It’s my favorite time of year. The air is getting crisp, the leaves are about to change color and, most importantly, FOOTBALL is in full swing! LOL… seriously though, I love Autumn and I’m excited about what’s going on with the 702 community. So far we are scheduled to have 702 “Large Group” every other Tuesday with a cool event happening at least once a month.
Our new series, “Identity Crisis” is going to take place on September 30, October 14th and 28th… and we have an awesome kickball/cookout event coming up on October 7th. Now is a great time to get plugged in to this community. Small groups will be forming and prayer and serving will be a focus as we head into the later part of 2008.
Thanks for contributing your life and your story to this group. You are so important to God and to His church and, as always, I’m thrilled to be a part of it with you!

Troy

So… I’m not that smart… The website has had very few updates… BUT the great Andy Pratt has instructed me on how to keep this thing running. So we’re back, baby!!!
I’m just so excited about this Summer, I can hardly stand it! Our friends who have been away at school are making their way home, the sun is starting to shine, and the volleyball net is STILL in my trunk from last summer!

We are kicking things off in style with our Tuesday night large group gathering… May 13th will be the first week in a new series called “Grace: knowing it, receiving it, sharing it.” Luke Barnes is storming the “pulpit” so everyone bring your Bible and get ready for your life to change… Summer ‘08 will not be one to forget.

So… last night at 702 we talked a lot about relationships. It got me thinking some more this morning. When I was a kid, relationships seemed pretty simple. I didn’t have a lot of “enemies” as a child so I just kind of hung around with friends I went to school with.
Obviously, as I’ve gotten older, relationships have become more complicated. So much of the time I’ve found myself caught up in misconceptions about others, “us vs. them”, different personalties, etc. etc….
I’m supposed to be a mature Christian adult but sometimes I feel like I’ve gotten WORSE at relationships! Have you guys ever felt this way?

So last week we talked about how we tend to seek after things that will raise our social status. It seems like people want to “one up” each other by buying a bigger house, nicer car, making more money… etc. etc. I know that I’m always thinking about how I want to live in a nicer neighborhood, on the water, with a boat, yada yada yada… I mean, I haven’t heard gun shots lately in my neighborhood or had my trees toilet papered, so do I have the right intentions for wanting to “move up”?
What are some of the things you/we struggle with? What does God think about all of this?

I wanted to let you guys in on something we’ll be doing on Sunday mornings starting in November…

We’ll be rolling out something called “A2″ (referring to Acts 2). It is going to be a time in between Sunday services that will be set aside for all Spring Branchers to be able to connect… here are a few of the details in a more organized fashion…

1. This will be on Sunday mornings… We don’t have to ask people to add a Tuesday to their schedule as that might be a little scary for some… So, the first service will go from 9-10:05 and then this “A2″ time will happen for 50 minutes then the 2nd service will start at 11:15 and go to 12:20. You’re probably thinking like I am… “It’s going to be hard to get the people who go the the 11 service to come early”… that is where we have to make this thing a priority… if it gets some “buzz” around it, people will show)

2. What is this “A2″ thing anyway? This time will be split up into life space…. So it will be like this… If you are single and in your 20’s you’ll go to “such and such” room where other people in your life space will be. This is intended to be a safe place for people to connect which will hopefully springboard them to more involvement with others in church and, more importantly, deeper relationships built around a common faith.

3. This time will include discussion questions as well as a bit more structure for part of the time. The idea is to connect, though. The bible studies and small groups come later after that initial connection grows.

So…. was that totally confusing? If not… what do you guys think? Honestly, we’ll need people like you to commit (scary word alert!) yourselves to showing up to this, even though you may be comfortable in the friends/groups you already have. People need that initial connection that each of us made at some point so that they can build relationships and, at the risk of sounding dramatic, have totally life change for Christ because of a first encounter at this thing called “A2″ with awesome people like yourselves… That was a run on sentence, I know.

Can you tell I’m excited about the possibilites of this? Feel free to post a comment and discuss this. You guys are so important to me and to the future of 702. Thanks for investing yourselves…