Why I Love My Church - Small Groups

This Sunday, our church will be promoting joining small groups for the upcoming semester.  Our small groups, focus on home Bible studies, fellowship, and community.  We do not have traditional Sunday School for ages beyond youth, so Small Groups are our primary resource for deeper biblical teaching and for deeper connections among the members.  Particularly in a church the size of ours.

It's an embodiment of the early church in Acts, chapter 2.

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.  Everyone was filled with the 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."

                                                                                                                                                      Acts 2:42-47

A place where we seek to abide daily, devote relationally, live authentically, and admonish biblically.

Small group bible studies hold a special place for Jamie and me.  We met at our community group in Austin.  We both had sought community in connection with the Austin Stone and had ended up in the same central Austin community group.  Since then, we have sought home Bible study in each church that we have attended since. We've led them in Wills Point and started leading one very quickly here in Brownsburg.

There's something special about studying in someone's home.  About gathering together, breaking bread and eating together, sharing in each other's lives.  Crying together.  Laughing together. Praying together.  Living together.

About taking our faith outside of the church and remembering that it carries with us each and every day, and in every location that we inhabit.

These are the people in our circle.  When we are hurting, we we struggle, they are who we reach out to.  And we've been through a lot with this small group.  We've shared and grown in great leaps with them.

We look forward to the new year.  We have room for one or two new couples, so, we are looking forward to getting to know the new members of our group.  To continuing to grow together with the continuing members.

If you're not in a small group, if you are not connecting with a small group of people to grow in your faith and in your life, why not?  What opportunities exist for you in your community?

If you are in the Brownsburg area and would like to find a church to connect and grow with, and would like to learn more about Connection Pointe Christian Church, you can find out more here.

Why I Love My Church CPCC 2: Community Garden

From connectionpointe.org

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat..."

Matthew 25:35a

I haven't written in this series a lot recently and wanted to pick it up again to write about our new church home, Connection Pointe Christian Church in Brownsburg, Indiana.  The series was started to write on special Sundays and outline reasons I love the church we are attending.  

It can be very easy to focus on the negative in anything we do.  To point out everything we would change, every little problem we have.  Everything that doesn't make us happy.  All too often, we focus on those aspects to the exclusion of all that we have been blessed with.

And please do not misunderstand me, I love a lot of things about Connection Pointe.  I love the staff, I love the intentionality that everything is done with, I love the biblical foundation, I love the people.  The foresight to start an online ministry a year before the pandemic.  Everything listed probably does not get enough recognition.  

But this series will not initially focus on those aspects.  To start this series is going to focus on those really unique, standout things our church does, including a few things that I would love to see other churches do as well.

Today, I learned about Connection Pointe's community garden.  And I think this is an amazingly great idea for any church.  The church campus has the blessing of size and of land, so a portion of the land in the northeast corner has been set aside as a community garden, to grow food to donate to local schools, food banks, and elderly care.  

I've seen the space in the back and thought it was likely for a garden, but never knew its impact until the bumper today.  Such a great opportunity for everyone to serve, whether they have a green thumb or not, by pitching in and literally helping grow the food that can have such a tangible impact on the community.  

Community gardens have existed for ages, and have had their surges in popularity, from the Victory Gardens during the world wars, to the current resurgences helping to offset America's "food deserts."  It's so inspiring to see a church joining in that effort.  To not only provide food, but to provide fresh food.  Fresh fruits and vegetables.  

Such a simple but profound way to demonstrate God's love to a community by meeting such a basic need.  "Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen:  to break the chains of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke,  to set the oppressed free and tear off every yoke?  Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your home, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?"  Isaiah 58:6-7.

And it's such a great idea that aligns with the interests and service areas of most churches.  In most rural suburban churches, I guarantee that you can find people with the time and the interest that are already gardening in their spare time, that would be perfect volunteers for such a community effort.

All it takes is someone to take the charge and lead it.

If you are looking for a church home, to find a place to truly connect and dig in deeper, you can find out more about Connection Pointe here.  We have a great online presence and people joining in from across the country, so it is a great way to start a connection to a church.

If you have a church home, I would ask you what you love about your church.  Could you list the things that you feel your church is really strong in?  And are there areas that you recognize you are being called to serve in?

For Such A Time As This

"As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it.  Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length.  Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before."

Joshua 3:3-4

This past Sunday, the church that we will be joining focused on this passage above for its message.  It focused on identifying what to do when you find yourself at a place that is unfamiliar.  When you don't know the way forward.  When life doesn't go as planned.  The lesson from Joshua being that the Lord led the way for His people forward, and He is still doing it today.

The pastor discussed a bit of the church's history over the past two years and how it had prepared them for this current crisis.  The church has strong roots in the town, founded in 1837 as Brownsburg Christian Church.  It has been growing and changing over the past 163 years.  

Now, this church is big.  Five thousand to six thousand, five hundred members/attenders.  Six services.  The church campus looks like a school campus in size.  It's close to mega church.  But when we consider the demographics of the community around it, it's proportionately size to the town and surrounding area.  For example, it would reach the same size percentage as Stonepoint does in Wills Point and Edgewood.

Two years ago, the church found itself at a decision point.  Given the church's growth and trajectory, it was time to think towards expansion.  Most of the elders and members assumed this would occur in the way this normally occurs.  Satellite campuses.  Church split to found another church in another location.  Etc.

Pastor John Dickerson had a different vision.  He knew God wanted them to go a different path.  He saw a much needed investment in digital technology.  Envisioning the churches expansion path forward in a virtual world.  To get services and more online and accessible, so that the church could have a world-wide reach.  This included live streaming services, updating the churches webpage to be more accessible and interactive.  Designing apps for various platforms to provide a centralized location for sermons and services, as well as modifying them for upload on popular platforms like Facebook and Youtube.  I've recently discovered their AppleTV app for example.  We were previously watching on TV via Facebook Watch.

This required a new way of thinking.  New equipment, new service roles.  It was an entirely different picture of how to proceed.  A completely new path.

And at the time, the need was not as easily recognizable.  Two years ago, who could have imagined the need for great numbers of people to experience church virtually.  

Here we are.

While Pastor John focused on Joshua, I kept thinking of Esther.  Esther was a young Jewish girl, taken into sex slavery, to be a concubine for the king, one of his "queens," who ended up capturing his attention.  It's not exactly the future she might have imagined for herself.  And yet, it's that very situation that put her in a position to save her people.

"And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

Esther 4:14b

Pastor John had the vision for the future, yes, and it was a digital vision that would be beneficial regardless of the times.  But it especially prepared the church for such a time as this.  It was a bold move in the past that made them particularly suited to grow and to help so many people in this crisis.  They've shared story after story of blood drive, of PPE drives, of food drives, of donations that are occurring and possible now because of their obedience then.

It prepared them to easily transition into virtual church.  To add services so that the members stay connected during this time.  To add a Thursday night worship service.  Virtual prayer services.  Etc.  Welcome Meetings over Zoom.  Small group meetings over Zoom.  To make a big church feel small.

While it would have been great to be able to go into a church when we moved here and get to know it, we still feel connected to this new body and know this is the place we are called to attend.  We have felt connected to them and they have been reaching out to us to check on us during this time.

No one expects a global pandemic, but they were prepared.

I think back over our own story the past year and how God prepared us for such a time as this.  How we would not have been able or in any position to move, if Jamie didn't know it was time to take a break from teaching and focus on Avalyn and Jude.  If I didn't lose my job.  I can look at how I've been prepared to work from home during this crisis at a brand new job and not be anxious, because I was already doing so in project work for months before we moved.

If we listen, if we follow, if we are obedient, God prepares us for the path ahead.  He sends His covenant ahead of us to show us the way.  And He teaches us along the way to be prepared for whatever situation He is leading us into.

How has God prepared you for such a time as this?  

And then the next question, are you stepping out and doing what He has prepared you for?  

Or are you hoping this moment will pass you by?