What do we mean by Connecting to a Real Life with God?

Sunday Services and Beyond...

As a community of people who are followers of Jesus it is key that we connect to Him on a regular basis. Think of the best friend that you have ever had. What did it take for you to get to be best friends? How much time in discussion and life experience did it take to develop that kind of relationship? We feel that is the same with God. We desire to connect with a personal God on a communal and individual basis. We believe that if we really desire to be more like God there must be time put into that relationship to be able to develop it to its fullest.

The first is through a communal experience. We believe that our main goal is to connect, either for the first time, or for the 1000th time, others to a relational God. Some ways in which we accomplish this as a community is through singing, taking communion and hearing from God through His Word. These are not the only way, but there is something celebratory when we can come together with like minds to experience God.

Here is what we know about Sunday services though. If that is the only connection we have with God on a weekly basis than we will never grow or know the God in which we live for. I have met hundreds of people whose only connection with God is on Sunday morning and yet there isn't much change in these people's lives. Someone once said, "Going to church doesn't make you any more of a follower of Jesus than going into a barn on a weekly basis makes you a cow."

So our goal for Sundays is that whatever is talked about and sung about is actually attempted to be applied and lived in our daily lives. None of us are perfect but we are on a journey to become like Jesus, not just learn more about Him. And Sunday gives us that opportunity to start our relationship with Christ for the first time or to kick off our week in a communal environment in the hopes it makes a difference in our Real Lives outside the confines of our program.

On a very important side note, Kids matter to God and they matter to us so our entire philosophy is being implemented in our kids program, so (click here) to see what happens with our kids.

The second way we connect to a Real Life with God is through our personal connection with Him on a regular basis. When we leave our communal time together, it is now our opportunity to begin to live and continually connect to Him throughout the week. We encourage people to set aside time on a daily basis to look into God's Word, to pray and to see how God can use us in our daily interactions with people. Those in our workplace, those who live with or near us, etc.

We have a prayer we are trying to teach people on a daily basis each morning when they wake up. It goes something like this...God, how do you want to love me and whom do you want to love through me today? The bible reminds us that we are God's Children and his love doesn't end with us receiving Him as our Savior and Lord but that as a Father he is actively loving us on a regular basis. Think for a second about today? How is your health, family, finances, food, shelter, friends etc? The list can go on and on and how often do we recognize that life itself is a gift from God. So each day we come to the end of the day and recognize how God loved us today. It's a daily encounter with God.

The second part of that prayer is that God has given us daily opportunities to love others in practical ways. Not just ways to tell people about Jesus but to pro-actively love people and if we would just open our eyes we would see daily opportunities to give a good word, help someone in need etc. So at the end of the day we think through and ask ourselves if we loved others today.

Remember, Jesus said that the entire relationship with God could be summed up with two commandments. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. May we be a community of believers and daily connects to God in this way.

One note of caution: In our church the communal must continue which is why the most important thing we are involved with is next. (click here)