Life Group (sorry for the format today, blogspot won't let he hit enter)

We had our second official meeting last night, and it was awesome. We had some new faces, and very importantly most of the original ones. The statistics aren't great when studying church planting. Life Church is already breaking some of those! God has given us some incredibly talented people! It's awesome to see them already using gifts. Last night we had some technical difficulties, and 3 of my (self proclaimed) geeks got right on it. There are people who can teach, people who have the gift of service, etc. etc. God has already brought us such an amazing group. If you're reading this and you're wondering if it's too late to get involved...It's not! There are so many ways people can be a part of Life Church. 1. You can join us for our Life Group meeting on Sunday night's @ 6:00pm at Steve Williams house. 2. You can help support us; This can be an number of things. It could mean financial support, it could mean prayer support, it can mean helping us promote Life Church. 3. The main thing is it's never too late to get involved; our group isn't closed, we eagerly welcome new people, and are excited for people to "catch" the vision and jump on board. The other important thing to know is that we understand Life Church won't be for everyone. If it's not for you, it's OK...really :) Here's a quick recap of last nights topic: The Church "Giving God your best" We looked at the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7, and saw how Jesus addressed religious people and issues in his day. We learned: -Giving God your best has nothing to do with wearing the fanciest clothes you can afford to church, but rather in every aspect of your life giving God your best. As Paul teaches us in Romans true worship isn't compartmentalized, but it's every single aspect of your life. -Jesus spoke against the outside appearance. Over and over again we can read Jesus saying "you have heard that it was said..." Then he challenged what the religious leaders of his day were teaching. He taught radical things likes committing adultery isn't a physical act, but you can do it in your heart. Jesus is concerned with our hearts, not just how we look. If we reduce Christianity to how good we are at "appearing Christian", then we have missed the whole point. During our Launch Team time I covered: Mission: Living a changed life to see lives changed Vision: To reach 20% of our unchurched community DNA: 1. People matter (you matter to God, and you matter to us) 2. Make Bold moves (Jesus was bold and changed the world, we want to be like Jesus so were gong to be bold) 3. Exercising audacious faith (God says to trust him in all things, so we are...with audacity) 4. Volunteer driven (there are too many churches who rely only on the pastors to get anything done...it's not biblical so were not going to do it) 5.Excellence in Everything (giving God our best won't be compartmentalized, we are going to strive for excellence in everything, I'm never willing to settle for good, when we can do great for God) 6.Developing leaders (in order for Matthew 28:19 to happen we need to always be equipping leaders, so that's what were about)