Valley Creek Road and Manning Ave
Here is the future location of Valley Creek Church. We purchased 20 acres of land on the south east corner of Valley Creek Road and Manning Ave. Looking forward to the exciting journey ahead!
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How the Grinch Stole Church
This week the leader of our prayer team wrote an awesome poem about our church: By Judy Wolf (With apologies to Dr. Seuss!!)
Down in his cave the Grinch was perplexed
“That Valley Creek Church keeps on growing. What’s next?
“I don’t like the way those Whos pray in each service;
“And when Whos get saved, it makes me real nervous.
“I don’t like to see all the guests they are bringing;
“But mostly I don’t like the way they keep singing.”
“I’ve just got to stop them. But how?” was his thought.
And in his evil mind he came up with a plot.
So on Saturday night came the Grinch with his truck,
stealing their trailer, thinking, “They’re out of luck..
“Without this, they’ll surely be left in the lurch;
“Without this, they certainly can’t have their church.”
Sunday morning came round, and with it the Whos
That were sitting and drinking up their Caribous.
Then came the call – “The trailer is gone!
“Now what do we do? How will we go on?
“Where is that trailer we’re so used to bringing?
“Can we still have church? Will there still be singing?”
“Yes, our trailer was stolen,” the Who Pastors said;
“But that doesn’t mean we can stay home in bed.
“Our church isn’t made up of boxes and bins;
“It’s made up of people forgiven of sins.
“It’s made up of those to the Lord who are clinging;
“Of those who, in spite of hard time, keep on singing.
“It’s made up of all who say ‘Jesus is Lord’;
“It’s made up of all who depend on His Word.
“So we will have church, we will meet as before;
“Welcoming those who will walk through the door.
“We’ll meet and we’ll sing, and we’ll worship and pray;
“And thank God for His mercies; they’re new every day.”
“What’s this?” yelped the Grinch.
“Why, what are they bringing
“From their homes and some stores?
“And what’s that? Is that singing?”
Yes, the Whos they still came;
They weren’t left in the lurch.
And small Whos made cards saying,
“WE ARE THE CHURCH”.
And that poor old Grinch?
Why his ears must be ringing;
‘Cause at Valley Creek Church,
All the Whos are STILL SINGING!!
Acts 2:42 – “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
Equipment Stolen — Church Stronger
Sunday March 15, at 7:00 am, our setup team left Caribou Coffee to pick up the church trailer. A few minutes later, we discovered $50,000 in Valley Creek equipment was gone. I made a few phone calls to our team leaders and watched our church make the most of a difficult situation. Each of our leaders made Sunday morning a success! I was expecting a great service when I left the coffee shop; I didn’t realize it would be a morning that would strengthen us in ways I couldn’t imagined.
God says, “Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.” (James 1:12 MESSAGE) When we plow through adversity, the reward is living life beyond our expectations. God has great dreams ahead for Valley Creek Church. We are a church that loves God and loves people…nothing more and nothing less. I can’t wait to see what He does through our church over the next few months.
Last week I spoke on, “How to Love God Together.” We do not need stuff to worship God. When our eyes are off ourselves, we can focus our eyes on Him. I’ve been asked a number of times this week, “How could we go on with a church service?” The answer is simple, it is because each one on our team looked to God instead of the circumstances.
KidsCreek is learning the virtue of Hope this month. Their definition of hope is: Believing something good can come out of something bad. We are living that out right now in our church.
We’ve got to look at our Creator instead of our problems. Don’t focus on the stuff that is lost, instead focus on what He is doing within us. He is uniting us closer as a church family. Together we can do more for Christ than we can ever do alone.
Connecting
I am committed to helping people connect to God, connect to each other, and connect to our world.
Right now I feel like our church needs to zero-in on connecting with each other. As I look out in our worship experiences I see so many new faces. I know many are new to our community and new to following Christ. I don’t want anyone feeling like they need to make this spiritual journey alone. Our small group options are a key part of making this happen, but what about those who are just not “into” small groups. Is there a way to help people meet up outside of Sunday? In our high tech world we want real interaction. There is even a website called Meetupdedicated to helping people “Get on the internet to get off the internet.”
We’re going to try three ideas this summer…
1) Never Eat Alone — In the eighties we had “Dinners for Eight” or some cheesy title like that. We still need to have some sort of connection over lunch or dessert. Everyone likes food, why not eat with someone new. We’re going to try and help people take the risk of expanding their social circle at church. I like the title of the book “Never Eat Alone” I haven’t read it (I don’t like the premise of building your network for your own benefit) but I do like the idea of building relationships on purpose…. not to sell Amway, Tastefully Simple, Tupperware, Melaleuca (enter your favorite pyramid marketing idea here) but to invest in real relationships. We need one another as we follow Christ.
2) Name Tags — I think people feel bad that they cannot remember people’s names in church. They have seen them for six weeks in a row but they are too embarrassed to admit they forgot their name. We’re going to have a monthly “Amnesty Sunday.” Even if you are guilty of forgetting someone’s name, you get to have a chance to learn it again.
3) Photo Directory — This is kind of an extension to #2. I want to be praying for people in our church by name each week. When I look at the names in our online database, I don’t have all the names and faces connected. I want to know who I am praying for. We have a guy in our church who is passionate about this project. It will be great to have this completed next month. I remember hearing Rick Warren say that he had 1000 names memorized in his church. There is no reason why I cannot know everyone by name until we reach 1000.
Do you want to get connected? Let me know.
Dancing By The Pool
I had a random conversation with someone new to Valley Creek at a coffee shop. They said they loved our church but wanted to know if it was ok for them to come back each week if they didn’t yet buy into the “Jesus as Savior” thing. I loved their honesty. I said I would love to have them come back. I said, “We want you to come and discover more about Christ at your own pace.” What better place to go while you are trying to figure it all out than church!
Yesterday, I was talking to my friend Steve on the phone about people taking time to choose to follow Christ. I loved his quote, “If you keep dancing by the side of the pool eventually you will fall in.” I want people in our church to take time to discover what following Christ is about and eventually fall in. It takes time for people to work through all the misconceptions of “religion” and find that nothing satisfies like a life that loves following Jesus.
I’m going to give people time to dance by the pool.
Home Groups
I thought I would share with you a couple online sites dedicated to developing small groups. One is called “Big Ideas about Small Groups.” the other is www.smallgroups.com. I am excited about the future of our home groups. Tom Stebbing and I have been dreaming of what can happen as we get more intensional about developing this vital part of our church. Everyone needs to be connected. If you have not founds a home group take a look at this list and contact one of the leaders or talk with Tom this Sunday! Becoming like Christ happens best in the context of real relationships!
