Ezekiel 17 ( The Connection)

After several prayers and discussions about name and purpose we have decided on a name for our new church.

The Connection
Connecting with God. Connecting with People.


I like the use of this symbol of the Trinity with the name. I love the idea of living our lives in connection with the Lord through the grace of Jesus Christ. And that connection is the basis for all of our relationships and efforts in this world.

I guess I will be changing the name of this blog soon. But now it is time for bed. I was just too excited about the name decision to wait until tomorrow to post it.

Good Night and God Bless!
John

This coming Sunday, May 7, we will meet at Linda Spurlock Park on Glenview. Bring your lunch, if you want to, and meet with us at about noon (we will probably start our worship time at about 1:00). We will eat, play, and worship together. I'm really looking forward to it!

Last night we had a great discussion at our house. I'm sorry that we could not all be there, but the group that was there made some real headway concerning the development of our new church community. We discussed some the the things that I had written down and handed out on my development proposal. We also talked about church names. We decided to make a final decision this coming Sunday. In our discussion two names seemed to resonate with everyone:

1. The Connection
2. Sanctuary

We also talked about using a tagline that describes our desire to be a gracious Christian community. We have not ruled out all other ideas, but these two rose to the top for us in our discussion. If you have other ideas, please bring them Sunday. If you can't make it Sunday, call and let us know any ideas you might have.

Please continue to pray and ask the Lord to open doors for the message of Christ through us (Colossians 4:2,3).

God Bless!

John

We will meet this Sunday, April 30, at 1:00 p.m. in our basement. I am really looking forward to it. This Sunday I will be teaching from Matthew 5:17-20. In this text Jesus says that our righteousness needs to surpass that of the Pharisees. Think about that. The Pharisees had dedicated their whole lives to being righteous. What do you think Jesus means by his statement...

For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. -- Mt 5:20

I look forward to hearing what you have to say about this on Sunday as we share our thoughts together.

Last night Tom, Steve, Devon and I met with a few guys from the Southlake Blvd Church. They are interested in what we are doing and want to be supportive. It was a good conversation and I thought it was helpful for us. It was good to hear what everyone had to say about our new church and philosophy of ministry. The guys from Southlake shared some of their thoughts with us and were very encouraging.

A few people have given me their ideas of who would make up a good leadership team. I hope to hear from more of you about this.

I had an idea about a name for our new church. It is based on the Beatitudes...Blessed are the peacemakers for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The name is MAKEPEACE CHURCH (or Makepeace Christian Community or something like that). God has called us to be peace makers...making peace with God and making peace with people. This seems to me to fit well with our thoughts about Ezekiel 17 (the tree of God's peace where all birds come for refuge) and Isaiah 11 (the mountain of God's peace). I have been hearing some other good names. Why don't you bring your ideas this Sunday and we will write them all on a poster for us all the pray about and consider.

Don't forget to pray for our new church fellowship.

God Bless!
John

One of the greatest blessings about church is the atmosphere of community. But we have to realize that to function as a community in our society is a real challenge. So, I would like to spend time this coming Sunday (April 23) discussing issues of community relationships and how we can best work together. My hope is for us to deal with Spiritual Gifts and Personality Types this Sunday. I plan on having some tools for us all to use so we can discover and discuss Gifts and Personalities as they relate to our new church community. I would love to get your input on how best to do this.

I ran across a good description of how God has designed each person to fit into a group of people who all have different designs. The following 6 points come from the book Doing Church as a Team by Wayne Cordeiro. I think these areas will help us to talk about how we all can work together for the Lord...

• Desire: What is your passion? What would you choose to do? God has placed certain desires in you as one way of telling you what he wants you to do. Philippians 2:13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him. (NLT)
• Experience: We all have been through things that have shaped our lives. Most of us had families that focused on a particular kind of work, education, and recreation. All of these experiences contribute to our personal design. And then we have experiences of success and failure as well as joys and struggles. All of these work together to make us uniquely qualified to bless other people. God does not waste the years of our lives, but uses each experience to train us (“God doesn’t waste a hurt!”). Psalm 56:8 You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. (NLT)
• Spiritual Gift: The Holy Spirit is given to each believer. The Spirit works in our lives to bless other people and build the Kingdom of God in this world. While some of the gifts might overlap into areas of natural ability, the spiritual gifts are developed by spiritual growth. 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 4
• Individual Style: Each person has a unique personality. Of course, there are categories of personality, but each person has a set of traits that no other person has…each one is truly an individual. Some are introverted and some are extroverted. One person is in tune with others’ feelings, while another is focused on details. Some are leaders, some are followers. And everyone is created just like God intended! Psalm 150:6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
• Growth Phase: Life is a journey and we are not all in the same place. We are growing and developing. Some grow quickly, while other people grow deeply. Some start the journey early and some start it late. And Jesus taught us to respect everyone’s faith in various places on the journey: Children (Mark 10:14,15 be like a child), Outsiders (Luke 10:25-37 the good Samaritan, etc.). In 1 John 2 there is a great poem about the value of each stage of life.
• Natural Abilities: People have natural abilities that make them good at particular tasks. We notice that people are artistic, mechanical, literary, musical, philosophical, athletic, or academic. Knowing these things about ourselves and others is important to our DESIGN!

I see our discussion about Gifts and Personality as a first step. After that we could put together a small leadership team (about 3 or 4 people). This team would have the task of seeking the Lord and writing down some visions and plans for our new group. Then they would bring their ideas to the whole group for discussion. I don't see this as a group of directors but as a way to facilitate direction. What do you think about this idea?

My prayer today is that we grow more and more as a community of Jesus...a family of God...living closely together to be the body of Christ in and for this world.

God Bless!
John

It's Tuesday...and our Holy Week plans have not come to fruition. Maybe we can make better plans for next year.

I started working for my brother this week. He was very gracious and asked me to work with him in his Law Office...that's right my brother's an attorney. The only drawback to this job is that the office is in Dallas and it takes me about an hour and 15 minutes to drive it. I may try to ride the train and a bus to get there, but that takes over 2 hours. Anyway, the Lord has blessed me with some gainful employment while we are working to get our new fellowship started.

On Easter Sunday we have decided to visit family churches (or other churches that we are interested in), and not meet at the park or our house. Our family will be attending the Firewheel Church in Wylie, TX. Sherrinda's sister and her husband work with this church and they are dedicating a new building on Easter. I know others are excited about being with their extended family to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. I also know that some in our group are not all that happy that we are not meeting, but I really appreciate the good spirit of everyone in this.

For those who would like to, we are going to get together for sharing and prayer this Wednesday at about 7:00 pm at our house. Come on over if you can make it.

Last Sunday we talked about being Salt and Light in this world (Matthew 5). For this to happen we need the Lord to melt our cold hearts and make them like his heart of compassion. Here's a picture of Malcom and Luke meditating as they gaze on the big block of ice that is slowly melting. Sometimes it takes time for the Lord to do his work on our hearts...so keep praying and seeking the the kingdom.

God Bless!
John

Luke 5:16 ...Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Acts 1:14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

Philippians 4:4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 4:2-4 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.

James 5:13-16 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

The Apostles clearly believed that they should be a people of prayer. And they expected the Lord to respond to their honest expressions of faith in Him. They started their ministries with intense times of prayer together. They believed that the Lord would open doors of opportunity in response to their prayers. They carried out their pastoral service to people in need through prayer. And they were convinced that a person’s spiritual growth was bound up in their prayer life. Prayer was a foundation stone in the building of God’s Kingdom.

As we begin our new community we need to focus on prayer…together and alone. We need to encourage each other in prayer. We need to call for the prayers of the church in our specific needs. We need to be willing to pray when we are asked to. And we need to expect that prayer will be a central part of our ongoing ministry.

Growing in the Spiritual Discipline of Prayer:

• Pray for 10 minutes a day, about an hour a week
• Seek solitude for time to pray
• Have a Prayer Friend – to talk about prayer life
• Pray with people who ask for prayer
• Encourage and participate in community prayer

Jesus asked his disciples if they would pray with him for one hour. Of course we all know the story...they fell asleep. They were tired. Prayer is not an easy discipline for us either. But let's make intentional plans to pray with Jesus and pray for his kingdom to come.

God Bless!

John Ketchersid