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Sunbury City Church Newsletter


June,2022
 
ELDER'S UPDATE

What stirs your heart for Jesus Christ?  My guess is you’ve heard me ask that question before.  But I think it’s a question worth repeating and pondering.  In a culture where our affections are stirred in ways that cut against the grain of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we must learn how to fight back so that our wandering hearts stay bound to the grace of Christ.  Years ago a good friend of mine stated as we were walking down the street, “Derek, the way to put away sin is not to think about putting it away, but rather to replace it with something better.”  How true this is.  When I am fighting sin and my heart’s desire to follow the ways of the world, telling myself not to sin, rarely if ever works.  It’s only when I can refocus my hearts affections on Christ and see him as far more beautiful than my sin, that my heart begins to detach from this world and reattach to the Lord.  And the best way we can do that is by continuing to return to what stirs your heart for Jesus Christ?  For me, it’s listening to a good sermon or reading an awesome missionary biography where people are living out their faith in Jesus Christ.  When I listen or read one of these stories, the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.  So what stirs your heart for Jesus?  Take some time in the next week and do that until your heart warms to the gospel once again!
                                         
                                           Pastor Derek

         

                                
                          Derek Van Ruler, Lead Pastor

                
 
One of our members serves in a local community group seeking to better our city.  After a recent meeting, on his way out, this member got into a conversation with a fellow board member.  During the course of their conversation, the board member asked about our neighborhood outreaches, why we do them, and if she would be allowed to come, to which this member said of course.  As the door flung open, he began to simply listen to struggles this board member was experiencing in life and invited her to the next outreach while also dreaming of ways to connect her to the gospel and the life of Sunbury City Church.  How amazing it is that God can use ordinary connections for his extraordinary purposes.  


We want to hear from you! If you have a story of how you have seen God working in your life or the life of someone else in our church, we would love to include your story in our next newsletter. Please contact Rhiannon @ 570-850-2769 or by email at:  info@sunburycitychurch.org.  
What's Happening At SCC


First Sundays: First Sundays of every month.  We want to be open and transparent about what goes on around Sunbury City Church as well as provide an opportunity to answer any questions you may have through our current sermon series.  First Sundays meet in the fellowship hall on the first Sunday of the month directly following our Sunday Gathering and are open to new people or regular attenders/members.


Prayer Night: July 27 @6:30pm Every other month we gather together to simply pray for a God who hears us and desires for us to seek him.  When we pray we express our utter dependence upon him for our personal and corporate lives.  We would love for you to join us and pray for Sunbury City Church, Sunbury city, and for one another.  

Romans series: All month long.  We value God’s word.  We believe that faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ (Romans 10:17).  Thus we want you to be prepared to receive God’s word.  To help you, we have prepared binders for your sermon notes to gathered together along with lists of each Sunday and the corresponding section we will looking at.  If you need a binder or our sermon list please contact our office at info@sunburycitychurch.com

Hill Night Out:   We value our community.  One of the ways we show this is by serving where our community has needs.  On June 24th at 5pm the Hill Neighborhood Council is hosting its annual Hill Night Out.  They are in need of volunteers to help serve vendors and participants.  Additionally, the church will host a booth to give out more information about the church.  If you are free to serve in any capacity, please contact Pastor Derek at info@sunburycitychurch.com


Outreaches:  It’s that time of year again.  During the summer months, our missional communities host neighborhood and network outreaches to deepen relationships and share the gospel of Christ.  Please pray for each of our 5 missional communities as we seek to engage people in our communities.  
 


 
 

Missional Communities are groups of people gathering as a family, growing as servants, and going as missionaries to a designated target area to reach their neighbors with the good news of Jesus Christ.  Currently, we have four of these groups that meet and would love for you to join us!  If you are interested in joining a group, please contact us at: info@sunburycitychurch.org.
 
One Challenge
The New Testament describes the gospel of Jesus Christ as good news.  Paul says this news declares that there is no condemnation if we are in Christ Jesus.  And yet many in our community and our lives walk around with a weight of condemnation.  We want to encourage you to prayerfully consider who God has put in your life that you might begin to pray for their salvation and the opportunity to share the gospel with them.  Then we will display their name on our board so we can rejoice together in how God is using us to light our community with the gospel of Christ.  
 

To see more prayer requests follow this link and login to your Elvanto account: Be sure to create an account if you do not have one already.    
https://sunburycitychurch.elvanto.net/posts/prayer-list/
We would love to pray for you.  If you have prayer request needs, feel free to follow this link and fill out the form to let us know how we can pray for you:
 https://www.sunburycitychurch.com/prayer
 
Support Our Ministry: 
We exist to glorify God by making disciples who love God, live the Gospel, embrace our community, and plant movements.  With your support, we can better carry out this mission.  If you are able, please consider becoming a financial partner with us.  You can give online at: sunburycitychurch.com/give or in person, by placing your donation in our offering boxes.  
 
 Don't forget to check out our podcasts, available to stream on our website or any platform where you listen to your favorite podcasts.

Stay up to date with what is going on at Sunbury City Church by checking out our blog at:
 https://www.sunburycitychurch.com/blog



Want some good books but don’t know where to go?  Check out our online bookstore at:
 https://www.sunburycitychurch.com/bookstore



Want to familiarize yourself with the music we sing every Sunday? Our Spotify playlist can help you with that!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7ifRnFCfmaWwimPKQi2i7e?si=8a74b473cfed4d5c

CONTACT US

SCC mailing address:


P.O. Box 344
Sunbury, PA 17801-0344



Phone:
(570) 492-4962


Email address:

info@sunburycitychurch.com

Lead Pastor: Derek Van Ruler