We’re on the countdown to what I believe will be one of the greatest weekends of 2008 for The Life Church. Nick and Chris Caine from Hillsong Church will be with us. They’ve become great friends of Leslie and I and great friends of our church. Christine is a dynamic speaker, powerful preacher and gives an incredible altar-call. I really believe God has used Nick and Chris more than anyone else to impact and influence our church.
- New Service Times - don’t forget we’re adding the Saturday Night service and changing up Sunday morning service times. In Cordova, Sunday times will be 8:45a, 10:15a, and 11:45a. In Collierville, the service will start at 10:30a.
- Saturday Night Service - at times this summer we’ve had overflowing crowds in 2 of our 3 weekend services in Cordova. Adding another service is the right step for us until the expansion of our Cordova campus is finished. We’re encouraging everyone to connect into our Saturday 5:00p and Sunday 8:45a services to make room for new guests at our 10:15a and 11:45a Sunday services.
- Kingdom Partners - immediately after the Saturday night service, we have our second Kingdom Partners reception. Chris Caine will share and all Kingdom Partners will get a signed copy of Christine’s new book. I will also give some updates on the Cordova expansion (with hopefully some pics and diagrams). It will be an awesome reception. To register or find out more about Kingdom Partners visit our website.
One of the coolest things we do at The Life Church is our Wide Open Leadership Nights. Its one of my favorite worship experiences because its all the passionate, radical, sold-out core leaders of our church gathering together to get into some pumped up worship, vision and prayer for the upcoming season in church life. We always meet in the Axis Auditorium - our middle school/high school venue. Coolest thing about last night was the updated/renovated look of room. And it was our largest Wide Open…it was jam packed.
I shared from my heart out of 1 Samuel - the story of that awesome woman of God, Hannah. I really believe that Hannah is a type and picture of the church - we’re called to birth and raise up the Samuels who will be dedicated to the things of God, dedicated to the House of God - from their youth, set apart to make a difference. I talked about some key catalysts that can help us fulfill this calling. It was an “off the chain” night!
It’s really hard to put the “spirit” of this conference and this church into words. I’ve probably already overused awesome, fantastic, incredible. Let me throw life changing in the mix too. Probably sounds a little cheesy, but its true – my life has been impacted in a huge way. Some final thoughts.
- So incredibly thankful for Nick and Chris Caine’s commitment to serve local churches around the world, including our church. No doubt it would be much easier (and cheaper) to just stay in a beautiful city like Sydney and work day in and day out with their church, Hillsong Church. Instead, they’re out in the world, bringing the message of Jesus and the spirit of Hillsong to impact and lift local churches around the world.
- We’ve got to be even more creative - as creative as possible in bringing Jesus to this generation and expanding His church. No price is too high. No commitment too great.
- We have to stay ruthlessly committed and focused on serving the unfortunate and bringing love, justice, grace and the basic essentials of life to the poor in our own city and around the world.
- It’s all about people. I had such a great time with some amazing people. Observing, listening, being served, hanging out…Andrew Denton, Phil (The Dane), Steve, Rich and Cass, Marty, Reuben, Robert, Paul, Mark and Darlene, etc. The time spent together was awesome.
Thanks to Brian and Bobbie Houston for the vision to champion the cause of the local church.
It all kicked off on Monday night. This conference has got to be the largest gathering of pastors and leaders. Massive. I would guess 30-40K people. The amazing thing is it’s hosted by a local church. Twenty-two years ago Hillsong Church started the Hillsong Conference in response to all the people who wanted to learn from them how to do church. Pretty amazing. Now, twenty-two years later, people are still coming to learn from this incredible church. The worship is unbelievable. The speakers are awesome, but I think the most incredible thing is the volunteer spirit. Over 4500 volunteers from Hillsong Church running around in “I Love My Church” black t-shirts is incredibly inspiring.
One of their theme verses is Psalm 100:2 – “Serve the Lord with gladness…” It’s totally lived out through all of these incredible volunteers.
