Welcome to Embury

Celebrating 150 years of Loving God and our Community 1869 - 2019

You are always welcome. Embury is warm and friendly in its truest sense. But then again it is to be experienced, not promoted. In this age of super stores and super sizes, we are not embarrassed that we are small. In fact, we believe it is one of our strengths where you feel more like part of a caring family, not part of a "congregation." Most importantly, at Embury, it's all about growing disciples, not adding members. It's not about maintaining our facility but it's about loving our neighbors and loving God. (Mark 12:30-31) You are always welcome!

March, 2014

Passionate Disciples of Christ It is no secret that as the Church of Jesus Christ, we are about making Disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world.  We have the Great Commission (Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit… Matt. 28:19), which confirms our work of making disciples.  One important thing about the work of making disciples is that we ourselves have to be passionate disciples of Jesus Christ first before we can make anyone else a disciple of Jesus Christ. Just because we come to church, just because we say we are Christians, we are not made disciples automatically. So then what makes one a disciple of Jesus Christ? A disciple is by definition one who is allured or attracted to a person or an idea and who lives to emulate all aspects of that person’s life.   Jesus’ disciples were persons who met him, saw him interact with others, heard him speak and were thereby attracted to him and who lived according to His teachings.  Being attracted to him, they committed themselves to his company to learn more of the beauty they had intuited.  In another words, disciples of Jesus Christ followed him so that they can look like Jesus in their actions, think like Jesus, and talk like Jesus and live and die like Jesus. To be a passionate disciple of Jesus Christ, we need to be committed and faithful. As I am writing this article, the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia is well on its way.  Every evening we enjoy watching the great feats of the athletes and applaud their success.  In the earliest Olympic games, the competitors vowed three things: 1) I will use no unfair means to secure victory; 2) I have trained for ten months; and 3) I promise to do my best and not to quit. This kind of commitment captures our imaginations and compels us to wonder what it must be like to ascend to such a high level of discipline and persistence in pursuing a goal.  A disciple looks much like these athletes running the race with passion, endurance and finishing well the course set before us. The Apostle Paul makes effective use of athletic analogies in his letters to the church at Philippi urging fellow believers to press on to gain the prize of Jesus Christ.  To be passionate Disciples of Christ, it requires unwavering commitment and faithfulness. As we are in the season of Lent journeying towards Easter, now is the time to take a stock of our Christian walk and see how we compare as passionate disciple of Christ.  How much do we look like Jesus Christ in our life, in our thoughts, in our words and in our actions?  Then begin taking steps to move toward that goal of becoming more like Jesus practicing those spiritual disciplines of daily prayer, worshipping weekly, reading and studying the scriptures, doing the work of mercy to help others in need and working to bring about change in our world. Jesus gave his all so that we can have life ever lasting.   As we reflect on the passion of Christ this Lenten season, may our hearts be set ablaze with the love of Christ so that we can be passionate disciples of Christ who reflect Jesus with our every movement.  Amen. Pastor Grace Pak