An Incredible Guide to Lent
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
As you may have figured out after seeing the girl at Starbucks with the big black X on her forehead – Today is Ash Wednesday. The start of Lent. A season of Preparation, Introspection, and Devotion as we move towards Easter Weekend.
Instead of breaking down Lent, we thought it would be best to point you to one of the BEST Daily Lent Reflection Guides we’ve found. It’s from an organization called CRM (Church Resource Ministries). It’s a collection of Daily Readings from a book they printed a few years back. They are incredible.
We’d love for you to join with Soul City in this journey as we prepare together for Easter.
You can get your CRM Lent Reflections HERE.
It would be really cool for you to Comment and let us know that you are doing this with us.
How Do You Find a Home in a Day?
Today Jarrett and Jeanne will view over a dozen homes in downtown Chicago in an attempt to lock in where we will be living…in 3 weeks. This is not how we would have planned for or desired, but it seems like God is more interested in growing our faith than He is coddling to our comfort.
You can follow our adventures through Jarrett’s Twitter Feed. However, we would ask that every time you see a Tweet, you PRAY BIG that God would continue to provide above and beyond what our Family needs or could possibly imagine. We are excited to see what God brings….in the next few hours! Thank you for being a part of this with us.
.
How do you find a HOME in a day? You don’t. You find a house and you make it a HOME.
Our Brand New Soul City Snapshot
We just shipped out our Monthly Soul City Snapshot today and we think you might dig it. It’s full of all kinds of Insider Information that you can’t get through our Site or our Blog.
So, if you’re not yet a Subscriber, you can do so by clicking HERE. Once you do, you’ll become a member of an elite society of insiders who’s inbox’s shutter with shear delight at the start of every month. We promise.
Your Church is more complicated than LOST
Tonight marks the Beginning of the End of LOST. I can’t even begin to tell you how DEEP I am into this show and it’s endless mythology and storytelling. (If I told you that I owned not 1 but 2 Lost T-Shirts…would you still love me?)
However, I’ve noticed that for every 1 FAN of Lost there are 784,593 people who are not into it. Several friends this week have told me that they would love to watch, but it’s just too complicated, too confusing, or they missed too many episodes. They reiterate the fact that there is no such thing as a Casual Lost Fan.
I think the same could be said of our Churches. Without even realizing it, we’ve created Churches that are more complicated than Lost. There’s too much Insider Language. Too many Complicated and Confusing Linear Strategies. Too many Detours that make it difficult if not impossible for an “outsider” to get it. While there is no such thing as a Casual Lost Fan, there are 100,000′s Causal Church Goers in your community.
The question is – How are you making it SIMPLE for people to Get It, Get Started, and actually Grow.
Here’s Four Ideas for how you can make your church Simpler
1) Change Your Language. Listen to what you’re saying. Listen for what you’re not saying. From Worship Leaders, to Teachers, to Printed Materials. Think first of the First Time Person who hasn’t been here as long as you and don’t have a clue what things like Connexxus or Axiom are or even mean.
2) Change Your Website. This is your Virtual Front Door and if someone has to walk around the house two or three times before they can find the front door, they’re not coming back. I love the simplicity of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley. Clear and to the point.
3) Have a SIMPLE Strategy and stick to it. I know that you’re a Linchpin and you love changing, tweaking, and tinkering, but you have to remember – They Are Not. They weren’t here when you used to call it Area Home Groups. They weren’t here when you used to do it Tuesday Nights. They don’t care. They need to be able to get within the first 2 minutes WHAT you about and WHERE they can START.
4) Go to another Church. Learn from their simplicity. Learn from their complexity. Listen to their Language. Better yet, go to the Apple Store (which you probably have in the last 7 days). Within 60 seconds you can find what you need and figure out what to do with it. And in the case that you can’t – there’s always an Apple Cult Member Employee within 5 feet to help.
Following Jesus is hard. Finding him shouldn’t be. Let’s fight for Simplicity!
.
(btw – if you know what the picture is at the top of this post…than you truly are as much of a nerd as me. I’m praying for us now.)
- This post was written by Jarrett Stevens
- Co-Leader of Soul City Church,
- who believes that Nikki and Paulo are the key to it all!
- .
- .
- .
Letting The Lines Get Blurry
“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both.”
- James A. Michener (Red Rubber Ball)
For many years I have worked hard at drawing boundaries, making sure there were clean lines of separation between me and the “ministry.” Lately I have been sensing a need to let go of some of my control freak ways and let the lines get a little blurrier for the sake of a more holistic me. While I will always be a strong proponent for distinction between when to work and when to rest, and when to say YES and when to say NO, I am wanting all of me to be a blaring signal of a woman pursuing the vision that God has given to me for my life.
I want it to almost be confusing to others when they look at me as to whether I am playing or working. I want to have as much excellence in my unseen mommy moments as I do in my clear managing with the vision of Soul City. I want to step as deeply into a world of imagination with my children as I do with dreaming up ways to creatively communicate. So here is one control addict loosing the grip a bit in the hopes for a healthier way of living and loving.
How do you need to let the lines get a little blurrier in your life?
This post was written by Jeanne Stevens (Leader // Soul City Church)
