The Family Church Body
In This Issue
2nd Annual Harvest Celebration
Family Group Listings
Promise Keepers
Ladies Fall Retreat
What Did You Expect?
What is Real Science?
Join Our Mailing List
The Family Church Events
 

 

Worship  Service Schedules
  

8am

Traditional 

Service

 

9:30am
Contemporary Service

 

11:00 am Contemporary Service

 

 
October 2013
The Family Church
'Family Connections' Newsletter

A Word from Max  Copy of Max 2

  

 

 

Each year in early fall Outreach Magazine publishes its list of the 100 largest and 100 fastest growing churches in America. Although size and rate of growth are not the primary determining factors in church health, the ability to identify the churches that are large and growing enables us to look at what they have in common. What is it that God is using to grow these churches? And the greatest value in these lists is to ask what we can learn from these churches.

 

     Ed Stetzer, President of LifeWay Research, analyzes the results, looking for trends. This year many of the same things emerged that had emerged in previous years...the trend towards multiple campuses, the longer tenure of pastors, an invitational focus. But there was something new that emerged this year. Stetzer puts it this way, "We saw something that excited me and is thoroughly biblical. What's more, it is something in which every church can engage. Something in which every church must engage if it wants to reflect the character of God as a church body: self-sacrifice." As these growing churches engaged more people and made more disciples, their people were required to embrace the personal sacrifices necessary to do so.

          

READ ON

 



2nd Annual Harvest Celebration
Event: Harvest Celebration
Where: The Family Church
Date: Saturday, November 16th
Time: 4:30 pm - 7:30 pm followed by a Bon Fire

An event like this takes a variety of volunteers
to make it a success.
This is a great opportunity to celebrate the arrival of the fall season and give something back to the community.
This event is FREE and open to the
community
(food and drinks will be at an additional cost)

NOW WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Family groups have been asked to help however, not everyone is in a family group. The good thing is, we have many smaller ways YOU CAN HELP. Please read over the list below and contact Paula Drury ASAP at
(352)463-3528 home/(352)262-2127 cell
or by email
at paulajdrury@hotmail.com to sign up!


Whispers in the Dark 
 

 

Scripture - Numbers 5:5-7 - "When a man or a woman wrongs another, breaking faith with the Lord, that person incurs guilt and shall confess the sin that has been committed. The person shall make full restitution for the wrong, adding one fifth to it, and giving it to the one who was wronged."

 

Observation - It is not surprising that God would want the people to have rules concerning how to deal with disagreements. People living in community always have them. What is interesting is that God says when we "wrong" another person we break faith with Him. Of course, we also break faith with the one we have wronged, but do we really understand that a broken relationship with any other person, for whatever reason, is breaking faith with God? Obviously relationship is important to God. So is community. Throughout scripture the theme is the same: if we say we love God but don't care about others, we are lying to ourselves and to the world. To love God demands integrity in our lives and that integrity will be reflected in the high value we place on the things God values, like relationship and community. 

I notice two things. First, when a relationship has gone bad, God wants it put right immediately. I notice that although the passage is directed at the guilty party, not much effort is spent describing how to determine who is at fault for the "wrong". If the relationship has gone bad, both have wronged God and broken faith with Him. He wants it restored. Second, it is interesting that God doesn't consider it enough to simply make restitution. More must be returned. Relationship and relational health always require us to give more than we receive. Indeed, that is the practical definition of wholeness and integrity. To keep faith with God we must develop a generous spirit that is directed not only to God but to others. If relationship is broken and community is damaged, not only restoration and restitution are important, but also a spirit of generosity that seeks to give more than it receives. 

 

 

 

Missions Ministry
Jeff West Profile Photo
Jeff West

 

 

G I C:
Life & Faith Commitments Update

 

Last month, I mentioned The Family Church couple that is preparing for their overseas assignment. It is with great joy that I announce that Don and JoAnn are our latest missionaries to be supported by The Family Church. I withheld their last names from print (though many of you know them) and I cannot mention their ministry location for security reasons; however, I can say that the life commitment they made at a previous Global Impact Celebration is coming to fruition. It is exciting to send out more of our own people into the Lord's Harvest.

 

JoAnn and Don went through the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement class. On a side note, TFC is currently hosting "Perspectives" this fall. Currently, eighteen (18) Family Church members are taking this life-changing class along with more than a dozen others from area churches. This course had an impact on Don and JoAnn's lives not only in their engagement in local ministry, but it also caused them to consider their roles in joining with God's plan for the nations. If you made a life commitment at last year's GIC (or a previous GIC), I want to encourage you to follow through with whatever the Lord laid on your heart at that time, whether engagement with a local ministry partner, a short term mission trip, or to pursue becoming a vocational missionary.

 

It is through your generous GIC faith commitments that The Family Church is able to send out via financial support Don and JoAnn, along with the many other ministries, missionaries, and mission partnerships both locally and globally. The 2013 GIC Faith Commitment was an amazing $270,710! To date we have received $71,358. Last year, for the first time in the history of TFC, we not only reached, but also exceeded 100% of the financial faith commitments. I want to encourage all of us to fulfill those commitments we made by faith to the Lord so that our mission ministry and missionaries can be fully funded again THIS year and every year following. Remember to earmark those gifts as "GIC" when giving to distinguish those funds from your tithes to support the general operating budget of the church.

 

READ ON

 

 

 Discipleship Ministry
 

 

Marty and Pat Wynkoop attended a different Family Group last year. During that year, it became obvious to the Family Group leader that Marty and Pat had a strong leadership capacity. Therefore, the Family Group leader challenged Marty and Pat to pray about leading a Family Group this year which they agreed to.

 

How did your first Family Group go?

It was 8 minutes after our start time and only one other couple was there. You know that nervous feeling you get when you think you went to the wrong place or the wrong time?  Well, multiply that a couple of times and you can feel how I felt. Then we heard a small knock at the door and upon opening the door, our front yard was packed with people!  We welcomed 13 adults and 12 children under the age of 4 in the next 5 minutes!  One of the single guys said something about a full quiver.  Adding the 4 adults already there, we had 17 adults and adding the kids we had a total of 29!  Yikes! The Lord provides. 

 

What do you see the role of Family Groups being?

Family Groups are a critical component of a healthy Family Church.  We are commanded in Matthew 28:19 "Therefore, go and make disciples..."I am not sure how you can make disciples if you don't get to know the person before you start making.  Family Groups allow you to get to know others in a personal way.  This promotes fellowship on an intimate level, something hard to do on a Sunday morning as you walk in or out of church.  Being with others in a smaller group allows you to get to know their hopes, cares and blessings.  It also allows you to be able to pray with and for them on things that are personally meaningful.

 

What advice would you give Family Group members in regard to Family Groups?

If you haven't, go visit a Family Group and get to know those 'disciples' around you and if you do go to a Family Group, invite your next disciple.

 

CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE FAMILY GROUP LISTINGS

 

 

 

  

Men's Ministry


Why Do We Need a Men's Ministry?

 

For every 10 men in the average church... 

 

         * 9 will have kids who leave the church 

         * 8 will not find their jobs satisfying 

         * 6 will pay monthly minimum on credit cards 

         * 5 have a major problem with pornography 

         * 4 will get divorced affecting 1,000,000                                           children each year 

         * All 10 will struggle to balance family & work 

 

The Men's Ministry at The Family Church is here to change these statistics.  Come and join us.

 

 

2013 Promise Keepers image  

 Costs:  $99 conference and lodging 

(meals extra)

 

For more information on Promise Keeper's Conference, see the Men's table in lobby.

 

Women's Ministry

 

2013 Ladies Fall Retreat

        Laugh...Lunch...Learn

      "Trees of the Field"

Special Guest: Patsy Cook Whitaker

 

 

            Saturday October 12, 2013 9:30am -1:00pm
$8.00 lunch included

 

                                 2549 NW 138th Terrace

                  

 

                Save the Date...Annual Christmas Brunch
Saturday December 7th

 

 


Youth Ministry

  Mark & Jodi Hubbard

 

What Did You Expect?

 

     Ever seen that commercial about smoking where the dad is scolding his adolescent son while interrogating him as to who had shown him how to smoke? Meekly the son bows his head in shame as his father's disappointing tone turns to anger. In a moment of courage and rebellion mixed with frustration, the son paralyzes his father as he blurts out, "I LEARNED IT FROM YOU, ALRIGHT...I learned it from watching you." Ouch! After all, how can you hold your kid accountable to something that you yourself aren't doing?

 

     "Do as I say, not as I do" is an old cliche that NEVER worked and will NEVER work! Kids learn by example better than any other means of teaching. Do you desire them to remain pure, give grace and kindness to others and make Jesus priority in their lives? If so, realize that the way you live life in front of them will be their most profoundly learned lessons. As kids grow through adolescence and into their teenage years, their thinking changes from a concrete processor to an abstract  thinker.  Underlying meanings of things inferred through your behavior, the tones of your voice or even their abilities to "read between the lines" develop into honed skills. I warn our youth volunteers to be authentic with teens because the most adept bloodhounds at sniffing out a fake, are teenagers. You may never become aware of these "superpowers" they possess. They'll likely get good at hiding this knowledge from you or make you feel like it's not affecting them. Kids have an amazing ability to keep from "pushing your buttons" so as to keep the peace. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security so that your actions have negative affects on your teen.

 

 
 
Kidz Under God's Instruction  

 

  FIRSTLINKZ   

CLICK HERE:

 To Read The First Linkz Newsletter

  

 

KidzVenture

 

 

  

 

 

CLICK HERE:

To Read The Kidz Venture Newsletter

 

 

Angela Renick

Children's Minister and Nursery Coordinator

 

 

What is Real Science?

Stephen F. Larner, PhD 

 

 

Even if all the data point to an intelligent designer, such an hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic. - Dr. Scott Todd (Evolutionist), Kansas State University, Nature 401(6752):423, Sept. 30, 1999.

 

The basis of modern science was founded by men who assumed God created an orderly universe. If the universe were just a product of random chance there could be no expectation for order in nature. Many of the founders of the principle scientific fields were men who believed the secrets of nature could be discovered because they follow laws integrated into it by the Lawgiver. Such men as Bacon, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton, were believers in a recently created earth. Johannes Kepler, one of the founders of astronomy, said science was "thinking God's thoughts after Him." Many of these founders were Bible-believing Christians so the suggestion science cannot accept a creationist perspective is a denial of scientific history. Most discerning historians recognize the very existence of modern science had its origins in a culture at least nominally committed to a biblical worldview.

 

In its original form science simply meant "knowledge." Today, however, if someone says he or she is a scientist, a different perspective often comes to mind. Science, in the view of the evolutionary community, automatically rules out God and thereby the possibility He created the universe because, to them, that would be an assumption that cannot be tested and repeated. If an idea is not testable, repeatable, observable, and falsifiable, it is not considered scientific. However, one could say the same thing about evolution.  

 

READ ON

 


Isaiah 52: 7- 10

 

How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news,

Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things,

Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion,

 "Your God reigns!"

Your watchmen shall lift up their voices,

With their voices they shall sing together,

For they shall see eye to eye When the Lord brings back Zion.

Break forth into joy, sing together. You waste places of Jerusalem!
For the Lord has comforted His people,

He has redeemed Jerusalem.

The Lord has made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations;

And all the ends of the earth shall see

The salvation of our God. 

 

 

The Family Church
2022 SW 122nd Street
Gainesville, FL 32607
352-332-6459

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