Update on The Gospel of Luke Series

Every Sunday so far this year, we are plugging away through a new sermon series, “The Gospel of Luke: A Physician’s Examination of Jesus.”  Through the eyes of a well-educated and well-respected doctor, scholar, and historian, we are seeing the story of Jesus unfold.   After hearing the intro, where Luke states his purpose in writing (to provide an accurate and verifiable account of the life of Christ to an affluent, secular audience), we’ve been looking for a few weeks into the birth narratives.  We’ve seen the stories of John the Baptist and Jesus’ births unfolding simultaneously.  Doctrinally, we’ve landed on several very important subjects already.

 First, we’ve explained the importance of the literal Virgin Birth of Christ, and how that this event was the only way suitable to bring about a perfectly divine, yet still fully human nature in Jesus as the Son of God.  Second, we clearly defined the Incarnation, the process of God putting on human flesh, in the moment that Christ was born.  We outlined some wonderful reasons that God subjected Himself to humanity for our sakes and for His glory’s sake.   In the most recent sermon, we took a look at the Angelic Proclamation when the angels appeared to the shepherds to announce the birth of Christ.  In this passage, we saw further commentary on all that Jesus’ coming into the world means for us.  Along the way, we have repetitiously landed on the theme of Jesus as Savior and Redeemer,  the central truth that Jesus came to save us from our sin and offer us a relationship with a Holy God.  So that’s where we’ve been so far…  If you have missed any of these messages, let me encourage you to catch up on them when they are posted shortly on our website in the media link.  Also, I want you to know that if you have any questions about any of the messages so far, you have an open door to me anytime.  I’d love to sit down and talk with you about understanding Jesus better.  Email (ben@thecitc.com) or call (281-213-0110) anytime.

Now, here’s what’s coming up next…  This Sunday, we will move beyond the infancy narratives to see Jesus becoming an adult.  We will be looking specifically this week at the one recorded story we have about Jesus as an adolescent.  In this message, we will see what the ideal twelve year old boy looks like and the model of adolescent development and spiritual formation we should be striving for in our parenting.  From there, we will be studying for the next few weeks the first few stories of Jesus public ministry at age 30.  We’ll hear words of wisdom, we’ll see miracles, we’ll be inspired by His example of perfect love. 

I hope that everyone else is having as much fun with this message series as I am.  I invite you to dive in deep with us into the Life of Christ and perhaps see him in new and meaningful ways or perhaps come to know Him as your Treasure, Savior, and Lord for the very first time.  Make it your goal for every Sunday in 2010 to draw a bit closer to Jesus by being faithful to sit under the teaching of this series.

January 2010 Highlights and Prayer Requests

Will you praise God with us today that the year of 2010 is starting off strong?  Here are some things that we are really excited about…

First, we are about four weeks into what is proving so far to be the best semester we’ve ever had for our Community Groups ministry.  Community Groups are small groups of believers and seekers that meet on week nights in homes to study God’s Word, pray for one another, and to just share life.  We started this part of our ministry about a year and a half ago with just one group that met in my living room.  Today, we have six community groups that are meeting weekly (eight, if you count a couple of our extra outreach/discipleship groups).  By God’s grace our group system has been multiplying fairly quickly and we’ve seen some great leaders being developed with more in the wings. 

We also are experiencing something very unique in our Community Groups ministry.  We are currently averaging about 120% of our Sunday worship attendance in group attendance.  In other words, we are now reaching more people with God’s Word in small groups in homes than we are in corporate worship.  We are really excited about this because groups provide an ideal environment for believers and seekers alike to grow in their faith.  In group, the message of the Gospel is being shared in the context of genuine relationships and in a very relaxed and slow-paced setting.   This creates an atmosphere where anxieties are put at ease,  questions are freely asked, time is sufficient for discussion, and friendships are formed that result in sharing Christ.  We are praying that the current trend of spiritual and numerical growth in our Community Groups continues.  Please pray fervently with us to this end. 

Something else you can pray for us about involves space issues. We are planting in a very dense and complex part of the inner city.  This of course comes with its real estate disadvantages.  The competition for space in our area is intense and the price tags are out of reach.  We need some miracles, to be honest.  We knew it would be this way and we knew from the very beginning here that our only hope of carving out space for a church in this area would be God’s provision.  We are praying right now for Him to show us that provision.  We are maxed out completely on capacity for our Lunch Break Fellowship ministry.  We are also beginning to feel some crowding at our Sunday gathering when we have a Sunday where attendance reaches our potential. We still have a bit of room to grow, but the space where we meet is a little small and a little expensive.  So, we are praying for God to provide a worship space that is much bigger and preferably, slightly less expensive. We are also praying for God to open doors to expand Lunch Break Fellowship into other locations to make room for more growth in that ministry. We ask you to pray with us that God will meet all of our space needs this year and that we will have the room we need to continue to grow.

Finally, we are in the process of trying to get our people mobilized this year to go on mission trips.  We have several opportunities that we’ve set before the church and called upon everyone to follow Jesus into the nations to serve others in love.  To read about these mission trip offerings, go to www.centerchurch.wordpress.com. Please pray that God will call clearly and that people from The CitC will answer decisively to take part in being hands-on with the Great Commission this year.

We want to thank you for your ongoing support and encouragement.  Please keep informed and involved throughout 2010 with what God is doing in Houston through The Church in the Center.

Top Three Praises:

• Growth in Community Groups
• New sponsors/investors emerging
• One on one discipleship is occurring regularly

Top Three Prayer Requests:

•  Worship/meeting space needs
•  Growth of internal giving
• For older/mature believers to come and be a part of our church

Important Upcoming Dates:

• CitC Super Bowl Party- Feb. 7th
• CitC helping out with a local D-Now- Feb. 19,20
• CitC to have booth at all Baylor Employees Fairs- Feb. 18,23,25

Next Door Initiative

We’ve been talking a lot at church lately about this thing called ‘Next Door Initiative.’  I say it’s a thing, because I don’t know what else to call it.  It’s not a program, not a four step method, not a system, not an outline, it’s just a conversation we are having about how to reach out to our neighbors.  We are all familiar with the words of Christ, “Love your neighbor.”  Part of being a Christ-follower is carrying out his commission to love, serve, and share the Good News of God’s love in the Gospel with those around us.  By neighbor, we don’t necessarily mean just the guy who lives next door, but all of those people who fall in your circle of influence.  This could be people in your neighborhood, people in your work place, in your class room, in your lab, on our metro route, in the places you eat, play, or shop, etc…  I bet if you stop and think, you can come up with a very long list of people who you regularly interact with on some level.  Those people are your neighbors!

If we are to show Christ’s love to them in practical and relevant ways, it will take intentionality and creativity on our part.  Now my guess is that most believers have the desire to reach their neighbors for Christ, but what they lack is the confidence and clear instruction on exactly how to do it.  So that’s why we are having this conversation called Next Door Initiative.  We simply want to motivate and equip our church family to take initiative in reaching out to their neighbors. 

So here’s what we’re going to do:  We are going to be putting a weekly idea, or tip in the bulletin each week at church that will give you very achievable action steps to take in reaching out in clearly identifiable ways.  We’ll also post this tip on the Facebook group wall, just in case you miss it on Sunday.  Also, we will be developing a Next Door Initiative webpage linked to our main site to keep an archive of all of these ideas.  So at the end of a few months, you will have way more than enough action steps to keep you busy if you choose to accept the challenge of loving you neighbor. 

In addition, for extra motivation, we will be having some of our members periodically get up on a Sunday during church and share about their experiences in living out NDI.  It always helps to hear real and recent stories that model this lifestyle for us all to see and be inspired by.  Consider yourself invited to join us in this initiative. We are dreaming of what could happen if we all consistenly live outwardly focued on those around us.  We are prayerful that many new people will be reached with the Gospel and brought into the family of faith because of these efforts. 

For your consideration, here’s the list of NDI ideas so far:

• Pick a night of the week to have neighbors over to your place for dinner, get to know them, invite them to church.  Try to do this at least once a month until you have reached out to all of your neighbors.
• Never Eat Lunch Alone!  Use your lunch break time at work/school as much as you can to connect with people you are reaching out to.  (Short coffee breaks also work great.) After all, we’ve all got to eat, right?                            
• Social Media!  Use your Facebook and other social media sites to connect people with our church.  Simply invite friends to our pages/ groups and post/re-post stuff so that  your circles of peers are aware of what opportunities exist for them at the CitC.  Very easy to do,  and guaranteed to be effective. www.facebook.com/thecitc    www.thecitc.com/facebook                         
• Acts of kindness.  Find natural and practical ways to serve your neighbors.  Feed their pets while they are away.  Help them in the yard when they are short on time.  Bring them a meal when they are sick.  Help them move a heavy piece of furniture.  Loan them a tool they need. You will be surprised what a big difference small acts of kindness make in opening doors for conversations about Christ.                      

The list will be growing as the weeks go by.  If you would like to add your suggeestions to the list, please share them with us.  Just email ben@thecitc.com and tell us what you are doing to reach out to others and we’ll be happy to add it to the list.  Stay tuned for more info coming your way throughout the year.

2010 Missions Opportunities Interest Survey

As you know, The CitC is all about missions, both locally and globally. So in 2010, we want to set plenty of opportunities in front of the church to get involved hands on.  We realize that in our community of complex schedules, that no one trip or project will be a fit for everyone.  Also, we realize our limitations as a new church to independently carry out multiple trips (I personally will go on one, or at most two).  Therefore we have reached out to our sponsor and partner organizations to get several open doors to join some really solid teams going abroad.   All that said, here’s the options that we’ve come up with to get you out there in the world sharing the Good News of Jesus.  As of right now, this is an ‘interest survey’ to see which opportunities our people are most interested in plugging into.  After we get some feedback from you all, we can finalize the list and start to fill in some details.

International Trips:

• San Fernando, Mexico.   Dates:  April 21-24^th  Cost: $500   Work:  construction on an orphanage (this trip is in collaboration with Kingsland Baptist Church)
• Calcutta, India.  Dates:  May 17-28^th.   Cost: $2,200   Work:  serving at Mother Theresa’s home for the destitute and dying  (this trip is in collaboration with Kingsland Baptist Church)
• Kenya, Africa.  Dates:  June 17-25^th  (approx)  Cost: TBA  Work:  partnering with church planters, sharing God’s love with children, discipleship with leaders. (this trip is in collaboration with Poured out for Africa)
• Maircaibo, Venezuala.  Dates: July 3-10^th.  Cost: $2,100   Work: medical clinics (this trip is in collaboration with the Rice/TMC BSM)
• Haiti???   I will be in constant contact with Mike Brister (he took us to Guatemala last year)  of Stepstones Ministry Intl. in seeking out an open door to join a team going for relief work in Haiti.  Prayer and time will tell if this door opens.

North American Trip:

• We are exploring the possibility of taking a team from The CitC to Albany, NY this summer to help with a church planting team.  The capital region of NY is about 2% born again and is incredibly under churched.  This is one of the largest mission fields in North America and the evangelistic needs are enormous. Dates (probably July) and details of this trip will be worked out upon the interest level of CitC members.  Since this trip will be independent, we need to know if there is enough interest to make a team (asap).

Local Opportunities:

• Sharing the love of God with Bhutanese refugees.  I have recently learned about some ways to be hands on in helping this people group in practical ways such as clothing distribution, apartment move in, transportation, playing with children, etc…  Let me know if there are some people in the church who are intersted in pursuing this opportunity.
• We will be hosting several mission teams here to inner city Houston this year (mostly around spring break and summer).  There will be several opportunities for us to work alongside these teams to volunteer in humanitarian organizations and carry out Block Parties, Community Cook-outs, etc…  You will hear announcements throughout the year at various times with more details on this. 
• Each Community Group of the CitC will be carrying out one local mission project each semester.  Talk to your CG leader for details. 

Again, this is an interest survey.  So the more and the faster we get feedback from you, the more efficiently we will be able to finalize mission trip plans.  Please email me at ben@thecitc.com asap and let me know which opportunities you are most interested in.

The Virgin Birth

Come join us this Sunday at The Church in the Center as we explore together the doctrine of the Virgin Birth.  This will be message #2 in our new series: The Gospel of Luke- A Physician’s Examination of Jesus.  As we take a close look at Luke’s account of Mary’s encounter with the angel Gabriel, we will see the birth of Jesus in a new light.  In God’s infinite wisdom, he generated an amazing plan to bring His divine nature to earth through the womb of a virgin.  The story is filled with both glory and humility, the natural and the supernatural, divinity and humanity.  If you’ve never before clearly understood exactly why the Virgin Birth is a big deal, you will this Sunday!  We’re going to make some wonderful discoveries that are powerful and relevant to our daily walk with Christ.  To get your wheels spinning on the subject, here’s an excerpt from Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology textbook on the topic:

“The virgin birth made possible the uniting of full deity and full humanity in one person. This was the means God used to send his Son (John 3:16; Gal. 4:4) into the world as a man. If we think for a moment of other possible ways in which Christ might have come to the earth, none of them would so clearly unite humanity and deity in one person. It probably would have been possible for God to create Jesus as a complete human being in heaven and send him to descend from heaven to earth without the benefit of any human parent. But then it would have been very hard for us to see how Jesus could be fully human as we are, nor would he be a part of the human race that physically descended from Adam. On the other hand, it probably would have been possible for God to have Jesus come into the world with two human parents, both a father and a mother, and with his full divine nature miraculously united to his human nature at some point early in his life. But then it would have been hard for us to understand how Jesus was fully God, since his origin was like ours in every way. When we think of these two other possibilities, it helps us to understand how God, in his wisdom, ordained a combination of human and divine influence in the birth of Christ, so that his full humanity would be evident to us from the fact of his ordinary human birth from a human mother, and his full deity would be evident from the fact of his conception in Mary’s womb by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit.¹“

See you sunday.

New Year, Two New Message Series

As we get rolling here in 2010, we are launching two new message series for this year.

On Sunday mornings, we will be hearing from the book of Luke in the New Testament.  The title for this series is, “The Gospel of Luke: A Physician’s Examination of Jesus.”  I am very pumped about this series.  As I am doing the initial research, what I am finding makes me feel that this is definitely going to be a very relevant study for our context here in the medical center area.  Not only was Luke a physician, he was a good historian and journalist too.  When we read Luke, we are not reading someone’s religious propaganda that they conjured up through hear-say or imagination.  On the contrary, Luke writes carefully, systematically, accurately, and academically as a well-educated, respected, and trustworthy reporter.  Given his scientific background, Luke cares only about setting forth the truth and drawing conclusions through research and observation.  Also, Luke’s Gospel was written with a very secular and pluralistic audience in mind, common to the Greek culture of the day.  He writes to convince his listeners  that this man named Jesus from Nazareth was not just another religious voice in the crowd of many, but that He was indeed the Son of God who spoke the truth, had the power to do miracles, died (medically dead) on the Cross for our sins, and rose again (‘by many infallible proofs’) on the third day and ascended into Heaven where He still reigns today.  I really believe that Luke’s version of  Jesus’ story has a lot of power to communicate the Gospel to the culture of the community that you and I live and work  in.  I am praying that as we gaze upon Christ through Luke’s eyes, that not only would our faith be strengthened, but that those who do not yet believe would be convinced and place their trust and hope in Jesus.

For the other series, on Tuesdays at Lunch Break Fellowship, we will be starting a new line-up of messages on ‘Prayer.’  I have been convicted lately of being weak in the area of prayer in my spiritual live.  I feel I need to grow in knowledge, discipline, and passion in prayer.  So this semester, I will be re-reading through some old classic books on prayer and searching the scriptures for inspiring passages on prayer.  Out of the overflow of my spiritual journey to become better at prayer, I will be giving some short devotionals to share with everyone else what I am learning.   I hope it will be a very relevant and useful series for all of us as we connect with God more often, with more clarity, and with more results in prayer.

So consider yourself invited to dive into these two new studies with us, and please be thinking about who, among your circle of friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc…, might be interested in studying these topics with us.  Simply invite them to join us and see what happens.  I am looking forward to a great year of studying God’s Word with you.

Here Comes 2010!

As I write this, I have been spending some time thinking about what the year 2010 will look like for The Church in the Center.  One thing is for sure, ready or not, here comes the New Year.   I, for one, am very excited about what this year could mean for our church.  2010 will be our second full calendar year together as a church, and could be a real spring-board towards a vibrant future for our mission.  God was gracious to us in 2009, and we have established a very strong and healthy foundation upon which to build.

Starting a new church is a lot like building a new house.  Long before the walls can go up and the roof put on, you must labor to build a proper foundation so that when the house goes up, it will stand strong.  That’s what we’ve been doing for the last year at The CitC.  We’ve been laying down a very firm foundation (relationally, doctrinally, missionally, and organizationally) so that as God continues to stand  this church body on its feet, we will stand with clarity, longevity and strength.  I am very pleased with the foundation we have layed together, and I deeply believe we are on the verge of seeing some very significant growth and development in the life of our church this next year.

With that in mind, as we work together this year to take The CitC to the next level, I feel that God has given us some clear direction in some specific areas we need to focus on.  Here are some things for us to passionately pursue this year:

1.) Love thy neighbor.

       This year, we are going to focus more than ever on Christ’s call to “love your neighbor as yourself.”  If this really is the second greatest commandment, then we need to pay a lot of attention to it.  I am becoming more and more aware that too many of us live with too little awareness of the spiritual condition and practical needs of our neighbor.  By neighbor, I do not only mean the people next door, but all of the people within your sphere of connection at work, school, sports, neighborhood, etc…  God has placed dozens of people within arms reach of all of us.  The question is,  do we know them, and are we helping them take steps toward Christ and His Church?  To equip our church to live this calling out this year, we are going to be presenting a new concept called “Next Door Initiative.”  It is a simple way to help share ideas and stories that will keep us all informed and motivated to reach out to our neighbors.  I am very excited about this venture and pray it will result in many new people being reached with the Gospel. You’ll hear more about it on Sunday.

2.) Sacrificial giving.

Another area that I feel God wants us to grow in, is the area of financial giving.  We have a lot of people committed to our church missionally and relationally, but we need more and more people to become also committed financially.  It’s a simple reality that any organization must grow financially in order to become sustainable and efficient at carrying out it’s mission.  A church is no exception.  As a new church, we have been operating largely from outside funds that we raised before we launched.  As we move from being a new church to an established church, we must begin to stand on our own two feet financially.  This means that the people within the church must give to provide the funds necessary to operate.  I am always a little apprehensive when talking about money at church, but it is something that Jesus talked about and something that is essential to our spiritual health both individually and corporately.  Please take a look at our giving page on our website at http://www.thecitc.com/giving to read about how to give and about our financial mentality.  It also may be helpful to review the two-part sermon from the Ekklesia series called “A Giving Community.”  You can watch them online here:  http://www.thecitc.com/media/?q=ekklesia.

3.) Radical commitment to assembly and community.

One of the things I have noticed lately as I read the New Testament, is how often the word ‘together’ is used.  Sometime do a word study on that and read all that God has to say about the church being and serving together.  I find 126 instances of the word in the New Testament alone.  The bottom line is this:  there is no way to live as an authentic Christian, but be continually checked out of the assembly and community.  We were meant to thrive as believers by gathering together.  Therefore, this year, we are calling our people to a more radical level of commitment to being in attendance at both the main worship assembly on Sundays, and in a weekly Community Groups.   My dream is that attendance at church would never be something that we fit in if it all works out, but rather it would be something that we fit everything else around.  Christ and His Church need to be the centerpiece of our way of doing life.  I don’t know about you, but i just do not do well if I am not in fellowship with other believers on a very consistent basis.   I need all of you, and you need each other.  Let’s be together a lot this year!

4.) Global and local missions.

When I start thinking about mission trips and mission projects, I get giddy like a kid in a candy store.  I love missions, and we are planning a lot of it for 2010.  Very soon, we will be announcing the line up of international trips for next year.  We are looking into several different opportunities in different countries.  Hopefully within the next couple of weeks, some details will be firmed up and we can begin sign up.  My prayer is that we see as many people from the CitC as possible this year go and serve overseas.  But not only will we be going abroad, we will also be doing missions right here at home.  Both through Community Groups and church-wide opportunities, you will have the chance to get hands on in serving the city.  Last year, we were very active in multiple mission projects and this year will be no different.  God’s vision for our church is that we are not merely a group of people who get together on Sundays, but also an army of servants who are constantly on the front lines getting their hands and feet dirty in doing the real work of missions.  Let’s serve together more than ever in 2010!

5.) Growing older.

Something else that God has clearly burdened my heart about for this coming year, is the fact that we need to add some members to our church who are older.  We have done an excellent job at reaching the twenty somethings (which is awesome, given this is the major missing demographic from the church in America, so we will keep this up).  We’ve also done an excellent job at growing our church in ethnic diversity.  However, for a church to be balanced and spiritually healthy, it must be diverse also across generational lines.  For reasons of leadership development, discipleship, and financial stability, a church needs to have a portion of its membership in the 40’s and beyond.  Therefore, one of our initiatives for 2010, will be to try to recruit several families and/or older singles to come and be a part of our fellowship.  We need to have available the wisdom and maturity that comes from walking with God decade after decade.  So, I ask that you would pray with me for God to send some mature believers to join the team and embrace our mission of reaching the medical center with the Gospel.

Well, that should be enough to keep us busy right?  I want to say it here again, if I don’t say it often enough:  I love each of you very much and I am privileged to be your pastor, and I am here for you to serve you and encourage you in any way possible.  I am very hopeful of what this new year is going to be like for us.  I anticipate a lot of growth both spiritually and numerically, a lot of joy in the fellowship of doing life together, a lot of impact as we reach out and serve others, and a lot of glory given to God as we worship together and live for Him. 

Happy New Year!

Week of Fasting and Prayer to Ring in the New Year!

CitC is excited to begin the new year with a week of prayer and fasting, and we want you to join us!  During the week of January 3-9, we are asking people to commit to fasting for 24 hours and spending at least an hour of that time praising God and praying specifically for our church.  Acts 13:2-2 says, “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’  So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.”  God also has a calling for each of us and desires to use us to love and serve others.  What a privilege it is to come humbly before Him with our praises and prayer requests. This excercise is essential to the health, growth, and effectiveness of our church in 2010.

We encourage you to sign up on Facebook or via e-mail (ben@thecitc.com) telling us what day you would like to fast and pray.  You can go to CitC’s 938 Prayer Group page ( http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/938-Prayer-Group/164234716169?ref=ts) to sign up by just posting on the wall which day of the week you will fast and pray!  It would be awesome to see multiple people sign up for each day!  We’d also love to hear about your experience, so feel free to post comments on Facebook.  A prayer guide is available for you to use if you would like (see below).  The guide is based on the ACTS model of prayer (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication).  We have already seen God work tremendously and trust that He will continue His great work in Houston and in the nations.  We hope that you will join us as we bring in the new year by fasting and praying!     

ACTS Prayer Model to use as a guide for your prayer time:

Adoration

* Praise God for who He is, what He has done, and what He will do

* Scripture: Psalm 47; Psalm 96; Psalm 115:1; 2 Samuel 22:2-3; Isaiah 66:1-2; Isaiah 44:24; Jeremiah 10:10;

                   Revelation 5:11-12

Confession

* Ask God to reveal your sins (sins of thought, attitude, speech, relationships, commission, omission,

  self-reliance)

* Confess your sins to God and ask Him to forgive you; repent and turn to Him

* CitC- As a church body, pray that God would reveal individual sins and sins within our church body so that we

           may live in an authentic community

* Scripture: Acts 3:19; 1John 1:8-9; Romans 5:7-8; Colossians 2:13; Psalm 32:1; Psalm 51:1-4;

                   Psalm 139:23-24; James 5:16

Thanksgiving

* Thank God for what He has done and is doing in our world, our church, and your own life

* Scripture: Psalm 100:4; Psalm 106:1; Psalm 67:3-4; 1Thessalonians 5:16-18; 1Peter 2:21; Hebrews 12:28-29;

                   Ephesians 2:4-5; Ephesians 5:19-20; 2 Corinthians 2:14-15; Colossians 4:2

*CitC praises/thanks God for:

   – bringing the nations to our doorstep as we serve in the medical center of Houston

  – continuing to grow our fellowship in diversity

- giving us a devoted pastor as well as volunteers who help on Sunday’s and/or lead Community

  Groups during the week

- sending out our first missionary to serve overseas.

- adding to His Kingdom by bringing people to the church to hear the gospel

 - giving us many opportunities to volunteer and serve the community through outreach events

   - multiplying Community Groups & Lunch Break Fellowship, as well as opening the door to meet at M.D.   

            Anderson

Supplication

* Humbly come before God with your requests

* Scripture: Psalm 27:7-8; Hebrews 10:19-25; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Ephesians 6:18-20; Mark 14:38; 1Peter 3:15;

                   Philippians 4:6; James 1:5-6

*CitC asks God to:

   – continue revealing Himself to those who do not yet know Him and for people who come to the church to

             receive the gospel and be saved

   – continue speaking through Pastor Ben to deliver the message each Sunday as he begins preaching on

             the Book of Luke

- give wisdom and guidance to the Community Group leaders and help each group member grow in

  his/her relationship with Christ and be challenged as we look deeper into the Book of Luke

- provide opportunities for evangelism and more outreach events

- protect and help our first missionary show Christ’s love and speak His name boldly to the unreached

- provide discipleship opportunities and help us learn and grow with other believers in the church

- provide a bigger venue that is affordable for the church as we continue to grow

- bring more volunteers to serve in the church and around the world (938 Prayer Group verse: Matthew

  9:38, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send

  out workers into his harvest field.”

‘Tis the Season to be Worshipful!

Every year as Christmas time approaches, I begin again to read through the Gospel accounts of the story of the first Christmas.  It never ceases to amaze me that year after year, there is always something new and fresh that jumps off the page at me. This year, what strikes me as very significant has to do with how all of the different individuals responded to the announcement that Christ was coming into the world.   From Mary’s encounter with Gabriel to the Wise Men’s pilgrimage to Bethlehem, time after time, when someone heard the news, their immediate response was WORSHIP (study outline below).  

In our culture, the Christmas season has become about a lot of things:  trees, presents, parties, time off work, holiday food, and the list goes on and on.  But at the first Christmas, it was all about one thing: WORSHIP.  So this year, as you celebrate the season, how much will you remember to stop and give praise and worship toward Heaven for the greatest thing that’s ever happened on earth?  Christ has come to show us the way to the Father, to redeem us, to love us, to guide us!   This is the best news the world has ever known.  It cries out for passionate and authentic and frequent expressions of worship. 

So in light of this truth, I want to issue a  challenge to myself and everyone else alike: let’s find fresh and genuine ways to express our heart of worship this Christmas.  Let’s echo those words we read in the Gospels as people heard the good news and spontaneous and joyous worship overflowed.  Let words like, “Glory to God in the highest,” and “My soul magnifies the Lord” fill the air around us over the next couple of weeks.  

 As a part of your worship experience, we invite you to come and join us at The Church in the Center this Sunday at 10:30 a.m. for our Christmas Celebration and Communion Service. (directions at www.thecitc.com) I hope to see you there! 

1.)   Mary’s response (Lk. 1:26-38; 46-55)

2.)    Zechariah’s response (Lk. 1:67-69; 76-79)

3.)    The angel’s response (Lk. 2:8-14)

4.)    The shepherd’s response (Lk. 2:15-20)

5.)    Simeon’s response (Lk. 2:28-32)

6.)    The Magi’s response (Mt. 2:1,2,9-11)\

November 2009 Highlights and Prayer Requests

 Happy Holidays to everyone! I hope that you are entering this Advent season with a longing for and expectancy of Christ’s presence among us. As Christmas time draws near, I want to challenge everyone to guard your hearts (and bank accounts) from the materialism and selfishness that has hijacked this season in our culture. How tragic that a day meant to celebrate the Christ Child, who was born in a manger, has been reduced to credit card debt and indulgent living. Let’s renew our focus on the centrality of the Good News this Christmas: that the Messiah has come to redeem us and show us the way to God! Let us engage fully in worship and giving and loving and sharing. Let us celebrate Jesus in a way fitting for the Savior of the World. If you can spare a few minutes, take time to check out www.adventconspiracy.com.

As for news and updates on the mission work of The Church in the Center, there are a couple of things to take note of. Last week, at our Lunch Break Fellowship ministry, we held our annual Thanksgiving Feast. With the help of a new partner, FBC Deer Park, we put on quite a spread. We had many new visitors join the group that day and packed in about sixty people into a room that should seat thirty five! It was our largest crowd at Lunch Break to date. Please continue to pray for this very exciting and effective ministry. On a weekly basis we are providing discipleship, encouragement, and sharing the Gospel with a growing group of very busy students and professionals.

Also, we continue to stay actively engaged in servanthood opportunities in our community. Recently, we have been involved in: doing a dessert party for patient families and employees at Texas Children’s, taking a team of students from MD Anderson to serve the homeless at the Palmer Way Station, volunteering at Medical Bridges to help send supplies overseas, collecting coats and sleeping bags to give away to the homeless for winter, and raising money and awareness for the issue of global and local human trafficking. I have to say it is a great joy to watch our people become so missionally active. Our desire is for the normal church life to be where every believer, group, and congregation is regularly seeking ways to serve the city in the name of Jesus’ love.

One other blessing we are grateful for this month is that God continues to send many first time visitors to worship with us at The CitC. In the month of November alone, we met at least twenty new comers on Sunday mornings. And even better, several of our new comers are from several different countries around the world. We are extremely excited that our multi-cultural core value is continuing to grow and that God is giving us regular opportunities to make disciples from and for the nations. Please see the prayer requests below and keep lifting us up to God in your prayers each day. We appreciate your support and encouragement and hope you have a wonderful Holiday.

Top Three Praises: 

•  Many first time visitors
• Lots of missional activity 
• New leaders emerging

Top Three Prayer Requests: ·

•  Follow up and assimilation work
• Clarity on evangelism strategy among internationals
• The search for bigger and affordable space

 Important Upcoming Dates: ·

• Dec. 16th- Christmas Party and Outdoor Candlelight Worship
• Dec. 20th- Christmas Communion Service
• Dec. 20th- Special offering for World Missions
• Jan. 5th- New Community Groups begin