30 Minute Mission Trip

Welcome to the FREE mission trip that only requires you to have access to the internet.

During the next 30 mins, we will walk through a journey of witnessing and encouraging people who may be thousands of miles away or simply in your own backyard. All you need is an internet connection. Set aside a half an hour that you can be alone and walk through each of the four following steps:

Also, please dig into each one of these stages as much as you can. First and foremost, ask God what He wants for you and others.

 

Step 1 (10 mins) 

Facebook

Log on to Facebook. If you don’t have an account, I highly encourage you to get one. This is a networking tool that has the potential of bringing hope to many lives.

( Encouragement )
1.After logging on, take a minute before scrolling through the news feed and ask God, “who do I need to speak life too? Who do I need to encourage? God, who do you want me to speak to today?” Close your eyes so you are not tempted to read the juicy gossip in the news feed. Remember, you are on a mission trip! Now, do you know who you are supposed to speak an encouraging word to? Good! Enter their name in the search box and post on their wall for everyone to see. Note: this is not about you sounding good; rather, this is as simple as, “I was thinking about you today, and I wanted to tell you I really value your friendship.”

2.Now look at the news feed quickly – only spend 30 seconds briefly scanning through and ask God, “who am I supposed to encourage with a word of from Scripture?” Pick someone and send them a private message instead of a wall post. Write a  similar post like you just did for your last friend but this time include a Scripture of your choice. Note: Use http://www.biblegateway.com or The Bible app called You Version to quickly search Scripture.

Step 2 (2-3 mins)
Twitter, Instagram, and other social networks

(Joy of the Lord)
1. Log on to twitter, myspace, google+, Instagram, etc.

Far too often, we use social media as a venting outlet. We let others know how frustrated we are with someone or something in our life. Today you will let everyone know how joyful and blessed you are because of the Hope you have in Christ. So, compose a tweetable (less than 140 characters) post carefully choosing your words to reflect the Hope and Joy you have in Christ.
For example: “I am alive, I have breath, and with my breath I chose to give praise to God.“

For you artzy people, tweet an Instagram photo that speaks life and hope.

Step 3 (3-5 mins)
The text message

We will be sending a text to anyone who you need to reconnect with or someone you want to encourage.
This will be the first stage where you might receive an instant response back so take a moment to ask God for His guidance.
Now ask God, “who do I need to reconnect with?” “Who have I ignored recently?” “Who is in a hard place in life right now?”

Now that you have the name, send them a text message. Compose a text that you would want to recieve from them; something uplifting, hopeful, joyful. This can look like many things, even an inside Joke. If they respond back, enjoy chatting back and forth, and don’t forget to ask them how you can pray for them.

Step 4 (10-12 mins)
The final phone call

Spend a couple minutes reflecting on who Christ spent His time with (disciples, sinners, tax collectors, drunks, pharisees). Why did Christ spend His time with them? Who is it in your life that could use more of God? Who is far from God?
Who have I not spoken with for no other reason than it is hard to engage with them?

Call them and spend some time in small talk. Maybe this is a relationship that has been broken. If so, ask for forgiveness. Maybe this is a relationship where you need to start fresh or just pick up where you left off. Engage in that and then at the end of the conversation, if appropriate, ask if you can pray for them. Take advantage of that opportunity and pray with them over the phone (P.S. It’s ok to keep your eyes open).

I promise you this mission trip will change your life. If you continue this mission trip on a weekly basis, you will be amazed at how you will experience God’s blessings and faithfulness in a new way.

~Phil & Mark

Easter is just around the corner as finish with the mission trip be thinking about who you want to invite to Easter Sunday on March31. Feel free to use our Electronic Invite for easter. Please check it out and invite your friends to Easter Service, 1 invite can change a life. www.LWevite.info 

A highlight video from my trip to Asia

The past 2 weeks I had the opportunity to travel Asia. There was so much that happened on this trip that I wish I could share with everyone. I would like to share a video from one night in Taiwan as our team got to share the gospel at Pastor Koah’s Church.

So much is happening right now is Asia, the place is a buzz with the Name of Jesus. The people are hungry for what Jesus has to offer and it is such a different environment than here in the states. People respond to the call of Jesus on their hearts not because of the flashiness of a church or organization or an excited speaker, they respond to the wonder that is God. I was blown away by all that is happening in Asia, and i am very excited to continue my support of our missionary there.

Fun Videos of the Week

Here are 3 fun videos for your enjoyment:

1st Video: is from our leadership summit that just happened a couple weekends ago. If you feel rushed to get to church on Sunday mornings, know you are not alone.

Sunday Morning

2nd Video: I ran across this video a few weeks ago, and it has a powerful message to the church.

Its our time

3rd Video: from this last week’s service. A Thanksgiving song that’s relevant to all of us.

Thanksgiving Song

-Phil Haydn

Trunk or Treat 2012

Trunk or treat was a huge success this year, thank you for all your help. Here are some photos that will make you smile.

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For even more…

Click the picture below for access to anyone who had there photo taken at the photo booth.

Thin Places

Do you have a certain place where you feel an intense connection with God? You know, those places where God grabs your attention and your affections and won’t seem to let go?  These divine moments make you feel like you are floating in the air of God’s presence. For some people, these encounters happen in a quiet place with no noise, for others they happen at a retreat or event, and for many others they happen outside in nature. Wherever that place is, it’s a Thin Place.

In his book, Wild Goose Chase, Mark Batterson describes a Thin Place as somewhere you go where you feel God’s presence so strongly it’s like the atmosphere between earth and heaven is thin. God’s presence is so powerful that you feel like He’s literally right next to you. Because of these experiences happening in Thin Places, you return to them over and over to experience God there.

This is exactly what altars were in the Old Testament. They were places where the men and women of the Old Testament felt like they met God face-to-face and they built something there as a reminder of God meeting them. When times got tough in the future, they could look to the Thin Place and remember God’s powerful guiding presence.

Abraham was one of the first men in the Old Testament to experience this kind of encounter with God. One day, God broke into Abe’s life and told him to move away from home to a land of his own that God would lead him to. So Abraham went and here’s how Scripture describes it (btw, his name was Abram at the time), “Abram traveled through the land as far as Shechem. There he set up camp beside the oak of Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘I will give this land to your descendants.’ And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the Lord, who had appeared to him” (Genesis 12:6-7).  God was giving Abe a walking tour of the land and told him to stop at the oak of Moreh. There, God swept Abe off his feet under the shade of the oak as God promised him this land for his descendants. Instantly, this became a Thin Place for Abram and he built an altar to remember this encounter with God.

After moving around about the land, Abe was looking for another place to set up camp, “So Abram moved his camp to Hebron and settled near the oak grove belonging to Mamre. There he built another altar to the Lord” (Genesis 13:18).  There it is again. Oak grove. Altar. Thin Place.

After a lot of years and ten more chapters, Abraham’s wife, Sarah, died.  In order to give her a proper burial, Abe searched for a plot of land to buy which also included a cave so he could bury his wife and his relatives. Check this out… “So Abraham bought the plot of land belonging to Ephron at Machpelah, near Mamre. This included the field itself, the cave that was in it, and all the surrounding trees” (Genesis 23:17). That last little phrase “and all the surrounding trees” is one I’ve passed over as unimportant so many times. But really, that is the most important phrase in the whole passage. Why? Because the surrounding trees are the Thin Places. How could Abraham buy land without making sure there were Thin Places all around where he could go and meet with God? And Abe didn’t just buy one oak grove; rather, he bought ALL the surrounding trees. How cool is that? He wanted to have as many altars as he could to honor God…as many places as possible where he could go meet with God in His powerful presence.

I have a Thin Place at Young Life’s Timberwolf Lake camp in Michigan. There’s a place in the woods I go to beyond the lake where I’ve met with God every time I’ve gone up there for a weekend retreat. That’s the place where I literally drew a line in the sand and stepped over. That’s the Thin Place where I decided to leave behind sinful strongholds in my life…the place where I stepped into a new dimension in my walk with God. I can’t wait to go back there again, and I can’t wait to step into more Thin Places all around me.

Where’s your Thin Place?  How have you encountered God there? How have those encounters changed your life?

NEW LIFE 10.21.12

I love a good win…

We are real people, living relevant lives, relentlessly pursuing New Life!   This past Sunday was a huge win for us as a church.  We saw the New Life God grants as he gives us children and we also saw New Life as we baptized those ready to make a public statement of their faith.  It is clear to us that New Life not only comes as we receive salvation, but it continues day in and day out as we trust God to continually transform us.

God is good!  There is nothing that we deserve and nothing that we have earned, yet God extends His love to us simply because that is His desire.  As we understand this gift of New Life there is really only one good path of response for us…  to extend this New Life to others.  Tell your story, tell the stories of others, and invite people to “the more” He has for them.  Let these pictures tell the story much better than I could ever convey!

Living Water will pursue New Life at any cost.  It is our call.

- Mark

Check out our facebook page for more pictures HERE

 

Trunk or Treat 2012

One of the things that really gets me excited is making an impact in our local neighborhood. As staff, we are always asking what can we do to bless the community? And, what can we do to make an impact and how can we serve others?

On October 28, Living Water and our neighboring businesses will be sponsoring our 2nd Trunk or Treat event! This is an outstanding opportunity to give back to our community and get to know our neighbors. We park our cars around the Living Water and YMCA parking lots and children from far and wide come for treats. Food, games, inflatables and many other activities are part of this free event. Last year, the Dalton Fire Department friends joined in our festivities. This year, we invited some of the local businesses in the area to participate, which gives us a chance to get to know them too.

We hope you will want to be a part of this year’s Trunk or Treat event. Anyone from the community can participate by decorating a car or donating candy. While I love the fun of giving candy to kids, seeing them in their cute outfits, and chatting with friends, there is a much bigger purpose for this event. My prayer is that every person that steps onto our lot will be filled with peace and joy and  they will feel the love and generosity of Jesus Christ. Living Water, please join us as we make a difference in the lives of those in our community.
~Deb Himes

For more info or if you would like to help out go to: www.trunkortreat.co

The Politics of Jesus

When it comes to politics, I’m the last to enter into the conversation. I get so frustrated with everyone telling me this man (or woman) will change everything, then 4 years later all the same conversations come back. So, I stumbled across a church that is not afraid to address the grey area. Check out this video from Liquid Church. 

What are your thoughts? How would Jesus respond to our political system? Would the left and right team up to get rid of this radical man? 

The Anatomy of Community

Groups form around common passions: sports teams, religion, race, language, tradition, hobbies, etc. In these groups, we find community and connection. We feel invited into something bigger than ourselves that we can belong to. We feel included and important. But, the problem with groups is they can be exclusive to anyone who doesn’t share their passion. This creates a wall between one group and another.  Just about everyone in the country knows about the enormous wall between Michigan fans and Ohio State fans. Although both groups are passionate about their University, the wall of rivalry stands tall between the schools. Sports are one thing, but what about other areas of life? What about people who belong to the same organization but still have walls between them? Those walls are harder to detect and even harder to define.

What exactly are the walls that divide? They are what keep you from saying, “hi” to a stranger. They are the invisible rivalry between schools. They are gossip. They are popularity. They are negative thoughts you have about the person sitting next to you. They are skin color. They are groups of friends failing to invite someone to join them. They are what causes disunity in an organization.

Putting these thoughts to the test, we decided to investigate the wall of disunity in EPIC. We are currently digging into a series called Made to Make a Difference. It is an adventure into identity, helping students realize God made them specifically and uniquely to make a difference. It is part of their DNA to be world changers. Recently, we talked about blasting down the walls that separate us and prevent us from making a difference. As we studied this, we realized we had to look at the walls between us before we could look anywhere else. We brainstormed different bricks that make up the wall of disunity in EPIC. Here are the results…

40 Bricks of Disunity

• Age/Grade Level
• Height
• Weight
• Gender
• Fear
• Appearance
• Different Schools
• Rivalry
• Popularity
• Beliefs
• Personality
• Home School vs. Public School
• Athletes vs. Non-Athletes
• Different Opinions
• Isolation
• Gossip
• Jealousy
• Hurt
• Greed
• Ability
• Not good at small talk
• Insecurity
• Selfishness
• Denominations
• Image
• Cliques
• Different Backgrounds
• Different Interests
• Christians vs. Non-Christians
• Leaders vs. Students
• Relationships
• Maturity
• Race
• Not friends outside of youth group
• Judgment
• Not knowing someone
• Pressure from others
• Apathy
• Don’t know what to say
• Afraid you have the wrong answer

In order to blast through the walls of disunity, we must tear them down brick by brick. We must tear out apathy and choose passion. We must get rid of judgment and offer grace. We must stop being exclusive and start being inclusive. Unity is fostered by blasting down the walls of disunity and creating cultures of inclusive community.

Groups themselves are incredible tools for fostering community but they can also have the opposite effect. If groups aren’t aware of their need to be accepting of people from outside their circle, they can kill the community they intend to create. While maintaining their unity, groups must blast the walls that surround them by intentionally inviting others in. Instead of seeing others as a threat to the community and traditions the group has formed, groups must see outsiders as guests and invite them to experience the richness of their community.

I grew up in a home with five sisters and two incredible parents. We had a tight-knit, church-going, tradition-keeping, fun-loving community within our home. Instead of keeping this community in a vacuum within the four walls of our home, my parents constantly invited people in. There were numerous times when they actually invited people to live with us. Two of these instances were my friends who needed a place to stay, and my parents opened their doors. Generosity like this is simply staggering to me. It’s one thing to give money to the poor. It’s a whole different ballgame to let them come and live in your house. This is an incredible picture of community.

The anatomy of community is unity. And unity starts with an invitation to come and share the richness of a community with open doors. 

Marketing The Story

When it comes down to it,

church is boring.

It is a few walls, with some crazy people, and not crazy fun, I mean crazy weird people. It is a place where we sit in chairs and dress up (or down) for others; it is a place of rituals and rules. It may have some great architecture or some profound songs, it may even have a history and tradition that goes back hundreds of years. It’s just we suck at telling our story.

The problem is that we market our churches just like the world sees the church! We say, “come to my church it has wonderful gospel music”, or ” our pastor is a very biblically sound teacher”, or ” We just built a new…”

What does any of that even mean these days? Have we forgotten the story we were called into?

Take a look at this video promo I came across marketing New Zealand.    

I love this promo not just because it references all things middle earth, but it invites you in to the story that New Zealand has started to from.

I know I want to go to New Zealand after seeing that promo! It tells about the wonder of the world, the discovery of something that is old yet feels brand new, and the passion of living it out.

When it comes to marketing our churches, let’s market the story rather than the building. The latest trends will fade away along with buildings, artwork, and songs. But, the great story of Christ the anointed One and the rise of Christianity will never fade. So the question is how can we market our story differently? How can I speak differently to my friends and family about the story I have been called into?

Here is what I have been thinking, I want to see the people of God rise up and speak the POWERFUL story of Jesus. For myself I need to stop thinking about describing church as an event, but more as a great story. A story that my life is part of and I joined the pages of history.