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Sunday reflections and This Week at the Grove! April 12, 2010

Big Idea:
Toxic Religion:  Says doing the minimal is enough.  As long as you make a “salvation” decision and get baptized, you are ok.”
The Jesus Way says:  ”Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me!” Jesus says we must be willing to drop everything and follow him to be his disciple.

Scripture Memory:
Mark 8:34-35
34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.
The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Mk 8:34–35). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

Action Step:
This week identify the ingredients you are leaving out of your life as a Jesus follower and ask him for the strength to put everything under his control.

Random Thoughts:

• What an incredible day yesterday at Church at the Grove!  What a crowd!  Normally our Sunday after Easter is extremely low, but we had our largest attendance this year besides Easter!  You guys are reaching out and bringing your friends and family and that is awesome!
• I love doing baptisms!  It is probably my favorite thing we do at CATGrove because you hear the personal stories and it represents the transforming work that God is doing in the lives of people.  If my memory is correct, we baptized 11 people yesterday!  Awesome!  Let’s continue to reach out to our friends and family with the love of Jesus.
• We continued with out “DETOX” series yesterday with part 2:  Toxic Religion says doing the minimal is enough where Jesus says we must “deny ourself, take up our cross and follow him.”  We must take ourselves off the throne of our heart and allow Jesus to sit on the throne of our heart and be our leader and boss.
• Next week: “DETOX” part 3 on the topic of dealing with suffering and bad things happening in our lives.  You don’t want to miss it.
• We were able to have lunch with two middle school boys who were baptized yesterday.  DJ & Dylan Dockery and their family.  What a work God has done and is doing in that family.
• What a great sports weekend!  The Masters is one of my favorite sporting events in all of sports.  I loved watching Phil Mickelson embrace his wife and kids after a great win at the Masters.  They have been through a rough year battling breast cancer.  Watching their family together is quite a contrast to the events of Tiger Wood’s life this past year.  Character matters and lack of it has consequences.
• I continue to believe that God will do some amazing things in the life of our church this year!  We must continue to move forward!  We began to pray in the fall to see 100 salvations by Easter Sunday.  By my count we were just short of 50 salvations through Easter Sunday last week.  I am not disappointed at all!  I am excited that through our stretched faith, we saw many people turn to follow Jesus.  Now we must ask God what is next for our prayer and focused ministry efforts!  Be praying!
• Today is my wife’s birthday!  (April 12)  I am so thankful for her!  She is an amazing woman of God, mother, and wife.  If you read this, I would appreciate it if you sent her an email or gave her a call.  ”talkwithjill @ gmail.com
• I am so thankful for our volunteers!  You do an amazing job each and every Sunday to make it happen at Church at the Grove.
• Most would not know this, but we could not find the portable baptismal pool yesterday morning!  We went to pick it up and it wasn’t there!  Craig Calhoun, Steve Ryall, and Scott Nobles went all over Loganville to find it.  They made it happen and we ended up being a great morning.  Whew!

Keep praying, Keeping investing, keep inviting!

Easter Weekend reflections and this Week at the Grove

Big Idea:
Toxic Religion: I have to live up to a certain standard for God to accept me.
The Jesus Way: As I put my trust in Jesus, God accepts me into His presence and His family no matter what.

Jesus says, “Come to Me.”

Scripture Memory:
Matthew 11:28-30 (English Standard Version)

28(A) Come to(B) me, all who labor and are(C) heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and(D) learn from me, for I am(E) gentle and lowly in heart, and(F) you will find rest for your souls. 30For(G) my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Action Step:
Pray this prayer daily during this series:  ”Jesus, please show me your way.”

Random Thoughts:

• What a great weekend overall for the Church at the Grove family!
• I loved the Easter Egg hunt and partnership with Corndawgs on Saturday.  What a crazy day!  We probably had 3000 children and possibly a couple more thousand adults there.  It was wild!  At one time, the traffic was backed up to Youth Middle School!
• I love our volunteers!  What a great group that helped us with the Easter Egg Hunt and served at Corndawgs on Saturday. Thank you to all who did such an awesome job working and serving to make the Easter Egg Hunt a great family and community experience!
• I was wiped out on Saturday after a crazy time with the Easter Egg Hunt!
• Sunday was an awesome day!  It was our largest crowd since we moved into the new school and the second largest crowd ever for Church at the Grove!
• I love Gabe, Austin and the band!  They did an awesome job putting together an awesome Easter celebration.
• We had several people to turn to Jesus and follow him on Sunday!  What a great thing to see people trust Jesus for forgiveness.  That is why we do what we do!
• My family had the opportunity to eat lunch with an incredible group of people at the home of Jimmy and Christi Spears. Jimmy can surely cook!  I love eating his sweet potato souffle!  We had a blast!
• I am so excited about what God is doing in and through our church!  We are growing and God is bringing so many new people into our fellowship.
• I am excited about our DETOX series.  Religion was and is the enemy of Jesus!  We must detox from the pull that religion has on our life and focus on the person of Jesus.  Religion is man’s attempt to get to God, Jesus came to initiate a relationship with each of us.
• I need you to help us follow up with all the guests you brought with you over Easter and recent weeks.  We know that people connect quickly through relationship and responsibility! Please give them a call and invite them back and connect them to some other people!

Keep praying, Keep investing, Keep inviting!

Sunday Thoughts and This Week at the Grove!

Big Idea:
God’s Spiritual gifts are to be deployed for His glory and the building up of the body.

Scripture memory;
Ephesians 4:11-12 (ESV)
¹¹ And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,
¹² to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

Action Step:
Commit to discover, develop and deploy your spiritual gifts in a local body of believers.

Random Thoughts:

• Sunday was a great day at the Grove.  I love seeing new faces and returning guests! 
• I am so thankful for the world’s greatest volunteers!  I am amazed every week at how God blesses our church through their efforts and ministry. 
• I love our band and worship team! 
• What a blast to get to eat lunch together and hang out for some food and fellowship!  It is not something we get to do very often and it was so nice to see people talk and get to know one another.  AND we raised over $900 for our Romania team.  WOW!
• I have loved our “BRING IT” series on spiritual gifts!  My heart’s desire is that everyone in our church would discover their gift and put it to use! 
• Here are some web sites with spiritual gift assessments to assist you in discovering your spiritual gifts.  Elmer Towns is a professor and guru in church leadership.  Check this site out for a gift survey.  This gift survey is another great resource and it is fairly brief. 
• Easter Sunday is this next week!  We have a huge Easter Egg hunt this coming Saturday at CornDawgs and a huge Sunday next Sunday!  I hope you are praying and inviting some of your friends, neighbors, and family members. 
• Easter Sunday services at 9:30am and 11am!  Don’t forget!  Get there early!
• We begin a brand new series called “DETOX: Replacing empty religious activity with an authentic pursuit of Jesus.”  I can’t wait. 

Keep praying, keep investing, keep inviting!

Sunday Reflections and This Week at the Grove 3.22.10

Big Idea:
God has given you a spiritual gift to be used to build up the body and make Jesus known!

Scripture memory:
1 Corinthians 12:4-6 (ESV)
⁴ Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;
⁵ and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord;
⁶ and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

Action Step:
This week prayerfully consider where you can volunteer and serve so that you may better understand and discover your spiritual gifts.

Random Thoughts:

• I am so thankful for what God is doing in and through Church at the Grove!  What a great time in the life of our church!  What a great Sunday!
• Nathan did an outstanding job teaching on the gifts yesterday!  I am so thankful for our staff/team and those that are part of our teaching team. 
• I am so thankful for our volunteers each and every week that make things happen!  Thank you to all of you that serve so faithfully.
• 16 people attended our “Next Steps/C-3″ gathering on Friday at Russ and Joanna Spires house on Friday night!  Yes!  I love it!
• Yesterday was a great Sunday morning and then I went to play “airsoft” war with a group of middle school boys.  I am paying for it today!  It was great to connect with some new guys!
• For those of you that have kept up with the historic “health care reform”, here is a great reminder in an article I came across this morning.  It reminds me of who is in control and where my focus should be.  Read it, reflect, and pray! 
• I love hearing everyone talking about their spiritual gifts and where they can be put to use!  I love seeing God’s Word applied to life.
• Austin, Shelly and the band!  Thank you for leading us in worship.  What a great Sunday in God’s presence!
• So excited about a New Believer’s curriculum that Chris DiPascal has put together!  It’s called LAUNCH and it will Launch new believer’s into their journey with Jesus.
• I am so looking forward to Easter!  I hope you are praying and considering who you will invest and invite to our Easter Sunday celebration.
• March Madness is in high gear.  I am not a huge basketball fan but I love seeing the lowly underdogs upset the big guys in this tournament.
• Easter Eggstravaganza!  We are partnering with CornDawgs.  I hope you have signed up to volunteer. 

Keep praying. Keep investing and Keep inviting.