Jeff's Blog: Gearing Up For Fall

Hey Alive Church, I love to always start off with great news: last weekend there were 8 people who made commitments to follow Jesus at Alive. That never ever, ever gets old!!! I love to see us living out the mission of Jesus and the church. We also had an incredible amount of first time guest – all the result of us partnering together – you all are awesome!

If you are like our family we are focusing in on getting the kids ready for the fall session of school to start and all the last minute things that go along with that. It is so hard to believe that summer has almost passed us by. Although my kids keep saying they are bored. (Wish the heat would go a fast as summer)

Here at Alive Church we are in full swing getting ready for fall. We have a Big Day planned for Sept.17/18 as we launch our weekend series called Courageous. We are working in co-operation with the movie company as they release the movie Courageous on Sept. 30^th. (Same folks who produced Fireproof) Our goal that weekend is that we double in attendance by continuing to partner together to live out our mission of “leading people who are far from God to be followers of Jesus.” Our Big Day will be just that! We will have jumping castles for the kids, a Beast Feast at all our services (An Alive way of saying BBQ) and we will be buying a couple of theaters out for you to get a ticket for you and your friends to go to see the movie Courageous.

Last weekend we began our weekend series called Exponential with a talked called A Compounding Life. If you missed the beginning of this series, check it out on line. I promise you as you commit to being a part of this talk series and you allow God to speak into your life that you will grow Exponentially over the next several weeks in your spiritual journey.

We are also gearing up for our fall Life Group semester that will launch in coordination with the Courageous series. We still have opportunities for 6 more Life Group leaders and host. Just let me know you are interested on your connection card at the services.

This weekend I will continue the series Exponential with a talk call My Life To The Power Of Relationships. Take a moment and invite a friend, they will be glad you did.

Jeff's Blog: Invisible Qualities

One of the reasons I love being in nature and exploring the wilderness is because it reflects God is all His power. Rom 1:20 says: "For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God." When you hike in the mountains or the desert you can't help but see God's invisible qualities reflected in and through His creation. I suppose that is one of the reasons I love to paint landscapes. I am drawn to nature as it reveals God's eternal power and divine nature.

this past week I had the privilege of traveling to Wyoming with an artist friend and doing some painting near Yellowstone and getting tons of reference material for the studio. It is so refreshing for me to be out in the wilderness alone with the Lord doing some painting. One of my favorite experiences with this trip was that we had an artist who knew a rancher that runs a ranch formerly owned by Walt Disney. Spent a day on the ranch painting. (Over forty Grizzly roam the ranch! - the picture is of a painting I did that day.)

Glad to be back home - now I start working through the references and putting the finishing touches on this weekends talk and the beginning of a new series - ready to go!

This weekend is the beginning of our new series called Exponential. Over the next five weeks we will be looking at "minor" characters in the Bible who had a major impact in the world. This series will help us to be Balanced in our spiritual journey. We will be challenged to live exponential lives by serving others, taking responsibility for our spiritual growth, giving faithfully and reaching others for Jesus. Hope to see you this weekend at one of our services. Sat. 5pm, Sunday 9:30 or 11

Jeffs Blog: Free From Doing My Own Thing

Let me start this blog with an update on my week. I'm in Wyoming doing a painting trip with another artist friend. The picture is one of the hundreds of references I've gotten over the last couple of days - (very little sleep, lot's of driving, painting and taking pictures... and junk food.

Hope you joined me last weekend for At The Movies 2011, we talked about how we have been given a clue to living this life while we looked at Transformers. This coming weekend at Alive Church I am going to be wrapping up At The Movies 2011 with one of my favorite talks from the Bible: Given a Purpose. And the movie of the week is... (hint - it is an animated and if you heard last weekend it does have a sequel coming out this summer!) Take some time and invite a friend for this weekend or if you have never been to one of our campuses, make this the weekend, it will be a great time and a life changing talk. Besides, last weekend for free pop corn and lots of movies clips to look at Biblical truth in a Hollywood blockbuster!

Always want to give this report - last weekend there were 10 new people who made decisions to follow Jesus. If you are one of them - congrats! You've made the most important decision of your life. You are a new person on a new journey - don't do it alone!


Thinking and praying this morning and focusing on Jesus words in John 8:31-32: "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." I love this verse but we often take it out of context to mean that Jesus is talking about being honest and that honesty will lead to freedom. There are plenty of verses that talk about honesty - this isn't one of them. It is so much more. I guess one reason I love this verse so much is that one of my personal values has always been FREEDOM. I want to live in freedom.

Jesus died for us to be free, not free to "do our own thing" rather to free us from doing our own thing and to serving Him. There is a qualifier for this freedom. "Continue in My word.", then you will know the truth. Many version say "Obey My commands". We read that and we start to think that it gets complicated. Not really. That's one of the things I love about being a Jesus follower. Jesus said here are my commands: "Love God and Love others." (Matt 22:37-39) He said that is it. He is Truth - we will know Him, not a thing and we will live in FREEDOM - absolute FREEDOM! Anyone grateful for the Freedom Jesus, The Truth, gave us on the cross? I am. Dude - I'm really grateful - Thank you God!!!

Week 3 At The Movies Promo from Jeff at Alive Church

Jeff's Blog: Someone Guessed The Movie Theme

A couple of things as in the middle of the week.

• First, last weekend we had 4 people make decisions to follow Jesus. As we continue to partner together to Lead people who are far from God to be followers of Jesus, you are making a real difference in people's eternity!!! Everyone who serves and gives at Alive Church are rock stars! There are several opportunities to be on the team, why not get going this summer? Connect with your Campus Pastor to be a part of the Alive Team and start changing lives. You can find their emails by going to www.alivechurch.com and clicking on the campus that you attend.
  

• Someone did it! They guessed what the four movies we are using for “At The Movie 2011” have in common. Congrats to Verla, although I think she had an advantage – she is a lawyer! The thing the four movies have in common is that they all have a sequel coming out this summer. Verla, I guess Kathy and I will be taking you and your husband out to dinner at Red Lobster!!!

• Now that Verla has let the cat out of the bag, it gives everyone a few more tips for guessing the movies over the next two weekends. I will tell you this much, this weekend is based on a PG13 movie and the last one is based on a PG animated movie. This weekend involves one of my favorite cars and next weekend a very tasty food! Any guesses?

• Free Movie Ticket: This weekend at Alive Church you have another chance to give your friends, family, loved one, neighbors and co-workers a free movie ticket as well as receiving one yourself. Yes - it went so well the first weekend of At The Movies 2011 that we are going to offer free movies tickets one more weekend at Alive Church Oro Valley, Alive Church Twin Peaks and Alive Church Online. All First time guest this weekend and the person who invited them. (By the way, we have special invitations this week, if you missed the weekend you can stop by one of the campuses and pick them up; a bag of microwaveable popcorn with an invitation label printed on it.)

• The last thing is my attitude. This time of year in the desert you find out what you are made of. After several days of 110 % and the humidity on the rise because the monsoon rains are close; I can see the clouds but not happening at my house yet. This is the time of year that God always does a little attitude check on me. Maybe you have heard the phrase “you need a check up from the neck up”. That’s me after a few weeks of this searing heat!!! So, since I’m dealing with my attitude I thought I would give you a few verses that are speaking to me right now:.
  

Phil 2:5; “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.”

Romans 14:17-19 “ For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too. 19 So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.

1 Peter 4:1-3"You must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin. 2 You won't spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God.

That's it for now - see you this weekend for At The Movies 2011 - part 3. Free popcorn and a biblical message hidden in one of Hollywood's blockbusters.