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Why I Refuse to Hate My 30s

by Cassie Voisin

Lately I have been caught saying in conversation, “I’m almost 30!” People then seem to respond with sympathy. “I’m so sorry, that was a rough one for me.” “Oh my. You’ll be ok though.” I feel like some people want to freak me out about this milestone…

Well on January 22nd, I will hit 30 whether I like it or not :). I have to say, I have been very blessed in my 20’s. I started working for Life Church in November of 2005 (going to be 10 years this year!!!), met my husband/best friend and got married in 2009, had our first daughter Emma Rae in 2012, achieved one of my biggest accomplishments in 2014, graduating from college (that was a BIG deal for my family and I, first to graduate), and then a month later had our littlest daughter Molly Ann. Life is good.

It truly has been a decade of loving life, growth, finding myself, knowing my calling, building my confidence and just being ok with me. I have set the foundation for this incredible Woman of God to make a huge difference in this world, in this community, in my family, in my friends, and in myself.

I do have to say, getting older can be pretty amazing. I have collected a lot of knowledge these past 30 years. Lessons from my parents, mentors, friends, random people I don’t even know… I’ve learned from my successes, and failures. I have even learned that it’s ok to fail - a concept that took me a while to get, and I still have my moments! I’ve made amazing relationships, opened up to people, and loved more then I have ever thought was possible.

Most importantly, I have learned that attitude is everything. One of my favorite books “Developing the Leader Within You” by John C. Maxwell has a quote in it that I am absolutely in love with. It’s my anthem.

“We cannot choose how many years we will live, but we can choose how much life those years will have.

We cannot choose the beauty of our face, but we can choose the expression on it. 

We cannot control life’s difficult moments, but we can choose to make life less difficult. 

We cannot control the negative atmosphere of the world, but we can control the atmosphere of our minds. 

Too often, we try to control things we cannot. To seldom, we choose to control what we can… our attitude.”

So powerful for me.

So now, I get excited for what my 30’s will bring me. Everyday is a new adventure and a day for God to move. Here’s to loving bigger, growing deeper, making better decisions, and going boldly for what I am passionate about. Life is a gift, live it and live it to the fullest. Thank you for sharing life with me Life Church Family! You make it EXTRA special.

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28 Names

by Ryan Coggins

Recently I was reading through Romans chapter 16, and I’ll be honest, it was very tempting to skip the first 16 verses.  It’s one of those lists of names that you sometimes find in scripture, which I typically skim over.  But I felt a prompting to really read through it because I felt like God was trying to speak something to me through these verses.

Then it hit me: Paul lists the names of 28 people who either he has poured into or who have poured into him.  28 names.  I immediately went into introspective mode, as I often do when reading scripture.  Do I have 28 people I could rattle off that I have poured into, or who have poured into me?  Am I actively pouring my life into others?  Am I surrounding myself with other Christ Followers who I allow to speak into my life?

Naturally, I am a bit of an introvert.  I’ll be honest; I often use that as an excuse to not rub shoulders with others.  But being an introvert has nothing to do with my love for people (which according to scripture is not an option…we are called to love others).  It is simply that I recharge my batteries best when I’m alone.  As an introvert, I need to be intentional about having time alone, or I will be drained very quickly.  But I have been called as a Christ Follower, just as Paul was, to pour myself into others and allow others to pour themselves into me. 

We all have that calling.  My prayer for 2015 is that God would bring people into my life for me to pour into, and those who will pour into me.  I need that if I’m going to continue to be refined as a Christ Follower.  That’s the beauty of the body of Christ: we all need one another.

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Sharing Christmas

by Abbie Johnson

It’s here! It’s finally here!!! Christmas-time, that is.

If you know me at all, you know just how much I absolutely adore the holiday season. The days leading up to Christmas are quite literally the most wonderful, magical time of the year for me. Even the most ordinary moments seem to sparkle just a little brighter at Christmas. I know, I’m probably starting to sound kind of like a Hallmark card, huh? But truly, I enjoy everything from decking the halls of my cozy little condo, to obsessing over the absolute perfect gift for my loved ones, and even wrapping all those lovely gifts to make them look like they came straight out of a Pinterest project. Well, if I’m being honest, the idea probably did come from a pin on Pinterest… You see, around this time of year, I have a severe problem with trying to be the best combination of Martha Stewart, Rachel Ray, and the Pioneer Woman there ever possibly could be. I want everything, literally everything to be perfect. The perfectly decorated, Pinterest-perfect Christmas tree. The perfectly hearty, flavorful meal to serve to my family for Christmas dinner. The shockingly perfect gift that I picked especially for my husband, that’s even more perfect than he could have even picked himself. Really, if I’m being honest, I’d just like my holiday to look like it came straight out of the most recent glossy Crate & Barrel catalogue.

Fortunately, for my own (and my husband’s) sanity, this is just not reality.  This would be forcing myself to attain a level of perfection that just cannot be reached. And sadly, when I get lost in this materialistic world of competition and covetousness, I’m gravely missing the point. The “reason for the season,” if you will.  

Oh yes, we’ve all seen the bumper stickers, the greeting cards, and even the picture frames that all don these lovely sentiments of holiday wisdom: “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.” And, “Wise men still seek him.” Little nuggets of truth that seem just too cheesy and cliché to take literally.

But when was the last time I really took the meaning of those words to heart? Have I become so calloused and self-absorbed in my own minute world of glitter and gift giving, that I’ve ignored the true purpose and necessity for Christmas?

You see, it was for a not so shiny and perfectly polished reason that the first Christmas ever even transpired. If you’d take a minute with me and jog your memory outside of Target’s toy aisle, we might be able to remember that Jesus was born in a barn full of smelly barnyard animals for a purpose so much greater than we could ever imagine. You see, He came just so that he could grow up and live a perfectly sinless life, in order to pay the extreme penalty of my sin, your sin, and the sin of the whole world: death on a cross.

Perhaps I’m treading outside of the Christmas holiday and venturing into Easter’s…but hang with me. We celebrate Jesus coming to this earth, being born in a disgusting feeding trough for cows, so that he could eventually die. His death and resurrection 3 days later brought us life – life more abundantly! It paid the price of our willful disobedience and brought us into a right relationship with the King of kings! Has a better gift ever been given? I will never be able to wrap my brain around the love that God the Father has for us, to give us His only son to be the Savior of the whole world on that first Christmas.

When I take this moment to reassess the true intent of this day, I am humbled an in awe. I feel a bit sorrowful for falling into the rut of commercialism and comparison, disillusioned by my struggle to achieve perfection. I cringe a little just thinking about my utter ignorance and self-centeredness. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not going to throw the holiday aside simply because I’ve mismanaged my priorities in the past! Yes, I will still try and find my husband just the right gift. And I’ll still scour blogs looking to find the best cheesecake to make for Christmas dinner. But this year, I will do my utmost best to refocus my heart on the very best gift I’ve ever received. And this year, I will strive to share this truly perfect gift with everyone I can. Will you join me in this? Will you join me in choosing to rediscover this incredible gift and to re-gift it to every person we come in contact with through our words and deeds? I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the birth of our Deliverer than by sharing Him with anyone and everyone we can.

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The Blessing of Hope

by Pastor Jim Sukup

It wasn’t so much that the trials that I was going through were so big, but it seemed like there were so many being thrown at me and they just wouldn’t let up. I could feel the life being drained out of me and nothing that I did seemed to help. Have you ever felt like this? That’s how I was feeling not too long ago.  Then I read an article written by Nancy Missler, the wife of Bible teacher Chuck Missler. In the article it told about a painful, life threatening, medical situation that she has been going through for about 2 years. After I read some of the details of her battle, I was in awe and humbled by how she could stand so strong throughout her ordeal and it made what I was going through look like a garden party. When she spoke of her cooping mechanism, she had my attention, she called it the blessing of hope.

Now I know that hope is a word that is used well over 100 times throughout scripture but I never thought of it as a force that could give me the strength to stand against the calamities of life, instead I always thought of it as a warm fuzzy feeling.

Author R.C. Sproul says “Hope is called the anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19), because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a wish (I wish that such-and-such would take place); rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made.”

Wow, I guess I had things to learn!

Nancy explained that the Greek word for “hope” and the Greek work for “trust” come from same root word and basically mean the same thing. So hope is an active trusting in God’s faithfulness. In this way Hope becomes not only the connection to the Lord during the difficult times, it’s also an anchor that will keep us from straying, and drifting away from our faith.  Thus hope becomes not only a desire for something, but it becomes the basis of the desire being fulfilled.

Charles Spurgeon put it his way, “Hope is like a golden cord connecting us to heaven. The more we cling to this cord, the more we can allow the Lord to bear the weight of our burdens and to draw us closer to Him. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit.  (Romans 15:13) Thank you Nancy for this invaluable lesson.

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Bottles and Burp Rags

by Anna Werner

Well, motherhood has officially arrived.  Having a newborn in the house is something my husband and I are still getting used to.  It amazes me every day just how much effort we both have to put into raising our son.  From changing diapers to changing clothes to baths to feeding, the first few weeks of my son’s life wasn’t something I was completely prepared for.  Now that he’s nearing two months things are getting easier. He doesn’t eat every two hours, he’s sleeping better at night, and more content during the day.  It makes me think though of how much extra time is put into new Christians.  So much extra effort must be devoted into making sure they get a great start with their new life.  Just like new parents have to invest large amounts of time and energy into their children to make sure they are raised to survive in this new world they have entered into, so do we as Christians need to invest that much extra time into new Christians so that they can survive in some new and uncharted territory.  Many questions must be answered and corrections must be made.  Just as my son will soon enough have to be corrected and disciplined so to do new Christians need a little guidance and discipline.  They need someone to walk along side them and “hold their hand” for a while so as to not fall back into old habits or hang ups or maybe they just need to be taught which path will be the best for them.

Proverbs 4:1 My children, listen when your father corrects you. Pay attention and learn good judgment.

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3 Things Generous People Do

by Kevin Miller

I have found that generosity is one of the most exciting traits that a person can have.  It's something that is fun, invigorating, and honestly addicting (a great addiction by the way).  I do not believe that certain people were created to be more generous.  I choose to believe that inside of each of us is a generous instinct.  We usually give because we have a passion or belief in something, but selfishness seems to try and get in the way of generosity.  That instinct to want to help, be a part, or bring change is many times clouded by our selfishness.  When we live our life as givers and not takers, we put ourselves in a place to simply be more like Jesus.  Below are three things that I believe will put you in a place to be less selfish and more generous.

1.  Look for opportunities to give //

Giving is fun.  A great challenge to try is to give one thing away a week.  It could be minor, could be major, but watch how the opportunities begin to come when you look for them.  There is a world in need of us to give.

2.  Give without thinking about benefits to you //

When you think about benefits to you in giving, it is bringing selfishness into an unselfish act. Many times in our forethought with giving, we are wondering what we will get out of it.  I am guilty of it just as we all are at times.  When we give without the thought of us in mind but the one we are giving to, a true joy begins to take place.  Either way you will be blessed when you give, but think about how much better it is to give with a pure heart.

3.  Live with your hands open, not closed //

When your hand resembles a fist, no one can take from you, but in the same way, no one can give you anything.  If your hands are palm up, you are constantly giving things away, but you also have an open hand to receive the blessings of God.  Everything belongs to God anyways, so let's practice giving away our time, talent and treasure and watch how the world begins to change around us.

Please update us with a cool story of giving by commenting!  Thanks for taking the time to read!

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Answers & Earrings

by Ryan Coggins A few weeks ago, I heard a loud cry burst out from the bathroom.  I came rushing to the scene to find my daughter crying and my son standing there with a very guilty look on his face.  When I began to interrogate, here’s the story I was presented: My daughter was cleaning her earrings when one went missing.  She asked my son where it went and he said, “I don’t know, maybe it went down the drain.”  She took that as an admission of guilt, and thus the loud crying.  Long story short, I disciplined my son, despite his claiming that he did nothing wrong (I also took the drain apart, only to find a couple hairballs, but no earring).

Something didn’t make sense.  My son doesn’t even know how to lie yet.  So I went back to my daughter and asked her to tell me the story again.  As she told me, I saw something dangling from her ears.  I asked if those were the missing earrings.  Her face immediately went sheepish, and she began to cry all over again, this time because of her misidentification of the culprit.  She apologized to her brother, and all was well in the Coggins house once again.

How many times do we do the same thing in life?  We search everywhere for answers, blame others, and throw a fit when something doesn’t go our way.  But I believe that 99% of problems have already been solved, we’re just looking in the wrong places.  God has given us wisdom through His Word, and offered us hope by having direct access to Him through prayer.  So often, those are the last places we look for answers.  As a result, we end up going through an awful lot of heartache and energy, only to find the answer right in front of us.  I love the promise God gives us in James 1:5 – “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”  What an incredible promise of provision!

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Hello World!

by Chris Werner

My wife Anna and I welcomed into the world a healthy baby boy July 23, 2014 Both Mom and Baby are doing well. His name is William (Will) Allen Werner and here are a few pictures of him:

When we got home from the hospital, one thing that stuck out to me right away was that this little boy now needs to rely fully on his parents for everything that he needs, from eating, bathing, changing his diaper to a new set of clothes, (some happen more often than I thought was possible).   This is how we should also rely on God, he will give us everything we need if we just ask for it and obey him (Phillipians 4:19). Just like Will relies on us to feed him in order to grow so must we rely on God to grow in our faith. But as Will matures and grows, he will soon have to make the decision to eat himself in order to grow. Just as you grow in your faith you have to make decisions as well. A Christian will only grow as much as he purposefully reads and obeys and applies the Word to his life. Growth is up to him. There are Christians who have been saved many years, but spiritually they are still babies. They cannot understand the deeper truths of the Word of God.  Peter wrote that God has given us everything we need for life through our (growing) knowledge of Him. 

2 Peter 1: 3–11

“3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. 10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, a make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

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Father

by Chris Werner n. noun     -  A man who begets or raises or nurtures a child     -  God when considered as the first person in the Trinity     -  A man who creates, originates, or founds something     -  A church father As my wife and I embark on parenthood I look back to see great examples of being a father in my life. My Father was a great influence in my life from sports to sports cards to work ethic and everything in between. He has been there no matter where I was at in life. He was there in the good times and in the bad times. 

Recently my Father and I took a road trip to a few baseball stadiums and it was a lot of fun to get away from it all. We started out in St.Louis then Nashville then Louisville and ended up in Cincinnati. It was a trip that my Father and I have talked about for 25 years about doing. We agreed that life is never going to get any slower so let’s do it now. I have attached a few pictures from our trip.

I have been lucky enough to have a great father and grandfathers in my life still to this day. One person though that I never thought about being a Father in my life was a church father that came into my life when I wasn't looking for it nor thought I needed it. Without him I would not be where I am at today. He showed me what it was like to enjoy ministry and the church in general. He first became the friend that I needed and then became the church father that I needed. There were many times that he would just show up to random activities I was involved in just to say hi and see how I was doing. He never shoved church down my throat. He just led by example. Although we do not see each other very often, when we do, we pick up right where we left off from the last time we saw each other. 

When I think about being a father, I look back at all things my father did that I said I will never do and I laugh because I now see myself doing those things if my son acts up or doesn't do as I ask. I only hope and pray that I am half the father that the fathers in my life are today. If you do not have a father in your life I highly recommend it. It’s always nice to have some one to talk to, confide in, and have your back and lift you up in prayer even when you don't ask for it.

Once you become a father no one can take that away from you no matter the circumstances. Its up to you how you use that title. Life is a journey and its more fun with somebody than by yourself!

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Hope

By Anna Werner

Have you ever had a day when hope seemed completely out of reach?  Where you had nothing to hope for?  Wikipedia defines hope as an optimistic attitude of mind based on an expectation of positive outcomes related to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish a desire with anticipation".  I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have days where I had no hope.  When so many things that I thought I should have had or needed were nowhere in sight.

The Summer before my Junior year of high school I went on a mission trip to Russia.  It was an amazing experience that opened my mind to see what another part of the world was like.  Talk about being around people who didn’t have anything to hope for.  I spent three weeks at a Russian camp for kids with disabilities.  From being deaf and blind to having physical limitations, I spent that time just being a friend to these kids.  I slowly became aware that our team simply being there was the hope they were looking for.  Sure the language barrier kept us from pouring out our hearts and smothering them with all of our Christianese but, looking back that’s exactly what God had in store.  He wanted us to communicate through our expressions and actions that Jesus is all you need to have hope.  During free time on that trip I would find bible verses and write them out on bright colored pieces of construction paper and put them up on the walls of the room that my team was staying in.  It was my way of reminding all of us why we were there.

Fast forward 14 years to a time in my life where having a baby was beginning to feel like a hopeless situation.  After a devastating miscarriage all hope seemed to be lost.  I was in a place where I mentally couldn’t escape the thought that maybe I was never supposed to have any children.  All doubt just kept creeping in and I felt like I had no strength to tell doubt to back off.  It was not a pleasant time in life but little did I know that my doubt was about to come to an end.  As I patiently and confidently waited for the Lord to move on my behalf, hope didn’t’ seem so far away anymore.  After much prayer and surrendering the situation to God my dream of being a mom was about to come true.  My husband and I are now expecting our first child in the next few weeks.  I don’t think I’ve been so hopeful in my whole life. In the process of getting our son’s room ready I found one of those verses I had written out while on that trip in Russia. 

It was Roman’s 8:24B-25 “If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.”

Don’t lose hope.

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Trust Without Borders

By Cassie Voisin Have you ever had a song just leave you speechless? A song that just resonates with you and brings tears to your eyes… That song for me is “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail),” by Hillsong. What a powerful song! Not only am I in love with how it is written and the music behind it, I am in love with the raw emotion that it brings out of me. This emotion of what Peter must of felt when he walked out on the water (Matthew 14:25-33). After listening to this song and going back and reading about Peter, I think of all the faith and trust he had to have. He’s in a boat out on the water, and not only that, it’s storming! The wind is blowing, the waves are getting big… YIKES!!! For those of you who know me, I am NOT a big fan of storms at all, so I can’t even imagine. Then he is asked to walk out on the water. Wait… what!? I would like to think I would have enough faith in Jesus to trust Him enough to guide my steps in walking out into this kind of unknown. Then I think about my everyday life. Life is full of doubts and uncertainty. And a lot of times we as humans try to take everything on by ourselves. This may be in big things, or small, but with either, we are not made for that! When Oceans Rise, When Feet May Fail, When Fear Surrounds you… Are you trusting Him as you walk on the unknown, scary, stormy water? In Matthew 14:29, it says, “But when he saw the strong wind and waves, he was terrified and began to sink.” Peter took his eyes off Jesus and saw his circumstances and began to sink. As soon as Jesus came back into Peter’s vision, Peter was brought back up. This makes me think, “Am I fixing my eyes on Jesus in EVERYTHING I do, or am I looking at the waves for a split second and getting scared?” I want to be the person who never focuses on the scary and unknown, but the person who is focused solely on Jesus and His perfect plan for me. He has every little detail handled. You’ve never failed and you won’t start now.

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Who is the Church For?

By Ryan Coggins I have found that there is a fundamental question that dictates where someone goes to church, but very few church-goers ever ask it: Who is the church for?  People can disagree about church style and church culture all day, but those are typically things that flow out of the answer to this question.

  Let me say it a different way.  How a particular local church functions is all dependent upon their answer to this question.  If a church believes that it is there for Christians, it will function one way.  If a church believes it is there for non-Christians, it will function another way.

  Life Church made a decision a long time ago that it was going to be about both Christians and non-Christians, but when it comes to the weekend service, we would be much more aware of the non-Christian than the Christian as far as service planning and culture.  The reason for this is because in suburban America, the greatest chance we have to evangelize to a non-Christian is at 10:30 AM on Sunday.  Statistics prove that this time slot is the most-likely time for a non-Christian to seek a spiritual experience in a local church.  We believe the weekend service is a great time to reach those far away from Christ.  In fact, we have seen it to be the most likely environment for a non-Christian adult to begin a personal relationship with Jesus.  This is not to say that other methods are wrong, it’s just what many great churches have learned through trial and error.

  There are dozens of arguments against this thinking.  One argument is that it’s odd that a non-Christian would even come to church, so why plan a service with them in mind?  But I have seen person after person come to Life Church and experience a personal relationship with Christ for the first time sitting in service.  Another argument would be that “seeker-sensitive” churches must be void of any hard-hitting truths.  We have seen that to be a false assumption at Life Church.  We preach the uncompromised message of the gospel, but just do it in an environment where someone feels comfortable.  In fact, we’ve seen that almost every person on planet Earth is social BEFORE they’re spiritual, which simply means that if a person can feel welcomed and not threatened, they’re way more likely to receive the message.

  Now, the church does have a responsibility to pastor Christians as well.  Perhaps this is the biggest knock on the seeker-sensitive movement.  And I would agree that discipleship can often take a back seat to evangelism in a lot of churches today.  However, I do believe it’s possible to build and equip the believer while simultaneously serving and encouraging the seeker.  Life Groups are a great avenue for us to accomplish this, but I would even argue that it can be done in the context of a weekend service.  The current series “First John, Then Me” is a great example of how we can accomplish both.  This series is heavily geared towards existing Christians because the book of First John is heavily geared towards existing Christians.  However, we’ve seen people come to faith in Christ every single week of this series.   Let’s not forget that it’s God who brings the harvest, not us, therefore He is not limited to a particular series, style, or environment.  Those things can help facilitate someone’s salvation experience, but this ultimately rests of God’s shoulders.

  The beauty of the local church is that the Bible gives us a ton of freedom to flesh things out in any given context.  There doesn’t seem to be a lot of scripture that dictates church culture.  This is why churches work in suburban or urban settings, in foreign countries or right here in America.  I love what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, “Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.”

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5 Practical Acts of Compassion

By Kevin Miller

Every day we pass people without realizing what they could really be going through.  Some people that we cross in our daily path are having the worst moments of their lives and they simply need someone.  It is our God given duty to have compassion in our hearts for the hurting.  Our days will always be busy, we will always have too much to do, and we will never have enough time.  But this is something that Jesus exemplified in a tangible way all throughout the Gospels. Jesus gave us the best example.  Most of the miracles of Jesus spontaneously took place while He was on His way somewhere.  Jesus always had compassion on the ones who seemed to be a distraction throughout the day.  I love that the word compass is in compassion.  We need to constantly pray that Jesus would guide us to the ones that are broken so that we introduce them to a God that is crazy about them.  Below are some practical everyday ways that this can take place:

  1.     Pray for someone

It is very easy for us to tell someone, “I’ll be praying for you” when they express a need or when you know that they need prayer.  Try praying for them right there.  It takes a bit of courage, but it always gives an opportunity for them to experience the presence of God.

  2.     Give something away

Find a creative way to make this happen.  It could be giving leftover food to someone in the inner city or a gas card to a single mom that you know.  Giving is a powerful gift that can make a powerful impact.

  3.     Speak life into someone

Proverbs 18:21 says, “The tongue has the power of life or death”.  Many people need to have life spoken over them.  Words have the power to change someone from the inside out.

  4.     Recognize your surroundings

This is an easy one to look over.  When we get in a routine, it becomes difficult for us to pause and look at the people around us.  We never know what people around us are going through but when we pause to have compassion, we begin to recognize the hurt and pain more.  Take the time to notice the ones that are broken, and be the one to give encouragement. 

  5.     Love your enemy

I struggle with this most.  It is Biblical, but not easy to do.  We have to try our best to find someone that we do not like and love them as Jesus would.  Do something or say something nice to them.  They may be confused, but in the end it could completely change the relationship.

  I hope these will be helpful in our journey of being more like Jesus.  Please comment with what you tried and how it worked out for you!

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A Tip to Servers

By Jim Sukup In the book Eating Problems for Breakfast by Tim Hansel, there is a funny spoof of an interaction with a management consultant who was examining the resumes of the disciples for Jesus to determine whom he should hire. This was their conclusion: “It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability. Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale. We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew had been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale. One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind, and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.” In contrast to this we see in scripture a situation where the Apostles had to choose some men for the position of “Director of resource distribution” or in other words, waiting tables, and feeding the needy. When choosing the candidates the Apostles were looking for three qualifications. (Acts 6:3) The first was someone with a good reputation. A person who lived their life in a manner that was pleasing to the Lord but also respected in the community. He also had to be filled with the Spirit. In other words, surrendered to, lead by and sensitive to the things of the Spirit. Lastly he had to have wisdom. The ability to do the job he was asked to do, and do it in a manner that was held to a high standard. As I thought about these qualifications I thought they seemed awfully high for simply waiting on tables. After all, these candidates were not being asked to lead the church! These standards ARE very high, but they are also the daily standards of anyone committed to the Lord Jesus Christ.

What’s also interesting about these qualifications is that it doesn’t matter whether you are waiting on tables or running the biggest church...the qualifications needed are exactly the same.

So, we all should live our lives daily, seeking to fulfill these qualifications in whatever we are called to do.

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Why your student HAS to go to Summer Camp

By Noel Miller The weather is finally warming up and that means one thing in the Family Focus department...Summer Camp!

The childhood and adolescent years are filled with challenges, changes and promise. I believe parents hope that their children will be prepared to be productive and successful young men and women of good character. They also want their children to avoid risky behavior that might very well interfere with healthy development. Camps play a critical role in promoting readiness and reducing risk by helping children build four essential pillars of success:

1. Sense of Self

2. Christ-Centered focus

3. Positive Risk taking

4. Mentoring Relationships I want to focus on one of those essentials, mentoring relationships. Over the years I have learned the positive outcome of mentoring, both having mentors and being a mentor. Did you know:

Young people who identify at least one influential mentor in their life report that they have a higher sense of self and are more likely to take risk that affect their lives positively.

Young people with mentors are significantly more likely than those without to report frequently feeling happy and less likely to report feeling depressed or bored. 

Summer camp is a great way to engage your students in all these life building essentials. Life Church will be taking kids and students to three different age appropriate camps this summer.

If you would like more information about summer camps please stop by the Resource Center or visit us at www.lifechurchwi.com.

Looking forward to life changing summer!

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Volunteer Spotlight- Mike Whitehouse and His Candy Cannons

By Brad Etzel

  This Easter in Life Kids was a huge hit. Our kids had a blast with the Lego theme and hearing the “Everything is Awesome” Lego song about a hundred times! The best part of the weekend was the over 60 decisions for Christ made by the children!

  To top it off this year, we came up with a new idea to get candy out to the kids. In years past we had done a candy drop and that was fun, but we wanted to go bigger! I found an idea online to make a candy cannon! The design they had was way to small for the amount of candy we wanted to launch. I thought this would be so cool, but I did not have the resources or knowledge to make this vision a reality.

  I called up one of our volunteers, Mike Whitehouse. I showed him the video of the cannon that launched about a soda can worth of candy and told him I wanted ours to shoot a dumpster can worth! You could see the gears in his head begin to turn. He said he would take the task and make it happen.

  Several prototypes were built and he had some successes and many failures. After further redesign he made a successful candy cannon! He then went on to build three more as we wanted to have the cannons at each of our campuses.

  Mike put in countless hours to make this a reality. He worked on it every hour he had off and even when he was working, he would take his free time to work on the cannons. Mike’s devotion to this project and time away from his family did not go unnoticed. Every kid I talked to thought this was the coolest thing they had ever seen!

  I just wanted to give a big shout out to Mike, his wife Melissa and their two kids, Alex and Veronica. We thank you so much for your help and support to see this project come together. We are thankful for your dedication!

  For those that did not see the candy launch, check it out below!

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Miracles on a Missions Trip

By Phil Voisin

Traveling to another part of the world to preach the Gospel is both exciting and scary at the same time. You’re moving out of your comfort zone, into a world that doesn’t speak your language, doesn’t have the same food, and isn’t the same culture. It’s intimidating! Especially since I am a quiet introvert. But, God works through the circumstance and shows you that despite all the fears, changes and inadequacies that you feel, God can show up and change everything.

In November, the Media Team and I traveled to Ecuador for a missions trip. This was my first time out of the country! I was excited and nervous at the same time. What followed was nothing short of “WOW!” I’ll share just ONE of the MANY stories:

During one of the mornings, we handed out bread and coffee to unemployed workers. A guy approached our group asking us to come pray for his mother at the hospital. She had fallen several weeks ago and was currently in a comma. The next day we went to the hospital and all piled into this room with 6 hospital beds...and not a lot of room. We began to pray for this woman. The next thing I know she began to move; move like she hasn’t done since being in the hospital, according to the son. The faith of the team was built up. We could tell God was doing something miraculous!

Then the doctors kicked us out. It was hard to leave when we knew God was working. The faith of the team remained strong, but everyone was disappointed we didn’t get to see the miracle happen.

The next day we were preparing to take a local youth group camping. The son ran into us on the street. In a city of 500,000 people, and the fact that we were in a part of town he had never seen us in, was nothing short of divine intervention. The man had a smile ear to ear and was talking a million miles a minute. He told our missionary that God healed his mother!

Despite the setbacks, despite taking a bunch of techies halfway around the world, despite my introverted self, God did miracles! Don’t let your circumstances, skills, or personality get in the way of God using you. He just needs a person that is willing to step out in faith!