Views from The Ridge 04.03.2024
Sunset Ridge is a church that desires to follow Jesus, reach people, and radiate God’s love and hope to all.
This Week
This Week
Saturday, April 6 Noëlle Lowry’s Bridal Shower, 2-4pm in the Chapel Courtyard
Sunday, April 7
9am Worship in the Sanctuary (No Doubt? - John 20:19-31) (see website for more info)
10:15am Formation time
11am Chapel worship
Upcoming
Saturday, April 13 Second Saturday
Interested in what’s scheduled for our campus at large? Please consider subscribing to Goodness Weekly.
Around Our Community
Volunteer of the Month: Kyle Fry! From serving as a Shepherd, to being a worship leader in the acapella service, a bass player, percussionist, and sound engineer for the worship band, and “Mr. Fix It” around the building, what does Kyle not do? In so many ways, Kyle is the heartbeat of our community. Thank you for all that you do, Kyle!
We are in need of volunteers to help assemble tacos for CAM on the following Sundays in the kitchen immediately following formation time: April 7, April 14, and April 21. The sign-up sheet is in the Fellowship Hall.
“I Am Because We Are”
-Jess Lowry, Executive Director & Pastoral Leader, Sunset Ridge Collective
This week Chelsea and our children’s ministry team led a beautiful kids’ moment in our Easter service that included the South African philosophy of Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is defined as, “I am because we are” or put another way– “I am a person through other people”.
So often in our individualized culture we forget this truth that we are all interconnected, that we belong to one another. If scarcity or greed is at the heart of what is driving our choices we end up viewing each other as competition or we experience envy by overfocusing on what we lack and someone else has.
At other times our view is too myopic or our attention is focused in the wrong direction. We miss all that there is to learn from taking a new perspective.
I was privileged to be able to serve communion at our Easter service, and as I held the glass of juice I remembered the hands of my dear friend Janet who had served me communion from the very same cup. In this sacred moment I noticed the beauty in the eyes of each person and was reminded of the love that exists between each of us as human beings when we remember that we are all connected to one another and to those who have gone before us.
I can only imagine what it must have been like to be at the table with Jesus on that Passover. My heart smiles to think of the hope that Riley described—hope we hold on to because we know that those we love and missed this Easter know that feeling of looking into the eyes of Jesus wholeheartedly. We get a glimpse here on Earth when we recognize Christ in the eyes of one another.
If only our yearly calendar could start on Easter Sunday—a day filled with hope, with overwhelming joy, a day where love wins! We can’t change the calendar but perhaps it could be a new start for all of us here at Sunset Ridge. Perhaps we could be an Easter people full of radical and even foolish hope in a world that can feel hopeless. Perhaps we could be people who practice what our children learned—Ubuntu—that “I am because we are” recognizing the value and importance of every person whose eyes we meet.
May our hearts be opened to new possibilities, to new life, and a new future…and as we anticipate the arrival next month of our church’s 75th anniversary may we hold fast to unreasonable hope for what God intends to do for the next 75 years.
Love, Jess
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From Our Leaders
We are continuously praying for the work of the Sunset Ridge community and also for the generosity of everyone in this community to allow this work to continue. We are so grateful for the contributions we have received so far in 2024. Please see a YTD update below.
Contributions thru March 31:
Avg. Wkly. Contributions $9,852
Weekly Budget $11,489
Avg. Weekly (Deficit)/Surplus ($1,637)
YTD (Deficit)/Surplus ($21,278)
YTD Special Contributions $40,000 (included in the amounts above)
Christ Is Risen
Riley Stirman, Preaching Minister, Sunset Ridge Church
An excerpt from St. John Chrysostom’s Easter Sermon:
Are there any who are devout lovers of God?
Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!
Are there any who are grateful servants?
Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!
Are there any weary with fasting?
Let them now receive their wages!
First and last alike receive your reward;
rich and poor, rejoice together!
Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!
You that have kept the fast, and you that have not,
rejoice today for the Table is richly laden!
Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one.
Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of faith.
Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!
Let no one grieve at his poverty,
for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;
for forgiveness has risen from the grave.
Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.
He has destroyed it by enduring it.
He destroyed Hell when He descended into it.
He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh.
Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.
O death, where is your sting?
O Hell, where is your victory?
Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!
Praises and Prayers
Thank you to all our volunteers and those who brought food for our Easter Brunch! It was a great time of fellowship and a wonderful precursor to a beautiful worship service together.
Bethany Hill is home and doing well following surgery to repair complications from her previous hip surgery.
Congratulations to Jennifer & Ray Allen on the birth of a granddaughter, Venus Rose Trevino, on April 2.
We express sympathy to Jennifer & Ray Allen on the death of Jennifer’s mother, Virginia Schneider, on April 1. Arrangements are pending.
