[August 22, 2021] EPC Sunday Announcements

If you are new to EPC, welcome and God’s peace to you!  We are so glad that you were able to find and join us.  We hope that the worship is both encouraging and convicting to you in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We would love to connect with you.  To do this, please go to our website, epcministry.org, and click on the “Newcomer” button on the upper right corner of our homepage.  You’ll find some introductory information there along with a form towards the bottom to share some contact information.  If you fill that out, we would love to send you a welcoming email and to encourage you.  We look forward to getting to know you and walking after God’s joy in the Gospel together.

For future reference, you can find our “in-person worship guidelines” and the “Sunday Worship YouTube Livestream” link on the homepage of our website at epcministry.org.

If you are joining us via "live-stream" and experience any issues, please email us at "emoffice@epcsj.org" to let us know as we grow in this new process. The "live-stream" link on our website will be updated every Sunday morning.

If you are with us in-person today and would like to give or tithe here at church, there is an offering box near between the Sanctuary and the EM Lobby where you can drop off your offering envelopes.  Otherwise, you can continue to give God your offerings online on our website under “Give”.

We will be holding baptism and profession of faith on Thanksgiving Sunday (November 21).  If you are interested in infant baptism for your child, being baptized or professing your faith (if you’ve been baptized as an infant), please go to our website to sign-up and I will send you information on what the process will look like.  We look forward to walking together in the Gospel as a church in the sacraments that Jesus calls us to.

We will begin Communion in September and hold it on the last Sunday of each month afterwards.  This is such an important discipline of faith as we are reminded that we live in and out of the body and blood of Christ given for us.  We look forward to practicing Communion together and we will have information coming out in the next couple weeks to answer any questions and help us prepare for this.

It’s not a mystery that we have a lot of brokenness in the world right now.  It’s been difficult for me, as I’m sure it has been for many of you, to watch and hear the news about the suffering and heartache in Haiti and Afghanistan.  I urge you to do what we can in the Gospel and pray for those in need - not just in times of suffering but in recognizing that we are called to pray daily for the brokenness in the world, but also, if you’re able, to put our resources to good use and to donate toward relief efforts in Haiti.

Here is a link with many organizations that are local to Haiti and have established relationships and histories to the work of relief and development of Haiti: https://nymag.com/strategist/article/haiti-earthquake-where-to-donate.html.

We will be posting the "Sermon Reflection Questions" in the bulletin as well as on the website under "Announcements" to better give access to the various life groups that meet.

If you are in need of pastoral care or would like to request prayer support from the pastors of EPC, please don’t hesitate to go to our website (epcministry.org) and click on “Pastoral Care and Prayer Requests'' under the “Connect” button.  You can keep it confidential if you wish to do so but we would love to serve you by walking with you in fellowship and prayer!

We have many opportunities to serve at EPC such as participating as a life group leader, being a part of the praise team, college ministry, A/V (Audio/Visual), Mission Team etc.  If you are interested to explore and see how God is calling you to serve, please go to our website and click on the “Serve” tab for more information and to contact us.