Back To School

Even though the official start of the New Year is January 1, the beginning of September, more specifically after Labour Day weekend, always seems like more of a time of new beginning than the actual New Year is.

The summer months are a time of more vacations, lots of special outings, events and parties, the kids are out of school and life just seems to go at a totally different pace. Not to mention when you live in a place like Windsor that actually experiences all 4 seasons, summer is certainly the season most conducive to lots of extra activity.

But then comes labour day weekend, that 1st weekend of September that seemed a million days a way when summer began, but now all too soon it’s upon us again.

The days are already getting noticeably shorter, the nights are cooler, and the carefree summer schedule of all the kids is about to change, and the routine and grind of another school year is here.

On top of that, schedules for work, childcare, transportation, and activities all change and everything returns to what will now be the norm for another 9-10 months.

To me all of this is way more change than watching a ball drop and flipping the calendar page from December to January, I think we should petition to have the New Year officially begin with Labour Day each year.

With all of this going on and all of the change and readjustment taking place it seems like a good time to also do a spiritual check-up and make sure that our spiritual schedule and routine is in good working order too.

I don’t have to tell you that one of my biggest things to talk about is your personal devotion and prayer time with God, you all know too well how I feel about that and that I strongly believe it’s the root system and backbone of our faith.

I don’t have to tell you that this is something you need to have as the number 1 priority in your life, you’ve heard me share about it many times and I’m sure you will hear many more.

But what I do know is that with the reality of summer schedule changes and vacations often times people’s routine of time with God changes too, and for some just that little adjustment in the summer is enough to throw off your whole schedule and suddenly your time with God goes missing from your life.

Back to school time is not only a time for our kids to get to work and get back to school, but it’s also a good time for us as grown ups to get back to work on our spiritual growth and devotion too.

If you’ve let your personal time with God slide during the summer months for whatever reason, there is no better time than now to get back into a new routine while other new routines in life are changing and forming too.

You need to make sure that your time with God each day is just as important as making kids lunches and scheduling who is going to pick up who and get them where.

Oh it may not seem like something that is on the same level of importance scale as soccer practice or parent council at school, but trust me, if you don’t schedule your time with God, it’s not likely going to happen. And if over the summer you have let your daily time with Him slip away then you know that what I am saying is right.

This Fall as we send our kids back to school to study and get educated we too need to get back into our own routine if you have let it slide over the summer. We need to study too; we need to daily be renewed and refreshed by God so that we can be the people God wants us to be.

So as the official summer break comes to a close I pray that we will all take this message to heart and remember again the importance of spending quality scheduled time with God in prayer and scripture each day.

Rain Down

As I finish up this blog, once again I look outside my office window and see the rain pouring down. It sees to be a growing weather trend over the past few weeks, and to be honest it’s one that I could use a little less of. But alas every spring and fall we do have weeks like this where the rain indeed must pour in order for life as we know it to be maintained.

Seasons like this remind me of excerpts from various worship songs written over the past 20 years like:

Rain down your love on us, rain down your grace - David Crowder

There’s a rain a pouring, showers from above – David Ruis

Rain down, all around the world we’re singing, rain down - Martin Smith, Delirious

The weather reminds me of these songs, but the songs serve to remind me of the never-ending saturating love of our heavenly father. Just like a good fall rainstorm pours over us and floods the ground around us, our savior longs to pour His love over us and flood our lives in the same manner.

We’ve been looking at Life In The Spirit on Sundays throughout the month of September, and Life In The Spirit is all about letting God’s love and His Holy Spirit flow through our lives. God’s intention for us as Christ followers is that we act as a conduit for His Holy Spirit. That we let His Holy Spirit flow and pour into us, and in turn we let that goodness flow back out into the world around us that we live and work in every day. Life In The Spirit means daily getting drenched in the outpouring of God’s rain, and then letting that rain seep on to all those around us.

I remember Mackie, Paula’s pet dog back when we were dating. Mackie looked like Mr. Mugs from the children’s books I used to read back in public school; a fun loving long haired shaggy dog. If it had been raining or wet out and Mackie came back in he would immediately stop and shake his coat vigorously soaking everyone around him with the water he had got on him. When we are living in the spirit, when we are full of God’s rain, God wants us to shake our coat on all of those around us and let them experience God’s rain too. But we can only impact those around us with God’s love if we have first been filled up with his spirit and are living Life In The Spirit.

So let it rain. Let God’s love shower us, drenching us in His love, and let us live Life In The Spirit to the fullest every day and in every way, letting all those around us experience the love of God flowing through us.

But Church Is On Sunday… Revised

We began our church in LaSalle as a Sunday morning church in a house not unlike many other church plants. Over time we tried an old racquetball court turned dance room, then on to a musty, run down, former furniture store, and finally bar located inside our local recreation centre. Odd and varying locations indeed, but all were at prime church time on Sunday morning. The idea that stood in front of us now was a whole new game.

Finally after hours of prayer, and opinions volleyed both for and against we felt strongly lead to make our biggest move and step of faith yet. Some said we were crazy, many said it wasn’t even legal. We were going to move our weekly gathering to another local church building down the street. Oh yeah, and we were gonna meet on Tuesday nights, not Sunday. That’s Right, No Church On Sunday! Our church was young, our people lead busy lives, there was no big tradition to break, and people said it would just be better for their lives. But would it?

April 21 2009, we held our 1^st ever Tuesday night church meeting; and I was terrified. Would anyone show? Was this a gigantic mistake? Could this spell the end of Lifeline Church?

People showed up. Not a lot, but they showed up. But more important, God was there before we were, and I believe He was planning our move long before we were; and it was ok. The next week there were a few more, and the next even more. After a couple months we realized that this was church and church was working on Tuesday night. In fact it was working better on Tuesday night than it ever had on Sunday. People that were once attending regular every 3 weeks were now attending every week. Our core was growing and solidifying into a family that wanted to serve God and impact their community. People were inviting new friends and the friends were coming back too. And all of this was happening… Not on Sunday morning.

Why am I telling you all of this? Not to pat myself on the back. Not to trumpet Lifeline Church, and certainly not to tell you to copy any of what we’ve done. I’m telling you all this simply to say “let God out of the box”. Don’t limit Him, don’t say you can’t, don’t say it’s never been done that way, and don’t be scared to fall down and get back up and try again. Let God do what God wants to do, wherever and however.

We’re now 4 yrs. old at Lifeline Church in LaSalle, and we’ve been successfully meeting on Tuesday evenings for over 2 yrs. We’re still growing in numbers, slowly, but we’re growing. Most importantly Lifeline Church has become a family in LaSalle that loves each other, and loves the community of LaSalle. We meet together on Tuesday, but we are the church every day of the week wherever we are and whatever we are doing. Loving God and Loving People has become our motto, and that’s what we plan to do here in LaSalle for many years to come.

Kevin Saunders – lead pastor, Lifeline Church, LaSalle

www.lifelinechurch.ca

Hope for Center-Stage Cynics

Great article for those of us in ministry trying to battle cynicism that often comes with our job.

Hope for Center-Stage Cynics

David Crowder Band - SMS [Shine]

Best video I've ever seen, saw the premier in Waco it was awesome.

Unsung Heroes From The Bible

Tonite - 6:30 We kick off our Brand New Fall Series.

Is Anyone Out There?

So today's blog is pretty simple. Does anyone ever read these and does anyone care? So many people are blogging these days thinking that everyone cares what they have to say but is anyone really reading anything that is typed?

I've been following a few blogs for years now and when I first began I read them religiously everyday. But now; there's blogs, twitter, and even updates on facebook and who really has time or even cares to read all of that every single day?

Is this blog a waste of time that is just one more thing taking time in my day that I could be putting to better use?

So if you are reading this just send me an email and let me know; it's that simple.