Jeff's Blog: My Challenges This Week And Church Online

I was so encouraged this week as I received an email from a lady who watched the weekend talk from our archives on Monday and made a decision to follow Jesus. Yeah God!!!  One of the things I love about Alive Church is your willingness to try new things and Church Online has been one of those risk that you all have invested in and we have continually seen our mission of leading people who are far from God to be followers of Jesus lived out. Personally, I see Church Online as an area that has more potential than we ever dreamed in our future.  I want to encourage all of you who are a part of Alive Church to take advantage of Church Online. There are a few things that are of great value to you:
  1. It's a great way to invite your friends to try church for the first time. Many people are willing to try Church Online when they are fearful of walking in the doors of the building. It gives them a chance to see what they will experience and pave the way for them to attend with you at a later date. I invite friends and family weekly by using the invite button. It's simple!
     2. It's heating up around Tucson (Can you believe we've already hit 100%?) and that means many of us will take time to escape the heat for vacation.  Church Online is a fantastic tool for staying in touch with your church while you are vacationing. Many people tell me they hate missing a weeks teaching from a series while they are away. The good news is you don't have to. You can join live at Church Online, where we always have a Campus Pastor who breaks away from the regular service to connect with the Online crowd before the service, during the announcements and for the close of the service. Or if you are traveling somewhere where the time change is extreme and you are on sleep time during our schedule live services, we always have the archive of the weekends talk posted by Monday.  Thanks to all our team that make Church Online happen.
    It's been a challenging week as I have worked on living out the Next Step from last weeks talk The Encouragement App. The principles that we have been looking at in this series called Life Apps add so much value toward us having healthy relationships. I have had so many folks respond with comments about how much this series is helping them in their daily life and how practical and applicable it has been. If you missed last weekend you can catch The Encouragement App on our web site.  This coming weekend will be equally as powerful as we look at The Rest App. This is one I personally have struggled with all my life, I will share a little of my story during the weekend talk. While this app is very personal, it has a tremendous affect on every area of our lives, especially our relationships.
I'm looking forward to being with you all this weekend and I'm praying that it will be a special time in your journey with Jesus.

Jeff's Blog: Back In Tucson And Thanks To The Team

This past weekend after our Saturday evening service Kathy and I drove through the night to Colorado Springs, Colorado to be with extended family after the sudden death of a very dear cousin. Sunday and Monday were spent with family and being at my cousin Barbs funeral. Her life story, though cut very short, touch many. There were about 1,000 people who attended the funeral with here husband receiving hundreds of letters from students she has taught over the years. One thread ran through everything everyone said about Bard, she passionately pursued Jesus. She will be dearly missed yet always remembered and her life celebrated. Please continue to pray for her family.
I want to thank everyone on the team at Alive that made it possible for Kathy and I to go and be with family. You guys rock, all the way from capturing a great recording on Saturday evening for the Sunday services to the staff who covered meetings I was scheduled to lead Monday and Tuesday.
So now we are back in Tucson and back in the saddle, as it were, getting ready for the weekend. I am very excited as I put the finishing touches on the notes for this weekends talk: The Encouragement App. Looking forward to seeing everyone this weekend!

Jeff's Blog: The Trust App

Application is everything. A lot of times we hear a new truth, or make plans to do something, get a new workout CD, a treadmill, and just because we've done so we feel like we are making progress. The truth is, without application we are not making any progress. So I am taking a few weekends to talk during the weekend services at Alive about how to apply some of the most important Life Apps that the Bible gives us for our future success in every area of our lives.
One of the most powerful relational tools for healthy and successful relationships is trust. This weekend I will be talking about The Trust App. Without understanding and applying The Trust App the way the Bible teaches us, we will handicap our ability to thrive in our relationships. Because trust is so often misunderstood, it is often not applied. We are going to discover how to apply Trust to every relationship and see what to do when trust is broken.
My notes are finished and I couldn't be more excited. I love it when a weekend teaching stirs something so deep within me. I'm looking forward to the weekend and hoping to see you all.

Easter Weekend Update

We had a great Easter weekend celebration at Alive. There were nearly 1,000 people on our Oro Valley campus and several hundred on our Online Campus. The best part; 26 faith commitments. Great picture of us living out our mission!!! Congrats to the 26 who made a decision to follow Jesus this Easter. You now have the Living Hope living in you.
Thanks to all the wonderful, incredible staff - volunteer and paid, you made it happen this weekend and you all rock!!!
This weekend we launched the new weekend talk series called Life Apps with the Easter teaching that we called The Hope App. During this 5 week series we are going to look at 5 distinct Life Apps that empower us to live in freedom and prepare us for the destiny we have in Jesus. From today: Application is everything. Hope shapes our future. Because of Jesus resurrection we have a Living Hope.
Unfortunately we often substitute the true Living Hope of Jesus resurrection with things that we are always having to work to pump ourselves up. Remember Hans and Franz from SNL? "we are here to pump-you-up." With substitutes we are constantly working to get pumped up in our hope. The Living Hope of Jesus resurrection is a inner hope that continues to grow, gives us vital life and empowers us daily.
I hope you all enjoyed the cookouts after Saturday evening service and Sunday 2nd service. It was great to be able to mingle around and connect with so many. I loved all the cotton candy!!! The kids all had a great time in the inflatable obstacle course and the Velcro wall. I'm sure we will find Easter eggs around the building for awhile from all the different egg hunts for the kids.
Thanks again to all of you who serve on the team at Alive. Through our partnership we will continue to live out our mission of Leading People Who Are Far From God To Be Followers Of Jesus!

Good Friday/Easter

Today I can't help but think back to our Service of Shadows last Sunday evening. What a powerful time we had together as we prepared for today and ultimately Easter. Take a few moments and read the account of the last few moments of the cross on this Good Friday:
"By this time it was noon, and darkness fell across the whole land until three o'clock. 45 The light from the sun was gone. And suddenly, the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn down the middle. 46 Then Jesus shouted, "Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!" And with those words he breathed his last. 47 When the Roman officer overseeing the execution saw what had happened, he worshiped God and said, "Surely this man was innocent." 48 And when all the crowd that came to see the crucifixion saw what had happened, they went home in deep sorrow." (Luke 23:44-49 NLT)
While this day was a day of sorrow for Jesus and the disciples, it was the day of incredible Grace for us all. And even though they all went away in sorrow, the good news is that Easter Sunday was coming. While we remember His death on the cross today, we are going to be celebrating His resurrection together this weekend.

Jeff's Blog: Celebratiing The Weekend

• The atmosphere this weekend was, in a word, Party! And it should have been. We baptized 17 people. Read that again: 17! I'm so thrilled to be a part of all of your journey in following Jesus and to see you take the next step in your journey through baptism was awesome!!! Alive you are great at celebrating these incredible milestones - way to go. As we gathered for every service there was just such an incredible sense that something BIG was about to happen - that God was up to something - and He was!

• The icing on the cake (we did have cake after the services to celebrate the weekend) was that there were 8 people who made new commitments in their faith to follow Jesus. Both the baptisms and the faith decisions is a picture of us living out the mission we are called to: Leading People Who Are Far From God To Be Followers Of Jesus. We have no idea of all that God wants to do through us as we continue to partner together to live out this mission.
• I just came from the Service of Shadows service that our Elders put together - wow -it was so moving. I could hardly make it through it as we read the scriptures of all that Jesus experienced this week leading up to the cross. The idea of the service was to leave in darkness, with a sense of what it must have been after the cross on Good Friday. The next time we get together will be a different story - we will get together to celebrate the HOPE of the resurrection.
• I am so looking forward to being with you all this next weekend as we celebrate Easter. Many of you are inviting friends, family, neighbors and co-workers. This is the one time of year that people really want to go to church. If you are a person who does not have a church home, I want to personally invite you this coming weekend to join me at Alive for one of our Easter services. Check it out at Easter At Alive I will begin a new weekend talk series called Life Apps beginning with The Hope App.