Ever play on a winning team?
Ever participate in a group that really came together and was somehow better together than any sum of the individuals ought to have been?  There’s something about that, isn’t there?  The whole concept of stacking hands and agreeing that in order to be the best we’re going to have to do it a certain way.

Here’s the thing…in the same way that team had had a way of doing things, your group can too. In fact, you do have a way…even if you don’t know it; even if you didn’t plan it!

Why not take advantage of the beginning of a new year to get your group talking about what’s next? And there’s no better way to do that than to pull out a small group agreement or covenant and talk through your hopes for the new year.

 

What should you talk about? Two basic ideas:

• What are your values?
• What are your expectations?

What Are Our Values?

When you’re working through the values of your group, we suggest that you talk about the following values:

• Group Attendance: Even if my boss offers tickets to the big game, I know the group meeting has priority.
• Safe Environment: Our members will feel loved and heard because there won’t be quick answers, snap judgments, or simple fixes.
• Confidentiality: Obvious…but necessary. What happens in the group stays in the group.
• Spiritual Health: The goal is not just attendance! It’s that over time we’d become more like Christ.
• Inviting People: It’s not just us! We’ll be on the lookout for ways to include new people when appropriate.
• Shared Ownership: Good groups involve the whole group in the action. Rotating facilitators, moving the meeting different group member’s homes, allowing everyone to play a role…these things predict a better group.
• Spiritual Partners: No getting a round it, if there are more than three of us the path to growth comes through pairing up for accountability and encouragement. It may be a new practice…but it is a healthy one.

You may arrive at additional values.  There’s no magic list.  The key is to spend some time working on this if you want your group to be healthy.

What Are Our Expectations?
This is simpler…but just as important. These are the basic ingredients of our small group life.

• When will we meet?  Not just the day but the time that we start and stop.  Agreeing on this is a big detail.  It allows our group to honor the value of group attendance.
• What will we do about the kids?  Figuring out a childcare solution is an important key.
• What will we eat?  It may not be all about the food, but agreeing on what we’ll eat can keep us on the right track.
• Will we attend the same service?  Hanging out together, outside the meeting, goes a long way.

When Should You Have This Discussion?

When is the best time to have this discussion?  If you’re a new group there’s no time like the beginning.  It’ll get you off to a great start.  If you’ve been around for a while without an agreement you may want to ease into it. 
Whether you’re brand new and want to get off to a great start or you’ve been around and need a little boost, a small group agreement can be a powerful tool for spiritual growth.  Why not take advantage of the season and put one to work?
Looking for a CommUNITY Group Covenant form for your group?  Click here and just print:  http://eumchurch.org/fileadmin/ministries/Comm_Groups/community_group_covenant.pdf

Sometimes Deilbert is able to capture the concept in a whole new way.

The Role of CommUNITY

Why does it matter whether people gather in community and join God on His mission? The current goal of the mission of God (after the fall and before Jesus comes back) is to redeem a lost world. All throughout scripture, community is an integral component of accomplishing God’s mission. God works through people to redeem His world. Why does it matter that we work on this mission of God together? Because there is power in “together”.

Community coincides with the beginning of time and is rooted in the Trinity. Genesis 1:26 reads, “Let us make mankind in our image”. We see at the start of community the Trinity is intimately involved. So much so that in Genesis 2:18 which is set in the most perfect environment known to mankind, the Garden of Eden, we are told that “alone” is not good. Ecclesiastes 4:9, 12 gives us the importance of not being alone; “Two are better than one” and “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

Jesus’ entire journey was through community. He modeled community by starting community with twelve disciples who would carry out His mission. Jesus showed a reproducible and strategic model for the mission to continue. The early church in Acts took seriously “community” set before them to see God’s mission of the Great Commission and Great Commandment fulfilled. Chapter two of the Book of Acts shows us what community looked like and what it did. It fellowshipped, it discipled, it served, it evangelized, and it worshipped. As a result, the mission spread. At their best, churches and communities of people are a reflection of these original communities. When these purposes are fulfilled in balance or harmony, they fulfill the mission of God. Acts 2 is within months of Christ’s giving the Great Commission and that mission is being fulfilled through community. The Lord added to their number daily, because they obeyed Christ in community.

How did God add to their number daily? In Acts 5:42 we see the delivery systems for fulfilling mission—“Temple Courts” and “house to house”. “Temple Courts” are the equivalent of our modern weekend services. “House to House” is our small groups – communities of Christ-centered people. Fifty-eight times in the Word we see “one another”. Jesus sent the disciples out in pairs. There is an assumption of close relationships for these communities, not just a casual crowd of people but implied intimacy. The metaphors of taking community deeper are seen throughout the NT as language of “family” is always used over a less intimate view of “teacher/student”.

Do you remember the story of the paralytic in Luke 5? Four men broke through the roof of a synagogue to lower their friend to Jesus. Sometimes it takes something that radical to do God’s mission and lead someone to Jesus! Notice what the Bible says in Romans chapter 12, “Since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other and each of us needs all the others.”

How can your community help you see God’s mission fulfilled? Here are just a few ways:

Your community helps you care about people who don’t know Jesus
Your community helps you believe God can reach the impossible person
Your community helps you make a plan for God’s mission to happen
Your community helps you overcome difficulties that try to stop God’s mission
Your community helps you have courage try something different to accomplish mission
Your community helps you work together to get the God’s mission done
Your community helps you to be willing to pay the cost to do God’s mission

If you are not in relational community of believers, a CommUNITY Group, you’ll miss God’s design for his mission to be fulfilled. This is the message Christ gave to us. This is the message you need to share with those in your ministry and circle of influence.

BRINGING OUT THE BEST IN OTHERS

Everyone is a “10” somewhere. Everyone is good at something and can benefit the whole group when they use their gifts. I tell my leaders all the time, “You are successful not if you do all the work. You are successful if you bring out the best in others.” A good leader is a facilitator who understands that everyone has a part to play and no part is too small.

One of the great blessings of utilizing the gifts of all the members is that they feel like they have something to contribute and that they belong. The more the ministry is shared the better off everyone is. In almost every case of groups disbanding in my experience, I have found a leader who was doing everything and not sharing the ministry. The most effective groups form core teams.

Your role as group leader is not to lead the entire group of eight or ten or twelve. Your role is primarily to shepherd and disciple (develop) two or three people in your inner circle – and then to share ownership and leadership with them. “

My group has come alive since praying in and incorporating a core team approach. But don’t settle with simply forming a core team and utilizing the gifts of the team. Everyone who gathers with the group has something to share. Obviously people are at all different levels of discovering and using their gifts. As a leader I focus on how I can bring out the best in others. The main question I ask myself after the group has met is this: Did everyone participate and did people walk away edified or built up?

Both of these are extremely important factors in being a healthy small group. Unfortunately, I see a lot of group leaders leading alone. It's so good to see a group that's getting this right and seeing the blessings and benefits!

If you ARE sharing leadership and ownership, what blessings have you seen?

If you are NOT sharing leadership and ownership, what are your biggest obstacles?

Some're Here

What is your community group doing this summer? Did you know that summer can actually be the BEST time for community groups? It’s a great time to get outside together, serve together, do more socially together, play together, learn some new things together. What’s the key word here? That’s right … together! Here are some ideas:

• Pull out your calendars now to plan when you will and won't meet over the summer.
• Make a commitment to one another to be there whenever possible.
• Go on trips together: camping, vacation, etc.
• Lighten up the Bible study for the summer and do some devotional stuff together.
• Do more Bible do's rather than Bible studies.
• Meet on the deck, back porch, or at a park.
• Study the one another passages from the New Testament over the summer, and do each of them in a creative way. (A group I led did this one year. We rotated homes and whoever hosted planned the "one another" study and application. One week we served one another by washing each others' cars. Another week we encouraged one another by doing a fun affirmation exercise. Another week we spoke one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs by having a creative worship time at a park. Every week we offered hospitality to one another without grumbling!
• Serve together. There are lots of great serving projects you can do, especially outside, over the summer. Need ideas? Check out the Service Projects on the CommUNITY Group link.
  
• Have fun together!
• Invite some friends who are not in a small group (or in a church) to join you!
• Go fishing together (or biking, hiking, swimming, rock climbing skydiving, etc.)
• Add your ideas! Respond to this post or send them to Susan at sodell@eumchurch.org and I'll share them!

Basics of Community Group

     Community groups are small groups of people who share their lives with each other. What is the purpose for small groups of people to meet in a particular place? The hope is for the people to connect emotionally and spiritually. But why? Is it simply to be involved with another person’s affairs? No. All that does is provide the opportunity for gossip to develop, especially for busybodies (if this last phrase stings a bit, it might be time for some personal reflection…).
     What, then, is the reason for community groups? It is my intention to support the idea that community groups can provide an atmosphere conducive to true personal growth. When we invite people into our lives, we give them access to who we are. As this occurs, something vital inside us is nourished.
I have known persons who claim they are not social, that they would rather be by themselves. I have also known persons who claim that small groups are unsafe environments. While it is true that there are people who enjoy solitude and those who have painful experiences of small group, the real truth of the matter is that we are, at bottom, relational. Our brains were designed to interact with other brains. Our hearts were created to mingle with other hearts. We cannot remain in solitude for long periods of time without it becoming stifling isolation.
     In support of my argument, I will propose two principles:
1) God is the source of all that is, ever has been or ever will be. As such, he is the supreme authority and discovering how he designed life to be lived is of supreme importance.
2) While Adam was created with the capacity for deep, meaningful relationship with God, he was also created with a need for healthy relationship, to intimately and richly connect with other human beings.

Come back soon…we’ll discuss this issue further!

What a Wonderful Love!

1 Samuel 1:6 - “…her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her.”

     Elkanah was married to two women: Peninnah and Hannah. The former had children while the latter, none. The relationship between the two women was anything but healthy. When reading the first chapter of Samuel, this verse stood out for me. In particular, three words: rival, provoking, and irritate.
     A rival is simply one person feeling in competition with another. Jealousy and resentment stirred in Peninnah’s heart toward Hannah. The way she communicated her feelings was to needle Hannah. The harassment was intentional, designed to hurt and injure Hannah. The behaviors point to Peninnah’s mean-spirited attitude.
     There are a few clues within the first chapter of Samuel to help us understand the dynamics of such a relationship. One is found in verse 4 and 5.

“Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her….”

     As I read this passage, I imagine Peninnah saw and felt this display of affection between Elkanah and Hannah. I imagine she felt deeply hurt and injured. Another clue is found in verse 7.

“…her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat.”

     Later in the chapter, Hannah describes herself as a “woman who is deeply troubled…praying in great anguish and grief.”
     As I think about this verse, there is something familiar about the behaviors and attitudes. I recognize them. The dynamics of the above dysfunctional relationship reflect my own experiences. Elkanah, Peninnah and Hannah were all going to worship the Lord where the sons of Eli were priests. In modern terms, they were going to church.
     There have been many times I felt deeply embarrassed and ashamed about the dysfunctional behaviors and attitudes within my family. So, in an effort to relieve my strong emotions of guilt and embarrassment, I put on a façade. It was the only thing I could do to avoid facing the hard truth.
     The good news is that God takes the real stuff of dysfunctional behavior and attitudes, transforming them into tools for shaping his good purposes. This does not mean that to maximize God’s purposes we should live in dysfunctional ways. Rather, it means that despite our inability to live above our dysfunctional ways, God transforms what we ourselves cannot do.
     When our hearts grieve in anguish over the embarrassing behaviors we feel ashamed over, we can learn to rest in a God whose warm love and compassionate grace accepts us just as we are; as he creates his beauty out of our ashes. Always remember an important point: Jesus died for the ungodly. He surrendered his entire life to reach those who rejected him. He suffered immense pain to communicate his unswerving desire to love those who don’t deserve it.

Family & Body

     What I live with, I learn; what I learn, I practice; what I practice, I become. We each experienced this progression in the families in which we lived, whether biological or adopted. Additionally, other environments during our most formative years the provided fertile soil for character development. For example, the years we spend in school, as we develop long-standing friendships, become a kind of extended family. We take on values and certain mannerisms to “belong.” Essentially, we learn, practice and become that which we aspire to.
     As our experience in school shows us, for every small group we incorporate ourselves into, we absorb a variety of moral nuances as well as influence others in them. We evaluate and assess, accept or reject a number of ideas and concepts each day. We are becoming today something a bit different than we were yesterday.
     This brings me to the idea of a spiritual family. For the Christian, this family is called the family of God, the church. Another familiar name is the Body of Christ. To be part of a family instantly brings much to mind concerning our own personal experience of being in a family. Seeing that our current conditions are quite contrary concerning families, it is easy to understand why thinking of church as a family sometimes comes across in negative ways. However, even in such times, a church will always reflect family. That means, we will have to learn to put up with each other’s oftentimes annoying idiosyncrasies.
     Thinking of church as a Body conjures a variety of notions more personally flavored. Each part of a body is intimately connected with the whole. If the arm is sore, the legs, while not feeling the pain, are not disconnected from the body. In fact, the opposite arm will try to comfort the arm in pain as the legs attempt to make up for the loss of the pained arm’s movement.
     Small groups can be seen as families and bodies. As families, they learn to live with those in the small group despite features not always appealing. As bodies, they learn to care for others as they care for themselves; they learn to relate in such ways as to help those hurting or needing special care.
     It is in the small group environment that we learn to live as communities. It is in the small group we experience compassionate comfort in trying times. It is in the context of intimate small groups we encounter the healing power of a listening heart during painful times. In small groups, we learn to value warm hugs, intentional looks into the eye, and authentic concern for personal well-being.

Green Pastures & Still Waters

     Circumstantial Environments. Surrounding influences. A framework of conditions forming external stimuli. In other words, it is where we live. Our daily lives find us moving through a variety of circumstantial environments. In each environment, we find a spectrum of emotional responses occurring within. Feelings swirl about, cascading over a myriad of thoughts. Sometimes, the strong, negative feelings shroud our thoughts. Other times, lucid insight ignites emotional combustion, helping us soar among the heights of heaven.
     The sphere within is the domain in which we must contend. When we experience difficult circumstantial environments, how do we manage the emotions we feel? One beneficial method of coping with distressing emotions is to share them. How do we share them? We do this by talking with someone we know, someone we trust. Moreover, that person genuinely cares and loves us.
     Do you experience this? Do you have those with whom you can share your emotional states? In other words, when you are shaking with anger, combined with confusing guilt and shame for feeling so angry; when embarrassingly dark thoughts triggers bizarre pleasure causing you to want to fly away and hide, is there someone you can lean on and pour out your breaking heart? This is a crucial part of connection. It’s the deep sense you have not been abandoned, that someone is vitally connected to your inner life. They don’t have to fix it or have the answers. You simply desire to allow your heart to roll the heaviness off.
     Essentially, apprehending the “green pastures and still waters” of transcending peace when all hell is breaking loose is the experiential knowledge of connection. Let me put it another way. The peace God gives is powerfully felt when we, through transparent honesty, connect with another person. Jesus lived in emotional transparency with 12 men. He modeled the kind of life he taught. It wasn’t until those same 12 men found themselves in severely distressing environments they experienced a deepening of their faith. That is when those men felt growth, life, and character forming within them.
     Community groups are small groups designed for people to experience deeply meaningful connection with a few others. It is the place where unconditional acceptance, trust, healing, safely warm friendship, and agape love finds expression. As each person pursues a relationship with Christ, they bring that journey into the group. Together, a community group discovers the mystery of being connected, as a Body, to the Head - Jesus.

Is Connection Important?

     We reproduce what we are. On the third day of creation, God said, “Let the land produce vegetation; seed-bearing plants…The land produced vegetation; plants bearing seed according to their kinds…”(Gen. 1:11-12). God established a natural law in the physical universe for every living thing to reproduce itself. Jesus, speaking with Nicodemus, said, “Flesh gives birth to flesh; but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3:6). In communicating the deep mystery of regenerating new birth, Jesus also touches upon the principle of reproduction.
     Intimate connection is vital for life. “I am the vine, you are the branches… Remain in me, and I will remain in you” (see John 15:4-5). Jesus spoke these words to his disciples in the upper room. In that same room, Jesus finishes his prayer, saying, “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (John 17:26).
     Our most basic, fundamental need is relationship. God designed the growth process to be experienced through connection with his Body - people. The Holy Spirit communicates the life of Jesus through his Body - people. We thrive, grow and mature in Christ-likeness to the same degree we connect in meaningfully significant ways to his Body - people.
     Many people have remarked that small groups is not for them. The reasons for this statement are varied and many of them based upon previous hurts. Nevertheless, the truth is that we bear the image of God within, an image that is made for connection. To ignore this is like holding one’s breath because of air pollution. Think about it.

What is Community?

     What is community? It seems rather obvious that people form communities. People are social. Simply, this means they interact with each other in community. Does this adequately answer the question? Not for me.
     There is a difference between having an idea or opinion concerning what community is and the experience of connecting with others in meaningfully significant ways. The answer I am looking for will help me understand better the experience of community, not just developing an opinion.
     Is it important to distinguish between opinions and experience? I believe so. It seems apparent that experiential knowledge of relationship far outweighs the mere idea of relationship. In other words, experiencing a relationship tells me more about relationships than just thinking about them. For example, being in an unhealthy, dysfunctional relationship teaches me what it feels like to be in one. When I hear someone speak descriptively about the harmful effects of an unhealthy, dysfunctional relationship, I will readily understand them. Why? Because I will have known what that kind of relationship feels like.
Experiential knowledge includes both cognition and emotion. That is, it requires us to think reflectively and to feel experientially to obtain experiential knowledge. Empirical evidence refers to what can be experienced through our 5 senses. Materialism, Natural Scientism and the like are worldviews based on this very premise. At bottom, experiential knowledge and empirical evidence refers to what we physically bump into while living on planet Earth. Community is one such example.
     As Christians, we are taught that God created us in his image. God’s image is relational, therefore, we are relational beings; God lives in community (the Trinity), therefore, we are created social beings.
     Just as there is a real difference between the idea of relationship and the experience of it, there is a very real difference existing between knowing God as an idea and experientially knowing him. How, then, do we enter the intimate experience of knowing him? We do so by encountering him through others in the context of authentic community. Think about that for a moment. Reflect on a few of those relationships where you felt the presence of God. Was in not in community? Jesus said, “Where two or more are gathered together, there I am in their midst.” Take a moment and read John 17. Is in not clear that Jesus desires intimate community with us? We should not be surprised. After all, God is love and demonstrated that love through Jesus, depositing in our heart the Holy Spirit that we might experientially know intimate relationship with the community of God.

Confident Hope

     “God is able to give us interior resources to confront the trials and difficulties in life… He is able to provide inner peace amid outer storms. This inner stability of the man of faith is Christ’s chief legacy to his disciples. He offers neither material resources nor a magical formula that exempts us from suffering and persecution, but he brings us an imperishable gift: ‘Peace I leave with thee.’” - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

     “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with…peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” - Apostle Paul to the Roman Church (Romans 15:13).

     There is something about experiencing a deep, resonating peace when facing hard times. There is something about remaining calm when circumstances bring pain and confusion. Deep in the heart of faith is a reservoir of hope. It is this hope that contains a life-giving power possessed only by the Holy Spirit.
Our relationship with God, through Jesus, finds its ultimate expression in compassion toward others. But this first comes as we enter into a conscious awareness of His love for us. As our intimate experience of God’s love matures, our ability to demonstrate the love we have received enlarges.

     Often we find ourselves searching to feel good, to feel better than we do. Little do we understand that God’s peace, hope and joy are not simply to help us feel good. They are attributes of God’s character purposing to work through us. Why? So we might share something of God’s image within us.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Apostle Paul were not embarking a quest for mystical knowledge on a spiritual plane. Rather, they were enlightening us concerning the appropriate manner in which one experiences a life of true faith and love. Both men urged us to seek God as the ultimate source of peace. The outcome of such searching leads us to experience the outworking of the gospel.

     Ivory tower theology belongs within the confines of cognitive castles. Jesus’ theology, however, was deeply intelligent and wise, communicating a doctrine that produced profound, illuminating conviction. One could not walk with Jesus for long and not discover this. Yes, there is something about a deeply resonating calm emerging from an unfathomable peace. It is the confident hope we find through a relationship with Christ.

     May God richly bless you... 

Missions

“What is happiness?”  (It is) a feeling that one is being authentic in the living of one’s life…a feeling that one is contributing to life in some way - that one’s life is making a difference.” - Dr. Kathleen O’Dwyer.

“The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible…the whole antithesis between self and the rest of the world… disappears as soon as we have any genuine interest in persons or things outside ourselves” - Atheist Bertrand Russell.

      We each seek satisfying, delightful experiences.  In fact, many of our choices are based largely upon the pleasure we anticipate.  Sadly, the happiness we often find is fleeting, little more than temporal gratification.  Our appetite for deep satisfaction leaves us feeling restless, searching constantly to quell the troublesome crave. 

      Each Christian comes upon a “Damascus Road” experience, that cataclysmic moment where our search is arrested.  Richard Stearns (author of The H0le In Our Gospel) walks us through his own in Chapter 6 (A Hole In Me).  Considering himself a budding intellectual, he enrolled in Cornell University (Ivy League college).  It seemed his dreams were unfolding perfectly, that he was nearing “the good life.”  It is also where a “self-important, self-reliant, scientific worldview” fostered a “rationalistic fortress,” smacking of insensitive arrogance (pages 80-82; see also 2 Corinthians 4:4 & 10:5), ultimately led him to internal crossroads.

      God, however, did not seek to humiliate or defeat Stearns but to win his friendship and understanding.  He sought to awaken within him a sense of moral shame thereby bringing about a transformation of his heart.  The final goal being redemption and reconciliation.  This process He initiated through what began as a blind date (pages 76-79).

      Within the context of relationship is where we find the power of persuasion most potent.  Winning arguments belongs on the platform of debate.  Winning hearts happens in the womb of friendship.  It is how God designed us.  And it is within the environment of relationship we learn the importance of obedience.

      Stearns discovered that, although obedience to God was vital to the new relationship, his own brokenness brought a disheartening sense of discouragement.  But God enables true followers to mend their brokenness through obedience.  “Obedience is a splint God places on a broken life so that it might mend…(a) way of rehabilitation that God has chosen for us so that we might mature into Christlikeness…until love dominates our choices” (Wayne Martindale, et al., The Soul of C.S. Lewis).

      Citing the three commands - Love God, love others, and make disciples - Stearns recounts his journey of faith and consequent adventure.  Missions, whether local or abroad, is simply about living out our faith.  It is about transcending the daily grind, entering into the virtue of authentic happiness, of experiencing profound depths of joy.

      Loving God, loving our neighbor, and making disciples are essential principles Jesus set forth as foundational stones.  World Vision is the arena God called Stearns to live out these principles.  What is your arena?

Jeff

Blazing Glory!

      Do you remember Bon Jovi’s phenomenal song, Blaze of Glory? The crack of the snare, followed by Bon Jovi’s explosively rich, gravely vocals screaming with deep conviction, “I’m goin’ down in a blaze of glory!” The song intimates the passionate fire burning in each human heart yearning to leave behind some heroic legacy bespeaking our courageous impact in the world.

      In our culture, success carries weighty connotation. “Climbing the ladder of success” entails a variety of meanings, the most familiar one - “Living the American Dream!” Richard Stearns (author of The H0le in Our Gospel) acquired a position with Lenox, Inc. as president and CEO, the consummation of his vocational endeavors.      Surrounded with the ornamentation of corporate success, it was then, at the very pinnacle of his career, God’s call on his life came. A phone conversation in January 1998 threw Stearns into what he terms his “dark night of the soul” (see pages 28-36). During the momentous inner turmoil, one jarring question captured his thoughts: “What if my cowardice costs even one child somewhere in the world his or her life?”

      When we say that we want to be Jesus’ disciple, are we willing to be open to God’s will for our life? Hear the penetrating words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” If we are willing to break through the cowardice and desire to end the silence, Frederick Buechner offers this encouragement: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

     If the world portrays Richard Stearns as plunging from the zenith of success to accept God’s call, then Christ’s Spirit proclaims with deep conviction, “He’s goin’ down in a blaze of glory!” Our most courageous, heroic act is our willingness to follow Christ. For those whose lives we touch, they will experience the blazing glory of God’s compassionate grace and forgiveness - of God’s blazing glory found only in Christ. Join us as we journey through the H0le in our Gospel.

Jeff

The Hole In Our Gospel

      The message of the Hole in the Gospel will not feel relevant to everyone. But it will feel relevant to you. The message of the Hole in the Gospel will not move everyone to act. But its significance will be understood by you. Why is that so? Because, the Hole in the Gospel is often discovered in the very midst of our deepest hardships.

      Yes, the vision of the Hole in the Gospel can seem overwhelming. It's scope is broad and vast. Yet, the very heart of Richard Stearns lofty ideas were formed in the crucible of personal struggle, of prayer and honest reflection: his inner man. This is where Stearn’s thoughts will stir something deep within you. As you consider your own experience of church and faith, his words will resonate.

      It is not about "reading another book." That is exhausting. It's not about stopping what you love studying to engage a topic someone else thinks you should. That is simply unenjoyable. So, what it is about then? It's about going inward, asking yourself honest questions, and allowing God, through Stearns, to animate something powerful within you.   You will find God showing you some pretty amazing things about himself...and yourself. You be challenged to see the world from a fresh angle. From this vantage point, you'll come to realize your place and where you fit in. The message of the Hole in the Gospel will not speak eloquently to all...but your heart will recognize God's voice. Don't miss it. It's what you've been longing for.

Jeff