Connection Central

Hello Connection Central!

Wow! Four weeks before "Go-time" and we already have 160 groups that will be participating in the Prodigal God series during April 4-May 16.

It's not too late to volunteer as a host for this wonderful study. Just think! There are five friends, five family members, five coworkers, and five unchurched folks you know who are desperate for you to host a group so they can attend.

This is a great opportunity to gently blow out religious misconceptions and introduce the idea of an extravagant and loving God!

If you have not yet registered, there is still time. To sign up, just go to this address/link:
http://www.wordalive.org/register.php

Then meet me at the church for a short orientation:
Sunday, March 14 @ 6:00pm
Wednesday, March 17 @ 6:00 pm
Sunday, March 21 @ 11:30 am

Take a chance and be part of the 3G vision to gather, group, and give in 2010.

It’s time to get together – 500 groups meeting simultaneously

What could possibly be so compelling and extravagant that 500 of us would jump at the chance to host a small group study?

Nothing less than the The Prodigal God!!! “Prodigal” simply means extravagantly lavish and luxuriant. This is your chance to be part of a small army of hosts who will blow the lid off religious hypocrisy and judgment and reveal the Father in a way many of us have never seen!

If you have always wanted to be part of a genuine move of God, this 6 week study may be the best opportunity you will ever have. As our church is experiencing extraordinary anointing and power during the services, we expect this same glory to overflow into the community.

Trust me – hosting a group does not require excessive preparation or biblical skill. It simply requires a willing heart, a coffee maker, and a DVD player. If you meet these “host” criteria and you want to see Word Alive accomplish our 3G goal of 500 small groups, the we need you to sign on NOW! All you have to do is go www.wordalive.org and click on the link to register as a host. Or just email me at bill@wordalive.org and let me know that I can count on you to host a small group study for:

The Prodigal God:
a 6 week small group study through DVD, discussion guide, and book.

http://www.wordalive.org/register.php

We will see you February 28th – Sunday at 6:00 in the TAMA Hall on the Coldwater Campus for an orientation and to get your materials in your hands. We will make is so simple and easy to host that you may invite several other friends to host as well, just to meet the demand. (Alternative dates for the Orientation will be announced, so don’t let that stop you!)

Hello Team WAIO,

What an exciting time at WAIO! We are simply in the hands of the Holy Spirit and will continue to seek Him and His will for the future. We are embracing the ramifications of our little fire and our relocation to TAMA Hall where another little “fire” started a little over nine years ago.

Regarding our small groups for this “season,” I encourage you all to be flexible and available for whatever the Spirit might lead to do. Our plans call for a concentrated effort during Easter to group around the book and six-week preaching series called The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller.

I will operate on the assumption that all the groups from the Fall Season will continue to meet as they did in the Fall schedule, with the same basic focus, location, target group, childcare conditions, and time and frequency of meeting. This info is available to the public through www.wordalive.org. You may want to check the listing for your group and confirm that the info is correct.

The exception here is for those of you who led L.I.F.E. (Living in Freedom Everyday) groups. We will not re-launch this series until the Fall of 2010. We all were tremendously blessed by the series and the Retreat Weekend, but we could not discern a way to promote and complete the 12-15 week cycle for L.I.F.E. while also promoting a church-wide grouping campaign around The Prodigal God.

I encourage those of you who did lead the L.I.F.E. groups to continue to meet during this spring season on some regular schedule and prepare to embrace a leadership roll in the Prodigal God small group emphasis. You will want to identify some within you group who can host the six-week small group during the Easter season (April 4- May 9) and encourage them to do so.

We will sponsor a training and orientation (about 30 minutes) which will give you the basics on how to host a group, get you your material, and get the info on the "who, what, when, and where" of your group meeting. Orientations are scheduled for:

Sunday, February 28 at 6:00 pm in Connection Classroom 102
Wednesday, March 3 at 7:00 pm in the Connection Classroom 102
Sunday, March 7 at 11:30am and 1:00pm in the Connection Classroom 102

Thank you again for your prayer, support, service, gifts, and anointing. The small group leader, moving in the Spirit, is an essential key to sustained spiritual impact! You are at the right place, at the right time - connecting to God, people, and purpose.


Please feel free to contact me for clarification or counsel. Continue in prayer and I know we will see extraordinary advances in the spiritual realm. Be blessed!

Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 44 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:"

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone..
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15.. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful..
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ''In five years, will this matter?".
26. Always choose life.
27. Forgive everyone everything.
28. What other people think of you is none of your business.
29. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.
30. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
31. Don't take yourself so seriously.. No one else does.
32. Believe in miracles.
33. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
34. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
35. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
36. Your children get only one childhood.
37. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
38. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
39. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd
grab ours back.
40. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
41. The best is yet to come.
42. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
43. Yield.
44. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

It is ironic that Christmas is often the time we as pastors find ourselves least centered on Jesus. With the emergence of social media and new technologies, this problem has reached new proportions.

The following is an adaption of my top 10 lessons for leadership applied to this Advent season.

1. Be yourself.

   You and I are uniquely crafted by God to lead. That means we cannot do what others can. You may be able to do more or less. The great challenge of leadership is to calmly differentiate your “true self” from the demands and voices around you. Discern the desires, vision, pace, and mission the Father has given as you lead. Take off Saul’s armor. How much activity can you sustain without losing your soul? And remember, “to live unfaithfully to yourself is to cause others great damage” (Rumi).

2. Your first work is to be contemplative before God (to be with him).

   Our goal during this season is to lead people to Jesus and help them center on him. But you cannot bring people where you have not gone in God. We are not CEOs or even preachers first. We are called to be contemplatives first (Psalm 27:4). Above all else, cultivate a pure heart before God, loving him.
   
   I like what Thomas Merton once wrote: “Untie my hands and deliver me from sloth. Set me free from the laziness that goes about disguised as activity when activity is not demanded of me and from the cowardice that does what is not demanded in order to escape sacrifice.”

3. Practice Sabbath.

   Take a 24-hour period each week to Sabbath – to stop, rest, and contemplate God. You are not God. This essential spiritual formation practice is not something to drop during the celebration of Christ’s coming. I take from 6:00 p.m. Friday to 6:00 p.m. Saturday at a minimum. Large spiritual issues are at stake, especially with regard to trusting God to be in control. Relinquish the ministry to Jesus.

4. Embrace the gift of your limits.

   Remember that “a man can receive only what is given him from heaven” (John 3:27). You will be present to your spouse and children in proportion to what you’ve received from being in God’s presence. It takes time and effort to think through thoughtful gifts with meaning for your family and key leaders. I encourage you to make sure you have the margin in your life to do that.

5. Wait on the Lord.

   This is your life. You will finish the end of your days waiting on the Lord. This is the most important work there is if you are to allow your soul to grow up and be what God wants you to be. Be sure to carve out time for this.

6. Don’t neglect ministry to yourself.

   “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Timothy 4:16).Investing in your development is your first ministry. This includes monthly and quarterly retreats, utilizing the gift of therapy along the way, finding a good spiritual director, and seeking mentors at different stages of the journey. It is the most loving gift you can give your church. What does this mean for Christmas? Take a few moments now to ask God what you need to remain connected to him over the next few weeks.

7. Lead out of your vow of marriage.

   Scripture is clear about marriage between one male and one female as a taste of Christ’s free love for his bride, the church. And central to this marriage vision is the sexual relationship. It is essential, not peripheral, to your spiritual formation and discipleship as a Christ-follower.

8. Live what you preach.

   Good sermons take a lot of time to gestate. If the sermons aren’t changing you, they will not transform anyone else. This is both a joy and an agony if fresh revelation from Scripture is going to come through the unique prism of your life. This never changes, whether you have been preaching for six months or 30 years.

9. All the work of pastoring is holy and sacred.

   It took me 19 years to learn this hard lesson, and I am still learning it. Preparing budgets and job descriptions, hiring, firing, planning a good meeting, handing in reports, confronting conflicts, etc. is every part as holy as prayer and Bible study. Be sure to fight against the sacred/secular split first in your own life and then in the life of the church. Recover a biblical theology of work and spirituality.

10. Things are not as they appear.

    So often what looks like a blessing is not. What looks terrible in the short run is, very often, a rich gift. When you think you are going forward, you may be actually going backwards. What appears as success, oftentimes ends up being a failure and setback. Failures will teach you much more than success every time.

The pressures of Christmas can distract us from what’s most important. I hope these 10 lessons will help you focus on Christ and enjoy this holiday season.

Hey guys,

Great news to announce. You can now access the three teaching videos from the Living In Freedom Everyday (LIFE) series we have been teaching in small groups this semester. I know, it's crazy, but it's true.

Pastor Kent recorded three lessons which introduce each significant section of the 12 week teaching. Here's how to access them:

http://wordalive.org/LIFE%20Videos.html

It's that simple. A special note to all of you who are hosting this L.I.F.E. curriculum in your small group: Please encourage those who have not been able to make every lesson to review these three teachings together with the workbook. Then let them know you expect them to attend our LIFE Retreat weekend. This Retreat Weekend is an opportunity to receive ministry to enter into a new level of FREEDOM as a vessel of honor for use in the Kingdom. The cost is $15 per attendee. The date is January 15 and 16 - Friday evening and Saturday from 9am to 4pm.

You have to register to attend, so get the info from your groups as to who can attend and notify me at bill@wordalive.org .

I encourage the rest of you to preview these teachings and plan to join a LIFE small group during the Spring or Fall Season of LIFE Groups 2010.

Be blessed!