The family of God here at Dowagiac Church of Christ wishes to extend to you a warm welcome.  If you have questions about our worship services and why we do what we do, we will be glad to give you a biblical answer.  The uniqueness of the Church of Christ is that we are trying to restore to the best of our ability those things that we see the first century Church doing.  We are also working hard at building the spirit, unity, and love that Jesus taught and prayed for.  We have no clergy, but are working together as equal co-workers trying to serve one another and the area in which we live.  Come study with us, grow with us, and serve with us as we strive to do God’s will in all things.


We encourage you to take advantage of the Bible classes that we have regularly.  Tonight we will be concluding our series on the miracles of Jesus.   Starting this Wednesday night, we will begin a short course on communion.  What do you know about how communion is conducted in various situations?  Open, closed, vertical, lateral, elemental, interactive, symbolic, real … .  Come and join us as we learn together.
 

POTLUCK TODAY:  This is the first Sunday of the month, and a time when we have brought food and have plans to enjoy being together.  We have plenty of food, so if you did not bring something, do not worry about it—just stay.  Bill Gibson, J.R., Josh, Dave Pickens, and some of their friends have been working hard to re-do the fellowship area.  We also have an estimate on blacktopping our parking area, and we need to discuss what we want to do.  (See the article below.)  It is important that we have everyone here to help make a united decision on this.  We also have several other projects like the sign in front that need attention, and these need to be brought to the attention of the congregation.  There is also a need to discuss several benevolence projects.  Plan to spend an extra hour with us today and be a part of the work here.

The year 2007 was a great one for this congregation.  We had significant growth in people attending, a number of precious souls who put on their Lord in baptism, and some good improvements were made in our meeting place.  This afternoon we have time to talk about what we will do in 2008 and to get some of it started.  We have already had some wonderful work done on the fellowship area, thanks to the men who have worked long and hard to get the carpeting down, saving the congregation over $1,000 in labor expense.  We are working on the plumbing and putting in a water softener.

Externally, there are some cosmetic things that need to be addressed.  Our sign is in disrepair and needs immediate attention.  When people drive by the property, they need to see the property being cared for and improved.  Having some kind of paving done to eliminate the mud and dirt entry will not only establish the permanence of the Church as part of the community, but will cut down on dirt in the building, water problems, and ease of maintenance and plowing.  We have an estimate of $41,145.00 to do all the paving and concrete work that needs to be done.  That is more than we have in the bank, and it may be there are ways to save some money and still do what needs to be done.  We need everyone’s input on how to make our facility an asset to reaching out to the people in our community.     

There is also a need to get our message out more effectively in the Dowagiac area.  Karl Marcussen is putting our bulletins along with the lesson outlines on our web site.  We need to publicize this site and consider having a program to attract and educate people in the community.  Our benevolence work is being noticed, and we have had some contact with people in the community because of it.  Advertising can be done inexpensively, but needs to be efficient and relevant.

The Church we read about in Acts was united, served the people, and was “having favor with all the people” (Acts 2:42-47).  Come and help us do this.