2007 July » russbutcher.com

Breakfast at Youth Middle School

Church at the Grove, Community, Missional No Responses »

Jul 262007

We served breakfast for the faculty and staff at Youth Middle School on their first day back for pre-planning. We love Youth Middle School and we love teachers. They are often under appreciated for the investment they make in the lives of young people and thus into our community.

Youth Middle School has been incredible with a spirit of hospitality as we use their facilities for CATGrove! We are so thankful for the friendship and partnership established with them.

We love opportunities to connect with people in the community.

Our mission at CATGrove is to “develop people who follow Jesus and Make Disciples”. We do this through three “channels”:

We create environments where people can explore faith.
We encourage relationships. We seek to establish community groups as one primary way to accomplish this.
We start discussions in our neighborhoods and community that lead to sharing the hope found in Jesus.

When we can do simple acts of kindness like serving breakfast to a wonderful group of people like those at YMS, these conversations can take place.

CATG Students are Awesome!

Church at the Grove, Community No Responses »

Jul 262007

Last night was an awesome night with our middle school and High School students at CATGrove! They are awesome! We had our incoming sixth graders come and they were welcomed with open arms.

Our students meet on Wednesday nights at 6:30pm at the CATGrove office. If you have a high school or middle school student in your family, they will love our student leaders Nathan Boyd and Katelyn Acuff. Nathan is in his final semester at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and nearing the finish line on his bachelor degree. Katelyn teaches at the Walton County Christian Learning Center for the Loganville High School Campus. They love students and they do an awesome job on Wednesday nights.

Last night we had a guest speaker with our students. Greg Peck is a long time old friend and runs a company called Lapdog Inc. He specializes in creating experiences that build teamwork and cooperation. Most of his work is in the corporate sector but he still speaks and ministers in the church as well. Check out his site here.

Pray for our students as they get ready to start school next week and the following weeks. May God bless them on their campuses and give them great influence with their fellow students as they represent Christ.

Starbucks

Culture, Random Thoughts 3 Responses »

Jul 252007

I have a major problem! Starbucks is raising their prices! What is a coffee junkie to do? As I see it, I have some options:

Option #1 – I can enter a twelve step program and get off coffee all together. This is not my number 1 choice.
Option #2 – I can resort to Cappucinos at Quik Trip. This doesn’t sound good.
Option #3 – I may be able to order IV bags of caffeine and inject it directly into my blood stream. I don’t think this would go over well with my family.
Option #4 – I could get a side job at Starbucks. This has been a secret desire of mine for a long time. Maybe they would let me work for free coffee and drinks.
Option #5 – Maybe I could stage a coffee accident where hot coffee spilled on me and out of fear of a lawsuit they would give me free coffee for life. (Did I just say all of that? See how addictions mess with your mind!)
Option #6 – Please email or respond with a comment and give me what YOU think would be a good solution.

Oh, the decisions we have to make in life!

End of Summer Thoughts

Church at the Grove, Church Planting, Missional No Responses »

Jul 242007

Okay, I know technically it is not the end of summer, but practically speaking with school starting back next week, it is the end of summer vacation and that has a huge impact for those of us in the local church. Here are several thoughts as we come to a close of our summer:

It has been a great summer for Church at the Grove! We have had many new faces come through this summer and to see our environment on Sunday mornings continue to grow and develop sets us up for a great fall!
With much blessing comes great responsibility. We need to “step it up” and respond to the challenge that God has put before us. There are still many people in this community that have yet to be connected to God through Jesus. We need to stay focused outwardly!
We are going back to two services on August 5! It is going to be crazy in a good way. We need to show a spirit of hospitality like never before. We need to show God’s love in our Sunday morning environment through excellent greeting and friendliness.
We had an incredible time at our baptism Sunday night! It was one of the sweetest times I can remember. See the pictures below.
Gear up for an incredible fall! Plan to invite some people in your circle of influence! You don’t want to miss what is going to happen!