Are You R.E.A.D.Y.
Our 2011 journey of faith at LifeBridge is going to be an exciting one! We’ll be growing our ministry partnership with the refugees downtown, looking for a new worship home ourselves, and working through some of those growing pains that happen in a church’s third year of life. Believing that God has some major things in store for us, we are committing to a year-long venture that will grow us as followers of Jesus Christ. As a faith family, we are inviting people to the following:
1. Read Through the Entire Bible in a Year — We’ll be walking through the entire Bible in just one year. Each week, pastor’s message will set the stage for the next section from the Bible. Then, during the week, people will be encouraged to pick up their Bible and read, and we’ll have a number of opportunities where people can gather in a smaller group to discuss what it means for their lives. Sound daunting? It’s not! We’ll have varying levels of committment — you can read every single page, or you can simply hit the key highlights. Our goal is that by the end of the year, each person in our church will have a deeper understanding of the story of the Bible and what it means for your life.
Download the Are You R.E.A.D.Y. Bible Reading Plan
2. Extend God’s Glory in a Different Context — God didn’t just call on us to GROW, he calls on us to GO. For this, we are challenging people to inconvenience themselves for the sake of the Gospel. Most of that will happen in rather ordinary ways as we live out our lives in our homes, our schools and our workplaces. But, we are challenging each person to prayerfully commit to giving up 2% of their time (that’s about an hour a week) to “GO”ing into a different context. That may be a weekly committment to our refugee ministry or street worship. Others may be led to take a weekend mission trip as a family, or to respond when the next natural disaster hits. The goal here is to love and serve the world as Christ did.
3. Approach God in Prayer for the Entire World — Our recent mission trip to Nepal brought us a stark reminder that most people in the world do not believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior…and that many of them have never even heard the name of Jesus Christ. As a church, we will be praying for every country in the world, using some amazing resources provided by Operation World. We’ll highlight a different country during the prayers each Sunday morning, and encourage individuals and families to be praying each day for all the various countries in the world. Click here for today’s prayer focus.
4. Dedicate Ourselves to a Multiplying Community — Being in church each Sunday morning is so important, but it isn’t enough. We need to share life together, laugh and cry together, care for each other and invest in one another’s life. That’s when the most significant bonds of faith and life are forged. As 2011 unfolds, we’ll be exploring more opportunities to “share life together” as a faith family.
5. Yield Our Money Sacrificially for a Specific Purpose — What would happen if each one of us would intentionally give up some of our extras, with the goal of redirecting that money toward an urgent physical or spiritual need that we encounter this year? That’s exactly what we are asking each person to do. This isn’t a ploy to get people to give more to LifeBridge. Instead, we are asking each person and family to look at how they could live on less, then be seeking out a direct and specific project that they can give sacrificially towards in 2011.
All this starts Jan. 2, 2011, and continues every Sunday and every day throughout the year. To do this well will require some time and committment, but I can assure you that there is nothing in life that is more important than taking care of the spiritual side of things. Come join us on this journey of faith in 2011.