Offer Accepted for Sale of Present Church Building
Posted: December 19, 2008 1:16 PM
The OCMC Church Council approved a plan to move forward with accepting an offer to sell our present church building, as we move forward in partnership with the OCCCDA in the purchase of the new site across the street.
The offer was made by the pastor of an independent evangelical church, comprised largely of international students, who are presently renting space in the Oxford Circle neighborhood on Castor Avenue. Pastor Lynn Parks and Richard Rohrer had a lengthy meeting with the pastor to review the offer several weeks ago, and have expressed confidence in the vision and character of the purchasing congregation.
The offer is based on accommodating a settlement date of January 30, 2009.
The buyer has agreed to a lease back arrangement, where OCMC will sign a lease giving our congregation use of the building from Jan 30 to July 31. The buyor will be permitted access Sunday afternoon from 1-5 pm for their weekly worship service and Tues, Thurs, and Saturday evenings for other ministry times. OCMC’s lease will permit us access at all other times, and will allow us to maintain our furnishings, worship equipment, church office, signs, phone number and storage until we move. We also have permission for the OCCCDA to continue after school programs in the church building this spring, if needed.
We anticipate that the arrangement will have minimal disruption on the uses of the building to which we are accustomed.
We are presently putting the above agreement into a written lease that will be signed together with the sales agreement likely within the next week. Please continue to pray for this process, and please bring any questions you have to the Council or Pastors.
Discovery Class will start in January
Posted: December 12, 2008 9:29 AM
This class will help you discovery your gifts, strengths, talents, and help you find a place of ministry in the church. See Pastor Lynn or Maggi George if you are interested in registering for this class.
Birth Announcement
Posted: December 12, 2008 9:28 AM
Congratulations to the Leaman family on the birth of Ana on Sunday 11/23! Ana Raquel Leaman was born 11/23/08 to Jen and Tim Leaman. She weighed 7 lb 2 oz. Mom and baby are doing well and are at home.
House for rent
Posted: December 12, 2008 9:27 AM
3 bedroom, 1 bath, finished basement, new appliances, carpets, windows and roof. 1 mile from OCMC off Oakland St. in the Northwood neighborhood. Contact Andy Campbell at 215-435-7007, rcampbe5@gmu.edu.
Read about our own Pastor Lynn Parks ...
Posted: October 31, 2008 9:36 AM
Read about our own Pastor Lynn Parks who is the first woman officially ordained in the Lancaster Mennonite conference:
http://www.themennonite.org/issues/11-20/articles/Parks_first_woman_officially_ordained_in_Lancaster_Mennonite_Conference
“Live the Selfless Way of Christ”; Dow Tells Seminary Community
Posted: October 03, 2008 1:04 PM
“Live the Selfless Way of Christ”; Dow Tells Seminary Community
Posted By Timoyer On September 29, 2008 (7:22 pm) In national, news
Laura Leaman Amstutz, Eastern Mennonite Seminary
“It is impossible to follow Christ while fulfilling the demands of the American dream,” said Leonard Dow, pastor at Oxford Circle Mennonite Church in Philadelphia, Pa. He addressed students, faculty and staff at Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Spiritual life Week services, Sept. 23-25. Oxford Circle is a partner in mission congregation with Franconia Conference.
“All upward mobility is resistant to the way of Christ,” said Dow in the opening chapel service. He described his upbringing in North Philadelphia and the temptations he faced to follow the values of the television show, “The Jeffersons,” and keep “moving on up” in society.
Using a translation of John 1:14 from “The Message” by Eugene Peterson, Dow described how this is exactly opposite to the way of Christ: “’The message’ says, ‘The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood.’” He described Christ’s downward mobility and the way Christ continually reached out to the disenfranchised around him.
“Jesus’ call to discipleship is not about being a little bit Christ-like,” Dow said. “Jesus called us individually and as a body to be living Christs.”
In a special chapel titled “The Selfless Way of Christ- the Temptation to be Relevant,” Dow preached from Luke 4:1-14, the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. He described Jesus being tempted to turn rocks into bread as an enticement to be relevant, to do something productive.
“The world would have us believe that achievements are the most important aspect of who we are,” said Dow. “But not in God’s eyes.
“There is a temptation to run our churches like a business,” he continued, “because we want to be relevant and be able to measure our success.”
“Our primary goal is not to be relevant,” said Dow. “Our goal is to be significant.”
Dow concluded the series by speaking on “The Selfless Way of Christ - the Temptation of Excess,” focusing on the temptation to be powerful and the temptation to be spectacular.
“We like the spectacular,” said Dow. “We desire God to be spectacular but we lose sight of God in the ordinary. We need God to dwell with us in the ordinary.”
Dow also cited the temptation to seek power.
“We say to Christ, ‘I want to be more like you, except the difficult parts,’” Dow said. “As followers of Jesus, I want you to allow the Lord to reign in your lives. It isn’t enough to imitate Jesus or to be inspired by Jesus. To confess Jesus we are to be living Christs here and now, in our time.”
Dow is a 1987 graduate of Eastern Mennonite University. His chapel messages are available online as podcasts at https://emu.edu/blog/podcast/2008.
Spiritual Life Week is an annual event at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. In addition to hearing a guest speaker, students and faculty participate in a Wednesday afternoon retreat to discuss the theme for the week.
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Article taken from Franconia Conference - http://franconiaconference.org/blog
URL to article: http://franconiaconference.org/blog/news/tmoyer/live-the-selfless-way-of-christ%e2%80%99-dow-tells-seminary-community
Teachers Needed
Posted: August 22, 2008 10:04 AM
Teachers are needed for our children’s ministry in order that we can offer classes for our children each week. Two teachers are needed for the grades 1-4 class and 1 teacher is needed for the 3-5 year old class. Teachers are asked to teach once a month. Please talk with JoEl Rohrer if you are interested in finding out more information about this opportunity.
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