Sunday was “pledge day” for moving from “portable to permanent” at The Orchard Church. Here is a little update for you.
Six Questions My Lifegroup Asked About Becoming Permanent
This post is about The Orchard Church moving from Portable to Permanent. For more details, see my video explanations, and hear my podcast about it from Sunday.
I’m sure you know that The Orchard Church is trying to raise $90,000 in just 90 days. We are doing so through one-time gifts and 3-month pledges. I hope you have already been praying about how you will contribute.
Sunday is pledge day, and everyone is eager to see how we all respond. My Lifegroup was all buzzing about this tonight, and they asked some good questions that I thought you might be asking, as well….Read More
Why Become Permanent?
A photo I took inside an old church near Amicalola Falls here in North Georgia.
For the first time in over 4 years, I stood before our congregation on Sunday with NO sermon prepared. We’ve been in this “Be The Family” series, and I had this week’s sermon all ready to go before the weekend started, but I really felt like I needed to share my heart with our group instead. So, here are my thoughts on why we do church the way we do, and why we must become permanent.
What do you think? How are we doing on these things? Do I have the right perspective? I think that God calls different people and different churches to do ONE THING, but in different ways. These are my thoughts.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Portable to Permanent: Your Questions Answered
The Orchard church has been “portable” since we launched in April of 2009. That may all be about to change. You may already know that I have asked our partners and VIPs to pray and fast about exactly what our next step is. We have met, talked, thought, and prayed together. The excitement is starting to build and people are beginning to dream about what might happen next.
I’ve taken the time to make a few short videos to answer questions about moving from portable to permanent for you. I hope you’ll take some time to watch them. I’ve divided them up into bite-sized chunks so they are quick and easy.
I hope you will pray with us about our next big step!
Question 1: What’s all the buzz about?
Question 2: What’s our current situation?
Question 3: What is the actual deal?
Question 4: Is there a better deal elsewhere?
Question 5: How will the dismissal of the superintendent affect us?
Question 6: What is next?
Cultivating a Culture of Purity in our Families
Lifegroup Discussion Questions
BE The Family, part 2
On Sunday morning, Steve’s main thought was that “There is no purity without Christ.”
Key Questions as you process:
- What is one idea from the message that really stood out to you? Why did this idea grab your attention?
- How would you describe the current state of your heart?
- What steps do you need to take to create a permanent culture of purity in your family?
- Read & Discuss the following: Ephesians 4:18-19, Psalm 119:9-10, 1 Samuel 16:7, Ezekiel 36:26
- What impurities have you allowed into your family? How have they affected your family?
- How have you experienced outward submission with inward rebellion in your family?
- What safeguards do you have in place to help you maintain purity in your life and in your family’s life?
- How could creating a permanent culture of purity change your life and the life of your family?
Next steps:
- What is one thing you can do this week to help your home pursue a permanent culture of purity?
Sunday’s message is below.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Back To Ephesus in October
Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus is all about how God is in the process of rewriting the script of your life. And trust me.. His story is much better than the one we each start out writing on our own!
This book really has become one of my favorites, and I am excited to start up the 2nd half of the book next month. To get ready for that, I’ve put the first message in this series right here for you to listen to. It is sort of the “set up” on who is writing, who he is writing to, and what this important letter says to us today. Have a listen!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Can We Stop The Portable Awkwardness?
The past four years of portability have been a little awkward for us at The Orchard… Can we get past it?
3 Steps to Re-Syncing Your Walk With Christ
It is easy to get out of Godly patterns in our lives… Before you know it, we are wandering through life, doing lots of good things, without any real connection to Him. It is really easy to just be going through the motions. These aren’t the ONLY three steps, but they are great to get you restarted.
1. Get back into God’s Word
If you want to know what God is thinking, what His will is for your life, His desires for you… This is the single best way. Hebrews 4:12 reminds us that God’s Word is alive, active, and powerful to change our lives.
2. Worship with other believers
If you want to be “in sync” with God, then you want to move in His patterns, right? God is in the process of building a family. (Romans 8, Ephesians 3.) The church has been cultivating that family life since the very beginning. The church where the Gospel is proclaimed, where true fellowship happens, where growth occurs, and is the glory of God.
3. Start serving others
Jesus said “Love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus’ love was a self-sacrificial love. Laying our lives down for others is the pattern that Jesus moved in. Is there a better way to sync up with him than this? How are you serving in your church, in your community? At The Orchard, there are lots of easy ways to serve. Plug in and re-sync!
Do You Need A Re-Sync?
You know it happens. You don’t mean for it to happen… It just does. You get “out of sync” in your walk with God. It happens to all of us. At The Orchard, we’re giving opportunities starting next week to “re-sync” your walk with Christ, and with others. What does that look like? Watch the short video below.
For more info, hit us up at www.orchardellijay.com. I hope we’ll be seeing each other this weekend.
The Normal Christian Life
I’m reading this classic work by Watchman Nee right now… It will definitely make it’s way into the preaching schedule… Possibly becoming a message series next year. I’ve highlighted lots of passages… Here’s one of my favorite ones so far:
We shall see that the blood deals with what we have done, whereas the cross deals with what we are. The blood disposes of our sins, while the cross strikes at the root of our capacity for sin.