Vision, Part 1

ZacInAlaska

This is the first of a four-part series on VISION, that will be posted over the coming weeks.

The question left me almost speechless.

I knew we were going to be meeting with some unhappy people in our church.  I was ready to answer some tough questions, and to listen to some difficult criticism, but I was almost dumbfounded when the question was asked.

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Lifegroup Questions: The Lone Ranger

TLR

Thanks to Susan Farnham for guest-posting this week’s Lifegroup Discussion Questions.  These questions are based on this past week’s message, “The Lone Ranger,” which you can hear below.

In Sunday’s message, Steve spoke of 4 ways that define you as a Lone Ranger Christian. Let’s review and see how we fit into this framework.

1. Won’t commit to a church – Ever been a church hopper? How would you recognize this in yourself or someone else? Have you committed to a partnership with The Orchard Church? If not, what is holding you back?

2. Won’t connect deeply with other believers – Look at the fellow Christian sitting next to you in Life group – Do you know their needs – have you been listening to their words as well as beyond their words? Lets flip the coin – As a Christian have you been open with your needs within your group? Or do you fear the appearance of being vulnerable?

3. Values personal experience over sound teaching – Is this you? Do you even prefer personal opinion over sound theology? For most people the experience/opinion context is easier and requires little thought – if you placed your experience/opinion  side by side with sound teaching/theology would you have to make changes? Where and why?

4. Thinks serving is for everybody else – None of us have a corner on the market on full schedules – What have you derived from service in the name of Jesus Christ?… and those that you have served, what do you hope they have received as the Holy Spirit worked through you?

2 Timothy 3:1-5 Open your Bibles and read this passage – Steve read this as part of Sundays message – It’s impossible to stay away from ourselves – how would God have us respond to this passage as individuals and as a community? On what do you base your answer?

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5 Ways To Maintain Community During Summer

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It’s not just church… I’m noticing it everywhere I go!  The lady at the Customer Service Counter at Walmart said the peak crowd times in her store have completely changed.  My “Ripped” and “Spin” classes have gone from packed to sparse.  There was a whole different crowd at Mucho’s today at lunchtime.

Let’s face it.. Summer has arrived, and nearly everyone’s schedule has changed.  So, with schedules up in the air, and your friends and family in and out on vacation and other trips, how can you maintain community during the summer months?  Here are five ways you can do just that.

Lifegroup when you can
Our life groups have mostly rescheduled their meeting times, and although they aren’t meeting weekly at the same time, they ARE continuing to meet occasionally.  Be sure to stay in touch with your life group leader to know what they have planned.

Book Study: On Guard
Get together with others that are reading the same book as you, and have a lively discussion.  On Guard, by William Lane Craig is an introductory, yet challenging look at how to defend your faith well.  This study group begins on July 3 at the church conference room.  John only has 10 spots available, so email him to let him know if you’re coming!

Online Lifegroup!  
Study through several different Bible reading plans together and talk about them via Facebook.  You can join this one easily.  It’s not too late to get started with this one!

Serve Together
One of the BEST ways to have community is to serve alongside other friends.  There is something powerful about giving yourself away like Jesus did.  You can choose to serve at Seamless Summer, the July 4th celebration at the school, by giving our volunteers June Off, or at Vacation Bible School.

Cool Off Underground
It gets hot this time of year… But it is always 58 degrees underground.  Explore Pettijohn’s cave with us on Sunday, June 23.  You’ll make new friends and have a great time.  Detailed info is right here.

Of course, we are also having church services all summer long.  I have been very intentional to plan a preaching calendar so that messages each sort of stand alone… You don’t have to track along like you do when we’re studying through a book of the Bible.  Our current message series is called “Reel LIfe 2,” based on themes from summer movies.

And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.   -Hebrews 10:25

3 Reasons for “Reel Life 2” Message Series

In the summer of 2009, The Orchard Church was meeting in the East Towne Cinemas movie theater during it’s first summer.  As a play on our movie theater setting, we decided to do a June message series based on movie themes from that summer’s box office blockbusters.

After four years, we decided to bring that series back, updated with current movies from 2013.  We will be playing off themes from Man of Steel (June 2), Star Trek Into Darkness (June 9), The Lone Ranger (June 16), and Hunger Games: Catching Fire (June 23). In the spirit of summer movies, I even edited together a little “trailer” for this series for you to watch and share with your friends.

So why bring this idea back?  Here are three reasons why I thought it would be a good idea to revisit this series idea:

  • Summer Schedule
    School is out and people are travelling during the summertime.  Our lifegroup sat around last night discussing each families’ vacation plans over the next few weeks.  With people in and out as they will be, I wanted to do a series that didn’t “build upon itself…” These messages will each kinda stand on their own.
  • Easy Invite
    This series is just a fun, unique thing… A lot of churches wouldn’t take this approach. It may not be very easy to invite your friends to a year-long series on the book of Genesis, but everyone likes movies!  My hope is that you will leverage this series to invite people who won’t normally come to church.
  • Making the Gospel Relevant
    Not everyone speaks “church language.”  But everyone likes movies.  Even if people don’t “get” the church scene in general, they certainly speak the language of today’s most popular media.  This is a great way to take the Gospel to people in a way they can understand.

I hope you will join us when you’re in town over the next few weeks, and that you’ll use this chance to invite your non-church friends into our group.

Questions: Dyin’ Is Part Of Livin’

MomSaid

Susan Farnham guest posts for us today to help our lifegroups go a little deeper in their discussion of Sunday’s message, which can be heard at the link below.

“If the reward you aim at in fasting is the admiration of others, that is what you will get and that will be all you get. In other words, the danger of hypocrisy is that it is so successful. It aims at the praise of men, and it succeeds. But that’s all.” John Piper – “A Hunger for God”

“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” Matthew 6:1

Ever used the phrase ‘do as I say, not as I do’?….and then chuckled after you said it?

Where is the hypocrisy in your life? Can you narrow it down to a particular component of your life? How would this change if you allowed Jesus into that part of your life that you only think you are keeping isolated?

Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive. -Luke 17:3-4

In Sunday’s message, Steve defined repentance as ‘ a change of mind that leads to a change of action.’ He then redefined by changing the word ‘mind’ to ‘heart’. Why?

When you have sinned against a family member, or someone else, be they fellow Christian or not, and you are seeking forgiveness, has repentance been required of you? If not, have you shown it, anyway?

If the roles have been reversed and a family member, or someone else has been in need of your forgiveness – have you required repentance?

What happens when repentance is not part of the process of forgiveness with your fellow man?

What happens when repentance is not part of the process when seeking forgiveness from God?

Peter said to them “Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” -Acts 2:38

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Cheap Treasure

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  -Matthew 6:21

When my son was about 10 years old, he and some of his buddies in the neighborhood built a fort in the woods out behind our house.  Actually, it really wasn’t much of a fort… It was more like a lean-to with nothing to lean to.  It was made up mostly of sticks, logs, some plywood and leaves.  It was really the ugliest excuse for a fort I had ever seen.  I felt sorry for those guys and their sad little fort.  But, they really loved it.  They decorated it with some old plastic furniture they found, and they all even took some of their own belongings out to it.  They even carefully swept the leaves off the little walking trails so they could find their way through the woods.
I remember as it got dark outside on those cool fall evenings, we had to call Zac in from the woods to eat dinner and to get ready for bed.  Of course, he always fought us… He and his friends were having a great time out there in the fort.  But it was getting cold.  And dark.  Plus there were snakes and bugs.
Seriously… Think about it.  Why would anyone want to be out there on a damp, chilly, dark evening when inside you have a nice hot meal, a TV, lights, and a warm bed waiting for you? Is something wrong here? Is this like us at all?

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your* life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.  -Colossians 3:1-2 NLT

What “things of earth” do we cling to?  What very temporary, very shadowy things in this life have we not been willing to die to?  What things do I need to let go of so that I can fully embrace all that He really has in store for me?

Discussion Questions: Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Guest post: Susan Farnham

These LIfeGroup discussion questions are based on Sunday’s message, “Stupid Is As Stupid Does.”  You can find the message audio below.  You can also subscribe to our weekly message audio podcast on iTunes, or your favorite podcast app.

The human mind is generally far more eager to praise and dispraise than to describe and to define. C.S. Lewis

Take a look at the ‘stupid’ in your life, past and present – Do you see a correlation between those ‘stupid’ times and your desire to be your own moral authority, or perhaps you based decisions on an emotional outcome for expedience, rather than working within the framework of Gods will?How did it affect the lives of those around you?

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be tranformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good, and acceptable, and perfect.  -Romans 12:1-2

In your day to day life, how do you know you are doing God’s will?

In Sunday’s message Steve referenced Joshua 1:8 ‘This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

God’s word is the only path to God’s will.

Take a moment to add the amount of time you spend in worship service on Sunday, with the amount of time spent on Church ministry during the week, as well as the amount of time spent working on ministries outside of the church during the week. Do you have your number? Do you spend that much time immersed in the word of God? Half of that total time?

The road to hell is paved with good_________? The road to abundant joy in Christ is paved with God’s direction.
Have you experienced bad consequences to good intentions? Were you able to change that by seeking God’s direction in his Word?

How and why does immersing yourself in the word of God build language, vocabulary and communication skills?
How can this be applied personally in defense of your faith (apologetics)?

Take the time to watch this short debate with your group.  Jot down the times that Andrew Wilson and the moderator try to pin Rob Bell down on his stance on gay marriage.

How does the knowledge of God’s word affect the debate?
Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; Whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ.-1 Peter 4:11

Be sure to listen to Sunday’s message, below.

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School Superintendant Explains Church Status Change

The Orchard Church’s ability to meet at the Ellijay Elementary School is changing.  Brian Dorsey, Gilmer County School Superintendant, was kind enough to sit down with me for a short interview last week to talk a little about our status change, what it means, and how it will impact us.