Making the Ask
Over and over again we hear that the #1 reason people first attend Rock Bridge is that they were invited!! Additionally, national research shows that the overwhelming majority of Americans are open and receptive to hear information about a church from a family member, friend, or neighbor. Historically, the new year represents a great opportunity to invite new people to church — new year, new resolutions, new habits, and a new openness. (We are also starting a new series, “The Joy Switch” on January 5th & 8th.)
A big reason why people should be invited to church is because seeing Christians interact with one another and with God in worship is a key factor the Holy Spirit often uses in drawing them to salvation (John 17:21; I Cor. 14:24-25). People are starving to see real love in action and need to see it in a first hand experience. The reality of experiencing biblical community & authentic worship in a church blows away the false ideas of Christianity that the enemy has planted in the mind of society.
I am praying BIG for lots of invitations to be offered and to be accepted …
“Then the master told the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and lanes and make them come in, so that my house may be filled.” {Luke 14:23}
Here are some suggestions for inviting people to church with you:
1-Pray for specific people (neighbor, co-worker, your cousin) and for specific opportunities (at work, the store, the gym).
2-Eliminate specific fears they may have:
–Fear of being singled out; worry about dress codes; fear of speaking; concerns about child care; confusing or irrelevant services
3-Invite repeatedly.
–Research shows it may take 6 or more times for the invitation to even be seriously considered!
4-Invite relationally.
–Offer to meet them somewhere before church so they can sit with you; take them out to eat after church. Keep it personal.
5-Remember could be at stake …
–Their salvation? Having a church home & family? Understanding the full love of God? God’s amazing grace?
–More glory to God when more people praise His Name!
Dear God,
We pray in Jesus’ Name for Your house to be full. Put people on our minds and in our paths that need to see Jesus in us and need to encounter Him through Your body, the Church. Give us great favor as we invite people to church in 2012. Let people see the love, grace, and superiority in Jesus. We are Your ambassadors, use us for Your purposes. Amen.
Elder Recommendations
At First Wednesday this week (Dec. 7th), we will have a short business meeting. One item for action will be to approve a group of new elders to begin serving in January. The selection process includes nominations from church members; review of church involvement (membership; small group; volunteering; giving); review by church staff; written interview questions; in person interview; background check; and lots of prayer.
The Elder Selection team of Matt Evans, Steven Hare, Gus Waters, Joann Middleton, and Amy McIntosh recommends the following three individuals to the church for approval and affirmation:
TONY HELTON (Dalton Campus)
Tony became a Christian as a child but really began “owning” his relationship with Jesus in his early 20s. He leads a small group and serves in Children’s Ministry as a tech coordinator for large group environments.
Tony is committed to the vision of Rock Bridge, sees God moving here, and loves the focus that every Christian is “on the mission field”.
MICHAEL OGLES (Calhoun Campus)
Michael became a Christian as a teenager and has been at Rock Bridge since 2008. He is a small group leader, serves on the Host Team, and works to disciple/mentor men. Michael recently went to Honduras with our church to dig a clean water well.
He values the “come as you are” atmosphere of RBCC and the focus on simplicity and excellence.
VIC WEBB (Chatsworth Campus)
Vic became a Christian in high school. He had been out of church until the death of his father which brought him to RBCC where he has passionately attended and served. He serves in the Tech/Production team and leads a small group. Vic sees the biblical and strategic importance of strong small groups and values the friendly and exciting atmosphere of the church.
A Must Read Letter
For the past 2 years we have been privileged to support Dr. Rhett Shirley as a medical missionary to Kenya. Rhett’s service on the mission field has ended and he and his family have returned to the U.S.
Here is a letter from Rhett that summarizes his missionary service and reminds us that God’s glory drives us to go to the ends of the earth no matter the cost and no matter the circumstances because people matter to God.
Weekly Rundown (11.27.2011)
Been awhile since I’ve done a true rundown so here goes:
- We sponsored even MORE Compassion kids this weekend!! 400+++ and counting.
- By reflecting the generosity of God and letting God’s love flow through us, God is giving hope, food, and medical care to children all over the world! One life at a time is how Jesus’ changes the world!
- Our 2012 Budget recommendation is ready. We’ll take a few minutes during December’s 1st Wednesday for a brief business meeting to act on this recommendation.
- This budget reflects several priorities:
- Increasing our missions giving
- Budgeting for local outreach and evangelism efforts
- Adding “margin” to our budget
- Appropriately funding our core ministries: worship, groups/discipleship, students, and children
- This budget reflects several priorities:
- Here are the dates we know for 2012 Mission trips:
- Honduras (digging a well): May 19-26 & October 6-13
- Ukraine (evangelism; Bible study): July 13-21
- Main idea from today’s sermon:
- Point of Surrender: To give the Word of God more authority than my past experiences, present feelings, future expectations, and natural tendencies.
- Continue to pray for people who are out of church and/or missing life in Christ. Ask God for opportunities to invite and share God’s love and for the boldness to seize them!!
2012 Budget Recommendation
At our next First Wednesday service (December 7th), we will have a brief business meeting as required by our Bylaws. At this meeting we will present the 2012 Budget recommendation for approval by the Church’s membership.
Additionally, we hope to present Elder candidates for approval and affirmation. The Elder Selection Team is continuing to review and interview prospective elders.
Please click the link below to review the 2012 Budget recommendations. If you have any questions, please contact any of the following individuals or email – justask@rockbridge.cc.
Rock Bridge Stewardship Team:
*Frank Hogshead, Chair
*Pete Scarborough
*Chris Simuro
*Jason Hopkins
*Alfred Turley, Executive Pastor (alfred@rockbridge.cc)
Rock Bridge Church Administrator:
*Brenda McClure (brenda@rockbridge.cc)
400!!
This weekend was OF God!!
Rock Bridge,
The heart of God flowed through you as 400 children were sponsored during Compassion Weekend!! Only by responding to the Gospel and the radical generosity of God is this possible!! This means 400 children will have food, water, medical care, and exposure to the Gospel. 400 children will soon learn that someone from northwest Georgia is loving them and praying for them.
PRAISE GOD!
Let me share two other reasons why this weekend is OF God –
First, Compassion International used our average attendance and the historical response of other churches to determine the number of packets to give us so that we would not run out of children to sponsor. Guess what?!?!?
We sponsored ALL of the children we were given!! The response exceeded expectations … but that is what the Gospel creates: new hearts that overflow with the generous, sacrificial love of God (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)!!
Second, in the middle of a terrible recession Rock Bridgers will be giving over $182,000 per year to meet the needs of children all over the world!!
All I can say is “To God be the glory!!”
Extra Scenes
This weekend’s message was a “vision” message and because I get so passionate about that subject I usually don’t have time to cover everything. I want to provide some of the “extra” scenes that did not make this weekend’s message –
Gospel Partnerships
We not only want to faithful in Gospel proclamation but also forging Gospel partnerships. The truth is that no person or church can be as effective in pursuing the mission of God without partnering strategically with other likeminded organizations, individuals, and churches.
*Next year we hope to partner and help plant churches in Statesboro, south Atlanta (Clayton County), and Chattanooga.
*This year we partnered with over ten agencies in our three county area (Gordon, Murray, & Whitfield) to meet needs in Jesus’ Name.
*Globally, we are partnering with organizations to take care of orphans, plant churches, dig wells, and care for impoverished children.
Multiplication
God’s Kingdom spreads through multiplication. This is how the church left Jerusalem and spread outward. God’s love and the message of the Cross has that impact. We called it “flow” in the message. God’s love and message of salvation flows from one person to another as a natural effect of the Holy Spirit’s influence in a Christian. God’s love cannot be contained or isolated but it longs to be multiplied.
This multiplication or “flow” happens among individuals, in groups, in communities, and ultimately all over the world. This explains our church’s growth and our multi-site strategy to helping NW Georgia know the Jesus of the Bible.
Lifeboats
Lifeboat #14 off the Titanic chose to risk all to save some while the other half-empty life boats rowed away from the cries of the drowning. Churches, Christians, and small groups are to be life boats, not pleasure boats. As a lifeboat, we adopt the mentality that if we don’t, no one else will. If we don’t invite people to see Jesus in us and in our church, then who will? We don’t even wait for the answer … we stay on mission with God: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save those who are lost.” {Luke 19:10}
Worship Evangelism
The example you set in worship matters!! When you worship in the freedom and passion of the Holy Spirit, you are adding to the Holy Spirit’s “presence” in the service AND non-believers are watching your example.
Wrap-up
I am unbelievably excited about God’s hand in our church. I heard a story this week of a person who invited FORTY people to church!! 40!! People are dealing with sin and fightings its effects. Lost and un-churched people ARE at our services EVERY week (praise God!). Our small groups are being mission-minded, building relationships, and contemplating birthing new groups for new people in new areas. We are working to hire a Missions Pastor by the first part of 2012 to further advance our local and global efforts to meet needs and share Christ. So let’s keep praying, keep growing, and keep multiplying the Name of Jesus!
Open Letter #2: Beth is home and Romans 8:28
On November 30, 2010 I posted a blog detailing a major change in our life and ministry as my wife began to fight leukemia through a bone marrow transplant in New York City. With unbelievable joy and gratitude I can share that Beth is now officially and permanently back home with our family. Beth must remain fairly isolated as flu season approaches and her immune system continues to mature. She will still need to be seen by the transplant team in NYC every two weeks. But her leukemia is in remission, the post-transplant complications (mainly the Epstein-Barr virus) is all but gone, blood counts are good, and her strength is returning.
First, we thank God for walking with us through this time, providing amazing doctors and their wisdom to battle a complicated and dangerous condition, and loving us through His Word, His Spirit, and His church. When we first received the devastating diagnosis of leukemia, Beth said that “the greatest miracle is salvation” which is so true. To know that nothing can separate us from God’s love is unbelievable and a source of constant joy; however, we are recipients of a “lesser” miracle that God did not owe us. So we marvel once again at the mercy and grace of our great God!
Second, we must thank Rock Bridge Community Church and God’s universal church. From Dalton across the U.S. and even into Africa, people have prayed for us. Many gave everything from time to money to ‘sky miles’ to support us. We would receive text messages, cards, emails, and phone calls in dark moments that provided glimpses of light that pointed us back to hope in Christ.
Thank you for letting me walk with my wife through this time. Thank you for letting me learn the joy of serving my wife in some small way as Christ loved and served us, His church. I missed being there with many of you as you walked through your own valleys but God is so big and His grace is so overflowing, I trust He was sufficient for you as He has proved for us.
Beth’s life verse is Romans 8:28 — “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.”
This is a dangerous verse (but we know it is true) because when God asks you to believe it as you face extremely difficult “all things”, you have to die to anything but Jesus. But in dying you really learn to live.
Galatians 2:20 — “I have been crucified with Christ; and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I love by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Another Reason to Attend Church
If you are a Christian, somewhere along the way you’ve been taught to attend church or “meet together” with other believers. The biblical reasons for doing so are to receive encouragement (Hebrews 10:25), hear the preached Word of God (2 Timothy 4:2), be equipped to serve God (Ephesians 4:11-13), pray (I Timothy 2:1), and praise God (Colossians 3:16).
I want to suggest another extremely important reason: to evangelize. Yes, your attendance and active participation in a worship service can be an act of evangelism (evangelism is telling & showing others God’s worth as revealed through the Gospel of Jesus Christ or you could say that evangelism is simply recruiting more worshippers for God).
How is worship part of evangelism?
1-Unbelievers are present in most weekend worship services … so they are watching you!! This means your worship is a witness because how you are responding to God is showing unbelievers how much God means to you. While unbelievers cannot worship God because they do not yet know Who He really is, they are still worshipping something (we are all pre-wired to worship) so they understand passion, excitement, and authenticity. The fact is most unbelievers see more worship at a football game than in a church. Some suggestions to improve your worship witness:
a) Sit like you are interested and excited about what is going to happen. If someone offered you tickets on the 50-yard line or the end zone ‘nose bleeds’, you’ll take the 50 every time.
b) Sing. Read the psalms, read the OT, read the NT, and note how many times music is involved … you will see that music is like God’s “love language”. God loves for His people to sing His praises. He is drawn to it. A side benefit is that the more you participate in a service, the more you’ll tend to enjoy it.
At RBCC, we are very intentional about picking songs that are easy to sing and easy to learn. We talk about and evaluate this literally EVERY week because it is that important to our overall worship environment.
c) Take notes during the sermon. Again, you’ll get more out of it and you demonstrate the “weight” of God’s Word in your life.
2-God is attracted to worship and when God shows up in a service, people don’t tend to stay unaffected. In fact, the Apostle Paul taught that when worship is rightly focused, rightly ordered, and God’s Word rightly preached then unbelievers will be converted and become worshippers –
“…if an unbeliever or some inquirer comes in [to a worship service] … he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, ‘God is really among you!‘” {I Cor. 14:24,25}
3-Worship fuels evangelism. When we worship God, we are declaring His infinite worth and value to us. This also should produce a burden in us for those who do not yet know the God we worship. So worship drives us to tell others (i.e.-evangelize) about the worth of God.
May people say every week at RBCC that “God is really among us!”
Moment or Movement?
Our church appears to have been touched by the presence of God at last week’s First Wednesday service. We thank God for speaking, for moving, and for affecting us during that moment in time. But what now? What happens next?
First, let me address what usually happens — nothing. We go back to our routines, habits, and typical patterns. We shared a great moment together but we then move back to life as we know it. But we must remember that whenever God uniquely encounters His people (as we believe He did last week), He does so for more than our momentary pleasure; He wants to move and accelerate His people to His purposes for them. In other words, God “moments” in our lives should lead to God “movements”. The overall direction and trajectory of our lives and our church should be somehow permanently altered. A new normal should be defined, a new pattern should emerge, and new habits should form.
To encourage us toward a “movement” of God and not just a “moment” with God, I believe God has ONE simple step: immediate obedience. However God spoke to you (conviction, challenge, comfort, awakening, awareness) last Wednesday, act on it now! Delayed obedience is sin –
“Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”
James 4:17 {NIV}
So God revealed something “good” for you to do, you must do it and you must do it now while it is clear in your mind and while there is a sense of God-given confidence in your heart. If you wait, you will become less clear and less sure of your next step.
Here are a few suggestions to encourage your immediate obedience and fuel what I hope is a movement and not just a moment in the life of our church body:
1-Write down how God touched you and what you sensed Him saying. Then tell a friend and/or your small group and ask for accountability — tell someone to ask you if you have “acted” on what God revealed within 10 days.
2-Pray for boldness. Your struggle is not lack of knowledge of God’s will, but fear. God’s perfect love casts out fear and God’s Holy Spirit gives you courage, not timidity. Know His love for you and be bold in your obedience to Him … your obedience is how you tell God you love Him!
3-Remember the goal is obedience, not a certain result. Most of us fear what our obedience will cause or lack faith that our obedience will matter. Our obedience matters and God will use all obedience for His purpose … so give God your obedience — today!
Praying we “move” together with God!
Matt