Weekly Encouragement
Every Wednesday a video and a readable copy will be added to this page to serve as an encouragement, a reminder, and to offer suggestions on how to develop a hospitality mindset toward those in your sphere who don't follow Christ.
Week 6
Starting on April 9th
Prayer, Fasting, and Hospitality
- LAST WEEK: We took steps in boldness to share our testimony and the gospel with someone. Also, we encouraged everyone to invite them into your church community. Maybe Sunday morning or maybe even small group. We focused on the fact that all relationships we are given by God are meant to be centered around the gospel. God is very reason we even have relationship!!
- THIS WEEK: We are finished with tasks! Hopefully you have been praying and fasting throughout our Lent focus. We have had an incredibly large emphasis on hospitality to others for the sake of making, growing, and unleashing disciples. We have walked through lots of different steps on how to practically love and serve those whom God has placed in our lives. We were reminded that the great commission is for everyone no matter what gifts you think have or don’t have. Each one is unique and God has brought specific people into your life on purpose and however we feel lead to be hospitable to those people, we are designed to always be prepared to share the great hope we have in Jesus! So trust Jesus. Take Him at His word. Under Jesus’ authority we should be going and making disciples!
- Make These Things Regular Habits: Strive to make everything you have practiced and put into place through this Lent seasons a regular habit. This is certainly the place to say again, “This was NEVER about Easter numbers.” Keep loving others. Keep sharing the Gospel and the hope you have in Jesus. Keep practically loving others with Jesus as the “why” for all of it.
- Easy Tip For Sharing The Gospel: If you find yourself in a moment with someone and you are unsure of exactly what to say or where to start with the gospel THATS OK! Here is a quick, 4 word tip, to help you remember how to share God’s story. GOD. MAN. CHRIST. RESPONSE.
GOD: talk about creation and how God created everything perfect and man in His image.
MAN: focus here on how we sinned and broke everything and for generations we kept on sinning without any way to fix it on our own
CHRIST: Jesus left heaven and was born fully God and fully man. He lived in perfection and paid the price we could not pay on the cross by taking on sin, paying our debt for sin, and raising to life to defeat death and give us the opportunity to be in right relationship with God.
RESPONSE: how do we respond to this? What are we going to do with this truth?
- EASTER INFO: This Easter, we have many opportunities for you to join us in worshipping our Savior! For all services, we will have a shuttle available along with parking across the street to provide spaces around the main building for guests! We would love for you to join us in being hospitable to our guests by parking across the street & riding the shuttle! Read below for more information regarding all of our services.
- Saturday, April 19th at 6 pm: Join us for Easter on Saturday at 6:00 pm, with full children’s ministry and FX!
- Sunday, April 20th at 9 & 11 am: Join us for Easter on Sunday at 9 & 11 am! Children’s Ministry will be taking place during both services. There will be plenty of room for all in our two live venues: the auditorium and the Studio! The Studio is a smaller venue (100 seats) for those who might prefer it. It will be a fantastic environment!
Why?
We want to use this year’s Lent season for a slightly different focus. As you know, Easter is one of the two times a year that many people will go to church. This creates a huge opportunity to invite people into discipleship – following Jesus, being changed by Jesus, and being on mission with Jesus – who might otherwise just get a taste of religion and return to life as usual after Easter. The last thing those folks need is for one of us to invite them to Providence and for them to have that short-lived experience here, as opposed to somewhere else.
So here’s what we want to do: As a family, we want to enter a season of prayer, and if you want to, even fasting, asking God who he has placed in YOUR personal sphere of influence, and how you can invite that person, or people, into your life. Notice: that didn’t say “how you can invite them to church on Easter.” That might be where it ends up, but this is really about your home. Coffee hangouts. Dinner. Shopping together. Finding out what’s going on in their life, meeting them in it, and inviting them into your life.
How Is It Going?
Type an update on how your intentional hospitality is going and how we can pray for you!