A Good Friday service will be held at our Midtown location (4550 N. Illinois Street) on Friday, April 10 at 6:30 pm. Limited childcare was available by pre-registering toddlers through first grade, but registration and the waiting list are now closed. Interested in learning more about Good Friday? Check out Jeff's Good Friday Reflections.

 

Easter services will be held at 9 am and 11 am at Midtown and 10 am at CGCC-West on Sunday, April 12. There will not be a 7 pm service at Midtown on Easter.

Join us for the next Revive – An Evening of Prayer and Worship on Friday, April 24 at 6:30 pm at our Midtown location (4550 N. Illinois Street).

 

This quarterly gathering is an opportunity to corporately worship and pray about the purpose and direction of our church. We invite you to come and engage in prayer with us as we seek Him.

 

Childcare is available if you register online by this Sunday, April 12.

 

In February 2009, Jeff wrote an e-news article reminding us that the mission of our church requires financial resources and encouraging us to consider our participation in that. We appreciate those of you who responded to this article as well as others who were already faithfully giving. With the first quarter of the year behind us, we wanted to provide a more formal update on our financials. This update is provided in a spirit of stewardship as we recognize our obligation to communicate how your gifts to God are being distributed, as well as our “need”.

 

The embedded graphic shows how we plan to distribute tithes and offerings this year across the various ministry areas. Staff salaries are included in this distribution according to the areas they are involved. We continue to have confidence in the 2009 budget and believe it represents the best use of God’s resources for our church. However, as of March 31 tithes and offerings are below projection by ~7% ($22,000). Because of this, there are some ministry opportunities we may need to forego if offerings continue below plan.

 

We want to again take this opportunity to encourage you toward a pattern of faithful giving. To the extent our church is able to give their tithes and offerings on a consistent basis it will help us in the planning and distribution of those resources. Thank you for your partnership in the mission God has given us!

 

For more information about this update or the 2009 budget, please contact Nate.

 

 

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’”

 

From the very beginning, God had an intent and purpose for human beings. In the creation account, we see that God intends for us to be “whole.” To be whole is to be complete, not lacking anything that we need for the kind of life that God made us for. What we see in our world is far less than the wholeness that God intended. We are not whole, but rather a broken and shattered creation. We are to blame for this. We have traded in the truth of God for a lie. From the first two people who were formed from the dust of the ground, mankind has denied God’s vision for our human selves.

 

Deep inside each of God’s broken image-bearers is a desire to be whole again. We might not be able to express our desire this way, but every person is in search of their created purpose. The challenge for us is that we are constantly being lied to, just like the first family. We are being shaped and formed to continue to believe the lie. Because of this, we are kept in bondage to something far less than what we were created to have.

 

Without God, we are in bondage to the broken visions of our day that promote themselves as offering us wholeness. And in our bondage, we each continue to seek out our version of wholeness. But when our version of wholeness bumps against another’s version we will do whatever necessary to make sure our version wins. In doing, so we perpetuate the problem.

 

God did not leave us to this small existence. He has formulated a plan to return human beings and all of creation back to its original state of wholeness. We know that one day, this will be finished. The question that still remains is, “Will we believe God?” It is the question that confronted the first family and it still confronts us today. Will we deny the lies of the pattern of this age, embrace our brokenness together, and seek God’s help in the process of transformation? This is the Gospel. Jesus came to give us this opportunity by first demonstrating for us what wholeness is as he lived in a broken world. And secondly, he took upon himself our sin on the cross so that the way could be opened for our journey back to the heart of God. Finally, He has given us His presence in the Spirit and our common journey with each other so that we can begin to experience wholeness.

 

This summer we are going to spend our time considering this journey. We are going to look at where and why creation and humans are in the place that we are in, God’s vision of where He is leading creation, and how Jesus is our guide for the journey home. In addition, we are going to take some time to consider how God views us along the way. Our hope is that we can begin to see a cultural shift in our community that allows all of us to embrace our brokenness with the hope that God will heal us and restore us and allow us to be guides for others on their journey back to the heart of God. We will be working through the summer in four miniseries:

We are excited about this summer. We are inviting you to pray and engage as we all seek God’s vision for our lives together.

 

Blessings,

Jeff

Learning to Lead (LTL) is a new CG leadership resource that seeks to bring spiritual encouragement and further training to our existing house church leaders and provide an environment where potential new leaders can emerge. Attendance is open to anyone who is currently leading or curious about leadership.

 

LTL is offered on two different days and times each month so that you can attend the one that works best for you. The next LTLs are Saturday, April 25 from 9 am until 10:30 am and Wednesday, April 29 from 6:30 pm until 8 pm.

 

A complete list of 2009 LTL dates is available on our online Calendar of Events. Questions? Please contact Jim.

 

Common Ground will host our first Spiritual Formation Conference May 8-9 at our Midtown location (4550 N. Illinois Street). The conference is 6:30 pm until 8 pm on Friday and 9 am until 3 pm on Saturday.

 

There are two purposes for the Spiritual Formation Conference:

Registration is required for the conference and lunch will be provided for adults. If you would like to request childcare, you must register by April 20. General registration closes April 27. To register, please follow this link.

 

We are currently in need of two teachers in the Nursery at our Midtown location and one teacher in the Nursery at CGCC-West. If you are interested in filling this role, please contact Martina.

 

Intro to Common Ground - May 5

Intro to Common Ground is an opportunity for those who are new to CG to learn about the vision, values and story of our community. The next gathering is Tuesday, May 5 at 6 pm. Attendance is limited and a light dinner and childcare are provided. Follow this link to register.

 

To learn more, please click on the event name.