Have you had a chance to walk on the beach this summer on Lake Michigan? It's one of my favorite things to do because it's in that peaceful environment where I'm able to slow down, abide, and hear what our Dad in heaven has to say to me. Cool stuff!  If you haven't done it, try it sometime!!

Sunday, September the 18th, is an important mile marker for us as Real Life. It will be the 2nd Vision day service we will have experienced  together since my family and I have been here. The thing I love about vision day is being able to celebrate the past while looking towards the incredible future God has for us!!!  Like my walk on the beach, our Dad has been speaking to each one of us, encouraging us to see ourselves as his priceless kids!  We've been learning that as we abide, we hang out with him, we become more like him and experience his incredible freedom from our fears, insecurities, selfishness, finding real lasting hope, understanding who we are is priceless to our Dad!  Then, this week, we'll learn how God wants us to re-present him to those around us, to share his love, his healing, and his hope in such a way they look at us and see God because YOU have your FATHER's eyes. Check out 2 Corinthians 3:17-18.

Vision Sunday is going to help us see how our lives, our families, our workplaces can change,  but as we link arms together, God will literally use all of us to change our community, bringing his goodness, healing, and great message that they can be his kids too in Jesus. This is what Jesus meant when he said pray in Matthew 6 "You're Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Be praying for next week because on the many beach walks I've taken, I've heard our Dad say he has some really cool stuff for you, for all of us. The kind of stuff that will change the course of human events and history as we hear and respond to him. Listen for it!  He's talking to you!

Love you guys,
Vince

I remember when my dad was teaching me how to drive when I was a young teen on a long vacation in the middle of Colorado, where there were really big hills with step inclines. After my dad was reasonably convinced that I knew what I was doing, he took a nap…bad idea!    He had me put the car in low gear going up the hill, but I forgot to take it out of low on the flat parts of the road.  My dad woke up when he started smelling something burning.  It was the transmission, it had gotten so worn down that you could smell it.  Not only that, but as we were climbing hills, we began to lose speed and it would slip, until finally it stopped.  He was not happy when he had to walk to get a tow truck.  

As I’ve learned from that lesson, doing life is a lot like that.  If we don’t live the way God designed us, we will eventually do damage to ourselves, even to others.  Part of doing life God’s way is learning how to rest regularly , to get restored and hear God.  This Sunday we’re beginning a series called Living Rest, Not Stress, where we will look at how to find rest in a busy life, and from that be productive the way God wants, getting rid of the stress that kills.  I encourage you, as we go through this series, read John 15:1-8, page 549-550 in the One Year Bible.  Jesus lays out for us the secret to living stress free lives and with little work on our part, becoming very productive.  And as you read it, see what God begins to talk to you about, then respond to him.  And bring a few people in your life to hear how to let go of stressful living to find a better way. 

A couple of things I want to also let you know about…this Sunday we’ll have a ministry fair in our Community Center after our Sunday morning services.  It’s a great time to see what classes will be offered this fall, what’s going on with Family Ministry (Children and Youth) and how to get plugged in to the various serving opportunities that exist at Real Life Community Church. 

Also, beginning September 11^th, we will be changing our 9:30am service time to 9am, to better accommodate the flow of traffic and drop off and pick up for our kids.  This will allow us to be more relaxed and connect more with each other in the mornings without having to quickly move our car or be jammed in the hallways. 

Let’s find out about this Sunday.  See you then!

I cannot tell you how many times I used to blow through the week to get to the weekend.  My tendency was to work hard to play hard.  The problem is, I’d come back from the weekend or vacation just as tired, if not more tired than before. Interesting too, I’ve found that many of us not only treat our work weeks that way, we also treat our spiritual lives the same way.  We try to be good enough or do all the right things spiritually and we either get burnt out or it seems like we’re not effective, like our spiritual lives are dry.  The interesting thing is God made both our spiritual being and our physical being.  Both work the same way.  It’s only through the discipline of learning how to hang out with Jesus and rest first that we’ll ever become productive physically and spiritually and experience God’s love and power in greater ways.

Next week we begin a three-week series Living Rest, Not Stress where we’ll learn how it’s possible to live in place of rest and be productive with little effort.  What a great time to find out as we get back to normal busy schedules from the summer!

As we also begin to transition out of summer, there are a few things going on to update you on…

Next Sunday, August 28^th, we’ll have a Ministry Fair in our Community Center after our Sunday morning services.  It’s a great time to see what classes will be offered this fall, what’s going on with Family Ministry (Children and Youth) and how to get plugged in to the various serving opportunities that exist at Real Life Community Church.

 Also, beginning September 11^th, we will be changing our 9:30am service time to 9:00am, to accommodate the flow of traffic better and drop off and pick up times for our kids.  This will allow us to be more relaxed and connect more with each other in the mornings without having to quickly move our car or be jammed in the hallways. 

In His grip,

I was overwhelmed this week!

After beginning the healing series this last week, the needs written down on the prayer cards turned in at the end of the service to be prayed for were huge, many people came forward for prayer for healing, and God’s presence was felt in a huge way.  On Tuesday, the staff and I spent time praying for the requests from this weekend and felt that God’s heart was longing to show up and do some great things!  Just like we talked about in Exodus 15:26, God’s very presence and his character is healing.  So as we choose to live our lives in his presence following him, as we experience him, we can experience his healing.  And I believe that God’s going to be showing up in powerful ways, bringing that healing both physically, emotionally, spiritually and relationally in the next few weeks as we continue to focus on God as our healer.

This week we’ll be looking at the question…”If God is healing, why doesn’t he heal me?”  It’s a tough question, but one that needs to be asked and understood to see if there’s something we’re missing that God’s wanting to say to us.  What we can always know is God IS healing and he IS loving towards us.  We’ll also continue to have some ministry time asking God to show up and be the healer that he is.

One aspect of walking in a relationship with God is having a heart that’s responsive and listens to him.  I know that is the heart at Real Life!  Many of you have picked up the list for the backpacks for supplies for kids.  As a matter of fact, out of 100 backpacks, we have less than 10 backpacks to fill.  I just want to say way to go Real Life!  If you haven’t had a chance to grab the list for a backpack, stop by our Community Center to get one.  What a fantastic way to show our schools that God loves them in a very real tangible way!

Truth is, when we have a heart that’s open to God like that, he’ll use us in amazing ways and we will experience his presence!

You guys are awesome!

In His grip,

Well it’s great to be back!!!

My family and I had a great time in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, hiking, backpacking, and of course kayaking!  Lot’s of wild life there too, still not as wild as many Real Life people!  I heard Trevor was even able to take a shot at me.  Hope he enjoyed it, because I’m back now and I might raid his closet.

I was excited to hear that our speakers did fantastic while I was gone.  And it’s great to have Scott Jones and his family finally with us!!!!  What a blessing.

I also heard we started the back pack project and many of you already picked up 46 out of the 100  supply lists needed to make a difference in our community.  If you haven’t had a chance to do that yet, stop by the table in the Community Center to pick up a list.

Driving back I was thinking about the healing series coming up and how much we all need healing.  Some need physical healing.  That’s the obvious type.  But the other types of healing needsthat I think  are easy to miss are the emotional, spiritual, and relational ones.  Emotional being we’ve been damaged by others or past situations that have caused us to be prisoners, unable to change and experience real peace in our lives.  Spiritual being we’ve never really trusted God, maybe we’ve even kept him at arms length.  Because of that, we’ve never really become the whole people that God longs for because we’ve never found our identity in him, our loving Creator.  Relational being maybe damage caused in a relationship with our parents, a sibling, a co-worker, a spouse, even a child that has caused a rift and deep pain.  The fantastic thing is God’s very presence is healing.  It’s who he is.  And as we come to him, we can find all types of healing…everything we need.  Over the next 4 weeks, we’ll not only be looking at God as healer, but we will address questions like why don’t people get healed, how much faith does it require, and the vehicle God ultimately chooses to often times heal others.  If you need any type of healing, or know of anyone that does, come this Sunday and bring a friend or family member.  Let’s spend the next 4 weeks really inviting the Holy Spirit to show up in a powerful way and bring the healing God longs to give.

It’s great to be home with a great group of people who love making a difference!!!  You guys are awesome!

Vince