Rick Zimmerman

Understanding the Invisible Hand of God

Dear Central Members & Friends,

I have not written to you in a while due to Eastman Board meetings, church related guest speakers and other work related activities.  We have now pivoted away for a short timeframe from our sermon series on “Relationships Matter.” However, I hope you have made significant progress on enhancing relationships since we started this series in January. 

At this stage, if you have been diligently engaged in applying and Living the Word of God, you should be seeing the fruits of your labor in enhancing your relationship with family members, church members and individuals in your surrounding community.

I hope you were blessed by our Sunday message on “Understanding the Invisible Hand of God.” The PowerPoint slides and video link I utilized to kick-off this series are included in the below attachments. I am not sure at this point if this will be a two part or three part series. I am waiting on confirmation from God on this. What I can tell you is that my primary focus will be on listening to God as He is already prompting me about preparing a series about the Significance of His Resurrection. I would like to engage you in making some type of sacrifice that will strengthen your relationship with God and help improve your discipline as a Christian. This can be something small but it should be something meaningful that will have a lasting impact. Let me share with you what I am doing in this area.

I have decided that  I will not eat any deserts, consume drinks that contain sugar or what we call junk food for the next 45 days. This is a small sacrifice compared to the price Jesus paid for our salvation by giving His life for our Redemption!! However, going without deserts and sticking with a diet of fruits, vegetables and healthy eating will help improve my energy level and will have long term health benefits. I am hoping to drop a few pounds, but mostly I want to discipline myself to be in a better position to allow God to speak to my heart. Please hold me accountable and help me get through the next 45 days. Simple things like this help to give us more structure and discipline in our lives and ensures we become stronger men and women and more productive in every aspect of our life!!

Please take some time this week during your devotional quiet time and ask God what you should give up and what you need to do in order to draw closer to him. Listen to Him and obey Him!! Your journey will not be like my journey, but we are all on a unique journey to be better servants for His glory!!!

Enjoy the attached material on “ The Invisible Hand of God”!!!!!

Grace & Shalom!!!!

Your Brother In Christ

Pastor Perry

 

God’s Creation Part 1

 https://youtu.be/AE_BX1XUSC4

 

Rick ZimmermanUnderstanding the Invisible Hand of God
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Church’s Role In Ensuring Reconciliation In Our Community

Dear Central Members & Friends,

I wanted to take a moment and share with you what we have planned for Sunday and encourage you to arrive on time. Fort Robinson will be joining us along with their church membership body for our Sunday service. We will continue our celebration of Significant Contributions made to our country by African Americans. On Sunday, you will hear from an outstanding young woman, Delia Mwinyelle, who won the Area High School Oratorical contest sponsored by Eastman. Delia is very impressive and you will enjoy her presentation.

We will have a combined choir to celebrate the beauty of unity in the Body of Christ and join them for a powerful time of Praise & Worship!!

Dustin will minister to us and I have requested that he speak on the theme of  the Church’s Role in Ensuring Reconciliation in our Community. This will be a wonderful service and fellowship for not only our members but the entire community. Please invite a friend and bring a special guest with you as part of our community outreach!!

I am confident God is going to speak to our hearts collectively and individually during this powerful service!!!

Let’s keep all of our members lifted up in prayer especially those experiencing challenges on many fronts like an illness or dealing with the loss of a loved one!!

I look forward to seeing you on Sunday for this special service and you are in my prayers and thoughts!!!

Grace & Shalom!!

Pastor Perry

 

Rick ZimmermanChurch’s Role In Ensuring Reconciliation In Our Community
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Seven Critical Steps To Enhance Your Life

Dear Central Members & Friends,

I pray you have been diligent during the 1st week of 2018 in your personal bible study and focused devotional time and are “Staying Fresh!!!” Staying Fresh is a phrase I am using to remind us to not allow people or Satan to steal our joy in 2018. I have attached the word document from our Bible Study on last Wednesday night. It is important that you put these Seven Principles into practice during 2018. If you do so, I promise you will grow spiritually and professionally.

We now have a number of people outside our state on the mailing list and I am grateful that you enjoy the weekly letter and inspirational material to help you in your spiritual walk.

On Wednesday night during our bible study, we will turn our attention back to our Study Series on “Relationships Matter.” I will be addressing from a biblical perspective on how to handle people who are not completely honest in their communications. Unfortunately, we live in a society where people are sometimes deceitful in their communications and approach. The bible is filled with examples of this type of deceptive behavior and the consequences this creates in our society. We will examine the deceptive communications of Jacob and his mother in the book of Genesis as they plotted together and stole Esau’s birthright.

I can’t wait to see you Wednesday night at 6:30 pm. Please bring a friend and plan on a very interactive dialogue during this bible study. For those of you outside the Tri-Cities, please enjoy the attached study material from last week!!

“Stay Fresh”

Grace & Shalom!!!

Pastor Perry Stuckey

Seven Critical Steps to Enhance Your Life

Rick ZimmermanSeven Critical Steps To Enhance Your Life
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“Stay Fresh” in 2018

Dear Central Members and Friends,

I pray and hope on day two of the New Year that you are still happy!!!! One of the ways to ensure success in 2018 is to spend each morning as you awake reflecting on what you are thankful for!! Our life will be filled with many challenges in 2018 like all years are. However, a great way to keep your joy is to start each day reflecting on what you are Thankful to God for!!!

We can always find something negative to complain about. Let’s do something different this week. Why don’t we all start by seeing if we can go the next seven days without complaining about something. Let’s hold each other accountable for this. The reason so much of our joy is stolen, is directly related to the environment we live in today. From television, to employees, to family members we can always find something to complain about.

On Wednesday night during our bible study, I am going to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and deviate from our current study series on “Relationships Matter” to cover “Seven Critical Steps We All Must Take to Enhance Our Spiritual Growth in 2018.”

You don’t want to miss these seven critical steps to enhance your spiritual and personal growth in 2018. Bring a friend with you and come prepared to take notes and leave our session with a nice study handout that will be instrumental in your spiritual growth during 2018.

Remember “Stay Fresh” and don’t allow complaints to rob you of your joy for the next seven days!!!!

Grace & Shalom!!

Pastor Perry Stuckey

Rick Zimmerman“Stay Fresh” in 2018
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Finishing 2017 Strong

Dear Central Members and Friends,

I hope you had a delightful and joyful Christmas as we celebrated the birth of our Savior!!

Remember, the most important thing in life is not how we start but how we finish!!! My prayers are that you finish strong as our objective in life should be to finish strong!! We do this by taking advantage of every opportunity we have to improve at work, at home, within our community and also in our relationship with God and one another.

On last week during our bible study, we examined Numbers, chapter 12  and discussed how to maintain a healthy relationship with difficult people by looking at the humility of Moses as he dealt with his family, who resented his position with God and was discriminatory toward his wife because she was Ethiopian.

God said Moses was the most humble and meekness man on the face of the earth. Think of how amazing Moses’ character was given that there were millions of people on the earth at this time period. The critical question for us today is how would God describe our character??? Moses wasn’t a super human or super natural person. He was just a man. However, he was a man of humility, dedicated and determined to honor and fulfill the mission God desired of Him!! What about us, can God trust you to obey him and fulfill the purpose He desires of you??

You should plan to join us for bible study as we look at Jesus Christ’s relationship with us related to forgiveness!!!

Let’s plan on finishing 2017 strong by being present at bible study on Wednesday at 6:30 pm.

Remember, relationships matter!!!  As the entire bible is about our relationship with our Heavenly Father and how He looked beyond our faults to provide for our needs. Come and learn how to enhance your relationship with God and people as you enter 2018 refreshed, relaxed, and re-focused on what our Lord and Savior has in store for you personally and us collectively as a Church in the upcoming New Year!!!

Grace & Shalom!!!

Pastor Perry Stuckey

Rick ZimmermanFinishing 2017 Strong
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Relationships Matter

Dear Central Members and Friends!!

I pray this post finds you well and you are not overly stressed during this holiday season. One of the things I try hard to do at this time of the year, since my schedule like yours is extremely demanding, is to keep a focus on my top spiritual priorities. 

In order to do this, I try and get up a little earlier or stay up just long enough to deepen my understanding about the special relationship God desires of us. He allowed His only Son, Jesus, to become a ransom for us in order for our redemption. Just this statement along speaks volumes about God’s love for us through His son Jesus Christ!!!!

There are a limited number of people on the planet, if any who would have sacrificed their only son for people who rejected their son. God is unlike us, His love is completely agape!! Therefore, we must be intentional about enhancing our understanding of how important “Relationships are to our Heavenly Father”!!!

Our series on “Relationships Matter’ will dramatically enhance your spiritual insight and wisdom and improve your relationship with people if you put in the personal study time and be intentional about becoming a better person!!

On Sunday, we cracked open the door about addressing toxic relationships in our life. We discovered from our Study on Sunday that a toxic relationship can extend beyond people. We can have a toxic relationship with food, our job, money etc.. A toxic item is anything that will cause us harm and hinder an appropriate relationship with God and our family.

We will continue this study during  our bible study and examine in more detail the toxic relationship that Samson found himself in with Delilah. In order to better prepare for our discussion, please take a moment to read Judges, chapters 13 through 16 as we will examine Samson’s failures and look at the opportunities he had to reverse the course of his destructive behavior. 

More importantly, we will have a candid dialogue about our own behavior and what modifications and adjustments we need to make to improve our relationship with God and others while avoiding the mistakes that Samson made!!

 I look forward to seeing you on tomorrow night and please enjoy the attached side deck from Sunday!!

Grace & Shalom!!

Pastor Perry

 

Rick ZimmermanRelationships Matter
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Veterans Appreciation

Dear Central Members & Friends:

As we approach a very busy season that always occurs in November and December, please take a moment this weekend, especially on Saturday to thank God for the brave men and women who have devoted their time and talent to serve this country in the military. They are the unselfish hero’s who walk quietly before us each day without seeking any recognition.

Many of them have paid a deep price for the freedom we get to enjoy each day!! My request is that you pause on Saturday especially, and thank God for them, along with praying for the men and women around the world who are still serving the great nation we are proud to call AMERICA!!

Like so many of my brothers and sisters, we are grateful that God allowed us to serve you in the military and we have a simple request: please don’t forget about us and pray for us along with our brothers and sisters who are confined to the VA hospitals because of the injuries that they have sustained!!!

My prayers are with each of you and please pray for my fellow servants who have spent time in the military like me, and the millions of soldiers who are deployed around the world today!!!

May God keep you in His Grace!!

Grace & Peace!!!

Pastor Perry Stuckey

Rick ZimmermanVeterans Appreciation
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The Importance of Healthy Relationships

Dear Central Members & Friends,

Last night we had a great time in bible study and a candid dialogue about the importance of  building “Healthy Relationships” and the impact that unhealthy relationships have on our ability to truly worship God in Spirit and Truth. In order to truly capture the essence and all the spiritual benefits you need to be present in regular bible study attendance on Wednesday night. This way you will make the study of God’s Word a priority in your life. You will be amazed at your growth by putting into practice what is being taught.

Allow me to give you a brief re-cap of our study last night and please spend quality time reviewing the slide deck and the scripture we discussed during your private personal devotional time with God.

We started last night by examining the question to Jesus by a Jewish religious expert in Matthew 22:36 and looked at the reply Jesus gave him. Jesus revealed to him in verse 37-40 that after loving God with our entire heart, soul and might that loving our neighbor next was the greatest and most important of all the commandments. This means that truly having a healthy relationship with people and genuinely loving them is essential to a successful walk with God!! After this we examined our text  and started with Colossians 3:1-17and looked at the prescription Paul gave the church at Colossae for building and keeping healthy relationships with people.

I concluded our study last night by giving out a homework assignment, asking our attendees to focus on building healthy relationship for the next 7 days by saying nothing negative about people or our church members for the next seven days. This is a challenging assignment because we live in a world conditioned to focus on the negative things and social media is all about pointing out the flaws in people!!!

We will never be the Christians God has called us to be if we don’t apply life application of the Word of God and put into practice what we are learning. I pray you select an accountability partner that will help you complete this assignment over the next seven days and hold you accountable to be a better man or woman of God. I hope you enjoy the attached power point presentation and more importantly, allow it to become a significant part of your personal devotional study time with God. Be honest with God and people if you fall short this week. Just keep doing your best and be intentional about improving your walk with God. You will be amazed how much you will grow in a few short months if you keep practicing life application with the Word of God.

Grace & Shalom!!

Pastor Perry

(09-20-17) Worship The Importance of Healthy Relationships

Rick ZimmermanThe Importance of Healthy Relationships
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Summer Reflections

Dear Central Members & Friends,

Summer is moving fast and the kids will be returning to school soon!! TIME has a way of escaping from us if we don’t focus and continue to be relentless about prioritization!!  This newsletter is a reminder of all the wonderful things God is doing for our church and what He has allowed to transpire in such a short time period.

Reflect for a moment on the Women’s ministry conference and their trip to Knoxville to enhance their spiritual walk and the fellowship that occurred by the women riding together on the bus!! The men’s ministry and how quickly they made a decision to enhance the media capabilities in Stokely Hall with a large screen and projector that can be used for church ministry, movie night and fellowship. Please don’t forget about the wonderful Animation Ministry that is absolutely fantastic for our children between the ages of 3-6 years old to enhance their spiritual growth.

There is still much work to do as we implement our strategic plan for Central. However, I am proud of what we have accomplished together and encouraged by all the new members who have joined our church, completed the seven week new members course and actively engaged in ministry within our Church.  When I see James leading a song in the choir and the members of the Hill family praise dancing and meet the people in our community who are blessed by acquiring a manna meal on Saturday, I am reassured by God that what we are doing is right and vitally important for our community.

Central, your prayers and grace sustain me and I pray you are more determined now than ever before to run this race with patience and endure hardship like a good solider and know that your labor is not in vain!! God understands every tear, every pain and will never leave you nor forsake you!!

Let’s continue to work together to Model Grace, Fellowship, Witness, and Worship our Lord and Savior while uniting our community for the good and glory of our Heavenly Father!!  This journey is never easy; you will be challenged and sometimes disappointed.  However, remember the battle is not ours “but God’s!!!!

I pray as you read this newsletter you are motivated and encouraged by all God is doing in our mist. We are not a perfect people, we are simply a determined people who recognize we all fall short in many areas, but because of God’s grace we continue to strive to do His will and extend grace to a society that is in desperate need of Jesus Christ!! What we need from you is a desire to serve and help us!!

As you labor in love with us please look at us through the eyes of Jesus, who looked beyond our faults to see our needs!!!

Sincerely,

Your Brother In Christ and Co-Labor Servant in Ministry!!!!

Pastor Perry Stuckey

Rick ZimmermanSummer Reflections
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Witnessing Continues…

Dear Central Members and Friends,

We have covered a lot of material over the last several months related to our series on Modeling Grace & Witnessing. I hope you have created an electronic file or manual file to refer back to these critical lessons for additional insight during your personal study and devotional time to be an even more effective leader and witness for our Lord and Savior.

I want to apologize for the volume of information that I shared during our Sunday service. I typically don’t do this but I packed two lessons into one on Sunday for several reasons. These reasons are highlighted below:

  1. I want to devote the balance of my attention for March and April preparing for “Resurrection Sunday!”
  2. The above reason requires me  to break away from our series on witnessing and I wanted you to have this critical biblical information now to better prepare and do your own personal study & devotional on witnessing and modeling grace while allowing God to speak to your heart as we approach “Resurrection Sunday”.
  3. I want you to utilize the attached lesson outline and PowerPoint slide to create your own personal bible study and utilize the material in small group studies with your family and others.

We become more effective leaders when we teach the material we study and learn. The greatest sermons are the ones we see and not the ones we hearI admonish and encourage you to become a sermon that people see on a daily basis.

Allow me to take a moment and share where we will go from here during our Sunday sermons and study time and give you some insight into a few things that are not listed on the calendar. I will come back to our “Witnessing Series” after our celebration of  “Resurrection Sunday.” We have completed Four Segments of what will be an Eight part Segment on Witnessing. Our Media and Digital Ministry Team will put the entire series on CD.  This is something you may want to consider acquiring. Additionally, we will be uploading the sermon notes and PowerPoint slides to our church web-site and you will be able to download the material there as well very soon..

Our Strategic Planning team will be meeting in late April to continue our visioning work and evaluation of existing ministries to ensure we become even more effective at what we do to give God and our community our very best. God has impress upon me to start and ensure a very effective Evangelistic Outreach ministry to the unchurched in our community that includes transportation services to our church services. This is something you will be hearing more about in May as I discuss the details with our church leadership team during the month of April.

Finally, we will be dedicating the entire Month of April on Wednesday night Bible Study to our Leadership Accountability Series. This is where we will bring in outside experts each week to discuss things like Family Estate Planning, Funeral Planning & Arrangements, Retirement Planning, Legal & Audit requirements for church leaders & Trustees, and other critical and essential things that help us to become well-rounded and balanced as Christians.

I want to take a moment in this note to thank all of you who took the time to complete the evaluation form on me. I will be sharing this feedback and the areas you highlighted for me to improve during one of our upcoming Wednesday night bible studies.

I pray like me you are focused on how you can become even more effective in the service of the Lord and to His People which should be the ultimate focus of all Servant Leaders!!

Your Brother In Christ!!

Grace & Shalom!!

Pastor Perry Stuckey

Rick ZimmermanWitnessing Continues…
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