⁹ And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, ¹⁰ so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, ¹¹ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. – Philippians 1:9 NIV

Have you ever written a letter to someone and included a prayer on their behalf?  Paul did this frequently. God in his infinite wisdom saw to it that these letters were preserved as a part of the New Testament in order that we might be encouraged and instructed. The above prayer is one of my favorite models to pray.  It addresses the head, heart and hands, and it touches on a central concern that most of us have when we pray, “How do I know God’s will?”

On Wednesday January 9, from 6:30 to 7:00 I will address two basic components of an effective plan of personal spiritual growth: Praying with Discernment, and Journaling 101. When we understand how we are to pray to know and heed God’s will, and we establish a means of capturing our own heart cries and God’s responses we will be well on our way to developing an ever deepening relationship of devotion to the Lord.

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Advent is the four weeks of the church calendar that leads up to the season of Christmas.  It is a time in the church calendar where we intentionally remember the Hebrew nation and how they were expectantly waiting for the Messiah.  As we reflect on that, we simultaneously bring into focus the Second Advent of Christ which we ourselves as a Church universal are waiting for.

As Christians in the USA, it’s difficult for us to wait on God, because we grow frustrated and impatient. It’s difficult for us to slow down and rest in the presence of God as the world pushes us to be too busy for its own Creator. I truly believe that from Thanksgiving to Christmas Day our world amplifies that busyness.  Think about that: this time frame that the Church has set aside to wait and seek and celebrate the presence of Christ is EXTRA busy… EXTRA distracting… coincidence?  I think not.

This year our Advent Worship Experience will be the main focus on the first Sunday of Advent.  It is a time to refocus our perspective by remembering what it means to wait expectantly and to rest in Christ’s presence.

Our hope is that during the four weeks leading up to Christmas (a time of celebrating God with us) this experience will challenge you to slow down, rest in God’s presence and remember what it means to expectantly wait on God, while giving you a renewed expectant and hopeful patience and peace during the 2012 Advent and Christmas season.

Pastor Kyle

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Session 1: November 28, Craig Groeschel

“The Strongest Link”

Session 2: December 5, Bill Hybels

“Privilege of Leadership”

Session 3: December 12, Jim Collins

“Great By Choice”

Session 4: December 19, Bill Hybels

“Hope of the World”

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It’s the middle of October as I write this. Trunk or Treat candy is stacked up everywhere in the Rock Solid Kid’s office and we’re gathering supplies for what we’re praying will be a clear night filled with literally thousands of visitors to our campus.

It’s difficult to believe ten months of the year have already passed and we are entering the homestretch of the year and the sprint to the finish it requires. Thanksgiving and Christmas are on the horizon and coming into focus. The next sixty days hold incredible opportunity and urgency. What happens next is huge! Here’s a look ahead:

Follow-Up with Trunk or Treat Friends & Guests

This year we’re encouraging you to join us in being far more intentional making a follow-up with those we know or who introduced themselves as guests at Trunk or Treat. If you know or encounter someone who was on our campus for Trunk or Treat, we’d love for you to help cultivate the positivity about our church and make a personal invitation to join us for our upcoming events and services (see below).

Family & Friends Thanksgiving Celebration:

Sunday, November 18

Brunch/Fellowship Time – 9:00 a.m.

Celebration – 10:00 a.m.

Help us celebrate the many ways that God is working in and changing lives in our church family and community.  Join us for this special time of praise and thanksgiving filled with testimonies and visual reminders of the past year.  A time of delicious food and great fellowship will kick off the celebration. This year we’re moving that service front and center to the Sunday morning gathering. It’s a first! We want to make this the biggest service of the fall so far. It’s a perfect Friend Day. So bring someone along! We’ll have food and fun as our faith is encouraged by the good God has done!

A Different Kind of Christmas:

We’ll take a break from The Story Experience and focus our attention on Jesus and what His coming means to and requires of us.  Each week of Advent will be a very special worship experience intentionally designed to help you experience “A Different Kind of Christmas.” Rather than hosting a single invitational event, five special worship experiences and a variety of other opportunities to invite others and impact our community will be announced.  The highlight for many will be an incredible Christmas Eve (see  separate article).

Focus on Jesus:

I’m asking you to keep your primary focus on Jesus, with your eyes forward and your gaze outward because this is our mission! We are called to make more and maturing disciples, every one of us. The power of the Holy Spirit is unleashed when we individually and corporately move at the impulse of God’s love to see those far from God rescued from darkness and despair, to find hope, healing and wholeness in Christ and His community – the Church.

As you keep this focus, the business that we are presently working through will make more sense, and its importance will be clarified.  Bylaws, budgets, nominations, and ministry plans for the New Year are demanding attention, time, and energy, but they are and ever will be simply tools for us to employ. May we not allow them to become distractions, and may we be content to strip off what slows us down as we race with Christ all the way to the finish.

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Hucrest’s 7^th Annual Trunk or Treat: A Night to Bring Love, Light and Life to Our Neighborhood

We’re expecting 2,000 plus guests on our Church Campus on Halloween night next week. We’ll likely have 50 or more cars and over a 100 volunteers (signed up yet?). It is an amazing opportunity to demonstrate our “other or outward focus,” and our desire to be a family-friendly church. On a night that the enemy might have us retreat from engaging in efforts to witness to the world, we’re committed to “lighting the night.”  I’m so grateful for a group of believers who have caught that vision!  And, I’m thankful for ministry leaders like Reggie Joiner whose influence on my life nearly a decade ago opened my own heart and mind to the possibilities of leveraging our culture without yielding to its influence. Below is something he wrote about Halloween that I love. May it help you understand why we at Hucrest make a big deal of Trunk or Treat.

What About Halloween?

Here are a few stats about Halloween:

• An estimated 47 percent of household consumers decorate for Halloween.
• Halloween is second only to Christmas in the volume of decorations sold.
• Over 790 million pounds of jack-o’-lanterns and pumpkin pies will be bought.
• Candy sales will exceed $2 billion.
• More than 93 percent of children go trick-or-treating every year. (I wonder how many of those families go to your church.)

Most families love Halloween. Right or wrong, there is something about October 31 that stirs the imagination of children and engages the hearts of parents.

Watch your neighborhood closely today.
Listen to the laughter.
Take a look at the generosity.
Taste the sugar.
Feel the energy.
See the glow in the children’s eyes.
Notice the parents walking with their kids.
And observe how families connect with other families.
It seems kind of … magical.

Why can’t church be more like that? Why can’t the church create the kind of atmosphere for the family that captures their imagination and incites a relational revival in the home? It can, if you think Orange.

This year our Trunk or Treat is going to be bigger and better, and even more intentional in inviting parents and children to make the connection with Christ and the church, because what we’re giving away is more than candy, it is the love of Jesus and the light and life He brings when we invite Him into our homes!

Reggie Joiner is the founder and CEO of Orange, a nonprofit organization providing resources and training to help churches maximize their influence on the spiritual growth of the next generation. Orange (www.WhatIsOrange.org) provides innovative curriculum resources and training for leaders who work with preschoolers, children, families, and students. They have partners throughout the United States and eight other countries. Orange is also the architect of the Orange Conference (www.TheOrangeConference.com) and the Orange Tour (www.OrangeTour.org) which provide national training opportunities for senior pastors, church leaders, and ministry volunteers. Reggie is also one of the founding pastors, along with Andy Stanley, of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia. If you’re new to Orange, you should click here to learn more.

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Options are good, but some things simply aren’t     optional! For a Christ-follower worship, fellowship, and service are among these. Sunday gatherings are both an opportunity to be blessed and to be a blessing. We gather not merely as a religious duty to be endured for an hour and marked off the to-do-list, but as ministers and missionaries set apart for kingdom purposes.

Our dual worship service options present a strategic opportunity for your personal growth and development as a Christ-follower. Will you choose this course:  Attend One + Serve One?

Our capacity to declare God’s praise is multiplied exponentially when disciples of Christ decide to live like Him by doing the work of service in addition to gathering to be equipped and encouraged.

Christ-followers weren’t meant to be consumers of church programs but contributors to the growth of God’s kingdom and the Church.  I’m dreaming of the day when every member of our body chooses to     engage in the ministry within the Hucrest congregation, as well as the mission to which God is calling them. None of us are exempt. Every one of us is a needed and necessary part. We must make more and maturing disciples!

Here are some fantastic options! Perhaps you have others for which God is burdening you:

1. Intercessory prayer partners and/or altar counselors (either service for the hour on a rotating basis)
2. Nursery  and/or  Children’s  workers (small group leaders, classroom attendants, teachers primarily for second hour at this point)
3. Worship Team (sound, media, instruments, vocals)
4. Ushers/Greeters/Hospitality
5. Student Ministry (mentors, classroom attendants, teachers)
6. Class and Group Leaders (young adult, men’s, women’s, mixed)
7. Special Services & Facilities and Grounds    Management

Imagine what kind of amazing ministry we could provide to one another and our community if each of us were truly committed to contributing something of ourselves on a week-to-week basis for an hour or two beyond our chosen worship hour.  None would have to do double duty, serve for weeks without relief, be burdened or burned out  because we were functioning in an area for which we weren’t gifted.  If you are feeling the prompting of God’s Spirit to get more involved in serving, contact the office to schedule a crucial conversation about where God needs you starting now!

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Family Church, Sutherlin

Healthy married couples are encouraged to consider becoming a “MarriageTeam Coach.”  Through a training process, “marriage coaches” are equipped to help give other    couples tools to develop their own “playbook,” which they use to heal and strengthen their marriage relationships. The coaches’ training involves a 24-hour commitment, spread over two weekends, and is structured to be no cost to the potential coach. If you are interested in this coaching process, please talk with Pastor Jon or Steve for more information.

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Seriously, though, it is one of my favorite events because it always produces a great way to connect students (and this year, adults from outside our group) into our community. However, the biggest reason I love this event is that it has morphed into an intergenerational gathering.  We have friends vs. friends, dads vs. sons, and even in the past grandpas vs. grandsons!  It doesn’t get any cooler than being a part of an event where we get to celebrate the community Christ has given us in a fun way that connects all different types and ages of people.  So cool!

I also happen to be a huge proponent of intergenerational bonding in our church. For the students in the Grove and Gate56 to be able to spend a day with some of the great adult men and women in our church is priceless for both the students and adults.

Parents, we have another one of these intergenerational moments coming up on Wednesday, October the 3.  Gate56 and The Grove are hosting a Parents Night October 3. It is a time for you to join us on a Wednesday to experience with your students what we do downstairs.

We invite you to hang out with us that Wednesday and to join in the festivities. There will be a time set aside  just for you (the parents) and me to chat about the next school year and where we are headed, as well as an opportunity for you to address any questions you might have.

Pastor Kyle

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After much prayer and discussion, the Church Council has agreed on a new worship schedule for this fall. We will re-introduce two morning worship     services beginning Sunday, October 7, though they will be the same (or at least very similar) stylistically. So now you can choose the worship service based upon time, not style. Here’s the new schedule:

Early Service – 9:00-10:15 a.m.

Sunday School Classes to run concurrent (lineup to be announced)

Late Service – 10:30-11:45 a.m.

Featuring Rock Solid Children’s Ministry

Sunday School Classes to run concurrent (lineup to be announced)

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