Saturday, May 31, 2014

Saturday Readings

  • Luke 7:11-17

Jesus Raises a Widow’s Son

11 Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. 12 As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”
14 Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” 15 The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
16 They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” 17 This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.

Friday, May 30, 2014

Friday Readings

Luke 10: 25-37

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

  • Galatians 5:16-26

16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Thursday Readings

/ / / / / / / / 8
Overarching Principles for Spiritual Vitality
/ 1:
GET PEOPLE MOVING.
"So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ."  Colossians 1:28
/ / 2:
EMBED THE BIBLE IN EVERYTHING.  READ MORE OF THE BIBLE THIS WEEK THAN LAST WEEK.
"All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.  It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right."  2 Timothy 3:16
/ / / 3:
CREATE OWNERSHIP OF THE MISSION.  START LOCALLY, THINK GLOBALLY.
"Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.  Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.  This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ."  Ephesians 4:11-13
/ / / / 4:
PASTOR THE LOCAL COMMUNITY.  EVERY MEMBER IS A MINISTER.
"You are the light of the world--like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden...in the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father."  Matthew 5:14,16
/ / / / / 5:
LEAD FROM A CHRIST-CENTERED HEART.
"Love the Lord your God will all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength."  Mark 12:30
/ / / / / / 6:
NOTHING WITHOUT PRAYER.  THE PRAYER SERVICE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT SERVICE OF THE WEEK.
"Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
/ / / / / / / 7:
FUN IS RELEVANT.  IF THE JOURNEY ISN'T FUN, NOBODY WILL WANT TO GO.
"I am the door.  If anyone enters by me, they will find pasture (refreshment).  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  But I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."  John 10:9-22 
"Therefore encourage one another and build one another up."
1 Thessalonians 5:11
"The joy of the Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.  My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song."  Psalm 28:7-8
/ / / / / / / /8:
EMPHASIS ON DAILY PRESENCE WITH GOD AND HEALTHY PRESENCE WITH OTHERS.
Key study and focus on:
     - Luke 15:1-32 (The Prodigal Son)
     - John 15:1-11 (I am the Vine)
     - John 15:-12-27 (Loving Others)
     - Matthew 18:15-20 (Conflict Resolution)
     - Matthew 18:1-14, 21-35 (Forgiveness)

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Garage Sale for Klems

Dear PoC Family,

When I first met Tom and Lorrie Klem and their fantastic kids (Daniel, Nick and Sam), I knew I had stumbled onto a great treasure. Some people have a way of inserting joy into the lives of others through their insight, unique view, friendship and fun. So many of you already know this and I’m so excited that more and more of our new friends at PoC are seeing just how incredible this family is. We want to celebrate them...well, spoil them!

Lorrie has been diagnosed with Stage IV Lung cancer and is struggling with pain, exhaustion and everything that goes along with that. It is very serious and is pushing hundreds of us to our knees multiple times a day. We need a miracle. I’m not alone in feeling helpless, angry, and scared at the thought and sight of my friends going through this. I, along with you, know our God is able. So, we cry out day and night. We believe and we look for ways to help, following every missional impulse that the Holy Spirit gives us to bless our friends. It’s go time!


A few of our PoC friends were dreaming up ways to help the Klems and decided to hold a community garage sale at the church. The idea gained momentum and soon they were inviting the whole church and community to be a part. 
I would like to strongly encourage you to join in, to act now.


The garage sale will be held at the church this coming weekend:

Donations of items for the sale are being accepted
from 9am-9pm this Thursday, May 29th.

The sale will be open
Friday, May 30th from 8am-12pm
&
Saturday, May 31st from 8am-2pm



This missional event is led by Pastor Jessica Whisler (jwhisler@pointofchange.org)  and Carrie Robinson (robin72096@yahoo.com). These ladies will need help all day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with pricing, organizing, operations, and hauling. Could you please make a plan to contribute some stuff, time, and energy to help with this project?  Also, invite, invite, invite.



This is yet another way that we get to Give Like Heroes. When we were first planting the church, Lorrie and her team held a HUGE (I’m talkin’ MASSIVE) yard sale to raise money for our church. She blew my mind at her ability to pull that together. Well, between you and me, I want us to blow that event out of the water!!! No offense, Lorrie, but we’re going to beat you!!!!! Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah! :)



Give Like Heroes, PoC!!!!



Pastor Todd

It's Celebration, Not Compensation - A Letter from Pastor Todd

Dear PoC Family,

There’s a big difference between compensation and celebration. It is so so so so so so important that
we understand this if we want to “Give Like Heroes”!

Many years ago I decided to look for ways to be more productive by taking weekly recurring tasks and bundling them into big projects that could be done once every quarter or so. This habit has saved me TONS of time over the years. I had worked this way for years as a Children’s Pastor, so I set out to create worship sets for our worship band that would give them their assignments, charts, CDs and a few fun celebration gifts months in advance. My personality is such that I enjoy “projects” more than daily tasks, so I set out to get it done!

I worked hard for about a week putting it all together. The printer we had at the time was not the
fastest and I remember it took hours and hours and hours to put the packets together. Plus, CD
duplication was not as easy as it is now, so it took a loooooooonnnnng time. Our wonderful office
administrator and my worship assistant also donated a lot of time to help me, even though it took
many late nights. In fact, it took us almost two entire nights to get it done because of paper jams and
machines needing to cool down and unexpected visitors. Thankfully things are much simpler now.

Well, Sunday morning came and to be honest, it felt nice to know that this huge task was finished,
that it would help our team and add energy to the process. It also felt nice to know that the work was
done for the team outside of the view of the church at large. In every way it was an effort to resource
and celebrate a team. Well, that Sunday morning came and we had a great service. The energy of the
service and the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit kept us awake even though we had been up the night before. Towards the end of the service, my senior pastor, who had been so complimentary of our hard work all week, stood up in front of the congregation and (without me knowing it) celebrated me. It was a bit uncomfortable, but so humbling to hear him tell the congregation what he had observed, about the work that we had been doing all week long. He honored me by explaining that “the project” was an effort to work smart, stream-line the process, and celebrate a much-loved team. He concluded by calling the ushers to collect a spur-of-the-moment free-will offering to celebrate Kim and I. What an honor.

Later that afternoon while still glowing from the joy of being celebrated by my friends, a friend of
mine came into my office and asked, “What did you think of what happened this morning? Were you
surprised?” I said, “Yes, I had no idea.” He said, “Well, I think it was nice, I just hope that people don’t get the wrong idea. People should work hard because it’s the right thing to do, not because they are going to get paid for it.”

Now I know that not everyone has the same rude-radar that I have, so I received it gratefully, but I did think it was a little rude until I had a chance to reflect on the comment and began to remember that I had heard this same type of bemoaning again and again in the churches where I served over the years. Some may call it jealousy. Some may call it greed. And, perhaps there is a tinge of that somewhere in there, but the more I’ve thought about this, I think it is merely the commonly misunderstood but vastly important difference between the expectation of compensation and the gift of celebration. For many, this is a battle. There is this idea in our society that certain people have and seem to proclaim with puffed-up-chests that, “I don’t NEED to be celebrated.”

Can you believe that? Even after seeing the natural and uncontainable joy in a child’s face when you
call them by name, send them a letter in the mail, compliment them on their new shoes, bright eyes,
awesome throw, base hit, or birthday, many people still reject the idea that celebration is needed,
refreshing and life-giving. Surely we can live so close to Christ that we can freely celebrate others
without fear that we are spoiling them irreparably. Can’t we turn the celebration up just a notch, or
(gulp) . . . open that puppy up wide!?!?!?

Right now someone you know in your home, next door, in the next office or cubicle or behind the
register deserves to be celebrated. Don’t wait. You are an extension of your Father and He LOVES
to celebrate His kids (lost and found). He owns everything and gives abundantly. So, we get to help
recirculate all of his blessings to all of his kids. Less for us, more for others. It is not foolish to give until you have less so that others can have more. We are not tapped out!!! Far from it. We are party . . . blessing . . . and celebration central to our families, church and our cities.

Who will you celebrate today?

Your Pastors Are Praying For You. Give Like Heroes!

Pastor Todd

Wednesday Readings

Luke 10: 25-37

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”


  • 1 Corinthians 2:10-14

10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
 The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

The Conversation -- What is community? Being JOINED.


The Conversation
Week 4 notes on:
What is Community? 
JOINED

How have you caught other PoC’ers red handed serving/blessing others?

·         Having each other over for dinner

·         helping people move, putting together picnic tables in the pavilion

·         paying for a homeless man’s dinner


-          When we think of community, a number of words come to mind:  unified, participate, love, common, cooperate, connect, sharing . . .

 

-          What does true Christian community look like to you?

-being with one another, family, encouragement, the body working together…various functions coming together as one, helping, meeting each other’s needs, refreshing, acceptance, knowing others and being known, transparency, accountability


-          Creating community doesn’t come easily, but when it happens, the rewards are worth the effort.   Have you ever experienced a significant “community experience”?  Describe what it looked and felt like.  What made it so meaningful to you?

o   The very first church I attended was like that; it was overwhelming. So much love.

o   The first time Mark Alvis invited me to work on a roof.  A group of people coming together, just to help each other out…exciting stuff.

o   When we passed out free cold water to people in the park on July 4.

o   On a work and witness trip in Guatemala, a Christian community shared Christ but not a same language. We got along great and had a great time together.

o   When I was pregnant as a single mom, people came to my house; I was never alone. What should have been the worst of times was better because of Christian community.

o   Our work retreat…I work for a nonprofit, and most of us are Christians. It was centered around finding a place of rest, time of prayer, time of refreshing.


-          What are your biggest hopes and fears as you think about the potential of being involved in a Christian community?

o   Hope: The sense of belonging that plauges our culture, to be able to provide that for each other

o   Hope: Healing.  The world bangs each other up.

o   Hope: We will be able to focus outward more since our needs are being met and we are not so focused on ourselves, we will be able to reach out and help others more.

o   Hope: When you help others it helps you think about what you have that others don’t and perspective makes you thankful and more blessed feeling.

o   Fear: Guilt when not meeting missional impulses

o   Fear: Balance, helping others while my kids are with me, making/having time
 

Christian community is unique in that

it must be based on three primary themes:

- Personal devotion to Jesus

- The common call or mission of the Gospel

- The inclusion of all people, especially those who don’t fit in.

 

Acts 2: 42-47
They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the Apostles.  All the believers were together and had everything in common.  They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.  They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.  And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

 
I Peter 4: 8-10
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.  Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.  Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others.  Faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.

2 Corinthians 5: 14-16
For Christ’s love compels us and He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.  So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.

Philippians 1: 3
I thank my God every time I remember you.  In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel.
 
Philippians 1:1-11Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons[a]:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
 

-          How do you think the disciples might have characterized the community they had with Jesus?

-          What would need to change to incorporate more opportunities for intentional, gospel-centered community to take place in your life?

o   Stop doing things for ourselves

o   Focus on others

o   Hold everything much more loosely than I hold it today –“Me time.” If I’m serving others, it’s not really “my” time or stuff or anything.  It’s His and I’m using it for him.

o   Stop looking at it like an obligation, look at it as an opportunity

o   Make it a habit so it becomes second nature

o   Follow and trust the Lord, obey him

o   Don’t be so stressed about your schedules, be more flexible

o   Submit myself to being willing to going outside my comfort zone and be part of community when I sometimes like to be reclusive

o   Learn to be evangelists. When evangelists come into a town, they come in and do their part.  We need to come into our community (wherever it is) and go out and be open and free to do whatever God has for you to do.

o   Be purposefully aware of what’s going on around us, what needs there are –that are not on my to-do list.  Create that as a habit. Pencil it in.

o   Recognize what personality God gave you and learn how to work with that.

o   Schedule in extra time to have wiggle room in your schedule.  Be willing to have time to go out of your way.

o   What would happen if we covered our mirrors with Jesus and covered our clocks so we’re not scheduling every minute.

o   I need someone to hold me accountable to DO something I’ve said time and time again that I really need to do.

o   Learn how to lovingly give accountability and ask for accountability.

o   Leave margin in your life to obey the Lord.  Make sure your plans are realistic.


He who loves his dream of a community
more than the Christian community itself
becomes a destroyer of the latter,
even though his personal intentions
may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  What do you think he meant by this?

o   Gotta say no to a good thing to say yes to great need

o   “Those who are trying to save their life will lose it…”  Can be applied to schedule too

o   Need to be open/willing to respond to missional impulse whenever it comes, however

o   Have more than just intentions; gotta do it

o   Has a sense of bitterness, nothing is good enough

o   Self-focused, “not being fed here”, grumbling about own needs

o   Reminds of some elements of traditional church culture—often have areas where we love the ideal more than the reality

o   True Christian community is centered in Christ; doesn’t mean it won’t be messy and complicated—people are not normal!

 

-          Pastor Todd explained that one of Pastor Jessica’s jobs is to oversee small groups and connection events and that one of Pastor Angela’s jobs is to oversee discipleship and missional evangelism. 

o   Angela: looking for ways for the church to be involved in the community

o   PoC will provide small groups, discipleship pathway classes, things like this…but, not so many that we as members of PoC don’t have time to follow our missional impulses and be IN the community

o   We cannot expect small groups to do for us what they are not designed to do…i.e. The church needs to have a marriage enrichment class so my friends’ marriage doesn’t fall apart.  It takes time to start a class like this.  So many times the urgency has passed by the time a church can organize a class.  The church can occasionally offer a class or something to meet a consistent need, but we can’t look to the church to provide these needs constantly.  We must be ready to respond to the urgency on our own.  The church can provide curriculum, but we must open up our own homes and meet with others to bring them through this type of mentorship/fellowship on our own.

o   Poc will continue to sponsor a few groups, a few catalysts events, and discipleship classes, but this effort will be intentionally few so that they will not fill up the church calendar and so that PoCers can create community in their own context. 

o   If the leaders provide the most effective catalyst events and discipleship opportunities without feeling the need to throw a group at every need, how might that free up members of the PoC community to be more missional in their own context?

o   Let our pastors know what you are doing in the community.  Let them know what resources the church can provide.

 

 

-          Pastor Todd has said, “It is not realistic to throw a small group or a church event at everything.  Instead, we need people to obey and follow the missional impulses that the Lord has given them so that the Christian community can join them in their efforts.” 

-          What do you think he means by this?

o   Most missional impulses are one to one. Your friend needs your help.

o   We need to be more watchful about what people around us need.

o   If God puts us in a situation, He will give us what we need the confidence and knowledge to help people. We don’t have to go to our pastor and ask him to do it. We need to trust God to supply and meet a need he asks us to meet.

o   Be willing to jump on board with your passion.

o   YOU do it!

o   Creating a church event or class may not be the most effective way to reach out to our community.

o   Invite others to be part of a meaningful work, and community is created.

 

-          One of the key aspects of community is hospitality.  One of the reasons that many church-sponsored small groups and events don’t succeed is because they do not feel warm or inviting and often seem to have a hidden agenda.  Social interaction can be awkward, cold and off-putting for people.  Why might community that is offered by believers in their own homes or in their own context feel more inviting?

-           

Individualism and Community                                                                                                   

-          Our city and community has needs all of the time.  When the church throws a small group at a need, it makes the whole community feel relieved, but this is false relief.  The need exists farther than the church can reach, therefore the individuals (hopefully in teams) must be the gospel to the community as instantaneously and spontaneously as they can.

-          On of the major barriers that prevents us from moving into community is individualism.  Our culture glorifies the pioneer, the lone hero, and the overachiever, but in reality this individualism tends to work against community by prioritizing things done in isolation over things done with others.  Our need for self and individualism is destroying the powerful, counter-cultural witness of the Church.  It’s limiting our capacity to experience God and it’s only going to get worse unless we make some significant adjustments.

 

-          Are there ways you could make changes at your work, home, school, etc. to help build community?

o   Be willing to get out there. Handing out invitations to church. Overcome shyness. Learn to become more outgoing. Allow God to push you out of your comfort zone. 

o   Pray around your community. Talk to people around the block where you live and ask them how you can pray for them.  Be bold.  Write it down so they know you’re sincere. Tell them you’re there in the community if they need someone to talk to. 

o   Offer to pray with people on the spot. Gives them hope when you befriend them and pray for them.

o   Ask people, “How are things going in your life?”

o   Rely on the Holy Spirit when interacting with people. He will guide you what to do/say.

o   Get to know people. Befriend people.  Build relationship. Sometimes it is a long term mission.

o   Be prepared to be rejected. Love people even when they reject you.

o   Compliment, celebrate, bless…Most people won’t be put off or offended by these.


-          In what ways do you tend to keep neighbors at a distance? 

o   I’m interested in how others are doing and what I can do for them, but I have a hard time being taken care of myself.

o   I isolate myself.

o   Relying on facebook and texting for genuine conversation.

o   When I am by myself in a public area I usually don’t feel comfortable just being there, so I try to look like I’m doing something so people won’t approach me. 

o   “Oh I wish I could.” “I’m busy that day.”


-          How can you make simple adjustments to connect more?

o   Don’t judge quickly

o   Be more open

o   Stop procrastinating

o   Get the job done now. Work hard.


-          What’s the connection between your personal time with God and Christian community?

o   If you’re in His word constantly, He will be faithful to give you opportunities.

o   As introverts, the way we use private time is the most renewing time. A big part of being missional is carving out the personal time to be refreshed and prepare us for time with others and to be prepared (not drained) when we are in community.

o   When you are done having your personal time with God, you don’t exit his presence. Stay connected and listening to Him. Don’t take the earbuds [connected to God] out.


-          What are you thoughts, how are you feeling in light of the conversation…

o   It has to start with friendship. A continuing relationship.  Community.  People are very hungry for friendship.  They may not say “Christian,” but they want someone to talk to and share their cares with. 

o   God loves us no matter what…not just because we believe in and serve him. We must love others like that.  They know if we’re really loving or caring for them or if we have an agenda.

o   Longevity…settle down into relationship with people.  Keep talking.  Keep offering friendship and meeting needs.

o   Have a relationship with people like we’re going to know them hereafter!

o   This conversation brings to light things I’ve been conscious about but not intentional about.  This puts it all on the table

o   This is our community that we need to bring people into.  People see us supporting each other, and it creates a ripple effect.

 

-          What do you tend to do exclusively alone?  How could you include others in your activities?

 

-          In what ways has your spiritual growth been practiced alone?  How can you invite others to share in spiritual formation?

 
Articles to read this week:


What homework will you assign yourself?

If you really wanted to open your life up to enjoy and offer Christian community, could you do it? 
What are some things that are standing in your way?