Last Sunday night The Gathering didn't meet so that we could join the church for a church-wide baptism service. There were roughly 150 people who signed up to get baptized! And, at least 4 people from the Gathering got baptized during the service!!! We also had 25 people come with us to our Gathering community event at Game Works.
God is doing great things!
This Sunday, (Sept. 2nd) we will be meeting at our usual time and place (6pm in the Family Life Center). Come and grab a cup of coffee and worship with us. Worship will be acoustic this weekend, and my message will be more like a Bible-study, just digging into the Word.
I look forward to seeing you all this weekend!
Live, Grow, Reach...
-Tim
Monday, August 27, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
Kiwanis Park
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!!!!
This Sunday night (August 26th) the Gathering will be meeting at Kiwanis Park for a church-wide mass baptism celebration.
If you are interested in being baptized, contact Tim at timm at wordofgrace dot org.
If you are not getting baptized, join us to support and celebrate the baptisms of those in our community. The service will consist of worship, a brief message from Gary, and baptisms. Chris will be involved in leading worship, and Tim and Chris, along with Gary and other Word of Grace ministers, will be baptizing as well.
We will begin at 5:30pm at Kiwanis Park in Tempe, 6111 S. All American Way.
Can't wait to see you then!
The Gathering will resume our regular schedule the following Sunday, September 2nd at 6:00pm in the Family Life Center (our regular meeting place).
Much grace and peace!
-Tim
This Sunday night (August 26th) the Gathering will be meeting at Kiwanis Park for a church-wide mass baptism celebration.
If you are interested in being baptized, contact Tim at timm at wordofgrace dot org.
If you are not getting baptized, join us to support and celebrate the baptisms of those in our community. The service will consist of worship, a brief message from Gary, and baptisms. Chris will be involved in leading worship, and Tim and Chris, along with Gary and other Word of Grace ministers, will be baptizing as well.
We will begin at 5:30pm at Kiwanis Park in Tempe, 6111 S. All American Way.
Can't wait to see you then!
The Gathering will resume our regular schedule the following Sunday, September 2nd at 6:00pm in the Family Life Center (our regular meeting place).
Much grace and peace!
-Tim
Monday, August 13, 2007
The Calling
Sometime in the 90s A.D. (not the 1990s, just the 90s) a guy named Clement wrote a letter on behalf of the church of Rome to the church in the city of Corinth. He wrote the letter because there was a division among the church that was, in the words of Clement, "...stoked by a few reckless and headstrong persons to such a pitch of madness that your venerable and renowned reputation, worthy of everyone's love, has been greatly slandered." (Taken from Bart Ehrman's book The Lost Scriptures. pg. 168).
There were a few people speaking negatively and slandering the reputation of a church that really was worthy of love. Clement wrote this letter to address this situation and said, "Why are there conflicts, fits of anger, dissensions, factions and war among you? Do we not have one God, and one Christ, and one gracious Spirit that has been poured out upon us, and one calling in Christ? Why do we mangle and mutilate the members of Christ and create factions in our own body? Why do we come to such a pitch of madness as to forget that we are members of one another?"(Erhman, 168).
I said last week that if we are going to forge our future in ministry, it must be done together. There are so many ways to "do church." There are so many ways that things could look or feel or sound, and they could all be effective at reaching different types of people. But the fact is, while there are many ways to do things, there is only one God, one Christ, one Spirit, and one calling."
Paul says in Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." We have a calling! Regardless of what things look like and what things sound like, we have a calling! And that calling is what unites us and drive us to move forward together, committed to each other, committed to this church, and committed to the purposes of God.
In life and in church there can be all kinds of sufferings. But "in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." You and I have been called by God to a purpose. It is a purpose that involves an abundant life and abundant worship. It is sharing life together, growing in our faith, and reaching out. These three things make up a healthy spiritual and church life. Live...Grow...Reach.
There will always be corporations that can spend millions on marketing and looks. There will always be million dollar productions put on by our favorite bands. There will always be a church somewhere that has a cooler pastor, a cooler worship team, a better building, or website or whatever. But that is not what we are about! We are about pressing in to God to grow in faith, and pressing into each other to share life, and pressing in to the world to reach out.
This is what we see happening in the early church. We read about the church in Acts 2 having all things in common so that no one had need, and devoting themselves to the apostles teaching, prayer, breaking bread, worship and all that. And the Bible said that the Lord added to their number daily!
So together we united under the calling of God, to share life, grow in faith, and reach out. Live, grow, reach. And as we do these things together, the more we will experience breakthrough in our lives and in our community.
Praise God!
It was great worshipping with you on Sunday.
See you next week at the Gathering!
-Tim
There were a few people speaking negatively and slandering the reputation of a church that really was worthy of love. Clement wrote this letter to address this situation and said, "Why are there conflicts, fits of anger, dissensions, factions and war among you? Do we not have one God, and one Christ, and one gracious Spirit that has been poured out upon us, and one calling in Christ? Why do we mangle and mutilate the members of Christ and create factions in our own body? Why do we come to such a pitch of madness as to forget that we are members of one another?"(Erhman, 168).
I said last week that if we are going to forge our future in ministry, it must be done together. There are so many ways to "do church." There are so many ways that things could look or feel or sound, and they could all be effective at reaching different types of people. But the fact is, while there are many ways to do things, there is only one God, one Christ, one Spirit, and one calling."
Paul says in Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." We have a calling! Regardless of what things look like and what things sound like, we have a calling! And that calling is what unites us and drive us to move forward together, committed to each other, committed to this church, and committed to the purposes of God.
In life and in church there can be all kinds of sufferings. But "in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." You and I have been called by God to a purpose. It is a purpose that involves an abundant life and abundant worship. It is sharing life together, growing in our faith, and reaching out. These three things make up a healthy spiritual and church life. Live...Grow...Reach.
There will always be corporations that can spend millions on marketing and looks. There will always be million dollar productions put on by our favorite bands. There will always be a church somewhere that has a cooler pastor, a cooler worship team, a better building, or website or whatever. But that is not what we are about! We are about pressing in to God to grow in faith, and pressing into each other to share life, and pressing in to the world to reach out.
This is what we see happening in the early church. We read about the church in Acts 2 having all things in common so that no one had need, and devoting themselves to the apostles teaching, prayer, breaking bread, worship and all that. And the Bible said that the Lord added to their number daily!
So together we united under the calling of God, to share life, grow in faith, and reach out. Live, grow, reach. And as we do these things together, the more we will experience breakthrough in our lives and in our community.
Praise God!
It was great worshipping with you on Sunday.
See you next week at the Gathering!
-Tim
Monday, August 06, 2007
Live...
God is on the throne!
As Word of Grace moves forward, we move forward with it. I am convinced that we need to be unified as a church body, and move forward together with the same vision and direction. As Word of Grace is "A community of grace transforming our world," we too are a community of grace transforming our world.
Word of Grace as a whole is moving into the future, engaging purposefully in what it is we are about. What it comes down to is simplicity. We, as the Gathering, are moving forward in unity with what the church is about. For us that means, Live, Grow and Reach. As we move into the future, everything about what we do will center around one or more of these three areas. True and holistic worship takes place when we are sharing life together in community, growing in our faith, and reaching out into our community and the world. This is our future together!
And that is the key word, "TOGETHER." I can talk about it, mobilize people for it, facilitate events and times for it, but if we want authentic community, where we are growing in our faith and reaching out to others, it is going to take us all together committing to make this a reality.
So will you join with us? God is calling us to an exciting future. It is a future together. So sign up for community events, lead and join life-groups, engage in our worship times and be about what we are about. And as you partner with us in this, God will continue to do great things in our lives and in our community.
Much grace and peace!
See you next week at the Gathering!
In Him,
-Tim
As Word of Grace moves forward, we move forward with it. I am convinced that we need to be unified as a church body, and move forward together with the same vision and direction. As Word of Grace is "A community of grace transforming our world," we too are a community of grace transforming our world.
Word of Grace as a whole is moving into the future, engaging purposefully in what it is we are about. What it comes down to is simplicity. We, as the Gathering, are moving forward in unity with what the church is about. For us that means, Live, Grow and Reach. As we move into the future, everything about what we do will center around one or more of these three areas. True and holistic worship takes place when we are sharing life together in community, growing in our faith, and reaching out into our community and the world. This is our future together!
And that is the key word, "TOGETHER." I can talk about it, mobilize people for it, facilitate events and times for it, but if we want authentic community, where we are growing in our faith and reaching out to others, it is going to take us all together committing to make this a reality.
So will you join with us? God is calling us to an exciting future. It is a future together. So sign up for community events, lead and join life-groups, engage in our worship times and be about what we are about. And as you partner with us in this, God will continue to do great things in our lives and in our community.
Much grace and peace!
See you next week at the Gathering!
In Him,
-Tim
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