Happy Birthday Jesus!

Alan Riley writes: “My father was born on this day- December 22. For his entire life, he was always getting “combination” presents - birthday and Christmas. Every year on his birthday, there weren’t balloons and birthday streamers. His birthday decorations were Christmas trees, Christmas lights and Santa Claus stuff. When he did get a separate present for Christmas, chances are it would be wrapped with… you guessed it- Christmas paper. I remember him telling me how as a child he couldn’t help but feel a little cheated. People were so busy celebrating Christmas that his birthday got overlooked.”

Have you noticed how easy it is to loose Christ during Christmas? We get so caught up in the busyness of the season; we forget the very basis of the season---the birth of Jesus! We go to Christmas parties, yet Christ is the furthest thing from our mind. Many times, he is never mentioned, acknowledged or even thought about.
The late Adrian Rogers once said, “It’s been my observation that people, rather than being drawn closer to Christ at Christmas, in a very real sense are drawn away from the Lord Jesus. It seems like, in the very midst of the celebration, we lose Jesus.”
Let’s not lose Christ this Christmas season. How? Have a birthday party for Jesus. In his book The Purpose of Christmas, Rick Warren gives the following agenda for a birthday party for Jesus:

Birthday Party for Jesus Agenda:

1. Sing some Christmas carols.
2. Read the Christmas story from the Bible, Luke 2:1-20; Matthew 2:1-12.
3. Each person shares answers to two questions:
1. What am I thankful to God for this year?
2. What am I going to give Jesus for his birthday?
4. Close by prayer for one another.

Let’s not get so busy celebrating Christmas that we forget Jesus!

The Talk of the Town

Our vision at CCC is to make Jesus the Talk of the town. The other day i was speaking to a community leader and he told me that he thinks our church is fullfilling its vision. Specifically, he said that when he first moved to kasson he didn't sense much spiritual interest. He said, "That has changed because of CCC".

PTl!

Stir Up faith!

I have been feeling led to talk about faith. As we look at the state of America there is a lot of fear. As followers of Jesus, we are to be led by faith not fear. Over 360 times in the bible it says: Fear not!

We need to walk by faith or die by our doubts, said Oral Roberts. As Christians, we need to keep our faith high. What is faith? Faith is confidence in God. It is expressed through obedience to His word.

The good news is that Faith in God can do the impossible, illogical: It can move mountains. It can conquer giants. It can heal diseases.

One of the key ways to stay in faith is to think about and believe God's word over all other words. Mediatate day and night about what God says in his word. His word is his will. Ponder it. Think about it. Let it get in you.

Let us stir up our faith and do great things for God!

One church, Two locations!

There is an old saying, "Don't let the shoe, determine how big the foot gets."

we are facing a similar situation in our church. During the school year, we are running out of room for our kids. This is not OK. As a staff and leadership, we have been praying and seeking God's will on this crucial issue. Our goal is to bring as many people as we can to Jesus. How can we overcome this barrier?

The urgency of the request

Here are some of the comments we have recieved:
- One lady told Risse that our children’s rooms are so crowded that she isn’t going to invite new people anymore because she is ashamed.
- Another told her that the rooms are so full; they don’t let their kids go back.
- In addition, children have expressed being uncomfortable with such large classes.

Is it time to Build?

Now some of you may be thinking," we need to build to make more room for kids."

Yes building is in the future plans of our church, but even if we where to start building right now; we wouldn’t have the building up for a year or two. In short, building would take care of this problem in the long run, but what about the short term. What about this fall? Are we going to turn people away because we don’t have room for them?

How can we make more room for kids?

Here is the solution we feel God has led to us to take:Move our staff offices to an offsite campus so that all of those rooms will be freed up for children’s rooms.

Why would we want to do this?

1. If we moved our offices off site, that would free up the rooms the staff our using for children’s ministry. Let’s face it. This is a priority issue. And the question is do we have place a higher value on having our staff’s office onsite or reaching kids for Jesus? My vote is reaching people for Jesus.

2. If we moved our offices offsite, we would have room for our growing staff. I don’t know if you are aware of this, but we are already out of room for our staff. For example, Coleen our ministry assistant has to office out of Leroy’s lounge. So she is always packing up her stuff and moving to another room all day long. Risse is upstairs in the youth area. This move would free up not only room for kids, but also for staff.

3. If we moved our offices off site this would not be something new for us. When we started this church, we had our worship services on one place- the Byron legion or Byron elementary school, and our offices at another place- those office spaces next to the Byron bowling alley.

4.Now some of you might be thinking: “an office in one place, a worship service in another place, I have never heard of such a thing.” Well, it is actually quite common. There are plenty of churches who do this. They are called Multi-site churches, and many church experts agree this is the church of the future. They are one church but have many locations. In fact, among protestant churches:

• Well over 1,500 churches are multi site.
• Over the next few years over 30,000 church are expected to become multi-site.
• One in four large churches are multi sight. And statistically, we are considered a large church when the average church in America is less then 100 people.

Thank you for your patience during this transition time. It will take a while to get used to it. But after a while, after seeing all those kids being reached for Jesus, we will be glad we made this move.

Youth Leadership Training

I just got done with a two hour YOUTH leadership training. I love working with the youth. Some of the things we talked about are:

- Don't ever let someone else's opinion of you, other then God's, become your reality.

- Practice makes improovement

- Discover some reasons that will help you get up when life kicks you down!

- If you know the why to living you can endure almost any how.

- Stay a way from Toxic people.

- 87% of our self-talk is negative

- Let the past go so you can grow!

- No one rises to low expectations

-

What's happening?

Here are a few things that are happening that you might enjoy knowing:

1. We as a church have given about $2,600 to water for life, providing water to children who do not have clean driking water. Cool.

2. Last week we know of one little girl who have her heart to Jesus. PTL.

3. We are gearing up for Church in the Park, which starts June 9th. This year we plant to have the following: Bubbles for the kids, a jumper for the kids, volleyball net, food, and bean bag toss.

4. We are seeking God's will for next years programs, etc as a staff. Lots and lots of planning and praying.

5. Pastor Sue told me that we added 27 new familes to our church directory in the last 9 months. PTL.

Four Questions of a Growing Leader

In his book Developing the Leaders Around You, John Maxwell asks the following questions:

1. Do I have a game plan for personal growth?

2. Am I the leader of that plan?

3. Is my life an example for others to follow?

4. Am I willing to pay the price to become a great leader?

Prairie Meadows

I take turns leading a service at Prairie Meadows assisted living center in Kasson. I led the gathering last week. Their where about 12 elderly people there. And yet during the service, I felt the obvious presence of God among us. It was a sweet presence. I felt like he really touched some people.

As I reflected on that experience, I realized that God can touch you whether you are in a small crowd or a big one...becasue he is big even if the crowd isn't.

Our 7 Core Values

1. Real-
We desire for people to be genuine, not churchy, fake, and plastic. If your idea of church is that of a museum where perfect people are put on display, you won;t fit at CCC. We do not see church as a place where people have already arrived but are still in process.

2. Relevant
We desire that faith connects with life. You may not like our church if you see the bible as a history book, or a college text book. To us it’s a life manual.

3. Relational
The essence of our faith is relationship with God and other people. Its not about rules and rituals but relationships.

4. Reaching
We believe we are here for the world. They are not here for us. We exist to reach out. You will not fit here if you think that the purpose of the church is to just take care of the members. The members are here to take care of other members and reach the community

5. Refreshing
We believe faith should be fun. You won’t fit here if you think that it is sacrilegious to smile and laugh in church.

6. Respectful
We believe that we don’t have to see eye to eye on every issue to walk hand and hand. We can disagree without being disagreeable. If you are the type of person that will not respect the differences in others, you won’t fit here.

7. Releasing
We value the pastors equipping the people to do the ministry. If you think that pastors should do all the ministry and the people should just sit in the stands like a football game, you won’t fit here.

"Presence before service"

I have been enjoying a book called "Sacred Waiting" The theme of the book is that like a waiter in a restaurant, we need to wait on God. A good waiter has two qualities: Presence and service. we need to be in God's presence to get his orders and then carry them out.

Yesterday i read about how we as a society love to act. We love to jump into action and be busy. Yet presence needs to come before service so that we make sure we are doing what God wants us to do.

My Response to Conflict!

Why do some people become like a marsh mellow in conflict and others become like a bull dog? Why do some people run from conflict and others run into conflict? Why do some people get angry in conflict while others get anxious in conflict?

I want to invite you to come to one of our three services this weekend and explore why you respond to conflict the way you do. As someone has said, "Your response is your responsibility."

Plan to join us!

The Power of Listening

Paul Tournier, the acclaimed Swiss author and physician, observed: “ It is impossible to overemphasize the immense need human beings have to be listened to…In most conversations, although there is a good deal of talk, there is not real listening; such conversations are no more than a dialogue of the deaf”

Are you a good listener? Do you listen to people in a understanding way?

HOW TO RESOLVE CONFLICT AND RESTORE HARMONY!

On Sunday, February 21, I will begin a series of eight practical messages from the Bible called “How to Resolve Conflict and Restore Harmony!” These inspirational, sometimes humorous talks will show you how to manage conflict and reduce tension in your relationships. They will give you proven methods for being a peace-maker, not a peace-faker. In The Church Leaders Answer Book, I wrote: “I have used these techniques many times to mend marriages and heal friendships.”

In this series, you will learn…
 How to listen effectively
 What to do when people you love are fighting
 Why people misunderstand you and why you misunderstand them
 How to resolve conflict so it doesn’t dissolve your relationships
 And much, much more!

Join us for any of our Sunday services at 8:30, 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. or visit our website at communitycelebrationchurch.org.

You owe it to yourself to check it out!

Whom Shall I Please?

This Sunday I want to talk about: Who shall I please?

Everybody is living to please someone. Father? Spouse? Peer group?

Who are you living to please? True worship is living to please God! Its living for an audience of one. Come and Join us as we explore two practical ways to bring massive pleasure to God.

The Spirituality of a Tunning Fork: Meeting God half way!

This Sunday we are going to explore the topic of our part and God's part in life. Is it all up to me? Or is it all up to God? I have heard people say things like:

“I don’t have to work, God will provide for me.”
“I don’t have to save for the future, God will provide for me”

Is that true? Come and see!

"Tri It "reflections

Yesterday we started our third service. We now have one at 8:30; 9:30; 11:00. Things went exceptionally well.

As I was talking to Tammy I told her that that the three services have allowed the church to become "larger and smaller at the same time". With the three services, the attendance has spread out more and you can meet and greet people more personally.

As I said yesterday. Things might be chaotic for a few weeks. That is to be expected. But in a few weeks we will get back to our routine and things will get normal again.

This up coming week i am talking about: Faith is...

In short, we are going to look at three ingredients to faith and how it applies to your life.

Prayer of Jabez!

A few years ago Bruce Wilkerson highlighted a prayer in the Old Testament that was prayed by a man named Jabez. This Sunday we are going to explore that prayer. The prayer of Jabez teaches us that:

* Our past does not have to determine our future!

* Prayer changes things!

* Four ingredients of a an effective prayer!

* And much, much more!