Archive for 'church'
Excuse me, are you Jesus?
Posted on September 25, 2008, by lisa hudson, under church.
I very rarely read emails that get forwarded to me, but this one caught my eye for 2 reasons. One, it was from my Dad, and he doesn’t email me very often. Two, I found the title interesting. As I read it I couldn’t believe how pertinent it was to the current series we are going through, Be The Church. So I had to share…
A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night’s dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display Of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding.
ALL BUT ONE!!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.
He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.
He was glad he did.
The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.>
The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.
When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, ‘Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?’ She nodded through her tears.. He continued on with, ‘I hope we didn’t spoil your day too badly.’ As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, ‘Mister….’ He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes She continued, ‘Are you Jesus?’ He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: ‘Are you Jesus?’ Do people mistake you for Jesus? That’s our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference. As we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, Life and grace.
If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It’s actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.
You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.
If we LIVE His word, then we ARE the Church!
Lisa
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Leadership… The Diamond Life by Kevin Myers
Posted on September 24, 2008, by alex mclean, under church, devotions, leadership.
We’ve been going through catalyst as a staff over the past few weeks. A great tool to talk about difficult issues in leadership. This week we went through an article called “The Diamond Life” by Ken Myers. Wow. Ken compares the leadership journey to a baseball diamond (please don’t think Warrenback). Here’s some of the nuggets that I loved:
Home Plate: The Purpose Base
…[is] knowing your purpose involves winning dependence… You gain confidence in your purpose by remaining totally dependent upon Him.
First Base: Win Within
The very first thing that the power of God is designed to do in your life is change you. The Spirit of God is in the business of internal restoration.
The first base is all about character and God’s desire to reshape us in His image.
Second Base: Win With Others
As you win within the personal base, you gain credibility to go on to second base and win with others in community. It is only within a team where you can experience what God can leverage through your leadership gift in the lives of others.
Nothing compares with being on the same level with people to realize how to treat others with dignity - to serve them and care for them and cease being self absorbed. No one wants to hear a vision in which you are standing and they are bowing. [amen!]
Third Base: Win Over Obstacles
Third base is all about success. Third base however, is not the end. You do not score on third base.
The pattern of the world tells us to run to third base first. We are a performance driven society that finds value in what we to do and the results we generate.
Home Base: Back Home
If we fix our hearts on finishing well, our lives will bring us right back to the place of purpose at which we started.
We must yearn to press on until God has his way with us completely. As Christians mature, it can be tempting to invent new missions to accomplish. But in this game, the idea is to start on purpose and to finish on purpose.
This resonates so clearly with me right now and it’s also blowing my mind.
One thought I wrote down was this: We get so involved in the task that we forget the why… It’s like this post, where the point was brought up that we throw out the Great Commandment in our pursuit of the Great Commission. Sorry for the church talk. But we put our relationship with God and his forming of our lives on the back burner because we get so busy doing what we think he wants us to do with our lives… And we look at our success and say to ourselves - we’re doing a great job! Are we missing the point? Am I?
Like I said, mind blowing. Humbling, and refreshing.
-Pastor Alex
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On our recent marriage retreat
Posted on September 9, 2008, by danny beteta, under church.
On this recent retreat….
We enjoyed this past weekend at Palm Desert!! 9 couples joined us at Palm Desert Best Western and we had a blast! As Pastor John said, we all need maintenance in our marriages and that’s just what we did in this past retreat!! We really enjoyed it and hope that the next time around many of you can join us!! We talked about what does a healthy, successful marriage look like? The answer to that question is that marriage it’s a team effort. I invite you to read Acts 18. In this chapter you will find a couple, Priscilla and Aquila that were always mentioned together, worked together, learned together, and taught together! In our marriages we need to learn to trust and respect each other. We need to protect our marriages by setting up boundaries and by continually adjusting those boundaries. When money comes between the couple check these verses: Genesis 2:24; Matthew 6:21, 24–33; Philippians 2:3, 4:19; 1 Timothy 6:6–10; Hebrews 13:5 and discover the Eternal Principles
—one: We look at money differently. It’s just money and this is not your God!!!
—two: We can accept our differences. Men and women look at money differently, but we need to accept those differences and agree in how we spend our money together!!
—three: God owns everything. Do I dare say more??
—four: We can serve either God or money. I hope you choose to serve God!!!
Here are a few tips to Keeping Your Christian Marriage Strong and Healthy
Step 1 - Pray Together: Set aside time each day to pray with your spouse.
Step 2 - Read Together: Set aside time each day, or at least once a week, to read the Bible together.
Step 3 - Make Decisions Together: Commit to making important decision together.
I’m not talking about deciding on what to eat for dinner. Major decisions, like financial ones, are best decided as a couple. One of the greatest areas of strain in a marriage is the area of finances. As a couple you should discuss your finances on a regular basis, even if one of you is better at handling the practical aspects, like paying the bills and balancing the check book. Spending secrets will drive a wedge between you faster than anything else. If you agree to come to mutual decisions on how the finances are handled, this will strengthen trust between you and your partner. Also, you won’t be able to keep secrets from each other if you commit to making all important family decisions together. This is one of the best ways to develop trust as a couple.
Step 4 - Attend Church Together: Get involved in the church together.
Step 5 - Continue Dating: Set aside special, regular times to continue developing your romance. Once married, couples often neglect the area of romance, especially after the kids come along. Continuing a dating life may take some strategic planning on your part as a couple, but it is vital to maintaining a secure and intimate marriage. Keeping the romance alive will also be a bold testimony to the strength of your Christian marriage.
God bless you!
Pastor Danny
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Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!
Posted on September 8, 2008, by alex mclean, under church.
Some times Change is VERY GOOD (I couldn’t resist, sorry David Bowie fans). If you’ve been around LifeChurch for any length of time you’ll be very familiar with one word: Change. We value change, we have to change to grow, and when we grow we change! So here’s a quick update to some of the changes around LifeChurch.
- Time Changes! We’re changing our worship experience times starting this weekend (September 13 & 14). All of our worship times will look like this:
Saturdays at 6:00pm
Sundays at 9:00am & 11:00am
We will no longer be offering the 8:00am worship experience, but we’re adding 2 additional worship experiences, which leads us to our next Change… - Life Unplugged! As we have grown through the summer we’ve realized that we need more room! We need more empty seats to accommodate our guests and regulars. We’ve recently been blessed by acquiring the use of an empty suite right across the parking lot, so we pimped it out and got it all ready for an amazing worship experience we’re calling Life Unplugged. It’s LifeChurch, unplugged. The same church, the same teaching (via video), with a different, more intimate worship style. We’ll have a venue pastor there, full on worship team, and teaching via video from right across the parking lot. Drop your kids off to the same KidsLife, GodStock, and Youth Ministry, then head over to Life Unplgged for a very cool worship experience. Life Unplugged will meet at 9:00am and 11:00am. - previews start THIS Weekend!
- Youth Ministry has Moved! That’s right, God has continued to bless us at LifeChurch! We were OUT OF ROOM for our Youth and Kids. So guess what - that’s right, we got another empty suite (actually 2!), just around the corner for our Youth to meet in. Talk about exciting! One room is setup for worship and teaching, the other is an indoor skatepark and game room (currently under construction). This is the coolest place EVER for our teens to come and hang out and hear about Jesus, and to grow spiritually. We’ve got a map and directions over at whylifechurch.com and if you have any questions, please contact Pastor Steve.
- KidsLife & GodStock have some Changes too! GodStock (Worship for Kids) has taken over Sundays now as well as Satudays! That means for your kids in 4th & 5th grades, they’ll be meeting in the former Youth Room. Some other rooms have changed for KidsLife, so just check it out when you drop your kids off this weekend, Steve, Kendra, and all our volunteers will be happy to answer any of your questions.
- Saturday Nights! We’ve got 2 changes for Saturday Nights. First, be sure to get to LifeChurch at 5:15pm because we are featuring local restaraunt catering and offering a great deal for our families, plus a fun connecting time. Meals are $5 per plate, and we split ‘em up for the kids. The second change is that we’re adding an extended time of worship for those who enjoy music and have craved that extra time to spend in worship. These changes really make Saturday nights an attractive alternative to Sunday morngings at LifeChurch.
Whew! Did you get all that? This fall is an exciting time at LifeChurch, a time of change, a time of growth. This is a great time to invite a friend or neighbor. This is also a great time to get involved in serving, as we’ve just opened up a ton of staff positions in ministries such as, parking, tech, hospitality, youth, kids, worship, just to name a few! Take your SHAPE profile today and we’ll get you plugged in.
One last note. Please keep your church & staff in prayer. We’re in an awesome place right now, really experiencing God’s blessing as he is bringing more and more people to his church. Pray that we stay faithful to his call on our church. Pray that many would come to know him and to grow in him. Pray that many would choose to give and to serve sacrificially. And pray that we would be successful in “Bringing Life to the Valley!”
Humbly, Pastor Alex
