More and more

As we move into the summer months, one thing that can happen is we can tend to think of taking things easy.  Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking some time to get away on vacation with your spouse, family and/or friends.  In fact, I strongly urge you to do it!!

At the same time, just because Summer has arrived, I also urge you to keep making the choice to step up and personally get involved in your home, church and community.

One way to do that is always looking for ways to grow.

In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul tell his readers to continue to live the way they are living…

1)      Live to please God (4:1)

2)      Live to love others (4:10)

But then he adds 3 words to his commendations for seeing them living out these two ways. 

Those 3 words?

“More and more”

“More and more” is telling us we need to always be growing – never settling for where we are. 

Once we settle, we actually begin to sink.  Just like when something settles in the ground means it lowers into the ground.  If we settle we lower more into the ways of the world instead of the 2 ways mentioned above.

But…more and more living to please God and more and more living to love others will not settle us but stretch us.  It is in this stretching that we grow.

And growing is what Paul wanted for his readers so he chose to tell them to stretch the way they live…More and more.

May God stretch you as you step up to personally get involved in your home, church and community…More and more.

Leading and Serving with you,

Pastor David

Step up in Community

“We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.” ~ 1 Thessalonians 2:8

I hope the last 2 weeks you’ve seen how this verse perfectly fits for our current focus to step up and personally getting involved in your home, your church and your community. 

We have looked at it from the view of our homes and our church so let’s finish by looking at it from the view of our community.

Ever since we moved to Indiana, 10 years ago, Shami and I have been supporters of Marion Community Schools. 

We believe in the public school system because we are products of that system and believe it helps prepare you for the real world. 

Being able to lead and serve as an assistant coach for the high school football team has only deepened my love for our schools and the students.

As an assistant coach, I was given the opportunity to serve in another capacity at the high school. 

I asked Shami if she wanted to help serve too and together we helped at most of the home games of the Marion Giants basketball team. 

It was a lot of fun meeting new people, seeing students, coaches and other I knew and watching the basketball team play (which included some of the boys I coached).

So when the boys’ basketball team made it to the state championship game, we couldn’t be there but Shami and I watched the game on her iPhone. 

We felt like we were part of the team as we watched them win a state record, 8^th state championship. 

This is what it means to share your life with your community.

When we choose to personally get involved and step up to lead and serve in our community, we take ownership, we become participants and not spectators. 

I am asking every one that calls New Life home to personally step up and get involved in the community. 

There are many ways we can do this but this Sunday, we will give you an opportunity to step up and serve our community. 

This Sunday, May 22^nd, is our Taste of Ministry. 

Along with seeing areas of ministry where you can choose to step up and get involved, we will have Community Service Projects that you can choose to serve in this June.

Get ready!  Now is the Time to step up and personally get involved.

Leading and serving with you,

Pastor David

What can you offer?

 “We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.” ~ 1 Thessalonians 2:8

Last week, I mentioned how this verse is a perfect fit for our current focus to step up and personally getting involved in your home, your church and your community. 

So after looking at the home last week, today, let’s look at what this means for your church.

There is a prevailing view of the local church that does nothing good for the church worldwide.  It actually brings great harm to the local church.  What is this view?

What can a church offer me and my family?

Why is this so detrimental?  The danger is that such a view makes one think the church is here to meet me and my family’s needs.  If every person came into church with the thought, “what can this church offer me?”  Then nothing would ever be offered.  This is actually the underlining issue behind most failed marriages. 

If a husband begins to think his bride is not meeting his needs, he will begin to get frustrated, perhaps angry and resentful to his bride and if left unchecked will likely go find a way or his needs to be met elsewhere by something or someone.  The same is true when a bride starts saying, “he doesn’t provide what I need.”

In marriage, God is the one who is the provider, not your spouse.  The beauty of His provision is that He has designed it so He can use the husband for his bride’s needs and the bride for her husband’s needs.

So what’s this got to do with church?

The proper way of viewing a church is not “what can this church offer me?” but rather “what can I offer this church?”

And believe me, you offer quite a lot for any church.  And at New Life, we know that God has provided what we need through each of you that calls New Life home. 

At New Life, when it comes to families, we desire to partner with parents, serve families, and impact kids’ lives, but that is not done without the amazing people who step up to personally get involved.  These are people who have decided to ask themselves, “what can I offer New Life?”  As a result, parents are partnered with, families (including their own) are served and kids’ lives are impacted.

When you go to church thinking, “what can I offer this church?” you go with a mentality that is seen all throughout the New Testament.  There are some 50-60 verses that use either “one another” or “each other” to describe how those in church work together.

So as you ask yourself, “what can I offer this church?”  and then go offer it to those who lead and serve you at your church.  At New Life, we can help show you ways you can personally step up and get involved.  There is no better opportunity than on Sunday, May 22^nd at our Taste of Ministry.  There you will see first-hand the areas of ministry where you can offer what you have and you can choose to step up and get involved.

Full Attention

 “We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.” ~ 1 Thessalonians 2:8

This verse is a perfect fit for our current focus to Recalibrate Your Ministry. 

When we mean to recalibrate in your ministry we mean for you to step up by personally getting involved in your home, your church and your community. 

I’ll take the next 3 weeks to look at this verse through each of these areas.

Today, let’s look at the home. 

When we personally step up at home, we have to do more than just provide a roof over our kids’ heads, clothing for our loved ones to wear and food for our family to eat. 

We need to provide our “own lives, too.”

Let me show you what I mean. 

The other day, Savanah told me something she had accomplished and I quickly just gave it my approval. 

As I did, I realized I had not given her my full attention so I asked her for a do over. 

She smiled and shared again what she had accomplished one more time and this time I gave her my full attention and you could tell how proud it made her feel.

Our loved ones deserve our full attention when we are home. 

More than deserve it, they need our full attention when we are home. 

Giving our full attention is one way we can personally step up and get involved in our homes.

As we near Mother’s Day, may you take this opportunity to give your full attention to those who have “mothered” you through the years. 

Whether it be your biological mom, step-mom, adopted mom, foster mom, grandma, aunt, sister, neighbor, church member or anyone else who has “loved you so much” they too shared their “own lives” with you.

Happy Mother’s Day everyone and especially our New Life Moms!

~ Pastor David