Agape Newsletter, June 26 2009 - Special Don’t come to Agape next Wednesday edition (plus Sunday message featuring a Q and A time).

Hello everybody, and welcome in to another Agape newsletter.

I am excited about the message this Sunday, and there are a couple of reasons why. First of all, I believe the topic is not only important, but will prove to be a very interesting one to cover. I would have to work to make this message anything less than exciting! We will finish up our discussion about tongues, and enter into a discussion about the Spiritual gift of prophecy (as well as pastor/shepherd and discernment if we have time) Along the way, I intend to answer a few questions: 1. Why are we talking about the gift of tongues in a Baptist church? 2. Why spend so much time talking about tongues, when clearly Paul teaches that prophecy is more important? 3. What does New Testament prophecy look like, how is it different from Old Testament prophecy, and why does Paul consider it so important for the church? 4. What does a church look like when all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are active through all of the people?  Not only will we be addressing those questions, but my intention is to cut the message short by about 15 or so minutes and take your questions and/or comments. It may be that I am not able to answer every question that is asked, but we will write down all of them, and next week (July 5th), we will have an extended question and answer time as well, as a way of wrapping up our Spiritual gifts series.

If you are keeping track, you will note that this Sunday’s message will be the tenth in a row that I have preached on the subject of spiritual gifts - a long series by any reckoning. Why focus so long on this one topic? I hope to give a fuller, more complete answer to that question  over the next two Sundays. For now, I can tell you that these messages are very foundational for where I believe God is leading us at Agape - and they are a large part of the reason why God sent me to you, as opposed to sending somebody else. I am unusually eager to teach these next two messages, and I hope you can join us for them! After these two messages, we will have the priviledge of having our own Steve Sellers here at Agape to preach for the first time in several years. That will take place on July 12th (more info in that week’s newsletter) and then on July 19th, we will begin a brand new series of messages.

Finally, please allow me to push you on an issue: I believe for Agape to fully walk in the destiny and calling that our Father has for us, that we must make corporate prayer more of a priority than it currently is. As such, I invite and urge you to start making it a habit to join us for prayer in the front of the sanctuary every Sunday morning, beginning at approximately 9:15 am. It is a no frills prayer time, where we sit on the steps of the stage and simply seek God as a group. If you haven’t been before, this Sunday might be a great time for you to come! (Children are welcome)

Links worth viewing and reading:

*****     Wow - this is a great article! America is talking about Jon and Kate (plus 8), the tv show about two people who are supposedly Christians that are raising 8 kids together. Unfortunately, the reason America is talking about them right now is not because of their show, but because of some significant failings in their relationship together. I have never watched the show at all, but I have heard quite a bit about it, and what I have heard grieves me. I know a family that right now has 8 kids, and they are nothing like this family portrayed on tv. In fact, they are a fabulous family that I have learned a lot from. This article makes the very important point that not all large families are like the one’s you see on tv! CLICK HERE

*****     Ray Ortlund was a pastor in California for many years (click here to read what John Piper wrote about Ray, the man who pastored the church he used to attend), and he passed from this life in 2007. Recently, his son found a letter written by Ray to his family before he died. The letter is short, powerful, wonderfully sweet and well worth your time to read: CLICK HERE (note: link goes to a PDF file)

*****     What is superbowl quarterback Kurt Warner’s favorite thing about being an NFL football player? CLICK HERE for the answer.

*****     Of the almost 6 million jobs lost in the current recession, 80 percent of them were jobs held by men. Some eye opening statistics: CLICK HERE

I hope to see you Sunday!

Chase

Agape Newsletter - Special Father’s Day Edition.

Hello everybody, and welcome in to another Agape newsletter - I hope you all are managing to stay cool this week! Here’s what’s happening at Agape:

This Sunday, we will continue looking at specific spiritual gifts, as well as discuss what the implications are of having a spiritual gift. Currently, Agape, like most churches, is set up so that only a few people are able to exercise their spiritual gifts, and the rest have to be content to watch. Is that the way the church is supposed to function? I believe the answer is no, and we’ll be looking at alternatives this Sunday… in addition, we will also be honoring our dads, so …. come join us!

Agape Newsletter - 06-06-2009, Special “See ya” Edition!

Hello all,

The newsletter is a bit later than usual (and a bit shorter than usual), but I do need to let you know a few important things:

First, if you haven’t heard yet, David and Chris Ledbetter were involved in a serious car accident yesterday (Thursday). Chris is largely unhurt, but David sustained injuries to his back, ribs and chest, and is having a difficult time breathing because of those injuries. Please lift the Ledbetter family up in prayer - both for physical healing and emotional healing. Pray for peace, and pray for David’s oxygen levels to dramatically rise. Please also lift up Mary, as you can imagine, this is very difficult for her. Currently David is in ICU at UAB hospital.

Also, this Sunday we are going to be continuing our message series on Spiritual gifts. We will continue talking about the gift of healing, as well as giving, administration and the very controversial gift of tongues. Some of the questions we’ll try to answer:

That’s it for now, if there are further updates on the Ledbetter’s, I will pas them along. For now, keep praying!

I hope you can make it this Sunday for worship, and I’ll look forward to seeing you there

See you Sunday,

Agape Newsletter - 05-31-2009

Hello all, and welcome to a very special Agape newsletter. This Sunday we have Family Fun Day!! What is Family Fun Day? Here’s how it works: We will have Sunday morning small groups and corporate worship (10:45) as normal. David McConnell will be bringing a message for families, and our children will be on stage and involved in leading us in worship. Afterwards, we will have dinner on the grounds and tons of fun! I understand that my use of the old school term “dinner on the grounds” has caused a bit of confusion, so let me clarify. What will actually happen is that we will be having “lunch in the sanctuary (on the tables)”. I’m not sure how that got to be called dinner on the grounds,  because it’s not actually dinner (where I come from, you eat dinner at night) and it’s not actually eaten on the ground, but oh well. Here’s the important key to having a great “dinner on the grounds”: YOU’VE GOTTA BRING SOME FOOD!

Yes, that’s right, dinner on the grounds is another way of saying covered dish supper, so don’t forget to bring some vittles (food) to share with everybody! Also, you need to know that the church will be providing meat, and grillmeister Greg Cusimano and his merry team of grillmen will be working on hamburgers and hotdogs for everybody. If you want to get crazy and bring a pack of sausages or bratwursts for the grills, I don’t think the guys would stab you, and I myself would rejoice! Mhmmmm, bratwursts!

Man food cook off and bakery contest is also only a part of Family Fun Day! We are also going to have a moonwalk (inflatable castle) for the kids, as well as other games for kids and adults. Also, Terry and Logan Benton are bringing some of their lasso gear to demonstrate roping to us! If you have some fun outside games, or fun board games - PLEASE BRING THEM!!!

Finally, if you’d rather just sit around, don’t worry - we’re going to be doing plenty of that as well! Our entire goal with Family Fun Day is to have fun together, get to know each other better, and encourage each other. I hope that you make plans to come this Sunday, and that you will bring friends, as well as food. I believe you are going to thoroughly enjoy it!

The man food contest involves food that men traditionally like, such as wild game, steaks, chili, stew, etc. We are not putting any limits on this category, so whatever your definition of man food is will be fine with us. If you enter a quiche, nobody will complain, though some might chuckle a bit behind your back. The man food contest is open to women as well, and wouldn’t it be something for a lady to take home the top prize for man food! As for the baking contest, please keep your entered item anonymous. The food will be scored based on taste (10 points), manliness (10 points), difficulty (5 points) and appearance (2 points). Why only 2 points for appearance? Men don’t care so much what food looks like - we care more about how it tastes…right?

We will have 4 judges per contest, and the judges will not know who’s food they are judging, so please don’t tell them. We will have a table(s) set up for man food contest, and one for the bakery contest. The judges will quickly sample each entry, name a winner, and then the contest food will be available for all to eat and enjoy.

Prayer Requests:

No links for this week - more next week.

Don’t forget to invite folks to come worship and have fun with us this Sunday. I look forward to seeing you there!

Chase