CLCBlog

Volunteer Appreciation Luau

Do you volunteer regularly at CLC?
If so, it's time for us to extend a giant mahalo!

If you are one of the people that makes things happen at CLC week in and week out, and you didn't receive an invitation, please email us ASAP at info@clcsantacruz.org.

Let's party!

A Note From The CLC Blog

To: those responsible for updating me

Somebody, please hear me.  I have been neglected.  I sit here day after day.  Some even come by to visit, but quickly leave me.  Why?  Because I am not living my purpose.  Oh how I long to have a purpose driven life like so many of my readers and administrators.  Why has God allowed me to be created.  not to sit here and be ignored for close to seven months.

Like a dear family member in a nursing home, I long to be visited more often.  I want to share information with the world of CLC.  I want people to come and not only read, but share their thoughts on faith and all that goes with it.  Conversation.  Connection.

You are currently going through a series called miracles.  I need a miracle.  Bring me back from life to death.  I believe God can do it, but I need your help.  Please neglect me no longer.  Make me useful once again.  Do not force me to fall into the pit of the thousands of neglected blogs littered across cyberspace by owners who had good intentions but then found better things to do.  Don't be deadbeat bloggers.  I'm ready.  Give me a new beginning.

Sincerely,
clcsantacruz.wordpress.com

Blog, we sincerely apologize for our neglect.  We will try this again.  You are a new creation.  Perhaps we will remain here.  Perhaps we will move to Typepad.  Perhaps we will create our own URL.  But you will once again relive the glory days.  Here we go.

S.I.M.P.L.I.F.Y.

A lot of us nowadays fell like we always have to go, go, go, do, do, do. Even in the midst of the laid back culture of Santa Cruz county. Often times this can seep into the DNA and into the fabric of our church as well.

This is a great post from another blog regarding our habits of business and the need to simplify, to be before God, and to spend time in the presence of loved ones. I've pasted the content below. Take a read and see what you think:

Quality time is somewhat of a commodity on my mom’s side of the family (2 grandparents, 15 aunts and uncles, 18 cousins). In fact, this past June was the first and only time in my entire life I’d ever had a chance to be alone with my grandpa! And I’d argue that I gained more wisdom in those thirty minutes than I ever have in a family reunion setting.

The main thing we talked about is how different today’s society is compared to that of 50 years ago, when Grandpa was my age. He told me he thinks we are slowly killing ourselves by trying to do too much. All the time. For everyone. No one takes any time to relax, they just go, go, go, do, do, do. Grandpa said fifty years ago, no one talked about being “stressed out”…it’s something we’ve brought on ourselves.

With ever-improving technology, you’d think our lives would be easier. But they’re not. Now, we think because things are easier to do, we should be doing more things instead of using the extra time we’ve created to just—gasp—relax.

In ministry, this burden is compounded, because there are lives at stake. More technology = more communication = more people to reach. More. More. More. Go. Go. Go. Do. Do. Do.

I’m not saying we need to forget about the Great Commission and what God’s calling us to do. But we do need to occasionally take a step back and assess where we are, where we really want to focus our energy and time, and what things we need to delegate. There will always be more work to be done this side of Heaven. We need to realize, however, that God doesn’t want us to stay so busy doing that we aren’t dedicating any time to being. Being attentive to His Spirit; being present in our loved ones’ lives; being conscious of the gifts and passions He’s given us; being in the moment; being still long enough to really worship–rather than putting “worship God” on our Sunday morning To-Do list.

I’m as guilty as the next person where busyness is concerned. Grandpa’s advice hit me hard, at a time when I really needed to hear it. Since our conversation, I’ve seen a plaque with suggestions on how to “SIMPLIFY”:

S - Slow down
I - Imagine doing less
M - Make time for loved ones
P - Practice patience
L - Learn to gently say no
I - Increase your quiet time
F - Follow your heart
Y - Yield to life, yield to peace, yield to joy

In what areas are you trying to do too much? How can you simplify?

Remember, God made us human beings, not human doings.

Growth

By Ed Tyler (from this months e-bulletin)

Spiritual growth is very personal, often unpredictable, and difficult to put into words. But it is really not as hard to measure as we may think. One of the things that we have been discussing here at CLC is what does a person look like who is growing spiritually. For many Christ-followers spiritual growth is attained through Bible study, prayer and attending a large gathering. Those are things that we do, but don't necessarily cause a person to grow in Christ.

As a church we believe there are three scripture values that give evidence of someone who is growing spiritually, COMMUNITY, INTIMACY, and INFLUENCE. Our leadeship team in our last meeting had a lot of dialogue concerning those values and the scriptures that support them. Some of our discussion was about the meaning of
each of these elements and how we can involve others in our church. Here are some things that we saw as the definitions for COMMUNITY, INTIMACY, INFLUENCE:

What is COMMUNITY?

• Living continually with other people, sharing, loving, depending on each other.


• Shared responsibility, co-habitation, shared values and diversity.


• Enjoy each other.


• Sharing the deep stuff as well as the surface stuff.


• Authentic, intentional.


• Mirror, reflect culture.


• Body of Christ.


• Jesus hanging out with tax collectors and sinners.

COMMUNITY Scriptures:
Mark 2:1-12; Acts 2:42-47; 18:24-26; Ephesians 4:11-16; Hebrews 10:25; 1 Peter 2:4-5; 2:9-10; Philemon 1:2.
All of the "one anothers" in scripture.

What is INTIMACY?

• Knowing God.


• Trust.


• Jesus and the Father alone.


• Love, passions, romance, heart.


• Authenticity.


• Commitment, fidelity.


• Children = birth = new life.


• Word, worship, prayer, obedience.

INTIMACY Scriptures:
Jeremiah 29:12;; Mark 12:29-31; Luke 12:11 John 14:15; John 15; Acts 2:42-47; 4:13
Various Psalms
Song of Solomon

What is INFLUENCE?

• Service.


• Using your giftedness.


• Being salt and light.


• Directs and shapes a persons thought and actions either for bad or good.


• The 12 spies that came back from the Promised Land had an opportunity to influence the whole nation of Israel. 10 out of the 12 influenced the nation.


• Urgency to display Christ.


• Taking people into a process


• Mission, incarnational.


• Taking oopportunities to explain the way of God.

INFLUENCE Scriptures:
Matthew 5:13-16; 14:13-21; 28:19-20; Mark 12:29-31; Acts 1:8; 16:13-15; 18:24-26; Ephesians 2:8-10; 4:11-16; Colossians 4:5; Philippians 2:11-16; 1Peter 4:10

What are your thoughts? Which aspect of spiritual maturity resonates the most with you? Where are you most in need of growth? What other scriptures came to mind?

Game Night

We had a blast this past Sunday night at our CLC game night. Lots of people showed up to game it up and have a great time. For some more pics visit the Flickr photo album from the night here.

One of the highlights of the night was being able to see Julie and Georgina go at it in a match of Nintendo Wii Boxing. Just in case you missed it, check out the video below!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-FUu1VejQE]

Thanks to everyone who made it out to play with us. And for those of you that didn't be sure not to miss out next time!!

Next Series: Remember

Tomorrow is our final morning of our current series, "The Games We Play." Be sure to join us for that and invite some friends along tomorrow night for our game night starting at 6pm.

Next week we launch into a brand new 5 week series called Remember.

Over the course of five weeks we will Remember the meaning behind some ancient practices that we can get a lot out of still today. We will be talking about:

• Baptism


• Prayer


• Fasting


• Communion


• Sabbath

Don't miss out. It's gonna be a great series!

Listen Online

Miss this weeks Sunday gathering? No problem! Hear the weekend message here!

[audio http://www.myworshiprevolution.com/Life_MakingDecisions.mp3]

Be on the look out for a podcast feed to subscribe to...coming soon!

Forgiveness

After a week hearing about God's forgiveness of us and our response to love him as a result, we heard part two this last week about our need to forgive others in turn. Share with us your answer to the following question taken out of this past weekends notes:

Take my poll!

God Warrior

Many Christ followers have forgotten that it is not our job as the wheat to be the ones to pull up the weeds. In fact, as citizens of the Kingdom we are to grow along with the weeds. This means living daily among those with those who are not Christ followers. Here the full version of a clip that was shown in part on Sunday of a Christian who has forgotten that we are called to love others in Jesus name rather than blame the weeds for being weeds:

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=CCODIhAXbQM]

This week, remember that you are not called to isolate yourself from the weeds, but rather to live among them until the day comes that the angels separate us for good. In what ways have you chosen, this week, to live among those who have not yet chosen to follow Jesus rather than isolate yourselves from them?

Wheat and Weeds

Here's the video from this past Sunday...a loose interpretation of the Parable of the wheat and the weeds.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=7WlPkelp9KE]