13 services in 4 locations.
7382 in attendance.
790 salvations!

So very thankful for what God is doing through our church. One of my favorite parts of our service was the video we showed at the offering, highlighting what we’re doing to serve our community. Enjoy.

For many years, Monday was the lowest point of my week. Actually, here’s how it went. I would drive home on Sunday afternoon from church replaying all the issues over and over in my mind. Then I would get home, plop down in front of the TV and just retreat into a state of vegetation while I watched football. I put it all out of my brain. But then…on Monday morning it would all come back with a vengeance. Ha! I shudder when I look back on those dark days.

When, after a few long years, our church started growing…rapidly…we started getting calls from all around the country asking us what happened and how we did it. We eventually decided to launch a weekend conference on the nuts and bolts of church growth called MAKE ROOM. This will be our 5th year and the conference gains momentum every year because of the practical emphasis we place on resourcing churches. This year there are twice as many people registered as last year at this time and we’ll probably have over 100 churches represented and 1000 pastors and leaders this year.

It’s coming up this Friday and Saturday. Check out the web site – www.makeroomconference.com – register now, bring some of your team. I promise you will get some ideas that can help jump start the growth of your church. And you can start enjoying Mondays again.

Hope to see you this coming weekend!

Love,
John

Lisa just spoke at the 12p service and at the risk of sounding dramatic, it was a top message in the history of our church. I can’t even explain it – it was prophetic and powerful. So…

I want to make sure every woman in our church is in service tonight at our Chick Nite. I feel like it will be a significant night for our church. It’s our first Chick Nite of the year and I know Lisa feels like she really has a word for you guys. Bring a friend and be there early. I promise you will have an amazing time - 6:30p at our Cordova campus.

See you there!

Love you,
Pastor John

One of the best things was that we had about 150 seats available in the 10a Service on Sunday morning, which we haven’t had for a looooooong time. I’m really praying and hoping people stick with Saturday Night because I know that the 10a service will be filled up again by Easter. As a church we always want to continue to make room for new people and by so many of you moving to Saturday service, we did just that.

I also wanted to say a big thank you to all of the new people that are serving on Saturday Night. Your contribution is making a difference for the Kingdom and lets believe that this Saturday Night will be just as strong as last weekend!

Last, but not least, just a quick reminder that Make Room, our church growth conference is coming up in a little less than a month on March 2-3. We’ll be talking about adding services, growing your church, building culture, etc. It’s a great conference that is best experienced with your team so check it out and register today at MakeRoomConference.com.

Here’s how you can pray with me for this new service…

1) New people serving
I’m believing for a whole new army of people to begin serving on the new team for the Saturday Night services.

2) People moving over from the 10a Service
This is the standing room only service of the weekend. Need some people to jump over to Saturday Night to keep making room for new people. Maybe you have been a faithful 10a attender. Please consider moving over to Saturday Night. If you love your church (and your pastor ) adjust your schedule and make Saturday Night your service. I promise you it is as good as Sunday!

3) Revival
This interesting prayer has been coming from my heart lately. I have been praying that we would experience a full blown revival on Saturday Nights. To me, revival means we will see the presence of God moving strongly in worship, tons of people will make salvation decisions, and people who are dry, hungry and thirsty will come and be satisfied. I believe God wants to do something new that will impact our city. Not sure what God will do, but pray with me that He will move in people’s lives like never before.

I will be continuing the DREAM series this weekend. I’m stirred up about my message this weekend. I really believe it will be inspiring and encouraging. Leslie and I love you and are believing with you for an amazing 2012.

This weekend we will celebrate 15 years. We have some really great stuff planned and if you’re a part of The Life Church, I hope you can make it out to one of our weekend services. Also, this weekend we’re receiving our Vision Offering and our yearly commitments for our FAITH initiative. I gave some of my thoughts last week about how to prepare. Check it out.

There are so many things I could say, but the most important two things…

God is faithful…

And a big “thank you” to everyone through the years for making The Life Church what it is today. Leslie and I love you.

After “Moving Your Life Forward”, I’ll be following it up with a book called “Moving Your Church Forward” for pastors and church leaders. Our church has been really blessed to be experiencing a lot of significant growth over the past 5-7 years and we get questions all the time about it. It’s absolutely a result of God’s blessing and favor, but there have also been some key principles and strategies that have set us up to experience strong growth and I’ll be sharing them in this book. My heart is stirred and I’m really believing that these books will be resources that God will use to impact people and churches.

1) Pray – sounds pretty basic, but it’s often overlooked. Take a few minutes to ask God about your part, then listen and let God lead you. I’ve been amazed over the years as Leslie and I each prayed separately, then came back with very similar amounts/instructions. God wants to speak to you.

2) Think – the Bible says that we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16), so I believe that one of the ways God leads us is by giving us strategic thoughts. Here’s what you need to think about…

What has God done for you this past year? Think about how God has blessed your life – in both intangible and tangible ways. The Bible is pretty clear that we are to give in proportion to how God has blessed our lives.

What are you hoping God will do in your life over the next year? This is where your life can go to another level. Think about this – tithing is giving from your harvest (10% of your income), but when you give above your tithe, you are giving toward your future harvest. I remember when Leslie and I started giving above our tithe toward what we were hoping our income to be the next season. Be strategic and intentional. More about this under #3.

What can you do? You need to think about what you have that you can use as seed for your future. Here’s an important thought – what you give today determines what you have tomorrow. All that you have isn’t yours to keep or spend; some of it is designated as seed for your future. Sow it!

3) Set Faith Goals – goals help you reach beyond where you are and hit targets you never would have hit if you didn’t set a goal. Over the years Leslie and I have set goals and they have always lifted our life. For example, we started a few years ago increasing the amount of our total income we give to God’s Kingdom. I’ve read some amazing stories of people like J.C. Penney who trusted God and kept increasing his giving until he was “reverse tithing” – giving God 90% and living off of 10% – and God blessed every area of his life. I thought, what if we could do that? For 2011, we committed to give God 20% – 10% tithe and another 10% above the tithe. Next year, 2012, we’re going to increase it by 5% and give 25%. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep going! What are your faith goals? What are you hoping God will do in your life? What are you hoping to do for God?

4) Commit – at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter unless you obligate yourself to a course of action. As I mentioned in church last weekend, we almost took a year off from asking people to make commitments, but I really felt a check by the Holy Spirit. After praying, I realized the commitments helped people more than they impact the church. In my own life that’s certainly been true. Leslie and I were lifted to another level because we not only believed God, but we made a commitment that stretched us big time.

I hope that helps. Let’s make God famous this weekend as we honor Him with our commitments and Vision Offering!

This year, I’ll be speaking along with my great friend, Dino Rizzo, who pastors an incredible church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, called Healing Place Church. There will breakout sessions from our team on the various areas of church life, from worship and creative to attracting guests and impacting your local community. Each year, we get incredible reports from pastors whose churches have been significantly impacted by their time at Make Room. I want to encourage you to make an investment in your church and your team and get them to this year’s Make Room Conference. For more info, click here or email makeroom@thelifechurch.com. Hope to see you there!