Connection Central

Minister’s Summit Coming UP August 18 at 7:00 pm

The first Fall Minister’s Summit is scheduled for one week from today, Monday August 18 at 7:00 pm in the Sanctuary. This will be an important hour of vision casting for the coming fall season.
If you need child care, please communicate with Heather Varvell at HVARVELL@wordalive.org or call the Kidz Alive offices.

We will be focusing on a Fall Season of Small Group Ministry beginning the week of September 21 and continuing through Thanksgiving. That’s 10 weeks of emphasis that allows you to focus your LIFE group ministry of a topic or activity of interest that allows new folks to connect and provides a clean start point and end point for that ministry season.
We are coming to realize that LIFE groups, LIFE Expressions, and LIFE Lines need the opportunity to focus, invite, begin and end. This helps leaders pace themselves, keeps things fresh, allows for interest based groups, and allows for a good sense of beginning, middle, and ending.

THE CHALLENGE- Over the next few weeks, consider how you would like to revive and/or extend your LIFE Group for a 10 week focused study, activity, or outreach open to newcomers and old-comers alike. Please take the lid off and go after something you will really enjoy. It may be cycling, golfing, hospital visitation, studying a book of the Bible, making a craft, taking a trip, reading a novel and discussing it, cooking, eating out, shopping… just something that you can use as a connection point for ministry. –

Remember… “I couldn’t just turn and walk away from a vision like that!!” Your ministry call is a life line of God’s flow of grace and power to you.

What Love means to a 4-8 year old . . .

Slow down for three minutes to read this. It is so worth it. Touching words from the mouth of babes. A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, 'What does love mean?'

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined . See what you think .
'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.' Rebecca- age 8

'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.' Billy - age 4

'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.' Karl - age 5
'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.' Chrissy - age 6
'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.' Terri - age 4
'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.' Danny - age 7

'Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss' Emily - age 8

'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.' Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)
'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,' Nikka - age 6

'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.' Noelle - age 7

'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.' Tommy - age 6
'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.' Cindy - age 8
'My mommy loves me more than anybody You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.' Clare - age 6
'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.' Elaine-age 5
'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.' Chris - age 7

'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.' Mary Ann - age 4

'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.' Lauren - age 4
'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.' Karen - age 7

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross.' Mark - age 6
'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.' Jessica - age 8


The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, 'Nothing, I just helped him cry'

Hello WAIO- Welcome to the new Connection Central Blog. This format should make our info and opinions it easier to access and accessible to more people.

This weeks services were completely awesome. We should have an update this week on the pledges for Our Connection.

Our services times remain the same but the emphasis will be on the basics - worship, praise, prayer,ministry. We strongly believe that a focus on the simple moving of the Holy Spirit will prepare us for what the Lord has planned in the Fall of the year. Come expecting miracles and tangible "God" experiences during this month.

Check out the many informative blogs available through the website to stay abreast of the activities and schedules of your favorite ministry expressions.

Come prepared to serve this month, since many of our regulars may be out for vacations.

Be blessed with this great scripture from the Message translation (Psa 116:16-19)
"Oh God, here I am, your servant: set free for your service! I'm ready to offer the thanksgiving sacrifice and pray in the name of God. I'll complete what I promised God I'd do, and I'll do it in company with his people, in the place of worship, in God's house, in Jerusalem, God's city. Hallelujah!"

Ideas for Small Group Outreach and Service



This month, consider a change of pace for your small group. If you normally cease meeting in the summer, think about continuing to meet but at a different time and location:

If you normally meet in the evening, try a Saturday morning.

Consider meeting on an early weekday morning for breakfast at a local restaurant.

Meet in the afternoon, outside in a park, or on someone’s back deck.

Meet late in the evening at a local coffee shop or bookstore.

Consider adjusting your lessons to allow more time to think and pray:

Spend some meetings entirely in prayer and worship, focusing on the lost in your community.

Focus your summer meetings around outreach projects. Meet for a short time of prayer and worship, then engage in an outreach project. Finish your time with sharing the day’s experiences.

Hit the streets and prayer walk during your meeting time.

As you change the time and/or place of your small group meeting, look around and see who is standing around watching. Smile and, if the opportunity arises, visit with each person, inviting him or her to join your group.

Remember Rule #1...It's Golden
An excerpt from The Power of Attitude by Mac Anderson

I grew up in Trenton, a west Tennessee town of five thousand people. I have wonderful memories of those first eighteen years, and many people in Trenton influenced my life in very positive ways. My football coach, Walter Kilzer, taught me the importance of hard work, discipline, and believing in myself. My history teacher, Fred Culp, is still the funniest person I've ever met. He taught me that a sense of humor, and especially laughing at yourself, can be one of life's greatest blessings.

But my father was my hero. He taught me many things, but at the top of the list, he taught me to treat people with respect...to live the Golden Rule. I remember one particular instance of him teaching this "life lesson" as if it were yesterday. Dad owned a furniture store, and I used to dust the furniture every Wednesday after school to earn my allowance. One afternoon I observed my Dad talking to all the customers as they came in...the hardware store owner, the banker, a farmer, a doctor. At the end of the day, just as Dad was closing, the garbage collector came in.

I was ready to go home, and I thought that surely Dad wouldn't spend too much time with him. But I was wrong. Dad greeted him at the door with a big hug and talked with him about his wife and son who had been in a car accident the month before. He empathized, he asked questions, he listened, and he listened some more. I kept looking at the clock, and when the man finally left, I asked, "Dad, why did you spend so much time with him? He's just the garbage collector." Dad then looked at me, locked the front door to the store, and said, "Son, let's talk."

He said, "I'm your father and I tell you lots of stuff as all fathers should, but if you remember nothing else I ever tell you, remember this...treat every human being just the way that you would want to be treated." He said, "I know this is not the first time you've heard it, but I want to make sure it's the first time you truly understand it, because if you had understood, you would never have said what you said." We sat there and talked for another hour about the meaning and the power of the Golden Rule. Dad said, "If you live the Golden Rule everything else in life will usually work itself out, but if you don't, your life probably will be very unhappy and without meaning."

I recently heard someone say, "If you teach your child the Golden Rule, you will have left them an estate of incalculable value." Truer words were never spoken.

Do Your Lessons TEACH?
Kurt Johnston

It pains me to admit this, but on "rare" occasions (say, three times a month!), my junior high lessons miss the mark. I'm sharper than most, so I've learned to spot the very subtle signs: students snoring in the front row, paper airplanes flying through the room, glazed-over eyes staring into space as drool slowly drips from the mouth.

While there's certainly no magic formula for teaching success, here's a filter that's helped me: I evaluate each lesson by looking at what I've prepared and asking myself, Does this lesson T.E.A.C.H.?

Is it True? Is it biblically sound? Are verses used in context? Is the whole Scripture considered? I've fallen into the trap many times of starting with my version of truth or my "soapbox" of the moment and then searching the Scriptures for a verse that seems to back it up.

Is it Encouraging? Does this lesson motivate and encourage students toward some sort of action or commitment? If I'm teaching a hard truth, am I doing so in an encouraging way? Remember, it's the good news!

Is it Applicable? Does this study or lesson apply to the world of a junior higher? Have I made the effort to make the biblical truth actually true to them? Does this lesson equip them to live out their faith beyond the walls of the church?

Is it Clear? Is this lesson easily understood? Is the main point clear? Is it logical? Does it make sense? Does it have a "flow"?

Is it Humorous? You don't have to be drop-dead funny, but junior highers like to laugh, and they like to have fun. They expect Bible studies to be boring...surprise them by adding a few humorous stories and some fun interaction. When students are smiling and laughing with each other during your lesson, they're also learning more.

This is what I've learned: Just because I'm talking, I'm not necessarily teaching; and just because I'm teaching, students aren't necessarily learning. Eyes still glaze over occasionally, but there's much less drool.