NCF Podcast

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8/2/09 Special Decision Life Notes
Pastor Paul M. Reinhard

Welcome: How many different places have you lived in your adult life?

Worship: Be creative in opening your hearts to God! Take time for a song, poem, video clip, story, or testimony! Spend some moments in prayer. Invite the Holy Spirit to meet with you as your teacher, friend, encourager, and the giver of great gifts!

Witness: Be praying for your OIKOS this week! Ask God to show you “the man of peace.” This person is open to the gospel, and is the key to reaching a completely new OIKOS. Pray a special blessing upon that person and their household!

Word: For months, our church has been praying about the direction God would have us to go! We have read books, attended symposiums, and had special prayer meetings! We have shared with you candidly that our money coming in is less than our money going out. The time has come to make some decisions. On August 23rd we will be having a special business meeting. For the next couple of weeks our Life Groups will be engaging in some Biblical reflection to prepare for that meeting.

1. Did Jesus own a building? How do you think it affected His ministry?

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2. Did the Apostle Paul or Peter own a building? How did it affect their ministry?

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3. Read Acts 19:8-10. Make a list of the events that happened! You will come up with different numbers, depending upon how you group them, and your Bible translation. Carefully analyze the flow of the story. What happened? What did Paul do? What was the fruit of his ministry?

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B. __________________________________________________________________

C. _________________________________________________________________D. _________________________________________________________________

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4. Read Acts 17:24-25, 1 Peter 2:4-5, and 1 Corinthians 6:19. Where does God live? Does He live in a building? Does He live in a body?

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5. Think about our Vision… Mentoring, Life Groups, Celebration.

A. Where can you do Mentoring?

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B. Where can you do Life Groups?

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C. Where can we do Celebration if we sell our facility?

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Prayer: Close your time together in prayer. Pray for God’s will for our church. Pray for His leading and protection. Pray that we will hear His voice, and follow Him. When Dr. David Yongii Cho, the pastor of the largest church in the world, was asked his secret for success he said, “I pray and obey!” That was his simple secret, pray and obey!

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_PERSONAL AND FAMILY REFLECTION

This reflection is for your consideration during the week. We will be speaking about this in Life Group next week. Please spend time in your listening room with these things!

At our last Board meeting, Pastor Chris and I [Paul] offered our resignations to the Board. We told the Board that if they wanted to turn the church around and go back toward a “traditional” model of ministry, that we would truly respect and honor their wishes. The Board unanimously voted to pursue the Vision of Mentoring, Life Groups, and Celebration. They observed that Calvary/NorthPoint has been doing traditional style ministry on our property since 1965. The church has ridden the attendance roller coaster between 150 and 300 worshipers through all of that history. We have only been marginally effective at the main goal Christ gave the church. We have not been radically and wildly effective at winning souls and making disciples. Our city is not fundamentally different because we are here.

Chris and I are going to make the same offer to our congregation. If you would like our resignations, we will humbly tender them. But if you believe that God would like to do a mighty work in this community, through the Cell Model of ministry that we are pursuing, then we would be honored to serve you, and lead you, in that direction.

Our Staff and Board have prayed together for months about these things. We are tired of spending most of our meetings and energy on buildings and budgets. We are ready to sell the “synagogue” which has become a “financial millstone around our necks” and go in search of an affordable “hall of Tyrannus” in the center of our corporate OIKOS.

I [Paul] want to spend my days winning souls and making disciples, not worrying about payroll and making the mortgage. As I have been praying about these things at camp the last few weeks the story of Cortez came to mind. When he landed his soldiers on a foreign shore, he burned the boats. They understood the importance of winning the battle, because there was no going back from the Vision!

I am coming to believe that the decisions about our budget and property are more Vision than financial. If NorthPoint wants to be a traditional church, then she needs property upon which to run her programs. If NorthPoint is going to be a Cell Movement, then we can rent a place to Celebrate, or meet in a park during the nice months, and win thousands to Christ in our homes, schools, places of business, or the local coffee shop! Where we meet will reflect who we are and where we are hGod has given us a peace about launching out into the deep! I fully appreciate the magnitude of this discussion. The time has come. We must make decisions! We love you and will be praying for you as you pray for one another and us! Paul and Chris
Take the words of this song to your Listening Room this week as you meet with God!

Burn The Ships
(Steven Curtis Chapman and James Isaac Elliott)

In the spring of 1519 a Spanish fleet set sail
Cortez told his sailors this mission must not fail
On the eastern shore of Mexico they landed with great dreams
But the hardships of the new world make them restless and weak
Quietly they whispered, "Let's sail back to the life we knew"
But the one who led them there was saying

Burn the ships, we're here to stay,
There's no way we could go back
Now that we've come this far by faith
Burn the ships, we've passed the point of no return
Our life is here, So let the ships burn

In the spring of new beginnings a searching heart set sail
Looking for a new life and a love that would not fail
On the shores of grace and mercy we landed with great joy
But an enemy was waiting to steal, kill, and destroy
Quietly he whispers, "Go back to the life you know"
But the one who led us here is saying

Burn the ships, we're here to stay,
There's no way we could go back
Now that we've come this far by faith
Burn the ships, we've passed the point of no return
Our life is here, So let the ships burn
eaded.