February 28th:  Spiritual Amnesia

BIG IDEA: We need to find our way back to God because we have forgotten who we are in relation to Him.

March 7th: This Is Not What I Want

BIG IDEA:  We think doing our own thing and putting other things before God is what will make us happy, but it won't.  

March 14th: I Want To Go Home

BIG IDEA: Becoming a Christ follower isn't about getting religious or getting your act together. It's about coming home.  

March 21st: I Can't Do It On My Own

BIG IDEA: We can’t do anything to help ourselves find our way back to God. It's all about God and His grace for us.  

March 28th:  Come to the Party

BIG IDEA: Contributing is a response to God’s grace towards us.  

April 4th:  Spiritual Surprise

BIG IDEA: God's grace to us is amazing and relentless. 

HOW YOU CAN MAKE AN IMPACT?

1.  Sell Some Stuff.  We all have things setting around in our garage or storage unit that could be sold in a garage sale or on eBay!  You could donate also donate cars, rental houses, or even stocks. Like the early church did in Acts--bring the proceeds to the church on Easter and make an IMPACT!

2.  Stop Monthly Fees.  We all have things being charged monthly to our credit or debit card that we don't use.  Cancel or downgrade your Netflix, Health club, internet, phone, wine of the month club, or season tickets.  Give your savings on Easter and make an IMPACT!

3.  Invest.  Like in the Parable of the Talents, take $20 or $50 or $100 and invest it (I don't mean play the stock market or betting it all on black).  Buy yarn and knit a sweater and sell it.  Have your kids operate a lemonade stand.  Take a little bit of money and combine a skill that you have and give the proceeds on Easter to make an IMPACT!

4.  Be a Priority, Percentage Giver.  We have the opportunity to make an IMPACT every week with our regular giving.  Pick a percentage and automatically give it--paycheck after paycheck--off of the top.

How do we remain hopeful in a world that seems hopelessly broken?
How do we continue to trust a God that seems conspicuously absent?
How do we find peace in a world that is spinning out of control?

If you’ve ever asked QUESTIONS like these, you’re not alone . . . and you’re not the first.

Why? Because UNCERTAINTY is nothing new. And the uncertainty we face today is no different from the uncertainty faced by the men and women of the Bible. And, like them, we are left to question God’s faithfulness, his presence, his concern. But in the end, they, like us, were reminded that . . .

He’s Still* Got the Whole World in His Hands. 

January 10th:  Nothing New

January 17th: Pray Until the Peace Comes

January 24th: Hope

Join us on December 20th for our Christmas service at 10:30 AM at the Stoller Middle School.

We are taking up a special Christmas offering and donating 100% to kids.  50% will go to help the Beaverton School District Homeless Student Fund and 50% will go to Children of the Nations.  If you will not be at our service and would like to donate click this link. 

WHAT TIME: We will be open on Saturday's from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM and on Sunday's from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

WHERE: 16260 NW Bronson Rd Beaverton, OR

We have BEAUTIFUL trees that start at $25+ Donations are also accepted.

It's FOR KIDS

50% will go to the Beaverton School District Homeless Student Fund.

50% will go to Children of the Nations.

Donate ONLINE

Join us during the next four weeks as we learn that Spiritual formation is all about hearing from God.  We are going to learn how to teach others about our faith--our neighbors, our co-workers, and especially our family!  We're going to learn about prayer, Scripture reading, and Service.

November 22: Integration

Big Idea: We need to hear from God every day and not just when we are in church.

There is a disconnect between church and home.  We still see church as the primary spiritual developer of the family.  Yet, God created the family as the place of spiritual development.  The challenge is  that so many kids are growing up without any kind of spiritual foundation at home. Its not part of lives.  The role of the church is to help equip families.  We need to admit we need help and we need to seek out the help we need. 

The Solution to what works is leveraging the hours we have with our children to the fullest potential.

http://read.ly/e/gt

November 29: Prayer

Big Idea:  Prayer is about hearing from God rather than telling Him what we want Him to do.

What if someone came up to you and said “Would you teach me to pray?”  85-90% of people would say “Don’t ask me, ask so and so (some official spiritual person)” or they would say “It’s a very personal thing, everybody needs to pray in their own way” which is another way of saying “Don’t ask me.”

Prayer starts with God, not you.  Things were happening in Samuel’s life, and Eli was teaching him to respond to God.  We tend to think that prayer is US starting the conversation with God, that we are the initiators.  The story shows us that wasn’t the case for us, that God is speaking to us constantly.  Now obviously, it’s not like Samuel, where God comes and stands by his bed (or maybe it is and we just can’t see him or hear Him?  The story doesn’t say Samuel saw Him, only that he heard Him.)  But God is speaking to us.

Apply this to both my own prayer life and the prayer life of my kids if I have kids.  I need to learn and teach my children that prayer never truly starts with me.  I’m responding to what God is saying to me in my life. 

God is already speaking to each of us every day in a myriad of ways.  Prayer doesn’t start with us, it’s responding to God.  God starts the conversation, not us.  Prayer is not so much “what am I supposed to say?” or just saying what I have to say and then being done praying, it is thinking about and reflecting on what God has been saying to me and responding to that in what I say back.  That’s why Samuel is told to say to God “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”

Prayer is more about listening than talking.  Prayer is more about doing what God wants me to do instead of telling God what I want him to do. 

Deember 6th:  Scripture

Big Idea:  We hear from God when we read and study the Bible with others in community.

Hearing God isn’t presumptuous to think about, it’s not for the elite, it’s necessary for life as we know it.  Last week we talked about hearing from God in prayer and today we’re talking about hearing from God from the Bible.  For starters, that’s what we gotta get: Scripture isn’t about just a discipline, or just learning spiritual data, or memorizing stuff or becoming a Bible scholar.  Scripture is about hearing from God, and hearing from God is necessary for life.

December 13th:  Service

Big Idea: Hearing from God means using our spiritual gifts to serve together and change the world.

Families will be encouraged to serve together and discover and develop their spiritual gifts together.  We usually think about this as something we do for others, but there's also a huge element of how God develops us through service, how we are the ones who are on the receiving end even though we are the ones who are doing the serving.  This is about knowing why we are here, and how God has wired each of us up in particular ways to make a difference for Him that fits together with the different ways He has designed others to make a difference.  The Body of Christ working together is one of the best passages on this, and how we need to overcome our culture's individualistic bias against me playing my part in a larger community, whether that community is the church or the family.

Join us at 10:30 AM or listen online.

It is hard not to worry, there are so many things to worry about – job, family, economy, etc.  We all worry and it holds us hostage because it takes away our focus on God and it makes us not trust God.  We like worry, and when there is nothing to worry about we worry about what might happen.  Worry is the opposite of faith.  It is the sin of distrusting the promises and the power of God.  Worry does not come from God. When we trust God with the worry in our lives we are acknowledging that He is all-powerful.

Many of us are hostage to bitterness. Bitterness is like a poisonous root.  It grows and can affect all those around you.  When we don’t handle betrayal and hurt scripturally we absorb that pain, like a root absorbs the water..  We store that pain and it grows. Bitterness produces a poisonous fruit.  Out of the bitterness and hatred we store, our lives start to reflect hatred, anger and rage. Forgiveness of others the way God forgives us is the key to letting go of bitterness.

Addictions can come in many forms, drugs, alcohol, porn, money, credit card debt, spending, food, tv watching, over eating, control, coffee, smoking, caffeine, material things, technology, gossip, approval seeking, and more. We all have choices we can make: Tempting you with one more charge on the credit card.  Tempting you with one more bite.  Tempting you with one more text message.  “I can just text her one more time.  It’s going to be okay,” and that one more thing is going to lead to your addiction. Addictions replace God in our lives because they become our gods. Through God’s power, you can overcome the addictions in your life.

Youversion Notes: read.ly/e/ZH

We are all held hostage to lies.  The big lie that most of us are held hostage to that is the collective sum of all lies is “God can’t change me.”  We get caught up in the horrible cycle of promise, failure, and guilt that leads us to believe that nothing will ever change.  We tell ourselves “this is just the way I am.” We buy the lie and believe that if God was going to change me, he would have done it already.  But God sees us differently. When we believe the lie that we can never change it keep us hostage and prevents us from experiencing the good God has prepared for us.

Youversion Notes: http://read.ly/e/d1

What we believe is a story that starts with who we believe God really is and culminates with what we believe about heaven and hell.  What we believe is not just our beliefs, it’s the story of everything.

Sept 13th: God

God is relational to His very core; God is love, created the world and each person out of love to love and be loved, and His deep desire is to have a personal relationship with each of us.

Sept 20th: Sin

Sin is what went wrong with The Story of Everything. Sin is what is wrong with the world, including us. But God is at work to save the world He made from sin, which is at heart a wrecked relationship with Him that leads to all the other wrecks in our lives and in our world.

Sept 27th: Jesus

Experiencing the fullness of Jesus the incarnation, atonement, and restoration is the centerpiece of The Story of Everything.  In Jesus, God is bringing everything back together.

Oct 4th: Spirit

The Holy Spirit is God Himself taking up residence within us to empower us.  He is Christ in us, the One who we listen to and follow and rely on daily as we follow His leadings and rely on His power

Oct 11th: Church

The church is not an institution or organization. It is the central character right now in the ongoing Story of Everything.  I become part of the story as I take my place as a celebrating, connecting, contributing member of the body known as the church.

Oct 18th: Never-ending Story

The final chapter of the Story is when time as we know it comes to an end at the Second Coming of Jesus.  Time will end when Jesus comes again and The Judgment is the point in the story where a person’s story is never ending with Christ or without Him.

We are having a special offering in November.

This is a continued effort to give back to our community. We are looking for volunteers to help in trimming bushes, weeding and spreading bark dust.

Items to bring: rakes, wheelbarrows, small & large clippers, gloves, chain saw & shovels. Water and snack bars will be provided for the volunteers.

RSVP to tammyskiddos (AT) comcast (DOT) net

July 19th: Abraham.
God is in the process of restoring the world and wants me to be part of what He is doing.
July 26th: Sarah
Being a person of faith means waiting and trusting in God.
August 2nd: Isaac
The story of Abraham and Isaac teaches us to trust God to provide what we need when what He is doing is making no sense.
August 9th: Jacob
Through our struggles God changes us into the people we are meant to be.
August 16th: Jacob to Joseph
We're all messed up, but God sticks with us.
August 23rd: Joseph in Slavery
Doing the right thing will often lead to suffering.
August 30th: Joseph in Egypt
God is always at work, even when I have no idea what He is doing

Somerset Christian is one of our sponsoring organizations and we look forward to worshiping with them on Sunday!  On July 12th we will go back to the Stoller Middle School at our regularly scheduled time.

June 21st: (Father's Day) Joy in Humility

Joy doesn’t come from the things that our culture considers the basis of happiness.  Joy comes from the experience of the humility and service. 

June 28th: Joy in Temptation

To experience joy, we have to deal with two great joy-killers in our lives: the temptation to complain and the temptation to argue.

July 5th:  (Church will be at 10:00 AM at the Somerset Christian Church) Joy in Opposition

The joy of serving God is something that never comes without setbacks and disappointments and sometimes flat out opposition.  To have joy, we’ve got to understand that our lives are to be about connecting the unconnected to God and holding on to and persevering in that mission in the face of opposition.

July 12th: Joy in Suffering

Joy and pain can exist within the same space.  That’s why Paul can say “always” and mean just that: “always”.  Whatever suffering I am going through, how much I am suffering does not diminish my capacity for joy if it is the joy that is found in Christ: knowing Him, serving Him, relying on Him through prayer, and ultimately being raised with Him.

During the months of June through August we are combining our small groups into one SUPER SUMMER SMALL GROUP.  Well maybe it won't be too small!

We are meeting at the Somerset Christian Church on Tuesday nights.  We will have a potluck meal from 6:00 - 6:45 PM and then a Bible Study and Prayer time from 6:45 to 8:00 PM.

Stay connected during the summer!!

This Sunday we welcome special guest Crystal Renaud.  Crystal is a nose-pierced, tattooed and at times pink-haired girl who loves God, the Church and helping the broken find restoration. She is on staff at Westside Family Church in Kansas City. She is currently writing, Dirty Girls: The New Porn Addicts: a book that will discuss the widespread yet silent battle women are facing with pornography addiction.  She will address the Suburban Legend, "Women Don't Look at Porn."

Since the service is rated PG-13 we recommend checking in you children to Kids City which is at the same time as our worship service.