Short Simple Survey by Life Church

Hello all!
It's been a while since I've written anything. That's not a bad thing though; we're just very busy and the church has a lot things going on. Out of curiosity to learn more about our culture I created a church survey. I'd love to have you take this survey to help me better understand how people relate to church. Your help is greatly appreciated!


Click Here. answers are anonymous

Blueprint: There is never going to be a better time to check out Life Church

I wanted to tell you all about some things that are happening at Life Church Woodstock. We are going to start a 3 week series on Sunday mornings called Blueprint. During the Blueprint series I'm going to discuss our vision, mission, and core values. Blueprint is designed to be an opportunity for people who are interested in learning more about Life Church. The atmosphere for the first 2 weeks of blueprint will be more of a relaxed setting where people are welcome to ask questions and process material. The 3rd week of blueprint will be a full blown worship service. This will give you a chance to get a feel for the church. This series starts August 12th. If you are not plugged into to a church, are looking for a church, or know someone that is, there is never going to be a better time to come check things out. I hope to see you there!

Small groups: The week of August 19th we are going to be launching 2 new small groups. The small groups are going to be open. You don't have to be on our launch team, or even attend the church to participate in a small group. Though we would encourage you if you like the small group to come check out what the church is all about. 

Be looking for our website to lunch in August. Our goal is to have it up and ready by the 19th! This will be an excellent place to learn about serving, getting involved in a small group, etc. etc. For now, be sure to check out our Facebook page for updates. If you see something you like or have a question about don't hesitate to comment. I'll respond as fast as I can. Blessings to you, and I hope you have a great week.

Pastor Matt

It's been too long! But here's an update for Life Church!

***Year 1 recap video coming soon***

This past year has been without a doubt the most exciting year of my life. I feel like I blinked and it was over! Life Church has taken quite the journey! I'm going to be working on a recap video for you soon, but I want to let you know what were doing right now.

We are still meeting at the World of Cheer/gymnastics building in Woodstock. We have moved our meeting time to 11:00am. Many people have asked "why did you take down the sign?" Well we haven't gone anywhere but for the summer we have gone to a small group format. Since most people would be expecting a worship service with an offering, announcements etc we didn't want to be misleading. The reality is that we are still meeting as a launch team

What's a launch team? It's a group of people who have committed to being the leadership of Life Church. They serve, teach, give, pray, haul gear, and anything else I need them to do :) There are several people who simply attend Life Church (which is awesome and completely ok), but the majority are committed to being on the launch team.

Our Current Season: We are looking to add to our launch team. We've done a number of public services and they have been incredible, but our leadership is simply stretched too far with our current numbers. There are about 20 adults serving on the launch team, and were looking to double that before we start doing public services again. So our next big "win" will be adding 20 adults to our launch team. This will allow a break every now and then to our nursery workers, set up and tear down crew, and even our band. Anyone who's looking to get involved in a new church would be joining at an exciting time! It would be a chance to see the growth of a church on the front side. It would mean getting to know all the core leadership of the church and experiencing the joy of watching people come to Christ. Were also launching 2 new small groups this summer so look for detail coming soon! So if you've been thinking about checking things out this summer is a prime opportunity!

What's to come: Were not setting a specific date when were going to do a public launch. But, we are working hard to make that possible as fast as we can. Once God brings the right people who are called to Life Church we will be ramping up for a grand opening. God has provided so much equipment and talent, and we intend to use it to serve the people of Woodstock in a huge way. We are going to pour our time, money, and creativity into promoting the grand opening in such a way that would draw those far from God to a church that's burdened for reaching people. These are exciting days at Life Church. Don't miss your opportunity to be apart of it.

If you haven't already: Like our Facebook page, and please pass it along to anyone who you think we might be a great fit for them.

If you have any questions feel free to email pastorbeers@yahoo.com
Follow me on twitter @mattbeers77

Cheerleading levels and scoring explained...

Hey guys, I wanted to write this post because because since I've been with Team Legacy I've received lots of questions about levels, divisions, scoring, judging, and large gyms vs. small gyms. Rather than answering lots of individual questions I wanted to the chance to help explain the best I can how all this stuff works lol I will do my best to be as thorough as possible, if I forget something feel free to leave a comment and I will answer it as fast as possible :)

Levels: Levels have been implemented in order to keep teams with a significant skill advantages from competing against squads with lower skills. The levels are 1-6 (6 being only available to athletes over the age of 18) Age has no determining factor to what level a squad may be. For example it's possible for a senior team to compete level 1 or level 5, either way squads will have a "cap" to them highest skill allowed to competed in the area's of: tumbling, stunts, pyramids, jumps and basket tosses. Typically these are only seen by the divisions in tumbling, but there is WAY more to it than tumbling. For example: Squads with a high level of tucks may be encouraged to compete level 3 since the tuck is the highest tumbling skill allowed; however there is more to consider. Can the flyers execute all 4 body positions (heel stretch, bow n arrow, scorpion, and scale) are the bases strong enough for stunts like full ups, half ups, tic toc etc. Do they have clean high jumps with pointed toes? Can they throw high enough baskets for the flyers to execute more than one trick in the basket? Does the squad have the stamina for a level 3 pyramid that includes multiple extended stunts? These are all variables that have to be considered before making the choice to go level 3. Tumbling is an easy way to think about the levels since it's usually the slowest skill to acquire, but by far isn't the only determining factor when choosing how a squad will compete. 

            "sandbagging" Many squads are accused of sandbagging or "competing down" in order to win. Basically, that's exactly what all-stars encourages. It's a very different culture from that of school cheerleading. School cheerleading is looking for the kids to throw the hardest skill possible, all-stars is looking for the cleanest skill possible according to that level. If you haven't mastered it, then they don't want to see it. For example many students on a Stingray level 3 team will already have their layout, but because the tuck is that skill that they have mastered then they are on a level 3 team, regardless if they are eligible for a level 4 team. It's not unethical to have a team compete skills that are below what they are currently able to perform, since squads are rewarded for the entire team throwing the same skill often many students will have more tricks in the bag, than they are allowed to throw on the floor. 

For more information on levels check out: http://usasfrules.com/

Divisions: Divisions are based on age, and have nothing to do with skill level. The divisions are: Tiny, Mini, Youth, Junior, Senior, and International. These are the main division break downs, and have many sub categories...other divisions you may see are: special needs teams, and parent teams. ( for a complete list click on: http://usasfrules.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Age_Grid_-11-12_Rev_9-30-11.pdf)

Sub-Divisions: This is where it can get tricky. Most divisions have a "small" and "large" division break down. However, depending on the size of the particular competition they may be combined if not enough teams are entered or on the contrary they make break it down to "small" "medium" and "large" indicating that a large number of teams have registered at this division and level. Each individual competition will determine where to draw those lines. Another area where it gets tricky if for coed teams. If a team only goes by "youth" or "senior" that implies that it's an all-girl team, but if it's a "youth coed" or a "senior coed" That's what distinguishes it as a coed team....however some divisions allow males to compete on an all-girl team without making the distinction of being coed up to a limited amount of males: see the above link for further explanation. Age and level can be confusing so here's one more example: A Junior 5 team has a higher level of skill than a Senior 4 team. Even though the girls are older on a senior team, the level number is what determines the skill. In some cases you will see a youth level 5 team, though they are only elementary age, they have a higher level of skill than a senior 2 team.

Scoring/Judging: I'll combine these because they go hand in hand. Basically the large gaping hole in all-star cheerleading is the score sheet. Since there isn't an established unified score sheet many companies (competitions) will score and judge differently. Though the Varsity brand owns the majority of the cheerleading competitions they don't all use the same score sheet. I'll do a comparison of the 2 competitions that we've already attended this year:

               All-star Challenge Battle Under the Big Top                             

Scoring:        Day 1: 50% Day 2: 50%                                                        

Judges:  A different panel for each day                                                       

Looking for: Flashy choreography                                                              

Attracts: Mostly large gyms                                                        

Athletic Championships

Scoring: Day 1: 25% Day 2: 75%

Judges: Same panel for both days

Looking for: Clean skills

Attracts: A mix of small, medium, and large gyms

These are just some of the differences. For Team Legacy Athletic was a much better competition for us. There were less major gym (though we all faced several in all our divisions) and they rewarded the things were better at. No competition will score the same, and all have to be adjusted for...there is no "perfect routine" One judging panel may like a squad, and the next one may not. Typically most competitions reward day 2 higher than day one. They are looking for consistent squads, not "lucky" squads. Most competitions reward clean routines with as much difficulty as possible, but there is no "formula" to it. 

Large gyms vs. Small gyms: To have a small gym division the competition typically has to be very large. Without enough teams to split the division up, they company looses credibility. It looks bad on their part with only 1 or 2 teams in a division, so they will avoid that as much as possible. Large competitions such as Cheersport Nationals will have a small gym division. Team legacy qualifies as a small gym, and therefore won't have to compete against teams like: The Stingray all-stars, Ace All-stars of Alabama, Spirit of Texas, Kentucky Elite etc. etc. 

Culture: Large gyms have a different culture than small gyms. Students in smaller gyms are usually encouraged to compete above their actual skill level. Example: a girl who lands her back handspring 50% of the time might be placed on a level 2 team even though she's better suited for a level 1 team. The difference is that there are less students in the program and simply not enough talent to have exactly what you need to be at the highest level of readiness. Secondly larger gyms have many many students willing to go the extra mile to earn and keep their spots (due to the overwhelming competition) When I coached at Stingray all-stars I rarely had to push a kid to try their best because they knew if they didn't someone else would take their place. Stingray coaches rarely have to be the motivators, the students themselves are the driving force. This can change, and we don't have to have 800 kids like stingrays does; it just takes a group of dedicated students who are competitive with themselves...kids who are focused more on being the best they can be, rather than who they can beat. This is a culture I'm seeking to develop each and every day. 

Trickle down effect: A small gym competing against a large gym is much like a 1A football team playing against a 5A football team. Since there are more to pull from the talent pool is richer. It doesn't mean the 1A isn't good, but it's always tough when a FB team dresses 24 for a game, and the opposing team dresses 100...no explanation needed there lol. The trickle down effect goes like this: The more high upper level teams a gym has, the better the lower level teams are. Take stingrays for exmaple: they have 5 Level 5 teams. Several students who had level 5 skills just not sharp enough are now on a level 4 team which bumped several students with level 4 skills down to a level 3, which bumped several students with level 3 skills down to a level 2 team etc. etc. Because of the trickle down effect teams are packed with talent, that could easily move up a level and do well there too. Also teams score better when they carry the maximum number of participants. Example: a small team can only have 20 members, with a full 20 you can do more stunts, have bigger formations, use more visuals etc. 2 of our teams don't have a full roster of 20 which can hurt our overall impression score. In football terms (for the dad's reading this) We are like a 1A school that dressed 22 athletes to play a game with a 5A school who dressed 100 athletes.

But, Coach Matt! do we even have a chance then??!!....Did David beat Goliath? :)

Yes! of course! Just because we have obstacles to overcome doesn't meant it's impossible. Example: This weekend Team Legacy's Senior 2 team was beating the Stingray All-stars Senior 2 team after day 1. They have been practicing hard since May, when I arrived at Team Legacy in October our Senior 2 girls were in the wrong division and I had to choreograph almost a whole new routine (minus the dance Frank gave us) In 3 months between coach Natalie and I we had them beating a team with a full 20 on the floor, that had their whole routine since May...and on day 2 had we not fallen in our basket toss  we would have beat them by almost a point. Our girls were beating, and were barely over taken by the of the best gyms on the planet and I've only had 3 months with them. Imagine if I had the chance to start coaching them in May, I have no doubt we would have taken first place. But this stuff takes time, and unfortunately time isn't on our side anymore. The point is nobody is unbeatable. Even without a small gym division Team Legacy can be competitive with large gyms, it just takes hard work and smart coaching, and parent support of coaching decisions. Giants can be slayed...and hey, it's Biblical!

But, Coach Matt! they dropped, and we didn't why didn't we win!
That's an excellent question I've heard several times this year already. Depending on how the event is scored a drop doesn't always mean total failure. At Athletic it only meant a .5 deduction. So essentially a squad that was pretty much dead even with us that our jumped us by a whole point could drop a stunt and still win by .5 At Battle Under the Big Top everything was out of 10, so we could out tumble and out stunt a squad, but if they were better dancers, and had sharper transitions then they could win on the little things. Each competition rewards different things, and each competition deducts for different things. This is why being as difficult as possibly while hitting perfect is the best strategy. Attempting harder stunts only to drop them doesn't get a win, but doing easy stunts and not being clean doesn't get a win...pushing the envelope as far as possible while still looking perfect is what wins. Everyone earns their score just like kids earns grades. No one is given priority because of their name...it's simple math, and at the end of the day the team with the highest number wins. 

Moving forward: Were committed to doing whatever it takes to making your child's teams the most competitive. This may include choreography changes, personal additions to squads, skills rearrangements, formations rearrangements etc. Please remember that we will always put the squad over an individual. Part of being a team player means doing whatever a coach asks whether it's be dead center and front, or be in the back left corner. Ego's have to get checked at the door when dealing with a team. As a parent the best thing you can do is make sure your child is in a tumble class. If you have a flyer in your family I highly recommend a stunt class. Our prices beat ANYONE  in Georgia, and I feel I can honestly say I'm offering them some of the best instruction money can buy. As for next season there are many changes I'll be making: 1.) I"ll be choosing some different competitions, there is actually a strategy to picking competitions, we have to base scoring systems vs. what were strong in 2.) Every all-star will be required to take a tumbling class (EVERY PROGRAM DOES THIS: Hotshots, Devilrays, Stingrays, Georgia All-stars etc.) it will make a HUGE improvement to our programs success 3.) Were going to choose our Divisions and Levels wisely. My rule for next year is a student cannot compete up more than one level about his or her age bracket...i.e. no mini kids on Junior teams, and no youth aged kids on senior teams 4.) NO MORE CROSSOVERS! It's exhausting, and expensive to have crossovers. They should be used in emergency's not as a way to form teams.

Whether you're a student or a parent reading this I hope some or all of this information was helpful to you. Please feel free to ask any question that you may have that I didn't cover. I'm so excited to be apart of the Team Legacy Family! And I'm excited about helping establish a winning tradition for years to come! Thank you to all who are apart of the TL family, your commitment to the program is why we do what we do :)

The love of the father

I just uploaded some pics I took today at Stone Mountian, and as I saw my daughters face I couldn't help but think that here's no limit to what I would do for my little girl. I would sacrifice anything and everything just so she could have the chance to be what God created her to be, and to be happy serving Him. I would never let harm come to her for any one of you. That's not to be harsh, that is the reality. I would kill or die for my family. That's how were all programmed, but you have a father in Heaven loves you so much more than that. His most precious gift he had to offer was Jesus Christ. Though many of you will reject Him, he still crushed his Son for you...So you would have a "chance"

You may be poor..God still loves you.
You may have serious health issues...God still loves you.
You may have warrented serious emotion baggage...God still loves you.
You may be angry at God...God still loves you.
You may have been abused and feel like you've never known love...God still loves you
You're every day may be a struggle...and yet, God still loves you.

When I look at the face of my precious daughter, I'm selfish. I'm a daddy. Programmed to protect, and willing to destroy any threat to her. All I can think about when I look at her is me. When God looked at His son's face as it dripped blood while he hung there dying on the cross, all He could think about is you...

Your circumstances will never displace God's eternal love for you. You are his greatest creation...You are the one thing that he was willing to give anything for, the object of his affection. You are so loved.

This is how we do church

It's been a while since I've logged an entry, but really felt this one was worth writing:

During the past couple of months the launch team of Life Church has really developed some biblical community. We've got people in there that would take a bullet for one another. One faithful member of our launch team who has given sacrificially, who has taken my family out to eat because this person knows I'm stretched financially had a serious prayer request. The request was "pray for me, I don't know how I'm going to afford to put gas into my car to get to work this next week". First, WOW! That's what church should be like. Not a bunch of glad handing, fake smiling, "I'll pray for you brother", don't really care about each other phonies. In this case a member of the church was hurting and trusted their brothers and sisters in Christ enough to share something very personal. Whats even more amazing is that before this person was able to leave another launch team member slipped them a check for enough money to fill their tank, and to get a little bit extra. That's church people! That an prime example of what Acts was about. It's not about individual wealth, but rather taking care of the entire bride. I am constantly blown away by my launch team members. What's even more impressive was the faith of the person who had no money. I asked "do you want me to hold your tithe check?", and this person's response to me was "why?!! that isn't my money, it's God's". This faithful person came bringing their offering to God, knowing that God, and only God could provide. They had no idea how gas would get in their car, but their faith wouldn't allow them to cheat God. I was humbled at such an incredible example of what being in love of Jesus looks like, and I'm honored to be the pastor of Life church. Ladies and gentlemen  this is how we do church. Life Church!

Blown Away: When faith meets providence

Lately, God has been taking me on a journey of faith that has pushed me farther than I've ever been before. Launching a new church is difficult...which is why most guys just end up taking pastor positions at churches that make them miserable. Now, I'm not knocking pasturing an existing church, praise God we have men who are called to that. It's simply that in my experience most guys in ministry are miserable, and the statistics back that up.

The reason most guys who are call to plant a church that don't is because it tests you emotionally, physically, and above all spiritually. Then there's the 1,000 lbs gorilla in the room that no one every wants to talk about: Money. Taking a "church job" ensures a salary, possibly even with benefits...church planting not so much lol.

Then (since I'm being honest) probably the hardest to deal with is that fact that it tests your leadership capacity. Church planters ask themselves questions like: "will people really follow me?", "do I really have what it takes to do this?", "will God really do this through me". Now, there's no doubt that God has to make a person a certain way to be a church planter, and he undoubtedly has to call that man but for many this still isn't enough to take the plunge. Maybe you're not a church planter, but you long to take the next step in your faith, I want to quickly touch on biblical hero's of the faith to encourage you. Like myself these men weren't given the answers. In fact God calls us to live by faith, and not by sight. Look at what God can do when you put your "yes" on the table and really believe that God can do what he says he can do:

Abraham: God told him "Go into the land that I will show you". WOW! when is the last time God relocated your family with zero vision of the move and you listened?

Moses: God told him to "lead my people out of Egypt" Moses didn't speak well, and when he obeyed God allowed Moses to lead approx. 4 million people. Yeah, that's right. It's not like he lead a mega church, he led the population of Houston, Texas.

Jacob and Caleb: When everyone else failed to trust God because of the giants in the promise land, Jacob and Caleb remembered how great their God was and insisted on taking the land that God has promised.

Jonathan: After being tired of sitting around ready to take the Philistines he grabs his armor bearer and tells him "Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf". What incredible faith! What would seem like certain death his response is "perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf" and grabs victory. 1 Samuel 14...you need to read it.

Joshua: After following the Lord in slaying the Amorites he needed more time, so he had the audacity to pray for the sun to stand still so he could have more light to finish the job, and God did it!

There are so many more, but these stories I've mentioned all have a common theme: They didn't have all the answers, in fact most of them admitted not having the answers. It's their faith that allowed them to trust in the Lord, and realize that's exactly what God wants us to do. God knows you can't do it by yourself. That's why he's waiting for you to realize that , and turn it to him. The most incredible moments of the Bible are when men and women allowed their prayers, and faith to drift to place where only God could operate, that's when he gets the most glory, and that's where his blessings lie.

Life Church is now in it's 3rd month. There are a million reasons why should fail, but were having audacious faith that God is big enough to do what he says he can do, and we are trust him with reckless abandonment. As an update. Last night we had more people than ever before, and we collected more money than ever before. There are no millionaires, and most of us are under 35, with several college students in the mix, yet God is pouring out his blessing on our church. How is this movement happening? What are we doing? Nothing, were simply operating in a area where only God can provide, and instead of trying to organize a move of God we are simply being obedient and preparing for one, the rest is up to him. I'm just grateful to be involved.

Go God!

Hell is stirring

When Saul became the apostle Paul, he began what was an incredibly hard life. Even during the course of his salvation he had to endure blindness at the sight of Jesus. (what a scary concept to loose your sight) Whats more incredible is that he endured: shipwrecks, snake bites, beatings, stoning, and imprisonment.

If I had a laundry list like that I don't know that I'd have Paul's outlook on life. Most of us do something like this: "why God why!!!!!!!!! why did my tire blow out on the way to work?" (then we go through our list and remind God of it) "I mean, come on! I tithe, I serve in church, I don't cuss, or even drink! You owe me!"

(as a quick disclaimer, I'm not trying to trivialize your problems, a flat tire is never fun, I'm just attempting to draw some perspective)

I imagine myself meeting Paul one day, and him walking right up to me and saying "sissy", then turning around and laughing. What I mean is the things I complain about are so insignificant compared to the trial he faced. Listen for a second to the attitude that the apostle Paul had when dealing with suffering.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, 'for your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered,' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angles nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor heigth nor depth, nor anything else in all creations will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" -Romans 8:35-39

Wow! In the mist of all that he had endured he still couldn't see anything coming in the way of the love of Christ. I have noticed in my life when things go bad I often question does God love me less today? My prayer for myself is to see things like Paul did. Another thing that's interesting is that Paul viewed suffering as a mark that he was doing the right thing. Persecution was simply apart of Christianity to him. In light of that here's some suffering that's going on with Life Church Canton:
-I'm dealing with some health issues
-a launch team member just had a septic tank back up ($2900)
-a launch team member just had a motorcycle wreck
-a launch team member just had a miscarriage
-a launch team member's whole family has been sick
-a launch team member just had a child total their car in a wreck
-a launch team member is dealing with added stress with work

Most of these things are costly, and very hard to deal with, but something we have realized as a launch team is that Hell is stirring. To me this is significant, and I have 2 reasons:
1. In Matthew 16:18 Jesus mentions that Hell actually has gates. Gates are defensive mechanisms. I believe our job as Christians are to storm the gates of Hell, and I believe that's exactly what were doing, which is why we see such opposition.
2. In Acts 19:15 a demon tells some itinerant priests "Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but what are you? This indicates that if you're not a threat to Satan then he's not much a threat to you, because if he doesn't even know you, you must not be living that kind of life that effects him.

Life Church is on mission, and we know what were called to do. As we build our launch team I think we have stirred the gates of Hell. One of the greatest honor's I could ever accomplish is that the demons know my name.

Please continue to pray for our church, we will need it to do battle as we seek to change our city!

Post Easter High and update

It's been a little bit since I've blogged, but things are going awesome! I've been busy working on our legal stuff with startchurch.com and Life Church Rome. We've got our bi-laws and constitution done (amen). All of our systems are getting done this month. Anyway enough with the boring stuff. Easter was awesome! Jason hit it out of the park! The band took it to the next level...the house was packed, and people got saved! I gave our launch team the week off, but were back on this week. God is really blessing the process. People are having spiritual awakening in their lives. They are sacrificially giving, and they are FAITHFUL! I'm bragging on our group because they really are incredible, and I consider it a privilege to serve them.

I'm challenging our people to double. We want 10 more families. One of our core values is that we want to do things with excellence, and to "do" church with excellence we are going to need about 40 adults. We've got over half of that now, but I'd like to see us double and get people locked in before summer is in full swing. The church is doing great, and every step I have learned something new. Anytime I think I know it all God blows my mind with how much bigger his vision is than mine.

If you want to be apart of something that will out live you, and if you want to invest in something that will change your city for Jesus come check out Life Church Canton, and be apart of what God's doing!

This week is a big deal !

So this week has already been awesome and is only going to get better. First, our Life Group was incredible. We have great people with great discussion and insight to God's word and His church. Then when I took the offering we actually had people who tithed. (last week I called for commitment) It was awesome to see God's people giving sacrificially and obediently to His church. Even though our people are awesome we are small so money is of course coming in, in much less increments than at a big church. Well, we needed to pay our bill to start church. They are a company were using to handle all of our legal stuff. After last week we were short a couple hundred dollars of what we needed...Then God provided! A check was handed to me on Monday for enough to cover our bills, and then some! God knew our need and met it. That is the awesome God we serve!

After that quick praise, on to the BIG DEAL:
This week Life Church Canton is heading up to Life Church Rome. We are going to worship with our extended family up in Rome this week. They are going to be able to put faces with their prayers, and we are going to get to see the bigger picture. Life Church Rome has been used to win over 300 to Christ in less than 3 years...That's the kind of church I want to be hanging out with!

Then if that wasn't cool enough Pastor Jason is going to come and join our Life Group Sunday night. I'll be teaching on Simple Church, and he'll be talking about how his church grew from just a few families to a church over 400. He'll also be challenging us, and encouraging us. It will be an incredible Sunday for Life Church.

It's not too late to get involved! If you are interested in being a part of the launch team for Life Church you should come Sunday night. Contact me if interested.

The 1000 lbs gorilla

So this was the week that we talked about it. He's been lingering in the room for a while now, but I've chosen to ignore him for a while...last night was the time to address him.

1,000 Gorilla ='s money if you weren't sure...

We've had 3 amazing weeks with Life Church. Our life group has already bonded really well together, and we've tackled some tough biblical issues together, but last night was the night I outlined some expectations. See anyone is welcome to attend life group time. In fact anyone is welcome to attend our launch meeting sessions, but from now on things are going to change. Up until this point nobody was officially on the launch time. I wanted to give everyone ample time to feel me out, and see if the Holy Spirit was leading them to our church. This past Life Group I ask for 3 things:

1. Commit to help launch for a year (...ish)
2. Commit to serve in a ministry of the church
3. And...dun, dun, DUN!!!!....Tithe The reality is that ministry takes money, luckily God has an awesome plan for that! Man get's to keep 90% of what is really God's anyway, as long as he or she gives back to God 10%. Though the church needs money to do things like rent space, pay pastors, keep the lights on etc. The tithe is more about the faith position of the believer. The believer will receive much more from tithing than the church does (though this is a tough concept because money seems more tangable). However, God talks A LOT about money in the Bible. In fact in Malachi He actually asks us to test Him. Jesus and Paul visit the issue as well. The reality is that God promises to take care of us if were obedient to Him. So that's what I did last night. I addressed the 1000 lbs gorilla, and asked for those who are committing to be on a launch team to tithe starting next week. What's even crazier is that some people already started tithing! While were starting small God is already using our people to BE the church. People in the early days of Life Church will very much understand the tangable applications of their tithes. They will see God use their sacrifice to transform lives! They will see it turn into supplies to do church with, they will see a space transformed into a worship center with their sacrifice...So the reality is that the church isn't just after your money. The church is here to help you stay in good standing with God. His economy is very different from man's economy, and reguarless how our economy is doing he can bless with out condition...though I often only witness him blessing those who are faithful to Him...

So whether or not you're a part of Life Church, or some other church. See your tithe as what it is. A tangable way of telling God "I trust you". If you're simply tipping God. STOP! you heard me...whatever church you're at stop tipping them. God wants your best, not your left overs. In fact your pastor would probably advise you to do the same. See the scriptures say that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills (modern day translations God has more money than Bill Gates X McDonalds X Coke, he doesn't need your money, he WANTS your heart. We also talked about Biblical community and we discussed how we've lost some of that in America, and what the church can do to get that back. So whether or not your being led to our church or not. Please pray for us. Even if you're coming but aren't sure whether or not your in, please still keep coming. Our group isn't closed. And if your not going to be on our launch team it's ok...REALLY I love you and love just having you there :) and it's ok if you haven't decided yet. No cheesy sales pitch here, I only want you to commit if you've been led by the spirit. Thanks for all of you who are supporting us,and praying for us. YOU ROCK!

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)

I heard something simple, yet profound today

People dealing with spiritual warfare often go directly Ephesians 6, and deal with the armor of God. I've been guilty of this concept: I "put" on the armor and believe it's something like a magical force field that keeps me away from any harm, or any battle. That as if putting the armor on takes us out of the fight of spiritual warfare. Scripture doesn't teach this. Ephesians 6:11 says "Put on the whole armor of God, that you might be able to stand against the schemes of the Devil." The reality is that the Scriptures teach battle is a sure thing. Paul knows we'll fight against Satan, he's just trying to teach us how we "might be able to stand" against him. Wow! So for all of us that think simply memorizing Ephesians 6 is like an immunity pill, then we are in for a rough awakening when Satan is still beating on our armor...I always picture armor like a knight like in the movie Knight's Tale with Heath Ledger. Even though they wore armor it still hurt to get knocked off the horse. This is what Paul is teaching us. Mount up, and suit up, because this is still going to hurt, I'm just showing you how to survive it.

It's officially started

March 20th 2011 was an exciting day for Life Church Canton. We had our first official small group. I had only told a handful of people, and put a teaser trailer on facebook, and we had 13 families show up for our first meeting. I had been praying for 7. Honestly there's no real spiritual reason for that, but simply that Elevation church had 7 families that started them. So I thought, we'll that would be awesome to start with what they had. Instead God exceeded my expectations, and almost doubled the number I was praying about. Were going to meet again next week, and I'll continue talking about the Church. This past week we saw 3 main things:

1. The church is not a building, it's the people.
2. Traditions don't ever supersede scripture.
3. Removing the focus from Jesus to our morals is idolatry.

Next week were going to look at the Sabbath, and what giving God your best looks like. Our launch information will be on the "what":
1. Mission
2. Vision
3. DNA (core values)

You won't want to miss! If I don't see you there, please be praying for us.

Matt

Church Plant Update

This post is for those who are interesting in knowing about what's going on with my church plant. I'm going to give you a condensed version of where were at so far.

-God made it clear to me that my time serving in Texas was to position me for to plant a Church.
-My family moved back to Georgia with nothing more than a calling to serve Him.
-I started getting scared and started questioning whether or not I should just take a staff job.
-Michele and I stepped out on faith and surrendered to this plant.
-Almost the next day People started contacting me about being apart of the plant (I hadn't even advertised it yet..total God thing).
-About a week after Jason the lead pastor of a church plant in Rome contacted me because he heard I was planting a church and wanted to see if he could help.
-We met for lunch and hit it off. God has given us the same heart for ministry, so we have decided to collaborate.
-This means were forming a network, his church will provide coaching, finances, personnel, equipment, and staff and in return we will give financially to the network once were on our feet.
-Jason and I have continued to meet weekly and he's coaching me through the tough first steps. I just met with the staff, and they are also going to help us get started.
-I'm working with a company called startchurch.com who's helping us with the legal side. Between the two were are going to have everything ready to plant with lots of wisdom guiding us.
-To begin were starting a small group. It will start on March 20th at 6:00pm at my parents house in Lake Arrowhead. (Email if you'd like to attend and need directions)

The purpose of this small group is so I can cast vision for the church, love on the people that God has drawn to this movement, and gather my launch team. The launch team is the group of people God has called to plant a new church. They are the ones who will be the very first partners of the church, and will help with various aspects of leadership and ministry in the church. Email me at pastorbeers@yahoo.com if you'd like to ask any questions. If you're interested in attending the first small group meeting contact me and I'll make sure you have directions. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and please keep us in your prayers.

Matt

I don't have my journal handy

So tell me if I'm type A after reading this: I have 3 journals. 1.) It's for what God's doing in my life, personal events, frustrations, and in the very general sense a journal 2.) My second journal is where I take notes that I like when listening to good preaching, and or when I want to remember something from God's word, or a sermon idea 3.) My 3rd journal is a way to catalogue my highlighted passages in any books I'm reading...Wow even writing that makes me feel a little OCD.

Right now I have something cool that God gave me, but I don't have access to any of them so I'll just use this blog as an entry for journal number 2:

I grew up hearing "this is the church, this is the steeple, open the doors and see all the people (imagine the hand gestures)

-This fundamental flaw of theology misses the point that the church isn't a building. We are the church! When we reduce the bride of Christ to a man made structure we are replacing the true church with something created by man.The irony is that the only thing created to reflect God is man, and by making His church about something we've created, it's like were saying "nice try God, but..." See how this idea is dangerous, and needs to be fixed?

Negativity. Are Christians the experts?

If there's something I've learned in the ministry it's that Christians are negative. More than just the "average" Christian, but lots of ministers are negative. "our building is too small", "our worship band isn't cool enough", "our church is never going to grow", etc. etc.



I've heard it said that the Christian army is the only army on the planet that shoots it's wounded. Ministers are often the ones taking aim. Pastor's bash other pastors from their pulpit. Minister's judge other churches ministries from their office, and neither are afraid to share their opinion on why they are a better leader, preacher, minister than you.



One thing I've come in contact with while starting this church plant is negativity. I've already addressed it in a previous post, but sure enough it has surfaced. It's actually kind of funny (but sad at the same time) the things people will say to you to discourage you from planting a church. I read in Steven Furtick's book that one pastor said "welcome to the neighborhood kid"...I'm guessing he wishes that conversation went a little bit different. Because I've never had a tenure anywhere I've been told "I need more time following before I lead". The reality is as practical as that sounds, biblically most leaders don't fit that mold. Our Biblical patriarchs were called by God and they followed. That's why God blessed them, not because of their resumes but because of their hearts. Imagine what the world would be like if Timothy didn't lead simply because he was young, or Paul because of the criticism he received about the issue of apostleship, or even Jesus (he after had to obey the will of the Father). I'm glad these men all chose to obey their calling.

Pastors, ministers, and Christians I want to encourage you today to be an encouragement to others in ministry, and to your congregations! The church has enough work to do, we don't need to be occupied by civil wars. Let's preach like their are lives at stake! And love people like Christ did!

Next Steps

Jason (lead pastor of Life Church in Rome, GA) and I had another great meeting today. We put an action plan in order. I'm going to start the process of gathering my launch team. Were simply going to start a life group so that we can begin to build stronger relationships, and so I can pour vision into them. I've had lots of verbal commitments, now it's time to see where the rubber meets the road. I'm looking for my committed core...I'm praying God gives me an awesome team!

Holding Pattern

Being a Type "A" or "Choleric" it's not in my nature to slow down...ever. I've always been the guy who dares you to tell me I can't, or the one who will put in twice the work you do to meet the goal. My 5 greatest strengths according to Tom Rath's Strengths Finder 2.0 are: Maximizer, Activator, Futuristic, Input, and Self Assurance. Basically they mean I'm gifted get the maximum results from a person or team, put thoughts into action, catching a vision and selling it, crave more information with the intent to archive it for practical use, and completely believe in myself. As you can guess I don't do well without a plan, I don't like entering into things without proper research, I can't stand slow moving organizations or people, and I'm not one to hang around if the vision is weak. I often identify with 2 Timothy chapter 2. Timothy is was after all a young preacher, and Paul titles the chapter "A Good Solider of Jesus Christ" which I like the thought of a minister acting like a solider. I'm a charge Hell with a water pistol type, and right now God has got me in a Abrahamic position of Faith. Abraham was given a directive: "Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you." Gen 12:1. That's it. God told him to go, and that He would provide that location at an undisclosed time. I don't do well with stuff like that. Which is probably why God isn't revealing every step of this church plant clearly to me. I'm in this place where God has told me to plant, but isn't ready to give me all (or even most) of the details. Typically God has to tell us things that are contrary to our nature. The Lord is giving my patience by building it into me. He's teaching me to move in His time. I'm good at doing things and simply asking God to bless it. I'm interested in doing God things and in turn being blessed.

Which is why Life Church in Rome getting involved is a big deal. They've walked through some trials that I might not have to. I'm excited about our partnership in this church plant. I don't know what every step is going to look like, but I'm willing and ready to take it on. I'm meeting again with lead pastor Jason tomorrow, and were going to talk about some of the next steps. My prayer is we will accurately discern one another in this process so that God gets the glory, and His church can be built.

On a tangible level. I spoke with startchurch.com today and they are ready and willing to make changes needed to assist our partnership with Life Church, and we are well on our way in our process to become legal. Our next step is fleshing out what this combination of vision will look like so that we can get to work on planting this church.

Moving along

Mike has finished with our promo video for our vision night (which looks great), and I've gotten all of our forms back from startchurch.com. It's overwhelming to me! There is so much legal stuff that I've never had to mess with as a staff guy. I can see how valuable an executive pastor, and a business administrator is. Well once I file all of our forms with the IRS we'll actually exist as a church, and we are going to be moving forward with our launch team. These are exciting times, but I'll be glad when all the legal stuff is far behind us :)