liberti church east Articles

Ash Wednesday Service

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:15:00 -0500

There will be an Ash Wednesday service on February 22nd at 7:30 p.m.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Christian journey of Lent, a season of 40 days (not including Sundays) prior to Easter.

Ashes have a long history in biblical and church traditions. They are often used to symbolize frailty or death, sadness or mourning, and repentance. Ash Wednesday picks up this imagery to mark the beginning of a season of renewal that reminds us of our own mortality, our own need for repentance, and our own confidence that Christ has conquered sin and death. At the service we will announce several ways that we plan to emphasize these themes throughout the season, and those who wish may have ashes placed on their foreheads as a sign of repentance as they begin this season of spiritual renewal.

Note: Child care will not be provided, though children are welcome in the service. There will be no Home Meetings this week as we are encouraging everyone to attend this service.

"Growing in Intimacy" Marriage Workshop

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 09:00:00 -0500

Redeemer Counseling Services Presents:

Growing In Intimacy Marriage Workshop

Marriage is a wonderful and glorious relationship that is also the most misunderstood and mysterious. This workshop addresses the meaning of marriage and how a biblical perspective deals with our idealistic dreams as well as our realistic brokenness. The experience of marriage will unveil the beauty and depths of the gospel. A greater understanding of the gospel will help us experience deeper and deeper union and intimacy with one another as the years go by. We will consider what it means to worship God as our Creator, King, and Savior in the context of marriage. This will involve understanding differences of personality and families-of-origin that impact a couple.

Date: Saturday, February 11th, 2012

Instructor: Lois Kehlenbrink, M.S.
You can read more about Lois at the link below.

Time: 9 AM until 3 PM with a break for lunch
Note: lunch will not be provided

Location: First Baptist Church (where liberti Center City worships)
123 S. 17th Street - corner of 17th & Sansom, Phila 19103

Fee: $25 per individual ($50 per couple)

Register: Online, and pay via PayPal at
www.libertichurcheast.org/marriage-workshop

Combined Worship Service

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:00:00 -0500

All liberti churches will gather for a combined worship celebration on January 29th at 9 a.m. at the First Baptist Church (where liberti center city gathers for worship). There will be no services Sunday morning at 2424 York Street, so make sure to mark your calendar and join all of the liberti movement for worship that Sunday.

NOTE: There is FREE parking for those who drive. The parking garage is located just north of First Baptist Church on 17th St., between Chestnut St. and Market St., adjacent to the Westin Hotel. Look for our sidewalk sign, park in the garage, and pick up a parking voucher at our welcome desk in the church lobby.

Men's Breakfast, Sat. 1/28 @ 9 a.m.

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:00:00 -0500

Put it on your calendar: the men of liberti east will have a men's breakfast at the church at 9 a.m. on Saturday, January 28. This is a great event to come to if you're new to the community and looking to connect to more people...plus, FREE BREAKFAST! We'll eat, a few guys will share a few things about themselves, and we'll pray. For more info, contact john@liberti.org.

Women's Brunch

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:00:00 -0500

Put it on your calendar, the women of liberti east will be gathering for a brunch at the church at 11 a.m. on Saturday, January 21st. This will be a time of prayer, encouragement, testimonies and great food. For more info, contact emaileliz@gmail.com.

Caroling and Candlelight Service

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 17:00:00 -0500

Join us at 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve for some good old-fashioned caroling. We will meet at the church at 5 p.m. and walk to several nursing homes and other locations in the Fishtown/Kensington area to sing and distribute hot drinks. We will return to the church for a candlelight service beginning at 7 p.m. Child care will not be offered at this service, but all children are welcome in the service!

men's retreat

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:00:00 -0500

Coming November 11th-13th!

It's time to put the 2nd annual liberti east men's retreat on your calendar. It will again be at the the Philadelphia/West Chester KOA. Last year was a pretty amazing time of hanging out, enjoying the great outdoors in the Fall, various forms of competition, and Gospel vision and teaching on manhood. RSVP below.

Once you have RSVP'd use the donate button below to pay the $50 for the weekend. If you can't pay the $50 don't let that keep you from signing up. There are funds available for those who have difficulty paying.

In Covenant Class

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 09:00:00 -0400

Several times a year, we offer one-day classes to introduce people at our church to the beliefs of Christian faith, and what it means to be a part of liberti church. This class will be held at the church and breakfast and lunch are provided. If you are interested contact John Alexander.

libertipalooza 2011 rescheduled

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 11:00:00 -0400

If you were a little bummed that libertipalooza 2011 was canceled due to some hurricane, you can now begin to rejoice. A modified version of libertipalooza has been rescheduled for Saturday, October 8th! More details will be forthcoming but you should save the date on your calendar now.

liberti harrisburg

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:00:00 -0400

For well over a year, Pastor Steve Huber has worked with a team of people in the Harrisburg area who are praying about planting a church in a part of the Harrisburg region with few local churches. Some members of this team were members of one of the liberti churches here in Philadelphia once upon a time. As Steve coached, taught, advised and prayed with this team regarding church planting, the group began to grow in vision and in numbers. Over the summer the elders of liberti east, in partnership with elders from liberti fairmount and center city, chose to move forward in assisting this harrisburg team in planting a liberti church in the coming months.

Recently, we called a man named Matthew Looloian to serve as a pastor of that church, and he and his wife Shea will move to the Harrisburg area in late September. There will be numerous announcements about this new church plant in the coming weeks and months. Please join us in praying for this team as they seek to live, speak and serve as the very presence of Jesus for their city.

You can now check out the new website for liberti church harrisburg.

Services Moving to 9 and 11 a.m. This Fall

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:00:00 -0400

Beginning Sunday, September 4th we will move back to the two service schedule. We will also be moving to a 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. schedule rather than 10 a.m. and Noon. We've based this decision on a number of factors, but primarily we are interested in trying to even out attendance at both services. We've consulted with many leaders, key volunteers, and a large sample of congregants who would be affected by the change. For the time being, childcare will still only be offered at the first service. Please contact John Alexander, Joe Marlin or Ryan Egli with concerns or questions.

The Schultz Family Adoption

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 21:00:00 -0400

Adoption is a beautiful means of building families and an extremely necessary and vital one as well, and as a church body, it’s so important that we set an example in promoting and encouraging a vibrant culture of adoption within our society.

As many of you know, in 2010, Dan and AnnMarie Schultz received custody of three siblings: Summer, Erica, and Brian, who have all become a part of our family at liberti. What you may or may not know is that just a few weeks ago, the Schultz family were presented with an opportunity to adopt a newborn baby boy who is also the biological cousin of their three children. With few viable options for the baby’s birth mother to maintain custody, she presented Dan and AnnMarie with the option of adopting this infant boy less than two weeks prior to his birth.

After much prayer and a few positive developments, Dan and AnnMarie decided to pursue the adoption as they continue to love and minister to this family, and with faith that God is in control.

As of this past Tuesday morning, their new son Titus came home to live with them and their other three children.

You’ve probably heard about the great financial expenses incurred by adoption. The adoption of Titus will cost the Schultzes $20,000, which is the standard expense for a domestic infant adoption.

The situation for Dan & AnnMarie to adopt Titus happened practically overnight and the funds are due right away. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a very rushed financial situation; one in which Dan & AnnMarie had not been able to take the time to save the needed money, apply for grants, or hold fundraisers. At this point, liberti is partnering with the Schultzes to help them raise half of that amount - $10,000. And we are humbly asking and encouraging all of you to prayerfully consider helping Dan & AnnMarie meet this $10,000 need at this time. In addition to asking all of you, we encourage you to ask your families, friends, coworkers, or anyone else in your lives who you believe might be interested in contributing to the Schultz’s emergency adoption fund.

Going forward at liberti, we plan to work towards cultivating an atmosphere in which the pursuit of adopting children -- both domestic and international -- wouldn’t just be for one or two families, but that many families in our community would be encouraged to consider expanding their families in this beautiful way. Knowing the financial obstacles, we hope, at some point in the future, to be able to set up liberti funds that can assist adoptive couples in offsetting the high costs.

If you would like to help the Schultz family reach this $10,000 goal, please click the donate button below where you can make donations through Paypal, or by check to the address below, with "adoption" in the memo line. Please also forward this page to anyone who you think might be interested in contributing to this fund. Thank you.

Family Movie Nights

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:00:00 -0400

Every Thursday night in July we will be having a family movie night in the worship space for kids in the neighborhood. The movies will begin at 7 pm and we encourage you to invite all the kids you know to come out for it. This will be a fun, free, air conditioned and safe place for families to come and enjoy a movie and fresh popcorn. Children need an adult or sibling 16 years or older to attend with them. If you are interested in helping out, email Joe Marlin.

A Letter From Pastor Steve About his Sabbatical

Fri, 20 May 2011 11:00:00 -0400

As we’ve announced for a few months, liberti church east is the grateful recipient of a grant from the Lilly Endowment. This grant will fund my own sabbatical this summer, as well as funding some training for our elders, elders-in-training, deacons, and deacon-in-training.

During the next few weeks the Huber family will be at some of our sister churches: liberti Fairmount on May 22, Jacob’s Well NJ on May 29, and liberti center city on June 5. On June 12th I will return to participate in the commissioning of deaconess AnnMarie Schultz and to receive prayer for our family as we head to Colorado on June 18th.

While in Colorado, we will be renting the home of a retired pastor in the town of Boulder. I’ll attend the a29 lead pastors conference June 20-23 and then will begin a regimen of worship, rest, and study for the next 8 weeks.

A few of you have asked how you can pray for me and my family (thank you so much):
1) Pray that God would bless this time of worship and rest. The word for “sabbatical” has the same root word as “sabbath”—which literally means “rest” in Hebrew. Pray for deep renewal and rest as I pull back from the pressure of normal ministry life. Pray for renewal spiritually, emotionally, and physically. I’m wired naturally for face-paced action and getting things done--- resting in this way will not feel natural to me.

2) Pray that God would bless this time of worship and prayer. I’m hoping to spend extended times praying for the liberti churches and for the region. Psa. 27:8 “You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, Your face, LORD, do I seek.” It was 10 years ago that the vision to begin planting liberti churches first took shape. Pray that God grants some clarity to the vision for my life for the next season of ministry and for liberti.

3) Pray that God would bless this time of worship and family. We are going to be able to do some fun things as a family in the mountains of Colorado and hopefully get a lot of exercise. We will be in a beautiful part of God’s creation. We desire to enjoy the scenery and mountains in a way that turns awe and fun into gratitude and worship for an amazingly creative and glorious God. Pray that I love God by loving my family well and that God blesses the time that Christine and I have with the kids. Pray especially for our time with Hannah, who is 16. This will probably be the last time we’ll have this kind of extended time with her before she goes to college.

4) Pray for all the elders, elders-in-training, deacons, and deacons-in-training as they undergo coaching, counseling, and mentoring this summer. Pray that God grows them in their gifts, wisdom, and in their love for God and for people--- and pray that they would see and understand more of God’s love for them in Jesus!

I’m deeply grateful for God’s kindness in giving us the gift of this sabbatical. Also, I’m truly and deeply thankful for you, the covenant community of liberti, for letting me do this. You have consistently been a supportive and encouraging community to me and my family and the other leaders at liberti. I’ll be preaching again on Sunday, September 4th (Lord-wiling). We hope to be able to have an end of the summer party/bbq and have all the servant-leaders share something that they learned over the summer. I’m looking forward to seeing more of what God wants to do both in us and through us for his glory in this city and region and for our joy.

Press on,
Pastor Steve

Life Nights 2011

Thu, 19 May 2011 13:00:00 -0400

Why should fishtown have all the fun? This year with the help of our summer interns, we will be running our kid’s camps with all three liberti congregations. Our kid’s summer camp are for children from the families of liberti and the neighborhood from ages 5 to 12.

The camp will run from 7pm-9pm for one week tuesday – friday, and include sports, music, arts and lessons from the bible.

Here are the dates, look to sign up at sunday services no later than May 29th. Note, we will also need paperwork filled out that will allow background checks on all volunteers by this date.

East June 7th-10th @ 2424 Studios

Center City June 14th-17th @ Marian Anderson Rec.
(17th & Fitzwater St)

Fairmount June 21st- 24th @ Berean Institute

One Service for the Summer!

Sun, 15 May 2011 10:00:00 -0400

Beginning on Sunday 5/15, we are moving to a summer schedule for our Sunday services. Beginning on 5/15, we will hold only our 10 a.m. service until the beginning of September, when we will return to two services, at 10 and noon.

The last noon service is on Sunday 5/8! We will resume holding two Sunday services in the fall.

Help Update our Database!

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 11:00:00 -0500

In the new year we hope to update our church’s information database to better serve and communicate with our congregation. In order to do this efficiently, we are asking everyone (whether you’re in covenant, regular attender, first time visitor - whatever!) to update your personal information here. Thanks!