My Epic Journey

This morning, I had the opportunity to speak at Hyatt Middle School to their Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) group.  It was a lot of fun.  Below is an excerpt from FCA coordinator and teacher, Jonathan Juravich.

This morning we were blessed to have Ryan Smith, from Grace Point Community Church, come and speak with us!

Ryan read to us "Horton Hatches an Egg." in the story Horton the Elephant is tricked by a lazy bird to sit on an egg. He sits through rain, snow, being made fun of, captured by Hunters, sold to a circus… and the horrible list goes on. But at the end, Horton is rewarded by the egg hatching…and out comes a very unique Ele-bird! He is 100% happy.

When he was sitting on that egg he did not give up, he is loyal and dedicated to his cause: sitting on that egg. For so many of us we are nearing the end of the year (and for some, the end of middle school) and we can’t get lazy. We have a hard time putting in all of our time and instead want to just give up. But then we never get that satisfaction (or in Horton’s case the 100% happy!).

In James 1:12 we read "Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial." Don’t just take it from Dr. Seuss, it is in God’s word… plain as day. If we hold true, if we persevere…at the end we are so greatly rewarded. (also check out James 1:2-4!)

Thank you for coming today Ryan and for sharing your awesome message!

A BIG thanks to Tom Houser for the message idea!!!!!

At Grace Point, we thrive as a ministry on our Life Group ministry.  The importance of getting together as a group of peers with a passion to hold each other accountable, breathe life and love to each other and to both cheer and weep with each other cannot be overstated.  I know our students grow deep and are challenged in their respected EPIC Journey (Life) Groups but even more important is Anna and my need for small community interaction.  As our ministry, both Grace Point and EPIC, continues to grow it is necessary to find a place in the Life Group setting.

I was reminded again of this in a reading I was doing for grad work. Clinton and Ohlschlager, in their book, Competent Christian Counseling, state:

Within a community committed to acceptance, education, and appropriate discipline and consequences for conduct unbecoming a disciple of Jesus Christ . . . people are brought to maturity.

The spiritual reparenting required is often best accomplished through cell (life) groups, that assemble for the purpose of Bible study, encouragement, exhortation, worship, and the practice of a series of spiritual disciplines within a circle of accountability (Foster, 1988; Willard, 1998).  In keeping with our giftedness, no member of the believing community is excused from involvement with these groups or the means of personal spiritual growth they seek to establish (Ephesians 4.14-16) (p. 113)

Our Pastor of Discipleship, Tom Houser, does an AMAZING job fostering and training our community of believers on the importance of the Life Group community.  For more information on Tom’s thoughts and guidance check out, http://runinsuchaway.com/.

Tom Houser (Pastor of Discipleship and Administration) recently entered the blog world and I am LOVING his posts.  Go to Run In Such A Way to see what is going on.  Below is his most recent post which I am going to be passing along to our EPIC Small Group Leaders.

Know and Be Known

Life Groups are not just meetings or Bible studies.  Meetings focus on an agenda and Bible studies can be done alone.  Life Groups are meant to be places for people to grow closer to God via authentic fellowship with one another.  It is the fellowship which lays the foundation for everything else that our Life Groups try to do.  This excerpt from a post on smallgroups.com speaks to this topic quite well:

Fellowship is the glue that keeps us in relationship with one another.  Ephesians 2:19, [a] key verse about fellowship, talks about how we are members of God’s family. It says, “You are no longer foreigners or outsiders, but citizens together with God’s people and members of God’s family.” Godly fellowship enables us to experience true family.

Genuine fellowship helps us move from just sharing coffee and cookies to being a safe community where we can be transparent with one another. Here are some simple but effective steps a small group in your church can take to build this kind of fellowship and encourage genuine community:

• Offer new people a history of the group. Have everyone-including the first-timers-share a little bit about their family and a few of the activities they enjoy doing in their free time.
• Provide ice-breakers. Sometimes the silliest questions or activities are best. These help people get to know one another in a safe way.
• Celebrate milestones. Help foster community by celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, long-awaited adoptions, and other special events in people’s lives.

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