Because Relationships Matter

Book of John

Th View Point session that launches on Monday, January 11, 2010, will take us through the entire book of John in six weeks. 

Week 1 sample: The book of John opens and is written with many layers of imagery and mystery. John 1:2-3, "He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."

How do you respond to the mystical, "That's deep! How did God do that?" Where are you in this continuum:

• I feel compelled to find exact explanations,
• I feel frustrated at the notion to 'accept it on faith' without question
• I feel comfortable accepting the unknown with questions but still pursuing continued understanding
• I feel compelled to blindly accept the story of the Bible without question.

Week 2 sample: In John 4, the first place where Jesus reveals himself as the Messiah is to a woman who is shacking up with her 6th man. She is not broken or crying out to be saved; she's doing her daily chores. Jesus sits down, treats her respectfully and has a conversation with her. 

What does this tell us about 'being Jesus' to someone or to "love one another as Christ has loved you"? What is the challenge of accepting people who are not broken, repenting, and crying out for salvation?  

Do we get so caught up in pity or trying to save people or bringing them to Christ, that we end up treating them like they're different?

If your resolution in 2010 had anything to do with reading the Bible more often, you'll go through the entire book of John during the 6 week session. And, you'll meet some people, and hear a variety of perspectives on Jesus. Register here. It all starts this Monday, January 11, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.  

How did I get here?

I had the honor of attending the dedication of Stephanie Johnson's home for her and her 3 kids from Habitat for Humanity. I've never seen anyone happier to sign a mortgage! 

About 7 years ago, her life was in a ditch. Year in a state mental hospital, lost her children, and approved for Social Security as unemployable.

She is steady and rooted as she now works with at-risk teens. She has had her kids back for several years, and is a great mom! She works mulitple jobs and is responsible with what God gives her.

What do you do when you feel like you've tried everything, the experts have tried everything, and your life is still a mess? "God, you're my only hope," was Stephanie's only prayer for over a year.

God did his part. Stephanie did her part. She is not only faithful, but she's intelligent and she's wise. These are her words.

I find myself tempted to think about "steps."
How did I get here from there?

There's always a temptation to hold onto the way, rather than to hold onto Jesus.

Israel was given a way. A way to return to trust and dependence on the One True God.
Isreal, like many religions, and like me, gave into the temptation to rely on themselves and their way. They lost sight of the God who created them. They lost sight of the God who created the way.

The truth is, everyone has a next step towards Christ.
Whatever that step may be, God is faithful.
YHWH meets us in Grand and Miraculous ways.
My desire is to abandon myself to the reality that: All I can do is take one more step.

This is a beautiful story of a life redeemed, but God keeps revealing an ever more beautiful layer. Stephanie writes and delivers the content for our View Point groups. More people will continue to find their way as she points them toward Jesus. I'm grateful for her life and that it's crossed mine!

Paul & Philippians

View Point launches Monday night, September 14, for our final run in 2009. It's 6 weeks to talk about the Bible with others in a group.

We'll spend the first two weeks getting to know Paul before he wrote the letter to the church in Philippi, and each of the remaining weeks looking at the four chapters of Philippians. 

Here's a sampling of the first 3 weeks.

Week 1: We'll look at Paul before he knew Jesus (when he was known as Saul). His Jewish belief system was challenged. What stuff in our world challenges a Christian belief system? What emotions does it evoke? How do people respond: avoid, argue, reason, reject?

Week 2: Paul had an experience where he was converted, and he chose to be a follower of Jesus. Even after his eyes were opened, others identified him by his past. How was his identity transformed over time? What are our beliefs about choosing to follow Jesus and how an identity is tranformed? 

Week 3: Paul is writing from prison. The push for his imprisonment comes from the Jews, his own family and heritage. How does Paul respond to the multiple layers of hurt, betrayal, and rejecton underlying his captivity? When someone is hurt, betrayed or disillusioned by the Church or by people in the Church, what are common responses? 

We'll have groups at View Point for those who are married or those who are single (older or younger). Register here and come! 

View Point

We've made some adjustments over our first three offerings of View Point, our group environment for those who want to read and talk about the Bible with others. All of the offerings have taught us lots, but we've reached a place where we're finding our groove, and I'm excited about where we're going!

Here's an example of one question from our latest offering. The study was from I Samuel. In 15:11, God said, "I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned from me and has not carried out my instructions." The question to be considered: What does it mean for you to consider God as 'grieving'?

There isn't a right answer. The style of it fits us. It's the space we want to create for our people to experience God through the Bible.

Now, I didn't come up with that question. I don't naturally see that stuff when I read the Bible, but we have a volunteer leader, Stephanie Johnson, who does!

She connects -- I mean seriously connects in that mystical, unexplainable, beautiful sort of way -- and I'm convinced she's following Jesus, so I'm following her! It's leading to great places, I'm learning a ton from her about my own perspective of scripture, and I'm so very grateful!  

View Point launches next on September 14, 2009, and you can register here. Hope to see you there!

View Point

Monday night, July 13, 2009.

6:30 - 8:00 p.m.

6 weeks.

Bring a Bible.

Relax - No tests or Bible knowledge questions. 

Married (with or without your spouse), single (30+), or single (18 - 29) - there's a group for you.

Meet some people.

Have some fun.

Register here.

Hope to see you!

View Point is just cool!

We are in the 3rd week of our first View Point launch! 

This 6 week study on the Gospel of Mark is helping people get a new view of how they can study the Bible and meet other people interested in the same thing. 

We maintained the foundations of a safe group experience: 1) won't be asked to read the Bible out loud, 2) won't be asked to pray out loud, and 3) won't be asked to give answers to difficult Bible questions. With that tension out of the way, they can relax and have a great time! 

It's just fun to see people getting to know one another, and study the Bible together. Mark Allen, our lead facilitator, is providing great teaching with fresh perspective. It's a catalyst for great conversation in the groups! We have separate tables for singles, married, and college-aged adults.

This works! View Point launches again in April...just around the corner!

Hard Measurements

Here's a newsflash...measuring and identifying stats on groups is challenging! However, we are making progress! I am asked about this frequently.

We measure the number of people in small groups and the number of people who have taken a step into one of our group environments (Starting Point, Turning Point, View Point, Financial Peace University).

For the first two quarters of 2007, we identified 1,350 people (27% of average weekend attendance). There are 560 people in small groups and 789 who participated in our relational venues.

Keep counting...

Narrow the focus

With the View Point brand in place and an understanding of our story to this point, the next step for this ministry is narrowing the focus.

The belief exists that as the church grows, we should be able to offer more choices. The opposite is true. The larger we grow, the more we need to narrow the focus. Yes, there are many great and God honoring ways to study the Bible that we could pursue and promote. We simply can not provide a pathway for them all. It's about priorities and choosing what methods are the best fit with our culture.

Our current plan is to offer classes on four topics. Crash Course on Christianity is the first and is launching for the first time during this session. The other three topics (not titled yet) are Old Testament foundations, Who is Jesus, and Life as a Christ follower. This is the next step - not the final step. As it launches and unfolds, we'll adjust, adjust, adjust to bring the reality of the ministry into alignment with the vision.

One of the many responsibilities of Mark Waltz, Pastor of Connections, is our spiritual growth and development process. You can read more of his views here. "What environments will we intentionally continue or create to help our people engage the story of the Bible in their journey of spiritual transformation?" Mark is leading the way on the strategy and development of View Point. I know he's listening for God's leading, and I'm excited to see what's around the next corner!

Where we were

We started attending GCC in September of 1999. My memory about Bible classes from that time until September, 2006, is that there was an irregular pattern in the ministry. Sometimes we offered many, sometimes none, sometimes a few, sometimes they launched uniformly, sometimes they launched randomly - we were certainly flexible. We were consistently inconsistent.

Without a clear vision for the ministry, we had several great members who stepped up to offer their services at teaching. While that brought variety, it also brought confusion. The leaders all had their own busy lives as great leaders do! They set the launch date, the fee, the duration, and the format for "their class". While it is great that the leaders had a sense of ownership, we didn't offer a unified vision to help them feel connected to the ministry in which they were serving.

In September, 2006, we started offering Bible classes that launched with the same schedule as Turning Point groups. We are creating an expectation in our audience that we offer Bible classes. You can expect it. You can count on it. Winter, Summer, Fall. The first step - gain credibility. DWYSYWD. Do what you say you will do.

With the expectation filled that "we offer Bible classes", it was time to create a brand: View Point. I wrote about that process in this post. I'll tell you more next time about where we hope to go!

New Brand!

I'm psyched about View Point! It's the brand for our groups at GCC that are structured around studying the Bible together. 

When I met with the Communications Team and we were talking about Bible classes in the context of people on a journey, taking steps, times when you just need to pull over and look at your surroundings, consider what you believe, don't take someone else's word of what the Bible says, look for yourself...we're throwing out words and bam! Lisa says, "View Point". While my brain hears it, repeats it, and keeps going, Kem says, "Did you hear her? View Point." She could tell - I was hearing but not listening...view point, view point, View Point! They're really smart! It took a while for my brain to catch up with them.

The process wasn't a whole lot more complex than that. Really. Well, for me. There were all sorts of tasks that the Communications Team did from that point to make it look cool, read cool, and feel cool! It creates exactly the image that we wanted people to experience!

I'll tell you more later about how we got to this place and where we're hoping to go.