Summer Serve 2008

from Pastor Lane

“Summer Serve” is LifePoint’s church-wide emphasis on serving in Jesus’ name through the month of July. We are always working to equip and encourage all LifePointers to serve others in Jesus’ name! Serving is not a new idea for LifePointers. It has been said, “At LifePoint, that’s just what we do because that’s who we are.” Serving is important as we connect with people, build relationships, and show God’s love through practical expressions of good deeds. Christ-followers are the light of the world (Matt. 5.14), created in Christ Jesus to glorify God through good works (Eph. 2.10). Serving others in Jesus’ name through good deeds is how Christ-followers “shine our light” and glorify God in public (Matt 5.16). Join LifePoint this summer and grow your ethos as Servant!

Servant Projects are the connection environments that LifePoint uses to facilitate and organize opportunities to serve. There are several projects throughout the month to highlight need around us as well as encourage and equip you to participate:

• Project: See the Need Pictorial Gallery (July)The Creative Communication Team is hosting a pictorial gallery throughout the month that will feature an exposay of need in our world: from local and specific needs to more abstract representations of need. Need is not our motivation to serve but rather the object of our serving. This is an important distinctive for Christians. The love of Christ is our compelling fuel (2 Cor. 5.14). Christ has loved us, and we serve to show and share his love in the way he modeled for us (Mark 10.45). Serving others is the most practical expression of showing God’s love for Christ-followers. When we see need in the world, we are compelled from within to serve—at the very least to address the need and acknowledge its burden on life, offer comfort, peace and hope in Christ, offer help in alleviating the burden by giving of self or resources and working to show and share how Christ meets every need in life to replace the weight of life’s burdens with his yoke that is light and gives rest to our souls.
• Project: Least of These Food Drive (Sundays in July)Least of These food pantry of Christian County is a LifePoint Church Project partner. July is the month designated to serve the hungry of this region by filling the pantry. As a Servant Project partner, Least of These is one way that LifePoint can serve people who are hungry and in need of food. Each week during the month of July we will have baskets at the front of the Worship Room. We ask you to bring food, goods, and items, as listed below, and place them in the baskets on Sunday as an act of worship. We will deliver them on Monday mornings to Least of These. Our goal is to deliver a ton of food and goods to the pantry. Least of These needs
  • cereal
  • pancake mix and syrup
  • macaroni and cheese
  • rice
  • dry beans
  • hamburger helper
  • canned soups
  • canned tuna
  • chili and stews
  • saltine crackers
  • tomato sauce
  • spaghetti sauce
  • pasta
  • peanut butter
  • jelly
  • toilet paper
  • shampoo
  • toothpaste
  • laundry detergent
• Project: CBCO Blood Drive (July 13; 8 AM to 1 PM)Summer is always a time of high demand for the Community Blood Center of the Ozarks. LifePoint is glad to partner with them and make a convenient opportunity available for our people to give as able. Sunday, July 13, the bloodmobile will be parked outside LifePoint Church during our morning services. Plan to come early or stay late and donate blood if you are qualified and able.
• Project: Ozark Race Days at Finley River Park (July 25–26)Race Days is a great way for LifePoint to serve our city and connect with people. LifePoint has taken a greater responsibility each year for serving the city in helping them to provide games, activities, crafts, and fun for children and parents that come to the festival. Our service allows us to serve and make greater connections with city officials and residents. This is our largest, single project of the summer. The Park Board has asked us to be responsible for all kid’s activities during the festival, which we are excited and happy to do. This, as always, will require an army of volunteers. Plan to participate as we call for people to serve.

  The LifePoint Band will also be playing on stage on Saturday afternoon. This is a great way for them to serve together and bless the city with some great tunes. Plan to come and support them as well while they play.

• Church Leadership Quarterly: Leading and Organizing an Army of Servants (July 22, 10 AM to 2 PM)Each quarter LifePoint hosts a training event for church planters, pastors, and leaders focused on encouraging and equipping for more effective leadership in the church and fulfilling the mission of the gospel. This quarterly session will focus on the biblical mandate to serve, testimonies of how serving transforms a church to transform a city, how to effectively organize people to serve both within the church and together as the church in the city, and a roundtable discussion to effective methodologies that are being used. LifePoint volunteers are needed to help facilitate the noon meal, and we would love to have you join us for the session.

Humility Prepares LifePointers for July Servant Emphasis

Have you ever heard the saying, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog?” True enough, sometimes smaller is better, but I was still reluctant to pick up C.J. Mahaney’s book Humility: True Greatness, June’s book of the month. Maybe I have an aversion to the pint-sized Michael W. Smith books I read when I was a teenager. Maybe I have a superiority complex about the size of the books I read. Who knows.

In his book, Mahaney discusses what it means to be truly great. In our world, greatness is often defined by business savvy and athletic skills, but when God looks for greatness, he looks for humble hearts. In the first two sections, Mahaney defines pride and explains God’s opposition to it, and he redefines humility using Christ’s example. Much of what he said was old hat to me, but one thing resonated: Pride is our greatest enemy. Humility is our greatest friend.

Mahaney uses the third section to encourage us to practice humility in our lives by identifying evidences of grace, encouraging others, inviting and pursuing correction, and responding humbly to trials. He also stocks one chapter full of ways he strives to practice humility every day. This one caught me by surprise: Before going to sleep, receive the gift of sleep from God and acknowledge his purpose for sleep. Sleep is a reminder to us that we need to be refreshed every day, that we are not the independent, autonomous creatures we like to think we are, and that for our lives to be sustained we must rely on God.

Chris Bryant’s sermon this Sunday and LifePoint’s July servant emphasis bookend Humility perfectly. CB spoke of getting to know God, and many of the love languages we can use to know God can also be used to practice humility. Acts of service is one of those love languages, and that’s our focus as a church next month. If you haven’t picked up a copy of Humility yet, it’s not too late. Good things come in small packages indeed.

Book Review: In a Pit With a Lion On a Snowy Day

I do not want to live a life with regrets, instead I want to make the most of the situations that are in front of me—those that I still have a chance to effect. Even though this is the case, there are moments in my life that come to mind every once in a while that give me pause. The ones that stand out most vividly are those that are born out of my inactivity, the missed opportunities which will never come again. I have been thinking about this lately after reading a book by Mark Batterson entitled In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day. Mark believes that “the church has been fixated on sins of commission for far too long. We have long lists of don’ts.” He calls this “holiness by subtraction.” Mark also says “I think God is more concerned about sins of omission, those things that we could have and should have done.“ I agree with Mark, I tend to fixate on the things I should not do for God instead of looking for the opportunities God has carefully orchestrated in my life, the things I should do for God. These opportunities come, and if we are not diligently watching, they go.

Mark shares many examples from his own life, one where he planted one church that did not even make it to its first Sunday. He then picked up his family and moved across the country to plant a church near Capitol Hill in Washington DC. His new church, by God’s grace, is thriving today out of many challenges and struggles. Mark also uses many examples from the Bible including one obscure story out of 2 Samuel from which his book gets its title. In this story a man named Benaiah chased a lion down into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and killed it. This event is one of many events in Benaiah’s life that leads him to being selected as one of King David’s body guards and then promoted to commander and chief of Israel’s army. God is continually creating “opportunities” for his children to glorify him in spectacular ways; in the case of Mark and Benaiah those “opportunities” came in the form of a failed church and a 500 lb. lion. I don’t know about you, but most of the time, I purposely avoid these types of “opportunities.” But then I would miss out on what God has planned for my life and the opportunity to truly glorify him. And so my prayer is to be watchful and ready for the next lion that might come my way.

This reminds me of what Jesus said to Peter when he gave him his name. “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it.” Gates are not used for offense; they are used for defense. Jesus is speaking of his church, which is the aggressor not the defender against the gates of Hell, and he promises they will not stop his church.

Updates from the Mexico SportReach Team

Our team to Playa del Carmen, Mexico, has been on the ground since Sunday. Check out what they’ve been up to on the SportReach site!

Our other partner Doug Millar is also posting updates on his blog. Check out his thoughts and photos here.

And it’s not too late to pray for them. Download their prayer calendar here.

Thanks for Serving Pregnancy Care Center, LifePoint!

Thursday evening, May 29, about 40 LifePointers invaded the soon-to-be new Pregnancy Care Center facility on Primrose in Springfield and went to work. The response was incredible and the Center staff was overwhelmed. So many people showed up to serve that the staff had to scramble to find work for everyone. One of the staffers stated that this was the largest group that had shown up to work. Painting was the work of the evening and the majority of two floors (13,000 square feet) got fresh coats of paint.

What a great testimony to the praise of Jesus of the willingness of our people to serve! Transformed lives make a real difference! Pregnancy Care Center is a partner in the work of the gospel that LifePoint is passionate about and as your pastor I’m so thankful. You honor Jesus and make an incredible impact through your passion for serving.

When I tell people about LifePoint, I only explain it by simply saying, “That’s just what LifePoint does because that’s who we are!” Thank you, Jesus, for making such a difference in the lives of people at LifePoint. May we live, serve and share to make an eternal impact for your great namesake!

Seeking Jesus and His Kingdom: Two Prayers, One Answer

When we Jesus and his kingdom, our seeking represents God’s work within us. As we study an Exalted Prayer and a Humble Prayer, we must examine how our own prayers and whether they are me-centered or kingdom-centered. Listen now…