ACC - Leadership Online

It's good to be home!

Our HS mission team had a great trip this past week. We're so thankful for such a memorable and spiritually significant week. We were stretched beyond our comfort zones, challenged emotionally and physically by the work we did, and encouraged by the joy of those we were there to serve.

I'm continually grateful for how God blesses us as we chose to be obedient and serve. As our team took time to reflect each day, we heard story after story of how much God was teaching each of us.

I so appreciated Dave's message yesterday about developing an lifestyle of serving others. I know I was challenged by what he had to say and will be looking for ways to put into practice the 4 next steps he listed:

- The service of listening

- The service of hospitality

- The service of sticking up for others

- The service of being interrupted

Grace,

Chris

It happens every 4 years. I really don't follow soccer (football for you purists) any other time, but I LOVE the World Cup. I know very little about the players and what teams are any good, but none of that matters. It's exciting to cheer on my team and be a part of one of the biggest sporting events in the world.

I think we can all relate to that...wanting to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. In fact, I believe it's the way God designed us. Saint Augustine of Hippo wrote in his Confessions

"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."

I've experienced the truth of this in my own life. It's so easy to slip into the habit of trying to find fulfillment through other avenues...money, possessions, recognition, and the list could go on and on. I continually have to be reminded that those things don't bring lasting fulfillment. True fulfillment stems from finding my place in God's story - His redemptive work in this world.

God created each of us to be in a relationship with Him. That's the biggest thing we could ever be a part of and the only place our hearts will ever find rest.

Grace,

Chris

P.S. The US plays Algeria on Wednesday, 6/23. We need a win to advance to the next round. It's going to be an exciting match.

What a striking visual image of the big mistake far too many of us are making.

Father, deliver us from the insidious desire to "play it safe". Teach us what it means to step out in faith, be bold, take risks and leave fear behind. Amen.

May that prayer be answered for me personally and for us as a church.

Peace,
Dave

About a year ago, at a youth ministry conference, I was introduced to a devotional practice called scripture writing. It's simple, yet I've found it to be very powerful. The title gives it away entirely. In essence it's just writing out Scripture. It calls to mind the practice of the scribes who so many years ago copied by hand manuscripts of the Bible (many we still have today). I've found that as I write out scripture, I pay attention to it in a different way. It forces me to slow down, focus on each word, and to see how the words are connected. After writing it out I like to go back and come up with some way to visually represent the passage. For me, having little to no artistic ability, that normally means underlining main ideas, drawing arrows, maybe some sentence diagrams...things like that. We did this exercise at Oasis (our high school youth group) a couple weeks ago. I loved how some of our more artistic students visually portrayed the passage. Some drew several little pictures within the text, others drew one picture to portray a take away point, still others simply wrote out a key phrase they wanted to take hold of. The thing I like most about Scripture writing is that it engages heart and mind as we creatively interact with God's word. Below is an image I created at www.wordle.net. It's the text of John 15:1-17. Enjoy!

Grace,
Chris

Saw this video at a conference a couple years ago. Got goosebumps the first time I saw it. Hope you enjoy it.

Grace,
Chris