3 cards= 3 lives

Yesterday we celebrated another milestone at Connections.
We had three people take a step of faith in Jesus.
How do I know? I'll explain.

This central to our mission- Connecting with God through Jesus Christ.
Our hope is to see people far from God connect to God.

We want to figure out the best ways to fulfill this mission- in our singing, praying, preaching and processes.

Our most essential tool in our process is our Communication Card.

Our card is much like you'll find at any church- name, regular attender, address, comments, etc.
One other feature is the bottom line (yes, it's symbolic even in it's placement) which reads,

"I made a decision to Connect with God today and would like to know the next steps."

Here's how we do this (starting yesterday!):

First, we make a big deal about this line.
We let people know that this is vitally important to us. We want people to know that we believe there is a way to connect with God and enter a relationship with him through accepting Jesus as Lord and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. It's not a footnote at the end of the service, it's central to what we are doing with the worship service.

Then, after explaining the card, and the significance of the bottom line, we give people an opportunity. If they've made that connection, for the first time or in a fresh way, we want want to celebrate that with them and help them in any way we can.

So we give them the opportunity (no manipulation involved here) to take the Card to our Welcome Centre and receive a free bible (good ones, leather bound!) and an information packet with resources and CD's.

When people do accept this gift it serves two purposes:
First, it helps them to "seal the deal" and make this step of faith in Jesus more meaningful. Jesus spoken often of confessing him before other people, and how this public declaration has a spiritual effect on our lives.

Second, we can then gauge our ministry to see if it is helping people make this first step.

In this process of using cards, handing them in, giving and receiving these gifts, we get beyond numbers and on to people. In this way I don't have to throw out anything generic like,

"We saw a bunch of people make a first step to connect with God this week!"

Too often churches inflate their "numbers" with these vague references.

I can say,

"We saw three people make a step toward God this week as they put their faith in Jesus. I know because my volunteers told me they received their cards, gave them bibles, and talke with them. I know because I know their names and we can continue to connect with them."

Did others connect with God? I hope so. But that's between them and God for now. All I know is God brought three people to him yesterday, and we had the PRIVILEGE of taking part.

I'm home schooled...in Canada...where the moose are!

Confession time-
I love High School Musical and Hannah Montana.
I was watching Hannah with Eden Tuesday night when, for reasons I won't rehash, Hannah's best friend disguised her identity by saying,

"We've never met. I'm home schooled...in Canada...where the moose are."

We cracked up. "That's me!" Eden said with a smile.

Which made me a little sad, because it's true. If you want to hide you're identity from America, go to Canada. We're off the radar up here.

But it gave me new resolve- I pray God does such amazing things through Connections that all of Canada, and America, and the world can't help but notice.

But I also got to thinking about why I like this silly kids show.
One word- Timeless. The genius is that it does nothing new- they simply rehash the classic comedy formulas with new faces and contemporary references. It's actually brilliant.

That's all we do at Connections Community Church. Take a look at the church when it was born, through 2000 years of changing lives, and at our church today.
Same Jesus.
Same Bible.
Same truths.

But...
New faces.
New tunes.
New venue.
New references.
New applications.
New lives being changed.

What we are doing is as ancient as time, but as fresh as tomorrow.
Up here...in Canada...where the moose are...and where we still home school our kids... even though it makes us look like a bunch of weirdos.

Signs of Belonging Video

Reflections From a Trip to Disney, part 4

I always try to read a book or two during holidays.
I picked up the book "Quiet Strength" by coach Tony Dungy.
(Check it out, coachdungy.com)

This book was great, but I'll use it as a string board for something else.

I was late in catching football fever.
I was torn in childhood. On one side I grew up in the shadow of the Steel Curtain and the Terrible Towel- Steelers country. Everyone was a fan.
But I had a mother who not-so-subtlety discouraged my brother and I from playing football.
"It will ruin your body!" she always said.
So I picked up really safe activities like skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding and rock climbing- nobody has ever hurt themselves in those sports!

It wasn't until I moved away from Pennsylvania that I became a football fan. Much to my surprise it became a way of keeping me rooted to my past. And I've genuinely come to appreciate the sport.

But here's my thought, or my regret:
Now, as an adult, I wish I had the experience of playing for a great coach on a great team.

I was either so poisoned by a culture that said "do your own thing," or just genuinely had bad coaches, that I really don't know what great coaching and teamwork looks like. At least from the inside out. I can't even remember the name of any coach I had in my childhood.

And that is a great loss in my life.

Alas, I can't turn back the clock.
But I can encourage my kids to find a sport, and find a team, and find a coach that truly means something to them.

And in the mean time, as I try to build this church and build our leadership and ministry teams, I can learn from books like "Quiet Strength."
I can learn from just watching and enjoying football.
And I can learn by continuing to coach my kids soccer teams.

Yes, I coach soccer- talk about the blind leading the blind!

Trust me, I'm no coach Dungy, but I'm growing.

Signs of Belonging: Soaring in Worship

Series: Signs of Belonging
Sermon: Soaring in Worship
George J. Saylor
April 6, 2008

We have to find our place of belonging. It’s as human as the need to eat and sleep and breathe. Here at Connections we have a couple of convictions about belonging:
We were created to belong to God. This is the ultimate connection we must make, the ultimate belonging that must happen in our lives.
We were created to belong as a group, what we would call being the church.
We were created to belong socially, in a smaller network of friends.
We were created to belong personally, invest with a few true friends.
And we were created to belong intimately. With a spouse, with family, maybe with one or two life long friends.
Belonging is not a simple thing, it’s not even as simple as yes or no. It’s multifaceted and works out on many levels in our lives.

For the next five weeks we are talking about the Signs of Belonging here at Connections Community Church. We want people to know that these are Signs that mark and identify this church. Today I want to you first understand why they are important.

Read the rest of the sermon at cccsermons.blogspot.com