What is portable church?

I get asked a lot how and what is a portable church? Since we have grown so fast over the last 2 years we have had to adapt and be creative in finding enough room for Sunday worship experiences for adults and kids.
Once God opened the door to use the Fun Factory and Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts for us to use on Sundays we had to figure out how to get all our "stuff" in and out of the buildings each Sunday. For about a year we have been graciously been given storage space at the Factory and theater for the managers. Now we have outgrown those storage rooms. In comes the Life Church trailer.
We now have an awesome huge trailer to safely store all our stuff for LifeKIDS and the adult worship experience in each week. It's some work to load in and load out each Sunday morning but it not that bad.
Our setup team is very faithful in getting there early enough to get the boxes and items out. It works very well.
I am extremely grateful for out volunteers that make it happen each week and that we are able to rent these facilities to have church each Sunday. It has allowed us to not be trapped in a building to small or have a building to big we can't maintain or afford.
Thank you Life Church for making this local church more than just about having a building and being flexible enough to make a portable church work and effective in sharing the Gospel in our community. That's portable church!

Patrick

Around Life

Our Sunday worship experience was absolutely amazing yesterday. Tackling Toxic Religion, Craig did an great job talking about the dangers of what the church and Christians can get sucked into.

Here's some thoughts from yesterday and other things at Life Church:

- This message of toxic religion was so personal for me. When we started Life Church I was committed to getting past all the dumb walls and things we put in place at church. The way you dress, the money you have, where you come from, how good you are...all that is such a pile of junk to God and it doesn't have any place in our churches either. This verse is a great warning to us if we start focus on the external:
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence."
Matthew 23:25

- I am so humbled and grateful at the heart of Life Church. Seeing the acceptance of anyone who walks through the doors with the hope and prayer that those people will experience the heart change through a relationship with Jesus Christ is just awesome! Thank you Lifers for praying for, including everyone and welcoming all that enter the doors.

- Life Groups are blowing up again! We are adding 3 more life groups in the coming weeks. We have a new family group and then a men's and woman's group. Check out all the info on joining a life group right here.

- We have the best volunteers. I am so proud of all the people serving each other and our community. It's just so cool to watch.

- We dedicated 3 Lifer babies yesterday. These families are committing to raise their children in a God loving and filled home. Our job as the church is to love and encourage them and their children. Please pray for these families this week.

- The Tony Dungy interview is this Sunday! Invite all your sports friends who love football, the NFL, the colts, Coach Dungy and anything sports related. This will be very powerful.

Have a great week!
Patrick

Attention Football Fans

If you are any kind of sports or football fan you don't want to miss Labor Day weekend at Life Church. Craig Groeschel will be sharing an exclusive teaching/interview with Super Bowl Football coach Tony Dungy. Dungy was a hall fame NFL coach and more importantly a true man of God. His story and encouragement of being a godly leader and mentor will be inspiring and challenging to any and everyone.
This is also a great opportunity to invite someone to church. If they are a sports nut than they won't want to miss this.
This video is clip of Dungy sharing about the great mentor the workd has ever known.

LifeKIDS Worship

Hey Life Church!
Man, how about those LifeKIDS!! They rocked it Sunday. The past couple of weeks after worship I have been going over to LifeKIDS and worshiping with them and it is a blast.I hope that you all can see how much these kids love to worship and that YOU are their example. Encourage them to sing and dance and have fun.

For so long we have viewed worship as a very reserved time and there are times for that but worshiping our King and Savior is something to get excited about. In 2 Samuel 6 it says that King David becomes undignified! I love how the message puts it. "Oh yes, I'll dance to God's glory-more recklessly even than this. And as far as I'm concerned... I'll gladly look like a fool.." (21-22) WOW! Are we willing to let it all out in reckless abandonment in worship? Are we willing for people to know how much we are in love with our creator? Go for it Life Church. Let it all out. Give it all you've got. BE THE CHURCH!! Lets not talk about it, lets put actions behind our words.

I am proud of this church and proud to be apart of it. I am truly, and I mean truly blessed to be apart of the leadership team and serve with you! Lets keep it going! Lets be the change this world needs.
Jason

LifeKIDS Great Campout

LifeKIDS volunteers are the best, God is moving through them as they pour into the lives of LifeKIDS! We had a great group of both students and volunteers this weekend at the two Back to School Bash Events on Friday night! Our 4-10 year olds enjoyed The Great Camp Out! Volunteers served the kids whole heartedly and the kids enjoyed crafts, a photo op in a canoe, face painting, making trail mix and to top it all off, they watched a movie outside with popcorn and candy! What more could a kid ask for:) The 10-12 year old students enjoyed a Tailgate Party with games, a taco bar, ice cream sundaes in a gutter and then an outdoor movie with popcorn and candy too! Check out the video here to see The Great Camp Out!

Thank you to all who donated items to fill the back packs for the outreach to our local schools! The backpacks were distributed to every school in Macon County and the they were very grateful to receive them!
Life Church worship this past week was full of energy as LifeKIDS lead the adults through three songs they have been working on!
I am blessed to be a part of Life Church as the LifeKIDS Coordinator!
Warmly, Lisa Hanna

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God “ Colossians 3:16

Around Life

In the spirit of being willing to try new things and change it up as we do at Life Church, we had quite a different day yesterday.

- Our LifeKIDS 4-10 year olds helped lead our adult worship experience. It was so cool. The kids did one of their own songs and then led two others with the worship team. We also prayed over them for the new school and for all the teachers in attendance. It was a special moment for me. To see how big LifeKIDs has grown and the joy of the kids was just amazing. We had over 80 kids in LifeKIDS yesterday! God is good.



- After the message from week 4 of Toxic I had the ushers hand out some post it notes. As Craig shared about speaking encouraging and loving words instead of toxic words, I wanted everyone to get a stack of post it note. The challenge was to take the post it notes and write encouraging notes to people all week. When you think of something encouraging, write it down and stick it somewhere for that person. I've already seen post it notes around town!

- Our next baptism bash is September 12th. I would love to see more people get signed up. If you've never been baptized this is your chance. It's one of the things Christ asks us to do after we give our lives to him. It's an awesome outward celebration of the life change inwardly in your life. Email the church office contact@lifechurchfranklin.com if you want more info or to sign up.

Have a great week!
Patrick

Around Life

Week 3 of Toxic is in the books and it was awesome. We will have the message posted to the church website tomorrow evening, so if you missed it please watch it this week.

Here are some things happening this at Life Church:

- The LifeKIDS Great Campout is this Friday night at the Jaycee Franklin Memorial Park at 7pm. This is for 4-10 year olds. (We are not sleeping over night.) It will be a night of fun and activities for our awesome LifeKIDS as they get ready to go back to school. Hope to see you and your kids there.

- The Loop (11-12 year olds) will have a Tailgate Party this Friday night too! It will be at the McCollum House starting at 7pm. Our student ministry Life Group for Youth will be bowling and eating pizza at The Factory too.

- I am really loving our PR (Prayer Room) for people to have prayer after the worship experience on Sundays. It's a more intimate place for anyone to come to and get prayer for anything going on in their life. It's been great to see some of our mature believers in the PR praying for others.

- We are working on a community outreach team that I super excited about. This team will help dream up ideas for us to do even more outreach in Franklin and this region. I look forward to sharing more about it soon.

- More than ever I am so thankful for what God is doing at Life Church. I believe the greatest days are still ahead and that if we stay in His will and seek him in all we do he will do things we could've never even imagined. Hang on Life Church, God is definitely on the move. Lets be ready.

Patrick

You Are A Leader

I been thinking a lot lately about what it is to be a leader. Jesus was such an amazing leader as he showed the ultimate leadership is about serving those around you. I heard a line in a song the other day that said Jesus came to serve and NOT to be served. Serving is not a weakness, it's actually the purist form of leadership.

I twittered the other day that Serving=Leading. So, if you are serving wherever you're at you are a leader! Think about that. God has called you to serve. He has called you to lead.

He wants you to serve/lead your family, your friends, your co-workers, your business, your Life Group, your wife, etc...

My prayer for you and for Life Church is that we are raising up and making aware that everyone is a leader wherever God has put them and I pray they lead strong as they serve.

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." - Mark 10:45

Patrick

Around Life

Week 2 of Toxic is in the books. What an awesome message as Craig explored Toxic Influences. I have to say that I was really overwhelmed by the verse he shared towards the end of the message:

Test everything. Hold on to the good. 22 Avoid every kind of evil. 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22

I've read that verse many times, but it just seemed like ti really "clicked" yesterday in a way I've never experienced. I am praying for you this week as you "test everything" to find the good around you and stray from the evil so that you might not be influenced away from what God has for you today.

Here are somethings going on around Life Church:

- We will have Baby Dedications on Sunday, August 29th. If you have a child you would like to dedicate before the church and have the church leaders pray over you and your family please email contact@lifechurchfranklin.com .

- We are still collecting school supplies this Sunday for kids in Franklin. Please bring the following items to Life Church this Sunday:
Pencils, Glue sticks, Crayons, Markers, Scissors, Loose leaf paper, Pencil boxes, Spiral notebooks.
You can also drop them off at the Life Church office at 37 Phillips Street, Franklin, NC. (We are across from DNET Internet and upstairs above Goshen Timber Frames in downtown Franklin. You can also leave the items at Goshen Timber Frames.)

- We are holding the LifeKIDS Great Campout Back To School event Friday, August 20th at the Jaycee Park in downtown Franklin. This is for LifeKIDS ages 4-10 years old. Check out this flyer for more info.

Have a great week!
Patrick

Replacing The Toxic Thoughts

We are in the middle of our Toxic series at Life Church and week one was about toxic thoughts. Boy, did this message speak to so many people.

My prayer this week for you and myself is this scripture:
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is ― his good, pleasing and perfect will. - Romans 12:2

So, take your toxic thoughts about life, money, relationships, God and renew your mind to remember and believe the truths of God word:

Luke 18:27....... "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

Josh 1:9............ "Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed,
for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

Rom 8:28............ "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."

Around Life

Here's a few things going on around Life Church:

- We are collecting school supply items for kids here in Franklin. We will collect the following items on Sunday mornings for the next 2 weeks:
Pencils, Glue sticks, Crayons, Markers, Scissors, Loose leaf paper, Pencil boxes, Spiral notebooks.
You can also drop them off at the Life Church office at 37 Phillips Street, Franklin, NC. (We are across from DNET Internet and upstairs above Goshen Timber Frames in downtown Franklin. You can also leave the items at Goshen Timber Frames.)

- Yesterday's worship experience was amazing. What a powerful word of overcoming toxic thoughts from Craig Groeschel. Watch the message here.

- I had a great conversation with several new guests yesterday, but one stood out. A man and wife said he had been to church before, but he had never been to church like this. I wondered if that was a good or bad thing in his mind. So I asked. He said it was a great thing and that he was coming back next week for sure. That was awesome.

- As we keep growing as a church we have one huge need in our volunteers. We need more help Sunday mornings with setup. As a portable church we need help setting up every week. We are growing and thing are getting bigger. We need 6 more setup volunteers ASAP to help us get things setup properly and quickly. We begin at 8:30am Sundays. Please consider helping us out. Sign up online here!

- Keep praying and inviting people to Life Church. God is doing some amazing things and we are in the mist of it all!

Patrick