Noland Road Baptist Church has graciously invited LifeConnection to take part in their Financial Peace University Classes this spring.  We want to invite you to consider taking part in this great opportunity.  Here is more information from their web site:

Learn from national talk radio host and best selling author Dave Ramsey about how to gain Financial Peace in these uncertain times.  The Financial Peace University course is a 13 week DVD teaching series hosted by Dave Ramsey and then facilitated in a small group setting to apply and ask questions.

There are over 800 verses of scripture that teach about money and the wise use and management of money, yet they are so often overlooked and ignored.  To be a disciple of Jesus Christ in this world means that every area of our lives are in line with the biblical teaching on what it means to be a follower of Christ.

Financial Peace University  (FPU) is NOT a “Stewardship Campaign” or a way to guilt you into giving, but a program of life instruction to move you from living paycheck to paycheck to being financially free!

Sign up for this exciting journey to get your financial house in order.  Classes will be held on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday nights at 6:15 to 8:15pm.  No childcare except regular Wednesday evening activities for children (AWANA and nursery for babies).

There is a cost for the materials of $93.00.  This cost can be divided out into the 13 weeks at approximately $7.15 per week–about the cost of eating lunch out about once a week!  Classes will start on Sunday February 21, 2010.

Sign up today at their web site: HERE.

Our latest media is up for our current series DNA.

This series highlights the Core DNA of LifeConnection, expressing our desires to live for Christ’s Glory as we desperately seek to bring our lives in line with the Gospel.  In this fourth week we focused on the generosity of Christ displayed in the Gospel & how this affects our generosity as individuals and church.

The Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8:1-9

This past semester, our LifeConnection community groups worked to meet the needs of others in response to God’s grace in their lives. Here is an email from a family at LifeConnection who was the recipient of that generosity. Let it be a reminder of God’s grace in our lives. Even more, let it be a reminder of the ultimate act of Generosity shown to us in Jesus’ death on the cross, for our sins. All of LifeConnection’s generosity is simply a response to the gift given us in Jesus.

Hello all, hope you’re having a great New Year!

I’m writing this email as a small gesture of gratitude for the gift that your Community Group provided to my family this Christmas.  I won’t be able to adequately describe utilizing words what this gift meant/means to us…but here goes nothing!

I know that you were probably filled in on our situation over the past twelve months, so excuse me for being redundant, but its an important part of our story.  This past May I lost my job due to the economy.  As in one day I had a job, the next I didn’t.  I was a full commission contractor, so that meant I also wouldn’t receive unemployment.  The Lord was good and had already provided a job mowing lawns for the summer, so we did have some income coming in, but not enough to pay all of the bills.  This led to about 4 months of bills racking up.

During that time I was able to secure my current job teaching high school English.  This is a dream job and I’m so thankful to be able to be a part of it.  But unfortunately we still had those 4 months of bills staring us in the face.

When your group came to talk to me in November about providing for us during Christmas it really took us by surprise.  I thought to myself, “but we really don’t need anything”.  And we really didn’t.  God had provided for us all of the essentials…but we were living on a thin wire.  We were far enough behind on our mortgage that one misstep would have sent us into foreclosure.  We did have a need, but it was hard to accept that the need would be met by others rather than ourselves.

It totally blew us away when we received your gift at the Lifeco Christmas service.  I know how hard it is to make a dollar, and that the Christmas season is a time that money is harder to come by than it is to spend.  So on a Tuesday night in December your group gave to our needs and gave my family relief during a very stressful time of our life.

The next day is when it all started to set in how completely God provides for us…that Wednesday morning we received a letter in the mail with a check for an amount that, in conjunction with your gift, would totally catch us up…on everything.  What a blessing…We gathered our kids around us right then and let them know exactly what had happened over the past year and what had happened that morning.  I don’t think they understood why Jenn and I were crying, but there is one message I hope they learned that morning.

My family is fortunate in that we have a support net.  My folks and Jenn’s folks would both be there if things got desperate…But so many people in this world don’t have that.  There are many people that instead of getting that relief in just the nic of time, would have been kicked out of their house instead.  The message that we gave our kids that morning was, “look for those people…the people who have nothing or no one…and take care of them.”  We live in a broken world that is hostile to humankind…the Church was put here to be a spot of respite.  Thank you for being our cup of cool water in a parched and dry land.  Thank you.

Here are two real life stories of God at through generosity.

How we spend our money displays what we truly value.  Roger & Cindy Gamble talk about how God has grown them as they have trusted Him with their finances.

Generosity isn’t merely about finances and Kim Wilcox talks about how God has grown her in Christ as she has given of her time and energy to serve.

Watch this video to discover more and then follow the link below to give.  One of the great things about our network in the SBC is that 100% of everything donated to disaster relief goes to disaster relief.

Find out more:

Give to the Disaster Relief efforts HERE.

Post 1: The City

As a young, growing church we have a peculiar set of needs.  For instance, existing churches often don’t have to consider purchasing a new trailer to house their “church in a box” or a box truck to haul that trailer and equipment.  But these are the sorts of considerations on our radar.  Every church has needs, ours are unique to being a new church plant.

The responsibility of providing for these needs in our church, as in any, falls on the shoulders of our Partners and those who consider LifeConnection their home.

Here are a few of the needs that will have to be met this coming year…

Rental Needs.

As much as the Faculty, Staff, and Administration of Bingham Middle School appreciate LifeConnection we still must pay for the use of the space.  As a young church, meeting in a rented space like this allows us to keep our overhead down, remain flexible, and steward our resources by maximizing what God has given.

We have no idea what the future holds but we know that we have a contract with the school district through 2010.  This means monthly rental fees and as we grow our need for space grows which means our cost grows.  Your financial contribution makes it possible for people to encounter Christ each week through his word taught, through music sung, through lives changed, through a safe, loving environment for our kids to learn and grow, and through relationships that develop.

Roughly 17% of our budget this year will go toward this one rental need.

Equipment Needs.

As any church we have equipment that must be maintained.  We take this very seriously as God has graciously allowed us the privilege of stewarding this equipment for his Kingdom’s advance.  This year most of our warranties on our equipment run out.  This means we will incur maintainence costs on Audio/Visual equipment, our Van, our Trailer, Storage within the Trailer, Computer Equipment and Software, and more.  Not only must we maintain the equipment we currently have but various equipment needs will surely arise as we move ahead.

All of this equipment is necessary for what takes place every Sunday and throughout the week.  From the Cafe where Gospel-centered conversation takes place to the band leading us in musical worship.  Without this equipment we cannot do all that God has called us to do.

Management Needs.

As we grow we have more and more need for someone in a part-time administrative role.  This person will provide value to our entire church since we are philosophically and stragetically volunteer driven (this is a choice not merely a matter of circumstance).  This means someone in an administrative role could help in a variety of ways from communication to production to any number of responsibilities, such as managing The City.  This person will be a hub for connecting people to the life of the church, to ministry opportunities, and meeting the real needs of people in our church.

At this point, because of the realities of our current circumstances, this role/need is not even displayed in our current 2010 budget.  This means our contributions together will have to go above and beyond to make this a reality.

Leadership Development.

Every church that is following Jesus and seeking to live in line with the Gospel has a need to grow and develop leaders at every level.  For instance, we have a strong desire to start church-starting churches (see future post).  This means we must grow in our own ability to identify, recruit, assess, train, and launch church planters.

But leadership development also comes close to home as we strive to develop Community Group Leaders, Pastors, Deacons, Ministry Volunteers, KidsCo Workers, Glocal Ministry, Technology Operators, Band Members, and on and on we could continue.  As we grow our need to develop leaders grows.  Growing leaders will enable us to do all God has called us to do.  This will include conferences, books, resources, and more…

Summary.

I could continue down an ever growing list of needs but won’t. As you can see from this sample list there are needs in a growing church like ours.  Meeting these growing needs, and more, will help enable us to live out the vision God has placed on our lives and church.

In light of this we want you to be aware of three ways you can contribute as the year ends.

1. You can give this Sunday during the service as usual.  You can either give your gift in the offering buckets or place it in the offering box at the back of the gym.
2. You can always give securely online via PayPal.  All you need to do is click HERE, click on the “Donate Now” button and follow the onscreen instructions.
3. You can also mail your contribution to LifeConnection (postmark must be prior to Dec 31 to qualify for 2009 contribution).  Mail to:

Read it.

What will it look like for LifeConnection to display the kindness of God in dynamic ways in 2009?  How might this change the way people think about God?

May God grant us with the grace to creatively extend Generosity to our city this upcoming year.

I hope that you have a great day and enjoy your time off with friends and family.  Just as a quick reminder, this Sunday is Family Worship Sunday so we will not meet at Bingham (don’t forget).

As we discussed a few weeks ago God’s great generosity is revealed in the birth of Christ.  S today I was reminded of the great generosity displayed by our church this Christmas season.  I don’t have the exact totals but here are some general figures:

LifeConnection Christmas Project – $2,000 given.
3 Families adopted by Community Groups.

Altogether there was more than $2,500 given to help meet the needs of people in our community.  That’s exciting!

I’m looking forward to how God will grow us in generosity in 2009.