Interdependence Day – Ascending Together

I’m preaching this weekend on unhealthy relational dependency and independence. Come and discover the way up!

We’re Moving!

After 18 months of managing three of our Christ The Rock blogs (Life @ Christ The Rock, Community and Global), we’re packing up all of the cool stories, trip reports, church happenings and prayers and heading over to a brand new home.

If you are looking for all your favorite posts from the past, you’ll find them here! We’ve decided on a simple title: the CTR Blog. It may not be the most creative name, but it communicates exactly what you’ll find on this new site.

And with this launch of the CTR Blog, we’re renewing our commitment to come together as one Body of believers to share what God is doing in the lives of people everywhere.

Head on over and tell us what you think!

100 more days ’til Convoy!

Convoy of Hope Fox Cities is just 100 days away from today, and if you haven’t checked out their website yet, you’ll want to click here for the details. You can also follow the latest news on Facebook and Twitter. Check out this inspiring video and save August 14 on your calendar:

CTR Joins Convoy of Hope Fox Cities!

This summer, Christ The Rock will join hands with about 100 other churches plus social agencies, government leaders and health professionals to sponsor Convoy of Hope Fox Cities, a one-day outreach designed to meet both human and spiritual needs of impoverished families.

The Fox Valley is selected as one of 50 such outreach events that Convoy puts on each year across the U.S. Each outreach gives hope by providing free groceries, health and dental screenings, free haircuts, games and activities for children of all ages.

10 Fun Facts about Convoy of Hope Fox Cities:

• Convoy of Hope rolls into town Saturday, August 14 from 10 a.m. until groceries run out

• The location for the one-day event will be announced within a few days.

• This event will be the largest outreach to ever happen in the Fox Cities.

• Booths will be set up so that visitors can establish valuable connections through job fairs, churches, government agencies, and community service organizations.

• Sponsors and partners include 50-100 local businesses

• Number of volunteers needed to pull off this event: 1,000

• Amount of free groceries to be distributed: 35,000 lbs

• Other free services include:  health screenings, haircuts, shoes and school supplies, family photos

• Big attractions: Job fair, kid’s carnival and a free cookout with live entertainment.

• Number of low-income people served: About 5,000.

The Face of Poverty in the Fox Cities:

• Number of Fox Valley residents living below the poverty level: 21,600 (the 2006 federal poverty level for a family of four was $19,350.)

• Number of households just above the poverty level considered to be the “working poor:” 38,000.

• Federal housing programs administered by the three Fox Cities Housing Authorities have lengthy waiting lists. In Appleton, the estimated wait between application and receipt of a rental subsidy is five years.

• The three counties in the Fox Cities area provided almost 220,000 partially subsidized or free meals to low-income or homebound residents in 2005.

• The number of food stamp recipients in the Fox Cities area grew 95 percent between 2001 and the end of 2005. In 2005, more than 13,000 people received food stamps.

(Statistics from Fox Cities Project Promise Poverty Coalition)

We bloomed! We grew!

The “Bloom & Grow” theme for last weekend’s Women’s Retreat could not have been more appropriate as more than 400 women came together to learn, laugh and expand their thinking on what it means to hear the Holy Spirit.

Not an easy topic to teach or grasp hold of, but keynote speaker Jill Briscoe did a fantastic job in her unique way of weaving stories and word pictures together to bring the message home.

The weekend was rainy and windy, but inside the Osthoff Resort many new friendships were brightening the resort. Many of the attendees were from Christ The Rock but a significant number of people came from other churches or with their mothers or their daughters.  On Saturday, six women got baptized in the hotel pool!

Thanks and kudos to the 16-member planning team, the dozens of behind-the-scene folks, the workshop speakers and the women on the prayer team (who worked for a year to pray for this event before it even happened!)

Lots of mothers and daughters came together –all ages. Jill Briscoe taught on the Holy Spirit.

Thanks also to Stacy Lenz for taking photos! Here are just a few:

Swing by this summer!

What does church have to do with baseball?  Well for one weekend in August, the entire Christ The Rock family is stepping up to the plate together for a Sunday celebration at the ballpark.

The morning of Sunday August 15 we will begin the day of fun with one huge church service at the Timber Rattlers Stadium. (No Saturday services that weekend!)  Then it’s off to the parking lot for tailgating and mingling. Bring your frisbee!

At 1 p.m. we’ll head back to the bleachers for an afternoon of baseball and fun with Fang, the T-Rats’ mascott. Tickets for the game will be available for purchase in the Lobby soon, so watch for announcements and get ready to party!

Hearts Full of Tears offers one true Hope

In 2 ½ weeks our Rock Players are presenting a play at UW-Fox Valley called Hearts Full of Tears. Make a date May 13^th through the 16^th to see a performance! Tickets and showtimes are here. After the show, people are invited to stay for several “Talkback Sessions,” with leaders from the community, and one of those leaders is our own Pastor Bill.  So please come support us in the community. Tickets are on sale out at the Connection Center and also online starting this weekend.

Hearts Full of Tears is a show about hope in the face of tragedy—and it’s already touching the community.  Last Tuesday the cast had a booth at an event in Clintonville on stopping crime & violence. More than 300 people came to hear stories of how peoples’ lives have been affected by crime and violence and to take part in a candle-lighting memorial.  Many of those people – victim’s families, law enforcement, teachers, government leaders and victim’s advocates – talked with the cast about how much they appreciate & are looking forward to attending a play that could help people deal with their grief by turning to God, who is in control.

Here are some of the photos from that event, and below the gallery is a story cast member Amy Houlihan shared with the audience. It’s a harrowing story about a violent crime that happened in her neighborhood to her own family:

When the unimaginable happens

Posted by Amy Houlihan

My name is Amy Houlihan and along with my husband and our four children, we have lived in New London for over 18 years.

The Houlihan home was very fortunate in many ways…in that a relatively small rock was thrown at our window on January 8th, 2009.

It was about 11:30 on a Wednesday evening when our story began. We have always had an open door policy, and encouraged our kids to share our home with their friends, and I never in a million years suspected that this would have a downside.

Listen

Matthew 11:15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

We must learn to listen to the Lord. We must be sensitive to the Spirit. We must be attentive to His Word.

Psalms 119:104 Your precepts give me discernment. Therefore I hate all deceitful actions.

Proverbs 4:1 Listen, children, to a father’s instruction, and pay attention so that you may gain discernment.

Proverbs 8:5 You who are naive, discern wisdom! And you fools, understand discernment!

Let Him guide your every step and the direction of your entire life. Listen for His voice.