chURch news 9/18/15

As we’ve worked our way through Luke 9-12 in our Sunday worship, we recently spent time in the beginning of Luke 10. In Luke 10:2, Jesus tells 72 disciples to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into his harvest field.

As we began preparing for this sermon series, Chris felt especially convicted to pray for God to increase our numbers at Upper Room to 72 members. He invited the elders to join him in that, and we now invite all of you to join us, too.

Since we’ll be praying according to Luke 10:2, we invite you to set a daily reminder on your phone for 10:02am to ask the Lord of the Harvest to send out more laborers, and to increase our numbers to 72 members.

I’m also excited to report that our brothers and sisters at Congregation Shoresh David in Monroeville have also begun to intercede on our behalf for this.

So, let’s start asking for 72, and see what the Lord of the Harvest does when we pray to him earnestly.

We all desire a deeper, and more robust life with God. Some of us may watch others pray out loud and observe a closeness between that person and God that we wish we had ourselves. Others of us may feel like prayer is a one-way conversation in which we long to hear back from God, but rarely seem to hear anything. Still others of us feel a disconnect between our time in prayer and the rest of our lives, and we hope to see our prayers have more tangible consequences for how we live.

It’s our hope that through a series of classes this Fall, we’ll all discover a more vibrant life of God through prayer. The class will meet every Sunday morning at 9:30am, and will run from this Sunday through November 15.

Here is the current schedule (still subject to change). All classes stand on their own, and don’t require attendance the previous weeks.
September 20 - Images and Titles of God
September 27 - Praying the Psalms
October 4 - Discerning Messages from God
October 11 - Prayer Walking
October 18 - *No class due to church retreat*
October 25 - The Jesus Prayer
November 1 - Interceding for Others
November 8 - Prayer Ministry
November 15 - Receiving Gifts of the Holy Spirit

What are the characteristics of an authentic church? How can the local church be recognizably the church of Jesus Christ, as seen down the centuries, but also be authentic to its local context? These questions and more will be explored by Graham Cray at the free McClure Lectures in World Mission and Evangelism at Pittsburgh Seminary.

Bishop Graham Cray was educated at Leeds University and St. John’s College, Nottingham, before beginning his ministry as a curate of St. Mark’s Church, Gillingham. Cray later spent 14 years at St. Michael-le-Belfry in York before becoming princpal of Ridley Hall Theological College in Cambridge and later the Bishop of Mainstone in 2001. In 2009, he was appointed to lead the Archbishops’ (of Canterbury and of York) Fresh Expressions team. Fresh Expressions is a movement established by the Church of England the Methodist Church to pioneer new congregations and churches that appeal to people who have never attended church or those who are not attracted to traditional styles of church. Bishop Cray retired from full-time ministry and from his position as Archbishop’s Missioner in 2014. He is currently Honorary Bishop of the Diocese of York in the United Kingdom.

These lectures are free and open to the public, and can be a great benefit to our community as we seek to be more and more faithful to Christ and his call on us to be the church for Squirrel Hill.

In the Apostle Paul’s vision, the Church is a unified body of Jews and Gentiles. We’re a people among whom Christ has “broken down the dividing wall of hostility,” reconciling differing ethnic groups and cultures. Now, just as in the first century, church-plants like the Upper Room are called to bear witness to Christ’s destruction of our divisions and his establishment of a new family. But in a social context where racism and racial injustice are endemic, how do we plant churches that bear witness to the reconciling love of Jesus Christ?

The Church Planting Initiative at Pittsburgh Seminary (led by our own co-pastor Chris Brown) invites us to hear responses from faithful and experienced leaders of multicultural church communities at this two-day conference.

For more information, or to register, click here.

Our Fall Bible Study through Hebrews will be meeting Tuesday evenings. Zhongnan and Tiffany will be leading and hosting.

Our address is:

*Park on Hampton St., not N. Negley (it’s just closer to our apt). Bus stop stops right in front of the main office of apartment complex.

See picture below for directions:

We are excited to see you all there! : )

-Zhongnan and Tiffany

We’ve been given a great opportunity to get the word out about our church and raise a few extra dollars while we’re at it. This Thursday, September 24 from 6pm-8pm, Ten Thousand Villages in Squirrel Hill will donate a portion of their sales to the Upper Room. More than a fundraiser, this is also an opportunity for us to connect with our neighbors. Ten Thousand Villages has already advertised this event, and our church, to their email list. We’ll be present that night at the store with snacks to share and information about our church.

We need your help to make this event successful!

- If you’d like to help provide snacks, please let Japa know.
- Help us get the word out by sharing our Facebook event with your friends.
- Plan to come to Ten Thousand Villages on Thursdayevening, and bring some friends with you! This is a great opportunity to introduce your friends to your church.

For many of us, Upper Room is still a new and different community to be a part of. We know that becoming a part of a new church raises questions. Maybe you’re asking why we sing the same songs and pray the same prayers for weeks at a time. Maybe you’re trying to understand how Upper Room’s leadership is structured. Maybe you want to know whether our church has particular stances on important issues like sexuality. Whatever questions you may have, we want to give you the opportunity to ask them and to hear answers from Upper Room’s leadership.

On September 27 after worship, we’ll have a “Meet the Elders” lunch. As we eat and have fellowship together, you’ll have the opportunity to get to know the 8 elders who lead Upper Room – our two pastors/”teaching elders” and 6 “ruling elders” elected from among the members of the church. And the elders will take time to respond to whatever questions you may have.

If you already know questions you’d like to ask, emailing them to church@pghupperroom.com will help us be prepared to answer them accurately and fully.

We are going back to Brazil! From approximately Feb 29-March 11 Chris and Kristin will be leading a group to São Paulo from Pittsburgh Seminary, Pittsburgh Presbytery’s New Church Development Commission, and our church. We will be focusing on learning from our friends and partners in Brazil about new church development! This is an awesome opportunity to see how God is working in similar communities abroad and to take some time to slow down and have encouraging conversations about the work of Christ in a cross cultural setting! Please get in touch with Kristin if you have questions and look out for more announcements Sunday mornings.