments on the corner of 33rd Street and Alberta. My father worked for a company that made machinery that manufactured concrete building blocks. This company was located in Vancouver, WA, just across the mighty Columbia River. We moved to Vancouver around 1953, the four of us now living in a small 3 bedroom, 1 bath house. How did we survive that?!?!?! School consisted of one year at Lieser elementary, seven years at St Joseph, one year at McLoughlin Junior High all of which I walked to and from each day. Hudson Bay was my high school. I married Jane in 1977 and we adopted three children, Michael, Anne and Scott. All three children went on to medical schools and have become productive members of society with families of their own, blessing us with nine grandchildren.
I married Karen September 2012. Karen has been a true blessing in my life. We have been blessed with being able to travel, recently returning from Assisi for the second time. Looking forward to traveling to Mexico City in December with the Praise and Worship family.
My current deacon responsibility is International Outreach. I must admit that this ministry is more a function of our community. We have contributed to the orphanage in Haiti in addition, Mary Jo West made a documentary of the plight of these poverty-stricken children. Two trips to Kenya by Judy Verbosky together with Mary Jo West resulting in a fresh water well for the children. Thank you, Judy and Mary Jo. I am sure I am overlooking some other outreach ministries as there have been many.
The community’s most recent outreach, chaired by Rod and Cyndie Taylor, was our shoe box program. Two-hundred-seventy-five children had a Christmas present and an introduction to Jesus. I am looking toward the future, we hope to continue to help with the orphanage in Kenya, perhaps a hands-on mission trip to Tijuana, Mexico so get your passports updated.
Once a month a team helps package food locally at Feed My Starving Children. Positions are open and we need your help. Please familiarize yourself with this hands on outreach that you can do. See www.fmsc.org.
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Your giving to the PWC ministry makes a difference in how we can minister to others. Due to your tithing, we are able, many times, to meet the needs of those in our community who are experiencing spiritual, emotional, and physical concerns. From pastoral counseling to grief support, to Bible Study, to Adult Education, to providing food through Matthew’s Crossing for families who are economically struggling to PWC Kids and Marriage Enrichment and our funeral ministry; your consistent giving makes a difference, a big change in people’s lives!
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Here are the different ways you can tithe to PWC:
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• Mail in your gift to: Praise and Worship Center, 2551 N. Arizona Avenue, Chandler, AZ 85225.
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• Sign up for monthly giving with a credit card or voided check. Just call the office at 480-649-0300 or stop by the office.
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Space is running out for The Guadalupe Trip
to Mexico
taking place in December 2023. For more information, please contact Fr. Dale in the office.
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Do you need a PWC name tag? You can sign up for a name tag on Sunday morning in the office or email Tami Heinl at [email protected]. If you have a PWC name tag, we encourage you to wear your name tag so you will get to know the names of others in our PWC community.
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Fr. Mike Lessard is available for pastoral counseling on Monday and Wednesday mornings. Please call the church office to make an appointment at 480-649-0300.
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One of Isaiah’s Vision
by Ronald Rolheiser
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As Henri Nouwen once put it: Every bit of life is touched by a bit of death. In every satisfaction there is limitation; in every embrace, there is distance; in every success, there is the fear of jealousy; behind every smile, there is a tear; and in all forms of light there is knowledge of the surrounding darkness. Joy and pain are born at the same place within us, and we can never find proper words to capture our own feelings.
Why is it that every time joy reveals itself something painful also pierces the heart? Why does the Gospel of Christ not bring us what we really want, joy without pain?
These are important questions because how we understand the relationship between joy and pain helps determine how we understand ourselves, happiness, and the Gospel. Too often we have the false idea, very prevalent in our culture, that joy and pain are incompatible, and that Christ came to rescue us from pain. Our culture tends to believe that if you are in pain, you cannot be happy and to be happy, you must avoid pain.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Joy and pain are not incompatible, and Christ does not, as poor preaching sometimes wants us to believe, promise us less pain. Joy and pain both lie at the heart of what it means to be human. In terms of a biblical definition, the human being might well be defined as a being of joy, living in pain.
In the end that is what separates us from the rest of creation. The paradoxical connection between joy and pain, ultimately, points us towards eternity. By revealing to us our limits, it points us towards something greater, God’s kingdom, a higher synthesis of love and communion, within which, as the vision of Isaiah has it, there will be satisfaction without limit, embrace without distance, success without jealousy, smiles without tears, reunions without separation, joys without missing your loved ones, and life without death.
What Christ promises us is not a life on this earth without pain, but an eventual joy that will be clear cut, pure, and which no one or nothing can ever take from us.
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The Season of Lent is a busy month at PWC with lots of wonderful spiritual opportunities and fellowship, check out the March calendar to grow in your friendship with Jesus and others: Online Calendar
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We look forward to seeing you tonight at 7:00 for the School of Change. Have a blessed week!
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Love,
Fr. Dale and Pastor Mark
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P.S. Check out our theme song for Lent 2023 The In Between by Matt Maher. We had lots of wonderful comments about it on Sunday at service:
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This is a great way to learn the song for Sunday service.
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