Services will be held for Lois Moore at the Southway Community Church on Saturday,September 19. The viewing will be at 10:00 A.M, with the service following at 11:00 AM. If you wish to send flowers, send them to: Frazier Mitchell Funeral Home, 5002 Hershe St., Houston Texas, 77020.

Raul Sifuentes wishes to thank everyone for their donations to pay for his airfare for his next mission trip in November to Mexico. A total of $301 was collected as a love offering. We are so glad that he will be able to participate in this coming trip.

Sign up now to attend the Inspire Women Conference on Friday evening, November 6. The theme of this year's event is "Transforming for a Purpose", which is also the title of founder Anita Carman's new book. A featured guest speaker is Arthur Blessitt who carried a 12-foot cross over 38,000 miles over 38 years to share the message of the cross. Also speaking will be Carolyn Thomas, a survivor of abuse with ten major facial surgeries. Anita Carman's message will be "Don't Sabotage Yourself".

As you can see, this is one very full, very inspiring evening for the women of our city. This is an outreach event, so please invite others to join you. The goal for our congregation is to get ten participants. The cost is $15.

To sign up, please see Karen Quinn. You may phone her at 281 578 1949 or email at karenquinn5@comcast.net. A free t-shirt will be given with your registration until the supply runs out.

Hello from Community Christian Fellowship, I have been studying the book of Corinthians because of the sermon series I'm presently giving on the book. I am currently reviewing Chapter 4 and came to a statement by one commentator that stopped me in my tracks. The statement is in the "New Bible Commentary" by Wenham, Motyer, Carson and France. It states the following on page 1169: "Paul does not use the term 'leader' because of its elitist and political connotations which were totally out of keeping with Christian ministry. He had no clients or followers like the secular patrons. The church had failed to perceive and benefit from the ministry Christ ordained for the church and the world, and as a result their corporate Christian life had deteriorated."

You see, the church in Corinth was very status oriented; especially in the area of wealth and physical success. Because of this, Paul didn't mention the term leader!!! He knew the people would compare the work they are doing for the church with the work they were doing to gain their wealth and success. Can you imagine going to a "Church Humility and Toilet Cleaning Conference". It goes against everything that we hear about today in promotional training ideas re: church growth and outreach in the 21st century.

Think about it, if we focus on leadership only, it creates an expectation that everyone has to wait for someone to lead-what if no one does? Maybe we have to re-evaluate what we mean by leadership. What if someone just begins to serve, not expecting any adulation or recognition? And then, what if they just went around and said, "Would you like to help?" It is then up to the person being asked to decide if they want to get involved or not. These people are not comparing each other's talents, they're not keeping score, and they just help with no strings attached.

Let me ask you this, do we need to be trained to just help? I hope not. So the perspective that Paul seems to be using, sometimes in a very sarcastic manner, is do we have a heart that is willing to help others in spite of how much we think we are "qualified", "skilled", or "successful". And that could go both ways, some may think they're too qualified to do "that job", and others may think that they're not qualified enough to do "that job". That's why Paul told the Corinthians to stop looking at men, i.e. Peter, Apollos, and even Paul for an example-look to one man and one man only, Jesus Christ. His examples were the ultimate examples of leadership. Oh, check that, I mean service. Until next time, Pastor Mark