Church Planting on Steroids? God Is Able!

It feels like our church is being planted at an accelerated rate... (I'm sure the launch team has not noticed!  Ha.  Ha.)  On one hand, logically, this should scare me.  On paper - it's scary.  We're gonna do what?  In how many months?  How much money?  Whaaaat? 

Confession:  I'm not scared.

Every now and then, a small part of me will stop, and ponder, but even then, I'm not really pondering how I should be scared.  I'm actually taking note that... I'm not.  At all.  *At alllllllll...*  And that I attribute to God, because worrier or not - logical or not... I think just about anybody would look at a one or two sentence summary of this whole thing and laugh.

The ridiculousness of this entire endeavor only lends itself more to my firm, unwavering, unshakeable belief that God's hand is pushing this along.  I think it, I feel it, I believe it, I know it... completely certain, completely sold.  God is propelling it along.  Fast.  It is ALL God, all of the time, down to every last blessing, every last penny... and every last trial and tribulation that He may not be a fan of, but allows to happen anyway... it's all a big blessing, with some soon-to-be-seen or possibly never-seen but still equally awesome way that is bringing glory to God's name.  It is always God.

It is God who fights our battles for us.  (for example, Psalm 60:12, 1 Samuel 17:47)

It is God who bears our burdens.  (for example, Psalm 68:19-20)

It is God who builds His house.  (for example, Psalm 127)

It is God.  (for example, Genesis 1 - Revelation 22)

While I wouldn't say, exactly, that we're church planting on steroids, we are church planting on God.  And, whether God chooses to move slowly, or at a lightning speed, and whether He blesses with 160 thousand dollars, or 16 thousand dollars, or 16 cents, the important part is that God is the one in the driver's seat.  He is in control.  He has much more wisdom than us.  He is able.  This is why it is so important for us to stay clinging to Him.

So, here's just a long thought, encouraging us all to stay in God's presence and cry out to Him.

I love Psalm 3.  Love it.  Here's a portion of it:  (verses 1-4) 

"O LORD, how many are my foes!  Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God.  But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.  I cried aloud to the LORD and he answered me from his holy hill."

A week or so ago, I felt really burdened for a few different things and even took a little early morning prayer drive after my coffee run - when the Lord burdens you, he burdens you.  Whattcha gonna do?  ;)  Obey, of course! 

Long, awesome story later, I will just say this.  I think God is wanting to grow my (your?) prayer ENDURANCE. 

I have been noticing God answering all these *smaller* prayer requests.  BIG answers to prayer, but compared to $160,000, or a cure for cancer, they're on the smaller scale.  Yet, I think it's very important to notice and appreciate the small answers to prayer.  (Matthew 6:26) God takes care of the birds - why do we worry He won't take care of us?  Kind of along the same lines - God takes care of a broken refrigerator, pink eye, opening a stuck window... He bothers with those prayers, how much more will He bother with the bigger prayers? 

When I was praying for a blessing for my friends, a broken refrigerator wasn't what I had in mind.  If you must know, I am absolutely certain God let my friends' refrigerator break, so that He could bless them.  Reassure them that He is there, He is holding them in the palm of His hand, and that they are EXACTLY where they are supposed to be - in God's will.  ["Christ never uttered a hopeless word. In the Father's will there are no hopeless words." PF Bresee]  And not only did He bless them, but by answering my prayer, He blessed me.  And when Kim gave her testimony Sunday night, I think He blessed all of us. 

And, if you must know, because God is good and I'll swallow my pride (think I'm crazy, go ahead!) - I am absolutely convinced that a month ago I had pink eye when I woke up in the middle of the night.  Now, pink eye = not cancer.  But for whatever reason/reasons this sent me into a panic as "the straw that would break the camel's back" and I prayed that God would just take care of it.  And, He did. 

And, again, silly, but here we go:  a few days ago, before it got to be a sweltering 103 degrees, we had nice weather.  I tried to open my bedroom window to get a cool breeze and I couldn't.  It was stuck.  Really stuck.  And I don't have anyone to help me open it.  And I tried and tried, and just as I was asking God to open my window because I couldn't, and I just didn't need to deal with a beligerent window on top of other things, IT OPENED.  I'm seeing God answer my prayers, little prayers, all the time.  Now, the "me" even from a few months ago would go, "No, your window just wasn't as stuck as you thought it was" or "It wasn't contagious pink eye" but the me in the very recent is just so certain of God's nearness and His answer to prayer.

What is an answer to prayer if not reassurance of His nearness?

I think God is just showing His great love.  All of the time.  Answers to "small" prayers are BIG.  He has a wonderful character.  Need a good place to learn about God's character?  Psalm 103 says a lot about the character of God.  Though you pretty much can't go wrong anywhere in the Bible.

This Sunday will be week 11 until launch.  Keep close to God, and cry out to Him.  "Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!"  Psalm 115:1

Love,
Celia
(who now has internet, and had a long nap this afternoon, hence, it's almost 11pm and I'm here)

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from Point of Change!

We had quite a busy Easter Weekend at PoC:  A Good Friday game night celebrating what Jesus did for us, a time of prayer and passing out invitations at several parks in southwest Bloomington, a lot of stuffing Easter eggs in preparation for the Easter Egg Hunt, and then our first service at IBEW - Sunrise Service!  This was followed by breakfast at the carpenter's union hall - quite yummy!  Then - the egg hunt!  We finished out the day with service at 5pm at Friends and Family.

And now, the launching can really begin!  We've got the action plan out of the way, and Easter weekend has concluded.  Please continue to praise God for all that He has done, is doing, and is going to do.  Please continue to pray for us as we prepare to launch a church while having church at the same time.

(I myself am in the middle of moving, so please look for more consistent, regular updates as soon as I get re-established in my new 'digs!)  -Celia

 Good Friday Game Night at IBEW

 Good Friday Game Night at IBEW

 Park & Pray:  Miller Park, White Oak Park, O'Neil Park

 Park & Pray:  Miller Park, White Oak Park, O'Neil Park

 Sunrise Service at IBEW!

 Sunrise Service at IBEW!

 Breakfast at the Carpenter's Hall

 Ready to hunt Easter Eggs!

 Beautiful!

 Look at all those eggs!

 Sorting eggs to see if there is a prize-winning egg among them!

 :-)

Sunday Evening Worship Service

WE THE FUN

"If the trip home isn't FUN, nobody will want to go; therefore, you must be connected to joy."

 Sheila and Lydia - Bringin' the Fun in the Children's Department!

Busted!  Having a little pre-service fun while the worship band practices.

Sermon:  We The Fun
Sermon Series:  We - All the Way Home

Pastor Todd spoke this past Sunday about how we, the body of Christ, need to be bringin' the fun when it comes to our walk with God.  Fun is relevant.  The church has to be fun or it's not relevant. 

One of the key scriptures for the message can be found in Mark 7:24-30.  Read it here:  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%207:24-30&version=ESV 
Although at first glance, the passage may seem confusing or at the least, not funny, it is actually a witty dialogue between Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman, where Jesus engaged the woman by using the culture of the time.  In the passage, "the children" was a reference to the Jews of the time, and "the dogs" was a reference to what people of that culture called the Gentiles.  The woman crashed the party - she did not belong there.  Yet, she was determined to get help from Jesus for her daughter.  She, a "dog" recognized Jesus as a savior, as capable of healing her daughter - and yet the Jews, "the children" didn't.  They need more help because they don't get it yet. 

Feel like you score low in how fun, encouraging, refreshing, and enlightened you are?  See below for tips on how you can bring the fun:


How Can I Bring The Fun???

Be connected to the joy of the Lord.
-Hebrews 11:16
Mark 7:31-36
Colossians 4:1-6
Matthew 5:13-16
1 Thessalonians 5:11
Mark 7:24-30
John 10:9-11
John 15:1-17
Psalm 28:7
Psalm 34:1

Start with the verse(s) listed, then read the verse in context by reading the entire chapter or chapter section that contains the verse.  If you have access to a study Bible or an online study Bible, get ready to have your mind blown.  Also, if a verse is particularly meaningful to you, commit it to memory. 

Ask the Lord to help you.

Invite people to our Good Friday game night & Easter activities.

Take the Psalms 34:1 Everyday Praise Challenge:  "I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips."

Answer this question:  "Do I know for sure that I am a Christian?" 
We believe that it is possible to know for sure that you are a Christian.  Have you ever had a moment in time when you commited your life to the Lord and received his forgiveness?  If you have doubts, get in touch with Pastor Todd.  Becoming a Christian is the truest way to get the party started.  We'd love to celebrate with you.

Whoa, Blessing

Well, Point of Change has had quite a few blessings recently.  Praise God for how He is taking care of us!  Keep scrolling all the way down to read our updates!

-Pastor Todd met with MST and presented our Point of Change Action Plan, and we were approved!  This is no small feat, and are so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yeah buddy!

-We finished up our second week of church tours, and were very blessed to see how God is working in church plants throughout our area. 

-We also recently acquired 300 chairs and 30 conference tables at an excellent price through the Interstate Center.  Thanks to Tony Perschall for finding out about that and making it happen!  We had a chair cleaning party yesterday and dusted, scrubbed, and vacuumed all 300 chairs.  Not only did we get those chairs, we worked on removing the IBEW's former chairs, and were able to pass on blessing by giving some to the Emmanuel Health Center.  Way to go, team!  The chair cleaning party concluded with prayer.  To quote Pastor Todd (rather, to steal his Facebook status update): 

Tonight, three spontaneous prayer sessions. Prayer, both personal and corporate, is what we do. TY, PoC. So Thankful.

We cry out to the Lord. We humble ourselves before the One we love!!

   (See pictures below from the chair cleaning party; scroll down to read continued blessings - they do continue!)

 

 



-Additionally, we had a copy machine from IBEW that we could have if we could get it working - and thanks to Dustin's mad, mad skills, we now have a working copy machine!!!  Isn't it just really, really cool how the Lord puts a group of people together, all with their different talents and abilities, and things just really click?!  God is good!  :)



-There are countless ways God has blessed us both as Point of Change, collectively, as well as on an individual level.  A home that was waiting to be sold - sold!  Jobs needed - found!  (One Point-of-Changer recently applied, interviewed, and received a job all in one day, and her employer has shown interest in doing a Bible study with her - praise God!).  And there are so many more blessings that continue.

-Finally, from the Kellers:  "The Kellers feel wonderfully blessed by the kindness and selflessness of their church family and how God has provided as He promised."



Remember - this Sunday at 5 pm (at Friends & Family) we kick off our first sermon series:  "We - All the Way Home."  Bring the fun, and bring a friend!!!!!!!!! 

4 Churches, 4 Teams, 1 God: Church Plant Tours Week 1

This week, our launch team was divided up into 4 groups and visited 4 different healthy church plants all within approximately 2 hours of Bloomington.  This week, teams visited churches in Morton, Galesburg, Naperville, and Chicago.

The central welcome area:

Soul City Church in Chicago

Entrance to children's area:

Northwoods Community in Galesburg

Since I have not yet mastered the art of being in 4 places at once, and have not yet had a chance to hear all the fun details from everyone's adventure, I will simply outline from my point of view:  Soul City Church in Chicago's West Loop. 

Our group had a truly wonderful time at Soul City Church. Soul City is a church committed to leading people into a transforming relationship with Jesus.  They are not confused about their mission, and they know their target audience...they know their city (or at least their portion of their city!)  (Example:  between services they set out dog biscuits and a water bowl for the pets of dog walkers.  Several people have stopped by the church service because of that small act.  They got someone's attention.) 

One example of the great signage displayed throughout Soul City

The sermon was great, and I think I'll give a little re-cap since, well, I can.  The pastor of Soul City talked about a fun and easy topic:  debt.  (Hahahaha, not fun, not easy!)  This was a really great sermon for such a tough topic.  There was an excellent use of scripture, and both humor and seriousness were infused throughout.  Anyway, so we thought about the ramifications of reaching into our future to pay for our present.  Essentially, slavery is still going on in multiple forms, and one of the ways is through the credit card industry.  Proverbs 22:7 "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender."  Learning to say "no" now leads to years of "yes" later.  We need to learn to say no to our credit cards.  God has something for us:  wisdom, courage, tough discipline, and blessing.  What does the credit card industry have for us?  Think about this:  in the US there is 2.4 trillion dollars of consumer debt, and Americans charged 51 billion dollars worth of fast food to their credit cards in 2006.  A date that costs $150 (remember, this is Chicago) charged to a credit card now will cost $171 paid off over 18 months.  (Will you even remember your date's face in 18 months?!) 

See Deut. 15:4-8 for additional scripture.

Structural pillars filled with scripture and prayers 

(Kind of looks like I made this picture so "cool" on purpose... but I'm experiencing some blogger difficulties.  Check back for clearer pics later!)



Worship at Soul City

All-in-all, we really were blessed with the opportunity to go out and visit, and see what other thriving church plants are doing.  It is fun to have your brain "stretched" and see possibilities - because, as you know, with God, all things are possible.  And it is refreshing to see God working all over.  Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in your own little corner of the universe and forget that we have a MIGHTY, FAR-REACHING GOD, who is constantly awake, aware, and on our side.

Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Blessings,

Celia



Soul City Church:

For more on Soul City, visit http://soulcitychurch.com/ or check out their video channel which gives more info on their story http://vimeo.com/31795844.