LifeChange

Adoption & Foster Care in Indiana - Info Session

Every child deserves a family, 

and everyone can make a difference!

Information meeting on Adoption and Foster Care in Indiana

November 11^th 6:30pm -8:00pm

 at the Life Church Offices
700 N. High School Rd.
Indianapolis, IN  46214

November is 'National Adoption Awareness Month', especially set aside to raise awareness about the adoption of our children and youth from the foster care system. On November 11^th, LaDonna Wattley, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Adoption Consultant, will be conducting an informal presentation on Foster Care and Adoption in Indiana from 6:30pm-8:00pm at the Life Church Offices. If you’ve ever considered adoption, know someone who might be, or are just interested in learning more about the foster care and adoption processes in Indiana, we would like to welcome you to attend this event.  Please RSVP to Tara Prater at tlhobson@iupui.edu or Angie Moncrief at ammoncrief@sbcglobal.net so we are sure to have enough literature for everyone.  Feel free to email with any questions.  Hope to see you there at the Life Church offices next Wednesday.

Lands End Big Warm Up Video - creative idea

I share this not so much to promote the event but to demonstrate the creative way Lands End is getting the word out.  You can create a custom video here with someone's name on it and send it via email, Twitter, Facebook or on a blog.  Great job Lands End and a good cause for the Christmas season!

Safe Families for Children

Here are some questions I've been thinking about over the last week:

• What would it look like to have the family unleash it's ministry potential? 
• How do we care for the most helpless of our society when we live in suburbs far away from the greatest need?
• How can the church regain it's role in our culture as a safe haven for parent's in crisis and their children? 
• For those that have a heart to adopt or for foster care but aren't ready to take that step yet, what other options are there?  

These are just a few of the questions I've been asking myself since I learned about Safe Families for Children last week.

I had the privilege of meeting with Krista Davis and Aaron Elliot form Grace Community Church.  Krista is the Assistant Director for Safe Families in Indianapolis.  Safe Families for Children is a program which allows God's people to give meaningful, life-changing support to families in crisis.  It started in Chicago where it's been hugely successful and has been the recipient of grant money even from Oprah!  It's now expanded to several other cities across the country, Indianapolis being one of those.

Safe Families is a way for the church to mobilize, intervene and care for children and parents who are about to go through a crisis.  Unlike government programs where kids go once abused, neglect or trauma has happened, host families in the Safe Families program are connected with children before any of this happens.  Referrals come from government agencies, hospitals, women shelters and a variety of other methods.  Being a host family where these children are placed for any period from a day to several months is a great opportunity to serve and minister to both the children and their parent(s).

God's view on caring for children and orphans is very clear (see James 1:27, Psalm 82:3, Psalm 68:5-6, Isaiah 1:17).  The early church was even recognized for going above and beyond in this area.  The Christian writer Tertullian (AD 200) wrote, "It is our care for the helpless, our practice of loving kindness that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents."  The early Christians were known for their acts of kindness and service, caring for babies who were deformed or discarded because of their sex.  It's time the church retake it's rightful place in caring for the 'least of these' in our society, a role that we long ago abdicated to the government!

Visit the Safe Families website.  If you're in Indianapolis and would like more information feel free to contact me or Krista Davis directly here.

Roller Coasters & Losing Control

 Last week we took a day trip up to Cedar Point with the other staff from Life Church.  Cedar Point is a favorite destination of ours as it's the roller coaster capital of the world. 

As with any amusement park, you pay a lot of money and stand in line for a long time to go on rides that last only a few minutes.  What is it about these parks that make them so attractive and keep people coming back?  I think there is something about the feeling and idea of losing complete control, even if just for a few minutes, that is appealing.  The thrill of not being in charge, or trusting these rides and the people that run them, and the adrenaline rush of being taken places and in directions that seem to defy logic and bring you near death.

What amazes me is that people will do this for an amusement park ride, but when it comes to our life we want to have complete and total control.  We are unwilling to release the tight grip we feel we have over our life, our situations and our future.  However, I've learned that the greatest thrill ride in the world is not found at an amusement park, it is found in fully surrendering and following Jesus Christ.

Jesus said it this way,
" ²³Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. ²⁴For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. ²⁵What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?" (Luke 9:23-25)

Just like we give our life over to the roller coaster operator for a few minutes while we're on that ride, the only way we can fully live life is by giving our life to Christ.  There is no greater adventure, adrenaline rush or fulfillment in life then discovering the purposes God created you for.

Are you still holding on tightly to your life, or have you given it to Christ so you can live the great adventure you were created for?

LifeKids Summer Camp at Boys & Girls Club

Over the last several years we've developed a really good relationship with the Boys & Girls Club.  For the third summer now we are going to be hosting our LifeKids Mega Sports Camps June 22-26.  Last year we had 150 kids there and we're expecting just as many if not more this year.  It's an awesome opportunity to reach out, build relationship and show some kids that someone cares about them.  Many of these young people come from broken homes, have few positive influences in their life and the Boys & Girls Club is the center of the time out of school.  We are glad to be able to partner and support this awesome organization in Indianapolis.

Here's a video of a few pictures from last year and you can sign-up to join us this summer here. 

Friends With Benefits

A lot of young people today shy away from dating or committing to 'go out' with a single person.  There is a new term that's developed over the last five years that has replaced boyfriend and girlfriend, it's "friends with benefits."  If you're not sure what a friend with benefit is, it's a pretty easy formula:

Friends with Benefits = friend + sex (or messing around) - commitment

Here is a quote from a 16 year old that describes this idea and mindset well, "Being in a real relationship just complicates everything. You feel obligated to be all, like, couply. And that gets really boring after a while. When you're friends with benefits, you go over, hook up, then play video games or something. It rocks.''

If you're a parent or you interact with teenagers then you need to understand and be aware of this.  This is how young people are thinking today. 

Where did they learn to think and view relationships this way?  From us adults.  They don't have to look very far to find adults in their own lives that are 'messing around', having affairs, hooking up with people outside of marriage and doing it with no commitment.  This is something we taught them.

It's also the way most of us view our relationship with God.  Here is the formula for the typical Christian:

Friend of God with Benefits = friend + blessing + answered prayer - commitment - suffering - sacrifice

We want to be close to God, to know Him, to have His blessing on our life, to have Him answer our prayers while not committing our life to Him, not suffering or sacrificing anything He might ask us to give up.  We want all the benefits on our terms.  No wonder young people do the exact same thing in their own relationships.

Life for God is costly.  It requires we give up our old life to discover His new life for us.  Jesus paid His life on our behalf.  Am I willing to pay anything?  Many Christians today are not experiencing all God has for them because they are unwilling to make the commitment and cost God asks of us.  Here is the formula for a life fully lived with God:

Life Fully Committed to God = God's love + fully alive + eternity with God + sacrifice + suffering + commitment

Is God your friend with benefit or have you fully committed?

Life Church Plainfield Announcement

We announced today that Life Church will be starting a new service in early fall at Metropolis in Plainfield!  While we've always had a heart for Plainfield (I actually grew up there) over the last year God has given us a vision to start a location for Life Church in that community.  We've also had an increasing number of people attend our current location and have been building relationship with business and community leaders in the town.

Plainfield is a community that has changed and grown much over the last 5-8 years.  A lot of young adults, couples and families have moved into the area.  It has also become one of the cultural centers of Hendricks County and the west side of Indianapolis with the Plainfield Aquatics Center, a vast parks system, and the Metropolis Mall.  While there are some great established churches in Plainfield, there is a large group of young people and people detached from church.  These are the people that we have a heart to reach with the message of God's love and the hope of Jesus Christ.

Over the coming weeks we'll be gathering a core team of people to launch this new location as well as doing a series of outreaches.  I encourage you to pray for what God is doing both at Life Church and in Plainfield.  Perhaps He will lead you to get involved as Life Church transitions to becoming One Church in Two Locations... Indianapolis West and Plainfield.

Town Hall For Hope - this Thursday

Thursday night, April 23rd, at 8PM ET Dave Ramsey is broadcasting a FREE event called Town Hall For Hope.  It's 90 minutes long and Dave is going to talk about our economy for about 30 minutes and then he's going to take live questions for the rest of the time.  The goal is to provide people hope in these difficult economic times and also to combat a lot of the fear and false information floating around out there.  Dave's an amazing and entertaining communicator... it will be a great time.  You can find where it is being hosted by going to this website and type in your zip code.

Here's a video where Dave explains what it's about.

Setting The Mood - Jamee Bryant

Jamee Bryant runs a business called Setting The Mood which is a special event and decor company.  She does outstanding work.  I am always amazed at her creativity and ability to design and produce stunning decorations, artwork, and centerpieces for nearly any type of event.  I've been helping her with her website and I encourage you to check it out here.

An Environment of Experimentation

The other day I met with someone who has done amazing things for God.  His ministry and influence in the community is great and many others have come to know Christ through his nearly 25 years of ministry.  However, there was a tremendous burden and pressure that he carried as he prepared for where he felt God was leading him.  You'd hear statements like this: 

• "I'm afraid to take the next step because I don't know how it'll turn out."
• "I'm not ready to move forward yet, as there's still a lot of things unclear."
• "If we're going to do this it must succeed.  It must be done right."
• "Failure is not an option." (this was never said, it was inferred)

I've seen this scenario play out in both the business and ministry world.  It's due to a culture where:

1. We rely on our own wisdom more than God's leading
2. Failure is not something that's tolerated
3. The constant expectation is to always hit a home run

No one would probably say those are the expectations and rules one should work by, but they're implied through conversations, modeled by leadership and how people are measured. 

The problem with the above is people never take risks.  They don't innovate.  They don't try new things.  They stay stuck with what's known, trusted and provided results in the past. 

Unfortunately, what's worked in the past won't continue to work in the future, and the God we serve likes to break our expectations and work in new ways in our life (see my last post.) 

Here's what I propose:  create an environment of experimentation.  Give people permission to try new things.  Let them know that failure is OK (as long as it's not due to repeated mistakes and lessons that are not being learned.)  Encourage people to risk, to step out, to take steps of faith.  Tell people to follow God's leading, even if He leads down a path that doesn't seem logical or predictable.

This is the environment Tony has modeled and created at Life Church.  You'll often hear us talk about something we're trying as an experiment.  We seek God's leading, and as He directs us, we do everything we can to follow and implement where He's taking us with excellence.  However, there are times where we make mistakes, don't fully understand where He's taking us, or things just don't work out.  That's OK... I'd rather risk and fail then not risk and stay stagnant.