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Worship March 2018

Church Family,
         Aaron Keyes, a influential worship leader said it best, “Worship is like breathing, it’s something we were constantly created to do.” I pray we all feel this way. Everyday, every moment, we are worshipping. We are either worshipping ourselves, as we fall into the   every day mundane tasks and we start to believe that our wants or desires are greater than God, or we are worshipping the God who created us and everything around us. We are constantly worshipping. The question we have to ask ourselves, is what are we worshipping? I want to keep this question in mind as we enter into the Easter season. I pray we don’t forget the cross. I pray we consider Jesus, and what he’s done for us on the cross. He’s died for our sins, and has set us free to live in this grace if we place our faith in Him. He is worthy to be worshipped every moment of our lives.

With this in mind, I want to turn your attention to three opportunities that we will have to worship together this month.

1) Kids Praise Saturday - our next Kid’s Praise Saturday will be on Saturday, March 24th. Our kids will come together during the Growth Initiative, and they will learn worship songs to help lead our church in worship on Palm Sunday, March 25th. We would love to have as many kids as we can get. Please consider letting your child be a part of this worship opportunity!

2) Good Friday Night of Worship - We will be having a church-wide Night of Worship, on the evening of Good Friday, which is March 30th, at 6:30pm. Please make ever effort to attend, and bring your friends and family. We will gather together, and we will consider the Cross, and we will worship in response of it. We expect God to move in big ways on this night, and we want you to be there! Childcare (birth - Pre-K) will be provided.

3) Easter Sunday - On Sunday, April 1st, we will gather together to celebrate our Risen Savior. Please make plans to come, but more importantly, think about someone you can invite to come with you. This is one of the only Sundays of the year in which people outside of the Church will consider coming to worship! We will be providing wallet-sized invite cards for you to take with you to give to people that you would like to invite. Please start praying and thinking about who you will be inviting to worship with us on Easter Sunday!

I love you all, and I will see you Sunday!

Worship February 2018

Church Family,
I hope this season finds you well as we are almost to the end of winter and to the front of spring. I, for one, am ready for some warmer weather. Being from Alabama, I’ve had about as much as I can take! I’ve never shoveled a sidewalk or driveway in my life until just a few weeks ago. I walked outside with a normal digging shovel when my good friend and neighbor Dale Potts saw me struggling and let me borrow a real snow shovel. I am thankful he helped me or I might have been snowed in!

It’s funny, the feeling of being snowed in. I remember looking out the window and seeing all of the snow, thinking, “There’s no way I can go anywhere, I’m going to be stuck for days!” To my surprise, I went outside and saw people everywhere. I saw people leaving for work, people exercising, ect. I thought to myself, “These people are crazy.” Again, being from the South, I expected the whole city to shut down. But that’s not the way it is here in       Indiana. People still operate in the snow. So I borrowed Dale’s snow shovel, I shoveled my driveway, and I went to work, driving as slow as I could. The funny thing, is that after a couple of days, I didn’t mind driving in the snow. I don’t mind getting out in zero degree weather. It’s not as hard as I thought it would be, and I’m thankful that my life didn’t have to slow down for two weeks just because of some silly snow.

Sometimes, I feel like our walk with God can be like this. We look through our spiritual window, and we see too many things that will keep us from walking with God. We see our sinful desires. We see our temptations. We see our culture. We see the messiness of our lives. And when we look at our lives through a window, sometimes we see things a lot worse than snow. And we think to ourselves, “There’s no way I can walk through this.” We’re tempted to think, “God can’t help me here.” And it’s at this place that we need to be reminded of God’s promises. Psalm 23:1-6 says,

“The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.”

I pray that we rest in the promises of God. That He is with us. He never leaves us. He never forsakes us. And even when we feel “snowed in” throughout the messiness of our lives, beneath all of our sin, we have a perfect Savior willing to walk with us, and walk for us. So don’t walk in fear, scared of what lies ahead. Go fourth, confident in the God who called you to live your life to bring Him glory.

In Christ,
Jared