Ekklesia

Since we “went public” w ith Ekklesia in January, we have seen God move in more ways and allowed us to impact more lives than we could have imagined.  We started off just a few of us in the planning stages and now we have several community groups meeting at different times in the Gilbert and Queen Creek area.  We also outgrew Steve and Christine’s living-room for our bi-weekly Celebration Gathering, so we were blessed to find a church in downtown Gilbert who graciously, and generously offered us their facility for such a small expense! 

We had our first gathering this past Sunday (June 28th) at Life Community Church on Gilbert Road just north of Joe’s Real BBQ (which I am totally stoked about being so close to!).  It was a blast!  We prayed together, sang songs of praise to our King, shared what He has been doing in our lives and in our home/community groups, and laughed and cried together.  Janine taught the kids the Creation account in their class and my daughter Katie ran to me afterwords singing the new song she learned.  I’ve never seen her so excited after a kid’s church class!  Steve brought us an encouraging lesson from Genesis chapter 2 as we continued the series “His Story” that yeilded great discussion!   

Then it was off to the Valero’s  to hand our invitations to their neighbors to invite them to a neighborhood chili cook-off in the community park by their house on Friday, July 3rd at 6pm!  We met some wonderful people and look forward to getting to know them better.  Come out and have some great food and time together with us!

God is so good, and I am excited to see what treasured He has in store for us around the corner!

Title: Celebration Gathering – His Story
Location: Life Community Church
Description: Continue our story into His Story as we transition from Creation to Rebellion. Join us as we walk the the Good News of the King and His Kindom
Start Time: 14:42
Date: 2009-06-28
End Time: 16:00

Title: Jesus’ Mission to Return
Location: Campus Ambassadors (ASU Poly)
Description: Jesus will come one day to restore His Kingdom. What does that mean for us? Come find out this beautiful story of how he will make all things new.
Start Time: 8:30pm
Date: 04-15-2009

Did you know that the Gospel is bigger than just your salvation? The Gospel is the Good News about a King and your salvation portion of ‘His Story’. We need to understand this story because it has implications for our lives. Come join us as we dive into the wonderful story of the Gospel. By the end of this series, we should have confidence in what the Gospel is, the Good News, and be able to share it with others in a meaningful way. This new series kicks off our Celebration Gathering starting Sunday, April 5th, 2009 at 2:42PM (Acts 2:42) at our temporary location, the Valero’s.

Click here for a map or call 602.741.5726 for directions.

Today, the American church is shrinking at an alarming rate. America is the 3rd largest mission field, behind China and India. Is Sunday morning enough? Have we lost some of the meaning of the word ‘church’? If our church was removed from our city, what would the city lose? What happens if we worked as a community of people and demonstrated the love of Jesus in our city? What happens if we lived our lives like Jesus and adopted His mission for our own life?

Come join us for an 8 week series on ‘Gospel Communities’. Learn more about missional living and what kind of impact the church had if we presented the gospel as a community. Come join us for an informal discussion as we challenge each other more to look like Jesus. Food will be provided.

WHEN: Alternating Fridays from 6:00PM – 8:00PM
WHERE: 1905 S. Pheasant Dr., Gilbert, AZ 85295

Tangible Kingdom is one of the books we will be going over. We’d love to have you come and join us as we challenge each other for the Kingdom of God.

Title: Jesus’ Mission to the Disciples
Location: Campus Ambassadors (ASU Poly)
Description: What did Jesus want the disciples to know before he left? What does it mean to be a disciple and what is important to God? We will answer some of these questions as we go threw the Upper Room Discourse (John 13-17).
Start Time: 8:30pm
Date: 03-18-2009

Title: The Big Picture – The Gospel
Location: the Rock Eternal Church (Queen Creek)
Description: Steve will be teaching on the Big Picture of the Gospel.
Start Time: 9:00am & 10:45am
Date: 2009-02-15
Sermon: Listen

Unlike any other time in our human existence, we have so much information right at our finger tips because of technology.  In the Christian culture you can read magazines, forums, blogs online, watch sermons, classes, inspirational videos, and communicate with other Christians around the world.  We have become consumers of knowledge. So here’s the next question.  Why do people feel need to go to church on Sundays?

I know why I’m involved with my church, but why are you?  I know many people who attend multiple churches on Sunday and throughout the week.  The go to their ‘church home’ in the morning.  Next the go to another church offering to ‘get fed’.  Then throughout the week they listen to sermons and participate in various forums online.  Why do these people attend on a Sunday? To get fed?  Are they using this knowledge? You can get fed by some of the best preachers in the world without leaving the bedside.  Plus we could pause them to get a bit to eat and never miss a word.  We could rewind a portion of message if we didn’t quite understand what the pastor was saying.  We could select a different sermon if we didn’t like the current one.  We could do other tasks to help out our week while we listen to the sermon on our ipod.  The combinations are endless.  So why attend Sunday service?  Do we have too?

I want to purpose that church is more than a Sunday morning experience.  The greek word for church is ekklesia.  Ekklesia means an assembly of God’s people.  What if church is not a building you go to and sit, but an active body of people (1 Cor. 12:27).  Imagine if the church pulled together and used their gifts for the common good, hung out together, devoted to the teaching of the apostles and helping those in need (Acts 2:42-45, 4:32-33;1 Cor. 12:9).  Imagine a place where a body of believers were working together to carry out the mission of Jesus and resembled His characteristics.  Where would those people meet?

I believe the church is bigger than where you sit on a Sunday and how many people attend.  I believe the church as a active body of people impacting where they live for the Kingdom.  I believe that we can be inspired by others online as we engage our culture.  But we need to be an intimate community of people in order to have impact.  We need to use the resources that God has given us for His glory (Matt. 25:14-30).  We need to be the church.

what would jesus do if he were here today?

What would it look like if jesus came here today instead of 2000 years ago?  Who would he hang out with?  Where we he go to church?  What type of people would he build up?  What issues would he address?  What would he want us to know?

While we can’t answer these questions with certainty, we can examine through the bible what was his mission while he was here.

Join us for a bible study through the mission of jesus. We are doing an in depth discussion for 10 weeks through various passages in the gospels. The series starts 11.09.09 at 4:00pm. Childcare is available for those who need it. For more information contact info@ekklesiacc.org.

Each week, I have the great pleasure of having lunch with other church planters.  Some of these church planters are doing similar models and some are doing different models.  Despite what model and location, these men are excited and want to help out.  I always look forward to hearing what God is doing in their midst and where they feel God is leading them.  I can’t help to think about how these men are living out this passage:

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.  And there are varieties of ministry, and the same Lord.  There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.  But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (1 Cor. 12:4-7)

The common good is what we need to remain focused on.  Not our own good, but the good of the Kingdom.  As pastors, it could be easy to hold on to what God has entrusted us for the good of our own local church, but instead when we focus on Him and His kingdom, we want to do what we can for the common good.  I have been blessed and I hope that I have blessed other pastors by spending time with each other, sharing ideas, talking over philosophy, but staying focused on building up His kingdom.  I hope we continue to uplift each others ministry and stay connected for His glory.