Compassion Experience Success

Compassion literally means “to suffer together." You are a person with compassion when you are confronted with another's suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering. Empathy is our ability to feel what another person is feeling, however, feeling another’s suffering and acting upon it are two different things. The person with true compassion is a person of action. The person who steps up and sacrifices to relieve the suffering of another person is truly a compassionate follower of Christ.

So, let’s celebrate the compassion of our members. I’m ecstatic at how you responded this past weekend! Yes, yes, yes! Praise the Lord and Hallelujah!

Thank you to our awesome volunteers! You are necessary and you made the experience a great one for the people who came and for the other Compassion volunteers. And through your efforts we were highly successful.

Here are the results:

·         200 kids sponsored

·         20-25 kids sponsored by Shadycrest families

·         20 kids sponsored by Lifepointe families (our co-sponsor for the event)

·         Shadycrest became more unstoppable & more necessary in the world—success!

INGATHERING SUNDAY IS ALMOST HERE!

"It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).

Many people go to church for what they can get. Well, if you go to church just for what you can get out of the music, or what you can get out of the sermon, or just to get blessed, you've missed the point and therefore you may miss the blessing. The music and the sermon aren't ends in themselves, they are but stimuli to cause you to seek and worship God. And if you have any thought less than that, you've missed the point! Giving God the glory He is due is central to the Gospel and central to life!

We go to church to worship God, and that's done by giving, not getting. How can our worship be pure if our first instinct is to “get what we want.” No, instead, we first go to offer something to Him. We offer Him praise, a humble heart, a willing spirit. We lay our service and even our treasure at His feet to worship Him. Worship is a consuming desire to give to God, and it involves the giving of ourselves, our heart attitudes, and our possessions.

So, as Ingathering week approaches, plan to give well! Give sacrificially! Yes, give financially but also come prepared to offer Him great praise from a pure heart. In doing so you and I will be giving Him the honor & glory & praise He deserves. Let’s bless the LORD next week with all the passion we can muster! Let us come together and honor Him, and as He asked us to in Malachi, let us test Him and see what He might do amongst us when we give sacrificially to His Kingdom work.

I Love My Church!

Lately I’ve been contemplating all the great things I love about Shadycrest. As I began to make a list I was overwhelmed by the number of great ministries and great people we have here who serve the LORD so well. It literally made me exclaim, “I love my church!”

I LOVE:

Watching our kitchen crew serve our members with great love.

Hearing the stories of members like Alvin Rose and Gene Weaver who visit our homebound and nursing homebound. 

Listening to the testimonies of our youth (Blaine Israel) about what God is doing in their young lives.

Hearing the giggles and watching the smiles as the children played this past week at our AWANA kickoff carnival.

 Praying with our prayer warriors during our 40 Days of Prayer.

Singing with our Celebration Choir and awesome praise band. 

There is so much to love about Shadycrest! What a great place to serve the LORD!
What do you love about Shadycrest? I’d love to hear your story. If you have a story to tell, please contact me. I’m collecting stories and I truly want to hear yours. Call or write me ASAP, and tell me why you love your church! 

YOUTH CAMP MEMORIES

I will be at the Power Plus Youth Camp this whole week with about 30 of our wonderful youth and courageous youth sponsors! I’m excited! I’m praying the LORD moves powerful upon us and sets all of our hearts on fire for His purposes, for His mission. I’m praying we all walk away fully realizing life isn’t about glory or pleasure for me, but instead glory and honor to Jesus! Pray with me! Pray for them! May the glory of the LORD fall on them all this week!

My experiences at Youth Camp as a teenager were tremendous and God changed my life each and every time. At camp I dedicated an entire week to seeking after Him earnestly. Youth Camp gives kids this opportunity, and if they take it seriously, they will never be the same. Why was it so powerful for me and life changing? Here is what I believe:

1. Teenagers are tired of playing religious games. They want it to be real or they want to walk away from it to find something that is real. They have an incredible need to be led, to be challenged, and to see for themselves the love and power of God. That was me years ago too, and it is the same for today’s teens as well.

2.  The principle of “seeking God earnestly” (Jeremiah 29:13) is never more intense for them than at Youth Camp. We live such busy lives that on an average day most Christians simply give God their leftover time…not quality time. There is no power there. But the power of God falls on us when we seek Him earnestly, and that takes time. Youth Camp provides that time. I still remember those moments when I heard from God and felt His presence at Youth Camp! It was just “wow!”

Celebrate to Replicate

It doesn't matter if you are leading people forward in their relationship with God or in potty training, what's celebrated is replicated.  If we acknowledge and applaud progress, progress will continue.  If we ignore it, enthusiasm will wane and progress will stop.

Perhaps this is why God designed baptism as a visible and outward expression of an inward reality.  When life change is celebrated within the church it becomes contagious and it inspires people to consider their own lives, often resulting in conversations with God that lead to their own personal change. Don’t you get excited when one of our church members tells their story to you? Don’t you get excited when we have baptisms and the candidate shares their love for the Lord on video? I do!

Therefore, today help me celebrate the great work of our Children’s Ministry. Our Children’s Team are all volunteers and they do amazing work. Last Saturday a great team of Children’s leaders and kids were out at Independence Park serving at the “Paws in the Park” event. Yesterday, our Children’s Team was at the Chic-fil-a meeting hundreds of kids and their parents and providing a fun and adventurous Easter egg hunt. And, today you witness the great work of our Children’s Team as our Kids Choir sings in the Easter Service!

Kuddos to our Children’s workers. Join me in celebrating a great team! If you see one of our Children’s workers this week, pat them on the back and tell them how proud you are of their great work!  

Today, I celebrate with you these great servants of Jesus! 

I AM KIND…what is your superpower?

Galatians 5:22-23 teaches us about the fruit of the Spirit. One of the fruits is kindness…”but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,  goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Last year our church began a partnership with a mentoring ministry—Kids Hope USA (http://www.kidshopeusa.org/). It is an exciting program and has caused Wednesdays to be a favorite day for me each week. Now, on Wednesdays I have the privilege of mentoring a 1^st grade student at Shadycrest Elementary School and we are having a great time of learning and growing together. Each trip I see a sign outside a teacher’s door that says, “I’m a teacher, what is your superpower!”

I love it…but it provoked me to thinking about the literal supernatural powers that Christ gives us through the empowering work of HIS SPIRIT in us. It’s the “Grace Fruit” we have been talking about in our current sermon series at Shadycrest. Have you ever thought about the fact that you have been given SUPERPOWERS! Praise the LORD; yes you have!

Can you think of someone right now who has been mean to you? They have mistreated you in the past? Your easiest response is to have nothing to do with them; however, I suggest that you do  something kind for them, especially if this person is in your family or is someone you see often. The purpose of kindness is not to make them burn with shame, but to bless them. If you do, God will reward your kindness. It is hard to do, and you may have to pray hard and long before being truly ready to do it…but do it anyway!

Booker T. Washington, the first President of Tuskegee Institute faced a great deal of hatred and abuse as he worked to educate African-Americans during the time of Jim Crow laws in the south. Through it all, he demonstrated the kindness of Christ to his enemies. He once wrote: “I will not allow any man to make me lower myself by hating him. The only way I can destroy my enemy is to make him my friend.”

In August 1998 when George H. W. Bush accepted the Republican nomination for President, he said, “I want a kinder, gentler nation.” Five months later he was inaugurated as our 41st President. Do you recall what his first official act was as Chief Executive? He led us in prayer. May God give us more leaders who lead us in prayer.

It’s amazing that President Bush said that one of our greatest needs is to become a kinder, gentler

nation. If it’s true of our nation, it’s also true of our churches, and our homes, and of each of us. We certainly need a kinder, gentler culture, and a kinder, gentler world.

Unfortunately, it is too common for “good, religious people” to be as mean as a snake. I’ve had more than one server in a restaurant tell me the rudest folks are the church people who eat out for Sunday lunch—and they say, “they’re the worse tippers!” OUCH! I agree with the little girl who had spent all day with some of these “good, religious people.” During her bedtime prayer she prayed, “Dear God, please make all the bad people good; and make all the good people kind.”

We must be kind to one another. Yes, we must be much kinder to one another than we presently are. One thing we say around here a lot is the phrase, “I might need to change.” It is a reminder that we haven’t arrived yet and Jesus is still working out His will and good pleasure in each of us who believe in Him. Kindness isn’t natural. It is supernatural, and we need to rely on Him to create kindness within us each and every day.

In Jesus name and for His glory I will be kind…what is your superpower?