Easter

Sunday we will specifically celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is going to be an amazing time of celebrating the life change that Christ has brought to those that have chosen to follow him and to celebrate the change that will occur in others as they place their faith in Jesus. So, let's all come ready to celebrate!

At the end of the worship experience we will have some followers of Jesus that will be getting baptized. I hope you come ready to celebrate with these followers of Christ and cheer them on.

We are going to celebrate. See you at Life Church this Sunday.

LifeKIDS is blowing up

I received an attendance report this morning from our LifeKIDS team that showed we had 66 kids at LK this past Sunday! That is amazing. I think just validates the vision for LifeKIDS that there is a huge opportunity to reach so many kids with the Gospel of Jesus Christ through this ministry. To be able to partner with parents in their leading of their children in becoming fully devoted followers of Christ is so humbling and honoring to our teams.

I have to give a huge shout out to our LK teams and leaders who are making Quest, Motion, All Stars and The Loop happen every Sunday at Life Church. If your child is 12 and under and your not taking advantage of LifeKIDS you really are missing out. We now even have a class for 1 year olds in Quest!

All I can say is God is good!

Patrick

Middle Of The Road

Francis Chan is an amazing communicator of the Gospel and I appreciate his honesty about the current state of the American church and the people in it. This short video is an honest reminder that the road we are to travel on as followers of Jesus Christ is a narrow road. There is no middle road. Watch this...

Challenges of being a portable church

Having a portable setup at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts and The Factory has many benefits. It has been a great move for us since we moved back in August of last year, but there is definitely some challenges that come with renting the venues.

Obviously, the biggest challenge of being portable is the weekly setup and tear down. That's just part of it. It's something we knew and are prepared for each week. That's why our setup/clean up teams are so important to us. They literally make Life Church happen every week. If they don't show, we don't have any LifeKIDS rooms, Guest Services, worship team equipment and more. Thank you setup/clean up teams!

There are other challenges that come with the setup, but it's nothing we can't overcome and work through. It's just part of being portable. People ask me weekly, "What about building a church?". That'd be great, but right now it's not on our radar. We feel God has provided the amazing venues at the Factory and Theater so we can realistically attempt to reach as many people as possible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. With the theater and The Factory we really have no limitations in terms of growth. The theater holds 1,500 and the Factory can accommodate a huge amount of LifeKIDS classes. Also, financially it is more effective for us to rent the amazing facilities and not dump those funds into a building or piece of property.

Does this mean Life Church will never have a permanent facility? Honestly, I don't know. That's up to God. Many of the largest growing churches in the country are portable. I'm talking thousands and thousands of people meeting in these churches in portable facilities...schools, movie theaters, cafeterias and auditoriums.

The thing for all of us at Life Church to remember is that WE ARE THE CHURCH. The CHURCH is NOT a building. We are the living breathing people of God. We are His chosen and our responsibility is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to as many as possible. Thank you for being a part of Life Church and supporting and praying for the work God is doing in and through you, your family, and our church body. Greater things have yet to come!

Patrick

Free online resources

There are tons of awesome free resources on the internet today that its hard to keep up with them all, but I thought I'd share a few that really help me in different ways.

You Version Bible - This is FREE! It's an online Bible that you can access on your desltop, laptop and smart phone (blackberry, iphone, android). Best part is it's FREE! It was developed by none other than LifeChurch.tv.

Church Online - Again from LifeChurch.tv is church online with interactive prayer, chat and notes for worship and sermons for LC.tv. This is awesome when you just need some church during the week or miss a Sunday service.

Life Church Franklin on Facebook - Enough said. If you're not already, become a fan of LCF on Facebook and keep up with news, photos and videos from LCF.

Enjoy!

Patrick

Sunday Reflections

After 2 years of seeing God build a serving and loving church at Life Church Franklin, it never ceases to amaze me at how God just continues to shake people up . Today was no exception.
I had the pleasure of team teaching with Craig Groeschel this morning as we begin week 1 of the new series Red Letter Day. As we focused on Christ's final moments as he was led to and hung on the cross, we spoke on what to do and remember when we don't understand.
He's the 3 points I touched on this morning:
1) God is good.
2) God is for me.
3) God is with me.
Fact is, life doesn't always make sense. We don't always understand. But, because of who God is and because of his past faithfulness, we can hang on to these 3 truths.

If it doesn't make sense or you don't understand this week just cling to these 3 truths:
1) God is good.
2) God is for me.
3) God is with me.

What is going on around here?

Wow is about all I can say about the things happening at Life Church Franklin right now.
So many lives are being changed by the power of God's love and word. I have heard some amazing stories in the past week and seen God do some amazing things in some Lifers.
Here's a just a glance at what's happening in the lives of those at LCF:
- One family has started coming to LCF for the last 4 weeks. They are really enjoying it and getting lots from it. They haven't been plugged into a church for 2 years.
- One couple is transforming their marriage by doing away with the things that are in their minds excess and not needed. They are becoming more generous with their time, resources and finances in many ways.
- New LifeKIDS volunteers are coming up with new and creative ideas of how to enhance our LifeKIDS worship experiences on Sunday mornings.
- The collection of Hope of Haiti Buckets has been awesome. We will have filled and collected about 100 buckets to go to the relief efforts in Haiti. I have heard so many great stories of how people are so grateful to be a small part of helping Haiti. One of our Lifers even took a bucket to her school class to have her students fill a bucket.

Of course, this is just a few stories and I know many more are out there. I could write pages and pages of these stories. All I know is that God is at work and it's our job to be willing, available and respond to his calling to change our hearts, minds and souls to what he wants. Then we pour ourselves out to serve and love others so that the world may know his love, grace and mercy.

Continue to pray for the lives that walk through our doors each week and how Life Church can be a part of leading them to become fully devoted followers of Christ.

Patrick