Clintonville Christian newsletter

New Year to Serve and Grow
Reverend Nathan D. Wilson

Welcome to the first newsletter of 2006! Welcome to a new year of worship and learning, ministry and mission, service and stewardship, fellowship and fun.

I will frequently preach from the Gospel of Mark this year. Only sixteen chapters long, you could read the whole thing in a few hours. Go ahead and try it; I dare you! I think you’ll find Mark’s gospel engaging as it moves from action scene to action scene showing us a picture of Jesus that is captured well by the forty-fifth verse of its tenth chapter: “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

I share the following poem with you as a good way to begin this New Year.

I Am The New Year

I am the New Year. I am an unspoiled page in your book of time. I am your next chance at the art of living.

I am your opportunity to practice what you have learned about life during the last twelve months.

All that you sought the past year and failed to find is hidden in me; I am waiting for you to search it out again and with more determination.

All the good that you tried to do for others and didn’t achieve last year is mine to grant – providing you have fewer selfish and conflicting desires.

In me lies the potential of all that you dreamed but didn’t dare to do, all that you hoped but did not perform, all you prayed for but did not yet experience. These dreams slumber lightly, waiting to be awakened by the touch of an enduring purpose.

I am your opportunity to renew your allegiance to Christ who said, “Behold, I make all things new.” – (Revelation 21:5)

I am the New Year.

See you at the place where we celebrate all things new – Nathan