ACC - Leadership Online

This week was the start of Upward Basketball and Cheerleading Practices. It was a very exciting week as players met their coaches and teammates for the first time, got their uniforms, and started preparing for their first game on Saturday, January 23rd. We have about 150 kids signed up this year and have seen growth in just about every age division. The ACC gym will be heavily used for the next 3 months. We appreciate your prayers for safety and for many people to hear and respond to the Gospel message.

Have you found a place to contribute to the success of Upward? Here are some ways to get involved:

-Prayer Team
-Referee
-Concession Stand Worker
-Awards Program
-Game Day Set up or Clean up
-Come enjoy a hot dog, watch a game, & talk to some new people

Contact the church office for more information or to sign up.

Grace,
Chris

Summer is always a great time to read some great books. Hopefully many of you have had a chance to read some books this summer that have entertained, challenged, educated, and inspired you. Lately I have been reading books about the letters Paul wrote in the New Testament for a class I was in at Trinity, and it has forced me to think about HOW I read. In fact, just this morning Michelle and myself had an interesting conversation in the office about how we read. I underline, and she likes highlighting. We both like writing notes in the margins to help remember what we read.

So it got me thinking ... what are some of the characteristics of how YOU read? Do you write down quotes in the back of the book? Do you have an elaborate note-taking system? Maybe you stop and pause after each section or chapter to process? Or maybe you just have a photographic memory and remember everything you read? Whatever you do or don't do, feel free to leave a comment about your reading style.

It would also be interesting to know what books people in our church have been reading this summer. Besides my class reading, one book I have really enjoyed is Crazy Love by Francis Chan. This book has been challenging and convicting me bigtime about how I live out my faith.

So what books have you read this summer? Leave a comment and let us know!

~Scott

This was a weird week. Though I was in the office all week and I will be here on Sunday – I’m not preaching (the high school mission team will be reporting on their trip to South Dakota). Therefore no sermon to prepare. So that is pretty unusual. How would I fill up all these extra hours normally reserved for study and sermon prep?

People. Lots of people. Premarital counseling. One on one discipleship. A men’s cook-out and book discussion. Hooking up with old friends and ministry colleagues. Sharing the good news of Jesus with a seeker. Church business matters discussed over a delicious quesadilla and iced tea. That was the face to face stuff – in addition to a lot of phone calls and emails and tweets and Facebook messages…

Some weeks are task oriented – others more people oriented. This was most definitely a people week!

It got me thinking: Was Jesus more task oriented or people oriented? And how about you? Does your typical week revolve more around people or tasks?

I’m just curious…regardless, I hope you had a great week!

Peace,
Dave

The church has a whole different feel during the summer – a different rhythm – a somewhat slower pace and yet more intense. We are seeing great ministry taking place and that is exciting!

• Chris & Lisa and Jim & Su took 12 middle and senior high students to Lifest in Oshkosh for 4 days of camping, concerts and awesome community building; very little sleep but tons of fun!
• Last week we saw about 80 kids take part in our Halo Hoops basketball camp. We had many unchurched kids involved and about 25 of them prayed to receive Christ as their Savior!
• Men Who Read meets every Monday night as we discuss Contrarians Guide to Knowing God. All 11 of us our being challenged spiritually and really enjoying some great discussions.
• Even as I’m typing this our annual day camp is getting underway. Amy North and her team have been working hard preparing for this fun and exhausting week. Some 80 kids are registered with about 55 volunteer leaders! (Of all ages!)
• Open gym basketball on Thursday nights has continued strong into the summer - easily averaging 12-15 ballers each week.
• This Friday Chris, Dennis, Eric and Elissa take off with a team of 16 high school students for a week of intense service on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota.
• Michelle Smith, our children’s ministry intern, is beginning to feel at home here at ACC and is doing a great job.
• We continue to have a steady flow of first time visitors at our Sunday morning worship services. We are hoping had a good experience and will join us again regularly.

Ministry does NOT take a vacation in the summer! We continue to strive to complete our mission to show our world the life-changing power of Jesus Christ through lives of full devotion in authentic community. Thanks for your prayers, participation and support as we continue to move forward.

Peace,
Dave

At Oasis (high school ministry on Tuesday nights), we've been looking at some Old Testament stories together. For some of our students, it's the first time they've heard these stories. Others have heard them more times than they can count. Where ever they are at, our ministry team has challenged them to approach each story with a fresh set of eyes. Our hope is that they will interact with the story on a deeper level than they ever have before - that they would enter the story and allow themselves to be impacted by it. We've tried some different (dare I say creative) ways to accomplish this. We've looked at different translations, acted out the story, used video clips, and even got out the Children's Bible and had "story time". It's been a blast! I've really enjoyed this series.

Tonight, we are entering into the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal (I Kings 18). As I was preparing for this lesson, I realized that this is probably my favorite Old Testament story. Every time I read it I get excited! For me, it's a beautiful story of God revealing himself to a stubborn people.

-I love that Elijah stands up to King Ahab knowing it could mean his life (v.18).
-I love that Elijah, 1 man, takes on 450 prophets of Baal because he trusts God (v. 22)...talk about being outnumbered!
-I love that Elijah challenges Baal to answer with fire (v.24)...Baal was the "god" of fire!
-I love that Elijah taunts them (v.27)...not usually a nice thing to do, but I'd say it was deserved in this situation.
-I love that Elijah calls the people to himself and then rebuilds the altar of the Lord (v.30)...symbolizing the work that needs to be done in the hearts of the people of Israel.
-I love that Elijah has 4 large jars filled with water and then dumped on the offering not once, not twice, but three times! (v.33-35)...made it perfectly clear that this was not some kind of trick.
-I love that Elijah prays that God would answer and make it known that he is the one true God (v.36)

But, the thing I love the most about this story is how the people respond in v.39. They fall to the ground and worship God! I wonder what it would have been like for them in that moment. They must have realized the foolishness of following Baal. Probably were a little scared, maybe even terrified. I wonder if they even remember where they got off track...where they took a wrong turn. Was it related to a specific event, or was it more of a gradual process?

How about you? What sticks out to you about this story? What's your favorite OT story? What do you like about it? I'd love to hear from you.

Grace,
Chris "the Elijah wannabe"