Please join us for our morning worship service beginning at 10AM. You may view the church calendar to see what other events are coming up.

Worship is the central most important act we do together as a church. Everything else we do as individuals and as a church body emanates from our honor of God that we collectively mark each Sunday in the service of worship. We come to give thanks and praise and to be challenged in our daily walk with the Lord.

Sunday School will resume on the Sunday after Labor Day.

Saturday, May 22, at 7:00 p.m. here at Salem. Featuring Kettly Benoit, soprano, and Li-Ching Huang, piano and soprano. We will be receiving donations at intermission. Other guest performers include Judy Hsu on piano, Jon Clark on trumpet, Gjergji Kote on violin, and Tina Verdun on flute.

Saturday, April 10^th 2010 – 7 pm

The Bohemian Quartet in Concert at Salem Covenant Church

http://www.bohemianquartet.com/

Donations accepted

Call the Church Office for more information: 508-853-4071

North Park College is hosting a college seminar at Salem for students and parents. This is an information-packed seminar designed to help students and their parents ask good questions, plan effectively, and evaluate various college alternatives. The desired result is an improved decision-making process and the increased likelihood of an outcome that best meets the needs of the student and family. The Seminar is a service of North Park University offered free of charge to Covenant Churches, families, and friends. While the seminar is sponsored by North Park and includes references to the University, it is neither intended to be a North Park promotional event nor exclusive to only students and parents considering North Park as a college option. The seminar is open to parents/students from Jr. Hi on up. If you know of friends/parents/students who are in this age bracket but not necessarily connected to Salem, feel free to invite them. A pizza lunch will be served; If you are interested in attending It is important that you let Pastor Frykholm know.

Trailblazer/Jr. High – Check out the upcoming calendar of events for the next meeting date.  If you are between the grades of 1st grade through Jr. High please come to Trailblazer/Jr. High on Sundays.   Bring a friend and join us at Salem for a fun filled afternoon from 3:00 – 4:30 p.m.

Trailblazer Winter Retreat

Six youth from Salem attended the Trailblazer winter retreat held February 5-7, 2010 at Pilgrim Pines.  It was an awesome weekend! The weekend centered around the theme called “The Flame” reflecting God who appeared before Moses in a burning bush.  God told Moses, “I am the Lord, the Lord of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” and “I have heard the cry of Israel’s people and promise to deliver them from Egypt.”    Through guest speaker Paula Frost a message of “Stop, turn and go towards God” was emphasized.  Paula also got the kids to repeat, “Don’t put out the Spirits Fire!” She reminded the kids to spend time with God (Go to church) and with other Christians to strengthen your faith in God.  Several youth (including 3 of our boys) committed themselves to a life with God by placing a kindling on a ceremonial fire (unlit of course).

The highlights of the retreat were the excellent food, fun activities on the ice (Counselor bowling, broom hockey and snow gnomes).  The inside activities included several ice breakers and mixers (Card swap, beans and weenies, whip cream and vanilla “Vanilla” and Human Snowman).  The band from Pilgrim Covenant in Lunenberg made the weekend lively and spiritual (Great youth and adult combined band)!

Ice Cream Social

Held on Valentine’s day was well attended with 12 youth and 11 adults from Salem.  We had delicious sundays with lots of toppings.  It was held during our regular (Trailblazer/Jr. High) meeting time on Sunday’s from 3:00 – 4:30 .  We played sardines and fruit salad, which are becoming two of our youth’s favorite games.

Photos from the senior high retreat to Winterfest.

More photos from Winterfest.

Saturday, March 6 @ 5:PM
Come and eat your fill of Irish fare:
Grey corned beef or Chicken
Potatoes
Cabbage, carrots, turnip
Irish soda bread
Chocolate cake with green sprinkles
Punch, coffee, tea

Adults $8.00 Children 5-12 $4.00
Age 4 and under Free

Reservations required
Call Al Carlson- 508-852-8661
Dwight Goodale- 508-852-2420

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10    Luke 4:14-21

When we read the Scripture lessons every Sunday morning in worship, we do so in stride. In fact, that could often describe our approach to worship in general. In the words of Annie Dillard, words we use in worship are “things we have learned we can say to God without being killed.”
We often have a very lackadaisical attitude when the scriptures are read. We respect them and expect them to be read in worship. Perhaps we are so familiar with them we do not anticipate hearing anything new. We read the gospel lesson and conclude with the words: THIS IS THE WORD OF THE LORD. We say it without missing a beat. But what impact does this Word of the Lord have upon our lives?

Contrast what is often our approach, with our text from Nehemiah. The people of God had returned from exile. Jerusalem was in ruin and the walls were leveled. (Picture the scenes we’ve seen in Haiti this past week). Nehemiah drew his people together and against great odds rebuilt the wall. When it was completed they asked Ezra the priest and scribe to bring forth the law of Moses, the Word of the Lord and to read it in the public square. When he opened the scriptures all the assembly stood up to listen. They were almost 50,000 in number who had gathered. Ezra read from early morning to midday, the congregation standing all the while. And all the people wept when they heard the words of the law of God. They were moved to the very core of their being.

Let’s be honest. For the most part we do not like to be disturbed. That’s true on several levels but I suspect it is also true in worship. We want to hear confirmation that we are doing well. We prefer affirmation that confirms our lifestyles are in synch with God—to hear that we are doing all the right things. But if you have lost everything you have known, as was the case with the Israelite people, you hear things in a different way. The Word of the Lord fell on their ears like rain on parched soil.
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Donations for relief efforts through Covenant World Relief in Haiti can be made online or by mail.  Follow the link to Covenant World Relief for more information: http://www.covchurch.org/cwr

From their website:

Covenant World Relief is an effective and efficient humanitarian aid ministry with a sixty-year history. CWR collaborates with partners around the world to provide relief, rehabilitation and transformational development. These partnerships empower local ministries, increase local involvement, reduce overhead and facilitate immediate response to disaster and human suffering. Our charge is to love, serve and work together with the poor, the powerless, and the marginalized.

Isaiah 43:1-7

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. 3For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. 4Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life. 5Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you; 6I will say to the north, “Give them up,” and to the south, “Do not withhold; bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth— 7everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

Called by Name

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God.
Those words spoken through the prophet Isaiah are one of the beckoning invitations in all of Holy Scripture.

Do not fear….I have called you by name.

One of the most moving monuments in our nation is the Vietnam Memorial on the mall in Washington, D.C. Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Memorial, explaining to a TV interviewer why her remarkable work has come to have such a strong tug upon the emotions of all who see it, responded: “It’s the names,” she said, “the names are the memorial. No edifice or structure can bring people to mind as powerfully as their names.”

Do not fear…I have called you by name. In a world where people can grab their 15 minutes of fame—our names are known by the one in whose name we are marked in baptism.

Even though the words of the prophet come as comfort and promise, they also recall the terror of the first Exodus. “When you pass through the waters … when you walk through fire.”

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