Immediately following the Independence celebration and holiday, we are launching our new monthly session that we’re calling Life Ministry Training. This very unique ministry will take place on the FIRST Sunday of each month.
The circumstances that led us to this initiative seemed very negative. First, we were forced to cut back on our weekly gatherings. Then we received notification that we could no longer hold church services in the place in which we have been meeting for over three years. However, due to the resiliency the Lord has developed in us over the last eight years, we simply adjusted and kept moving forward. Now we have a powerful strategy in place.
Two Sundays out of every month we meet publically. Two Sundays out of each month we meet in our homes. One of those public gatherings is for prayer and teaching. The other public gathering is for fellowship and conversation. Both of the public gatherings will prevent us from focusing only on ourselves and what we are going through in our lives. These two Sundays give us the opportunities to help others in their journey to God.
We now see our recent challenge as an awesome opportunity that has been handed to us! We are especially excited about our gatherings on the FIRST Sunday of each month. This is where we will tackle some of the most difficult issues that are facing our families.
Over the next four months we’re going to help people deal with mental illness, stress, anxiety, depression and grief. We’re going to take away the negative stigmas and stereotypes that have prevented people from getting the help they need. We’re going to take away some of the gross misinformation that has kept many of us from understanding the struggle of our friends and family members. We’re going to learn the practical things that we need to do AFTER we pray for them. We’re going to learn how to allow God to work through us to bring healing to hearts and homes.
We are breaking a lot of traditions because we are changing the old mindset of Believers who attend church gatherings only to receive blessings, to Believers attending church gatherings to learn how to be a blessing to someone else.
I cannot promise that the journey ahead of us will be easy. Our monthly training will involve at least one hour of instruction. Many people find it difficult to sit through a lecture or a class unless it has something to do with obtaining a degree, a certification or a job promotion.
However, I am persuaded of better things concerning the Urban Life family. If the average person can sit through two-hour movies for entertainment and two-hour lectures in the pursuit of higher education, then certainly we can sit through a one-hour-per-month training to learn how to effectively help our struggling family members and friends.
Last year, when we were teaching about the lifestyles of victorious believers, we talked about how sometimes Biblical instruction can be boring to plod through. It is absolutely necessary for our church family to press through it, if we’re going to become mature Believers that God can use in these last days.
Back when we were in college, Oral Roberts told the students that God could use a dull axe to cut a tree down, but He could get the job done faster and more efficiently with a sharp axe. The FIRST Sunday’s Life Ministry Training is about making us sharp.
Our families and friends are trying to put the pieces of their lives together, but WE have the answer to their pain. Now we will all learn how to help them receive the answer. God is going to use these monthly gatherings to make us sharp instruments in His hands.
As we have said on countless occasions, “This is not the Chris and Carol Green Show!”
Today marks a new season in which we call our church family members forth to step into their rightful places of responsibility as a Followers of Jesus Christ.
We're not here to build a big ministry. We're building people.
