Maxwell Street Mentors Mixer

Our church is blessed with many talented and accomplished people from all walks of life – teachers, doctors, lawyers, social workers – who can draw on their experience to help young people build their own careers and serve our community. This morning I’m pleased to announce Maxwell Street Presbyterian Church’s Professional Mentoring Program, which will bring young people together with experienced professionals in their areas of interest.

How does it work? If you’re a professional who would like to mentor young people in your career area, come to the punch room after the service and sign up to be a professional mentor. We’ll post your name, contact information, and area of expertise on Maxwell Street’s website and help you get in touch with young people who can benefit from your experience.

If you’re a student or young professional interested in finding a mentor, come to our kickoff event on Tuesday, April 27 at 6:00 PM. We’ll have a 30 minute "mixer" where students and young professional can meet our mentors, followed by a 45 minute program with Carol Bradford and her colleague Esther Moberly, who will talk to us about being “Green in the Workplace.”

Workday Getaway Lunch--April

Join us this Thursday at Jalapeno's Mexican Restaurant for this month's Workday Getaway Lunch. We'll meet at 11:30 and be done by 12:30 so that everyone can get back to work.

Jalapeno's is located at 1030 S. Broadway (the shopping center where Winn Dixie used to be). Let me know if you are planning to come so that I have a general idea of how big a table we need. Hope to see you all there!

Pub Club

Rooted at the heart of the Christian faith is the stubborn declaration that Jesus “died for us.” Precisely why his death came to mean so much to Christians has, however, been a subject of wonderful and diverse exploration over the ages. The twentieth-century Christian writer and apologist C. S. Lewis noted that the exact meaning of Jesus’ death would always lie beyond theories about its meaning when he wrote, “The central Christian belief is that Christ’s death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start. Theories as to how it did this are another matter. A good many different theories have been held as to how it works; what all Christians are agreed on is that it does work.”1 “Somehow” by his death on the cross, Christians have come to trust that Jesus spans the divide between human and the divine. “Somehow” by his death on the cross, Christians have come to believe that he bridges the moral chasm between our imperfection and God’s perfection.

Christians have come to understand the “how” in the “somehow” power of Jesus’ death in three general ways: forgiveness, inspiration, and revelation. This first cluster of atonement theories understands the cross in terms of human sinfulness and God’s forgiveness. The second group of atonement theories understands Jesus’ sacrifice in terms of how it inspires his followers to similar acts of love, integrity, and self-denial. The third way of understanding Jesus’ death sees it in terms of the way it shows the depth of God’s love for us and God’s readiness to be with us in suffering.

Tonight the Young Adult’s are going to look at the different theories of atonement as journey this Easter Season.