Our strategy is to encourage couples to invest heavily into their marriages.  Ultimately, our goal is to use this felt need for a better marriage to bring people to Christ.  We are not sure where God is taking us, but we are excited we are taking a huge first step in just a matter of days!

From Heather:

“I have already delivered our gifts to our adopted family.  They are really sweet!  Would love for our church to stay in touch with this family.  They are currently looking for new inexpensive housing so if anyone knows of anything please contact me or the family.  They have such consuming health issues it is hard for them to attend church services but she definitely seemed open to the word and God’s love.  Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to meet this precious family.”

From Steve and Laura:

“I am so thankful that we had the opportunity to serve someone in need this Christmas.  My husband and I wanted all of our family to participate in a project such as this.  Last evening we loaded the kids in the car (some were a little grumpy at first) and headed off to the store.  Once the shopping commenced, everyone seriously went into action looking for just the right gift!  We all began to have fun and didn’t mind sacrificing time to bless another person in need.  The gifts were delivered and the family was very grateful.  Thank you for organizing this project and giving our family an opportunity reach out to another.  We were so blessed!!!”

This one is from Melanie:

“Hi!  We delivered everything to our adopted family on Wednesday evening.  They were great.  We spent time talking with them.  They do have an older daughter, 19 who lives with them that wasn’t on the list.  So we are going to send her some $ for her classes she is taking in January.”

From Debra and Rick:

“We delivered our presents to our family on Wednesday. They were very appreciative. I told them to give the gifts to the children from them. We felt blessed to be able to help.”

This was a note that Miki received from one of the families we ministered to.  It shows you how powerful sacrificial love can be.

“I want to thank you from the bottom on my heart! This means so much to me and will be such a blessing for my boys! I can’t wait to the day when I can help someone else out who is in need…But now under my circumstances, God has provided in so many ways for my boys and I. So each and every day I wake up I thank him for his guidance, understanding, and for walking with me every step of the way! I could go on about the many blessings that have happened. But the day you called me I was is shock as I knew it was going to be hard for me to give my boys a Christmas they deserved. I was so blessed by your call! …As I said this means so much to me and I promise you one day I will pay it forward! I am a big believer in that!

Our church is amazing!  Let’s keep it up!

“We have gone to church for a long time and we have always given an offering but we never tithed.  Over the last year God has been speaking to us in this area of our lives.  On Sunday January 22, Pastor Scott was speaking about tithing and we decided (even before he issued the 3 month challenge) that we were going to listen to God, give God control of our finances and begin the practice of tithing.  During that service I wrote a 2nd check for the amount that made 10% of our pay that week and added it to the envelope.  My husband had no idea I had written this extra check.  We got home from church that day and he handed me in cash the exact amount of money that I had written that 2nd check for!  I laughed and told him about the check and that it was for the same amount that the cash was.  I knew God would bless us, but I sure didn’t expect it to happen that fast!”

Here is another one I received:

“In January we realized that our family had approximately $1,000 in unexpected bills that we had not prepared for.  Although there was no way that our income would cover these expenses we continued to tithe our 10% in faith that somehow we would figure it out later.  Not truly having any plans.  Sort of just using the ignore method.  In January we made a decision to change our home owners insurance policy in attempt to save a little money.  After making this change we received a check for roughly $950 due to overpayment from our original insurance policy that we had canceled.  God is capable and faithful and all I can say is look out, He will do measurable more than what we could ever imagine.”

And there is more:

“2009 was a very hard year for us. Our family endured a lot of illness (nothing serious) that resulted in a lot of medical bills, co-pays and deductibles. It seemed as if every time we turned around, something in our house was going out and we were having to replace water heaters and water softeners and garage doors and openers. Then there was my car. Fuel pump, odometer, breaks down. WHAT MORE???? We also suffered with marital struggles.   Instead of continuing to trust God, we gave less and less. And felt more and more guilt.   Pastor Scott’s  messages on tithing helped spur the reminder that God is faithful and God is good. He will provide all we need and more when we trust in Him. We starting giving again and already God has blessed us with a healthier marriage, a more profitable business and a better outlook on life. And that’s just since last month. Imagine what God can do for us as we continue to trust Him.”

Not done yet…read this:

“This last series, In The Zone has been great for us.  We have committed to be the faithful givers that we know He wants us to be, so we began 2010 with our tithe, and just today, as I was driving down 135 my van began to overheat!  This became very depressing to me, as we had just had the transmission rebuilt not that long ago, but I remembered Pastor Scott’s sermon from Sunday and began to thank God that we have a vehicle.  I called my husband who just happened to be on the South side of town to let him know what was happening and he came and got the van to have it checked.  We ended up needing a new radiator and water pump, which was estimated to cost $796.00.  I began to chuckle because you see, our taxes were filed Wednesday night, February 3, an all time record, and our return was $800!!!  It’s just like our God to bless us in ways we would never expect!  I often wonder why we always think God will bless us financially, because my blessings have always come in the way of relationship building, but today I was shown that God always meets us where we need him the most.  Thank you so much for this series!  We love this church, we love the staff and we are excited for the vision of this church!”

You just cannot out give God!

First of all, the walls in the Family Ministry Wing are down.  There will be new carpet, new paint, new seating, new technology.  In other words, we will have a whole new look for our Excite ministry.  This renovation will give our children’s ministry a little bit more room for elementary worship.   A huge thanks goes to everyone who has volunteered their time, treasure and talent to make it possible.  I want to especially thank Jason and Jennifer Jacks for being the Project Team Leaders.  It should be completed by Sunday, February 21.

Speaking of February 21, I want to remind you our new times for worship, 9:30am and 11:00am, begin on February 21.  That is also the day our middle school ministry, The Flow, will move to 9:30am.  I know this is an inconvenience for some of you.  I know these new service times are not your preferred times for worship on Sunday.  Making this change will help us overcome the challenges of a growing church.  I really do appreciate your willingness to sacrifice for the vision of being able to help more people take their next step toward Christ. I really, really do.  And I am proud of how you taking the changes in stride and with joy!

If you typically come to the 10:45am worship experience, I would ask that you make the 9:30am worship experience your new service.  We simply need more space at the later service.  Your great commitment to the Great Commission will grow a great church, and this is an easy step that will make a huge difference!

Another challenge of a growing church is parking.  Pastor Jim is looking for able bodied men and women to serve on his parking team on a rotating basis.  If you are willing to help out, please contact him at jim@stonescrossing.com. We need this team in place by February 21.

As many of you know, we are going to be moving our administrative offices back into the church building.  Our target date for this move is the week of April 5-9.  We are excited about the fact we will be able to save a lot of money on rent.

Married Life Live is almost here!  I am going to blog more about this later, but for now, I need volunteers to help us with set up on Wednesday, February 17 at 7:00pm at the church.  Let me know if you can help by emailing me:  scott@stonescrossing.com.

Okay…that is it for now.  There are so many great things happening at SCC.  Thanks for all you are doing to make it possible!

6) Write Down Your Goals:  if you want to remember it, then write it down.  I just downloaded a new computer program call Evernote.  It syncs with my cell phone and my laptop.  I use this note taking software to keep track of everything in my life.  I have my 2010 goals listed in the very place where I will see them everyday.

7)Include Others: It is very important to share your goals with your closest friends and family members.  Our family has a tradition of sharing our goals during dinner on New Year’s Eve.  I also know that at some point, Luann and I will sit down and go over our goals together.  This provides accountability and encouragement.

Celebrate Along the Way: during our New Year’s Eve dinner, I know we will all have the opportunity to share how we did on our previous year’s goals.  Some goals I will have not attained(like my goal to memorize Ephesians); there are other goals I did accomplish(like running my first two triathlons).  We need to celebrate our successes!

9)Think Big: Michelangelo said:  “The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it; but that it is too low and we reach it.”  Goals will always vary in size and scope.  Setting a big goal will make you depend on God like never before.  Even if you don’t achieve the goal, setting a big goal has changed you.  You are depending on God more and that is what being a Christ follower is all about.  And besides, with God’s help, you just might hit your goal!

10)Keep Dreaming: if you stop dreaming, you will stop growing.  And if you stop growing, you start dying.  As long as you have air to breathe, God has a purpose for you being here.  Goal setting is really about living life to the fullest.

One last point.  You might say, “I am not a goal oriented person.”  You might want to become one.  I really believe goal setting is all about being a good steward of what you have…your time, your treasure, and your talent.  As I get ready to turn 40 this year, it is becoming ever so clearer to me that I don’t have as much time left.  I better max out what I do have.  Goals help us to do just that.

Batterson begins with a quote from world champion chess player, Garry Kasparov:  “A (chess) Grandmaster makes the best moves because they are based on what he wants the board to look like ten or twenty moves in the future.”  That is a great picture of what goal-setting is all about…making moves NOW based on what you want your life to look like ten or twenty years from now.  Sadly, most people spend more time planning their summer vacation than they do planning their life!

Listed below is Batterson’s first 5 steps to goal-setting:

1)Start With Prayer:  goal setting is really a stewardship issue because it is making the most of the time, talent, and resources God has given you.  It makes sense to spend time praying and listening to God about the goals HE would like for you to focus on.

2)Check Your Motives: does your goal honor God?  Does your goal make a difference in someone’s life?  Does your goal bring you joy?

3)Get Ideas from Others: other people can inspire you to accomplish what you never dreamed possible.  You can Google Mark Batterson’s goals for a list to help you get started.  I would also encourage you to talk to your friends about their goals. One word of caution:  it is important to remember to set your own goals…don’t set a certain goal only because your friend set the same goal.

4)Think in Categories: organizing your goals into categories helps you to stay on track toward reaching them.  You can use categories like, family goals, travel goals, physical goals, spiritual goals, influence goals.

5)Be Specific: goals are dreams with deadlines.  Don’t make a goal to “Get into Shape.”  Make a goal that says, “I want to run the Indy Mini-Marathon.” Set the goal in a way that makes the goal measurable.

I will share steps 6-10 later.

I also wanted to let you know that our church will be finishing the year “in the black” financially. The last 16 months have been very challenging as many churches(in the area and across the nation) have had to lay off staff and significantly cut budgets.  Because of God’s faithfulness and your generosity, we have been able to navigate a down economy.

This is a good example of why I love being your pastor.  Just like Paul, I thank my God every time I remember you.  In all of my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now… Thank you for making the partnership joy-filled!

WHY ARE WE NEEDING TO REDESIGN THE KID’S CROSSING WING? We want to create environments where God can work in the hearts of our children.  Specifically, this means removing unnecessary distractions. We have two major distractions right now.  The first one is, we are simply out of space.  We just don’t have room for any more kids in the Excite Room.  The second issue is, we cannot control the room temperature in the current Excite Room.  I asked my son, Harrison, to tell me what he learned in Excite one Sunday and his response was, “It was so hot in there, I did not learn anything.  Daddy, you are the pastor.  Why can’t you do something about it?”  Well, the answer is, WE are going to do something about it.

WHAT WILL THE EXCITE ROOM LOOK LIKE WHEN IT IS COMPLETED? I don’t have a color rendering for you, but trust me, we do have a plan and a look that will cause our kids and our volunteers to be excited about Excite!  The redesign involves moving the Excite Room to where the small groups currently meet.  We will tear down two walls and the three small groups rooms will become one large worship space.  The current Excite Room will then be redesigned as a our small group room.  The long hallway will be themed out with a cool mural.  There will be new carpet, a new stage and set design as well as upgrades to the sound, lighting and computer systems.  And yes, our children will literally breath more easily as the heating and air conditioning units in this part of the children’s wing will be more than adequate to provide a comfortable space to worship and grow.

BUT WE ARE ALREADY GIVING TO THE POWER OF EVERYONE CAMPAIGN.  DO WE HAVE TO GIVE TO THIS ALSO? Absolutely not!  Remember,  most people at S.C.C. are not currently contributing to the Power of Everyone Campaign.  This special offering gives them a chance to participate in the “grace of giving.”  One more thought.  Your contributions to P.O.E. are helping in this redesign project!  For those of you who made P.O.E. pledges, it is more important that you fulfill those pledges than to give to this special offering.  Our goal in this offering is to meet a real need in our church and give everyone a chance to participate in meeting that need.

ISN’T CHRISTMAS A BAD TIME TO TAKE A SPECIAL CHURCH OFFERING?  I MEAN, I AM NOT GOING TO HAVE ANY MONEY LEFT TO GIVE AFTER I BUY ALL OF MY CHRISTMAS PRESENTS. Think about it.  Do you really need me to answer this question?

HOW MUCH WILL THE REDESIGN COST? We estimate the cost being $10,000-$15,000.

WHEN DO WE GET STARTED? We are currently recruiting a project manager.  As soon as we get one, we can get started.

I hope this helps!  See you Sunday!