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 Newsletter Archive May 2007 Sunday, May 6 Sunday, May 13 Friday, May 18 Friday, May 25
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  Sunday, May 6, 2007 Hello, folks, In Sunday School we have just started examining the New Testament book of Acts. In the prologue, Luke, the author, reviews Jesus' final instructions to his followers just before he ascended into heaven. Did Jesus give them a pep talk? "Okay, guys, I'm going away for a while. It's up to you now. So, come on, let's get up and get going! Get out there and start telling your friends the good news! Let's go, go, GO!" Uh, . . . not quite. What did he say? "Don't leave Jerusalem, but wait . . ." Wait!? "Oh, sure, Lord," some of the disciples said. "This is when you're going to restore the kingdom, isn't it? We'll stand by while you do your thing. We're ready." "No," replied Jesus, "you don't have the whole picture yet. That's why I'm asking you to wait. When the Holy Spirit comes, he will not only deliver your marching orders but he will give you the power to accomplish the tasks I've assigned. You will not be 'standing by.' You're going to take my message to the world . . . But not yet. Wait for the Holy Spirit. You won't be ready until then." Is our little congregation at Linden Street Church like those early disciples? Well, yes and no. No, we are not facing a totally unevangelized world. Quite the opposite. In this part of the country, there seems to be an evangelical church on every corner. (In Massachusetts, where I'm from, gospel-preaching churches are much fewer and far between.) No, we are not waiting for the Holy Spirit. He came to dwell in our hearts personally when we believed and were baptized. But, yes, we are a small contingent of disciples. And, yes, we are waiting for instructions. Jesus is not building his kingdom without us. Our congregation is coming into a period of opportunity. Our pastor is going to help us build on our strengths. New people, both believers and unbelievers, will be coming through the church doors. Many of us will need to extend ourselves. Do we panic? No. We wait. We wait for instruction. We "devote ourselves to prayer" (Acts 1:14). And we wait on the Holy Spirit. He will give us power. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Our new Web site at http://www.lindenstreetdisciples.org is one of our tools of growth. We will be able to communicate with one another through it. Church events and opportunities can be posted there. Through it, we can make one another aware of prayer needs and praises much more quickly than waiting until Sunday or Wednesday. We can get to know one another better through introductions and profiles. Messages of encouragement and affirmation can be delivered through it. (This newsletter will also posted on the Newsletter page of the Web site each week.) These are just a few of the possibilities for the building up of the church. The Web site will also serve as outreach, as well. I am registering the site with online search engines and directories, so that people searching for a church, or searching for answers, in the Sapulpa area will be able to say, "Hey, here's an Information Age church that may have what I'm looking for!" The URL will be included in our advertising. -- And then there's you. Pass the word: "Want to know what our church is doing? Check it out online!" I did get a couple of "Thank you" responses to last week's announcement of the Web site, but no answers (yet) to the questions I asked:
3. What prayer requests, praises, or announcements do you have that I can post on the site? Please send them to webmaster@lindenstreetdisciples.org. I will post them on the site the same day I receive them. That means you should also check the site periodically for news. :-) I would also like to start a spiritual "Gossip" column! However, this will not be malicious news about others, but rather good news of the work of the Holy Spirit. Please send me any reports of evidence of spiritual growth or accomplishment in your life or someone else's that is clearly evidence of the Spirit at work, and I will "spread the rumor" online. May the Lord bless you all this week. Linwood Sunday, May 13, 2007 Greetings, everyone! Web Site Update Since last week, I have added a page called "The Upper Room - Church Life" on the Web site. (See the tab above.) Here is where you can add your prayer requests and praises. I have already added some items that I collected during Sunday School and the worship service. However, I am reluctant to add requests for anyone I don't know unless I receive your communication in writing, because I don't want to get names and details wrong in print. If you know of a need to pray about, send me an email, or jot your request down on a piece of paper and hand it to me on Sunday morning. Check the Calendar page for upcoming church dates and events. On the Favorite Links page, I have included URLs for the general history of the Disciples of Christ, the Christian Churches, and the Reform Movement. Do you know your church history? Beginning with the next newsletter, Gary will join me with a few comments of his own. It is our intention to issue the newsletter on Thursdays, so look for the next one toward the end of this week. Who is Linwood Kemp and Why Does He Wear Those Gaudy Shirts? Born on a mountain top in Tennessee . . . no, wait . . . wrong legend! I was born and bred in the shadow of Boston, Massachusetts. My parents were from Maine, and their predecessors were from Britain, so I think that makes me a pure-blooded Yankee. (Did you know that there is always a tendency to call anyone who lives north and east of wherever you live a Yankee? That's why the Mexicans call us yanquis. I guess that means for us Sapulpans, even the Tulsans are Yankees, but don't tell them I said that.) I was the first born, followed by three sisters. Being outnumbered, I tended to keep to myself, which was okay because I liked school, reading, and academic pursuits. I met Christ when I was 13 after my family moved to a new community and new church. All of a sudden the scriptures made sense to me and I dug into the Word to learn more about my new faith. Over the years I have enjoyed reading and teaching the Word of God. I attended Houghton College, a Christian liberal arts college in western New York, where I majored in Spanish and German and minored in education. I went on to get a Master's Degree in Spanish at the venerable Middlebury College in Vermont. (¿Hablo Español? ¡Sí, señores!) I went on to teach Spanish in both high school and college for a few years. Unfortunately, although I enjoyed the language and the culture, I discovered that I was a very poor classroom manager with adolescents in high school, and I had insufficient motivation to forge on to a Doctorate at the college level. So I decided to make quite a radical career shift, leaving academia and turning to another area of interest, electronics and radio. Do I still speak Spanish? Only a little. I have had very few occasions to employ what I knew since I leaving teaching 30 years ago. Toward the end of my teaching career, I met a wonderful Christian woman whom I married. We raised two children together: Rebecca who is married and, at 38, is having her first child this year. She is a talented wildlife painter and also much more advanced in creating Web sites than her Dad. Chuck is 29, still single (know any nice Christian girls?), and has made a career for himself selling baseball cards on the Internet. Sadly, our marriage came to an end after 23 years, although we separated amicably. At first, after leaving teaching, I got into servicing police and fire two-way radio communications. As a result, I can claim to have stood outside on the roofs of the tallest buildings in Boston, while servicing communications base stations. After a few years, it happened that a radio shop I was working for was bought up by a then major computer company that eventually disappeared. However, that became my introduction to the field in which I would spend the next 25 years, the rest of my career: in computer, server, and data-communications support. Five years ago, I met Kathie on a Christian matching site on the Internet. She was living in Bristow, OK at the time. After we corresponded a while and then exchanged visits a couple of times, I became convinced that she would make a good wife, and, happily, she consented. At first, I brought her up to Massachusetts. After a year, I was unexpectedly laid off in a downsizing. Knowing that Kathie was missing her "grandbabies" (we don't use that expression back East), I proposed that this was a perfect opportunity to bring her back to Oklahoma. So back West we came. I thought I might feel homesick, but it didn't happen. I have come to accept Oklahoma as my new home and I have come to appreciate the important role that my adopted state has played in the development our our country. Initially, when we moved here, I hadn't planned to retire. However, I quickly found that there were no opportunities in this area in the computer field for someone with my level of experience. I certainly didn't relish starting over at a trainee level. So it soon became apparent that the Lord was providing me with yet another opportunity to make a radical career change. Therefore, I began collecting on my retirement benefits a little early and at the same time started to look into Internet marketing. I'm still very much a novice at it and have yet to make even my first $100, but I am enjoying the challenge and the learning process. Very shortly, I should have some viable marketing Web sites up and running. I'll share them with you all when I do. I enjoyed Gary Sheely's preaching when he was at First Christian. When I discovered that he had taken up the pulpit at Linden Street Church, I came over to visit. I'm glad I did. I like Linden Street because it is small and I can easily relate to many of you. I also see that the Lord is present here and that there is opportunity for growth and revival. After several fits and starts, I finally concluded that this is where I belong. I pray that I may be of service to you all and that the Lord may use me as he sees fit. Oh, those colorful, flowery shirts? While I was working back in Massachusetts, my co-worker friends and I would walk daily to the food court at the nearby shopping mall for lunch. We always had to pass through JC Penney's en route. One season, they put up a large quantity and variety of these colorful "Hawaiian-style" shirts. I liked them right away, but I didn't really need any. However, as the summer turned to fall, they kept offering lower and lower prices in order to sell them off. I determined that when they reached a certain price, I would buy a couple. And so I did. But the prices kept dropping even lower. So I ended up buying quite a few of these shirts for just a few dollars each. Over the coming summer, you may get to see the full extent of the "plumage" I acquired! Yours, in Christ, Linwood
But there's more. Jesus also had work to do in heaven.
Now, Who are You? In last week's newsletter, I told you a bit about myself. Elda Steury responded with a suggestion that it might be good to do biographies of others members in the church. That's you! I think that is a great idea! So beginning next week, I am going to include in this newsletter the profiles of at least one person, couple, or family, with photos, each week. I will collect the profiles into a special page on the church Web site, so that after several months we should have a pictorial directory of all the members and regular attenders at Linden Street Christian Church. This will not only help us to know one another better, but it will aid newcomers in getting to know us as well. Guess who is going to be first! As many of you know, Elda will be leaving us in just a couple of weeks, and since she made the suggestion, she has volunteered to be our first profile. Look for it next week. I will be contacting the rest of you for your particulars in the coming weeks. In Christ, Linwood All scripture is quoted from the New International Version (NIV), Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society.
Friday, May 25, 2007 "Linden Street Christian Church is a Bible-believing church, and believes God has a plan for everyone's life. It is our vision to be a place where people can find real people, warm fellowship, meaningful worship and a place to use their gifts."As noted above, if you missed the training, you have another opportunity next Wednesday night (5/30) after the Bible Study at 8:00 p.m. Our First Profile June 3 will be Elda Steury's last Sunday with us. It's appropriate, therefore, that she volunteered to be the first profile for our Web site so that you will remember her as she departs. As I mentioned last week, over the next few months I will be asking everyone for a profile in order to assemble a directory that we can all use as a reference. Elda says:  "I have lived in Sapulpa since 1966. My husband and I
were members of
First Christian Church in Tulsa for more than 50 years. After his death
in
2006, I felt a need to find a church closer to home, rather than drive
to Tulsa every Sunday morning. I planned to visit all the Christian
Churches in Sapulpa. Linden Street was the second one I tried, and I
went no furthur. From the very first day, I was made to feel welcome.
The church service had such a spiritually enriching quality that I knew
I had found my new church home. After being there only a month, Larry
and Mary Jo Stansbury invited me to their home for their annual 4th of
July celebration. They even picked me up at home, as I was unfamiliar
with the area. When they learned that I couldn't attend Bible study on
Wednesday nights due to night blindness, they began picking me up for
that, too.
Elda says:"I have always felt the wonderful Christian spirit within this church, and within the dedicated Christians that I have met here. I love the Bible study which teaches us to delve more deeply into the true meaning of the Scriptures, plus the Sunday school class and church service which, also, focus on the Scriptures. "I was born and raised in Springfield, MO. I accepted Christ into my life when I was 20 while attending the First Christian Church. My husband and I moved to Tulsa in 1952, right after our marriage. I worked 8 years for Southwestern Bell, 12 years at Bartlett Hospital, and 13 years at Security National Bank. As a hobby, we became involved in square dancing, which we enjoyed for 26 years. We had two children. Our son Larry lives in Austin, TX, and our daughter, Linda Vosburgh, resides in Los Alamos, NM. "June 3rd will be my last day in Sapulpa. I will be moving to Georgetown, TX, to a Senior Retirement Village, just 30 miles from my son in Austin. Through the magic of the Internet, I plan, always, to keep in touch with my friends at Linden Street Christian Church. I will look forward to reading about the church and the people through the church newsletter." Be sure to wish Elda well on June 3rd. We will miss her. In Christ, Linwood Kemp Editor
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