I hope you’re summer is going well!  As I write this, I’m sitting in a Starbucks in Lakeland, FL.  In a few hours, I’ll be performing the wedding ceremony of one of my good friends and former Center Pointe staff member, Shane Hargrave…driving to Orlando late tonight to catch a plane to Kentucky early tomorrow morning to meet up with my family to drive to Tennessee to spend a week in the mountains.   That’s a run-on sentence with a lot of prepositional phrases!  And…it feels a little like my summer…a lot of run-ons!  I’ll return from vacation to head to the North American in Cincinnati (which you should to), back in the office for a week, and then off to Jamaica with a group of Center Pointe partners to lead a VBS for 400 kids during the day and preach at an evangelistic gathering in the evenings. 

I tell you all of that for two reasons… 1) to ask that you would pray for me this summer with all of my comings and goings.  It can get a little stressful at times…and 2) to tell you that you won’t be seeing a lot of me until September.  I will preach the week after I return from Jamaica (July 31) and then will spend August studying, praying, and pouring myself into the strategic plan.  I’m grateful for a leadership that understands that there is more to this job than preparing and preaching sermons on Sunday (I have a lot of friends in ministry who’s leadership doesn’t) and who want to make sure that I have the time I need to do everything well. 

Continue to be in prayer for our Strategic Planning Team as we continue to seek God’s heart on how to accomplish our new mission to Love God Radically, Serve Others Compassionately, and Lead People to Jesus.  I was encouraged by all of the stories and testimonies in June about what it means to Love God Radically.  During July, we will focus on Serve Others Compassionately, and we would love to hear what that means to you personally and/or how you live that out.  Share your story with us by sending an email to stories@centerpointechristian.org

As part of our focus on Serve Others Compassionately, I want to remind you about our X-week coming up the week of July 10.  Remember that we are kicking that off on Sunday, July 10 with ONE WORSHIP SERVICE AT 9:15 and then going out to serve in our community.  This day is all about BEING the Church to our community.  We are looking forward to this day (and week) of serving together with compassion.  Make sure you sign up ahead of time for where you are planning to serve.  Let’s be the church this month…and every month thereafter!

HighGear Virtue for June

“Imagine the Impossible.” This theme (for both June and July) will help kids see connections between faith (what we’re talking about in June) and perseverance (what we’ll talk about in July). Faith and perseverance go hand-in-hand with each other: God uses our faith to strengthen our perseverance and perseverance to deepen our faith. He doesn’t promise that life will be all hunky-dory when we place our faith in Him. In fact, living the life of a believer often takes guts and perseverance. This is one of the key messages in the book of Hebrews. So, for the months of June and July, we’ll camp out in Hebrews to uncover what some early Christians faced: hard times and seemingly impossible circumstances. We’ll discover how they held on to their faith and how faith not only saw them through, but how God did the impossible through them.

Virtue: Faith—trusting in what you can’t see because of what you can see.
Memory Verse: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1, NIV

June 5th
Bible Story: Sky Writer (God made everything) • Hebrews 10:32-35; 11:1-3
Bottom Line: You can trust in a God you can’t see because you can see what He’s created.

June 12th
Bible Story: Take Off (God’s promise to Abraham) • Hebrews 10:32-35; 11:8-12; Genesis 12:1-7

Bottom Line: You can trust that God will keep His promises because you can see the promises He’s kept.

June 19th
Bible Story: Turbulence (Joseph remained faithful) • Hebrews 10:32-35; 11:22; Genesis 37:9; 39:2,20-21; 41:39-40

Bottom Line: You can trust God to be with you in bad times because you’ve seen how faithful He’s been.

June 26th
Bible Story: Flight Plan (crossing the Red Sea) • Hebrews 10:32-35; 11:27,29; Exodus 14:5-31
Bottom Line: You can trust that God can do the impossible because He’s God.

Elementary and Preschool Small Group Registration CLOSES June 6th.
All Preschool through Elementary children are required to register for a small group for the 2011/2012 ministry year.  We close registration on June 6th in order to make preparations for the fall.  Adjustments need to be made each year as our number of kids increase, new small group leaders are recruited, and programming is prepped.  We will open registration again on August 8th to give anyone who missed early registration a chance to register for a small group.  Please know that if you register late, your child may have to be placed in a different small group.   Please also know that your child will be cared for and supported just like they were in their group this year by an adult who cares for them very much.

KidsPointe Summer Programming
All Current K – 5th graders will have combined large group worship in the K- 3rd grade worship room at 9:15 and 10:45.  There are no small groups so your child can attend either hour.  If families are here 2 hours, children should attend worship with their parents and attend HighGear while their parent is serving.  Nursery and Preschool are offered during both services.

KidsPointe Volunteers Needed

We are looking for adults/teens with a passion for connecting kids to their loving Savior!!  We have many opportunities to serve and we promise that you will be blessed beyond measure when you serve with our kids!

Please contact Tammy Phillips about serving in our KidsPointe Ministry.  Training is provided where you will be fully equipped to make a difference in our kids lives!!  tammyp@centerpointechristian.org