This retreat is a great opportunity for single men and women that serve on Sunday mornings to meet other Focus class members. Register now to reserve your space or click here for more information.

At this point, about fifteen people have put their name in as being able to assist.  Please take a moment and prayerfully consider one of the areas below.  If you would like more details or have any questions,  please check out the Get Involved section of our website or contact Chris Ruzicka at 816.358.0988 x 2041.  Be sure to include your name, phone number, area of interest, any related skills and, of course, questions.

Watchmen

These men and women provide aid and security on Sunday mornings and for special events.  They have been certified in several security areas in order to qualify.  If you have law enforcement, armed forces, or just generally enjoy protecting people, this position is for you.  Please prayerfully consider joining this crew.  We need you.

Evening Patrol

These individuals will watch our parking lots on the weeknights between the hours of 5:00-9:00 making sure all is in order for our guests and members during the week nights.  This will become very important as we will be asked to park further from the building.   We need you.

Traffic Facilitators

Seeking men and women to help direct traffic on Sunday mornings with a bright orange vest and whistle.  Traffic flow will be all important when our main parking lot goes away.  We will need help directing, and educating our members and guests where they can drive, park and drop off.  We are looking for 30 members to help us in this area.  We need you.

Parking Lot Aids

We will begin transporting those with physical challenges from Parking Lot A, next to Temple Heights, to the building.  We will have two golf carts to help with this process.  We are asking for two to four people each week to assist in this area.   We need you.

Shuttle Drivers

Without any real parking opportunities in our main parking lot, the upper lot, near the ball fields will be used much more.   We are in need of more drivers to help keep up with the demand.  There will be at least 5 shuttles running on Sunday morning.  We need you.

Other areas of need include the following; facility cleaning, mowing, on-call weekday drivers, snow removal, Sunday greeters, vehicle cleaning, flower garden maintenance, kitchen cleaning, floor cleaning, powerwashing, painting and Sunday EMTs.

As you are planning your evening away from the children, consider making this night an evangelistic one.  Invite another parent to go out with you and bring their children to Kids’ Night Out.  This is the perfect opportunity to get to know your neighbors or a co-worker and begin to share your life with them.

Space is limited to the first 100 children.  Registration is required; this event fills up quickly so sign-up online today! The cut-off date for registration is Sunday, April 12.  The cost for each child is $3 and will be paid at the door.  Questions should be directed to Summer Montgomery at 816.358.0988 x 2016.

• The Summit 2.0 – Wow! There is so much to say and so much for which we need to thank God – the powerful testimonies, Morgan Jackson’s eye-opening and challenging emphasis upon the power of story as we introduce the Bible to people who have never had one, the praise that ushered us into the very presence of God, the New Missionary workshop and so much more. To me, the most inspiring part of the week was simply to see the students of our church so completely given to worshipping God and engaging in his mission.
• Groundbreaking – It finally happened! It was so great to see the entire church assembled on the parking lot. Since we can’t all fit into the auditorium at the same time we rarely have the opportunity to get a perspective of what God is really doing here. The excitement of the kids who helped turn over the first dirt is contagious and a reminder of why we are doing this. Just as soon as the city gives final approval to the plans, we’ll really see the ground broken up. I am still trying to absorb the amazing news of getting the bids back and finding out that this poor economy is God’s tool to save us two million dollars on this project!
• Youth League – We have been asking God for 600 kids to play and all the necessary workers to make the ministry function. At last count we were well above 500 officially enrolled and well above our numbers from last year. Not only that, the response from so many of you willing to coach, clean, keep score, umpire, etc. has been wonderful. As I have pointed out, this is a great example of what I mean when I say the church is the missionary.
• The K’s – The last night of The Summit we adopted this special group of people as our second “church as the missionary” project following the kids in Youth League. I’ll have more to say about this straight ahead.

Looking back over all God has been doing among us I am struck by a realization that there is a common element responsible – our church is finally, just beginning to learn to pray. Perhaps no single factor has played a greater role in the life of our church over this past year than to see our prayer ministry begin to mature. Tuesday evening prayer ministry has grown from a handful of people (mostly students) in The Point to a more diversified and growing group of people in the auditorium.

I do not aim to put anyone who cannot come to the Tuesday night meeting on a guilt trip. There are often times my schedule prevents me from coming. But, I do believe that what is happening on Tuesday evenings is beginning to spill over in influence toward the creation of a culture of prayer in our church as a whole.

The K’s

If you follow my blog, you have noticed that I often use expressions like K’s or CP’s. I also try to avoid using complete names in such contexts. Some of you have asked me what those letters mean and why I do that.

For years we have trusted God to move our missionary outreach in a more focused direction toward those areas where the church does not exist and where people have never heard the Good News. Now, God has opened the door to work with a very special group of people that I call the K’s. I use such letters and incompleteness in order to respect the security of the people with whom we partner in those parts of the world where words like church and Christian have meanings far different from what you might imagine. These are places where such misunderstanding makes faith in Jesus Christ potentially dangerous. We must be very careful in what we post on the Internet or communicate in any digital form – email, Facebook, MySpace, etc. Not just among this specific group of people, but any area where faith in Christ is a sensitive, restricted or dangerous matter, we have to be cautious. This is why many of the most exciting things going on as fruit of our ministry often cannot be publically communicated.

As we trust God to build an alliance of churches to work with us and Grace Church of Overland Park, we have set our main goal this first year simply to develop a network of extraordinary prayer for the K’s. You’ll be hearing more about that in the weeks ahead. Meanwhile, check out the six operational elements of our strategy in partnership with Epic International as we go down this path where we have never been before. I wrote about them recently on my blog and you can go there by clicking here.

The Men Behind the Wall

Easter and another very special Sunday punctuate the month of April. However, I will take advantage of two Sundays this month to lay the foundation for a new series of studies in the Book of Nehemiah. We often remember Nehemiah for rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, but that is only a portion of the whole story. The real thrust of Nehemiah is that he was a builder of men. As we progress in our campus expansion, my desire is that we constantly remember that our goal is not a building, but to build men to live Christ-like lives. We have been blessed with many strong men in our church and we will hear from many of them over the months to come as we make our way through Nehemiah’s story.

Setting up this series in March, I preached from 1Chronicles 11 and 12 on David as a builder of men. Thinking back to what we learned from Morgan Jackson during The Summit 2.0, I concluded that morning by pointing to where we are headed in the study of Nehemiah and by challenging you to – enter the story!

• La Cumbre 2.0 – ¡Ea! Hay tanto que decir y tanto que agradecerle a Dios: los testimonios poderosos, el énfasis revelador y desafiante que Morgan Jackson dio al poder tras las historias cuando se introduce la Biblia a un pueblo que nunca la ha conocido, la alabanza que nos hizo llegar a la presencia de Dios, el taller del Nuevo Misionero, y mucho más. Para mí, lo que más me inspiró esa semana fue ver a los estudiantes de nuestra iglesia tan completamente entregados a la adoración a Dios y a la participación en su misión.
• Inicio de obras – ¡Finalmente sucedió! Fue magnífico ver a toda la iglesia congregada en el estacionamiento. Ya que no cabemos todos en el auditorio al mismo tiempo, pocas veces tenemos la oportunidad de obtener una perspectiva de lo que Dios realmente está haciendo aquí. El entusiasmo de los niños que ayudaron a mover la primera tierra es contagioso y nos recuerda por qué estamos haciendo esto. Tan pronto como la ciudad nos otorgue la aprobación final a los planos, realmente veremos el inicio de las excavaciones. Y todavía estoy tratando de asimilar las noticias asombrosas de recibir las licitaciones finales para descubrir que la crisis económica ha sido una herramienta usada por Dios ¡para ahorrarnos dos millones de dólares en este proyecto!
• Liga juvenil de béisbol – Hemos pedido a Dios que nos traiga 600 niños jueguen y suficientes obreros para hacer que este ministerio funcione. Según las últimas cuentas, tenemos bastante más de 500 inscritos oficialmente y más que las cifras del año pasado. No sólo eso, sino que la respuesta de ustedes, dispuestos a ser entrenadores, a la limpieza, a ser anotadores, árbitros, etc. ha sido maravillosa. Como he señalado antes, este es un gran ejemplo de lo que quiero decir cuando digo que la iglesia es el misionero.
• Los K – La última noche de La Cumbre adoptamos a este grupo especial de personas como nuestro segundo proyecto de «la iglesia como misionero», después de la Liga juvenil de béisbol. Hablaré más de esto en breve.

Al dar un vistazo a todo lo que Dios ha hecho entre nosotros, me percato que existe un elemento común que es el responsable de ello: nuestra iglesia finalmente está empezando a aprender a orar. Posiblemente no hay factor que haya desempeñado un papel mayor en la vida de nuestra iglesia en este último año que ver nuestro ministerio de oración empezar a madurar. Nuestro ministerio de oración los martes por la noche ha crecido de un puñado de personas (estudiantes en su mayoría) que se reunían en The Point, a un grupo diverso y creciente de personas que se reúnen en el auditorio.

No me propongo darle sentimientos de culpabilidad a alguien que por alguna razón no le es posible asistir los martes por la noche. Frecuentemente hay veces que mi horario no me permite asistir. Pero sí creo que lo que está sucediendo los martes por las noches está empezando a tener influencia para crear una cultura de oración en nuestra iglesia en general.

Los K

Si usted sigue mi blog, habrá observado que frecuentemente empleo expresiones tales como los K o CP. También evito usar nombres completos en esos contextos. Algunos me han preguntado qué significan esas letras y por qué hago eso.

Por años he confiado que Dios moverá nuestro esfuerzo misionero en un sentido mejor enfocado hacia zonas en las cuales la iglesia no existe y en donde las personas no han escuchado las Buenas Nuevas. Ahora Dios ha abierto la puerta para trabajar con un pueblo muy especial al cual llamo los K. Utilizo letras como esa y datos incompletos para respetar la seguridad de las personas con las cuales nos hemos asociado en aquellas partes del mundo donde palabras tales como iglesia y cristiano tienen significados muy diferentes del que tal vez imagine. Estos son lugares donde tales malos entendidos hacen que tener fe en Jesucristo sea potencialmente peligroso. Tenemos que ser sumamente cuidadosos en lo que publicamos en Internet o lo que comunicamos por medios digitales: email, Facebook, MySpace, etc. No sólo con referencia a este pueblo en particular, sino con referencia a cualquier lugar en donde la fe en Cristo es asunto delicado, restringido o peligroso, tenemos que ejercer cautela. Por esto es que algunas de las cosas más emocionantes que están sucediendo como fruto de nuestro ministerio frecuentemente no pueden comunicarse públicamente.

Mientras confiamos que Dios levantará una alianza de iglesias que colaboren con nosotros y con la Grace Church de Overland Park, nos hemos fijado como meta principal de este primer año el desarrollo de una red de oración extraordinaria por los K. Escuchará más de esto en las semanas próximas. Mientras tanto, infórmese de los seis elementos operativos de nuestra estrategia de asociación con Epic International mientras avanzamos por este camino que nunca hemos pasado antes. Escribí acerca de ellos recientemente en mi blog, y puede acceder a ella aquí.

Los hombres tras el muro

El domingo de resurrección y otro domingo muy especial distinguen al mes de abril. Sin embargo, aprovecharé dos domingos de este mes para echar el fundamento de una nueva serie de estudios del libro de Nehemías. Frecuentemente recordamos a Nehemías porque reconstruyó el muro de Jerusalén, pero eso es sólo una parte de la historia. El verdadero empuje de Nehemías es que edificó a hombres. Durante el avance de la expansión de nuestras instalaciones, mi deseo es que recordemos constantemente que nuestra meta no es tener un edificio, sino edificar a hombres que vivan vidas semejantes a la de Cristo. Hemos sido bendecidos con muchos hombres fuertes en nuestra iglesia, y escucharemos de muchos de ellos en los meses venideros, mientras avanzamos por la historia de Nehemías.

Como preparativo para esta serie, en marzo prediqué de 1 Crónicas 11 y 12 sobre David como edificador de hombres. Recordando lo que aprendimos de Morgan Jackson durante La Cumbre 2.0, concluí aquella mañana señalando hacia dónde nos dirigíamos con el estudio de Nehemías y desafiándoles a que entraran en la historia.

If you are here in Kansas City, there is still time to be with us each evening at 7:00pm, March 1-6. We are asking God for more than just a conference. We are asking him for a divine encounter that will transform our lives and our church. We have been praying that each of us would be secure in our life purpose, the reason we are here For Such a Time as This. And, we are asking God to lead us step by step in forming an alliance of churches to minister to the Kurdish people.

There is also time to be with us on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings for training in making disciples of Jesus Christ, the story behind the Directions study. On Thursday morning I invite you to join us as we discuss the formation of a Kurdish Alliance. Saturday morning you are welcome to be part of the New Missionary Workshop. Details about all this and more can be found here, or you can link there from kcbt.org. There is no charge for any of these morning sessions, but we do ask that you register online so we can do the logistical preparations.

Another Day Is Dawning!

Before we know it, another long-awaited day will be upon us. In fact, we have been waiting for this day for about a decade. On Sunday, March 15 we break ground for our campus expansion. What a journey this has been! I can’t begin to express how excited I am about this! The actual groundbreaking will take place between our two morning services, and you can always follow the details here on our newly renovated kcbt.org.

“Wait!” you say, “There’s a recession going on out there.” There sure is! These are tough times and many people are hurting. But, this is also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If you are not a regular blog reader, you might want to check out my take on building in a time of economic distress in my post of February 10. You can read it here.

The Men Behind the Wall

“So what are we going to study next?” I always hear that question as we finish one series and prepare for another. Actually, we are going to go back and examine a favorite portion of scripture that we studied a decade ago as we first began to talk about the need to expand our campus – Nehemiah.

However, it will be quite a bit different with the perspective of a ten-year journey. As we have said from the beginning, this is not primarily about a new building; this is about building people, making disciples, perfecting the saints, taking the Gospel to the peoples of the world and all that. Nehemiah is often the object of study during a building project because he supervised the building of the walls of Jerusalem following the Babylonian captivity. There are some wonderful lessons to be learned there to be sure! However, what is often overlooked is the fact that building the walls occupies only a relatively small portion of the book. The most important feature of this book is to observe that Nehemiah was a great builder of men. This will be the focus of our study: The Men Behind the Wall.

Nehemiah is a fairly large book and it will take us some time to cover it and do justice to the very important content. To make it interesting, we are going to break it up into several portions. The first segment we will study revolves around the first two chapters of Nehemiah, and I have called this study Choosing Inconvenience. What an appropriate name for what we are getting ready to experience!

After the ceremonial breaking of ground on March 15, there will come a day within the few weeks following that large equipment will appear on our property and most of our parking lot on the north side of 55th street will disappear (we’ll get some of it back after construction). Everything is ready to go and we will only be waiting on the city of Kansas City to do the necessary processing of papers. We do not anticipate any problems, but I am sure you understand that the city must process all the plans, and there is no way to predict how quickly that will happen. When it inevitably does happen, we will wake up to discover overnight that we will all be inconvenienced in some significant way.

I am not fearful of being inconvenienced. In fact, I believe that this is going to be quite healthy and even exciting for all of us. Nehemiah’s example will illustrate biblical truth about choosing inconvenience. Nehemiah intentionally chose to leave a very powerful and comfortable position in Persia in order to return to Jerusalem and be inconvenienced for the sake of the kingdom. On the other side of the temporary inconvenience, Nehemiah emerged a much stronger individual. Not only that, along the way he built an entire generation of men to be strong leaders – The Men Behind the Wall.

Get ready to embrace inconvenience!

Si se encuentra en Kansas City, todavía tiene tiempo para acompañarnos cada noche a las 7:00 pm, del 1 al 6 de marzo. Estamos pidiéndole a Dios que nos dé más que sólo una conferencia. Le estamos pidiendo un encuentro divino que transforme nuestras vidas y nuestra iglesia. Hemos estado pidiendo nos sintamos seguros en el propósito de nuestras vidas, la razón por la cual estamos aquí Para Esta Hora. Y le estamos pidiendo a Dios que nos guíe paso por paso en la formación de una alianza de iglesias que ministren al pueblo kurdo.

También hay tiempo para que nos acompañe en las mañanas del martes y del miércoles para recibir capacitación sobre hacer discípulos de Jesucristo, la historia tras Direcciones. El jueves en la mañana le invito a que nos acompañe en la discusión de la formación de una Alianza Kurda. El sábado en la mañana también le invitamos a que participe en el Taller Nuevo Misionero. Puede ver los detalles sobre esto y más en www.thenewmissionary.com, o puede usar el enlace desde kcbt.org. No hay cargos de inscripción por ninguna de estas sesiones matutinas, pero sí le rogamos que se inscriba vía Internet para que podamos hacer los preparativos del caso.

¡Otro día alborea!

Antes de que nos percatemos de ello, otro día muy esperado nos llegará. De hecho, hemos estado esperando este día por aproximadamente una década. El domingo 15 de marzo iniciaremos la obra de construcción de la ampliación de nuestras instalaciones. ¡Qué trayecto más largo hemos recorrido! ¡No puedo ni empezar a expresar el entusiasmo que siento al respecto! El inicio de obras tendrá lugar entre nuestros dos servicios matutinos, y siempre podrá enterarse de los detalles en nuestra recién renovada página web www.kcbt.org.

«¡Un momento!», dirá usted, «Estamos en una recesión». ¡Seguro que sí! Esta es una época difícil y muchos están sufriendo. Pero esta también es una oportunidad única. Si usted no lee mi blog regularmente, tal vez le gustaría ver mis ideas sobre construir en una época de aflicción económica, la cual aparece en la edición del 10 de febrero. Puede leerla aquí.

Los hombres tras el muro

«¿Y qué vamos a estudiar después?» Siempre escucho esa pregunta cuando terminamos una serie de estudios y nos preparamos para iniciar otra. En realidad, regresaremos a examinar una de mis porciones favoritas de las Escrituras que estudiamos hace una década, cuando empezamos a hablar de la necesidad de ampliar nuestras instalaciones: Nehemías.

Sin embargo, la perspectiva será bastante diferente luego de nuestro recorrido de diez años. Como dijimos desde un principio, esto no se trata principalmente de tener un edificio nuevo; sino que se trata de edificar a personas, hacer discípulos, perfeccionar a los santos, llevar el evangelio a los pueblos del mundo, y cosas semejantes. Nehemías frecuentemente es tema de estudio durante un proyecto de construcción porque él supervisó la construcción del muro de Jerusalén, luego del cautiverio en Babilonia. ¡Sin duda hay lecciones maravillosas que se pueden aprender! Sin embargo, un hecho que a menudo se pasa por alto es que la edificación del muro ocupa una porción relativamente pequeña del libro. La característica más importante de este libro es observar que Nehemías fue un gran edificador de hombres. Éste será el enfoque de nuestro estudio: Los Hombres tras el Muro.

El Libro de Nehemías es bastante extenso y nos tomará cierto tiempo abarcarlo y hacerle justicia a su contenido tan importante. Para hacerlo más interesante, lo dividiremos en varias porciones. El primer segmento que estudiaremos gira en torno a los primeros dos capítulos de Nehemías, y he titulado este estudio Escogiendo la Incomodidad. ¡Qué nombre más adecuado para lo que estamos a punto de experimentar!

Luego de la ceremonia de inicio de obras el 15 de marzo, en las semanas siguientes llegará el día en el cual equipos pesados aparecerán en nuestra propiedad, y la mayor parte de nuestro estacionamiento en el lado norte de la 55th Street desaparecerá (recuperaremos una parte después de la construcción). Todo está listo para empezar y sólo estamos esperando que el municipio de Kansas City tramite los papeles del caso. No anticipamos tener problemas, pero estoy seguro que usted comprende que el municipio deberá procesar todos los planos y que no hay manera de anticipar la rapidez con la cual eso sucederá. Cuando suceda, despertaremos para descubrir que de la noche a la mañana seremos incomodados de algún modo significativo.

No temo incomodarme. De hecho, creo que esto será una experiencia saludable y hasta alentadora para nosotros. El ejemplo de Nehemías ilustrará las verdades bíblicas en cuanto a escoger incomodarnos. Nehemías intencionadamente escogió dejar un cargo muy poderoso y cómodo en Persia para volver a Jerusalén e incomodarse por el bien del reino. Después de haber salido de su incomodidad temporal, Nehemías emergió como un individuo mucho más fuerte. No sólo eso, sino que en el camino edificó a una generación completa de hombres que fueran líderes fuertes – Los Hombres Tras el Muro.

¡Prepárese a recibir la incomodidad!

Please consider helping us in the following areas…we need you.

WATCHMEN

These men and women provide aid and security on Sunday mornings and for special events.  They have been certified in several security areas in order to qualify.  If you have law enforcement experience, armed forces training, or just generally enjoy protecting people, this position is for you.  Please prayerfully consider joining this crew.  We need you.

EVENING PATROL

These individuals will patrol our parking lots on the weeknights between the hours of 5:00-9:00 making sure all is in order for our guests and members during the week nights.  This will become very important as we will be asked to park further from the building.   We need you.

TRAFFIC FACILITATORS

Seeking men and women to help direct traffic on Sunday mornings with a bright orange vest and whistle.  Traffic flow will be all important when our main parking lot goes away.  We will need help directing, and educating our members and guests where they can drive, park and drop off.  We are looking for thirty members to help us in this area.  We need you.

PARKING LOT AIDS

We will begin transporting those with physical challenges from Parking Lot A, next to Temple Heights, to the building.  We will have two golf carts to help with this process.  We are asking for two to four people each week to assist in this area.   We need you.

SHUTTLE DRIVERS

Without any real parking opportunities in our main parking lot, the upper lot, near the ball fields will be used much more.   We are in need of more drivers to help keep up with the demand.  There will be at least five shuttles running on Sunday morning.  We need you.

It was not possible to include all the details of each area.  If you would like more details or have any questions, please contact Chris Ruzicka at 816.358.0988 x 2041.  Include your name, phone number, area of interest, any related skills and, of course, questions.

Other areas in need:  facility cleaning, mowing, on-call weekday drivers, snow removal, Sunday greeters, vehicle cleaning, flower garden maintenance, kitchen cleaning, floor cleaning, powerwashing, painting and Sunday EMTs.

Prefer to watch games rather than play? Why not signup to help keep score and do both! You can also help serve food and beverages in our concession stand, keep our grounds tidy between games, help prepare the fields for games, or help umpire games. You’ll find more information on areas of service on our league pages, or you can contact Scott Gates if you’d like more information.

Do you see the field? I see it too, but the field I see is one full of the potential of a mission, one that reaches across an entire community and one that can impact the future of the schools and workplaces of the community for the better.  This field is one that brings hope and love to dysfunction and confusion.  It provides opportunity for making a difference and it provides it at the most basic and foundational core of humanity: relationships.  These are not forced and awkward relationships full of agenda and distrust but natural relationships found on common ground.  Without this common ground, how can we as the church relate?  How do we meet the people who are God’s heart?  How to we enjoy each other and minister to each other as part of the same community?

The answers are on the field.  Right now it is covered in leaves and sticks and the grass is dried and brown.  Surely the answers do not lie here.  We have been given a vision and a mission, but surely this is not the right place to act on it.  It is too easy, it is too close, it doesn’t cost us much more than a Saturday morning and a few blisters.  But I say, if we can’t meet here, if we can’t change this field, what can we change?  So, an invitation has been given, a challenge has been cast.

Find your mission on the field, clean it up and let it be the start of a season of growth.  KCBT Ball Fields Workday is Saturday, March 28, 2009.  For more information or to signup, click here or contact Scott Gates at 816.358.0988 x 2137.