Saturday, September 20, 2008

Southside! :)

Our church is going through a dramatic awakening / change. We started going to Southside in 2004... we continued because we saw potential. We agreed with the preaching, enjoyed the worship, connected with the people around us in the pews, felt the Spirit. I 'felt' there was something big going on there. In the past months, some seeds have come up showing what has been going on. God has been at work in the hearts of the leadership & the people and as I continue to see all around me in the world - He is building His army. It has been an amazing thing to see and be a part of (be a part of behind the scenes and in the pews and being a part of it because I've been allowing God to work in my own heart). Our church has some wonderful ministries already - disaster relief, Gospel for Brazil and many others I could go on and on..... BUT this new venture which I won't talk in detail about yet is surpassing all other ventures we have been lead to.

Words were spoken today at a meeting that affirmed to me why I was lead here. The 'leaders' have the same heart I do. I will serve alongside & encourage them as they lead. They have been learning the same lessons God has been laying on my heart... they have been noticing the same things in our culture, community & church that God has been showing me.

I could go on and on and on - as everybody knows..... but to summarize....let me share with you snidbits of the heart of our teachers which is a wonderful reflection of the heart of the God I love and the Jesus I walk with. Their words are in italics.... my thoughts in regular as always :)

  • our job is to build bridges to people - God's job is to save
  • it is time to stop playing church and start being the church
  • we have been out of touch with the lost for too long
  • it is time to engage & connect with our community
  • Jesus did not set up a building or altar and sign and say ok here is the messiah - come people. He himself was the altar and the equipment and went out into the community (Matthew 10:9-10)
  • people are tired of denominations - we are tired of denominations - God is tired of denominations. Jesus never put people into denominations or separated groups
  • we are ready to get our church out of our walls


  • imagine if all Jesus lovers / christians came together and worked together at spreading the gospel, feeding people, healing the sick, taking care of the hurting, praising God!!! United, God can use us to change the world ---- divided, leaves room for the devil.
  • Each of our denominations, our church 'types' and us individually have many strengths individually --- but when we combine them - that is when God-created excellence occurs!!
  • together we are all better - my friend Tre and I were talking about such a perfect example of this is the different styles of worship. Imagine if you took the best strengths from each and put it together ---- it would be heaven! We could experience that here if we would stop having so many divisions and learn to appreciate and love each other's goodness!!! I want more diversity in all our churches so bad!


  • we are willing to give up everything, our security blanket for this God sized vision and to reach those who need reaching. we are putting so much on the back burner, forget our buildings right now, forget our programs, we are ready to be laser focused. we will no longer be luke warm mediocre in many things - but be God-driven excellent in His thing. we will cut out everything that isn't reaching the goal of making disciples of Christ, cut out anything that isn't fruitful
  • there are at least 100,000 people in our surrounding community that need reaching and don't know Christ
  • we are ready to build bridges and stop creating islands
  • we are all going to step out of our comfort zones and start engaging the community
  • we are going to get good at caring about people and spending time pouring into people's lives who are unlike us

** I would direct you to our webpage so you could learn more about us - but it's not up yet. The newly revamped sites will be up soon!!! And I can't wait to share with all of you - my bloggie friends - what God is doing at Southside as it is unveiled **

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