Community Updates from Dr. Bob: 7/19/2023
Cultivating a heart that reflects God’s heart
As we continue to experience God, we develop a heart that reflects God’s heart. The closer we get to God, the more we care about what God cares about. And what did God care about?
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9:35-38)
Those are strong words: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them.” Let’s reflect on our own hearts: Do we have compassion on those who are lost, wandering, helpless, and harassed? Jesus did. He cared deeply for them. And what was his response? It was to pray and ask for workers to go out to help them and to guide them.
It’s also worth noting that the very next passage (Matthew 10:1) “Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” And then he sent them out to do so.
Do you see the progression? Experiencing God leads to compassion for the lost, compassion for the lost leads to prayer for workers, and prayer for workers leads to sending people out to serve and reach the lost. It’s a movement toward compassion and action.
What’s your part?
Pray that God would increase our sense of compassion for those who are hurting, those who are far from God, our neighbors, and our co-workers. And pray for workers for the harvest fields.
If you want to explore your own role in the mission of Jesus, a great first step is to set up a spiritual gifts advising appointment. As you recall, one of our ministry priorities is to mobilize the body of Christ according to each of our unique gifts. In this way, we serve out of compassion and out of joy in ways aligned with how God has gifted us.
None of this works without you—your response and ministry engagement are crucial as we head into our next season as a church. And we also have much to celebrate as we have begun moving forward.
Final summer process groups
Here are the rest of our summer process groups. These are specifically designed to support people through challenging seasons of life, and are open to both people inside and outside the church. If you know someone who is hurting—and doesn’t mind a bit of spirituality—they could definitely benefit from experiencing a safe place in one of these process groups. The Zoom groups have demonstrated particular effectiveness.
- CHOOSING TO FORGIVE MYSELF & OTHERS (Robin Zamora) begins Wednesday, Aug 9 from 7:00-8:00 p.m. on Zoom. [Note: People who do not use Zoom have found friends who do, and who invite them into their home to get set up on theirs.] Register here. Often, our hesitancy to forgive is because of our misconceptions about it. The 5-session group allows us to sit with 5-10 others, reflect on our own situations, receive wisdom from God, strength and hope from the others.
- MANAGING ANGER (Janet Logan) begins Thursday, Aug 3 from 7:00-8:00 p.m. on Zoom [Note: People who do not use Zoom have found friends who do, and who invite them into their home to get set up on theirs.] Register here. Anger has many different faces–sarcasm, frustration, irritability, intimidation, shouting, door-slamming. In this 5-session group, we uncover the purpose for it; identify learned patterns of thinking and acting that influence it; and look at positive ways to express it. (About those positive ways–did you know that Netflix, Adidas & Puma, and Liverpool F.C. are creative expressions of someone’s anger?)
- DEPRESSION: CHANGES THAT RESTORE (Debbie Case) begins tomorrow, July 20 at 6:30 p.m. at Elaine Tisler’s home. When you register we’ll send confirmation and the address. Register Here.
A Work of Art
Our art workshop is off to a great start as people of all ages—from preteens to 80s, both parents and kids—created paintings after listening to and discussing scripture. It’s an experiential way to engage with God through art. You can still join us as we have a few spaces left. There are three more weeks to go, and we are meeting on Thursday evenings. Register here.
Student worship night
As many of our students returned from camp two weeks ago, they have been leaning into how they experienced God and what that means for them today. Our high school leadership team developed a worship night with response stations to help our middle school students process how God has been working in their lives. Last night (in addition to capture the flag) they discussed how to continue to experience God as disciples. The students were challenged to move beyond a “kiddy pool faith.” And students are responding! Praise God – and continue to pray for our students as they wrap up their summer events and begin to transition back to our school year schedule next month.
Vacation Bible School off to a good start
The kids really enjoyed our first week of Sunday morning VBS! We had almost 40 kids, some of whom are unchurched, and some of whom have not come to any of our church’s events before. All of them are learning more about who they are in Christ as they engage in a Star Voyager theme of exploration. Continue to pray for the children and the leaders.
Requests for the prayer team
If you have prayer needs, please email the prayer team with your specific requests: prayer@findcommunity.com.
