Issue: January 2011
Milestones in the Tabernacle Family
This year has been an incredible time of celebration, growth and marvel at what God has done in and through this house - our Tabernacle Family. Let me re-cap the wonderful times we celebrated this past year as both a corporate family and as we rejoiced with specific families in their journeys.
May this article remind you that we truly are a 'family of families' united through our relationship to Jesus through new birth. We desire always to maintain the wonder of our family relationships.
You can help us by passing on any family news to Pastor Jo Ann or Cindy in our Pastoral Care Department. Cindy at 712-1713 or Pastor JoAnn at 712-1707.
Presenting Our Children To God
We all remember the Biblical accounts of Hannah bringing her son Samuel to the Lord and presenting him to the High Priest to serve God in the Temple. The story of Mary and Joseph bringing the child Jesus to the Temple to present him to the Lord is one of our favorite Bible stories.
During the last twelve months the Tabernacle has brought 28 children to the Lord in the act of dedication and presentation to the Lord. As a church family we realize that our children are gifts from the Lord, but that in reality they are gifts that have been "lent" to us, and they really belong to God. Every one of these children that we have observed as their parents have presented them to the Lord has become, through prayer and dedication, a gift that has been given back to the Lord. It is a gift and an act we celebrate.
This is also a time when according to the scripture and the traditions of the church that these children have not only been presented to the Lord, but they have also received the "laying on of hands". In the 2,000 year tradition of the church and the context of the scripture, we believe, that they have through this sacrament received a gift of the Holy Spirit that has set them apart or sanctified them to God. We also have placed our faith in the Spirit of the Lord to lead each of these children into making an individual commitment of receiving Christ as their own personal Savior. The scripture is plain that without the Holy Spirit we could not find God.
It is through this "laying on of hands" that the Spirit of God sanctifies these children, marks them for the Lord, sets them aside, and protects them from major evil, major sickness and any other thing that would destroy their lives. Celebrate with us the presentation of the following children during the past twelve months.
| Children Dedicated | |
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Covenant Membership in The Tabernacle Family
Everyone who through their own decision and dedication attends The Tabernacle and supports the work of this ministry is truly a member of this church family. There are some, however, who have desired a closer fellowship with this body and have dedicated themselves to a course of study that has empowered them to become what we designate as Covenant Members.
As the leaders of this church we appreciate more than we can express in words the dedication of these people. Our prayer is that they will become true ministers of the church of Jesus Christ as they serve in their personal capacity in this body of believers. We welcome twenty-seven new Covenant Members to The Tabernacle.
The pastors of The Tabernacle are privileged to serve all of this body through providing the services of the church that include the presentation of your children to the Lord, officiating at the services when you loose a loved one to their eternal promotion to heaven, officiating at the time when you are joined together in marriage, visiting you at the hospital. We are pleased to serve all of this body in all of these capacities whether you are a Covenant Member or an adherent member who has not completed the training for Covenant Membership. We celebrate all of you equally. At the same time, we are grateful to those of you who have taken the step of becoming Covenant Members of this body. GOD BLESS YOU!
| New Covenant Members | ||
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Doctrine Class and Junior Membership
Several years ago we began what we officially term our Catechism Class, which in layman's terms simply means church doctrine. These young people work very hard in learning the very basic and important doctrines of the church.
At the same time they graduate from Catechism or Doctrine class, they are received into Junior Membership of The Tabernacle. Therefore, in addition to those who have become Covenant Members, we welcome the Class of 2010 into full Junior Membership of The Tabernacle.
As a father, I remember the morning that my daughter, Aimee graduated from this class and became an official member of this body of believers. Today, she is a pastor of this church and a very well known national speaker in churches and conventions. Because of my memory of that moment in my own family, I cherish this moment for all of those children who have passed another milestone in their lives.
| 2010 Doctrine Class ~ Jr. Membership | ||
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United in Christian Marriage
There is no greater moment of joy than when two members of our church family are joined in marriage. WE REJOICE WITH YOU! We pray that your choice of having a church wedding will truly make a difference in the way you related to each other. You have made a great decision to make God a part of your marriage. We pray God's blessing upon you. This past twelve months we have united twelve couples in marriage.
I remember when over forty years ago that Wanda and I took our wedding vows. Our wedding was very unique. We said our first vows at our home on Lakeshore Drive in Hamburg. Two of the ladies in our church, Maria Baun and Joan DiAngelo were the attendants for Wanda. My first cousin, Dan Reid and Tom Rinn stood up with me as witnesses. Pastor Charles Thomas who was the pastor of my home church in East Aurora, (and the father of Pastor Rick Meier's wife, Elizabeth) presided over the ceremony. Then the wedding celebration moved to The Tabernacle, which then was located in south Buffalo and we all gathered with the congregation in a wonderful celebration of our marriage and Pastor Thomas preached the message. That night Wanda and I boarded a flight to Atlanta and we began kind of a whirl wind tour of many of the cities where I had ministered as a young evangelist.
Now for 47 years we have had the privilege of joining literally hundreds of couples in the bonds of sacred marriage. We have dedicated the children of many of those couples, united their children in marriage and then dedicated their grandchildren to the Lord. Certainly this has been a wonderful journey for Wanda and I to see the congregation of this church celebrate the sanctity and wonder of marriage.
| United in Marriage | |
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Water Baptism
The sacrament of Water Baptism is one of the most sacred and meaningful of our Christian tradition. According to the scriptures, it is a sacrament that is accomplished after the person receives Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior, and then follows the Lord in what we term as the Baptism of the believer or "Believer's Baptism".
It is linked in scripture to the circumcision of heart, in which it is symbolic of the evil heart being circumcised or the evil of the human heart "cut" away by the Spirit of God. But most of all, it is symbolic of the death of the old man and the resurrection of the new man in Christ. This past year we witnessed sixteen persons follow their Lord in the sacrament of Baptism.
Did you ever think of what it must have been like in the early church when Saul of Tarsus was baptized in water? He was baptized in the presence of hundreds of believers who had witnessed the persecution and suffering this man had brought to their church. Some of them probably had lost loved ones because of the persecution of this man. I wonder if they really believed he had been converted.
It must have been a very emotional moment for them when they watched him go under the waters of baptism signifying that the "old" Saul was dead. They probably broke into applause because they were very afraid of the old Saul. Then immediately following his burial in the waters of baptism, the Apostle who baptized him gently raised him from those waters and presented the new Saul who was to become Paul the Apostle to the hundreds of Christians who were standing nearby. Not only did the Apostle receive him into his arms in an act of acceptance and forgiveness, but so did the crowd as they broke out into applause.
It is in this tradition that we as a church have received this wonderful group of believers into our family as they have been buried with Christ and their old nature has been declared dead and they have been raised into a new life and received by the pastor who baptized them and by this entire body. Here are the names of those who have followed Jesus in the waters of baptism.
| Baptized in Water | |
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Graduated to their New Home in Heaven
When I became pastor of this great church over forty seven years ago, I faced a very loving and visionary congregation of ordinary, yet in Christ, extraordinary people who had a vision to reach a city for God. I will be eternally grateful to God for uniting me with this body of believers.
When I think of that first Sunday I preached as the pastor of this church, I remember the pews and where each of them sat. It was as if it was yesterday. That moment of destiny will forever stand out in my mind. I will die with that moment engraved on my heart. They were a very special group of people. I believed in them and that God had called me to them, and they believed in me. It wasn't long before I sat with the elected board of that church, and for years we worked together, dreaming, building, believing, and stretching our faith.
Forty seven years later, only one member of that board is still alive. All of the rest of them are in heaven. Except for less than ten people, almost everyone setting in those pews on that historic Sunday forty seven years ago, have gone to be with the Lord. Their memory is forever engraved on my heart.
And that is why I came here. Not only to build a church, but to celebrate the birth of the newly born, and to celebrate the graduation of those who go to be with the Lord.
This past year, we have celebrated the "home going" of seventeen of our church family. One of them was a pastor in Buffalo, Rev. Howard Neidrauer. Another was the mother of Rev. JoAnn Angelo, Mrs. Philomena Jacobi. Some were young; others had lived a good long life. But we know, they are not dead, they are alive, and they are with the Lord. So pause for a moment, and remember these members of our family who have graduated to heaven.
| Those who have gone to be with the Lord | |
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