“I would rather have more of God’s grace than my problems removed”

2 Corinthians 4:8-9 “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”

More than ever before I think people can relate to this verse. We feel beat down, trudging though life, with no real hope on the horizon. Some of us find it hard to pay the bills, or even find a job, even though we are doing all that we can.  Nothing seems to be working, and it’s hard to find the strength to even keep going. They ask, “What’s the point in going on?”

Some try to please God, and yet despite their effort they don’t feel connected to Him at all. Discouragement, doubt, division, hopelessness, and bitterness begin to take root.  More than ever we need encouragement.  It’s wonderful to know that Jesus said we should not worry about tomorrow, for today is filled with enough troubles (Matt 6:34).

What’s so amazing about that verse is that right before it says; “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”

The most important factor is to “FIX” or “SET” your attention on God, and his ways. God is good. His Kingdom is FAIR, JUST, and HOLY. He sees your problems and difficulties. When we set our attention on HIM we are renewed by hope and faith. He may choose not to “remove” the obstacle, but he can give us more grace to go through the challenge.

In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Paul prays for God to “remove this thorn from my side”. God response was that His grace is sufficient for him, and that His power is made perfect in weakness.  I would rather have more of God’s grace than my problems removed.

Imagine that you are in a canoe on a small river, as you are traveling downstream you come to a MAJOR obstacle. You see that there is a huge 4 foot boulder that is sticking up out of the river that is blocking your path. You pray “Lord remove this boulder.” Yes he is able to remove it, but what if He chooses to raise the water level 4 feet instead.  That is an example of His grace abounding more in times of trouble.

When times bring major “boulders” in my life I have never seen God remove them the way I think He should. He always works them through in ways I can’t figure out. By doing this it builds my faith in greater ways and reminds me to keep my eyes on Him more than my problems.

Imagine yourself looking through a scope or binoculars. As you put the binoculars up to your eyes, your vision shifts and you are only able to see where to binoculars are aimed. By aiming your sights on God and His Kingdom you are renewed by His love, power and purpose. You are not able to see all that is around you, all that you can see what’s in focus. His Kingdom is in order and running smooth. Set your clock to his time zone, and your thoughts to His Kingdom.  Your true citizenship is in Heaven.

Col 3:1-2 “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God’s right hand in the place of honor and power. Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth.”

I think of the song “Turn your eye upon Jesus” It says that as we look full in His wonderful grace the “things” of earth grow strangely dim in the light of his wonder and grace.

Philippians 4:6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

As will give our attention to God He will protect and guard your mind from all sorts of thoughts and worries.

1 Corinthians 3:19 “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” He’s kingdom operates differently than human understanding. The key word is to be in tune with God, not listening only to man’s words, and opinions. Remember that everyone has advice to give you.  But in your weakness and humility lean on God. He is you first and only option.

2 Cor 3:5 “It is not that we think we can do anything of lasting value by ourselves. Our only power and success come from God.”

Get ready and be excited about how God’s grace will intervene in your life to cause you to grow in your faith.

Gospel Communities will be meeting together in various locations to be part of this training. We’ll pass back to GC leaders to continue the discussion.

Live TV : Ustream

The purpose of post encounter is to solidify the decisions that you made during your encounter weekend by giving you tools to grow. Post encounter is a 8-session class held online at your own pace. The classes are taught by a variety of teachers and there is no cost to you.

Post encounter also must be completed by those who are planning on becoming members of Life Connection Church. As a reminder the membership steps are:

1. Attend an encounter weekend
2. Be baptized in water
3. complete post-encounter classes
4. Attend Membership 101 class

Session 1 – 1

PE Session 1-1 from Life Connection Church on Vimeo.

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Session 1 – 2

PE Session 1-2 from Life Connection Church on Vimeo.

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1. Jesus Christ is preeminent over all creation. God has worked through Christ to secure redemption and reconciliation for all who put their faith in him.

2.Believers are in Christ and thus participate in a relationship of solidarity with Christ in his death on the cross, his resurrection from the dead, his new life, and his fullness.

3. Christ has defeated the powers of darkness on the cross, and Christians share in his power and authority over that realm.

4. Believers are called to grow in maturity in Christ by getting rid of sinful practices and cultivating Christian virtues.

Come join in on sunday mornings or follow along on our podcast. You can download the weekly study guides below or ask for a hard copy in service.

Study Guide

Week 1

Romans 12:13 says “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”

Hospitality is the divine enablement to share with others our home, our lives, our personal space and resources without communicating a need for performance or an expectation of return.

There are a few points I want to go through using this definition of hospitality. The first thing that has to be established is that all gifts are given by the Holy Spirit including the gift of hospitality. This is the “Devine Enablement.” We cannot function in our gifts outside of the Holy Spirit. This is not about us hosting an amazing dinner party or making the best food, it’s about being led by the Holy Spirit to do whatever and serve whoever he commands us to.

Secondly it’s important to distinguish who we’re showing hospitality towards, who the “others” are in our lives. If the purpose of hospitality is to show and demonstrate God’s love for his people then we must pray that our sinful, selfish hearts are replaced with God’s heart. Otherwise the “others” we choose to show hospitality for are those we feel deserve it, though the gospel says all we deserve is death. We’ll show partiality to our close friends, family and people we like, at the expense of the lost, poor, sinful, broken people that Jesus is trying to reach. As a church family we should be showing hospitality to each other as Romans 12 says, but that same heart should be missional and seek to reach and impact the lost.

Next is the concept of sharing our home, our lives, our personal space and resources. This is a tough thing for our flesh to fully grasp, we need the Holy Spirit to show us how to to this. I think that most of us are happy to have people in our homes and our lives and maybe even in our personal space. But sharing all of that takes it to a new level that I think a lot of us struggle with. The definition of share is “to divide, apportion, or receive equally.” That means that literally our house our lives and our personal space and resources we are to share equally with others. Our home, our lives and our personal space is not ours but The Lords. We are to share it with others.

Last is we are to do it without communicating a need for performance or an expectation of return. The strangers, friends and church family that we share our homes, lives, personal space and resources with don’t need to do or give us anything in return. Can we say that we do that when we invite someone over and they leave without saying the food was good or that they appreciate the invitation or appreciate us? As Jesus was dying on the cross and giving man the gift of salvation we spat on him and mocked him, there was no multitude saying “thank you Jesus!” Yet Jesus asked the Father to forgive them, for they do not know what they do.

Selfishness in the church is a deep rooted sin that we all need to repent of. We find it hard to give to the church, to give to the saints and to give to the community God’s placed us in. Hospitality starts with a broken spirit, desperate for God to come and do open heart surgery as Aaron’s been preaching on. To change our hearts to be a giving people, a people that want to see people cared for and brought to know Jesus. Then this heart becomes the driving force in our mission and every day lives.

If your gospel communities are struggling with hospitality then please contact me and let’s pray.

UPDATE: Live training session went great, you can watch the recorded training below.

I hope you can see that we are trying to get you as much help as possible by providing some helpful resources to equip you in being a part of and serving your Gospel Community.  I was able to have a great talk with my new friend.

Ryan Eland at Praxis Church

Let me know if recording my conversations with other leaders is helpful and I will try and make it happen more often.

An A29 church has created a free study guide to go along with the Re:Lit book Total Church, by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis. The well-designed 32-page study guide is available for free PDF download here.

The study guide was designed by Veritas Community Church in Columbus, Ohio.

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, the authors of Total Church, foundedThe Crowded House church-planting initia

tive in the UK and direct the Porterbrook Network. Steve Timmis is also Director of Acts 29 for Western Europe.

I thought this would be a great resource for all who are wanting to learn more about what these Gospel Communities are and how they practically work.  This would be a great resource for all of us to download and walk through the only thing you would have to change is the name of the church from Veritas to Life Connection.

I am currently reading a book called Tangible Kingdom. At times, as I read, I am feeling challenged and convicted; at other times I feel puzzled and confused.  Although this book is so far, in so many ways, from my former ministry experience, I love the challenge and it is causing me to think and grow in many ways.  I would love to read this book with some people and have a discussion about it because I have a lot of thoughts I’d like to filter through.  I wanted to use some thoughts from this book as my first equipping for the Prophets and Teachers of our Gospel Communities.  So, anyone can read this and comment, but I really would love to hear from specifically Prophets and Teachers.  I will give you a few quotes from the book and then some of my thoughts:

“Posture represents attitude of the body: the nonverbal forms of communication that accompany what we say.  As you may remember learning in your freshman interpersonal communication class, the nonverbals are more informative and honest than the verbal forms of communication.”

“Words communicate what we know; posture represents what we believe and feel.”

“Sometimes I wonder how we got to this point.  Why did the pagan onlookers hold the early church in such high respect, but today’s non-Christians view the modern-day church with such disdain? I think one of the main culprits has to be our paradigm of evangelism.  In the name of “getting someone saved,” we have primarily focused on communicating a message of truth to the world.  There’s nothing wrong with that, except that we’ve prioritized the verbals over the nonverbals, the message over the method, that is to say, the proclamation over the posture. We assume that if we can just get the idea across, then it will be up to the person to respond, whether we do it correctly or not.  Maybe we also think that in order to get God’s approving glance, it’s our duty to share “truth,” even if our modus operandi is “obnoxious for Jesus… and loving it.”

What he ends up addressing is a valid problem in the church.  I was thinking how great this applies to our Gospel Communities – these are really a place where the teachers and prophets need to care about the non-verbals.  We need to be willing to communicate the gospel but we need to be willing to posture ourselves so the people who are listening will receive what we are saying.

1 Peter 3:15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

This verse puts emphasis on the posture of honoring Christ. When you are honoring Christ people are going to have a question about the hope that is in you, and you need to always be ready to give an answer.  These are the greatest teaching opportunities: the times that people are asking to learn, and you, because of your life and relationship, have shown that you know what you are talking about.

The authors of Tangible Kingdom, say to the people in their network, “We suggest to them that if people aren’t asking about their lives, then we haven’t postured our faith well enough or long enough”

So here is the point of all this for me and how I think this will help us in training as prophets/teachers in these Gospel Communities.  We know that we need to be talking about Jesus a lot in these groups but I do not want us to miss the power of the non-verbals.  I think what we can learn from 1 Peter 3:15, is that as a teacher in a Gospel community, we need to be prepared at all times to give an answer.  We may not have had the time to prepare an outline or curriculum, but our best teaching times may be when someone sees our lives together as a community and wants to know about the hope that is in us.  Then with gentleness and respect we need to be able to preach the gospel.

So the practical steps to this are, if we are teachers/prophets and want to use that gift in our Gospel Communities what must we do to be prepared in season and out?

1. Have a regular consistent time of reading/studying the Bible.

2. Be reading a book or training materiel to be sharpen your understanding

3. Be writing in a journal all your notes, revelations, and teaching ideas.

4. Be praying the Holy Spirit will give you opportunities to teach, that you would be bold enough to present it, and humble enough to have the right posture.

Ok guys lets all meditate on 1 Peter 3:15 and I would like all of you to send me a comment back on what God taught you out of this text and how it can make you a better teacher/prophet in your Gospel Community

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I am incredibly blessed to be a part of a family that is knit together by the Spirit of God; a family that truly takes care of one another and edifies each other. The event was overflowing with fun and laughter, and it was for a glorious cause. This poem was written to capture the evening:

Laughter and dancin’ was all over the place.
Nary a smile was missin’ from a face.
Blacked out teeth and hair tied with twine,
It shore was a rootin-tootin’ good time!

Chicken on the grill, and corn on the cob;
Even a few apples so the kids could bob.
There was line dancin’ and two-steppin’ after a lesson or two
(Whitney and Pete had to show us what to do.)

The duds were mostly cowboy boots and hats
And Brett made sure the music never went flat.
Christy collected money and even her hubby Josh came…
We’ll never hear the Honky Tonk Pa-donky Donk song quite the same.

There’s a doggone good reason for all this fun had by us,
And that was to honor our new little Tobias.
His Ma and Pa couldn’t be prouder,
And so much cheerin’ made the music grow louder.

They had no idea how their lives would change when they woke up that morn,
Because, out of hope, the little whipper snapper was born.
“This gift,” God said, “I give to you.”
“Your faith has been proven, tried and true.”

Let’s take a moment and thank God above
For His undying mercy, His passion, His love.
Our children are gifts; we are entrusted with their lives.
So raise them up in Jesus, the one and only true prize.

-Deb Foos

A29 is a philosophically diverse but theologically united organization, translation, we all believe the same gospel but have different styles and philosophies on how to execute it. We consider ourselves a Reformed-Charismatic church. That means we are reformed in theology, non-cessationist, holy spirit believing, gift empowered body of believers that sing our guts out to loud, thumping, worship music. We are a creative bunch, that use lots of video, “concert” lighting, text messaging Q&A, twitter to organize our home groups, podcasting, vodcasting, live loops…  We’re in downtown Phoenix, in a rough neighborhood that frequently has police helicopters circling our building during night meetings. The point is we aren’t your grandparent’s reformed church.

But then again…we are complementarian, we are firm believers of sola scriptura, we love Piper, Chandler, Driscoll, Keller and many of us are 4.5 point calvanists. (Not all of us and no that isn’t a typo, 4 and a half) We practice church discipline, are introducing formal membership, preach the cross relentlessly and by that I mean the rugged cross, penal substitutionary atonement, propitiation and expiation.

We’re a crazy bunch of misfits for sure, but we have deep conviction about what we do and who we are in Christ. We’re excited to team up with the group of A29 churches here in Phoenix and share the gospel with the lost and hurting. We pray this opens new doors for our church and that we’re able to reach more people for Christ.

If you have any questions regarding this announcement don’t hesitate to contact us.

[Originally posted on Our Rising Sound]

God has richly blessed this body with a variety of gifts. We are expected to use our gifts for the edification of the church body, and ultimately for His glory. However, when the church ignores the condition of the soul, it requires believers to become good actors. Christians often times experience loneliness, anger, resentment or a myriad of other unresolved issues.

For that reason, we are introducing Care Connection; a soul-care ministry to assist the sanctification/transformation process in a safe environment where the broken and struggling are given grace, truth, and time to discover, heal and grow. Heather Campos will be utilizing her gift of counsel and sharing with us her ideas and instructions for lay counseling.

Our next encounter is scheduled for October 17th, this is a weekend designed for you to encounter Jesus face to face, to receive deliverance in your souls and complete healing in your emotions. We believe you will see a radical change and you will experience real freedom.  If you are feeling the leading of the spirit to get alone and encounter Jesus and experience the Gospel then sign up and pay today.  The total cost for the encounter is $40.

Encounter Schedule

saturday.

7a – Breakfast

8:00 a – Peniel  (Josh Dailey)

9:30 a – break

9:45 a – Repentance (Dave Negron)

11:15 a – break

11:30 a -Forgiveness (Dana Dailey)

1p – Lunch

2 p -The Cross (Pastor Aaron)

3:45 p – break

4 p – Ressurection (James Jackson)

5:30p – Dinner

7:30p – Worship

8p – Baptism of the Holy Spirit (Pastor Aaron)

sunday.

7:45a – The Vision ()

8:30a – Prayer

10:15 a – Celebration Service

Part of this gospel community transformation is living life together and gathering around the gospel. We as a LCC family do so much together and those meetings, impromptu gatherings, parties, etc… should be made known so that it can encourage others to join and get deeper into community. There are lots of ways of doing that, but the avenue this post is about is how we are going to use Twitter for this purpose.

Anytime you are hanging out, meeting with, eating with, partying with, discussing with, praying with people (you get the idea) you can tweet about it and include the hashtag #lccgc . That stands for Life Connection Church Gospel Community. Here are a couple of examples if you are confused:

Now, you may be wondering how you are notified of these #lccgc messages. There are a few ways.

1. Life Connection Church Website -> Communities

All of these messages are collected and displayed on our website under the Communities page. This makes an easy viewing area for people who are not Twitter savvy.

2. Join the Twub

Twubs is a site that organizes twitter hash tags. We have 2 twubs that you can join, #lccgc and the more generic #lifeconnection. Stay tuned for how we are planning to use the #lifeconnection hash tag.

3. Save a search for #lccgc and get notifications

There are a ton of different ways of doing this depending on your Twitter app. If you use TweetDeck you can save a search column for #lccgc . You can search for #lccgc on twitter itself and subscribe to the RSS feed for it.

But probably for most of you cellphone but non-iPhone-TweetDeck-using people you’ll want to use the “track” feature of Twitter. This means from your phone you txt a msg to twitter like:

track #lccgc

Now you’ll get notifications anytime a msg appears with that hashtag regardless if you follow that person or not. You probably have a lot of questions, so please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments section and we’ll help you get setup.

If you need someone to set it up for you, then on Sunday make sure to come see me (Kyle Campos) after service and I’ll help you get going.

Hats off to Mel Campos, who catered the meal for the evening. She did a phenomenal job, and no one left hungry! Thanks also are extended to all the elders and their wives for making this, by far, the most exceptional celebration dinner we’ve ever had.

The highlight of the evening, however, was the interns’ graduation. This group of young men and women has persevered over the past year by serving, learning, studying, and growing in the Lord, while trying to maintain relationships with each other, their families, and their jobs. Everyone at Life Connection Church is proud of each of them for their determination and resolve, and we wish them continued blessings as they press forward in their walk.

Check out the pictures and see for yourself what a glorious commemoration this was. As we gear up for the next 7 years, we pray for the Lord’s continued grace and direction as we share the gospel in our community.

Caution: This message contains mature content relating to sex. Though not explicit or vulgar if you are sensitive to this topic be warned, we are tackling a difficult and sensitive issue.

Caution: This message contains mature content relating to sex. Though not explicit or vulgar if you are sensitive to this topic be warned, we are tackling a difficult and sensitive issue.

Caution: This message contains mature content relating to sex. Though not explicit or vulgar if you are sensitive to this topic be warned, we are tackling a difficult and sensitive issue.

Caution: This message contains mature content relating to sex. Though not explicit or vulgar if you are sensitive to this topic be warned, we are tackling a difficult and sensitive issue.

Caution: This message contains mature content relating to sex. Though not explicit or vulgar if you are sensitive to this topic be warned, we are tackling a difficult and sensitive issue.

Caution: This message contains mature content relating to sex. Though not explicit or vulgar if you are sensitive to this topic be warned, we are tackling a difficult and sensitive issue.

Make it a point to buy your tickets today for the 7th Anniversary Banquet and the Movement Intern Graduation.  This is going to be a evening for Celebration and Vision.  We are setting up Childcare at the connection building for $5 a child for those families who need it.  You can purchase your tickets for the banquet and or childcare online or on Sunday mornings at the information center.  If you have any questions feel free to e-mail info@lifeconnectionchurch.net

Join us for One Prayer this June as the Church stands together to share, serve, and give: http://www.oneprayer.com/

Life Connection Church is excited to share, serve, and give with thousands of other churches.  Make sure to come on sunday to the gathering and get in a connection group to see how you can be apart of this great movement.

One Prayer 2009:

Last June, thousands of churches formed unprecedented partnerships across cities, continents, denominations, and cultures. More than two million believers stood together to learn, pray, fast, and love others. This year, we’ll be joining forces once again as we go out into the world to share, serve and give during One Prayer 2009.

Join us for One Prayer this June as the Church stands together to share, serve, and give: http://www.oneprayer.com/

Life Connection Church is excited to share, serve, and give with thousands of other churches.  Make sure to come on sunday to the gathering and get in a connection group to see how you can be apart of this great movement.

• mixing
• audio production
• video production
• stage lighting
• lyric presentation
• podcasting
• blog administration

We have a lot to do each week on the a/v production team and could really user your help. If you have no experience but have a good attitude and desire to learn then we can train you. If interested contact kcampos@lifeconnectionchurch.net

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Our kids are separated into four classes so that they can get the attention and learning level they need to grow in the Lord.  Nursery is for our youngest ones-18 months, toddlers is 18 months-3 years old,  primary is 3-kindergarten, and kids church is 1st-4th grade.  Our teachers aren’t in the class to babysit during a service but to serve our kids and and see them fall in love with Jesus at an early age! They are each trained to teach the specific age they are serving.  We take the time to do background checks on every volunteer and are working towards having every volunteer CPR trained!

Jesus honored childhood by being born as a baby and we recognize the value that He puts on children throughout the Word so we don’t take Kids Connection Church lightly.  We love and serve our children!

Please contact Dana at ddailey@lifeconnectionchurch.net to get more details and sign up to serve.