The last two mornings I’ve had a peanut butter & jelly sandwich for breakfast.
The only time I’ll have a PB&J for lunch is when I’m out fishing (it holds up well under the rigors).
Triple decker or toaster I seem to gravitate back, every once and a while, to a good ol fashioned PB&J.
(Note: This is what I presented Sunday as we continue to cast the vision of our direction as a community of faith.)
Acts 2:41-47 (NCV) Then those people who accepted what Peter said were baptized. About three thousand people were added to the number of believers that day. They spent their time learning the apostles’ teaching, sharing, breaking bread, and praying together. The apostles were doing many miracles and signs, and everyone felt great respect for God. All the believers were together and shared everything. They would sell their land and the things they owned and then divide the money and give it to anyone who needed it. The believers met together in the Temple every day. They ate together in their homes, happy to share their food with joyful hearts. They praised God and were liked by all the people. Every day the Lord added those who were being saved to the group of believers.
We are striving to become a relevant community of faith devoted to loving God and serving others.
For this to become a reality, not just words on a page, we need a strategy.
Our ambition and our strategy is to Connect The Unconnected.
The picture, like a puzzle, has various interconnected pieces.
Each of these pieces, which find their inspiration in the example of the early believers as portrayed in Acts, are as important as the next.
With every single piece in place you have a complete picture.
Miss even one piece and the picture is only a semblance of what it could be.
Activities and experiences that fall in this category include: Sunday AM Bible Class, Sunday AM Worship, and Sunday Night Celebration.
We plan to roll our prayer night and our congregation information night into our monthly SNC so we can be better at what we do.
We’ve only had a handful of people coming to the prayer night and the information night and we’ve had a great turnout for the Sunday Night Celebration.
Since we pray and inform during the SNC it just makes good ministry sense to combine these activities into one experience.
In addition to our praise and worship time, we’ll take some time for prayer together and we will take some time to communicate what God is doing among us.
Don’t worry! We’re not doing away with the food on Sunday night!
I think we’re even going to pursue some “concert on the lawn” type of format during the summer.
Instead of sweatin’ and swearin’ we’re prespirin’ and praisin’!
Activities and experiences that fall in this category include: Dinners 4 Eight, Fellowship Meals, and Golden Agers.
Activities and experiences that fall in this category include: Logistic Ministries, Youth Ministry, Children’s Ministry and the creation of two brand new ministries.
One activity and experience surfaced from our MADE campaign that so many of you wanted to continue or repeat.
This was the time spent in Small Groups.
So the first of two brand new ministries we are planning to create is a small group ministry.
We are planning to invest energy and resources into the forming of a Home Group ministry.
I will take on the leadership role of this ministry from the LG level and oversee this ministry.
Our immediate plan is to allow those existing groups that wish to continue meeting to continue meeting during the summer with curriculum that I will provide for you.
If you desire to keep meeting please talk to me so we can make arrangements.
(If your group is not planning on meeting and you would like to continue meeting in a group please let me know and we will place you in a different group.)
These groups will meet for 8 weeks and then take a break during the month of August.
In September we plan to launch an comprehensive Home Group ministry giving groups a chance to reform and everyone a chance to participate in a new group.
We anticipate our Home Group ministry being one of the key components of our strategy to connect unconnected people.
The second of two brand new ministries we are planning to create is a ministry dedicated to recovery.
The Bible says:
Galatians 6:1-3 (NCV) Brothers and sisters, if someone in your group does something wrong, you who are spiritual should go to that person and gently help make him right again. But be careful, because you might be tempted to sin, too. By helping each other with your troubles, you truly obey the law of Christ.
Honestly, we’ve done an abysmal job at helping each other with our troubles.
We want to repent of that and set into motion a ministry dedicated to helping each other with our troubles.
Following the example of our great God of comfort, we want to come alongside people who struggle with addiction and support them in the journey of recovery.
We also anticipate our Recovery ministry becoming one off the key components of our strategy to connect unconnected people.
Activities and experiences that fall in this category include: Sierra Christian School (we plan to celebrate this ministry next Sunday), Foreign Missions, Packed With Pride, Stockton Outreach School, Haven of Peace, Beverly’s Boutique, and Breakfast Club.
The passage of time will change the need and the focus of our outreach ministries.
What will not change is our commitment to reach beyond ourselves and offer hope to those who need help.
WORSHIP – FELLOWSHIP – MINISTRY – OUTREACH are the major pieces that promote the pursuit of relevance.
Our ambition is to connect you, in some way, in each of these areas.
Our ambition is also to pursue and promote those activities and experiences that bring these four pieces together in one picture.
More than just attendance when the doors are open, our task as a leadership is to engage and connect you in these activities and experiences.
You don’t receive credit just for showing up.
In the kingdom it’s all about participation points!
We want to help you discover your SHAPE and deploy you in the purposeful task of service.
When more of us (individually) are getting into SHAPE and serving from our SHAPE, then the body as a whole is transformed in the organic engine of restoration and redemption first intended by God.
As we go from here today we aren’t just leaving church or leaving worship and going out into the world.
No, we’re taking God and taking worship out into the world to serve other people.
Jesus said:
Mark 10:43 (NCV) Whoever wants to become great among you must serve the rest of you like a servant.
Let’s continue the journey and celebrate the pursuit of greatness.
Those 3 words can be hard to pronounce hard to write and yet they are very important words.
When I found out that Kris won I was happy and relieved.
We got home late and thanks to the DVR I decided to watch the entire episode.
I was pulling for Danny – that worship leader thing – but that didn’t work out.
I thought Kris was very talented musically and vocally but thought he was in the final as a way to guarantee Adam’s victory.
I was wrong.
I didn’t want Adam to win and honestly it was mostly about the pictures that surfaced of him and him.
It’s not supposed to be an issue (someone’s sexual orientation) right? At least that’s what they say.
But it is still an issue for me.
And if it’s not supposed to be an issue why does it seem the issue of sexual orientation pushed and flaunted?
I thought Adam did a great job of changing his appearance but he seemed on the vocal front to be very one-dimensional.
Granted that dimension was over-the-top spectacular but would you enjoy it song after song after song in the same concert?
If the band KISS is your idea of musical entertainment done right than I guess the answer is yes.
And speaking of KISS, just exactly how many times can you stick out your tongue during a 3 minute song?
Highlights from last nights final episode:
I’m still thinking of producing a new series called American Preachers – same format – celebrity judges – the whole thing.
Want to audition?
We had our first 100 degree day yesterday with no breeze.
When the delta breeze is absent we feel each and every degree.
Didn’t get home until 7:30PM and the pool was a welcome oasis.
That’s a look at the weather and back to the news desk . . .
Sunday we explored the concept of Living Out Loud.
As the final week of our 40 day campaign kicked off we discovered how service and joy go hand in hand.
It probably seems to some folks that we talk about loving God and serving others way to much.
I just can’t think of two better things to talk about.
If American Idol were truly about singing and not about advancing a certain social agenda Adam would be gone and Danny would be in.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
We spent a relaxing evening at R & C’s last night.
Fishing. Pizza. A humongous strawberry shortcake dessert.
Not a bad way to spend an evening.
The boy was catching bluegill (one after another) as fast as he could re-bait.
The girl wasn’t skunked.
Their mom finished with the catch of the day, a 2lb bass!
We’re training our softball girls to take a skills test (Sparq Training) that covers four core strength areas in the sport.
20 yard dash – 15 yard shuffle step – Vertical Jump – Powerball Throw
Here’s a question for you . . .
How far do you think you can throw a 5lb ball (with two hands like you were swinging a bat)?
Second question . . .
What would be damaged along the way as you attempted this throw?
We focused our time yesterday on how to let God into the experiences of our life and work in those experiences to serve others.
How great is it that the God of compassion and comfort comes along side us in times of difficulty (which is the literal definition of comfort)?
God does this, not just to encourage us, help us or strengthen us.
God does this so that when others have difficulty we can in turn come along side them.
The highlight of the morning, without a doubt, was the drama by three of our women.
Powerful. Poignant.
Their portrayal of the theme paved the way for people to hear the message.
The offense scored more than enough runs (they only needed 1).
The defense did their job.
No runs.
No hits.
No errors.
No walks.
Not a single batter reached base.
She pitched a perfect game last night.
We didn’t even realize it until the official scorekeeper recorded the final out and jumped up from her chair and announced the feat.
A tremendous accomplishment in this sport.
Spent the day up around (secret), California to fish the (double secret) river.
You have to keep such secrets if you want to be invited back.
The highlight of the day was helping our fishing buddy land this 27″ trout.
Ringbinder theme by 
Themocracy
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