Important question...

If a nonbeliever had my job would it look any differently?

Pastor Chris Brown says, it better be yes! 

"It WILL cost you to be like Jesus, may I remind you that it cost him more" 

Wholehearted living

Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness. It means cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, No matter what gets done and how much is left undone I am enough. It's going to be ad night thinking, Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid bu that doesn't change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of belonging.

 -Brene Brown

From her Ted Talk

 1. Love is Grown Through Connection

• Connection is why we are here. It gives purpose to our lives.
• It is very difficult to love people more than we love ourselves.

2. We Cannot Give What We Don’t Have.

• We can’t give help when we cannot ask for it
• we attach judgement to help. therefore we self-judge when we need to ask for help and we judge when we offer help.

3. Professing vs Practicing

• Love is a practice.
• We profess “love you. love you. love you.” and practice something totally different.
• The space between how we behave and what we want to be – that gap is where we lose people.

4. What Kills Love Also Kills Organizations

• Shame is like termites. You must shine a light in the dark places to find it.
• Shame can only rise to a certain level before people disengage to self-protect.

Fall Ministry Season at City Life

As we enter in the season of fall, which is typically the most intense ministry season, I want to encourage each of you as Ministry Partners at City Life. As a leadership team we have set some pretty high goals, and our hope is that you will jump full-steam ahead with us as we seek to introduce Jesus to more people than ever before. 

Our goal in this season is to ramp up all areas of ministry in order to double our normal growth rate! Which means we hope to reach 250 worshipping people at City Life this fall. We are currently right around 160, so this is a BIG goal. However, we see it as more-than-possible because we have more people in ministry than ever before, a very strong group of team leaders and leadership teams being developed in many of the ministry areas and more people to join in prayer. We have the space, we have the people and most importantly we have Jesus. Our two main vehicles working towards this goal is the launch of the second service and the public launch of Celebrate Recovery. We not only want more people in the seats but we hope and dream that each person is growing in new ways in their relationship with Christ. 

Specifically for Kid City, this means that we need to prepare to be caring for and teaching upwards of 60 kids each week (split between the services). THIS IS SO EXCITING!!!!!!! This season will be one for:

- helping to equip each and every one of you to serve SMARTER not harder

- welcoming new team members and building them up

- building up the Kid City Leadership Team (KCLT) hoping to have a "Director" for each age group

- creating "teams" of volunteers who will always be serving together

- fostering an intentional environment where kids feel loved, welcomed and safe

SO, what does this mean for you? 

- I invite you to dive into scripture about our call to reach the lost and make disciples, click here for some places to start :) Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you into what this looks like for you and your family

- INVITE PEOPLE TO CHURCH!!!! 

- take the next 4 times you serve to evaluate opportunities for improvement

- stay in communicado with me and Joe Reid about ways that we can better equip you for your ministry... We are here to support you!! 

More to come, but I just couldn't wait to share this exciting news. I am in love with our church and all of the ways we are seeking to be salt and light on this earth. 

Matthew 5:13-16 "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. 14 "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Fellowship at 441

Willow Creek recently did a series on the importance of inviting people into your home, into your "space." How by inviting people in you are opening the door for real conversations, deep relationships and for people to be truly seen. 

The residents of 441 Crescent love this. We value community, friendship,  vulnerability, FUN and we value prayer.  And. We want to "do" each of these with you in our living room! 

We hope to foster an environment where old friends and new friends can come together to catch up on what God is doing in our lives, what we are learning and share how we are growing. We can encourage, pray and laugh with one another! There will be no agenda, no expectations, and no schedule other than prayers and praises to wrap things up. We are hoping and praying for a space where we can each just show up, be seen and be loved AND everyone is invited. 

Starting one week from today, every Tuesday night from 7:30 - 9:00pm we will be hosting what will be dubbed as "Fellowship at 441"... it is a come as you are, bring a snack if you want, bring some scripture or a passage that you felt prompted to share, or don't and just show up... thats most important anyways. 

Hope to see you soon!! Invite your friends and soon-to-be friends. 

Lots of Love, 

441 Girls

P.S. Here is some inspiration and further reading on vulnerability :D 

I have been learning a lot lately about the importance of vulnerability and what it means to be a whole-hearted person, from the likes of Brene Brown, Donald Miller, Glennon Melton and Shauna Niequist! A lot of the things I have been reading lately are about being true to yourself TO yourself and also being willing to be fully yourself to other people. By being vulnerable we can experience the world more fully and invite others to do the same.  So often people just want to be heard, to be seen and to be loved. It is important that we are seen, heard and loved for exactly who we are... not the appearance that we put on.

 A couple of quotes I love: 

"If we're going to find our way back to each other, vulnerability is going to be that path. And I know it's seductive to stand outside the arena, because I think I did it my whole life, and think to myself, I'm going to go in there and kick some ass when I'm bulletproof and when I'm perfect. And that is seductive. But the truth is that never happens. And even if you got as perfect as you could and as bulletproof as you could possibly muster when you got in there, that's not what we want to see. We want you to go in. We want to be with you and across from you. And we just want, for ourselves and the people we care about and the people we work with, to dare greatly.

"True friendship is a sacred, important thing, and it happens when we drop down into that deeper level of who we are, when we cross over into the broken, fragile parts of ourselves. We have to give something up in order to get friendship like that. We have to give up our need to be perceived as perfect. We have to give up our ability to control what people think of us. We have to overcome the fear that when they see the depth of who we are, they’ll leave. But what we give up is nothing in comparison to what this kind of friendship gives to us. Friendship is about risk. Love is about risk. If we can control it and manage it and manufacture it, then it’s something else, but if it’s really love, really friendship, it’s a little scary around the edges." Shauna Niequist

To my beautiful friends

First, I don't know if I have sent this to you yet, but this is an amazing talk from Brene Brown on vulnerability... it is about 20 minutes long but worth every minute. Have a pen and paper ready, because she has so much goodness packed in :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o A lot of the things I have been reading lately are about being true to yourself TO yourself and also being willing to be fully yourself to other people. By being vulnerable we can experience the world more fully and invite others to do the same.  So often people just want to be heard, to be seen and to be loved. It is important that we are seen, heard and loved for exactly who we are... not the appearance that we put on. So, I don't know if any of that is helpful to you.. but it is what I am learning about and trying to apply because it is so easy for me to want to be the "strong" one who has everything together and is happy all of the time, when in reality I am struggling with lots of things all of the time. Thanks for being vulnerable with me, and opening up. I appreciate you so much and would love to hear your thoughts on this!! Also, this blog by Glennon Melton would be fun for you to peruse: http://momastery.com/blog/2012/01/19/telling-secrets-2/

Secondly,  I found this version of Psalm 139 and I love it and thought I would remind YOU that you are a child of God, that you are loved wholly for who you are, that you are beautiful and wonderful and loved beyond all measure.

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
    you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
    Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
    I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
    you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
    how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
    all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
    before I’d even lived one day.
Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
    God, I’ll never comprehend them!
I couldn’t even begin to count them—
    any more than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!
    And please, God, do away with wickedness for good!

To be a Christian means to excuse the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” C.S. Lewis”

A Proverbs 31 kind of woman

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Scripture shapes us | The Bible is more than a book

" Whereas the church and its related institutions tend to focus on “moral acts,” Scripture is far more concerned with shaping our imaginations, our patterns of thinking, which, inevitably find expression in transformed commitments and practices. Behavior serves as a display case for our deepest commitments. "
-Seized by Faith, Joel Green

Welcoming the Stranger

City Life held a training session on Wednesday about immigration offered by Matthew Soerens. Soerens is the US Church Training Specialist for World Relief, where he assists churches in understanding the complixities of immigration from a biblical perspective.

“Why is immigration policy important to evangelicals? Certainly because we believe what the Bible teaches about treatment of ‘aliens in the land.’ It is also because so many Hispanic, African and Asian immigrants are evangelical Christians who are in our denominations and churches by the millions. They are us.”
Leith Anderson, President, National Association of Evangelicals


Pasted below are a few of the action steps from the FAQ section on their website: http://welcomingthestranger.com/learn-and-discern/faqs/

How is this affecting the church?

Demographers tell us that immigrant churches are the fastest growing segment of evangelical churches in the U.S. Increasingly, when we talk disparagingly about “those people,” we are talking about ourselves, because the Church is one Body of which each of us is an interdependent part. When one part suffers—as many undocumented brothers and sisters are, as individuals are forced into the shadows and families are divided by current laws—every part suffers (1 Cor 12:12-26).

What should our church do?

We suggest several steps:

Prayer—for wisdom as your church engages with this issue, for immigrants in your community, and for your political leaders

Listening—to immigrant brothers and sisters’ experiences, as well as to what the Bible has to teach us about how to interact with the foreign-born; the “I Was a Stranger” Challenge is a great discipleship tool to help us to listen to what Scripture says

Education—help others in your congregation to understand the issue; some churches have dedicated a sermon or Sunday School class to the topic, or created opportunities for interaction between immigrants and non-immigrants within the church; we have several resources for educating congregations available, including a template PowerPoint Presentation and a small group curriculum

Advocacy—your legislators need to hear the moral voice of churches and their leaders; some churches have created or signed on to a statement in support of immigration reform; others have visited, written to, or called their legislators to share their opinion; you can send an online message to legislators via World Relief’s website

Service—the best way to understand the immigration issue is to build relationships with immigrants, and service, such as through providing English classes, is a great way to begin; World Relief’s offices throughout the U.S. may be able to provide assistance in getting started

Evangelism—While many immigrants bring a vibrant faith with them, others will encounter the transformative message of the gospel for the first time in the U.S. Immigration provides a missional opportunity to make disciples of all nations—right on our doorstep

What should we encourage our government to do?

Many evangelical churches and leaders have advocated immigration reform based on the following principles:

• Securing our borders in ways keeping with humanitarian values, making it much more difficult to enter the country illegally;
• Providing a new mechanism for lawful entry to the U.S. for those who want to work here, making it easier to migrate lawfully in keeping with the U.S. economy’s labor needs;
• Reducing the backlog for family-based immigration petitions, to more quickly reunite families; and
• Providing a way for those already present in the U.S.to earn legal status by paying a fine, paying any taxes due, and making efforts to learn English, avoiding the extremes of either mass deportation or amnesty.

We believe this is the most just, compassionate, and reasonable way forward, especially compared to the other ideas on the table.  Other proposals include:
Mass Deportation—but this would be extremely costly, costing at least $80 billion just to remove everyone plus an estimated $2.6 trillion over ten years in lost economic activity
Amnesty—but “forgetting and forgiving” without consequence ignores the reality that the law has been broken and could send the wrong message or encourage future illegal immigration

Kid City 2012

A few of the things we did in 2012

• Consistently discipled 30 kids, reached over 100 kids
• Spent 88 hours on Sunday mornings with kids, helping them to learn more about Jesus
• Two ministry fairs
• Move to new building
• New scheduling system 
• a TON of new volunteers
• Secret Agent VBS
• New Director
• New Assistant Director
• Kid City Leadership Team Developed
• Multiple Brainstorming/Task Force sessions
• Kid City Outreach Carnival
• Grand Opening of Kid City/ Joyful Birds
• Move to one service
• New Curriculum
• Creation of age specific groups
• Packed up old space
• Developed processes
• New name tag system
• Intentionally secure area
• Kids Choir
• Themed rooms
• New discipline procedure
• Two baptisms
• Three graduations
• Seven adoptions
• Participation in Spiritual Consecration month