This weekend was one of the best weekends at Church of the Messiah in long time. Saturday morning we began with a huge turn out at our Fall Work Day.  Many hands truly did make light work and we made light work of the many projects that we had all around.  By the time we left, many having put in six to seven hours of work, the church looked beautiful, inside and out!  Everyone would testify that it was time well spent when we opened the doors on Sunday morning for the first time!  One person said it was “Such a beautiful service from beginning to end!” and that they “loved the space for the children!”  Now there are nine new photos from this weekend in our Photo Gallery and Fr. David’s powerful sermon is also on-line and available in our Sermon Library.

Don’t get too comfortable!  This Thursday night, from 6:30 to 8:30 is our All Saints’ Festival!  On November 10th, we have our Grand Opening service and covered dish reception!  On Wednesday Night, November 13th we start our Mid-Week Services!  Then on November 27th we have our Thanksgiving Eve Service!  It will be a busy, busy time at Church of the Messiah!

This Sunday morning, October 27th, we are starting our services 30 minutes earlier at a new time!  Don’t forget that our services will begin at 10 o’clock starting this Sunday morning.  This is just one of a whole passel of changes and surprises we have in store coming up in the next few weeks.  Come a little early and get a sneak peek.  Also, the Rector’s Council will be meeting to pray for the congregation at 9 o’clock.  Everyone is welcome and encouraged to joined them.  We’ll see you in the morning!

We just received praise-worthy news.  We have just passed our LAST inspections with the Fire Marshall and City Inspector!  Thanks be to God! We are done with inspections!

With that fantastic news behind us, don’t forget that this Saturday is Fall Work Day.  We will start at nine o’clock and work until we’re done!  There is plenty to do inside and out.  The Nursery and Kids’ Church Classrooms are being painted today and tomorrow so that they will be ready to have everything put in place and set up on Saturday mornings.  There are about 100 chairs that need to be put in their proper places and a lots of little chores that need to be done to get the place completely spic and span.  We will also be working on trimming trees and other grounds-keeping outside as well.  If you will be attending, please click HERE and RSVP so we can better plan.  Lunch will be provided and we are excited about seeing you there.

Starting this Sunday, October 27th, we will begin our services at our new time.  Sunday Morning Services will begin promptly at 10 o’clock.  This also means that Rector’s Council Prayer will begin one hour prior to the start of our services at 9 o’clock.  While this is a time for the Rector’s Council to gather in prayer for the service and the congregation, the entire congregation is invited to join in this time of prayer.

It is truly with hearts full of praise and  thanksgiving to Almighty God, that the people of the Church of the Messiah proudly announce the Grand Opening of our New Sanctuary and Church Office on Sunday, November 10th, at ten o’clock in the morning.  We will celebrate this wonderful day in the life of our congregation by offering Great Thanksgiving to Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through the Holy Eucharist, and then, afterwards, we will fellowship with one another at a reception to follow on the premises.

This is a glorious day in the history of our church and we are inviting everyone to join us in the celebration.  Please feel free and encouraged to invited your friends to join us for this festive occasion.  You can invite people in a number of ways.  You can share this announcement or you may use the invitation in the corner by clicking on it and printing it up to give it to friends personally.  Additionally, an event has been created on Church of the Messiah’s Facebook Page where you can RSVP and invite your friends on Facebook.  As always, letting us know if you will be attending helps us know how to plan.  For more information, please call the parish office at 904-721-4199.

We look forward to being blessed with everyone of you at the Grand Opening on November 10th!

On Saturday, October 26th, we will be coming together as a congregation to work on our new home. We will be preparing both the inside of the building and our grounds for the upcoming All Saints’ Festival (on October 31st) and our Grand Opening (on November 10th).  We will need teams of people to handle painting, housekeeping, grounds keeping and tree-trimming.  If you can come, we have a job for you!  This is an “All Hands On Deck” event and, as the saying goes, “many hands make light work.”  Of course, lunch will be provided!  You can click on the flyer on the left for a larger image and more details.  If you are on Facebook, please RSVP by going to Church of the Messiah’s Events’ page and clicking on the LINK.  This will help the office staff coordinate the event and prepare lunch.  We look forward to having everyone together so that we can labor together as a community to prepare a place to both reach out to our neighborhood and worship the Lord.

We received some very exciting news this week that shows that God is definitely for us at Church of the Messiah.  This week the city inspector signed off on the next to last of his inspections that we will need to pass prior to worshiping in our new building!  With that signature in hand, David Monk and his team at ShayCore Enterprises have been able to begin sheet-rocking the ceiling.  As of Wednesday evening, they were more than 75% completed. We can see our new altar platform starting to be set into place!             Here is what will be out new “sound booth.”  No more shifting chairs around and setting up each Sunday morning.           Shaycore has installed some beautiful double-doors between the worship space and the hallway.  They may not look like much now, but wait until they are painted!  Speaking of paint, we expect the sanctuary to painted next week and carpet will go in very soon after that.     Finally, on Wednesday, we received this gentleman and 99 of his closest friends!  They are lining our hallway waiting for the construction to be finished in the new sanctuary so that they can be set in place. While you are probably thinking that it has taken forever to go this far and it will take even longer to finish, that is where you are wrong!  The permitting process is the longest part of the whole affair and after that everything else will go by so fast that you will hardly believe it.  Expect updates to be coming rapid fire beginning next week! We are planning an ALL HANDS ON DECK WORK DAY for Saturday, October 26.  We will need teams of workers painting the nursery as well as people trimming trees over the parking lot and helping to put the finishing touches on the new building. We will have many prayer needs in the process.   We still need favor with both the city inspector and fire marshal who need to finally sign off before we can move in.  We need there to be “no hiccups” in our electrical systems andand for there to be no more surprises as we draw to a close.  Also pray that God gives us  many hands to make light work of our finishing touches!

We had an amazing time at Church of the Messiah this past weekend, thanks largely to our Patriarch and his lovely wife Archbishop Craig and Cathy Bates.  Cathy took several fabulous photographs which we added to our Photo Gallery and Archbishop Bates’ powerful sermon is already up on-line and a part of our Sermon Library.  Be sure to share that message with your friends who either missed it or need to hear it!

As amazing as the last week was, the next two weeks promise to be just as powerful.  This Thursday, COM’s Greg McGrew is serving as the Rector at the Men’s Tres Arroyos in  Deland along with a number of our men.  Then, next week, several of our women will be heading down to Deland to serve on the Women’s Tres Arroyos weekend.  Whether you have been to a Tres Arroyos or Cursillo or any other type weekend as a candidate or team member, please be in prayer for all of our brothers and sisters who will be serving God apart from us over the next two weekends.

We received some crushing news today.  Many of you know Randall and Andrea Terry.  Randall was the founder of Operation Rescue and has been a pillar of the Pro-Life Community for decades.  Andrea led our Women’s Retreat a few years ago.  Both were members of Church of the Messiah for a season along with their four wonderful sons.  We heard news today through Fr. Terry Gensemer of CEC-for-Life that Michael Winston Terry, Randall and Andrea’s 10 year-old son has been diagnosed with cancer.  They are currently not sure of the specific type, but they know that the cancer has spread and is already at Stage 4.  This is, of course, incredibly serious, and Randall and Andrea have taken to social media to begin asking everyone to begin praying for their son.  Please add Michael Winston to your prayer list.  For more information, you can visit Randall’s web-page where he has set up a special section dedicated to Michael by clicking HERE.

THE LATEST UPDATE:  We received this word from Fr. Terry Gensemer today.  The doctors are 99% sure it is lymphoma. That is way better than ewing-sarcoma but Michael is still in a fight for his life. The Cancer has metastasized to his kidneys and pancreas.  Randall and Andrea are admitting Michael to John Hopkins on Thursday to begin Chemotherapy no later than Friday. Randall and Andrea beg your prayers, and thank you for your love and support.

The first Saturday event for the 40 Days for Life campaign is this Saturday morning beginning at 8am.  If you are going to be in town on Saturday, please make plans to attend this important prayer rally.  We have received word that Planned Parenthood intends to open this clinic on October 7, so it is all the more important that Pro-Life Christians gather in prayer and ask God to spiritually bring down the walls of this stronghold of abortion in Jacksonville.

As the flyer says, we will gather at Planned Parenthood (click HERE for a map) at 8am and march around the building seven times, praising God with loud shouts of acclamation on the seventh time.  This is a city-wide event and Christians from many different churches will be present.  Parking will be available at the end of University Boulevard Court under the University Blvd overpass (see the map below).  You can also RSVP and find more information at Church of the Messiah’s Events Page.  Thank you for supporting this important event.

Parking for the Jericho March