e-news for week of 7/6 - 7/12

Thanks for all the great feedback connected to the iLife series. I hope the Lord is central in your life – that you are building on the rock and that you are applying His words to your life. I’ve seen a lot of growth and excitement in so many lives. God’s word does that. The word of God is life. Jesus is the word and as a church we truly want to intentionally connect people to Jesus.

We start into a new study series that will deal with body life in God’s church. God designed His church to function as a living, vibrant body. The church is the hope of the world. When you function within the church as you are designed, the church grows and thrives, the world is touched, and God is honored. This series will focus in on a church that works the way God designed it to work rather than a church of dysfunction. We’ll be the 1 Corinthians for this series. The Corinthians had a lot of issues – the bulk of them stemming from body life issues connected to unity and division. The motif will be the VH1 “Behind the music” where, at times, things may look good “on stage” but backstage “things were falling apart.” As a church, we are going to learn from these early struggles and mature in Christ. Ultimately, we want to be 1 Corinthians 13 kind of Christians.

This series is vitally important to comprehend as we get ready to move toward the ministry expansion through the use of multi-site models. You’ll be hearing a lot of information about multi-site over the next several months. The concepts from the sermon series are a must learn/apply for our body.

Be in serious prayer about the impact God would have us to make in Columbia. There are some elements even for this fall that we want to try that will only occur if we are praying for open doors and opportunities.

We’ve been having a great summer and I thank you as a church body for continuing to be so faithful. We’ve been blessed with a super team of staff as well as a great body of believers. You share your faith, you invite friends, you serve others around you, and you are honoring God with your lives. You are one of those beautiful churches that God designed. I can’t wait to worship with you this Sunday. Scott