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You’re invited to our Open House Sunday on March 11! Following the service, we will have a Newcomer’s Lunch. If you are visiting or have begun attending the church over the past several months and are looking for a way to get more involved, please join us for free lunch and a chance to get some more information about the various ministries of the church.
Have a story to tell of God’s goodness to you? We’d love to hear it, and perhaps encourage you to share it in a future context! Whether it is a testimony of God’s faithfulness in a season of trial, a unique experience of God’s blessing and provision, a way that God has used you to minister to others, or the details surrounding your conversion, please share it by filling out the form found here.
In 2008, one of the largest churches in America that has served as a model for many other churches did a self-study to analyze how effective their ministries were at creating disciples. One of the great concerns they observed in their church was that they were not raising up what they called ‘self-feeders’ (people who had the regular practice of pursuing a relationship with God on their own and having their own meaningful times of study and interaction with God’s Word). I think this concern would be echoed by many pastors and it has been an increasing concern for the pastoral team of LCC.
Although study and teaching of the Word has long been a featured emphasis for us as a church, we too recognize that this doesn’t mean this priority is translating beyond well intentions and into the real spaces of our lives as individual disciples. Today, the trend for all of us is daily and weekly management of busy lives that are inundated with information. Studies show that we may be doing more reading as a people than ever –but those same studies show that very little of that reading is deep reading or study and there is an ever increasing trend of decreased Bible study and increased digital data from the information superhighway.
In our quest for a “New Normal”, just think what an impact it would have on our faith and our lives, if we were a people who were experiencing God and His Word on a daily basis! That’s what the 30/30 Plan is about. It’s an experiment to make an “at-all-cost” commitment to spend at least 30 minutes a day for 30 days interacting with God through His Word.
What if our souls were hooked up to a daily Vitamin regimen of the Word! What if our minds were renewed on a daily basis and not just in the crisis moments of life? What if malnourished faith were to receive a high nutrient supplement on a daily basis? What if we radically changed the way we do Spiritual life and included it as a daily pursuit, like eating and sleeping! What if we stopped trying to survive on a spiritual meal that happened only once or twice a week! What impact might that have on our love for God …our joy in this life …the witness of the church …our relationships with people! What if…
Daily connection with God is NORMAL, not exceptional in the lives of the disciples — how about making it our “New Normal” as modern disciples.
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An Appeal from Pastor Keith
“I appeal to you therefore brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Rom 12:1-2\
Happy New Year! I love the word ‘new’ for a bunch of reasons. Like most of us I can just love something that breaks up the familiar, but in this passage, I love the fact that with a new year comes God’s mercies, that are new every morning! How exciting and encouraging to know that God’s mercies are looking to find us as we begin this new year, like heat seeking missiles! God is after you.
I join with the apostle Paul in issuing a passionate ‘appeal’ that you would join with the church in presenting yourself to God–in making yourself available and accessible to God. In this passage we discover a non-negotiable for everyone of us as we start this new year. We need to make ourselves available to God, so that our minds may be renewed and we may avoid being conformed to the image of this world. God has a will for our lives –a rich, well thought out, meaningful purpose that He has in his heart …with our names on it. BUT it is not automatic that we will know what that will is. According to this passage, we can come to discern God’s will for our lives as we make ourselves available to Him and he renews our minds.
That’s what our 30/30 Spiritual Health Plan is all about. As people are planning to get into the gym, start walking/running, and eating better to start the year, we want to appeal to you to make room each day to spend 30 minutes reading God’s Word and communicating with God in prayer. For some this will be the norm, while for others it will be a new day and a new practice. We want to encourage you that YOU CAN DO IT!! We are praying for you and joining with you as a church. Can you imagine what our church will be like if everyone were presenting themselves to God on a daily basis to be affected by His Word and His presence. Well you won’t have to just imagine if you join us in this journey.
We want to see EVERY MEMBER OF LCC joining in this venture. So far we have 269 people signed up for the 30/30 plan. That’s a great start, but we want everyone in! So start today and if you’ve not filled out a sign-up card, you can just click on the link below and it will take you to Evan May’s email address, where you can just give your name or the names of those in your family who will be participating, along with your email address.
Join the journey and cheer others along as they seek to get in shape for the New Year! Sign up here evan@
Pastor Keith
The author of Hebrews invites believers to draw near to Christ and “find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). We need only live long enough to experience a time of unique suffering and difficulty. An increasingly common trial among us is the cancer diagnosis. We want to be able to serve those who are suffering in this particular way, both inside and outside of the church body, and so we will be starting a new ministry called “Christ Cares Cancer Ministry.” Will have an info meeting on January 15 after the Sunday service for those who are interested in participating. If you would like to attend, please sign up at the Welcome Center.
