May 10, 2013 | Prayer, Teaching
This Sunday is Mother’s Day, and while we want to celebrate and honor motherhood, for many it’s a painful day. At Everyday Church we will be discussing some aspects of mothering. While we remember the happy parts of Mother’s Day, we should not forget the painful parts either. God certainly doesn’t. He knows many are struggling with miscarriages, failed adoptions, loss of a child, infertility… questions without answers. He knows the pain of those struggling with distant relationships with their mothers or their child. He grieves with those who have lost their mothers. If Mother’s Day is a painful day for you or someone you know, we hope you’ll come find comfort with God.
Let’s pray people would feel God’s comfort and love. Pray that our words and actions make their struggles easier not harder.
“Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” Romans 12:15
May 8, 2013 | Everyday Youth
The Everyday Youth Group will begin meeting on Friday nights (instead of Sundays) this May 10th. We’ll continue meeting on Fridays until the end of the school year, and perhaps longer if it works out well.
We focus on reaching out to middle and high-school students, and realize how much better it is for both kids and their families to meet on a night when they do not have school the next day. We are going to give this change a try for the next eight weeks and then reevaluate, so stay tuned. And come to Youth Group this Friday!
May 7, 2013 | Prayer
The God Who Renews
The Everyday Church Rest Retreat has passed. The word on the street is that it was fantastic! As I listened to stories, viewed pictures, and read online accounts of the weekend, an odd section of the bible came to mind.
Isaiah 61 is a descriptive piece of poetry. It does was poetry is meant to do: paint a picture in your mind with simple words. Good news to the poor…bind up the brokenhearted… freedom… comfort… beauty for ashes… joy instead of mourning… praise instead of despair… rebuild… restore… renew.
I wondered for a moment why that bit of Scripture came to mind. The answer came quickly. God is in the business of restoring and renewing. This world takes away, it robs, it does great harm. Satan is out to destroy you and me, our children, our friends, our neighbors. This retreat was a way for us to step away and remember what God so desperately desires for us. To experience refreshing and renewal.
Here are some ideas for prayer:
– pray through Isaiah 61 and ask God to speak to you through it
– pray for those around you who haven’t experienced the renewal God offers
– pray Everyday Church is visibly different in this city, that we’re a community of people who rest well and delight in the life God has given us
– pray that each of us will be a living example to our neighborhood that God truly does what Isaiah described in Isaiah 61
May 2, 2013 | Community Impact, Everyday Groups, Global Impact, Prayer
God is doing something remarkable with Everyday Church, and it’s an answer to prayer. Our young faith-family is unusually diverse. We have people coming from all over the spiritual map– seekers, skeptics, young believers, mature believers.
We’re ethnically diverse. Some of us speak English as a first language, others Spanish. We have singles, newly-weds, and couples who’ve been married for decades. Some have earned advanced degrees; others are street smart. We come in all colors that humans come in. We are babies, toddlers, kids, teens, twenty-somethings, people in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s… all in a church of now, perhaps 100 people!
“In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.” Colossians 3:11 (NLT)
Christ is all that matters!
Please pray:
* That this diversity is just the beginning for ECC.
* For our Spanish translators: Mi and Iris.
* For English speakers who are trying to learn Spanish (like me!)
* That God would teach us how to truly love one another in Christ.
* That God would use this diversity to convince our neighbors He is among us.
We can’t do this without you. Please pray,
Chris
Apr 30, 2013 | Podcast, Teaching
God wants to grow you in ways you can’t grow yourself, and a big step in growing is planting. (Sunday 4/28/13)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:06 — 44.1MB)
Subscribe:
