New England Spring

New England Spring
It’s always exciting when spring starts to show its face. I feel the excitement as it means that Easter is coming and what a wonderful time of bringing worship to the one true King.

On April 1st LifeSong Church will begin a week of Love Invades, where many LifeSongers will take the week off from work to Love on the community of Lyman, through food distribution, free oil changes, free haircuts, and backyard bible clubs throughout the community. During this week there will also be a LifeSong team in Jacmel Haiti serving the community there.

Tim and Lynn Love Invades week
Lynn and I will be traveling to Manchester Connecticut from April 6th through the 11th. The main focus of this trip is prayer. We will be prayer walking the city of Manchester and some of the surrounding towns. There will also be a time that we get to visit with friends and pastors that have planted the gospel in Connecticut. Since we are moving closer to begin our lives in New England, we want to use this time to bring Glory to God as we worship Him this Easter in Connecticut.

Tim and Lynn Planting Update
Many of you are praying for us and we can see the results of being lifted up. Many of you have supported this call on our lives financially, and I want to say Thank You! for the support and prayers. The dollars that God has blessed you with; that you are now being investing in the Kingdom is awesome. We still have a ways to go, to get to the needed monthly support and we are trusting God to continue to supply for the need. Thank You Go Givers!!!!!

We are now moved into Matthew and Brittany’s house (son and daughter in-love), and will be there for the next few months. Lynn will undergo knee replacement surgery in April then will have a few months of rehab. During this time I will complete my work with Planting the Gospel church planting school, and interview for jobs in Connecticut.

My prayer for all of you this week:
Find your JOY in the Cross!

Heading North
Pastor Tim

Inside Out

After spending some time in the Gospels, I have been impacted by some WOW moments of Christ. One in particular is in Matthew 17:1-8 the Transfiguration, when Jesus
allowed Peter, James and John to see his glory. These dudes were blown away by Gods power and greatness.

Moses and Elijah had also appeared to them in this event. When I think about this, Moses and Elijah had other encounters of God, and they “Glowed” as well. Moses on Mt Sinai and Elijah at Mt Horeb. Theirs came from being exposed to Gods glory and it had an visible outward effect.

But then Jesus takes these 3 disciples to Mt Tabor and his glory and power was shown from within, because his is the Son of God. Man…. what power is that? That blows me away!!

So here are some thoughts:

1. I want permanent change in my life, which can only be performed by God, not by me living a “good” life. Permanent meaning you can’t go back to where you have came, because the old cocoon is gone, what used to be a caterpillar is now something beautiful that God created.

2. I want to be blown away every morning, everyday.

3. In the same verses, God says “This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased, listen to him.” The Gospel of Jesus is worth our attention.

4. You can’t camp on the Mountain top. After the 3 boys had this encounter with the King, God used them in mighty ways to spread the Gospel of Jesus.

When you have exposed your heart to Jesus, God can rearrange your furniture, and being obedient means to trust Him, and what He is doing by using you for the kingdom, not trusting what you can do for the kingdom. I want to be immersed in his presence because the Gospel is everything!

Do you find yourself asking over and over, “God what is your will in my life?” Maybe you are standing in the middle of it, and it’s just simply time to make a decision. The closer you are to
the gospel, the better decisions you make…I stole that one from a NY pastor :)

To be in awe of Gods glory changes you inside out. I love the last part of JD Greear’s gospel prayer:

“As I pray I will remember your compassion by the cross and measure your power by the resurrection”

Heading North
Pastor Tim

Make Disciples

Planting The Gospel / The past week has been full of God moments. Last weekend Lynn and I completed our assessment by Planting The Gospel. The assessment allowed Lynn and me to express and communicate the vision that God has layed on my heart for New England, and to take an inventory of our lives in this movement of God. We were leaned in on and ready to kick it up a notch, while God has us here in S.C.

Baptism / On Tuesday, Greer area churches along with the Greer Baptist Association presented the New England planting team with a new portable Baptismal pool. To be sent to Connecticut with a baptismal is an answered prayer. We are so thankful that God is moving in the hearts of men and women here in the south in order to complete His mission in the north.

Making Disciples / This call from scripture to “Make Disciples” in Matthew 28, is a little deeper than most consider. It requires being right in the middle of people’s lives…many different types of people. I mean, I have friends that go on mission trips to build buildings for worship, and those things are needed, but what about building people? Is about making us feel significant or is it about reproducing ourselves as Christ followers? Please do not read any arrogance in that last statement. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that a person is transformed.

Building buildings has a start and an end. Do we sometimes confuse that activity with doing the Great Commission? Being a disciple and making disciples requires an investment and sometimes is a hard thing to do, because people (like me) are hard. Many are not teachable because their pride is bigger than their obedience. But, there is no greater fulfillment than to disciple someone to grow and walk with Jesus.

Planting the Gospel is not building a building, but disciple people. It’s not about having a bible study class and calling it discipleship, but living life with those who need Jesus, and be moved into action by what scripture teaches on the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

Does being theologically correct mean that discipleship has happened? I believe incorrect doctrine is incorrect doctrine, but I know of those who go on mission to find the MOST correct theological environment in a church, and I’m not sure that’s a journey that has an end. If the theology is correct, then the community will be transformed and the people will be coming back to God… just saying

What about you? I ask that you consider your relationships. Are you being discipled or are you discipling the ones you spend time with? In your discipling of others, is it focused on the teachings of Christ, his life, death, and resurrection?

Heading North
Pastor Tim

Spiritual Muscle

I love the fact that many of my family and friends are turning the ship in their personal health. Everything from P90X, Triathlon training, and walking & running. My wife Lynn has just completed her very first 1/2 marathon, and will run the Cooper River Run this year. I plan to ride in my 5th Mt Bike race this year. Some would joke that this is just a fad and we all will eventually just land on the couch. That could be true, but if it is so, it would be because we had no plan and no goals in place.

What about building Spiritual Muscle?

Sometimes we wonder why we end up in spiritual and emotional train wrecks, and say "I can't believe that I am here, or why did I make such poor decisions". Satan wants us lulled to sleep and will feed us anything to keep us from waking up to the fact that we do not have to live as slaves.

I want to encourage you to put a plan in place and get into the practice of praying and doing something about your Spiritual Growth.

As a start, turn off the TV and use S.O.A.P. as you read God's word:

S = Scripture, meaning to read and to hear the words read.

O = Observation, meaning looking at a verse and look for the key words and main point or points

A = Application, meaning that you have to ask yourself, "how does this verse impact my Life?"

P = Prayer. Ask God to open up your eyes and soak in the truths and and life giving water from this LOVE letter that He has for us.

If you just don't know where to start on a plan for building Spiritual Muscle, I would love to talk to you or encourage you to attend the "Starting Point" class that we offer every 7 weeks at LifeSong Church - tim@lifesongcurchonline.com

Luke 21:19 "By Standing Firm you will gain life"

Gather, Grow, & Go
Pastor Tim