Grace Connections Update

Christmas Service 2008

2008-12-22T07:30:00.000-08:00

Grace Connections is almost a whole year old! Through this first year, we have seen many new faces (some of whom have become new friends and ministry partners), spiritual growth and God's blessing on our brand new church. This Sunday we debuted our new worship center to a record crowd. Our first actual Christmas service as a church was a wonderful time to celebrate the birth, the life and the death of the God who was and still is with us! Check out the pictures from the event, and please pray with us that God would expand the influence of Grace Connections in the lives of many who need to hear the clear presentation about Jesus, the Christmas baby who came to bring us real life!

New Faces, New Spaces

2008-12-15T13:10:00.000-08:00

Grace Connections will be celebrating our first Christmas service this upcoming Sunday, Dec. 21. As part of our worship time, we will be unveiling our brand new worship space as well as other additions to our building. All together, we will be tripling the amount of floor space available for ministry at our present location. Besides the worship area, we will be adding a new junior church room, a new office area, and we will be converting our present classrooms into a large nursery and a storage room/nursing mother's area.

We are hoping to share the good news of Christmas (Jesus!) with many guests this Sunday, so you are encouraged to invite your friends and family to celebrate with us. We will also be meeting this Thursday at 6 p.m. to distribute postcard invitations to our Christmas service in the new worship center!

Please pray with us that God would use Grace Connections to reach many people with the life-altering message of Jesus Christ!

First Communion!

2008-12-15T13:05:00.001-08:00

Last Sunday, December 7, Grace Connections had our very first communion celebration as a church. I had the opporunity to present the biblical basis for communion during our worship time, and then we actually did all three parts of communion together after church. We had a wonderful time of fellowship and spiritual conversation, while the symbolic elements of communion allowed us to focus on Jesus and invite his presence into the deep parts of our lives. Check out the pictures we have posted here.

Some Encouraging Stats

2008-10-27T13:24:00.000-07:00

Praise God for the exciting things that have been happening at Grace Connections over the past five weeks! In that time we have seen...

~ Four small groups started
~ 25 first time visitors on Sunday morning
~ 17 out of 20 first time visitors return for a second time, with the five new ones from last week all indicating they would be returning as well
~ our first salvation decision during a Sunday service
~ a new attendance high on a Sunday morning
~ nearly every family inviting unchurched or underchurched friends
~ almost 1,500 flyers handed out to people in our community advertising Fall Fest '08
~ the launch of our grocery ministry, in which needy families in our community receive a free bag of groceries

During the first grocery ministry last week, a family answered the door to find us there offering a free bag of groceries. The lady was blown away, saying her family had just started talking about how they could get food on the table that week, since they had no money for groceries. Talk about God showing up through us to meet that family's need! That's why we do what we do at Grace Connections. We meet a physical need so that hopefully God will touch their heart and we can introduce them to Jesus - the solution for their spiritual need!

Please keep praying ... we want to keep seeing positive movement that will glorify the Lord and see people brought into the Kingdom!

Fall Fest '08

2008-10-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

Grace Connections was back in Centennial Park, showing our community the love of Jesus through an event designed for kids and families. We had pumpkin games, free food, a big bouncy house, face painting, balloon animals and more. Despite the cold temperatures during the afternoon, several families came out. Many of these families received one of the 1,500 flyers that we handed out during the week. Special thanks to Community GBC in West Milton from sending their youth group to help pass out the flyers.

Around 15-20 families came out for Fall Fest, and we were able to make good contacts with a couple of them. One family in particular mentioned that they would be interested in coming to church. They are new to our community, and we are excited to get them plugged in to what God is doing at Grace Connections!

As usual, we had great volunteer help. I am blown away by the servant's hearts of the people involved in helping to start Grace Connections. I am truly blessed to be the pastor for such a wonderful group of people!

Keep praying for the contacts made at the park. We're hopeful that this might be a springboard with many of them that will allow us to share Jesus with them!

An EPIC Adventure

2008-09-08T07:56:00.001-07:00

At Grace Connections, we are launching into a new season as a church. We will be studying Scripture in a new light ... in terms of a story. We want to understand the story God is telling. And we want to discover our role in that great story.

To do that, we are having small groups and Sunday mornings focused on the theme 'EPIC.' The concept, borrowed from best-selling author John Eldredge, is that all our great stories borrow elements from the True Story, the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we are learning about God's great story of good and evil, loss and rescue, betrayal and the ability to overcome. And in so doing, we are trusting that we will get insight on the role God has created for each of us, individually, to play in His Story.

Pray with us as several families (around 10) from outside the church are being asked to and/or are actively considering joining small groups for this exciting journey.

Corn Fest 2008

2008-08-26T06:12:00.000-07:00

Grace Connections pulled off our first major outreach last weekend at Centennial Park. After inviting over 1,000 people during the last week at the parade and by going door-to-door through some of the apartments in Englewood, we hosted 18 corn hole teams plus many families who stopped by for the free children's activities and the free food. Our best estimate is that just over 100 people not affiliated with Grace Connections attended some aspect of Corn Fest 2008.

Grace people did a great job volunteering. We had a crew of between 30-40 people helping run the corn hole event, doing face painting and balloon animals, preparing and serving food, leading children's games and activities, clowning and just walking around greeting and mingling with our guests.

The weather turned out beautifully, and we had just a wonderful time loving on our community in the name of Jesus. Now please pray for us as we follow up with many of these families who left their names/addresses ... we want to share not only the love of Jesus with them, but also the good news of how they can know Jesus themselves!

GC Gets Its Serve On!

2008-08-11T09:49:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend, Grace Connections was able to blitz our community, serving and loving them in the name of Jesus!

On Saturday, we participated in the Englewood Festival Parade, handing out 1,000 invitations to next week's Corn Fest 2008 plus giving out 900 more pieces of candy to the kids. However, the parade turn out was so high that we ran out of supplies with about 1/2 a block left on the parade route! We were so encouraged to have over 20 people from Grace making such a positive impact on our community! One person commented, "I think we got our name out to more people this morning than in the previous six months combined!" Please pray with us that many people will come out for Corn Fest 2008 and that we'll be able to make positive relational connections with the people who come.

Then, Sunday evening, another group from Grace assisted the City of Englewood's planning team by offering free tear-down assistance to vendors who participated at the Festival. Our volunteers spent an hour and a half helping load supplies and carry them to vehicles. What a great way to serve our community!

On Another Note...

2008-08-04T10:19:00.000-07:00

So starting a church is not an easy business. In fact, not everyone agrees with it. I actually like interacting with people who don't like Christianity, because it lets me know what other people outside my box are thinking plus I hope that maybe God will show up and become real in their lives. Anyway, I'm playing in a fantasy baseball league, and religion became a hot topic last week. Today, a guy in my fantasy league posted this in our league forum. I'm reposting it here along with my responses. I am also going to allow comments on this post, so feel free to add to the conversation. Here is his post...

Religion is the same as fairy tales. They are constructed by simple cultures to explain the unexplainable. However religion is an archaic social creation to explain and reinforce social codes that are valued by a specific culture. Some Christians in third world countries still use blood letting, as they did in their previous belief systems before Christianity was forced upon them. There are and have been thousands of religions through the expanse of time, and they all exist for the same purpose. In modern society it is irrelevant and backwards. Science has explained nearly everything society has advanced past the point of make believe. Read Darwin. It explains it all and is based on fact, not made up stories that were placed in a book (over others) to perpetuate power and social structure over others. They were picked by those in power, and as we all know knowledge is power, thus religion is worthless in today’s society. Christianity has killed ostracized, maimed, and hurt more people than anything or anyone in history. Anyone who propagates its beliefs has that blood on their hands. That is in the past. Religion, specifically Christianity, is a joke in modern day America or any developed society for that matter. It is a social club that excludes and judges others in context to their old fashioned standards. It is not a question of what is right and wrong, because society will judge that. It is the fact that it pushes itself into the forefront of progress and takes credit for what is right. It however sweeps all of the wrong under the rug. Tax breaks for example. Why, some of those buildings are ridiculous, that is not right, with gas prices and other tax related problems. Religion is a glorified social club that judges and looks down upon others in modern day. It shows the lack of higher thought processes and stands in the way of advancement (stem cells). It and you two are a joke. Everything in this statement is fact, and you know it. I did not even get in the sexual molestation, genocide, sexism, money laundering aspects of your social club. It is a business and is bullshit.

It seems that you are raising three main objections to Christianity. I'll summarize them as...

1. Christianity is foolish, since it contradicts science.
2. Christianity is hypocritical, since people who claim to be Christians have behaved and/or do behave in a manner inconsistent with what Christianity claims to teach.
3. Christianity is judgmental and anti-progress.

Let me try to answer these objections rather briefly, knowing that a full treatment would require a 200+ page book for each topic.

Does Christianity contradict science?

Ever since the church spurned Galileo for claiming the sun (not the earth) was the center of the universe, the church has looked foolish in the eyes of scientifically minded people. When Charles Darwin came along with his thoughts on natural selection and species evolution, the cries against the Church grew even louder. Throughout the 20th Century, the fundamentalist movement among American conservative churches began entrenching itself into a defensive position, trying to 'save' the purity of the church from the onslaught of secular science.

This bunkering process, while it may have seemed necessary at the time, actually proved quite counterproductive. The church appeared not only unwilling, but also unable, to give a reasonable answer to the questions posed by honest scientific discovery. However, that impression - still quite the dominate impression to observers outside the religious camp - still stands strong.

Yet I believe that Christianity can not only stand up to the arguments posed by science, but that it can fairly and rationally answer those questions. Granted, the answers I will provide will not "prove" everything Christianity claims. Yet what I hope to prove briefly is that this issue ultimately boils down to faith. And then the choice is yours. Will you put your faith in a loving, Creator God or will you put your faith in the processes of evolution? Again, at that point the choice is yours.

Let's begin by simply pointing out that some fundamental problems exist with the theory of evolution. In any scientific process, for a fact to be established as scientific law, the process must be both observable and repeatable. However, the process of evolution has failed on both counts. Certainly no one was alive to witness the processes of evolution and record their historicity. Thus, it fails the test of observability. Granted, this does not disprove the theory, but it prevents it from being established as a scientific law. The theory also cannot be repeated. Scientists have never been able to create conditions where one species has evolved into another species (macro-evolution). Micro-evolution (the adaptation of a species to its environment by changing its features), on the other hand, has been observed and verified countless times. And if scientists cannot even observe only repeated instance of macro-evolution within our current culture of enormous scientific discovery and observation, how could they even hope to deal with the issue of life evolving from non-life? This has never been observed. And it has never been repeated. Obviously, this is only a small sampling of a very large issue. For a more thorough treatment, I would refer you to the book Darwin's Black Box by Michael Behe and/or Darwin on Trial by Phillip Johnson. Behe's book (2006) is much more current than Johnson's (1993), but both are excellent.

Secondly, I would like to bring up the issue of first cause. Newton's law says that 'objects at rest stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force.' So my question is twofold. 1. What was the outside force that acted so that the universe sprang into motion? If that force was a Big Bang, what caused the Big Bang? 2. This question is the more important questions. Even those who postulate a Big Bang beginning to the universe must admit that there was some matter (no matter how small) that existed so that the bang could spring it into the universe as we know it. However, my question is ... where did that original matter, even if it was just an atom, come from? How does an atom appear in a vast vacuum of nothingness?

So then, we are left with this issue of faith: do you want to believe that matter can be created out of non-matter or do you want to believe in a Creator?

Is Christianity hypocritical?

I won't argue with you. Many people - claiming to be Christians - have done horrible things in the name of God. I'll even add a few to your list. Some of our greatest heroes of the faith like John Calvin allowed mass murders of religious dissidents at the 'utopian' communities like Geneva. Christians who favored infant baptism drowned anabaptists (word lit. meaning 'to baptize again') who were re-baptized as adults, saying that by putting weights on their feet and throwing them into the river, they would be more than happy to allow them to be submerged under water in baptism. The Christians of the Crusades killed, raped and murdered in the name of Jesus.

And it doesn't stop there. Just this past year, five pastors/Christian school teachers from churches I know in Ohio have gotten busted for illegal sexual activity with minors. One of these men even grew up in the church I had pastored until last fall. And you know what? What these men did was sick and despicable. They are a disgrace to the name of Jesus and an affront to God's holiness. The list could go on and on. You probably could name several people who went to church regularly but for whom it didn't make a bit of difference in their everyday lives. Hypocrisy is a huge problem in the Church. That's why the famous quote says, 'The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips but deny him by their lifestyle.'

So before I make my main point, let me first apologize for all the wrongs that have been perpetuated by those who claimed the name of Christ. Let me also apologize for the many times in which I have personally failed to live up to the standards I believe in. Christians are far from perfect. I freely admit that.

However, in terms of logic, the truth of a system cannot be judged by the lifestyle of its adherents. Perhaps it is better to use their lifestyle as a test of the genuiness of their commitment to the system.

Besides, nobody who has studied the Bible for even a reasonable amount of time knows that only one person is claimed to have been perfect ... Jesus. Can you find fault with Jesus from the history we have recorded of him? And before you challenge these biographies as propaganda, know that the Bible has more source documentation and more proof than any other work from history that we accept as factual ... and the numbers are not even close (as in 10,000-18 or some such outrageous number). That's not our main focus, so I'll just say I can provide more detail there if you want it.

But the fact remains that hypocrisy exists and it is very real and very evil. I have personally seen more evil behavior within the walls of a church by people claiming to be Christians than by anyone who claims to not believe. I have seen gossip campaigns, lies, deceptions, refusals to forgive and power plays that would make anyone sick. If hypocrisy was the test of Christianity's truthfulness, I would have quit being a pastor by now.

But I can't get away from Jesus. I believe that He is always true, always just and always righteous, even when his followers fail miserably.

So to answer the main question of your objection 'Is Christianity hypocritical?' I would say 'no.' We can all share about Christians who are hypocritical, but that is irrelevant. Jesus did not contradict Himself. And if he really lived a perfect life and died on the cross for our sins like He claimed, then He is still God and deserves our worship.

Honestly, I think the hypocrisy defense is used mainly as a cop-out by people who can't argue with the truth of Christianity but who just don't want to have to go through the hard process of changing their lifestyle to live up to its standards. It's human nature. We compare ourselves to others, and if we can make them look bad, then we can say what they believe must be bad ... and then we don't have to deal with it ourselves.

3. Is Christianity judgmental and anti-progress?

Yes, some Christians are very judgmental and anti-progress. But that's just because they don't even understand the book they claim to live by.

I have heard Christians actively opposing anything from tattoos to drinking to playing cards to watching movies to guys having long hair. Did you know the Bible does not prohibit any of these activities? I don't think these judgmental Christians are trying to be mean-spirited. They are just misinformed. And once you have believed something for such a long time, you become immune to proper teaching on what the Bible really says. That's why some Christians act the way they do.

But the Bible actually teaches a gospel of freedom. That is, we are free to live our lives any way we want, provided we are not choosing something the Bible explicitly calls sin (lying, stealing, sexual immorality, etc.). To be fair, the Bible teaches that as we come to know Jesus better, His priorities should influence and ultimately guide our decisions ... but that comes as an act of freely choosing to allow Jesus to lead our lives, not because we are on some guilt trip by people telling us what we can and can't do. The Bible makes faith a personal journey between us and Jesus, where He leads and we follow ... but where He leads me in many cases may not be the same place He is leading you. There is great freedom and flexibility in that.

Plus, the Bible clearly teaches 'Do not judge, that you may not be judged' (Matthew 7:1). What Jesus is saying is that we cannot judge the motives and intentions of other people. The Bible also says, 'What business is it of yours to judge those outside the church?' (1 Corinthians 5). So then, the only thing Christians are allowed to judge are the actions of people inside the church ... the idea being to root out the hypocrites who are giving the church a bad name. Of course, many churches are too wimpy to actually deal with their hypocrites (for fear they might leave with their money and maybe a friend or two), so this rarely happens. But my point is that if you claim to be an atheist, you shouldn't feel judged by Christians. Judging you is not my business. My only concern is to attempt to rationally, fairly and in a good spirit attempt to convince you that Jesus is real and is who He claims to be, which means that you would need to deal with you sin, repent and trust Jesus. But that's your choice. I can't force it on you. I can only show you what I believe are the facts. And if you choose not to believe, then that is your choice, and I am not not your judge.

As far as Christianity being anti-progress, that charge has been true way too many times. Did you know that when the radio was first invented, a Christian man using radio to share about Jesus received a note from an 80-year old lady that read: 'How can you use this vile new device that goes out over the airwaves? Don't you know the Bible says the devil is the prince of the air?' She totally missed the point of the verse, and totally got herself worked up about being against something she should have been for.

Now granted, some things are worth being against. I am against creating life only to destroy it in order for research. I believe that umbilical cord blood and other such things can provide the necessary tools without creating life that we mean only to destroy. I am also against abortion, because I believe that even the smallest people have the basic right to life that our Declaration of Independence talks about (and I think attempts to call them fetuses instead of babies is just a cop-out to salve the damage done to a conscience that chooses murder). But I don't think that makes me anti-progress. I very much appreciate and want progress. My only concern is that we make sure all progress is ethical. Notice I didn't even say biblical. I'm not asking everyone to live according to my standard. I am just asking that we observe a basic ethic of human life and worth as a guide to our progress.

I hope that helps.

Dale

Summer Update

2008-07-29T11:51:00.000-07:00

We're pretty pumped about some new things coming to Grace Connections starting this August. For example, we'll be starting...

* Small Groups that meet every other week as a way to develop closer connections and encourage spiritual growth.

* Servant Nights that bring us together to go out into our community and show the love of Jesus.

* Outreach events such as walking in the Englewood Parade and hosting our first Corn Fest, a corn hole tournament that we hope becomes an annual event.

On another note, we've got about 7-10 people/families that we've been inviting to Grace Connections who have shown some level of interest. Would you pray with us that these families would actually come and that God would begin working in their lives? That's what we're all about ... trusting that God will change lives as people encounter His Word and His people!

Gearing Up for Summer

2008-06-02T08:36:00.000-07:00

Many people use the summer to relax ... to travel ... to get away from typical responsibilities. But at Grace Connections, we're hoping to use Summer '08 to share the love of Jesus with people in our community.

Here are a few highlights of what we've planned...

- We'll be hosting our first large community-wide event on Saturday, August 16. We'll call it Corn Fest, and we'll feature clowning, balloon animals, free corn-themed food and, of course, a community corn hole tournament. We're excited about how God will work!

- We'll be advertising this event the week before as we walk in the Englewood Festival Parade on Saturday morning, August 9. This will be a great time to meet people and share about what God's doing in our church.

- We're reserving a block of tickets for a Reds game in late July. Our goal is to invite guys we'd love to talk to about Jesus.

- We're partnering with the City of Englewood to provide tear-down assistance for the Festival on Sunday evening, August 10. The city contact person seemed genuinely grateful for our help. We hope to continue building solid connection points with key influencers in our community.

- We're preparing letters to send to everyone who recently purchased a home in our area. The letter will contain a small gift and an invitation to church, where we will have a much better gift waiting for them.

- We are designing new church brochures and re-formatting our church website to help ramp up our advertising.

- Finally, we're planning to do three low-key Sunday evening services at Centennial Park in Englewood. Our goal will be to meet people at the park and share about Jesus before we do a short time of acoustic worship with a short devotional thought.

In all of this, we are learning that we aren't called to 'go to church.' We are called to 'be the church.'

I am not Tiger Woods (and other lessons from Exponential)

2008-04-25T11:47:00.001-07:00

Let's tackle the important events of my week first. Let me introduce you to the participants at our first ever church planters golf invitational (CPGI). From top left, we had Phil Gabriel (pastor/planter of Lifespring in Brownsburg, IN), Matt Ison (administrator for Soma in Springfield, OH), Mike Tabor (pastor/planter of The Happy Church in Jackson, KY), Dave Black (teaching pastor/planter of Soma in Springfield, OH) and Tim Boucher (campus pastor for Grace Community Church - South Bend). The bottom row is Ron Boehm (Midwest Regional Director of Go2 church planting), me, and Ned Denlinger (Tri-State District Coordinator).

And the eight of us waged a pretty intense golf game on Monday night in Orlando at Pirate's Cove (arrrrghh!). Give Ned credit for overcoming a quadruple bogey with some aces to come back and win the night with an under-par score of 42. The rest of us were bunched tightly, with nobody higher than a 47 (I had a 45). Par was 43. We had a great time, and I decided that I should learn to putt.

And that's not all I learned. We spent four days at Exponential '08, the national new churches conference. The conference had an all-time high attendance, with around 2,600 church planters and coaches attending. It was great meeting new friends and even connecting with old ones (like Aaron Wojniecki, a guy I went to Moody with and hadn't seen since around graduation who is getting ready to plant a church near Louisville, KY).

But like all conferences, it is best to take away a few small lessons from the many gems of wisdom passed along in the sessions, sermons and hang out times. That said, here are 5 lessons we can apply at Grace Connections...

1. A new church will thrive or die on its vision. Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it known. Then be willing to fight for it. Quick ... off hand ... what is our vision at Grace Connections? If you don't know, I'll be preaching on it the next couple weeks.

2. Money is not the answer. Evangelicals in America spent $500 Billion (yes, with a B) on outreach and church planting in the last 10 years. We don't need more money. We need a fresh movement from God.

3. If you don't have time in your schedule to share your faith, you're too busy.

4. Most church plants that want to bless their community actually tick them off by starting replica programs. We need to meet community leaders, identify community needs and work with community leaders to accomplish our vision of connecting to our community (and plus, working with community leaders is a great way to show the love of Jesus in action).

5. We must be more intentional about evangelism. And, for those worried about discipleship, don't worry. You'll get plenty of discipleship as you do the process of evangelism (Philemon 6).

See you Sunday! I'm proud to be your pastor!

Neutral Gear?! No Way!!!

2008-04-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

In every growing church, several growth plateaus pop up. These are seasons where the growth levels off and the pressure to settle in and relax begins to mount.

At Grace Connections, we have hit our first plateau. Each analyst assigns their own numbers to each plateau, but we seem to have plateaued with somewhere between 60-70 people committed to Grace Connections and an average attendance in the low to mid 50's.

But notice that at the end of the plateau is a sharp dropoff. A dropoff into purposelessness. A dropoff into obscurity. And a dropoff from a lofty mission to certain demise. And we probably all have better things to do with our lives than jump off cliffs.

That's why we are working to get our vision back to its proper place: front and center. We're studying the final mission instructions Jesus gave on his last night. And we learned this week that people matter to God enough to get uncomfortable to reach them.

So we're going to celebrate that God has taken us from 0 to 65 in just a few months (my car can't even go from 0 to 65 that fast). But we're also going to recommit ourselves to reaching people on the path to Hell. We want to stay on mission!

Pray that God will open relational doors as we're faithful to meet new people and initiate talking about Jesus!

Wow, God is at Work!

2008-03-31T08:32:00.000-07:00

Sunday's message was a little risky. The text was 1 Corinthians 5. If you remember that section, you'll know that in verse five, Paul says to 'hand this man over to Satan,' calling on this church he started to totally disassociate from a messed up guy who claimed to be a believer.

That's not your typical Jesus loves you and wants to make you feel super duper passage. Actually, this section highlights the sinful junk we allow in our lives and slaps us in the face with its urgent call to repent and clean up.

So when I decided to preach 1 Corinthians 5, I was a little nervous. Would people get uncomfortable? Would they be angry? No, not at Grace Connections. People actually responded by allowing God to speak with full force into their lives. They asked questions. They cried. They did business with God. And I walked away feeling like we had a real positive breakthrough today in our life as a church. We're going to be a place where it's ok to tell it straight up without the candy coating. We just want God to show up in our lives! Plus, as a bonus, you could see the relationships growing deeper as people discussed the real stuff in their lives.

By the way, pray for us this week. We're looking into a possible new meeting location and we need lots of wisdom and discernment as we investigate.

Celebrating the Resurrection!

2008-03-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

What a Sunday! Despite some lingering cold weather and over 10 core group members gone due to travel and sickness, Grace Connections had a record high attendence this past Sunday.

Before the service started, we hosted the world's quickest indoor Easter Egg hunt for our kids. Check out some pictures. Don't we have the cutest kids?

When the service got rolling, the band played their best worship set to date and really helped us connect with Jesus through music...

Our message asked the question, "Resurrection: Fact or Fiction?" We looked at the evidence. We asked the tough questions. We challenged the status quo. And in the end, it became obvious that Jesus' resurrection stands the test of history and the test of reason. There is no good excuse for claiming the resurrection is not a true, historical fact. You could see heads nodding and people thinking as they were challenged to make the resurrection personal, not just historical fact.

Keep praying for Grace Connections. We are launching a new outreach called 'Mugging the New Neighbors' where we will deliver a mug filled with goodies and a brochure about Grace Connections to every new homebuyer in our community. This will help us reach 75-100 families per month.

We are also checking out a new meeting place that is easier to find and with great visibility. Pray that God would open those doors!

Getting Ready for Easter

2008-03-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

Easter is a huge event in church planting, because it is one of the two days when average underchurched Americans will make a pointed effort to attend church. Obviously the megachurches around us understand this, as we've received no less than three direct mailings in the last few weeks inviting us to attend an Easter service.

And while many of these megachurches are great places that teach the true gospel and can offer high-level programming, there are still tens of thousands of people in our communities who don't have a personal relationship with Jesus ... which is the main reason why Grace Connections exists. We want to reach the unreached and touch the untouched, not just to fill seats on a Sunday but to see fully committed followers of Jesus for life.

And even on a shoestring budget, it's fun to see the energy growing. We ordered 100 postcards, and our church took about 50 of those to personally deliver to friends and family ... inviting them to next Sunday's service. The remaining postcards will get mailed to an existing list of Grace Connections contacts.

Plus the word of mouth is growing. Last week I went to work out at the Y, where I had already met Chuck, a new addition to our church. Chuck was on the exercise bike again, two spots down from me but he didn't see me slip onto the bike. As I sat down, I heard him talking to an early-20's age girl about our church. He was telling her how much he was learning about God and inviting her to check it out. What a cool moment! I was able to then introduce myself as the church starter and invite Jericka and her boyfriend to come check us out. We didn't see them Sunday, but pray that God would allow me another contact with them at the Y. They sounded genuinely interested.

So the contacts keep growing. Please pray that God would produce fruit from these seeds we are sowing.

Why didn't I buy oil for the snowblower?

2008-03-10T08:36:00.000-07:00

The easy answer would be that I thought shoveling would be better exercise. The other very honest answer would be that I'm probably just too cheap. Either way, after an incredible March blizzard that forced us to cancel church this Sunday, I got to spend an hour and a half shoveling out the driveway.

Despite the weekend off, we have several other activities scheduled for the coming weeks...

* Friday, March 14: Youth Party

* Saturday, March 15: Ladies' Night Out

* Sunday, March 23: Easter Morning Egg Hunt for Kids (up to age 12)

* Saturday, March 29: Family Game Night

Also, we've ordered 100 postcards detailing our Easter Fact or Fiction message. We will send many of them out through the mail, and we'll also make several available for you to distribute to friends and family.

Let's keep touching our community for Jesus!

Settling In...

2008-03-03T07:51:00.000-08:00

The Sunday morning feel is getting better every week. In just the last few weeks, we've added

* PowerPoint to show the words to our songs
* A screen and a projector for Power Point
* An electric guitar in our worship band
* Our first skit during the service

So, from an organizational standpoint, things are really picking up. We've also had our first women's ministry activity plus we've scheduled our first youth activity. It's exciting to see relationships deepening and see our passion for reaching people continuing to grow.

Of course, that means we need to continue meeting new people and showing them the love of Jesus. Here are some ways Mandy and I have been trying to meet new people...

* Working out at the YMCA and talking to people there
* Joining Moms & Tots, a play club for kids 3 and under (there's some dads there, too)
* Helping with Northmont FISH by providing rides to doctor visits and help with the foodbank
* Playing fantasy baseball with a bunch of unchurched younger guys

As the weather gets warmer, we plan to walk through the neighborhood to meet our neighbors, plus we'll be taking Lexi to the park (another great place to connect with other young families). What is one thing you can do to meet new people to share about Jesus?

Let's keep praying that God will bring to us people with genuine spiritual interest so that we can point them to Jesus.

So much snow...

2008-02-25T06:52:00.000-08:00

What a crazy week! Between President's Day and two snow storms, our students only had school twice! And, because of that, most of our normal weekly activities were cancelled as well. Even Lexi's Mom and Tots class - a great place to meet other young families - took the week off.

But in spite of the challenging weather, we still had 54 people in church on Sunday, where we learned the four-step process Jesus taught about making things right with people who have sinned against us. God, help us to make the first move so that we can make our relationships right ... now!

We also featured a demonstration from our fourth-sixth grade Bible quizzing team, who put on a mini-competition for us and showed off how well they've been studying the book of John. Congratulations to our team for taking 2nd place in competition last Saturday!

By the way, we are quickly approaching space issues with our building, since we only have room for 75 people and have been seeing close to 55 the last two weeks. If all the sickness and travel stopped for even a week, we'd be very close to maxing out our space. That means we're looking for a bigger building, and we have an option in the works that we'll find out about later in the week. I had a two-hour meeting last Friday to discuss this possibility. Pray for God's leading in providing us a visible location that will meet the needs of a growing church with lots of kids.

And now, if the snow will stop and winter will go away for awhile, we'll get back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Like a Whirlwind...

2008-02-18T07:13:00.000-08:00

Things at Grace Connections keep getting better every week! Besides having our largest crowd to date, we also added PowerPoint to our message plus featured an electric guitar in our worship band for the first time! It's so exciting to see what God's doing through Grace Connections!

We also had our second game night on Saturday night, and another huge group filled our building. From spoons to euchre to dice games to XBox, things were lively and fun. The party was still rolling at 10:15 when I took my pregnant wife home.

This Sunday we dove into 2 Samuel 11-12 plus Pslam 51 to study the story of a messed up king. We learned about how David allowed his life to spiral downward into a bad cycle of sin and cover-ups before finally being confronted by a bold man of God named Nathan. And then we jumped over to the Psalms to see how a murderer became known as a 'man after God's own heart.' The answer: He was willing to own up to his junk (sin) and allowed God to clean his heart, instead of just offering more excuses and cover-ups. Have you allowed God access to every area of your heart this week?

I'm sensing that we are facing a unique time as a church. With about 60-65 people committed to Grace Connections, we now face the hurdle of continuing to look outwards instead of settling into a comfortable routine. There are hundreds of unchurched and underchurched people all around us who are spiritually starving. Will our flame to reach them continue to burn? I pray it does. We literally have a name and face for every chair in our building of someone who needs Jesus but hasn't yet come even once to Grace Connections. Will you join me in praying for them? Mandy and I plan to start attending a play group for kids three and under with Alexys this Friday as a way to meet other young families? Will you join me in inviting people to a place where they will hear about Jesus? Keep praying. Keep inviting. Keep trusting God to do great things.

Next week I plan to share a little bit more about small groups and how they will play a huge role in the future of our church. After all, we don't want to just bring people in ... we want to help in the process of making them fully committed followers of Jesus Christ!

Update Schedule

2008-02-11T07:20:00.001-08:00

Check back every week for new updates on what God is doing through Grace Connections!

New Faces, Dirty Faces

2008-02-11T06:59:00.000-08:00

The last five weeks have been an incredible ride at Grace Connections. Here are some highlights...

- Through Tellstart, we called over 58,000 homes in the Dayton area to get out the word about our new church. When they were done, we had 407 families who had responded and asked for more information. We sent out letters, postcards and hosted open houses to meet many of these new families. The process is still ongoing, but we have around 50-75 really good contacts we're still working on.

- We have seen new faces every week at our Sunday services for the last three weeks. Many of them are coming back and getting involved. While it's hard to give an exact number in this period of constant change, I would estimate we have over 60 people now who would consider GC their church home.

- Creative things are happening every Sunday morning. Whether it's jumping through hula hoops or dousing a volunteer with pop, flour, egg, dirt and more (Thanks Nick!), we're seeing the message of the Bible come alive every Sunday. This week, because Nick let his hair and face get destroyed, we saw close up how our lives get dirty because of our sin, but God wants to send the Holy Spirit to wash us off and give us a spiritual scrub down of the heart.

- Our group is working hard, planning big and growing closer than ever. It seems that every week we see something new (20 extra chairs, Peavy speakers, a copy machine, PowerPoint, etc.). God is doing incredible things all around us!

Here are some ways you can pray for Grace Connections...

- Pray for our contacts. We have hundreds of unchurched and underchurched people who we are inviting to Grace Connections. Pray that they will come. And pray that God will work in their hearts so that they will meet Jesus because of GC. Just last week I walked through our building and realized that we could fill every chair we have with someone who's interested in the church but hasn't come even once yet. Pray that they will come and that we'll need more chairs to fit all the people who want to experience God.

- We're totally new at doing church this way. Every week we see new faces. Pray that we won't just be fired up about filling seats, but pray that we will make disciples who will change their world for Jesus.

- Our Temporary Spiritual Leadership Team (SLT) will be meeting for the first time soon. Pray that God will give us wisdom in where we go next.

- Pray that we will make a difference in our community as we being reaching outside the walls of our church, trying to bless the people around us. As we've been learning in our lessons from Titus, God's fired up that churches should be zealously committed to doing good.

Lastly, if you'd like to pray by name for people we're trying to reach, shoot me an e-mail at dale@thegraceconnection.net and I'll send you the list.

Grace Connections Update is Live!

2008-02-11T06:47:00.000-08:00

Thanks for checking out our update site! Every week we'll have updates on what God is doing through Grace Connections plus ways you can pray for our brand new church. If you'd like more detailed information (directions, calendar, etc.), check out our main website at www.thegraceconnection.net.

Here are a few FAQ's about Grace Connections...

Q. There are already a ton of churches around. Why start a new one?
A. Because statistics tell us that 85% of people 35 and under haven't gone back to church after high school. Maybe it's time to change things up so that nobody gets left behind.

Q. What is your strategy?
A. That's pretty simple. We want to be a church that is challenging and exciting, creative and fresh and yet rock solid on the message of the Bible.

Q. How did you get started?
A. We began in November 2007 with a group of just under 40 people who were ready to make an impact for Jesus on their world. After some initial meetings, we began having Sunday services at The Warehouse, our current meeting location.

Q. How would you describe a service at Grace Connections?
A. Challenging, fun, lots of talking and laughing, informal, come as you are mentality plus a chance to meet God through music and a relevant message from the Bible.

Q. What are you asking God to do?
A. To help hundreds of people experience God for the first time and build a community of people that can transform our world with the love of Jesus.