Live The Great

Are you young, single, and seeking God’s will for your life? Sometimes its necessary to take a step back in order to grow. Join the Focus Minstry Fellowship this May as we escape the hustle and bustle of city life for the grounds of Lake Doniphan. Meet other students and discover other men and women that work in your part of the KC Metro area. Learn more about how God is using the Focus Ministry to grow the next generation of leaders. You’ll also have the opportunity to talk with small group leaders, discuss ideas for new small group topics, and start planning new groups for the fall semester.

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.

What is your reasonable service? This is the question we are asking of the KCBT body this year. We will need more people than ever before to come forward and take positions of service. Our heart is that some of you who have not gotten involved in any area of KCBT would start here. Our need is for seventy people to step up in the next two months. Will that be you?

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.

The SkyKids Children’s Ministry would like to extend an invitation to all parents in need of a night out.  Friday, April 17, 2009 is our next Kids’ Night Out event here at KCBT.  Your children, birth to 5th grade, will enjoy a themed evening that will include dinner and a rotation of activities while you enjoy a night on the town!

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 past couple of months have been a whirlwind of activity. Just stop and think for a moment about all that has taken place.

• 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!

Los últimos dos meses han sido un torbellino de actividades. Tome un momento para pensar en todo lo que ha acontecido.

• 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.