Losing Life

Free Hot Chocolate

"Free Hot Chocolate from Restore Community Church down at the corner.  And it is good too.  They put whipped cream on it."  That was what the announcer said at the Jingle Bell 5K run at Zona Rosa yesterday.  We handed out 160 cups of Hot chocolate and over 400 water bottles all with Restore Community Church labels on them. 

I am so proud of the volunteers who came out to help.  Kent and Cherilyn were there early to figure out how to tie the sign to our tent.  Brooke was the whipped cream queen.  Jake, Shane, Bailey, Nancy, Cormic, Declan and Matt met the runners as they finished the race with a bottle of water in hand.  Rose was a cheerleader....calling out "hey everyone over here" while also serving and stirring cups of hot chocolate.  Oh, and she danced....with Gretchen.  Charlene was the one who put the powdered hot chocolate in the cups and opened cases of water.  Jacob B. was saying "Hi" to everyone and making conversation while also stirring up hot chocolate.  Gretchen had her moments with whipped cream, stirring chocolate and filling cups.

It was a blast!

Church Planter Bootcamp

Troy and Josh are gone all week at Church Planter's Bootcamp.  The kids and I had a fun dinner conversation about what Church Planter's Bootcamp would be like.

A drill Sargent yelling and Troy and Josh while they are doing sit ups.  "Do you love Jesus! Do you love others!  Will you do all it takes to keep people from going to HELL!"

Troy and Josh answer, "Yes Sir"  while Josh keeps doing sit ups and Troy can't keep up anymore.

Drill Sargent, "Put away those Blackberries.  You think some 'Berry' is going to save your soul?   Do ya?  Do ya?  When was the last time you baptized someone!  That will be 100 more sit ups until you get this right!"

Troy and Josh are sweating and scared, they have to stay up all night doing jumping jacks in the rain...saying over and over "Help people find their way back to God, Help people find their way back to God....."

 

Don't Be Jealous Part 2

Sometime this summer I posted about the t-shirts we bought while visiting Ely, Minnesota.  We were in the best t-shirt shop ever.  Where a very south of the border accented man was running his t-shirt shop like a party.  Every time he put a t-shirt in the press with a new logo being ironed on, he held it up for the whole shop to see and he said,  "look at this, don't be Jealous."  Then he would turn up the music and do a little dance.  Well....picture us here in Kansas City wearing our new t-shirts, doing a little dance and saying "look at this, don't be jealous."  However, if the feelings of jealously will not go away, here are a few remedies:

1. Get a plane ticket to KC as soon as possible
2. Move to KC and join our launch team
3. Buy a t-shirt for $10.00

Since we completely sold out 100 t-shirts in KC this past weekend, I just got done ordering more.  Get yours at your local Restore launch team meeting, Sunday November 18th.

Repay Cards

  We are getting ready to order Repay Cards.  We are hoping these cards will be a catalyst for the people of Kansas City to look for opportunities to serve each other.  Here is how they work:

You have a card, you look for a way to serve someone, you serve them, you give them them the card.  Hopefully when you give them the card, they will look for someone to serve, serve them, and give them the card....and so on and so on, until the card is worn out. 

Here are some ideas:

Pay for the person in the drive thru behind you, give the drive thru attendant the card and ask them to give it to the person behind you.

See a yard with tons of leaves in it.  Knock on the door, offer to rake the leaves.  When they ask how much you charge, give them the card.

Go to the movies, buy an extra ticket.  The next person who comes to the counter to buy that particular movie ticket, you say, "wait, I have an extra, here you go, hand them the ticket with the repay card."  Walk away....simple.

Pray, ask God to give you opportunities to serve someone else, repaying the kindness we have received from Him.

How fun is that?

Restore CC is commissioned

This weekend we returned to Naperville for the commissioning of Restore Community Church. The leadership of Community Christian Church commissioned us and prayed for us.  It was awesome.  I wish the people of Restore Community could have been there to see the genuine interest the community in Naperville has for us here in Kansas City.  This pic is Troy introducing our team.  Behind us on the screen is a map of all the Newthing Network Churches across the country and now the world (Philippines), with Restore highlighted as the newest one. A great moment for the kingdom.  Check out our cool Restore Community T-shirts.  We ordered 100 of them thinking we would sell them back here in KC to the restore launch team, but as it went we sold out of them in Naperville.  No worries, Restore Launch Team, we will order more.

Troy being annointed by Dave Ferguson.  Pretty cool moment between friends. 

The Hamburgler and the Pumpkin

Once upon a time there was a hamburgler and a pumpkin.  Little did we know that they would be a sign that all is well in Kansas City.  When they trick or treated at our door, we knew we were home.  You know you are home when friends drive across town to make sure they get to trick or treat at your house.  Over the past few months they have wiggled their way into our hearts.  And I think they will be superstars at Restore Community Church.

Restore became someone's church

Sunday night we had our 2nd launch team meeting.  I overheard one of the people from my turbo small group greeting someone he had not met before.  It was as if he was hosting the event and taking it upon himself to help others feel welcome. Then later when we were breaking into ministry areas, I was talking with 4 or so people answering their questions about small group when I overheard this same turbo guy answering someone's questions....telling the new guy about the stuff he had learned in the turbo group.

I began to see Restore Community becoming someone's church.

You know it is your church when....

• You automatically "host" church events - looking around for newcomers and helping them find their way.
• When talking about the church you refer to "we" and "us" instead of "they" and "them"
• You Celebrate, Connect, and Contribute.