Here’s a few things I’ve learned of myself, of Jesus, of the Gospel and of the call to care for the oppressed, marginalized and orphaned children in this world. It’s a scratch on the surface of the depths of what there is to know, but I’m grateful that in His mercy God grows us as He sends us – and He sustains us along the way as we pursue His mission.

My call to care for orphans is more about the help they need than it is about my need to help. I cannot use orphan care as the means by which I gain some personal sense of fulfillment, purpose or meaning. Only Jesus can provide that for me. The last thing orphans need is me using them to mask my own personal insecurities by burdening them with the expectation to satisfy my self-righteous need to help someone less fortunate than me. Orphan care then becomes an idol, and a service project – a work upon which my identity is based and my self-justifying needs are met.

These kids experience horrendous atrocities and injustices in a very short amount of time. They are not trophies for me to put on display so people know how obedient, radical and missional I am. The end goal of my obedience in caring for orphans is not my own obedience, but rather the orphans themselves. It’s about what is best for the child, not what is glamorous or daring or risky or evangelically sexy for me.

There’s an incredibly profound tension wrapped up in orphan care, fostering and adoption – the only reason you have a child in your care is because the biological parents have squandered their capacity and trustworthiness to be mom and dad. In moments of clarity, when I look at our foster baby, I’m burdened for her drug-addicted mother and incarcerated father. I’m reminded that this precious child has become a part of our lives because her parents are wrecking their own. I desperately want to keep this baby forever, while at the same time her mom and dad desperately need Jesus to fix their lives forever. I’ve had to learn how to grieve for the parents, how to pray for them and how to hope that Jesus would rescue them…even if, in the end, it means the baby girl we’ve grown to love goes back to live with them one day. I must be willing to pray and hope that mom and dad are able to provide a safe and loving home for their baby and that in the end, Jesus changes their lives and they win with Him, and she wins with them. Otherwise, I will continue to make this about me winning, even to the detriment of them.

If our sweet girl goes back home we will grieve the loss of a child we have grown to love, but will rejoice over the lives of a young mom and dad that are hopefully headed in the right direction. At the same time, if she stays with us forever we will rejoice over God’s precious gift, but I hope we grieve as well, over the lives of young parents that have yet to find a hope and a healing that can only come through Jesus.

It is impossible to hold a tragically neglected and abused child in your arms and not be profoundly moved by the weight of their story. In many regards, their few days or weeks or years of life have been filled with more sorrow, more pain and more betrayal than many of us will experience in a lifetime. It has to change your perspective. It has to shift you. Their brokenness has to break you. It has been a gracious act of mercy on the part of God to confront my shallowness with the depths of our foster baby’s reality. There are so many poor, oppressed, marginalized, abused and neglected children in the world…and I now have the privilege of rocking one to sleep at night in the comfort of our home, with clean clothes, a full stomach and a face full of kisses from my daughters who love her like a sister. It’s humbling.

For whatever change we will bring about in the life of a marginalized and orphaned kid, it will come back on us exponentially. Their brokenness exposes ours. Their need exposes ours. They need a home, a love and a hope from me in much the same way I need that from Jesus. As I hold her I’m reminded of how I am held by Him. Her reality exposes mine for what it is and infuses a vision into it for what it could and should be…if I would only let myself be a part of her story, so that her story can change mine.

It’s impossible to carry the weight and burden of orphans alone. We are incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by The Orphan Care Network – people from our church committed to abandoning themselves over to the task of eradicating the orphan crisis both domestically and globally. Whether it’s late night texts asking how things are going, lending us a car seat or some baby clothes, or sitting with us as we struggle through the deep emotional tensions of attaching ourselves to a child who may or may not stay with us forever, God gives us people who help hold up His heart in us through it all, even when we feel like we can’t hold on anymore.

We are forever bound to those who are in the fight with us. Through mutual experiences and a common understanding of what it’s like to care for orphans, the community around us has both fueled our drive towards the mission of God and sustained us along the way.

Fostering and adopting abused, neglected, marginalized and orphaned children is a big deal, but it expresses itself primarily through very small, very menial, very hidden tasks that go largely unnoticed. We are daily stopped by people and asked about our foster baby, and we count it a privilege to share with them God’s big heart for the fatherless, His big plan of fully adopting us through Jesus and our big commitment to do the same for orphans. But that’s not the end of the story. The rude realities of orphan care find themselves up for a 3am feeding, changing a diaper for what seems to be the 100^th time that day, on the phone with case-workers, lawyers, doctors and government departmental offices, filling out stacks of paperwork, sitting through court hearings and driving across the city for parent visits.

Yes, orphan care is a big deal, but its grandness is not measured by the public fame it produces but by the private faithfulness it requires…when no one is around to see, and no one cares. The only way we will make a big difference in this child’s life is if we do the small things she needs us to do for her with eagerness, willingness and joy – whether anyone is around to see it or not.

In the end, this little girl has taught me much about the Gospel – God’s radical, redeeming, consuming, healing, hope-giving love for me through Jesus. As I rock our sweet girl to sleep so too I’m held with great assurance in the arms of a Father who has brought me into His family and called me His own. He changed my name. Gave me a new identity. Granted me the rights and privileges of being His heir. Secured my future and changed the trajectory of my life forever. I was once an orphan, but now I’m showered in His kisses of grace, and nothing will be ever be the same.

Incoming search terms:

• six things orphan care has taught me

Every morning that you wake up you are surrounded and blessed by the things God has created.  He takes RESPONSIBILITY for the things that he has given us, from the fresh air, to all the animals on this planet, our families and friends, and even YOU!  God takes RESPONSIBILITY for creating us, and even when we fail him he still loves us and will never leave us.  This month’s virtue is RESPONSIBILITY-showing you can be trusted with what’s expected of you. God has proven time and time again that he can be trusted.  But God not only wants us to trust him, he wants us to be like him.  We can be like him by showing others we can be trusted as well.

God gives us the opportunity to use our  talents, words, actions, and friendships, wisely.  When we use those things wisely we are being RESPONSIBLE with what he has given to us.  When we are RESPONSIBLE with little the bible tells us that we will be given much more. (Luke 16:10). That means we will be blessed with more talents, more friendships, and more opportunities for people around us to see Jesus living in us.

This month we will be learning the following.

• Bottom Line: I can be trusted when I make the most of what God has given to me. (the parable of the talents) • Matthew 25:14-30
• Bottom Line: I can be trusted when I choose the right words. (words matter) • Ephesians 4:29
• Bottom Line: I can be trusted when I choose to help others in need. (the parable of the good Samaritan) • Luke 10:30-37
• Bottom Line: I can be trusted when I put God first. (the greatest commandment) • Matthew 22:34-40

Memory Verse:

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.” Luke 16:10

Basic Truth: God Loves Me.

Question: What Does God Want You To Do?

Bottom Line: God Wants Me To Do The Right Thing.

Perhaps today more than ever PreSchoolers are encouraged to be independent, to make their own decisions and to choose what it is they want to see, do or be. As they are learning to assert themselves and are making decisions that build out their character and personality, we want them to learn that God wants them to do the right thing. All throughout the month of May we will be walking our 2, 3, 4 and 5-year-olds through Bible stories where real people were faced with tough decisions, and God gave them the strength to choose what is right.  It’s tough to learn that oftentimes what we want to do doesn’t align with what we ought to do or what God is calling us to, and we hope this month’s lessons lies some fundamental groundwork in the hearts of our children that will serve them when they are faced with choosing the right thing in hard circumstances. Would you join me in praying for our WeePoint kids this month that God begins to develop in them the strength it takes to do what is right even when it’s hard, and to know when they’re faced with tough decisions that God loves them no matter what?

Weekly Focus Bible Story ~ Talk to your kids at home about what they’re learning on Sundays

5/6/12 ~ Joseph trusts God. Genesis 37:12-28; 41:36-56 (Jesus Storybook Bible; The forgiving prince, p. 76)

5/13/12 ~ Joseph forgives his brothers. Genesis 42: 1-6; 45:1-46:7  (Jesus Storybook Bible; The forgiving prince, p. 76)

5/20/12 ~ Daniel obeys God. Daniel 1:1-16

5/27/12 ~ Daniel & the lion’s den. Daniel 6:1-28 (Jesus Storybook Bible; Daniel and the scary sleepover, pg 152)

Memory Verse: “Learn to do what is right.” Isaiah 1:17, NIrV

** NEW ** Parents please check out our Parent Resource Table in the GenNext Hallway and pick up this Month’s Small Talk Parent Cue and Worship CD!!

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I often find myself making quick judgments of people. I don’t intentionally set out to do it. It just kind of happens. Let’s be honest, we’ve all been there – we quickly make assumptions of people based on what they are wearing, how their hair is done, what kind of car they drive or how their children are behaving in public. We’re all quick to judge, and even though it might be a fast, fleeting thought that races through our minds, it reveals much about our hearts.

The problem with judging people, in small things like wardrobe preferences and hair styles or big things like character and sin issues, is that the standard we hold them to inevitably falls back on us. Jesus says in Matthew 7:1-2, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” The point? The standard you project on others for what is right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable or appropriate and inappropriate is the very standard you yourself will be held to. You expect to be treated with grace and dignity by others? You expect people to handle themselves with ethical integrity at the office? You expect someone to forgive you when you mess up? You expect someone to listen to you, show compassion to you, seek to understand your point of view and to make you feel appreciated? Be ready to do the same, and to do it first, and often, and always. Otherwise you have no basis by which you can expect it from them.

That’s the intent of Jesus when He continues on in vs. 3-5, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” Jesus never speaks against setting high standards; He argues against holding double standards. He never says don’t hold others accountable to truth and righteousness and holiness – He actually commands that we do, but with humility and integrity (“…then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye”). The Bible never promotes passive naivety when it comes to sin issues in each others lives. Throughout Scripture rebuke and discipline are seen as loving and gracious acts that we both receive from God and offer to one another (Proverbs 3:11-12; Proverbs 27:5; Ecclesiastes 7:5). We have a biblical responsibility within the Body of Christ to call the speck out of each others eyes, but not first without aggressively recognizing and responding appropriately to the log in our own.

Before we can make an accurate assessment of others, we must first take a comprehensive assessment of ourselves. Before we can expect a certain set of behaviors from others we must first be diligent in demonstrating that behavior in ourselves. Before we can, with good conscience, call the sin out in someone else’s life we must first be willing to call it out in our own. Our position of authority in confronting the sin of others is largely dependent upon our position of humility in confronting the sin in ourselves. Before we hold a microscope up to somebody else we must first hold a mirror up to ourselves.

Be careful when you project a standard on others. Make sure it’s not a double standard. Jesus loves setting high standards, but He hates when we hold double standards.

Incoming search terms:

• double standards in the church
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Basic Truth: Jesus wants to be my friend forever.

Question: Who Is Your Friend?

Bottom Line: Jesus Is My Good Friend.

Making friends is one of the most exciting, rewarding and challenging parts of growing up. All throughout the month of April, our Pre-School kids will learn that they have a best friend in Jesus and about the kind of friend Jesus wants us to be to others. Jesus sets the perfect example of what it means to be a friend who loves at all times, puts others first and commits unconditionally.  As our PreSchoolers are developing their interpersonal skills and learning what it means to be a friend, what better example to lift up than the one Jesus set when He came to love us unconditionally and point us toward His Father? Please be praying this month that our children can truly begin to grasp the perfect friend they have in Jesus and that they begin to reflect His love and light in to each of their friendships.

Weekly Focus Bible Story ~ Talk to your kids at home about what they’re learning on Sundays

4/1/12 ~ Jesus Rides in to Jerusalem. Matthew 21: 1-16

4/8/12 ~ Easter & The Resurrection. Matthew 26: 20-30; 28: 1-7 (Jesus Storybook Bible; The Servant King, p. 286 // A dark night in the garden, p. 294 // The sun stops shining, p 302 // God’s wonderful surprise, p 310) )

4/15/12 ~ Mary & Martha. Luke 10:38-42

4/22/12 ~ A Sinful Woman Anoints Jesus. Luke 7: 36-50 (Jesus Storybook Bible; Washed with tears, pg 280)

4/29/12 ~ The Ascension. John 14: 1-4 (Jesus Storybook Bible; Going home, p 318)

Memory Verse: “A friend loves at all times.” Proverbs 17:17, NIrV

** NEW ** Parents please check out our Parent Resource Table in the GenNext Hallway and pick up this Month’s Small Talk Parent Cue and Worship CD!!

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• jesus is our friend
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[Note: This post is not intended to explore doctrinal wonders like the substitutionary atonement of Jesus, the nature of His physical resurrection or the eschatological timing of His eventual return. Rather, it's a 30,000 foot narrative of God's passionate pursuit of His people as it relates to the biblical imagery of a wedding. While we affirm and celebrate the deep theological truths that Easter represents, the minutia of those details is not the focus of this article. The historical pursuit of God towards us and His deep love manifested for us in Jesus, is.]

Throughout Scripture the marriage relationship is used as a picture of God’s relationship with His people. The bride and groom imagery highlights not only the covenantal love of God for His people but also their position within that relationship as the beneficiaries of His redemptive pursuit. A common theme woven within the thread of Scripture, from the Old to the New Testament, is God’s unwavering, unalterable, unceasing pursuit of His people into the consecrating and cleansing relationship of eternal marriage.

This is why the hallmark of all God’s grievances against His people is spiritual adultery, a heinous infidelity on the part of His people as they pursue lesser lovers and stray outside the conditions of the covenantal relationship (Jeremiah 13:27; Mark 8:38). God is a jealous God (Exodus 20:3-5; Deuteronomy 6:14-15), not because He lacks in companionship but because He longs for the exclusive affections of His people, as a groom does so for his bride.

Jesus adopts the imagery of bride and groom as it pertains to His present application of the New Covenant and His future consummation of salvation through the great, eternal marriage with the Church. In the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), Jesus allegorizes Himself as the bridegroom and urges His disciples to stay alert, because they do not know the day or the hour He will return and take them to the eternal wedding celebration, i.e., the Kingdom. He again refers to Himself as the bridegroom while instructing His disciples on the proper purpose and function of fasting (Mark 2:18-20). As the bridegroom He will return to take His bride home, yet in the meantime, while He is present with them, fasting and longing for His return is not necessary.

The central focus of the wedding imagery in Scripture is anticipation, expectation and preparation. It closely mirrors the traditional order of a first century wedding which involved a father arranging a bride for his son and paying the pre-determined “bride price” on her behalf. The son would then return to his father’s house to make arrangements while the bride consecrated herself in eager anticipation for his final return for her. Neither the groom or the bride knew the time or date of their reunion. Only the father did. When all necessary arrangements had been made according to the father’s standards, he would send the son to bring his waiting bride home. The terms of the relationship were sealed with a ceremonial sharing of a glass of wine before the two parted ways and entered a time of anticipation and preparation leading up to the final wedding feast.

In strikingly similar fashion, God the Father has sent Jesus the Son to secure His bride, the Church. The terms of the covenantal relationship between God and His people have been outlined in the Gospel and a great price has been paid by the Father to secure the relationship, namely, through the sacrifice of the Son on the Cross (1 Corinthians 6:20). The night before He would go to the Cross, Jesus shared a cup with His disciples as a means of symbolically sealing their new covenantal relationship. He instructed them to partake of this cup after His departure in remembrance of the price He paid for them and in anticipation of His future and final return for them.

Upon His departure He will go to His Father’s house to prepare a place, but will return one day to bring His bride home with Him forever (John 14:2-3). The day and the hour of His return are unknown by all but the Father (Matthew 24:26). The Bride of Christ, the Church, eagerly waits and makes herself ready, setting herself apart for Him and Him alone, purifying herself for the day when He will return for her forever (1 Peter 1:13-16). He will come, and when He does the eternal wedding feast will commence (Revelation 19:7-8).

The recognition of the death and resurrection of Jesus at Easter is not an isolated act of God but a pinnacle point of progression in the on-going bride-groom narrative running throughout the current of Scripture. It’s the celebration of God acquiring a Bride for His Son through the ultimate price of death paid on the Cross. It’s the height of God’s radical, redemptive pursuit of a sinful and broken people to secure them as His beautifully treasured Bride.

Easter is the joyous celebration of the wonder of the Gospel – that God has gone to great lengths to secure us for His Son. We are forever bound to Jesus by His death that purchased us and His resurrection that secured us into a future inheritance that is “…imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:4-5).

So we live in this present day as those who are consecrated to our future Groom – holy, set apart, uniquely and distinctively His. We live today with an eager sense of anticipation for the return of our Groom on a tomorrow yet to come. We live today as those who are valued not by the standards of this world but by the infinite price our Savior was willing to pay for us on the Cross. We are invaluably His, and He is ours.

We anticipate, we expect and we prepare. Our Groom is coming back to take us home.

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This month’s virtue is HOPE.  HOPE is a word we often use carelessly.  We often say “I ‘hope’ you have a good day.” Or “I ‘hope’ to see you soon.” But HOPE is so much bigger then that in it’s truest form.  HOPE is what God offers to the world through His son!   Romans 5:1-5 says:  “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in HOPE of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces HOPE, and HOPE does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

This month’s theme is “PUZZLED—believing there is a bigger picture.” Sometimes in our life there are times when we can only see small pieces of the puzzle and not understand what good can come from it.  That is where HOPE comes into play. We will define HOPE as belief something good can come out of something bad. It can be easy to lose HOPE in this broken world we live in, but we can put our HOPE in God because throughout all of time, He has kept His promises and proved to be faithful and work out all things for the good of those who love Him. (Romans 8:28)

This month we will look at five bible stories focusing on Jesus and the people who were closest to Him.  Below are those stories and our Bottom Lines for each week.

• Whatever happens, remember what Jesus promised. (Jesus promises heaven) • John 14:1-14, 18-19, 27-29; John 18–19:37
• Whatever happens, God is stronger than anything. (Easter) • John 20:1-18
• Whatever happens, remember God has a bigger story. (road to Emmaus) • Luke 24:13-35, Romans 15:4
• Whatever happens, remember Jesus is always with you. (Ascension) • Matthew 28:16-20; Acts 1:3, 8-11
• Whatever happens, tell others what God has done. (Peter and John before the Sanhedrin) • Acts 3:1-10, 4:1-21, 1 Peter 3:15

Memory Verse for the month:

“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33b, NIV:

Incoming search terms:

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The call to take the Gospel to all nations is clear and undeniable: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…“ (Matthew 28:16-20). The self-declared universal exaltation of God over all nations is certain and resolved: “…I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!“ (Psalm 46:10). This is the fuel and the finish line of global missions: the commission to proclaim the Gospel to all races, all enthnicities, all languages, all dialects, all cultures, all nations, all countries, all states, all cities, all neighborhoods and all households; and to do so with the absolute assurance that God will be exalted in all the earth! It is for this we passionately labor, to the ends of the earth.

God’s heart for the nations extends from the oppressive poverty-stricken slums of East Africa to the anti-religion ideologies of the new Europe to the deeply indoctrinated Muslim nations of the Middle East. The spread of the Gospel knows no geographical, sociological, economical or racial bounds. Jesus will be exalted among all nations, in all the earth!

Yet the mandate towards global missions is not a one-sided coin. It’s nothing less than an outside influence parachuting into a foreign context with the good news of Jesus, resources to meet physical needs and training to develop sustainable forms of living for the indigineous people of that culture. But it’s so much more. Jesus calls us to take the Gospel to the nations not just so we can change the nations, but so the nations can change us. That’s the other side of global missions – whatever change we seek to influence in the lives of others is often nominal in light of the change influenced in our own lives. These two sides of the same coin are the essence of God’s global mandate – make disciples of all peoples, and in doing so you yourself will be discipled.

For example, I’m convinced Jesus wants us to care for the poor of the world not just so we can change their circumstances, but so they can change our perspectives. It’s nearly impossible to see and hear and smell extreme poverty and not be motivated to action. It’s equally impossible to not be changed by it. The core of who you are is indelibly marked by it. You cannot go home the same. In however you choose to respond you might make a small dent in the global epidemic of extreme poverty, but only after having your entire worldview cratered by it. Nothing will ever be the same, yes for them, but even moreso for you.

If we want to see the fabric of American evangelicalism aligned to the heart of God, we have to go to the nations. We have to step outside of our individualistic, ethno-centric cultural grid and have our value systems shocked to the core, our perspectives wildly flipped upside down and our little worlds of comfort deeply rattled by the discomforting reality of a world population that is in desperate need of Jesus. It will forever shift our affections, realign our priorities and catalyze us to relentlessly pursue the exaltation of God among all peoples, counting as joy whatever cost, whatever personal sacrifice and whatever American dream that must die in us along the way. Your going there will forever change how you live here.

I recently stood in the home of an elderly, widowed grandmother living in an impoverished slum area outside a large city in Honduras. The joy in her smile and the passion in her prayers were overwhelming. Even moreso were the words she spoke through our translator: “Money might control my living situation, but it does not control my soul.”

It’s in moments like these, moments of extreme contrast between the beauty of faith and joy and peace amidst the backdrop of poverty’s heinous ugliness, that your value system is dismantled and your perspective on what truly matters is forever changed.

Global missions is God’s universal mandate to take the Gospel there and His gracious provision for us to be forever changed here. Stand in the midst of East African poverty. Build a home in southern Mexico. Walk the hurricane ravaged streets of Haiti. Sit in agnostic-laden European university classes. Observe the afternoon prayers of Muslims in the Middle East. Your assumptions, perspectives and ideologies will be forever shifted. You will never be the same. Your homes will never be the same. Your family, your job, your neighborhood, your church and your city will never be the same. All of this is a deep and profound expression of God’s grace towards you.

Where is God calling you to go? How is He stirring you? Where is He moving you?

In what ways do your value system need to be dismantled and your perspective flipped upside down? Have you grown apathetic toward the world around you in your own comfort?

GO.

Incoming search terms:

• the other side of global missions

Defining clear vision is essential in church planting. In most cases planters are starting something from nothing. You may not have people, money, a name for your church or a clue what you are doing, but you do have vision. The most basic, fundamental resource you have at your disposal is vision. Upon it everything is formed.

Defining your vision is essential. It answers the “who” you are, “what” you are, “why” you are, “where” you are and “how” you are going to be questions. Discovering the answers to these questions is exceptionally crucial. It’s not only the track the train rides on, but the fuel that powers the engine. Vision takes your values and sets them in motion within clearly defined parameters towards a clearly defined destination.

However, many church planters are rebelling against a form of church they find fault with and seeking to establish a new form with an angst-driven, anti-conformist energy about them. It’s passion fueled by poison, and it’s dangerous. They know what they don’t want to be but are unable to articulate what they do want to be. A lack of clear vision moving forward coupled with ecclesiastical wounds from the past leads to arrogance in the pulpit, close-handedness on what should be open-handed issues and a spirit of malcontent that eventually sets culture, direction and rhythm in the life of the church. It’s dangerous. It happens subtley, over time. It’s nearly impossible to see…without good vision.

Defining clear vision and communicating that vision well are not mutually exclusive. They are essential components of the same thing. You could have the most creative, world-changing, ground-breaking vision in all of human history, but if you’re unable to communicate that vision well it will never materialize to its full potential. People won’t get it. It won’t become their own. They won’t know what to do with it. Good vision, communicated poorly, goes nowhere.

At the same time, bad, even horrific vision, when communicated in a compelling, captivating and motivating way, produces results. Jim Jones, the notorious leader of the “Peoples Temple” cult, had vision. So much so that on November 18, 1978 he convinced 913 cult members to commit mass suicide by drinking cyanide laced juice together. Including 200 children. That’s a vision, although a corrupt, sadistic one, that produced results.

The scope of this post is not to dissect the spirit or motive of your vision, but rather explore how to communicate vision in a coherent and compelling way; a way that not only makes sense to people, but causes them to believe it is something worth drinking the kool-aid for. How do we effectively move people from the sidelines to the front line of the battle, leading the charge and moving the mission forward? How do we cast vision in such a way that people see it, grab it and make it their own?

Your vision is bigger than your current situation. That’s what makes it vision. It’s looking beyond what is to what could be, what should be, and in your opinion what needs to be. You see something no one else does, at least not like you do. Vision is painting a picture of what the future looks like in a tangible and concrete way.

Suppose my vision was to see you lose 15 pounds. The first step was to steer you away from your favorite fast food restaurant, Chick-Fil-A, of course! As part of my scare tactic I inform you the Chicken Sandwich Meal Deal you always order is a total of 1,070 calories (sandwich = 410; medium waffle fries = 400; medium Dr. Pepper = 260). Sounds like a lot of calories, right? Yes, but probably not enough to cause you to think twice about ordering that meal again. It tastes too good not to.

But what if I were to scale it down for you into different terms and tell you that 1,070 calories is equivalent to eating nearly 4 Snickers candy bars for lunch. Would you eat 4 candy bars for lunch? Of course not. Yet that’s essentially what we do with the Chick-Fil-A meal. A large number, like 1,070 calories, is intangible. We have no human experience tied to it, no frame of reference to measure its proportions by and nothing to compare it to. Since we can’t see it, we discard it and choose taste over health. However, 4 Snickers bars is easy to see. It’s more relatable to our human experience and much simpler to hold on to. It causes us to stop and think. It’s much more difficult to discard so easily.

This is the art of “scaling” – contextualizing something of grand proportions into more tangible, relatable terms. It provides a smaller scale perspective by which someone is able to more readily see, understand and grasp the bigger picture.

As a church planter, you have to learn to scale down your vision. Not dumb it down, but scale it down so people can see it better.

The problem with this statement is its proportions. Its size is unrelatable and too easily discarded. The average person would buckle under the enormous task of reaching an entire city all at once. It’s too big and heavy. It lacks direction so they don’t know where to begin. It needs scaling.

If vision is painting a picture of the future then in this scaled statement, the future is clear. Direction is set and objectives are identified. All the major questions are answered. The cleaner and more well-defined your vision is, the more likely it will be for people to see the big picture. It’s something they can wrap their minds, and their hands around.

To effectively scale vision in a clean and well-defined manner you must use language your people can understand. Consider yourself a missionary into a specific culture. An effective missionary does not project his native language onto a foreign people, but rather learns the language of the people and redeems it for Kingdom purposes. This does not mean church planters can’t teach and train their people to use new language to describe new concepts, but it does mean you can’t speak over the heads of your people and expect them to understand what you are saying.

In their book, Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath discuss how the more we know about something, the harder it is for us to explain it to someone who knows nothing. They call it “The Curse of Knowledge”. We’ve all experienced it when talking to a doctor, an engineer or any other expert in their field. They use words and illustrations that don’t make sense to the laymen. They suffer from the curse.

At the root of the issue is faulty assumptions. We make assumptions about what people do and do not know. As the Heath’s say, “Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it…it becomes difficult for us to share our knowledge with others” (page 20).

The Heath’s site a study conducted by a Ph.D. student at Stanford University in 1990. People were assigned into one of two groups: tappers and listeners. Tappers were given a list of very well-known songs, such as “God Bless America” and “Happy Birthday”. They were then instructed to tap out the rhythm of the song while listeners were to guess the song based on the rhythm they heard being tapped. Over the course of the experiment, 120 songs were tapped out, and only 2.5% of the songs were correctly identified by the listeners. That’s 3 out of 120.

The results, while dismal, would be of little interest had it not been for what took place prior to the experiment. Tappers were asked to predict how many songs the listeners would correctly identify. They predicted 50%. Through the course of the study, tappers were able to get listeners to correctly identify songs a mere 1 in every 40 times, although they thought their success rate would be 1 in every 2. In the end, tappers failed to get their message across as well as they thought they would.

The problem is that tappers have been given knowledge – they hear the song in their head. It’s impossible for them to not hear it, and therefore incredibly difficult to put themselves in their listeners state of mind. There is a tune playing in their head that their listeners can’t hear.

Without recreating your listeners state of mind, your vision becomes an incomprehensible tapping in their ears. No matter how loud or how often you tap, they still won’t hear the song like you do. The result is frustration – you won’t understand why your people aren’t “getting it” and they won’t understand why you’re constantly beating them over the head with the same annoying message.

The only remedy to the Curse of Knowledge is the transformation of how you communicate your ideas. A growing trend in the church planting circuit is a rhetoric that only makes sense in the church planting circuit. We speak of “the gospel” and “gospel-centered”, or “missional” and “contextualization”, and for good reason. These are powerful terms that carry powerful messages. But sometimes in using terms like these we are assuming too much on the average person, namely, that they can hear the song in their head like we do in ours.

The reality is most people don’t understand those terms, or many other sound bites and kitchy phrases floating around the church planting world right now. They don’t think about God, church or ministry like that. As a father I’m constantly reminded that I have to contextually adapt my language on a regular basis. I have to speak to my 2 year old differently than I do my 4 year old, and both differently than I do my 6 year old. If I speak to my 2 year in the same terms I speak to my 6 year old in, she’ll stare at me confused and eventually walk away. Of course I want my 2 year old’s capacity for understanding and communication to grow and develop, but I have to learn how to communicate with her where she is now in order to mature  her to where she one day needs to be.

The same is true for communicating vision. Sometimes people leave churches for wrong, sinful, selfish reasons; and sometimes for good and right ones; and sometimes they leave because they are confused and don’t know what to do, so they simply walk away. It’s our jobs as church planters to abandon any use of language that is assuming too much on people. We must communicate with people on a level they can understand. Not to pacify them in elementary terms, but to set them on a trajectory that will develop in them the capacity to learn and eventually adopt a new, more developed language on their own.

Before you can expect people to live “gospel-centered” lives you have to first teach them what the gospel is. Before you can send them out to “live missionally” they have to first understand what the mission of God is. Eventually, over time, they will adopt this language as their own; not because they are regurgitating your words but because they are experiencing the reality of those words first hand in their own lives.

You have a song in your head, and your job is to get other people singing that same song. Teach them the lyrics, word by word by word, and they eventually will sing it on their own.

Right now, your people understand only as much of your vision as you have effectively communicated to them. Not withstanding the power of God to do what He wills, the results you are seeing materialize in your ministry are very much proportional to the effectiveness of your vision casting. Are you casting vision in a way people can grab on to and run with? Are you communicating to them in a way they can understand, learn and grow from? Are you satisfied with the overall understanding and alignment of vision your people currently have?

Love your church more than you love your vision for your church. Love your people enough to communicate well and be patient with them. Your people will love what you say if they know they are loved.

Incoming search terms:

• church planting
• church planting vision

Our theme this month is Rooted: standing strong in God’s truth. As our KidsPoint kids enter into Large Group this month they are going to be entering a wilderness of deep ROOTED trees—this goes along with our virtue for the month which is Conviction—standing for what is right even when others don’t.   We will also be talking about a different faith skill each week to help our kids grow strong and be able to stand up for the things that matter to God.

Conviction can often be a very hard thing to live out, because the right choice isn’t always the easiest or most popular one.  Standing up for what is right even when others don’t is exactly what made Jesus stand out amongst many people.  Proverbs 21:3 says “To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.” We want our kids to learn how to not be lead astray, but keeping to the will of God and know that his way is the best way, and by making the right choice they are pleasing their God who created them and loves them. Through the month of March we will be looking at Daniel’s life and his three friends as they are taken from their home to live with the king in Babylon.  Daniel is a great example of a man who was taught the scriptures and had firm roots in them, so that when he was tested over and over in his life he could respond with the right choice.

As our kids walk through learning about Conviction this month, we as parents and leaders can be praying Psalm 1 over them, that our children will become more like the trees planted by streams of water with deep roots, leaves that never wither, and producing good fruit in just the right season.

Also, have your child be on the lookout for a  cool application tool to serve as a reminder this month to stand up  for what’s right. It’s a shoe tag that says ‘STAND,’ and they can put it on their shoes, stick it on their backpack, or wherever they think a good place for it will be, to remind them that they can stand for what’s right, even when it’s not popular!

Below are the Bottom Lines for each week and Bible lesson that will be taught

• When you know what God says, you can stand for what’s right • Daniel 1
• When you stand for what’s right, others can see God. • Daniel 3
• You can stand for what’s right, even when it’s not popular • Daniel 5
• Get in the habit of standing for what’s right. • Daniel 6

Memory Verse for the month:

“Never tire of doing what is right.” 2 Thessalonians 3:13

Incoming search terms:

• rooted standing strong n gods truth lesson daniel
• bible lesson for kids about conviction
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• lesson for 2 thessalonians 3:13

Basic Truth: Jesus wants to be my friend forever.

Question: Who Does Jesus Love?

Bottom Line: Jesus Loves Everyone.

Jesus Loves Everyone.  What a powerful truth to teach our WeePoint children. What an amazing foundation to lay for each of our Pre-K students.  No matter who you are, what you do or where you come from, Jesus Loves YOU.  This month’s WeePoint Lessons aim to instill and develop this ultimate truth in the life of your child, and then build up the peace, security and comfort that comes from Knowing they are loved eternally by their Father in Heaven. Not only will our WeePoint kids be taught that they are truly and dearly loved by God, but they’ll also learn how to respond to God’s Love.  Just like the Good Samaritan, Jesus wants us to shine His love to those around us and love others who just might seem unlovable, because He first loved us. Can you imagine what an impact your child can make in their classroom, on the playground or in your family if they truly begin to understand the deep and transformative Love their Father has for them? Pray with me throughout the month of March that the Lessons we teach on Sunday mornings will take root in each child’s heart and grow into a true and abiding faith in God’s Love for them, and that it might turn into a beautiful, obedient love of others.

Weekly Focus Bible Story ~ Talk to your kids at home about what they’re learning on Sundays

3/4/12 ~ Jesus & The Woman at the Well. John 4: 1-26

3/11/12 ~ Jesus & Zacchaeus. Luke 19: 1-8 (Jesus Storybook Bible, The man who didn’t have any friends (none), pg 264)

3/18/12 ~ Jesus & the Good Samaritan. Luke 10:25-37

3/25/12 ~ Jesus & the Disciples. Matthew 4: 18-22, 28: 16-20 & John 1: 35-45  (Jesus Storybook Bible, Let’s go!, pg 208)

Memory Verse: “Love each other as I have loved you.” John 15:12, NIV

** NEW ** Parents please check out our Parent Resource Table in the GenNext Hallway and pick up this Month’s Small Talk Parent Cue and Worship CD!!

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Inherent in all church plants, and church planters, are certain liabilities that will actively work against their vision and ultimate success. Perhaps it’s personality issues, a lack of gifting in certain areas, organizational ineptness or more seriously, chronic sin issues. Whatever the case may be, wherever the church plant may be, and whoever the church planter may be, you can be certain of one thing – under the weight and burden of church planting, the latent liabilities within you and your system will quickly be exposed.

As opposed to assets, which are traits, resources, giftings or qualities you or your organization have that help advance and progress your vision, liabilities do just the opposite. They interrupt, hold back, corrupt and interfere with the overall health and momentum of what you are trying to accomplish.

While many church planters know what they don’t want to be and do and are continually formulating a vision and strategy for what they do want to be and do, very few are taking the time to identify and address the inherent liabilities they will face along the way. Caught by surprise, they are often blindsided by things they should have seen coming but didn’t, mostly because they never took the time to proactively address them early on.

When we planted Woodlands Point Community Church a few years ago, we did so in a highly affluent North Houston suburb. The culture of our town is rooted in high performance and beautiful appearances. The community is built around an appeal to the successful middle-aged businessmen, beautiful homes, good families and high-end luxury. The evangelical rhythm here very much mirrors that pulse. Big production, beautiful buildings, lots of ministries.

The scope of this post is not to speak to the positives or negatives of this type of church environment. It’s simply to highlight that you must know the context into which you are planting, especially the evangelical one. What’s the pulse of the church in your city? What’s the non-churched perception of the church there? When you plant your church, where on the spectrum of the evangelical grid will you fall? Will you blend right in? Will you stick too far out? Will you toe the line of both fitting in and standing out?

Understanding your context helps you develop appropriate language your audience will understand, set reasonable, attainable, measurable goals for your church given the resources available to you, and identify inherent liabilities you will face from day one. What’s appropriate, reasonable and potentially liable in one context might not be so in another. What works in Portland might not work in Kansas, and what works in the inner city might not work in suburban America. Know your context well.

For example, the first inherent liability we recognized is our facility. We started holding weekly services in a local intermediate school. The space was great and was just what we needed at the time. Since then we have moved into the main high school in town. We enthusiastically remain a portable church for a number of reasons (see this POST), but understand that in doing so we willingly accept the liabilities that come with it. Quite frankly, we don’t have a nice church building. As church planters we like that though…we’re renegades, rebels, non-conformist trailblazers, right?? Right. But it’s a bit strange to the people in our community, and that presents a problem. Not an insurmountable one, but one that stands as a liability unless we proactively address it and make it a non-issue.

So we decided to follow the “8 Second Rule”. This rule is the culmination of much sociological research that shows people make long-standing decisions about their commitment to something within the first 8 seconds of experiencing it. The idea of “love at first sight” falls under the rule, as well as the psychology of home buying that realtors use as part of their sales approach – within the  first 8 seconds of seeing a home, buyers have generally determined whether or not they can see themselves living there. That’s why curb appeal is so important. They better have a good first impression.

We set a goal: Within the first 8 seconds of someone walking into our school, we want them to forget they have walked into a school. Identifying this inherent liability on the front end drove us to develop systems, processes and standards that address it long term. It meant forming strong set-up and tear-down teams, creating safe, clean and fully resourced children’s classrooms, and making sure directional signs, banners, kiosks, information tables and any other visual and environmental components of our portable church were clean, efficient, professional and appealing.

We’re not catering to the performance and appearance appeal of our community, we’re simply transforming an otherwise uninviting, cold, harsh space into a place that people feel welcomed and comfortable. It helps us earn their trust, and ultimately their ear for the Gospel, and removes what otherwise could stand as an obstacle to them easily connecting into our church body.

Second, we realized we had to address the age issue. For the most part we planted in a middle-aged context. Commodities, entertainment opportunities and master-planned communities are built around the family. As late-twenty year olds we recognized that in order to be taken seriously in a community like this, we had to grow up. Our age was an inherent liability that we needed to overcome in order to gain the respect, and again the ear, of our community.

As a former student pastor I was well aware of the youth ministry residue that still lingered in some of my behavior and speech. It was time to abandon all of that, stop throwing noodles and mustard in a baby pool expecting people to roll around in it, buy some more collared shirts and get my act together. For the most part we understand that a church’s primary demographic is generally within a 10-year window of the age of the leadership. As late 20 years olds we knew then that older teenagers up to late 30 years olds would not be hard to connect with. Our most difficult demographic to engage would be the proverbial 55 year old businessman in our town.

A hypothetical profile of this guy goes like this: He’s a vice president at his company, negotiates multi-million dollar business deals for a living, has a good marriage, three kids, a beautiful home on the golf course in a nice gated community and a couple of luxury cars in the garage. Our objective was not to target this hypothetical guy for his money or influence, but to present ourselves in responsible, mature, well thought out ways so that a guy like this in our city would take us seriously, respect us and ultimately follow us.

Our goal from the very beginning, just like the 8 second rule with our building, was this: Within the first few minutes of a conversation with a 55 year old businessman about the vision and mission of our church plant, we want them to forget they are talking to guys half their age.

In the church planting circles I run in I am finding that most new church planters are mid to late 20′s and are coming out of some type of student ministry experience. Given the context these guys are planting in, it is highly likely that an inherent liability they must address is the issue of age, maturity, respectability and professionalism. If they can’t sit down with a 55 year old man and have an intelligible conversation about church, structure, leadership, vision and especially the Gospel, they won’t be taken seriously by that demographic and will ultimately lose the ear of that group. In the end they will plant a church that in many ways resembles the student ministry they left just 6 months prior.

Church planting is hard, and every church planter would attest to that. People are difficult, leadership decisions are heavy, and the burden to steward and shepherd the Church well is at times overwhelming. So let’s not make it any more difficult than it already is. Don’t be blindsided by things you should have seen coming all along.

What are your inherent liabilities? Are they organizational, spiritual, geographical, personal? Be diligent about identifying them within you and your organization so you can proactively address them in such a way that in the end they become non-issues. Surround yourself with confidants and wise counsel who can graciously call out, confirm and correct the liabilities within you. Know your context, recognize the assets God has given you and be humble enough to identify the liabilities that threaten your full potential.

Incoming search terms:

• identify liabilities
• liabilities
• church at the well church plant
• church planter blog
• how to identify church planters
• the positives and negatives of planting a church

Every person was created in God’s image.  That means every person, no matter who they are or what they are, has been put together in the likeliness of God.  So every person has VALUE.  Whether you are a child, a baker, a police officer, a teacher, an office employee, or a truck driver.  It’s our job to show each and every person who comes into our lives that they have value.

This month our virtue is HONOR.  When we show people they are valuable we are showing them honor.  Honor can be shown in many ways.  Jesus did a perfect job showing us in the bible how to honor those around us.  He showed people how valuable they really were by spending time with them and loving them when it seemed like no one else around them cared. He shared meals with people who would normally eat alone. He healed and helped people who, typically, no one would want to be around.  He listened and paid attention to people who were usually all by themselves.  Jesus showed HONOR to everyone no matter how popular or unpopular that person was.  He calls us to do the same.

In Romans 13:1, Paul teaches us to honor those in authority over us.  In Exodus 20:12, Moses gave us the Ten Commandments which teaches us to honor our Mother and Father.  This month we will be focusing on 1 and 2 Samuel and the stories of David’s life to learn how to show the highest degree of honor to ALL those around us.

Below are the Bottom Lines for each week and the lesson from the Bible that will be taught:

• Honor those who are overlooked. (Samuel anoints David) • 1 Samuel 16:1-13
• Honor others more than yourself. (David and Jonathan) • 1 Samuel 18:1-4, 5-9
• Honor those who are over you. (Absalom rebels) • 2 Samuel 15:1-16a, 18:5-7,15,31-33
• Honor God in front of others. (David dances before the Lord) • 2 Samuel 6:12b-22a

Memory Verse for the month:

“Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves.” Romans 12:10,

Incoming search terms:

• honor god in front of others
• honoring god in front of others
• 2 Samuel 6:12b-22a
• a child lesson: honor
• how do i honor god in front of others
• how do you honor god in front of others
• How to honor those in christ
• LESSON ON HONOUR AUTHORITY
• lessons on honoring God for children
• showing god honor in front of others

Basic Truth: Jesus wants to be my friend forever.

Question: How Do You Love God?

Bottom Line: Love God With All Your Heart.

Look for a definition of “love” in our modern society, and you’ll certainly be disappointed by its dilution in sappy movies, Happily Ever Afters and pervasive, self-centered egocentrism. Look for a definition of “love” in the inspired Word of God and you’ll be reminded that Love is sacrificial, unfailing and others-centered. February is commonly the month in which Love is most celebrated and so we will spend the next four Sundays teaching our WeePoint PreK kiddos that they are Loved perfectly by our Heavenly Father and are therefore empowered to Love others the way God does and to Love the Lord with all their heart. This February lets look for ways to share the Love of God with others and teach the children around us that Love doesn’t depend on a Prince Charming or a happy ending, it depends only on our holy God and the perfect way He Loves us through His Son.

Weekly Focus Bible Story ~ Talk to your kids at home about what they’re learning on Sundays

2/5/12 ~ Mary & Joseph find Jesus in the Temple. Luke 2:41-50

2/12/12 ~ Jesus teaches the greatest Commandment. Matthew 22:34-40

2/19/12 ~ Jesus teaches the second greatest Commandment. Matthew 22:34-40; Acts 9: 1-30

2/26/12 ~ Jesus teaches us how to talk to God. Matthew 6: 15-13 (Jesus Storybook Bible, How to Pray, pg 222)

Memory Verse: “Love…God with all your heart.” Matthew 22:37, NIrV

** NEW ** Parents please check out our Parent Resource Table in the GenNext Hallway and pick up this Month’s Small Talk Parent Cue and Worship CD!!

Incoming search terms:

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I knew I loved my wife within 30 minutes after meeting her. True story. After walking her to class on our college campus and wrapping up our first conversation ever with one another, I knew she would be my wife. It was only a matter of time.

What followed was months of late night talks, “study” dates, last-minute road trips and a care-free courtship with very little responsibility other than to pass our classes and spend as much time together as possible. Looking back, it was simple. We loved each other and wanted to be together, and that’s all that mattered.

Graduation came and went, the wedding was a wonderful blur, and then a new reality set in – we were adults. We had jobs, bills, rent and then a mortgage, insurance, debt, 401k’s and years later, the monster of all new realities…THREE KIDS! Our whirlwind, responsibility-free, fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants relationship had taken on a whole new identity. What was once simple was now incredibly complex. We weren’t quite prepared for it but we learned to make it work as we went. As new relational layers were added, we navigated, adjusted and began the never-ending pursuit of determining what layers are appropriate and healthy and what layers are debilitating and distracting.

While our love for one another has grown and strengthened over the years, intentionally communicating that love has become increasingly more difficult. We have to be more strategic about wading through the compounding layers of our relationship in order to keep first things first and remember what’s most important. Our relationship started out as one long perpetual date night. Now planning a date night takes an act of organizational brilliance, coordinating schedules, booking the babysitter, mapping out our itinerary and ensuring all arrangements have been made so that the kids are still breathing and the house is still standing by the time we get home. Date night can be exhausting, but it’s worth it. It gives us a few hours of layer-free attention with one another.

I love my wife more now than I did when I walked her to class for the first time. I just have to be more strategic and intentional about communicating that love to her through the many layers that life and marriage have compounded on us over the years.

Layers of life are inevitable. It’s learning what layers to add on and what layers to avoid that matters most.

When it comes to church and ministry, it’s true that we should be more focused on pastoring people than implementing programs, but the reality of programs is inevitable and often necessary in order to pastor people well. Programs in and of themselves are not inherently wrong, but just like the layers of a marriage relationship, if you add too many, or stack the wrong ones up, a church will eventually lose sight of what’s most important. It’s not that they stop loving Jesus or caring for the poor or believing the Bible or reaching out to the lost, it’s just increasingly more difficult to keep those first things first with all the added layers that have compounded over time.

A commitment to simplicity in ministry programming is a commitment to layering well. It’s a uniformed resolve to keep first things first and not allow what’s most important to get buried underneath things that in the end don’t really matter.

At Woodlands Point Community Church, we are constantly evaluating the layers of our ministry, determining what needs to go, what needs to stay, what needs to be added and what needs to be shifted. A focused, strategic commitment to layering well will safeguard against the daunting potential of 5 or 10 years down the road having a lot going on but not much really happening. It’s a checks and balances against becoming a mile wide and an inch deep. It’s not an anti-programs agenda, but a commitment to program well so as never to lose sight of what’s most important and to always ensure that first things are first.

• Church Planters: Layer slowly in the early years. Commit to doing a few things well and maintain a narrow focus on those things. You’ll be tempted to add on additional layers too soon only to find they were distracting and took away from what was most important at the time.

• Seasoned Pastors: What layers of your current system are overshadowing what’s most important? Be courageous in making bold, necessary decisions that might be hard at the time but in the end are the best for your people. Remove the unnecessary layers. Your ministry will be more healthy and your people will thank you.

• Husbands and Wives: Cut out all the unnecessary layers. Focus on first things first. Leave room for what’s most important. It’s far too easy to lose sight of it.

Incoming search terms:

• marriage and ministry
• marriage GRAPHIC

Orphan Care Sunday – January 29th

The heart of God beats for the oppressed, the marginalized, the disenfranchised and the orphaned. The Gospel is the story of outcasted sinners being adopted into the family of God the Father through the person of Jesus. To come alongside the orphan is to powerfully demonstrate the Gospel in a very real and tangible way – fatherless children being brought into a new family.

We invite you to join us on Sunday, January 29th for “Orphan Care Sunday”, hosted by the Woodlands Point Orphan Care Network. The morning will be structured around 4 main elements:

Anyone already connected to or interested in becoming connected to the Orphan Care Network is invited to an informal breakfast before service. You’ll meet others with a heart for the orphan who are processing many of the same things you are.

We will continue in our “SoapBox Sessions“ sermon series focusing on James 1:26-27, which clearly outlines God’s mandate to come alongside the orphan.

During the service we will show a 10+ minute video telling the stories of many families who are actively engaged in caring for orphans. It’s a moving telling of the Gospel being tangibly demonstrated in the lives of many.

Join us for a Q&A Discussion with Mark Tennant, the President of Arrow Child and Family Ministries, a Christian foster care, adoption and child advocacy agency. Come with questions!

Help spread the word by sharing on Facebook, retweeting on Twitter and personally inviting friends and family to this special Sunday!

Incoming search terms:

• the heart of god
• libertBaptlist community orphans church of God texas
• woodlands orphans

GenNext is excited to host you at our 2012 Mini-Conference. We’re asking that all current and prospective Shepherds attend. Come Hear our vision, commit to our mission and get equipped to serve the kids of Woodlands Point Community Church in 2012!

DATE AND TIME: [Lunch and childcare provided at no cost]

We are truly excited about the time we will get to spend together getting equipped so we can best respond to the calling on our hearts to invest in the next generation of believers!

January is a great time to change the way we play this “game” of life.  Our game theme throughout the month of January is going to help paint a clearer picture of why we need self-control.  Self-control means choosing to do what you should do and not what you want to do. This can be a real challenge for all of us at times. Thankfully, 2 Peter 1:3 reminds us God has given us everything we need to lead a godly life, so we don’t need to try to do this on our own.  We will look at how to use God’s POWER to build self-control as well as learn when to PAUSE and pray to God for wisdom and help before losing our temper. Finally. we will look at how to SELECT our words carefully as Proverbs 12:18 tell us God says wise people’s words can bring healing to a situation.

How might our world change or what would our relationships look like if we became a people who took time to ask God for His power to help us build and display self-control instead of reacting on impulse?  How would it affect our friends and loved ones around us if they saw us pause, think and pray before we responded in anger to a situation?  With the help of God in our lives, we will all be able to control our thoughts, words and actions so we affect others around us in a positive uplifting way.

Be on the lookout for a cool wristband to wear this month. This wristband reads “game on” on one side and “game off” on the other. When you feel your temperature rising, and you are wanting to scream…STOP! Grab your “game on” wristband and flip it around to the “game off” side. Then, take a few moments to breathe, pray, and plan your next words or moves wisely with self-control. After you have made a ‘wise’ choice, flip that wristband back, and, oh yeah … it’s game on!!

Below are the Bottom Lines for each week and the lesson from the Bible that will be taught:

• God can give you the POWER to control yourself.  Proverbs 25:28
• PAUSE before you lose your temper.  Proverbs 16:32
• SELECT your words carefully. Proverbs 12:18

Memory Verse for the month:

“My dear brothers and sisters, pay attention to what I say. Everyone should be quick to listen.

But they should be slow to speak. They should be slow to get angry.” James 1:19

** NEW ** Parents please check out our Parent Resource Table in the GenNext Hallway and pick up this Month’s Parent Cue and Worship CD!!

Incoming search terms:

• proverbs 16:32 lesson
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Basic Truth: Jesus wants to be my friend forever.

Question: Who can do anything?

Bottom Line: Jesus can do anything.

A Brand New Year. Each January 1^st seems to swell with infinite possibility, unadulterated hope, and limitless opportunity.  And each year seems to quickly remind us in some shape or fashion that our hope is not meant to be put in anything outside of Christ. As Believers, possibility, hope and opportunity are available to us always in the person of Jesus. This January our WeePoint kids will begin 2012 by uncovering some of Jesus’ most profound miracles. My hope is that discovering these miracles will serve as an anchor for them throughout the year; a foundation to remind them that Jesus can do anything – even the seemingly impossible. This new year is sure to bring with it joy and peace as well as its own challenges, and we want our WeePoint kids to know that there is nothing – nothing – Jesus can not overcome. And that gives us reason to celebrate the hope we have in Him all year long.

Weekly Focus Bible Story ~ Talk to your kids at home about what they’re learning on Sundays

1/1/12 ~ Jesus turns water in to a super fancy drink. Luke 1:26-33, 38, 46

1/8/12 ~ Jesus provides a miraculous catch of fish. John 2: 1-11

1/15/12 ~ Jesus feeds 5,000. Mark 6: 30-44

1/22/12 ~ Jesus walks on water. Mark 6: 45-51

1/29/12 ~ Jesus calms the storm. Matthew 8: 23-27

Memory Verse: “With God, all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26, NIV

** NEW ** Parents please check out our Parent Resource Table in the GenNext Hallway and pick up this Month’s Small Talk Parent Cue and Worship CD!!

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Woodlands Point Community Church is “a Gospel-centered church committed to seeing lives transformed for God’s great glory and our great joy in Jesus”.

The Gospel is our strength; transformed lives is our ambition; God’s glory magnified is our motivation; joy in Jesus is our treasure.

God has been gracious and faithful to the vision of Woodlands Point in 2011. Here are just a few examples of where we have seen the evidence of His grace to us this past year, and ways you can get involved with where God is moving and working in and through the Church and around our city.

• Formation of new Gospel-centered Community Groups around the area as far north as Conroe, south as Tomball, east as Kingwood, west as Magnolia and many more centrally located in The Woodlands.

• The expansion of The Orphan Care Network, with many families taking significant steps towards fostering and adoption this year.

• The launch of the Global Initiatives Program, with increased focus in Honduras and East Africa and trips to both areas planned (and filling quickly) for 2012.

• Increased involvement in the Serve the City Campaigns – strategic partnerships aimed at serving alongside of local organizations in an effort to tangibly bring the Gospel to those in need.

• New staff members, including a Student Minister who successfully launched the new Students @ The Point ministry for junior high and high school students.

• The installment of the first phase of Elders, who feed, teach and protect the body of Woodlands Point.

• An increase of over 100% in the number of WeePoint and KidsPoint children involved in GenerationNext on a weekly basis.

• The Woodlands Point Church Planting Network established with seven initial residents for the purpose of assessing, training, mentoring and sending out Gospel-centered church planters who will plant Gospel-centered churches.

• Acquired mid-week office and large group meeting space in The Woodlands, utilized by staff and volunteers for all weekly operations as well as mid-week bible studies, prayer groups and meetings.

• Woodlands Point continues to remain debt-free and in a strong, healthy financial position, having a surplus in giving over budget and a significant percentage of funds dedicated to savings this past year.

Of all the church-wide, organizational areas that are expanding and growing by the grace of God, nothing is more exciting than hearing stories of the Gospel lived out in people’s lives through restored relationships, missional living, living in community and experiencing a stirring of their hearts affections for Jesus in new and powerful ways. People who are far from Jesus are being brought near by His gracious initiative to salvation, and it’s a humbling privilege that God would allow Woodlands Point to be a part of something so exciting.

We boast in the Lord alone, and His finished work for us on the Cross (1 Corinthians 1:31). We are an undeserving people who have been lavished in the extravagant love of God through Jesus (Ephesians 1:7-10). He is our joy, our hope, our peace and our sustenance. We pray the Gospel would radically form us as a people in 2012, and would radically transform our city and our world for His ultimate glory.

We look forward to the year ahead, and anticipate great things in Jesus.

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