Please join us for a Unity Gathering on Sunday, October 4 at the Pike Performing Arts Center on the northwest side of Indianapolis. We'll begin the day with a time of food and fellowship at 10 am, followed by our worship service at 10:30 am. This Unity Gathering is an opportunity to celebrate what God is doing in our church, and to remind us about the bigger picture and how we fit into it.

 

Services at our Midtown and West locations will not be held on this date so that we can all gather together in one place. Since we'll be celebrating in a different venue, there are a few items to note. First, children’s ministry will be provided for infants through age 2, and parents are required to provide a photo ID when they drop off their child. Secondly, offering baskets will be located by each entrance. Finally, ample, free parking is available on-site and the venue is easily accessible from I-465 or I-65. The Pike Performing Arts Center is adjacent to the Pike High School, located at 6701 Zionsville Rd, Indianapolis, 46268. For more information about the venue, please visit their website.

Loving Accurately Ministries (LAM) provides a unique ministry to the churches of Indianapolis and specifically to pastors. LAM offers a seamless mix of counseling, mentoring and discipling on a one-on-one basis for church leaders and by hosting various ‘unity groups’ across the city. The Common Ground pastoral staff has benefited from these services and sincerely appreciates the work LAM is doing within the city. CGCC recently made a financial donation to LAM and is honored to serve alongside them in ministry. To learn more about Loving Accurately Ministries, please visit their website.

 

Beginning September 13, we will be looking at the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 and Luke 6. We invite all of our House Churches to join in this study and we will be providing some curriculum that will help guide House Churches through their time together. We have chosen this text for this time because we see it as the natural progression out of our summer series. We have been exploring the concept of human brokenness and God’s vision of wholeness for us in Christ. And we have been learning how to live in the way of Jesus so that we too can experience a deep and intimate connection with God, who is the sustainer of our lives. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives us a new vision of what our lives will become as we seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness.

 

Jesus has invited all who are tired of trying to make things right between them and God to get away with Him and learn to live in light of the Kingdom of God. What should we expect? Is there any visible difference between people who are trying really hard through religious systems and laws and those who are learning the unforced rhythms of grace through faith in Christ? The Sermon that Jesus preached would suggest that there is a huge difference, so different that some have called this section of Scripture the most powerful of all of the teachings of Jesus on what it means to be in fellowship with God. He has turned the religious world upside down in what has come to us in 3 chapters of the Scriptures.

 

In the Sermon, Jesus declares that working hard, acting right, giving more, eating less, and somehow trying not to worry about life are all futile activities that do not get to the heart of God. Instead, Jesus has invited us into a present life of ongoing transformation along His way and in the Sermon He helps us to re-imagine all of our life as we presently see it. In fact, what we will find is that in the Kingdom of God, up is down and down is up compared to the kingdom that we are being extracted from.

 

The temptation of course is to make the Sermon on the Mount the new religious system that grants us entrance into the kingdom of God. This is why many have said that the Sermon has no real power for today, but rather is the vision of the Kingdom of God that is still to come. They miss the point but it is understandable if, when we read this text, we actually believe that this is a life that one can perform rather than the life that God is re-creating in us. In this way, the Sermon is not so much a new law but rather an invitation to a new kind of life.

 

We are praying and asking God to continue to shape us and form us into the image of Jesus so that we can grow in our love for our neighbor. As we launch into this study together, please join us in this prayerful anticipation.

 

Blessings,

Jeff

We held our first Children’s Ministry Open House on Sunday, August 30 and it was a huge success! Since it was held in conjunction with Graduation Sunday, our children enjoyed moving up to their new classrooms, parents had the opportunity to meet the teachers for this year, and we prayed for all those involved in the ministry during our worship service.

 

Did you miss Open House? Download all that you need to know by following this link. Please be sure to review our Sick Policy, Parent Pages and the 2009-2010 Curriculum Overview. Interested in volunteering in our children’s ministry? Contact Martina.

GRACE (God's Real Acceptance Compassion and Encouragement) is a post abortion Bible study for women who have experienced the pain of abortion and are in need of learning God's way of love, healing and forgiveness. The next GRACE retreat will take place the weekend of November 6 through 8 at Plainfield First Assembly of God. For more information on this retreat, please contact Jennifer Thompson.

 

Have you heard about human trafficking and are unsure of what it means? Come learn the history and current state of this global calamity through the film, "Human Trafficking," at Common Ground's Midtown location (4550 N. Illinois Street). The film will be shown in two parts, both 90 minutes long, on Wednesday, September 30 at 7 pm and Wednesday, October 14 at 7 pm. There will be a facilitated discussion after each film.

 

House churches are encouraged to attend as a group. The film is rated R due to the graphic and true nature of human trafficking and is not suitable for children. Childcare will be available for both dates if you pre-register. Please click here to register for childcare for the September 30 showing. The deadline for childcare registration is September 16. For those planning to register for the October 14 showing, childcare registration will be available at a later date.

 

These film showings are serving as a precursor to Common Ground's Purchased event on November 7. To learn more about Purchased, please click here.

Toronto Vision Trip - October 22-26

Join us for a vision trip to Toronto, Canada. This journey will provide a context for participants to experience faith and life formation through a variety of formal and informal city moments. Interested? The application and deposit deadline has been extended to Monday, September 21. Download a trip application here. For more information, click here or send us an email.

 

Come and Experience God with other Common Ground women who are seeking Christ to be their All in All September 25-26 at Camp Allendale. The cost is $50 which includes overnight lodging and 2 meals on Saturday. Due to the nature of the retreat and the sleeping arrangements, we are unable to accommodate infants or children. For full details and registration, click here. The deadline to register is September 20. Have questions? Contact Marty.

 

Interested in joining the Worship Team? Information and sign ups are in the Information Center at Midtown and at the Information Table at CGCC-West. Vocalists are scheduled from 10 am until 11 am and musicians from 11 am until Noon on Saturday, September 26 at our Midtown location (4550 N. Illinois Street).