Tell Us About Your Church Service

[LauraA]

So, how was church? Tell us what you got out of your last service. What did your pastor speak about? What kind of songs were sung? Did you participate in the worship? How did God touch your heart?

[krazyyouth]

well i cant rememeber really what he preached about i know it was something about the truth and whats the diffreance. song couldnt tell you i dont have the bullinatanin and yeah i did particpate in the worship. with me my mom and dad cant really go becaase my mom works and same with my dad and they dont really like the whole baptist thing.. they are "quaker" "friends" and so i go by myslef and they go to the church i emonionaly hurt at even chagned how i worship when i do go. but yes i do try to worship and that. and whats also not so great is that i sit bymay self thw whole youth dont really like me the one person who likes me he sits up in the balconly so he can fall asleep and wont look so rode to the preacher and whats bad is that i do dose off sometime but thats when i have had a long weekened or the preacher is just boring because he preachs in a montone and its like ok i here you but move of get exieted please but i dont tell him that but besdies all that i do enjoy going to church.

[LauraA]

I was in the kid's Sunday School class this past week, but we have church tonight and I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. Praying for a mighty move of God!:)

[ktyme06]

well this last weekend I was camping, but I did go to a church(just not my own, actually my brother's girlfriend's church). the pastor spoke about characteristics of strong, good warriors in "faith" I guess. and the songs were pretty patriotic cause of it being memorial day. I liked it. Youth group tonight(I help w/ that....).

[themadclipper]

This past Sunday Scott, our lead pastor, was on vacation, so Mike, who is the Youth director, spoke. It was really ("basically"- that is Mike's word!) all about burdens. I think he used Matthew ch 9-10 as the underlying scripture, but it was amazing to listen to! I want that level of fire- or better! And, while I'm thinking about it, he's going to Mexico in June with a team of about 27 youth and leaders to work with a local church- prayer is needed!:cool:

[krazyyouth]

ahh cool yeah last night was the acteens thing for the act-teens. they talked about the whole middionaries and that then after that the youth went to play kick ball :-)

[LauraA]

This past Sunday Scott, our lead pastor, was on vacation, so Mike, who is the Youth director, spoke. It was really ("basically"- that is Mike's word!) all about burdens. I think he used Matthew ch 9-10 as the underlying scripture, but it was amazing to listen to! I want that level of fire- or better! And, while I'm thinking about it, he's going to Mexico in June with a team of about 27 youth and leaders to work with a local church- prayer is needed!:cool:




I'll pray for them.

Last night's service was fantastic! First of all we sang several songs, "Bind Us Together", "How Great Is Our God", "Great and Mighty Is He", and 2 or 3 others. We just had a gal on guitar and one praise singer in front. (We go to a small home missions church.)

Pastor spoke about how great our God is. If any of you read my testimony, you know that God's creation is what first drew me to Him. The stars and the grandness of the night sky...anyway, pastor spoke using these Scriptures:
Psalm 139:7-10
7Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
8If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
9If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
10Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

He talked about how big the earth is, and then put on a video showing the earth, the larger planets, then the sun, then the huge stars. The guy on the video was using a golf ball as earth, and kept saying, “And you are somewhere on the golf ball.” He was saying how many golf balls (earths) it would take to fill up the different stars. It was amazing! Our God created it all with just His word. So how much more can he take care of us and meet our needs. He said that the next time you are lying in bed and fear comes upon you, (and if often comes upon people at night), just walk outside, and look up at the night sky. How big is our God?

[themadclipper]

I think we're getting ready to rock! We just started a capital campaign, and it is absolutely amazing how hearts are changing IN THE CHURCH! It's so incredible to be where I am right now- Jennifer and I don't have a lot to contribute to the capital campaign, but ... I need to post pix of the doghouse! I'll explain more later, but our pre-K Sunday School has become absolutely amazing!

[LauraA]

I think we're getting ready to rock! We just started a capital campaign, and it is absolutely amazing how hearts are changing IN THE CHURCH! It's so incredible to be where I am right now- Jennifer and I don't have a lot to contribute to the capital campaign, but ... I need to post pix of the doghouse! I'll explain more later, but our pre-K Sunday School has become absolutely amazing!

That is so cool! And every little bit helps.

Dan used to build and sell doghouses for some extra money. This was about 18 years ago and he got $115 for them.

[krazyyouth]

Ok today was a great thing for me i needed to hrear it it was Isiah 55: 8-9 and he used a orange as an example and whens is squezzed you can make orange juice out of it and he was saying we needed to be like that orange when someone squeezes the orange we shouldent be saying things that a christian wouldnt say...... and i really thought that was very intresting

[Kelly]

I went to church with my bro's family this morning and it was awesome!

The title of today's service was "The Heart of Worship" and it was all about figuring out what church is really all about. To illustrate this, we broke from the usual routine and got in groups. The pastor brought out a Jack-in-the-Box and equated our relationship with God to it. He said that we live like we keep God in a box and we have things we do to bring him out every now and then when we need Him. In our groups we answered three questions:

1. What do we do to get God to show up?
2. What are the handles we crank?
3. What do we need in service to experience God?

We focused mainly on the last one and he took answers from each group. Some of the answers were: music, Bible, Communion, prayer, sermon, etc. Then he said "Now these are good answers but think about this: If there was no music in church, would God still be here? Yes. If there was no Bible, would God still be here? Yes. If there was no sermon, would God still be here? Yes. So there really is only one answer to that last question. What do we need in service to find God? People. All we need is for people to gather and God will be there.

At the end they usually take offering, but he said "We're not going to take offering today. Instead I'm going to leave you with this question: If there were no offering at church, would you still give?"

So powerful!

[LauraA]

Sounds like a great message! I've got so many notes from services that I want to share with you all, but I haven't taken the time to do that yet. I will. Thanks, Amanda.

[Psalms23]

I go to a big (for this area) church. We average around 1600 people. We have to have three services. The first service is more for the elder that just wants to listen to the sermon and not so much of singing. The second and third is set up where there is a lot more worshiping in singing and then the sermon. They wanted to make the first one different so you have the choice.

Yesterday the church service was over Habakkuk 1:12 - 2:1. Every morning our pastor likes to start off the sermon by asking a question. The question that he asked yesterday is.. "What is the distance between when you are sinned against... and when you are asking how God can use the sins of the others for His glory and your good." If you would like a type out of the sermon ..please let me know ( I have a copy )

[themadclipper]

Our youth pastor spoke yesterday. His sermon was his testimony. Amanda (our daughter) commented afterward that he didn't seem like the kind of person that came from a broken family.

That is the radical change Jesus offers us.

[Bubelaiken]

okay my church is awesome and we love each others. the peoples there are soo nice. My church is somehow different because we have peoples that are hispanic and some not hispanic but we have lots of hipanic people there. im one of the hipanic too. They all over from different world and different culture which is awesome because i get to know more about them and know more about their culture. Im orinally from Puerto rico.

They have a band. we have two serivces. The first one was in Spanish and the second one was in english serives. We also have youth groups.

and yes i do get in the worship. I go to youth group, Sunday, and Wenesday meetings at church. We also do bunch of funs things like having International pinic park we invite like LOTS of peoples and just have fun and eat food from different Culture like educaor, Puerto rico, Cuba and etc.... and we also do like conference and do like mission trips and also sorta like doing field trips to have a day to ourself and just have quiet day and love god and all that we do field trip like that.

[Bubelaiken]

ohh sorry i forget about what we learned.

IN our church we last talk about is Adoption, and Adorting babies. How adorting babies is against the bible laws. how the babies look from inside from adorting babies i was like oh my god how anybody want to kill a baby from inside. they have a pic of a baby of adorting and it look sooo sad and everything but they also talk about what babies look like if not adorting and i was like wow it like god was trying to get us outside of the world and get us ready. they talk about adopting how adopting can be awesome because some peoples have promblems with prengancy and how it change their lives.

we also talk about marriage and our partner and what can we do in our marriage and all that.

how i got into god well.... i has been through a lots. Child abuse, teasing and everything eles and somehow god got me into his worship. i guess sometimes peoples who get in bad situation get into god's worship and now believe in him!

[Kissy]

Basically what was said in church this past Sunday was
"Don't limit God" Psalm 78 is the only scripture I remember but he had
several others.

[krazyyouth]

a building is just a building a church is just a building
God is in control
my chruch was hit by IKE hard

[Labby]

We had a special missionary speaker this Sunday (whom I'd seen at the motel before church -- I worked Saturday night), but the general order was the same: songs of praise/worship, during which we invite people forward to be prayed for; announcements; offering; dismissing Sunday School/Children's Church (depends on the service); etc.

First service I was back in the sound booth the entire time. I thought I was going to have to run the powerpoint as well, but Rich (my co-worker/fellow youth leader/friend -- who usually isn't there first service) showed and did that. I asked him why he was here -- Tris (his wife and another youth leader) was on the worship team.

The missionary was good. He and his wife are missionaries to Africa, and lately they've been in Uganda. And there's something about his voice... He used our wireless mic, which almost always gives us a huuuge headache. This time, though, it was perfect: not only could we actually hear him, but the EQ wasn't screwed up. Double score!

Second service I was able to get out of the booth and played guitar during worship. I did NOT like the setlist. These songs were OLD -- so old that most of the congregation didn't know them. Songs we hadn't done in so long that they weren't even in the computer (not just the PPT, but even in a Word document!). And the chords weren't very nice, either.

After the song service I was back in the booth -- the missionary had a DVD, and it was easier for me to be back there than to explain it to the next person. After that, I started going through the desk and cleaning it out (our sound booth is filled with clutter -- it's next on my personal project list, right after cleaning up the Musicians' Pit, which I finally finished).

I threw out so much paper, so many one-time cds (before we had this computer integrated to our network, we had to burn projections, sermons, songs, etc on cds, which then got chucked into a drawer)... It's a lot cleaner now. Next up: the sound-board side.

[Psalms23]

We just finished week two of a five week series over Forgiveness.

[Lindleigh]

My church has recently renewed its. This mission is based on Mark 12:28-31 in which Jesus was asked which is the greatest commandment. Jesus responded that we are to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength. Much of the study we've done so far has been reflection and inventory of ourselves. In this inventory, we are able to determine what area of loving God we tend to naturally lean toward and which areas we are more weak and therefore, need to work at in order to be closer to the image of Jesus. Jesus is, of course, right in the center of all of these.

For example:
Heart - People who seek God by building relationships with others and developing friendships. They enjoy singing songs and holding hands during worship and sharing their faith with others.

Soul - People who seek a "oneness" with God and enjoy the mysterious side of Him. They really enjoy worship more than those that lean to the other areas.

Mind - People who seek to know God and about the life of Jesus and find they understand His will by reading his word.

Strength - People who want to get out and do something to minister to others. They cherish actively helping others.

I found in this exercise that, surprisingly, I am a "heart" person with strong tendencies toward the mind. I say "surprisingly" because although I want to form friendships and new relationships, it is what I need from going to church. The friendships I forge, I want to be strong & deep ones. I do have a hard time sitting alone every week and am always happy to have someone sit with me so maybe that's part of it and I do love to sit with others and discuss and share my faith.

None of this is to say that we all fall solely in one category, only that we tend to lean toward one particular area when seeking fulfillment in our relationship with God. I do want to be "one" with God and I do want to help others as well, it is just not where I am strongest.

In addition to knowing where my tendencies lie, I now understand those who have strengths in the other areas a little better and I know what areas I need to improve in my quest to love God with all of my being.

[LauraA]

Wow, these are great. Thank you all for sharing! Please continue. It's a blessing to read and glean. Praise God.

Last week our pastor taught "Lessons From Geese". It was so good! He talked about how geese fly in the V formation and that gives the geese 71% more flying power than if they were flying alone. Less resistance for the geese behind them because of the geese flying in front of them. He related that to us in that when we are all working together and going in the same direction, we will get there quicker and easier than if we were off flying alone.

When the front goose gets tired, it rotates back into formation and another goose flies point. We need to be on the lookout for each other and when someone is getting tired, burnt out, overloaded, we need to take up for that one and let him/her rest. One person cannot do all the work. Work as a team. Take turns at hard tasks.

The geese in the rear honk to encourage those in front. We need to be positive and encouraging to others.

When a goose becomes ill or wounded and has to land, 2 geese will go down with him and stay there until that goose dies or heals and is able to fly again. When we see someone hurting, we need to stick by that person. If someone is floundering, falling into sin, dropping out of formation, let them know that they are not alone and we are here to help. Don't let them suffer alone. Be there.

Geese are ready to fly when the time comes for them to fly. We need to be ready to fly when the Lord says it time to fly...both in working for Him and as far as the rapture. Be ready for His return.

He used a power point presentation for his lesson and it was awesome!

[krazyyouth]

We just finished week two of a five week series over Forgiveness.

That must be neat to learn about? Hey take note or some verses I can look up because that would be great for some pointers when i need to forgive someone because i learned its not good to hold a grudge agianst someone because it eats you up and makes you so unhappy.

[Lindleigh]

Wow! I love that! It's really interesting to think that nature can be real examples of how we should be toward others.

[krazyyouth]

Wow! I love that! It's really interesting to think that nature can be real examples of how we should be toward others.

yeah I really never notice it until i did a bible study a couple weeks ago,

[LauraA]

That must be neat to learn about? Hey take note or some verses I can look up because that would be great for some pointers when i need to forgive someone because i learned its not good to hold a grudge agianst someone because it eats you up and makes you so unhappy.

Matthew 6:14-15
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.


Matthew 18:20-22
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.


Matthew 11:24-26
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

[Labby]

This weekend my youth group went to Youth Convention, a three-day youth conference in Salem. It was my first time going since 2002, and the first time I went as a leader.

The speaker was the AG's National Speed The Light director (STL buys vehicles and equipment for missionaries). The man is a powerful speaker. Soooo many students went forward to receive Christ; I don't know how many I prayed for that I didn't know. The second night, people came forward to drop their pains and troubles at the feet of Christ. Again, I don't know how many guys I prayed for, and I don't know how long I spent praying for one of my students. And then the next morning, students went forward to make sure they're 100% right with God before leaving for their own personal missions field. Prayed for a few more students there.

And since I had to work Saturday night, which left me absolutely exhausted, I skipped church Sunday morning. And evening. In fact, I didn't get out of bed until it was time for me to get ready for work tonight.

[LauraA]

That's awesome, Steve. I'll pray right now that those who realized their need for Jesus will continue to walk in His ways and grow in His Truth.

[drake71449]

hey all just wanted to say how funny things can be....at church we are studying in Revelations...and yesterday i saw the devotion from J on rev 21:4....and its a blessing to be able to sing my songs and J's songs at church and have the members there to be blessed by his message to our hearts and this lost world

to God be the glory
:P

[LauraA]

^^^Amen. Well said.

[LauraA]

Tonight our pastor spoke on how some things concerning halloween, how it got started, the reason behind it and all that. Most of you know that stuff already, so I won't go into it, but what was really neat was this: They (he and his family) are having the church over on the 31st for a fun night, and we're going to make a big bon fire. We're supposed to bring anything that we feel is weighing us down, tying us to the world, harming us spiritually, etc. Then we'll toss it in the fire. I thought that was a cool idea!

[Kelly]

That is so cool!!!! What an awesome idea!!!

[Labby]

Tonight our pastor spoke on how some things concerning halloween, how it got started, the reason behind it and all that. Most of you know that stuff already, so I won't go into it, but what was really neat was this: They (he and his family) are having the church over on the 31st for a fun night, and we're going to make a big bon fire. We're supposed to bring anything that we feel is weighing us down, tying us to the world, harming us spiritually, etc. Then we'll toss it in the fire. I thought that was a cool idea!

My youth group has done that a couple times in years past. I lost soooo much music during one Burn. It was a couple hundred dollars' worth of cds.

Just make sure that the things holding people back aren't fireworks, gasoline, bleach and brake fluid...

[LauraA]

My youth group has done that a couple times in years past. I lost soooo much music during one Burn. It was a couple hundred dollars' worth of cds.

Just make sure that the things holding people back aren't fireworks, gasoline, bleach and brake fluid...

LOL!! Good advice about the gas, bleach, etc, Steve! How funny.

It went really well. There were even tvs and computers brought to the burning. (Instead of burning, some of the things were smashed and put in the trash.) I made a list of things about me that need changing and threw it in. It was a pretty long and humbling list.

[Kissy]

Pastor in new church I attended this Sunday spoke on Divine Appointments.
We should expect them and be obedient and don't miss them.

[drake71449]

lately our pastor has been preaching on the end times and the signs....scary to some but an exciting time to all believers who awaiit christ's return


:p

[Kelly]

We talked about the Good Samaritan story today & how we tend to plan our day out and then when we see a need, we always think of ourselves first & how helping them will affect OUR day. We need to shift our thinking to wherever the need is & worry about rearranging our day AFTER we help the person in need. Very inspiring!

[cori]

how to make it through a bad time:

prayer
purpose
principle
power
(and the workings of all 4 together through the Spirit)

gave an awesome (but looooong) illustration - i can post it later if you guys are interested.

[Kelly]

Would love to hear about that if you have time Cori :)

[cori]

ok....for the illustration, you'll need to meet a few people (names changed for privacy's sake, of course...lol). pastor = bob, pastor's daughter on east coast = mary, pastor's daughter in oregon = carrie, testimony guy = larry, testimony guy's daughter = sally (i wonder how many times i'll have to scroll up & re-read my own post so i can keep it straight! lol). (this is a true story, btw...even though the way i'm telling it it sounds like complete fiction! lol i don't know how to NOT make it sound like that since i'm changing everyone's names...not sure why it's so hard for me right now..but....i think you'll still get the impact...)

bob got the email sat. night from mary, but it was regarding an event that happened 10 yrs prior THROUGH her at carrie's church (she & her husband are pastors there) in oregon. carrie & mr. carrie (forgot to name him! whoops! it's ok though, because this will probably be his only reference in this...lol) were pastoring a church in oregon & there was a couple there whose daughter had cystic fibrosis. mary had never met this family (and still has not), but one day she got a call from carrie saying that sally had died (8 yrs old). as mary listened to the news & said she would pray for the family, the Lord gave her a song for larry. she stopped what she was doing & sat down at the piano to sing it.....she wrote it down & recorded it for him, sent it to carrie to give it to him - finished in 20 mins. carrie gave the tape to larry, who listened to it on his way home & had to pull over because he was "blinded by endless tears," as the Lord ministered to him through the song. (ok, i'm trying to tell the story in the same order it was told to us to deliver the greatest WOW, God, You're more amazing every day! punch that we all got yesterday...oh, and....fyi, the this whole email being read to us is a copy of the email LARRY sent to MARY about the whole thing, so...now i'm gonna shift gears & start sharing what he shared with her) larry told mary of how deeply the song she wrote for his daughter had ministered to him over the years, brought layers of peace & healing beyond comprehension, even so soon after his daughter's death. he shared about how he was able to witness to many people (he was a salesmen, life insurance, i believe) through it, because potential customers (over the course of talking while trying to make a sale, i guess?) would inevitably ask "how many children do you have?" which always brought the answer, "i've got x (i can't remember), they are (age), (age), and one would be (age)." he often got the "i'm sorry for your loss" or "she's with Jesus now" response, and it opened the door for him to tell them his story of dealing with his grief. one thing (the next thing is better! but this one was still powerful) that most people didn't know was that his parents lived in the basement - there was an apartment down there, and sally would often go downstairs to sleep with grandma & grandpa in the "big bed." the night that she died, sally asked if she could go sleep with them, but larry had told her no, because he thought that she was old enough to start learning to sleep by herself. he was riddled with guilt, because if he had said YES, her grandparents would have been awakened by the seizure that took her life and been able to get her the help she needed - possibly saved her life. but, 2 days before she died, he had taken her for a drive - they were out for 3 hrs, they talked, they laughed, they worshipped, and she asked him to help her ask Jesus into her heart. the chorus of mary's song (i can't remember the words) gave him a comforting reassurance that she was indeed with Jesus now, and that she was where she was SUPPOSED to be - that Jesus had called her back to Him, so to speak (releasing him from his guilt & feeling responsible). wow!

but even BETTER....ANOTHER thing that no one knew - only he and the Lord knew!!! when he was driving for the first time after sally's death, he turned on the radio and it was that "ridiculous song candle in the wind, that elton john had re-recorded to pay tribute to princess diana," and he had made a declaration to God...not angry, not accusatory...nothing..just a statement. "no one would ever record a song for my little princess. NO ONE loves her like i do." (i still get goosebumps thinking about that!) NO ONE KNEW that he had that thought - not even his WIFE!!! and the Spirit moved to work through mary to touch this father's heart - to give him a song for his little princess AND to provide peace that no one but the Lord CAN provide.

so the point of that illustration was that he was going through a hard time & he was praying, and mary was responsive to the moving of the Spirit, and....because of the healing HE found through her response (song), he had a new sense of purpose (to make something good come out of his daughter's death). he felt empowered to walk out that purpose, rather than feeling too weak to go on & to spend the rest of his days mourning the loss of his daughter.

gotta go grab some kleenex now...

[LauraA]

That is a beautiful story. I have goosebumps!!

[Kelly]

I second what Laura said! Wow!

I'm excited. They're still doing the bible study on The Shack at church so I'm FINALLY gonna catch it tomorrow :) They're on ch 6, so I was worried it would be useless for me to go, but my sis said it's totally worth it.

[Kelly]

Ok I LOVE the Bible Study we're doing on The Shack. It's SO helpful! I'm not as far behind as I thought! They've spent 3 weeks on Ch 6 and there are 18 chapters in the book, so I'll definitely get a lot out of it. Today we had some GREAT discussion on God's will. Unfortunately, I didn't have my journal with me so I didn't take notes :( Basically we discussed the question "What is God's will, really?" We talked about how we all have a different idea of what God's will is for our life (especially with our careers). For example, one person think's it's God's will for their life to be a doctor and another person might think it's God's will for them to be a teacher. But in the Bible, God's will is something that applies the same to every person:

Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

(As a side note, this verse just happens to be the KLove Verse of the Day! Too cool!)

Then we discussed how God's will fits into our lives. We talked about how having a relationship with God is a two-way street. It's as in a marriage: both sides have to put forth effort to make it work. Our pastor said it's ok for us to have wills for our lives, but we also have to put God's will at the front of our lives.

Then in church, we also discussed God's will. We read through Esther 2 which is the story of Esther becoming Queen. Our pastor pointed out how that story mirrors Cinderella. He pointed out three key lessons to take from this passage:

1. We regret decisions we make when we're angry. He told the FUNNIEST story about a football player who went through the Taco Bell drive-thru & they got his order wrong, so he drove back around and tried to jump through the drive-thru window, but got stuck cause he was so big! But it illustrates how we do things in the heat of anger & end up embarrassed and regretful later. He mentioned the following passages on the subject: Psalms 4:4, Proverbs 29:11, James 1:20

2. When people met Esther they liked her right away. As Christians we need to be people that others notice right away and want to be like. We don't want people to look at us and cringe. We want them to look at us and smile, and see Christ in us. He also mentioned that EVERYONE has in them what people want to be around. We just need to make ourselves let it out. (The whole "Happiness is a choice" concept)

3. God puts us in a position to do His will. Think of all the hard times in life. It's not God's will for someone to develop cancer. It's not God's will for someone to die. It's not God's will for someone to be homeless. But it IS God's will for us to use these situations for His glory! Our pastor used a GREAT illustration. He talked about how we view God's will as a tightrope. We see this narrow path that we try so hard to stay on and if we make a wrong step, we'll fall off into oblivion. But he said God's Will should be more like a sailboat. You're in this boat, in large open waters, and the wind (God) hits the sail and directs the boat's path....not us! We need to sit back and enjoy life while letting God direct our path. If we trust Him to be our guide, He will lead us on His path and reveal His will for our life.

[cori]

that's awesome, kelly - very timely, too!

[cloudburst]

So, how was church? Tell us what you got out of your last service. What did your pastor speak about? What kind of songs were sung? Did you participate in the worship? How did God touch your heart?

I always love going to church. Right now, my pastor is going through the book of Revelation, and tonight he covered the chapter on the 2 witnesses. Revelation is a book that I've always struggled with (well, and prophetic book, for that matter), so I am always happy to get clarification.

Our worship is pretty good. We have a few different worship teams that rotate, and tonight, the younger guys led it. I really like his worship a lot...He really loves the Lord, you can tell, and his song choices are usually good.

I know that God has touched my heart when I begin to tear up during worship.

Anyhow, I just love my church, and am so grateful for this great family that God has given me.

[drake71449]

april revelations is an awesome book...our pastor just finished doing wed night bible study on it and it really gave me a new insight into the book and its prophecies and how we should WORSHIP God and it gives us the biggest insight on HOPE that we can find and that in the end if we trust in God we will be forever with him in heaven....

:p

[cloudburst]

april revelations is an awesome book...our pastor just finished doing wed night bible study on it and it really gave me a new insight into the book and its prophecies and how we should WORSHIP God and it gives us the biggest insight on HOPE that we can find and that in the end if we trust in God we will be forever with him in heaven....

:p

YES!!! I second that.

For the longest time, I was so leery of Revelations, just because I didn't want to read about all of the chaos and destruction that is to befall the unsaved during the tribulation. Now, the Lord is teaching me to look beyond all that to the hope in that book, and the victory of Christ.

[Kelly]

Well shoot. I wish I'd come here last week :p We're also looking at Revelation Chapter 2. We're on week 2 of a 7-week series our pastor calls "An Overcoming Community: Seven Qualities that Mark God's People" And it's all based on Revelation Ch 2-3 where it talks about the seven churches.

Last week's was titled: An Overcoming Community Prioritizes Love

Our pastor brought up an excellent point that being a Christian is not all about following all these rules and laws. It's simply about love! We don't have to have our lives all put together and figured out to be Christian. God wants us to come to Him when we're broken.

He read some other great Scriptures outside of Revelation:

Matthew 16:24-25 & John 13:34-35

Today's message was titled: An Overcoming Community Doesn't Give Up

We did a small group discussion on this question:

What are some of the reasons why people tend to quit or give up on things or people?

We read Rev 2:8-11 & he brought up these points:

1. Jesus declares himself as an authority. We all get "newness" of life through Christ

2. "You're poor but you're really not" (Rev 2:9) - Even when we're completely deprived of material things, we are still rich in Christ's love. Richness inside cannot be measured.

3. We all suffer. God permits things in our lives to happen so that who we are as Christ-followers comes out. In Rev 2:10 it says you will be put to prison for 10 days to be tested. This shows us that our suffering is not eternal & infinite. It has an end, and we will overcome through faith and perseverance.

He then posed the question, "What is your giving up point?" & asked us to think about that while watching this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYi458oI0-8) video clip. This clip was AMAZING! It was from ABC News about this guy who created these sculptures INSIDE the loop of a pin needle! :eek: Yall NEED to see it! It's just incredible!

We ended today's discussion by reading James 1:2-4 & 12

I always love going to church. Right now, my pastor is going through the book of Revelation, and tonight he covered the chapter on the 2 witnesses. Revelation is a book that I've always struggled with (well, and prophetic book, for that matter), so I am always happy to get clarification.

[Kelly]

In church this morning our pastor read an excerpt from Peter Rollins’ blog that just about gave half the congregation a heart attack, that is, until he got to the end…so take a deep breath & read on…

“Without equivocation or hesitation I fully and completely admit that I deny the resurrection of Christ. This is something that anyone who knows me could tell you, and I am not afraid to say it publicly, no matter what some people may think…

I deny the resurrection of Christ every time I do not serve at the feet of the oppressed, each day that I turn my back on the poor; I deny the resurrection of Christ when I close my ears to the cries of the downtrodden and lend my support to an unjust and corrupt system.

However there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are. I affirm it when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees, when I speak for those who have had their tongues torn out, when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed.” ~ Peter Rollins

[cori]

wow kelly, that's VERY powerful!!!

i can think of tooooo many OTHER ways that i deny the resurrection in the day to day stuff of life. after all the family stuff, there will definitely be some list making, repenting, praying, and the making of a NEW list! if you need me, i'll be in the secret place....

[LauraA]

In church this morning our pastor read an excerpt from Peter Rollins’ blog that just about gave half the congregation a heart attack, that is, until he got to the end…so take a deep breath & read on…

“Without equivocation or hesitation I fully and completely admit that I deny the resurrection of Christ. This is something that anyone who knows me could tell you, and I am not afraid to say it publicly, no matter what some people may think…

I deny the resurrection of Christ every time I do not serve at the feet of the oppressed, each day that I turn my back on the poor; I deny the resurrection of Christ when I close my ears to the cries of the downtrodden and lend my support to an unjust and corrupt system.

However there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are. I affirm it when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees, when I speak for those who have had their tongues torn out, when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed.” ~ Peter Rollins

All I can say is WOW!!!

[Kelly]

This past week at church we didn't have a message. Instead our pastor personally asked a few people to come up and share stories in hopes to encourage others. His point was that we have this life we live every Sunday...then we go and live out the week sometimes losing the inspiration and encouragement we'd received in church on Sundays so he wanted to show us that you don't have to rely just on your pastor & your Sunday church service for that encouragement and inspiration. So these selected people took turns sharing stories about how God has blessed them. This one lady got up and ever since I started at that church, I took extra notice of her. She is always just SO on fire in church, singing out, dancing, praising God with SO much passion and joy. As she was walking up to the mic I thought to myself "I bet she has a beautiful, happy story" She got up and said that not even a year ago she was in California and homeless. The second she said the word "homeless" the smile on my face was totally wiped away...I was completely drawn into what she had to say after that & it just blew me away. She was homeless, had no job, but she said that she somehow had the strength to praise God in that time. She even used that time to minister to the other homeless people in her area who had gotten into things like drugs & alcohol. I was seriously fighting back the tears. I did NOT expect her to EVER tell a story like that! You NEVER know what someone's been through! Wow. It was such a blessing to hear her story! But she is now here and has a roof over her head and a job (I can't remember what she said she did). God is SO good!

[LauraA]

A great reminder of how the Lord can take a broken life and totally make it new and beautiful. Thank you for sharing that with us, Kelly. It was very touching.

[Kelly]

We had some wonderful discussions in our Bible Study on The Shack this morning! We discussed the topic of pain and why God allows it in our lives & whether or not it's ok to be angry with God. I thought of Jeremy's testimony but didn't have time to share it. Hopefully I can next week.

[Kelly]

Oh and a funny little anecdote from the service today. We talked about the Ten Commandments & our pastor asked us to shout them out as he listed them on the board. He abbreviated instead of writing them all out so our list looked like this at the end....

1. Love God
2. Steal
3. Kill
4. Lie
5. Adultery

...etc

It was funny because at the end of the discussion he looked at the board & said....now don't read this as it's written! Look at this as all the things you shouldn't do & someone goes "So we shouldn't Love God?" Hehehe...too funny!

[DawnAurora]

One of our deacons preached today. The Pastor works in Port au Prince to support himself - as a seminary professor - and doesn't get out every week.

Smith Joseph preached on the verse in Acts where believers were first called Christians in Antioch. He asked can Christ be glad that you are called by his name, or do you reflect poorly on Him?

[Kelly]

In light of my day AFTER church yesterday, I didn't get a chance to share about anything. We had an INCREDIBLE discussion in our Sunday School class. Our town recently held a "Prayer for Rain" ceremony & we had Charlie Duke (the 10th man on the moon) come & speak at it.

So our pastor walks in the room, sits down & says: "Ok guys, if you don't mind before we get started, I'm gonna throw out a question for ya. How many of you attended the Prayer for Rain ceremony?" A few people raised their hands. Then he said "That was pretty good how it all came together so quickly & they had a pretty good turnout. Ok...now, if we were to organize a Prayer for Human Trafficking Rally & hold it tomorrow, how many would come? Just be completely honest." We all looked at each other with that deer-in-headlights look! It was awkward. Finally some brave souls spoke up & we got DEEP into a discussion about prayer. Some points that were brought up were about how we tend to only pray for immediate needs, needs in the near future, and needs for people close to us, and most of all, things that directly affect us. Then our pastor raised the question of why we feel the need to rally to pray for something as trivial as rain, when there are things like human-trafficking which directly harms people. That started a whole debate about the farmers in town (we have a lot in the area!) and how they suffer...maybe not physically, but their business does.

But when we ask God for rain, he doesn't always give it right away. (This situation was, of course, an exception since it started raining the morning of the rally :p) But what are we supposed to do then if there's an obvious need and God's people are suffering, crops are dying, but he's not bringing rain? Why would He do that to us? That's when our pastor hit us with this:

"Instead of praying that God do what is necessary to help others in need...why don't WE ask God what WE can do to help them?"

Ouch! Knife in the gut statement right there! (LOVE THOSE! :))

He proceeded to talk about how that could very well be why God allows suffering. Because it brings people together. It allows people opportunities to serve and to grow. I wish I had taped it so I could either play you the whole audio or write out a transcription. It was just a VERY insightful discussion!

Since it was the first Sunday of the month, we had the children in the service with us & they had a children's sermon before ours. The lady leading it brought baggies w/ money. First she pulled out a bag of pennies. She said there were 100 pennies and that makes a dollar. Then she asked the kids "If we lose a few of these pennies, do we still have a dollar? No. It's no longer a whole." Then she brought out a baggie of nickels & said the same thing & talked about how there are less coins to keep up with but you can still lose a few easily & then you don't have a whole dollar....she continued w/ dimes and quarters. Then she pulled out a dollar bill & said "Can we lose a part of this dollar bill? No. Because it's one whole. We don't get lost as easily when we come together as a whole. That's why we need to stick by each other." It was so cute and so insightful. I love that we can all learn from the children's sermon! :)

I just loved that it went along with what we'd discussed in class that morning.

[Kelly]

Our message from last week was SO good...I just have to post it so yall can hear it for yourselves instead of trying to do it justice by summarizing....

http://firstprotestant.com/fileadmin/Sermon_Recordings/Sermons/10-11-2009%20PAB%20cont.wma

[LauraA]

Wow, lots of awesome stuff here. What a blessing. Speaking of blessing, I'm going to be handing these out at church tonight:

~Let’s Be a Blessing~

Just think, if each one of us would look around the church and see something that needs to be done, and then do it, what a blessing you would be to someone! What if each month, each person did just one thing over and above your normal “duties” or “responsibilities?”

Here are some ideas, but use your imagination and let the Lord lead your heart:

We could pick up cans, bottles and trash that others have left behind, offer to help when you see someone else working, wash tables, do the dishes, clean the sink, empty the trash, take trash to the dumpster, wash out the refrigerator, sweep a floor or pick up trash in the parking lot. We could buy paper plates or utensils for the church kitchen, bring in a can of coffee, creamer or some sugar, cleaning supplies or trash bags. We could be a blessing to Pastor and his hard working family by making them an occasional meal or a dessert, offer to mow their yard, do some cleaning in their home, send them a card to let them know what a great work they are doing.
The possibilities are endless. Let’s each be a blessing!

O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds. ~Psalm 116:16

[Kelly]

I was baptized with fire today at church! :p

http://kellygirl.posterous.com/baptized-with-fire

[Angie Rose]

this is a loong story, but basically over the past year i have felt God''s call on my life to go into the music ministry ... but it wasnt until fall retreat ths past year that i really began to seek God with all my heart on this and ask,
"is this really what you want?"
" is this where you want me?"
i felt like He was saying, "yes angie, this is where I want you. "

well for a lot of reasons i was still struggling with that... if you want to know know all the reasons,( its a whole another story,) tell me.. ill post. basically it all boils down to me wanting to make sure it wasnt my own selfish ambitions... which theres nothing wrong with that, until you start thinking that it IS and dont listen to God's voice.

so i prayed with a youth leader (Rachael)and my youth pastor, (Chris) seperately, and they both told me the same thing, which was basically that if i felt that after seekign God the way i had been , he still wanted me in music, that i chould go for it. my youth pastor said it this way

"If your junior or senior year rolls around and its obvious God doesnt want you in music, and he wants you somewhere else, then He'll make it obvious. He's good at that."

i was still sort of hesitant, and while i agreed with my youtgh leaders, i was still unsure.

later that week i was with a friend and we were listening to Tenth Ave North and she said, (i didnt even tell her that i feel like God wants me in music!!!)

" i really feel liek you have a passion that God has put in you, that you were born with , that was meant to be let out like this" she said, gesturing to the CD player.

then the next week, she said the same thing!!! and i stil hadnt told her about feeling liek God was callign me....

well, i was still hesitant...

finally thsi past sunday during communion, God grabbed my attention. I had just finished praying for Jeremy, because i felt like God was telling me to pray for him RIGHT THEN AND THERE. And He just grabbed ahold of me.

the following is a dialogue of the conversation between me and God:

God: " Angie. I want you in music."
Me: " Uh, God, are you sure?"
God:" Angie, Im God. Of course im sure!"
Me:" well thats not what i meant, i just meant..."
God: " What? what did you mean?"
Me:" i mean, - well- wait, is this really you or am i haing a converstion with myself?"
God:" I'm here. You were saying...?"
Me:" Is this just my own selfish ambition, or is this really you, God?"
God:"Angie, youve been asking Me this same question for the past 2 weeks. My answer has been the same. Why do you keep doubting Me, child? When are you going to realise that this is where I want you?"
Me:" I just cant believe that you want me doing some thing i love so much"
God: "Why wouldnt I? I love you, dont I?"
i looked at the bread and juice in my hands and started to cry
Me:"Yes. I know you do... and if you love me, then why would you hod me back from what I love?"
God:"Exactly. Isn't that what Chris told you?"
Me:"Yes"
God: "Ok then. Stop fighting me"
Me: " But im still not sure"
God: "Angie, what am I going to have to do to prove to you that i want you in music?
Me: "I dont know... have someone come up to me sometime this week before Jeremy's concert and tell me..."
God:"You know, Angie,after that your just going to want something else, and something after that. I want you to learn to walk by faith. I want you to live that song of Jeremy's called walk by faith."
Me: *long pause* "OK."
God: "Finally. Youre finally listening. "

so that is the story thus far... service was so amazing... im telling you right now... if God ever does want me to leave Christian Chapel, its gonna have to be a writing on the wall or something... that church has blessed me so much... gosh.. thank you Jesus.

[4himccm]

We all have are Gideon moments and our typo moments ;) If God wants you to do music (as it appears He does), the doors will be opened for that and closed for everything else.

[Angie Rose]

oh
wow.
i dont know if you know this or not, but you just literally told me something that HAS to be a message from God for me...

" ...the doors will be opened for that and closed for everything else. "

God is definitely closing doors in a lot of areas of my life... including dance... which i think i was beginning to put before Christ, which is why (i think) He took it away.

[4himccm]

oh
wow.
i dont know if you know this or not, but you just literally told me something that HAS to be a message from God for me...

" ...the doors will be opened for that and closed for everything else. "

God is definitely closing doors in a lot of areas of my life... including dance... which i think i was beginning to put before Christ, which is why (i think) He took it away.


All I can say is "to God alone be the glory, To God alone be the praise" quoting Aaron Shust's song To God Alone (video playing on JCTV).

[Angie Rose]

there ya goooo

[Convicted]

Note: this'll be a long post, so I'll make two posts.

Part 1:

I hadn't gone to a local church building in nearly five years until this January. Before I actually stopped going to church, I knew that I would stop going for a while, and so I prayed, before I ever stopped going to churh services, "God change the way I view the Church and local churches; so that I never look at church the same way again." So years later, with that prayer always in the back of my mind, I started going back to local church communities again.

However, my prayer was answered, I guess you could say. I didn't look at the Church the same way that I did before. And as an unforeseen bonus, I didn't look at the world the same either. My entire perspective had changed.

It was really quite a random decision at the moment I decided to go back--- I knew the time was approaching when I'd go back-- the spiritual season felt different already and I had been researching different churches in my area, but the day I actually went back I hadn't thought about church at all until the last minute.

Anyways, since the point of return, I have been visiting many different churches. It's such an awesome, spiritual exploration. I love going to different churches and seeing the catholicity (universality) of the Faith-- inspite of the doctrinal, denominational, and cultural differences-- though, of course, I'm not disregarding the importance of those differences.

I've been taking notes on the sermons/services and I could post a lot of notes. ;) But I won't. I do need to get a new notebook, though!

[Convicted]

Part 2:

I'll post some of last night's sermon notes:


First, I went to a Catholic church, and attended Mass for the first time! I had never been to a Catholic church before and had been wanting to go to one for a while.

The service was pretty intersting and Biblical. The atmosphere seemed to evoke a real reverence for God-- beyond mere ritual also. They beautifully played the song "Via Dolorosa" on the piano. The priest read the whole section of John 4, about the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, who met Jesus. After he read that scripture, he went on to briefly speak about mankind's spiritual thirst. That material world will never quench our spiritual thirst. And like David says in Psalm 42, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God." He went on to quote St. Augustine, "Our hearts were made for Thee, O Lord, and will not rest until they rest in Thee." Followed by the Mass/Communion, hymns, and prayer.

I liked how the priest didn't interrupt the reading of the scripture to explain his sermon, but read the scripture in its entirety before he began his sermon.


After the Catholic church, I decided to go to another service at a different church that was only several blocks away. This time I went to a non-denominational church that I had previously visited once.

The church environment was different--- more of the modern contemporary feel to it, with a worship band that had sort of a rock sound to it. They spent a lot of time worshiping/praying, though, they only sang 4 different songs. (They really waited on God, and repeated the music/lyrics).

There were a couple testimonies, one from a lady that attends the church and from the pastor himself-- both of which revolved around the topic of the sermon: "Church Wounds." There was also an electronic poll, with little electronic pads, and the congregation was asked questions about whether they had church wounds and such. Apparently the pastor had just co-wrote a book about Church Wounds.

Some of the message notes from the bulletin:

We expect perfection from an imperfect church.

"The only problem with finding the perfect church is that our attending it would immediately ruin it."

There's four primary responds to church wounds:

Hostile, Hurt, Hindered, and Healed

Basically, the sermon ended with prayer for the healing of church wounds-- along with more worship. Many people went to the alter to pray.

[Angie Rose]

ok.. really long story, but ill make it quick. i dunno how many people on here know this, but i am fluent in spanish. OK that set you up for the story.
soo last weekend some of us from our youth group went on a little missions trip to pratt kansas... (pratt is a really tiny town of 6000 ppl) we partnerered w/ teh youth group @ pratt first assembly and did a weekend of outrach with them. aside from that we did their main service on sunday morning and all three youth services involved in that outreach weekend. so saturday was the day where we really just did a ton of servant evangelism around the city of pratt... one of the things was walking dpwn Main Streed and walking up to people (in a non-assertive or freaky way) and askign them if they wanted prayer.... somethign ive been WANTING to do for a LONG time... like 2 years, ok. sooo were walking down the street and we ask someon eif they wanted prayer. he said "i dont understand english... anyone speak spanish"
so here i have an opportunity, and yet all of a sudden i didnt want to. i was tempted to just act liek i couldnt speak spanish either. noone in our group knew i could. but God did, and i knew i wouldnt be able to sleep if i didnt step it up, so i squeaked, "I do" so i had the chance to talk to this guy and that all want fine... i was coherent and all... but then i had to pray. IN SPANISH. i have NEVER done that, except when i was praying to recieve my prayer language... the youth leader praying with me made me pray in spanish. haha ANYWAYS... when i started praying, it was like eyery word i had ever learned in spanish totally slipped my mind. so i stopped for a second and was like, 'ok Lord, give me a glimpse into this guy's life. give me something that h ewill know is of you.' and God just said 'pray that he draws closer to me' now, thsi guy had readily accepted prayer, so i assumed he was a christian and all that, but i went ahead an prayed it anyway, and it was like as soon as i said that i could sense that i had said something that hit him hard. so i asked him later after we prayed if he was a christian, went to church, he said yes, showed us teh church's card, turns out it was the same church we were workign with.. they have a spanish congrgation too!!! CRAZY!

any way! :)

[Convicted]

^ That's a cool story.

Do you usually think in English or Spanish?

[Angie Rose]

english... always.. even when im having a conversation in spanish. i.e. someone asks me something, i think the answer in english, but say it in spainsh... yeah, my brain works really fast, and so does my tongue... does that make any sense?!?!

i only had 2 learn spanish b/c my g-ma was also my babysitter when i was little adn she only speaks spanish so... i learned english & spanish @ the same time...