This weekend, across our Prairie Lakes Church campuses, we will begin the journey toward Easter weekend as we follow the footsteps of Jesus in the last week of His life.  This Lenten journey, A Different Jesus, is going to help us see Jesus for who He really is…not the stereotypical “wussy” Jesus that a lot of people make Him out to be.

So, we’re going to look at the picture of the Triumphal Entry and begin to understand that you can’t expect Jesus to act the way that you want Him to.  Check out these passages and prepare your heart for this weekend: Matthew 21, Mark 11 and John 12.

Don’t forget your ONE…and invite any other ONES that God puts on your heart or across your path.  This is a great season to be on the invite!

What a great weekend we had! At the Cedar Falls campus, there was a great response, lots of good next steps, and many people asking for help.

Also in Cedar Falls… all joking aside, we had a great worship set!  It’s fun to see our musicians try new and different things.  And by the way, I really don’t mind the banjo at all!  We are blessed to have so many gifted and talented people that are willing to sacrifice their time and energy to serve in many ministries across our campuses.

I’ve also been hearing a good buzz from the other campuses about how well it went with Pastor Carl in Waterloo and Pastor Chip in Osage.  Praise God for the great staff that He’s given us!

If you missed this weekend, you can catch it online starting tomorrow – no matter what campus you attend…they’ll all be posted this week!   

So, now that you’ve heard the One Thing for your campus – what’s your next step?

Find out this weekend how I’m going to tie in Eutychus from Acts 20:9 and how I don’t want that to happen to you.

We’re going to be live across all our campuses this weekend as we talk about the One Thing our specific campus needs to hear.  In Waterloo, Pastor Carl’s going to knock it out on Oneness in Christ.  In Osage, Pastor Chip is going to dig in on Witness.  And in Grinnell, Pastor Mack is going to focus in on…oh wait, not yet.  In Cedar Falls, our one thing has turned into more than one thing: how not to die in church, how to stop a bad slide in your life before you end up at the bottom of a hill, and not being a victim…among other things. 

So, get your rear-end to your campus – it’s going to be an awesome worship experience and a time to go deeper with God.  Remember to be praying for your One-for-Ones and be helping them take next steps.

Hey, Prairielakers!  This weekend we wrapped up the Rescued series.  In this series we’ve talked about how Jesus rescues us from past failures, our blindness, aloneness, greed, and the lies of sex.  I really encourage you to spend some time reviewing and thinking back over the series – look at your notes, check out the sermon curriculum – and review what God has done in your life, and how He’s rescued you over the last five weeks. 

One of our goals is that you get a lot more traction out of the weekend worship and message, not just a 35-minute talk and walk away, but that you allow God to work on you the rest of the week.  That’s why we say take notes, why we do sermon curriculum, and why we post the sermons online.  Life’s pretty short, so take advantage of every opportunity to get to know God more.

Quick reminder: if there’s an area you’re struggling with when it comes to being rescued from the lies of sex, we have lots of ways to help.  Contacting John Church at john.church@prairielakeschurch.org is a great place to start.  He’ll help you identify your best next step.

Thanks for making Prairie Lakes Church a great place.  I’m grateful to be one of your pastors!

Yep! This weekend we’re going to wrap up our Rescued series, and talk about being Rescued From the Lies of Sex.  For the most part we’ll keep it PG-13, but be sure to have your kids check out our awesome children’s ministry anyway!

Here's Lie #1: God is against sex.

Oh, and by the way… this is for all of you…single, married, dating, or waiting.  Get to your campus this weekend – you won’t want to miss this.

From Pastor John's wife, Kay Fuller:

Tonight we will be concluding a 3-week series with theRock and theRoad that involves waiting….waiting for dating…waiting for marriage.  Waiting seems to be a theme all around us even though it conflicts with our modern culture. 

While reading through Genesis at the beginning of the year, I am reminded at how often the Patriarchs of the Old Testament were required to wait:

Noah and his family had to wait in the ark. (Genesis 7:24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.)

Abraham had to wait for the son through whom God would bring His promise to be born. (Genesis 21:5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.)

Jacob had to work and wait to marry his true love, Rachel. (Genesis 29:18 Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel).  Then, as the story goes, Jacob was tricked and he had to work 14 years total for Leah and Rachel.

Joseph had to wait two full years for the cupbearer to remember to mention him to Pharaoh.  (Genesis 40:23 The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.)  

While waiting is not typically on our list of hopes and dreams, and it is not often we are heard saying “I hope I get to wait for something this year,” waiting seems to hold high value.  And, if we find ourselves waiting for something – waiting for a burden to go away or for a blessing to arrive – we can know we are in good company.  It’s quite likely God has multiple things to show us in the waiting that we might otherwise be blind to.  May we wait well – together.   

We had a great weekend across our campuses at Prairie Lakes Church, and we had 200 households watching online.  God is moving and working in people’s lives.  Keep it up Prairielakeans!  Keep inviting, keep serving, and keep giving.  Reaching Iowa is a big challenge – but not too big for Jesus!

This weekend we talked about how Jesus rescues us from greed.  But the real issue with greed is that it reveals deeper core sins that we’ve got to address - or greed will keep rising up in different areas in our lives.  Remember, the key words for greed are “God can’t…”  If you missed it, you can watch it here starting tomorrow.

By the way, we’ve got some exciting news from the Grinnell campus.  But I’ll tell you later!

Keep pointing!

On Monday, I promised to post some steps that you can take to move from side-by-side to face-to-face relationships. 

At the risk of oversimplifying it comes down to a couple things, be intentional and set expectations.  But here are some more details:

• Pray about it.  Is there someone you want to take this step with?  Ask God to confirm that for you.
• Ask.  Set up a time to meet and ask them if they are interested in a face to face relationship.  You may have to help them define what you are looking for and even why.
• Give them time to pray about it.
• Get specific.  Answer some of these questions.  Your relationship doesn’t have to include all these areas, but be clear about what it will and won’t include.  If this is new to you, don’t get too intimidated by all of this.  Start with 1 or 2 questions and go from there.
  • When, where, how often and for how long will we meet?  Weekly?  Monthly?  For an hour?  For 30 minutes? 
  • How long are we committing to doing this?  6 months?  A year?  Forever? 
  • Will we read the Bible together? Will we go through a spiritual growth or discipleship book together?
  • Will we talk about our quiet times and what God is teaching us in them?
  • Will we talk about our prayer life?
  • What do we want to hold each other accountable on?  Bible reading?  Prayer?  Reoccurring sins? Rhythms?
  • Are there questions we will ask each other on a regular basis?  How is your relationship with your spouse?  With your kids?  Who are you investing in that is far from God?

Once we have established the relationships, what do we do?

• Be open and honest.  Don’t waste your time on this if you are going to fake it.  If you don’t feel like you can be open and honest, you need to examine where you are at or you need to pick a new relationship.
• Be confidential.  Obviously, you will be sharing and allowing yourself to be vulnerable.  You definitely want to be able to trust each other.
  • Be Flexible.  A plan is great and you should follow it, but don’t let the plan get in the way of what God is doing at any specific meeting. 
  • Revisit it.  What works today may not work in a month or 6 months.  Maybe there is an issue that is not a big deal in a certain season but is later.  Don’t get in a rut.  Doing exactly the same thing over and over again often causes a great thing to lose its effectiveness.  Even the best laid plans are worth modifying at after a while.
  • Don’t lose site of the goal.  Don’t let the relationship itself take priority over the reason for the relationship.  To grow to be more like Christ.

Just take a step.  Even if it's a small one, it's a step.  Make this the year that you get into some intentional relationships with people who will help you take faith steps.

Also, don't miss this weekend!  We're going to look at being Rescued from Greed...it's about money, and a lot more!

From Pastor John's wife, Kay Fuller:

Our daughter, Karly, and three of her college friends from Bethel University have been home for an extended break following J-term.  Sunday night when we were blessed to be at theRiver, PLC’s college dinner and ministry, we experienced a collision of Karly’s worlds - past and present.  I noticed it as first her “past worlds” trickled in through the dinner line and then her present, but it was Karly who put her finger on it at the end of the night as she exclaimed, “Talk about a collision of worlds!” As she and her recently acquired college friends sat in the Worship Center for the college worship, she was surrounded by the following worlds:

Tim – now a UNI student, was born a month after Karly when we lived in Forest City, and she and Tim were church “nursery buds” and shared the same “Wee Ones Worship” seats for five years. 

Kenna - was one of Karly’s best friends in Cedar Falls from 1^st grade through 12^th grade and shared many laughs, tears, and soccer trips with us along the way.

Josh - who hails from a nearby Iowa town and who was awarded the Ed Thomas football scholarship to play football at Bethel this fall, just met Karly this August, and they have now shared some rides back and forth to Bethel.  And, it so happened that I, Kay, grew up across the street from Ed Thomas and was honored to have him as my teacher and to cheer for his football squad – a secondary collision.

Kaylee, Lindsey, and Rachael – Karly’s new friends at college – Kaylee who is from Sioux Falls where John and I went to college and Lindsey, who just last week John and I sat with her Senior Pastor at a conference, along with Rachael ,were all friends we prayed for before we knew them.

The thing is, each of these amazing kids has played a critical role in Karly’s life in some chapter of her story.  I can recall times specifically when each of them have been there for her at times we were praying for God to show his love to Karly or to provide for her.  Sunday night was a unique gift to so clearly have such a weaving of people unexpectedly appear in one place.  It was maybe even more incredible because just this weekend in our services, we were reminded of how God often provides His presence through people. 

We may not all have such a stark reminder as Karly had on Sunday night, but, if we ponder it, it likely wouldn’t take long to recall people God has used along our journey to collide with us just when we needed them; 2012 might not be a bad time to thank them either.

May we all be keenly aware of God appointed collisions this year!

Rescued from being alone.  If you missed it, here are a few highlights:

• Jesus is the only one who can rescue us from “inside” aloneness...the deep spiritual emptiness that we try to fill with other stuff. You'll sabotage every relationship if you expect others to do things that only Jesus can do on the inside.

• We are wired for togetherness…you can't avoid it!  You will miss most of what God has for you on this earth if you're not in face to face relationships with people.

• If you don't want to be the same person a year from now and the year after that and the year after that...one part of your growth curve needs to be intentional face to face relationships with people who will help you take steps.  We'll have some really good resources posted soon on how to move from ‘side to side’ TO ‘face to face’ relationships.

One of the great on-ramps for these kinds of relationships is small groups.  Another is mentoring.  It’s not too late to sign up!  Be intentional...get into relationships...take steps.