Welcome to Saint Paul’s
In coming to our website, I realize you might have many questions. You might be excited about finding a church to belong to, or you might be a bit fearful from bad church experiences in the past. If you are looking for a church that focuses on creating spiritual fruits, not religious nuts, then you have come to the right place.
I hope the information on this website will help you feel more comfortable with visiting us in person and knowing more about who we are. Feel free to email me if you have any further questions that are not covered here.
Our Mission statement at St. Paul’s says a lot about who we are and what we do:
As a Christian family of faith,
Saint Paul’s affirms God’s love by
transforming lives,
connecting generations,
impacting our community & world,
and
making disciples for Jesus Christ.
Affirming God’s Love by
transforming lives:
Here at St. Paul’s we believe that we are supposed to transform peoples’ lives for the better because of our Christian faith. Whether it is feeding people who are hungry, giving hope to the hopeless, or voice to the voiceless, faith is not just for our own benefit, but is supposed to be for the whole world!
Matthew 25:31-46
Affirming God’s love by
connecting generations:
connecting generations:
Here at St. Paul’s we believe that connecting generations is a key part of how we affirm God’s love. We believe in ministry that serves the needs of particular age groups but also connects generations together. This can be seen when our Children & Youth make and deliver gifts to our homebound members, and when our younger members are welcomed to be a part of our adult ministries. We believe that it does take a village to raise a child, and that we all benefit when we are all involved in age-related ministries.
Matthew 19:13-15, Mark 10:13-16, Luke 18:15-17
Affirming God’s love by
impacting our community & world:
Here at St. Paul’s we believe that our faith needs to have an impact in our community (through local ministries such as Interfaith Emergency Services and Open Arms Village) and our world (through projects such as our Pillowcase Dresses, Prayer Quilts, and Stop Hunger Now).
Matthew 5:13-16
Affirming God’s love by
making disciples for Jesus Christ:
Here at St. Paul’s we believe that the core mission of the church to which all our activities point is to make people into disciples (followers) of Jesus Christ.
Matthew 28:18-20
St. Paul’s Christian School shares its campus with us and many of the families in our church and school come from the surrounding neighborhood. In this quiet, picturesque corner of Ocala we are kind of like the neighborhood park – you’re likely to see families playing on our playground, couples taking a stroll around the campus, someone sitting for a prayer in our Memorial Garden, or our Scouts having a meeting at the fire pit. This image is really the vision we have for St. Paul’s: a place that offers God’s grace, love and comfort to the people around us.
Want to know more? Come and see what we’re all about!
In Christ,
Robert
Robert’s Blog
Lent Devotional Week 4: Christ the Healer
Lenten Devotional: Week 4- Christ the Healer
Our Lenten Challenge
God calls all of us to set aside the 40 days before Easter, the season of Lent, to be a time of preparation. We honor this call knowing that on Easter morning our efforts will be rewarded with a renewed sense of hope and awe as we celebrate the resurrection of Christ.
Each week of Lent will include a weekly devotional. Try to answer one question a day, reading the scripture and meditating on its meaning in your life. If you’re having trouble, talk to God or a trusted friend about it. Keep reading the scripture, ask others and involve them in this process. You may be surprised at the results! But whatever you do, do not give up. Lent is about strengthening faith, and like any good muscle, strength in faith requires exercise!
Bring your devotionals back to church each Sunday, and put them in the basket on the altar. Let the time you spend studying and reflecting be part of your offering to God during Lent this year.
This week’s Scripture Reading:
Matthew 8:14-17
14 Jesus went home with Peter and saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. 15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her. Then she got up and served them. 16 That evening people brought to Jesus many who were demon-possessed. He threw the spirits out with just a word. He healed everyone who was sick. 17 This happened so that what Isaiah the prophet said would be fulfilled: “He is the one who took our illnesses and carried away our diseases.”
*****
Acts of healing, along with Jesus’ teaching about money, are one of the more common themes in the Gospels. They almost seem supernatural and exaggerated as we look at them through our modern eyes. Today, we have doctors and other health professionals who do the healing, and many are convinced that these Gospel healings were just fanciful “fairy tales.”
As Matthew tells us his story of the life of Christ, however, we can’t ignore that healing was a large part of Jesus’ ministry. So, in belief or unbelief, why did Matthew and the other Gospel writers include so many healing stories? What is God, through these Gospel writers, trying to teach us about the Christ? What are these Bible stories trying to teach us about ourselves? Can we still be healed by God?