There will also be giveaways, including 4 car seats.  And for the parents, we will have a car seat technician that can show any parent how to properly install a car seat.

Like I said, all of Independence is invited, so bring yourself, your kids, and your friends, and we’ll all have a great time.  The festivities will be held at Bingham Middle School, located here.
See you there!

Popsicles at McCoy Park

This Saturday (June 23rd edit: 28th! sorry everone!), we’re going to go to McCoy Park (info here) to hand out popsicles, or Flavor Ice, or whatever you call those awesome, cool treats. We’re meeting there at 1 PM and we’ll go until we can’t! This is going to be a great practical way to show Jesus to the community through our actions and our conversations with people. We’ll all be meeting up at the park, so if you can make it just look for me or Jason.

Extreme School Makeover

This summer, the Independence school district is working to improve many of their schools’ facilities. We can help them out by volunteering as part of their Extreme School Makeover on July 26th and 27th. To find out more about the event, click the link above, and to sign up online click here. As a group, we are going to sign up to work Saturday, July 26th in the AM time period at the Rock Creek/Korte Elementary school (located here). Also, if you want, you can indicate on the sign up sheet that you are part of the LifeConnection group.

Jeans for Guatemala

This project is very interesting and has far-reaching effects. The Maya-Mesoamerica Mission is helping women start their own small business to produce sustainable income. To help with this effort, they are asking for jeans to send to women to give them a product to sell.

Now I know that some of us have that pair of jeans that’s still good but for whatever reason don’t wear anymore. And I know we will probably try to sell them off at garage sales, with mixed success. In the next month or so, we will be going out on a Saturday morning to see if any garage sales have any leftover jeans they’d like to donate, but in the meantime, if you like to shop garage sales, keep an eye out for piles of jeans. I was able to get a whole trash bag full of them from some nice folks as they were closing down their sale for the day. If that happens to you, just bring them on a Sunday morning and look for me, and I will definitely take your jeans.

As a side note, they will not accept any jeans that have holes or are in any way dysfunctional (broken zipper, missing button, etc.).

That’s all for now, but keep checking here, your inbox, and the Loop to find out about more opportunities to serve our community.

Matt Scott
Community Services Coordinator

Basically, churches from around the world are joining together responding the the question, “If you could pray just one prayer to God, for the Church, what would it be?” Many are dong so via video, which enables churches to hear teaching from gifted communicators from all around the world. LifeConnection’s prayer Sunday morning was, “Lord, make us risk-takers.”

Being that it was Father’s Day, the message was geared especially to the dudes. I won’t go into great detail about the content of the message, I’ll simply have you go listen to it here. It’s not up just yet, but come back in a day or two and it should be ready to go.

Generally, we try enhance the musical worship by developing a song list that is consistent as possible with the teaching for the morning. Rather than bombard people with lots of different small ideas, we try to communicate one big idea. We took a little longer than usual settling down on the specific direction for the teaching when we were doing musical planning, so we were a bit less intentional with the consistency of that big idea this time around. Check out the set:

When I Think About the Lord: Shane and Shane
Forever: Chris Tomlin
Beautiful Jesus: Kristian Stanfill
How Great is Our God: Chris Tomlin
How Great Thou Art: LifeConnection style (who was the original composer?)

We were going to follow the teaching with How Great Thou Art, but Rev. Allen came up to us pre-service because he was concerned it was too pretty to follow a teaching that was going to challenge dudes to quit being so pretty. With that, we followed the teaching with Beautiful Jesus and How Great is Our God. In hindsight, it was a good move and actually very consistent.

One memorable statement from the morning: “We don’t work up the courage to become risk-takers by mustering it up within ourselves. We become risk-takers by catching a fresh vision of God.” With that, I can’t think of two better songs to follow a teaching like that than these. It turned out to be an intense and challenging morning. I know my testosterone levels have increased significantly and I finally have chest hair. Till next time.

–Carson

We opened up the morning with Nickel Creek’s Doubting Thomas. If you’re unfamiliar with the band you should check them out. The band’s mandolin player, Chris Thile, is among the best in the world. And thankfully, we had our friend Roger Brant, who’s ability nearly matches Thile’s, to play on the song with us. The tune was a perfect fit for the beginning of Legitimate Questions.

What will be left when I’ve drawn my last breath,
Besides the folks I’ve met and the folks who know me,
Will I discover a soul saving love,
Or just the dirt above and below me,

I’m a doubting thomas,
I took a promise,
But I do not feel safe,
Oh me of little faith,

Sometimes I pray for a slap in the face,
Then I beg to be spared ’cause I’m a coward,
If there’s a master of death I’ll bet he’s holding his breath,
As I show the blind and tell the deaf about his power,

I’m a doubting thomas,
I can’t keep my promises,
‘Cause i don’t know what’s safe,
oh me of little faith

Can I be used to help others find truth,
When I’m scared I’ll find proof that its a lie,
Can I be lead down a trail dropping bread crumbs,
That prove I’m not ready to die,

Please give me time to decipher the signs,
Please forgive me for time that I’ve wasted,

I’m a doubting thomas,
I’ll take your promise,
Though I know nothin’s safe,
Oh me of little faith.

Our musical worship set took place after the teaching:

Mighty To Save: Hillsong
Marvelous Light: Charlie Hall
Sing to the King: Candi Pearson

The morning’s musical set was great! I was very encouraged to see the congregation responding to God through the music. It was one of most fun mornings we’ve had yet.

–Carson Conover

We tried to highlight this teaching by choosing songs that would be a fit thematically. Check out the set-list:

Take It All: Hillsong United
Offering: Third Day
How Great is Our God: Chris Tomlin
Beautiful Jesus: Kristian Stanfill
Take My Life: Chris Tomlin

Overall, it was a great morning! One of most penetrating thoughts I recall is that, ultimately, we must understand that the gospel–God’s solution for the problem of sin in the person of Jesus Christ–is what will compel us to give our lives away to the world in generosity.

Philippians 2: 5-8
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

–Carson Conover

The God of the Bible is a radically generous God. So, we too, want to embody the kinds of things that He values. What a simple way to take part in what God is doing in our own community! I find Replenish Independence to be a great way to honor God by valuing the people He is concerned about. Our hope is that you will feel welcome and encouraged to take part in this project with us too.

We will meet again tomorrow, the 17th at 10am, in the parking lot of Bingham Middle School to re-group and head back to those neighborhoods to pick up the food. We will simply travel to those homes, pick up the sacks off of their front porches, and then transport them to the food bank. It’s going to be a great morning and we hope to see you there!

–Carson Conover

Over the next few months we will be losing some significant support as several one-year commitments come to completion. So I have been praying that God will raise up new support.

I just found out a contributor that was leaving in May will continue on until the end of December at a lower level. While we will be losing significant monthly support from this organization their continued support at a lower level will help us immensely and I am so grateful to God for answering our prayer.

We still need to see God raise up new funds over the next several months. Feel free to pray with us in this regard. God has been so faithful to provide every financial need we’ve had to this point that we trust he will do so with this as well.

Thanks for your prayer.

How do you post a prayer request here?

2 Ways:

1. Write it on the prayer and comments section of The Loop each weekend.
2. Email Matt Scott with your request.

You can still submit “private” requests that will be kept…well private. And we will also edit prayer requests where needed for content and wording.

Here is a request from this week:

Wyatt - “that the Lord would prepare me for Basic Training”

Day 6: Psalm 119.41-48

Day 7: Psalm 119.49-56

Day 8: Psalm 119.57-64

Day 9: Psalm 119.65-72

Day 10: Psalm 110.73-80

Isa 55.11

Prov 30.5

Ps 12.6

2 Tim 3.16-17

1 Peter 2.1-3

Acts 2.42-47

Dt 8.3

Ps 19.7-11

Heb 5.11-14

Scripture Challenge - Psalm 119

Psalm 119 is broken into 22 sections (based on the Hebrew alphabet). And it focuses a ton on God’s character and his word. If we’re going to see our attitudes toward the Scriptures shift and our appetites for the Scriptures grow and our lives changed (growth) we must read God’s word.

You should join us in the Scripture Challenge. It’s simple and will only require about 15-20 minutes a day.

We utilize the acronym SOAP (from New Hope Christian Church).

S is for Scripture

Read the appropriate section of Psalm 119. Take time reading and allow God to speak to you. When you are done look for a verse that particularly stood out to you.

O is for Observation

What do you think God is saying to you in this scripture? Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and reveal
Jesus to you. Paraphrase and write this scripture down in your own words, in your journal.

A is for Application 

Personalize what you have read by asking how it applies to your life right now.  What is God asking you to do in light of your reading today?  Write out how this Scripture applies to your life today.

P is for Prayer 

This can be as simple as asking God to help you use this scripture, or it may be a greater insight on what He is teaching you.  Remember, prayer is a two way conversation, so be sure to listen to what God has to say.  Write out your prayer in your journal.

To see some samples you can check out Jason’s blog as he posts through the Scripture Challenge in Psalm 119.

Who is baptism for?  Anyone who has truly embraced Jesus as their leader and forgiver.
When should baptism occur?  Baptism happens after becoming a follower of Jesus.
How does LifeConnection baptize?  Immersion in water.

Want to find out more?  Anyone wishing to be baptize must talk with Jason about their decision.  So email Jason to set up an appointment to find out more.

This week we begin a new series: Encounter. We all need an Encounter with God. And so we’re exploring three ways for us to do so.

Encountering God through the scriptures.

God speaks to us most directly through his word. We need to grow in our habitual intake of the scriptures. The goal isn’t information, it’s transformation. For in the scriptures we encounter God.

Encountering God through prayer.

Prayer is a two way conversation where we listen for what God is saying to us (through his word) and we bring all our stuff to him. If we’re to Encounter God we need to develop our conversational interaction with the Father.

Encountering God through baptism.

Baptism is our outward display of our inward Encounter with God. Baptism is how we “go public with our faith.” And we are actually going to have baptisms take place April 13. So if you have accepted Jesus as your leader and forgiver but haven’t taken that next step of baptism contact Jason to find out more.

This is going to be a great series. I’m really excited for us a church. God is doing some very cool things in our community.

Send an evite to someone today.

Evite

Spread the word. Let’s pack out the gym!

So I post these not as a supplement to reading the Bible on your own (definitely not) but as a way to help you read the Bible on your own and begin interacting with it through the practice of journaling. I have included one post for every day of the work week.

Hope it helps. I would love to hear about your journey in the Scriptures this year.

Genesis 39.21
Genesis 50:19b-20
Exodus 23c-25
Exodus 5:21; 6:9
Exodus 9:15-17

I couldn’t be more excited about what God has in store for us this weekend. His word is so fresh, so powerful, so true, and this weekend I’m confident he is going to speak to us through it.

To this point I can’t think of a more clear display of what it means to follow Jesus in the 21st C than what we’re going to see this weekend. We have some great things in store, it’s going to be an awesome time together. So don’t miss it.

So invite all your friends. I promise you, Jesus will be displayed as the one through whom we can find God. And our friends need to discover him.

See you there!

Also, we will be working on putting up some resources to help you find daily Bible reading.  We’ll let you know as we get those up.

So keep checking back, we’re trying to get more and more helpful content up for you.

Carson is a graduate of UCM with a degree in Philosophy and a minor in Music. Not only can Carson philosophize and play drums, guitar, and wail vocally he is also a proven disciplemaker, leader, and faithful to God’s mission.

I’ve known Carson for over 4 years through the BSU at UCM. During that time Carson was one of our key leaders doing anything asked of him, and a lot was asked of him (not much will change ). In the last few years Carson helped to launch the Campus Church Network at UCM - a growing network of res hall churches - and was one of the campus church leaders.

We’re really excited to have Carson on-site finally. It was a long road to identify someone who could take on the role of Creative Arts Director but once Carson accepted the invitation my mind was set at ease. Carson will also take on the role of Campus Missionary as we seek to reach and grow college students in our area. Not only that but having someone who will join with me day in and day out is going to be a great encouragement and motivator as we move toward Launch.

Carson is a great leader and he’s continually seeking to learn and grow (a testament to his humility). But maybe the greatest thing, in my mind, that Carson brings to the table is commitment to reach and grow people for Jesus’ sake. He’s a proven and committed disciplemaker, which is at the core of our commitments as a church.

So head over and welcome Carson to the neighborhood. Or shoot him an email.

So here is an example of what a journal entry could look like that is more normal in length. The goal isn’t to have pages and pages of writing. The goal is to hear from God and respond to him accordingly.

Hope this helps.

Check it.