A New Thing - An Old Thing - And I Hope, A God Thing

One of the things we did when we went to New Orleans was to head to the levee to see the Mississippi River. Of course I had seen it from that spot before, but no one would ever claim that I had seen the same river - the water I saw years ago had long since found it's way into the Gulf. It's that way with families and it's that way with churches. We're realizing more and more that the church that we were five years ago, even two years ago isn't the church we are now. So we are staying focused on our mission to Love God, Love People, and Serve All but we're looking for ways to grow deeper and reach farther.

One of the new opportunities coming are "Life Transformation Groups" or "Triads."

These are groups of three men who get together every two weeks (or every week if they decide to) and spend an hour with each other. They read the same Scriptures during the time between meetings, then meet and discuss what God has said in their hearts. They pray for each other, sharing personal and other requests, and are accountable to each other. Many groups use a series of accountability questions to help in the accountability process. What I'm praying that will happen is that these groups will find that in meeting together - sharing in each other's growth in Christ, in their daily prayer needs, and their lives - that each and every one of the men that participate will find their walk strengthened and bonds formed that will last a lifetime.

In the beginning, I'm going to be involved in every group that's formed. Once the groups go through a semester, we'll step back and see which of them can then go and form another group. But I'm really praying that this will be one of those moments that we as a church will look back on in a few years and see as the beginning of a move to another level.

It's going to be a busy summer - Mission Trip to Kentucky leaves next weekend. The RA boys are going for the first time to camp this year at Blue Springs. We're helping with the "Moving Wall" in a couple of weeks. We've got our second annual "Rice and Beans" focus coming in July to help with the work of Amazima. So be praying that God will lead us out of it stronger and with more influence for Christ in our community.