Our new theme is:  Partners in Grace:  Serving with a heart like Jesus.

Paul’s words to the church in Philipi are the inspiration for this: ^“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. ”

Please feel free to share a story…or expereince that you have had with Grace Lutheran over the last five years.

We have had many joys and struggles over the years…but we hold onto the promise that God works all things together for the good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. (Rom. 8:28)  Be inspired watching this video to Partner together to serve with a heart like Jesus.

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May the Lord inspire and challenge you as you consider following Jesus Today:

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One of my favorite poem’s illustrates this: Footprints in the Sand. Enjoy and trust Him Today!

Prayer: Lord Jesus, Please give me a heart to trust you and your work for me in Christ in the midst of the trials and tests that I face this week. in Jesus name, Amen

Do you have a story to share about how God has helped you through a trial or test. Please feel free to share so that we may be mutually encouraged by one anothers’ faith.

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A friend of mine recently asked me a challenging question. “How do you go deeper in your friendships and relationships with others?” What is it about one relationship that causes it to go to a deeper level while other relationships that we have seem to stay on a surface level?

Relationships that go to the next level happen when someone takes the initiative and opens up their heart to share of themselves. You hear them share of their heart on a level that you can connect with and relate to. You feel comfortable to open up with that person in response to their initiative. Taking the initiative is the key to going deeper in a relationship.

God has taken the initiative in our relationship with him. Romans 5:8 ”

 ”How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1)  God has taken the initiative to draw us close to Him. Let us draw near to him and pour out our hearts to him as His true children.

 Lord Jesus, We thank you this day that you have given us an image of you and your love for us through Jesus. May we draw near to you today because you have first come to us and made us your children. Through Jesus Christ your Son, Our Lord, Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, Now and forever. Amen & AMEN!

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What is prayer?  How important a role does prayer play in your life?  Do you set aside time to pray?

In today’s world it is hard to slow down to do things like pray.  The pace of life seems to get faster and faster.  God has not wired us to go at warp speed without taking time for rest and renewal.  Like a nice car that get’s you were you need to go, you have to stop every once in a while to get fuel, to do regular maintenance, and to get it ready for the journey ahead.

Taking time to pray is hard and sometimes we need encouragement from others to see the benefit that we can reap in our lives if we take the time to pray.

“If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer. Martin Luther

“Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it. A man is powerful on his knees.” Corrie ten Boom

“Seven days without prayer makes one weak.” Allen E. Vartlett

“The man who mobilizes the Christian church to pray will make the greatest contribution to world evangelization in history.” Andrew Murray

Hearing words of encouragement to pray are important.  God is calling us “to pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians’ 5:17)

if you would like to be encouraged with more quotes on prayer please check out this web-site: http://www.christian-prayer-quotes.christian-attorney.net/

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, You have called us by your grace and have engrafted us into you the true vine through your death and resurrection.  Help us to abide in you this day that we might bear much fruit!  in Jesus holy name,  Amen (Based on John 15:1-4)

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Transforming Congregations Network (TCN)Weekend -

What a weekend. Filled with conversations, teaching, transparency, and the great commission. Life if filled with so many things that keep us busy. Time goes by very quickly and it is hard to keep track of all the things that we do. Days, weeks, months and years can go by like a blur, but there are moments and times that are truly transformational and pivotal in life. A pivotal moment like this occurred in the life of our church last weekend. The TCN group came to our church to help us take a look in the mirror. To help us to see who we are, where we seem to be going, and how we should make corrections to our path.They did not disappoint. They identified the five greatest strengths of our congregation:

Strengths

Fellowship/family feeling – Grace Lutheran Church (GLC) exudes an authentically warm fellowship and family feeling. The way the members eagerly share their lives with each other is an inviting characteristic for guests among them. This truly expresses the love of Christ that is shared and celebrated in the worship and other gatherings.

Pastor’s Preaching/teaching/worship leadership – Pastor Boetcher relates to the congregation in his messages. The listener is able to take what he hears and apply it to his life from Monday through Saturday. These messages are part of a worship service that is meaningful to all. Pastor’s Bible classes explore the depth of the Scriptures in a manner that is enlightening and spiritually uplifting.

Open Arms Preschool and the Director – GLC had the foresight to recognize the importance of Christian care and education for young children as a mission outreach. The experienced director is committed to maintaining an excellent Christian childcare that welcomes children and their families from the community into this ministry of GLC and into the open arms of Jesus.

Facility and its potential – The facility enables GLC as a new mission congregation to have a fully operational childcare facility to serve the community. The facility also gives the congregation multi-purpose space with its common area, classrooms and gymnasium to be a missional facility poised for numerous outreach opportunities; including but not limited to worship, sports leagues (such as basketball), concerts and various other fellowship events.

Depth of God’s blessings – The Spirit of the Lord has endowed the individual members of GLC with a depth of faith in the joy of their personal salvation through Jesus Christ, which is further reflected in their desire to be fruitful in the ongoing work of His Kingdom. Along with that faith, He has abundantly granted to His people, gifts, abilities, talents and skills to be used in service to Him, and for the benefit of all His kingdom. It is also refreshing to observe the spirit of the congregational leadership who are willing learners and demonstrate the energy to try new things.

These strengths identify some very wonderful things that God has been doing among us over the last 5 years. They provide us hope and affirmation that God is truly at work among us!  In addition to just telling us what we are doing well they also identified areas of concern. As with any church, organization, and body (human) there are always areas that are in need of attention. The five areas of concern that they discovered are: (Listed in priority order by the TCN Consultation Team)

Concerns

Lack of Vision – The congregation lacks a clear, unified, compelling, God-given vision. This has resulted in an inward focus and a lack of an intentional outreach mindset and behavior as evidenced by a lack of overall marketing/advertising plan, no intentional discipleship development plan and inadequate planning and follow through in general. This lack of vision has kept the congregation from carrying out its primary purpose – making disciples.

Leadership Issues – We have found no intentional process for the recruitment, development and care of competent joy-filled leaders at GLC. A real need exists to provide leadership development/training to maximize their effectiveness. This concern relates to professional staff and lay leadership alike.

Accountability/Structure – Ministry is hindered and significant potential is lost due to an ineffective governance structure. It divides responsibility from authority and provides for no accountability. This frustrates leadership and impedes outward focus and efficient accomplishment of mission goals.

Sense of powerlessness due to Fiscal indebtedness – The congregation has an inordinately large sized loan for a new mission congregation. This outstanding loan amount causes a sense of powerlessness for the congregation, which is exacerbated by the childcare ministry operating at less than capacity and thus losing money each month. The monthly amount of debt service dominates the budget and available funds, leaving little or no funds for outreach or any other ministry activities.

Inadequate worship setting – the present worship setting in the gymnasium is both aesthetically poor and lacking in practical aspects. The “chancel” is dark and separated from the gathering. The sound system is adequate but the acoustics in the gym are too “live” which causes a distortion of both the spoken word and music. Music is limited due to a lack of instruments and musicians. Also, the community of worshippers is lost in the vast space within the gym which is devoid of intimacy. This setting detracts from the worship experience for both members and guests resulting in a decrease in worship attendance.

These are huge! No one from our congregation was surprised by these areas of concern. They articulated the things that we had been talking about for some time, but had not necessarily been able to put down into words. They are overwhelming. They did more than just tell us what was wrong. The TCN team gave us some guidance, and even a road made to help us along the path to congregational health. They identified these areas and gave us prescriptions to deal with each of these, just like a doctor to a sick patient,

Here are their prescriptions:

1.  Vision – In order to gain a clear, unified, compelling, God-given vision, the congregation will:

Once developed, pastor and staff will communicate the vision for ninety days throughout the congregation.At the end of the ninety days of intentional vision casting the congregation shall meet to consider adoption of the vision. The target deadline is June 1, 2009.

Leadership will continually insure that every member knows and is committed to carrying out the vision.

Goal setting and strategic plan implementation will follow.

To get the congregation off the ground and outward focused they will:

By January 15, 2009, engage, with input from the FLA/GA District, a facilitator who leads a visioning process. This visioning process will include community surveys and community based focus groups with the goal of understanding the needs of the community and people living within the area surrounding the church facility.

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  • Host 2 events off of your church campus by Easter April 12, 2009, and 2 more by November 1, 2009, which are evangelistic/servant events and are completely focused on people of this community. Beginning in 2010 the congregation will host at least 6 of these events annually.
  • A task force will be in place by June 1, 2009 to initiate 3rd places – small groups, interest groups for the purpose of attracting new people to the congregation.

 2. Leadership – By May 1, 2009, Pastor and Board must implement a process to equip staff members (under Pastors leadership) to recruit, equip and train the future leaders of the congregation.

• Pastor will participate in the Pastor’s Learning Community until its completion.

Pastor Boetcher and congregational coach shall convene a monthly learning community consisting of 5-7 GLC leaders by February 1, 2009.

 3. Accountability/ Structure - Effective with the acceptance of these prescriptions the congregation will prepare to adopt the Accountable Leadership Model. The Pastor and leaders will lead the congregation in amending those particular bylaws that describe how the congregation functions in its ministries. These bylaws, by vote of the congregation, will be amended for no more than three years. At the end of this time, the congregation will vote to either return to the original bylaws or adopt new ones that are written to reflect how ministry is currently being done at that time.

• The Model will be implemented beginning September 1, 2009, with the Pastor assuming leadership and articulating the congregation’s vision to the members. The Board will hold the Pastor accountable for the achievement of the vision of the congregation and will set boundaries for the Pastor’s ministry. They will also support his work. The Staff leaders will report directly to the Pastor, and the Pastor will hold them accountable for the goals they have set. The Pastor will meet weekly with the Staff leaders as they empower and direct the congregation membership in carrying out its ministry. The present organizational by-laws will be amended while this Accountable Leadership Model is implemented.

• In this new model of governance, there will be a Board of Directors of three people plus the Pastor. These three will represent an outward focused mission and the new vision when it is adopted. Their role will be to govern the church. The Pastor’s role will be to lead the church. The role of staff members will be to manage the church. The role of the congregation will be to conduct the ministries of the church.
• By June 1, 2009, the pastor will nominate, with input from the congregation, five potential members to serve on the Board. The congregation will select three of the five to serve as the Board. Potential members must meet the following criteria:
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    • Members who are weekly participants in worship and Bible study.
    • Members who are striving to or are giving a tithe.
    • Members who understand and support the mission and vision of the congregation.

4. Fiscal Health - Upon approval of these prescriptions, the congregation will implement a financial task force which will formulate a proposal for increasing income through a variety of means. Continual Biblical Stewardship education coupled with a capital fund drive must become a priority. This proposal must be shared with leaders from Fla/Ga District and/or LCEF. This plan will include the means for achieving full capacity in Open Arms. For purposes of financial operational integrity, the functions of Treasurer, Church Secretary and Business Manager must be separated and carried out by three individuals, preferably volunteers.

5. Worship setting - With the help of your congregational coach, launch a task force to visit and interview at least 4 churches that have made various settings into worship spaces. Formulate a plan to make GLC’s approved worship center warm, inviting, acoustically and visually pleasant. We recommend finding a name other than “sanctitorium”. The new improved GLC worship center to be unveiled Easter of 2009. This will be funded through special gifts, memorials or the reallocation of existing designated funds.

I am greatly interested in your feedback and insight into these ideas and prescriptions. I encourage you to write your thoughts, questions, and comments on the blog below to help us as we wrestle with this transformation process. We will be making our decision one these prescriptions on or before November 9th, 2008.

May God truly Transform us into the image of His Son and guide us to be about making disciples of all people! Amen

 in Jesus love, Pastor Jason 

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This week we started a new series in our worship services: LEARN.  It is the a part of a longer series that we are doing concerning the ABLAZE movement within the Lutheran church.

Learning is the first mission response that we are focusing our attention on. 

Are you a learner?  How do you learn?  What things help you to learn and what hinders your learning process?  Learning is a critcal part of what it mean to be a disciple of Jesus.  Jesus words to his disciples, “Go and make disciples of all nations…” implies learning as a fundamental part.  A disciple is a student, a learner, someone who is growing in their understanding and ablitites.  How are you learning from the Lord?  What are you learning from the Lord that you are applying to your life?

In my process of growing as a disciple I have begun to ask my self a couple of questions that help me in the learning process.

What is it (content) that I am reading from the scripture or hearing from this message?  And how do I believe that the Lord wants to apply this to my life?

May the Lord richly bless you on this life long journey of learning from the Master Teacher, Jesus!

in Jesus love

Pastor Jason

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