Bret has said to keep it real when talking about money.  The reality is, we need $300,00 to launch West.  This is a pittance compared to the $2 million it takes on average to build new.  But it’s still a lot of money!  A number that’s going to take more than normal giving, it’s going to take sacrificial offering of ourselves up to God.

But it’s easier to sacrificially give when you connect it to mission, when you connect it to people.  Think of 1,000 people.  If 1,000 adults gave $300 we’d be there.  And the 2^nd of our Big 3 prayers this year is that we will baptize 1,000 people. Continue Reading…

One Life is a church planting organization.  In my biased opinion, Life Groups are the best and most simple way to achieve this vision.

We have all experienced the frustration of relying on buildings to launch a church.  What we’ve also experienced, especially those of us living on the Westside, is that the church is not contingent on a building.  Since October 2011 when West was originally set to launch, we have met for communion, served our community and met weekly in Life Groups.  We have been the church and lived Worship, Love and Compassion.

Of course, it will be nice…really nice…to open the doors of the ‘Brewery Campus’.  It will give us a physical location to identify and rally around.  And I can’t wait to inject the awesome worship we get to experience every Sunday into the Westside community.  However, there are some lessons to be learned moving forward pertaining to Life Groups and church planting: Continue Reading…

We are in the heart of March Madness.  I’ve watched more college basketball the past two weeks than I did the entire season leading up to the tournament.  My favorite teams to watch are the ones that constantly attack, both offensively and defensively.

Coincidentally, when I played sports, the teams that had the mentality of attacking were the most fun to play on.  When you go on the offensive, you are forcing the action, setting the tempo, and ultimately deciding the outcome of the game.

In our culture, Christianity has been put on the defensive.  Even as the percentage of professing Christians in America has remained relatively high; the negative perception of popular media, the outright disregard from the scientific community, and the erosion of a Biblical Worldview, have caused the Christian community to turn inward. Continue Reading…

We have been challenged to pray for the nations in our personal prayer lives, but we also need to bring those mountain encountering missions into our group prayers.  The hard part is in making prayer for the nations a natural and regular part of your group.  It won’t happen without some intentionality, so here are 3 tips to help: Continue Reading…

The 3^rd of our big prayers we are praying as a Church this year is:

“That God will use us to help change the worldview of the next generation.”

Here are some facts and statistics that make this prayer a pressing reality… Continue Reading…

Life Groups are firing back up!  Between restarting from our Sabbath Rest and launching out from the Connection Event this Sunday, we are all going to have some natural momentum going.  Newness creates momentum.

Our goal as leaders is to make sure the momentum is positive, and then leverage that momentum into sustained growth.

Two fantastic ways to ensure your momentum is positive is (1) Focus on vision and mission and (2) Focus on establishing and building relationships. Continue Reading…

The last post brought out 5 aspects of the biblical narratives that speak truth and give meaning to our lives.  And when the Gospel is the center of our Life Groups, it means these truths have application for our Christ-centered communities.

Continue Reading…

Regardless of the cultural baggage that accompanies Christmas, what the Church celebrates on December 25^th is the entry of the Almighty, God of the Universe, into creation as the Son.  Because Jesus’ identity is the reality of those who believe in him, his birth has plenty to teach us… Continue Reading…

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As a Life Group leader, I was recently challenged by a pastor named Matt Carter and I want to extend the challenge to you today.  He said that we need to redefine the success of small group ministry not by how many people we can bring into our living rooms, but by this:

“Has your small group found a group of people far from God that they are intentionally engaging for the name and purpose of Jesus Christ?” Continue Reading…