Hey everyone!  It’s Tuesday morning of Holy Week, the week that leads up to Resurrection Sunday – the title I prefer to Easter Sunday.  Sunday is the day that we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ!  The Maker and Perfector of our faith!  As we head through the week I want to challenge you to read some scriptures and do a few things to prepare for Sunday! 

• First read the arrest and crucifixion narrative sometime this week from all four Gospels.  Maybe Read one Each day starting on Wednesday.  They are each two chapters long.  (Matthew 26 & 27; Mark 14 & 15; Luke 22 & 23; John 18 & 19)
• Also Read 1 Corinthians 15.  I am going to be preaching out of that chapter but for time’s sake won’t be able to cover the entire chapter.  We will be specifically studying verses 3-8; 18; 20-22; and 57.  But to have a good grasp of the context it will help if you have read the text before coming.
• PRAY. Meditate.  If you feel led…fast.  Prepare your heart and soul for something from God.
• Join us at Elmwood Church of Christ on Friday night at 7pm for our Good Friday service.  This will prepare you even more for what is to come on Sunday.

Resurrection Sunday is always a special day.  I have many beautiful memories from past observances of the resurrection of Christ.  I know this coming Sunday will be added to those!  Join us at 8:30am or 11:00am.  Breakfast will be served between the two services!  Lots of good food and great fellowship!  We will be finishing our Song of the Ages teaching series with a message titled: O Glorious Day! 

I hope this past month you have taken it to heart and been encouraged by the fact that Jesus Paid It All, so that we could understand How Great the Father’s Love is, and realize that each one can come, Just As I Am, to receive his Amazing Grace, so One Day we can share in His resurrection…O Glorious Day!

May God bless you and keep you, may He cause His Light to shine upon you, and grant you peace!

In HIM

Pastor Jeff

A vision from God cast for us!

We have been spending the last 8 months or so, working on the next three year vision for Brady Lane Church.  This past Sunday and the next two Sundays our Elders will be continuing to reveal this vision to the congregation.  I would like to take a moment to share the vision with you.

The meaning of our VISION – ANTICIPATE – is through God’s prompting of  us through the Holy Spirit, and with His guidance and direction, we as a church begin to Anticipate the needs of our church and the community around us, to use our resources with good stewardship to meet those needs, both spiritual and physical.

INVOLVEMENT

Involvement in our vision pertains to us making more of an effort to connect our body of believers to each other through opportunities to do ministry together, and to be in life groups together.  We also desire to make sure we make a better effort to connect with guests and new attenders, to do a better job of getting them involved in the body of Christ at BRADY LANE!  Some of the things we will be doing in the next three years to help with that are:

• New interior signage to eliminate guest and member confusion
• New Service Times Beginning on January 7th, 2018 – (8:30 Worship/9:45 Sunday School/ 11:00 Worship)
• Move Coffee Bar away from children’s hallway to the adult hallway to alleviate congestion and add security to our children’s area
• Formation of a security ministry team
• Annual Ministry Fair in all three years
• Implementation of Involvement Plan (1st time guest – to meet the pastor – to BLC 101 & 102 Class – to involvement in life group or ministry team
• Formation of an intentional Connection Team
• Improve guest services team by adding new members and upgrading our welcome area to help people get involved.
• More mentoring and discipleship opportunities – Goal was set that everyone who serves in a ministry will have trained someone to do what they do before 2020.

COMMUNITY

Community in our vision pertains to our desire to get more connected to the community around us.  We have been very internally focused over the past three years as we healed the grew through a difficult season.  Now we are ready to turn our eyes out to the community around us, and get busy making Jesus famous in Lafayette, Indiana.  Some of the things we will be doing in the next three years in this area are:

• Better follow up on our events to help connect with our community and get them to come back again.
• More focused outreach opportunities, being intentional with our calendar to match up with community events.
• Connecting with Pheasant Run Apartments to reach to their tenants
• Electives for the community – ESL, Help Groups, Recovery Groups, Financial Classes, Etc.
• Increase in our involvement at Miami Elementary School, our adopted school.
• Increase our presence in our community at events, festivals, parks, city schools, and Purdue and Ivy Tech events.
• Become more culturally diverse to match our community around us.
• More involvement in Missions both at home and abroad.

RESOURCES

Resources in our vision pertains to the abundance of blessings that God has poured out upon us, and using those blessings to bless others.  We have set a goal by the end of 2017 to be out of debt as a church.  We are very close to reaching that goal.  With the freedom that presents to not be making a mortgage payment every month, most churches end up going back into debt to start a new project.  Our elders have made a commitment that BRADY LANE CHURCH will remain debt free – and we will not take on another large debt.  All projects in this area will only be completed when the money has been raised to do them.  Again this means we are going to as a church remain disciplined as good stewards of what we have, while we wait to save up the amount needed to complete the project.  Some of the projects that we hope to complete in this next three years if God continues to bless us are:

• Remodel and Secure Brady Lane Kids Hallway.
• Upgrade Sanctuary Lighting.
• Construct Neighborhood park/playground on our open lot complete with parking and bus stop.
• Outdoor sign replacement to solidify our identity in the neighborhood.
• Bring GSLC Director and teachers on as BLC staff, making our preschool tuition free.
• Upgrade Sanctuary Stage.
• Repair and Securing of Baptistery Well.
• Begin developing a new master plan for our facility taking us beyond 2020.
• in 2020, we will begin early phases of new master plan to add or repurpose space under our existing footprint.

We can’t wait to see what God does with us next.  Come join us to see these items and many other come to life over the next three years! 

Reflecting on a week away with God

Happy July 4th!  I have spent the last few days reflecting on this past week I spent with God at Hanging Rock Christian Camp.  There are so many stories I could tell about the week…how we played paintball with some high school kids, how Nic, Jacob, Lindsey, and I all got our share of welts for Jesus. (I am copyrighting that phrase by the way for next year’s t-shirts).  I could tell tales of awesome worship services, powerful small group experiences, wonderful camp food, and beautiful weather.

The stories I want to share with you are on a much deeper level.  I would like to share a few victory stories from our week.  The victory stories of personal conversations with students that will last an eternity.  I cannot share names or particulars as I do not want to reveal personal confidences that we promised the students we worked with.

But I can tell you that God gave all four of us an opportunity to have influence with students this week that may have not only been forming spiritually, but influence that has saved physical lives as well.  Some wonder what benefit playing paintball at church camp has.  A game that mimics violence seems an odd match for a camp that promotes the love of Jesus.

It’s in that game that some other things are taught.  Teamwork.  Sacrifice.  Mercy.  Love.  In the Gospel of John Chapter 15 verse 13 we find the words of Jesus as he instructed his disciples to love one another…

John 15:13 [Full Chapter]

In playing paintball we teach the kids during the break times about the sacrifice that they may make in a game being a small microcosm of the sacrifice that Jesus describes.  A sacrifice for a friend is the greatest kind of love.

In the process of spending quality time playing this game with these kids, we get the opportunity to have other conversations, which sometimes lead to the life saving counsel that we are blessed to get to give.  We all had those types of influences this last week…with kids who were struggling, depressed with life situations hanging over them that were outside of their control and some that were by their own poor choices.

There was one student, who has been at paintball the last three years, who came up to me and said that if it weren’t for Jacob and I and the paintball camp experience that he has had the last couple of years, that he wouldn’t be alive.  I can’t give more of the story – but suffice it to say as that boy walked away from me I was taken aback – you go into camp with ideas of bringing Christ to these kids to hopefully help them find the saving grace of Jesus…but you don’t really expect to save anyone physically.  Our young people are dealing with real issues, real stress, real heartache.  Pray for them please…they need that… but could I encourage you to take it a step further?  Could I encourage you to build a mentoring relationship with a young person – by spending time with them, teaching them something about life, take them fishing, show up at their sports events and concerts and plays, show them in some way shape or form that their life has value to you.  So many young people are not getting that from anyone…and you could be the very person that keeps them from checking out permanently.  Show people Jesus by loving them and maybe even sacrificing something for them.  This is the greatest love!

Celebrations

This past week was full of celebrations that I was either a witness to, or participated in.  Celebration of a Memorial Holiday, celebration of a new marriage, celebrations of anniversaries, celebration of a life well lived, celebrations of graduating high school, and a celebration of the beginning of camp season.  To be honest, I’m exhausted…but it’s a good tired.  There were so many smiles this past Saturday at the wedding I officiated for Nick and Lindsey (Stone) Salem.  So much joy at the beginning of a life long commitment, so much happiness.

We also had a couple at the church this weekend that was celebrating 60 years of marriage!  Way to go Adam and Janet Wireman!  You are an inspiration!

We celebrated Sunday afternoon at Hanging Rock Christian Camp where we participated in Celebrate Good Times – the camp’s annual Summer Kick Off Event.  Saw so many friends as 30 churches gathered together to welcome in the camp season.

There was another celebration of sorts that I participated in this last week as well… a celebration of life.  We said “see you later” to Sandy Maas at her Celebration of Life service last Thursday, along with an internment service this morning.  While Bob and the rest of the family and those of us who called Sandy friend are still shocked and grieving her loss… we also celebrate because we know that Sandy is resting with the Lord.  We celebrate because she lived life to it’s fullest, and finished her race well.

It is important to celebrate.  The word celebrate shows up in scriptures sixty-eight times.  All through the Old Testament God’s people celebrated.  Usually they were festivals that honored God or remembered God for what he had done.  Jesus even celebrated – he performed his first miracle at a wedding celebration, and he celebrated all the traditional Jewish feast and festivals, including Passover.  Jesus also taught a parable that talked about a celebration that took place when a lost son returned home; a picture of how God and all of heaven celebrates when a lost person is found and redeemed by Jesus Christ!

Celebrations happen for three reasons…

1. To honor God’s involvement and provision:  The Feast of Tabernacles, the Festival of the Harvest (Weeks), The Festival of the Unleavened Bread, and Passover were all celebrations of what God had provided Israel.
2. To mark special occasions and remember: The Lord’s Supper is a weekly celebration to remember what Jesus did on the cross.  We have several holidays and other special days that we still observe events that happened, and we celebrate and remember.
3. To encourage each other and build each other up:  Celebration is something that goes up to honor God, but it is also something we do that goes laterally as well…from person to person that causes us to feel the power of the Holy Spirit connecting us together.  Celebration of personal and corporate victories, baptisms, weddings, Celebration of Life Services, Christmas, Easter, and the list can go on and on…we need to celebrate regularly when God moves us as a church.  We need to recognize what he has done…but we also must celebrate together to build up the spirit of unity and love.  Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:11…“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”

Brady Lane Church – we are going to be a church that celebrates God…we are going to celebrate our victories in Him, we are going to celebrate to remember and we are going to celebrate to build each other up and encourage each other!  I look forward to celebrating with all of you!

Memorial Day and Some Thoughts!

Hey everyone.  Happy Memorial Day!  I hope that it was a good day for you and your family.  Amy and I had a wonderful day that followed a pretty good weekend.  After spending Friday with our daughter Ashton and her husband James and our grand-daughter Emory, we had a great Lord’s Day with our church family, followed by a beautiful Monday with family and working around our house.

It was also a weekend of reflecting.  I am thankful for God’s love and provision.  I appreciate the opportunities I have been blessed with as a guy from a working class family having – getting to go to higher education on three occasions, earning degrees and certifications.  Having a family that loves me and supports me is a blessing as well.  God has given me so much and continues to provide love and direction for my life…but He does so because I continue reach for Him, I continue to seek Him, I continue to have a healthy fear of his wrath – while I embrace His love.  I work daily (not always succeeding mind you) at keeping his covenant with me through the Blood of Jesus Christ…that covenant was my salvation provided by Christ, through my faith…and because of that salvation that He has given me I strive to obey Him and what he has taught.  My instruction on this comes from my scripture from my personal study today from Psalm 103:17-18…

But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children— with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.

Psalm 103:17-18 NIV

It really comes down to always remembering what Jesus did for me.  You want the key to being a growing disciple of Jesus?  It is simply this idea of keeping a constant memorial of Jesus’ blood sacrifice.  We do this in our worship services through our communion time, but we need to daily remember the sacrifice of Christ.  It’s when we keep his suffering for us at the forefront of our minds, that we burn with the desire to grow closer to Him.  REMEMBERING is the KEY!