Can it get any better!!!!

Another really great weekend at CF. Good reports from all of our campuses. So good. Several crossed the line of faith again this weekend. Thank you God. I Love This Place is surprising me. And again, thank you God.

The blood of martyrs has done more to advance the movement of the church than anything else. The church cannot be silenced. We must move boldly to reach our world for Christ. Christ Fellowship, the same power that conquered the grave lives within each and everyone of us. Let's claim the victory that we already know is ours.

I Love This Place continues.

Small Groups all over Christ Fellowship are in full swing. I'm loving mine. Get connected. See you all soon.

Blessings.
Sammy

Hear Our Cry

I can't help but think that as I see the protests in Iran, the desire for people to be free. The people of Iran are desiring freedom from tyranny and oppression. To have a voice.

God desires that we are free as well. In fact true freedom comes from Christ. Look at the Book of Romans chapter 10

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

That's some good stuff.

The world around us is calling out just as they are in Iran, for freedom. Not for freedom from an oppressive government, but freedom from sin, guilt, sadness, pain. Just look. They are in your classrooms, in your work place, in your own family. Calling to be free. We have the answer.

May our voice not be silent. Take those divine moments that God gives you and me to share the message. Not sure what to say, then invite them to attend a service.

I Love This Place started with an awesome response. Around 17 crossed the line of faith. It was amazing.

Wednesday, the Worship team will rehearse with Small Group to follow. I can't wait.
Zeph. 3:17
Sammy

Are you ready for "I Love This Place"?

Well here we are. Just a few days out from the start to "I Love This Place." Did I tell you that I was excited?

Worship Choir, I hope you have enjoyed the time off. But enough already. I'm ready for you to be back. I've missed you all. Your contribution is huge. Did I tell you that your contribution is huge?

I look forward to seeing you soon. Come ready for rehearsal on Wednesday, and as always, there is a Small Group available to anyone from our Worship ministry that is not in a Small Group already. We meet right after rehearsal. The coaches are: Donna Perronne, Jerry Moore and little ole' me.

We will be doing the Small Group study, "Ekklesia." It's a study of the church and how our process of Connecting to God, Others, Ministry and the World is built from the scriptures. It's going to be awesome!

God bless you.

Sammy
Zeph. 3:17

Keep Your Head

One of the things I enjoy about the weekend services is the time the worship team has to hang out and talk. We take one of the services to open up the Word and share some thoughts. Here is the passage of scripture that we've discussed. We had some awesome discussion:

Timothy 4:3-8

"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing."

After discussing this scripture passage, here is what we came up with:

1.Keep our head in the game.
a. Stay focused on the goal
b. Spend time in God's Word
c. Spend time in prayer

2.Endure hardships
a. Those who choose to follow Christ choose to suffer trials
b. We share in His sufferings

3.Do the work. Enough said.

4.Keep the faith

The result is:
A crown of righteousness.

Summer is here, but at Christ Fellowship the fun is just beginning. Coming up is our new series, "I Love This Place." This is a study from the scriptures about the Church.

Invest and Invite cards are available. Take some and invite the peeps. Let's do this thing!

I Love you all.
Sammy

Twitter in church...will it come to this?

Social networking...the new wave. Still taking hold, and not yet fully understood, twitter is quickly becoming the new trend for communicating.

Check this blog out. Will it come to this?

http://stevenjcamp.blogspot.com/2009/06/twittering-in-church-services-take.html

What an awesome weekend. Frank Gali did a great job, and Jeff Borton, Student Pastor, nailed it.

Looking forward to the day in worship. So good.

Blessings.
Sammy

Social Media Venn Diagram

Someone has too much time on their hand. Social networking continues to plow new ground.

Hey all. Don't forget, there will be no worship choir rehearsal this evening. Services are going to be awesome!

Check it out:
Jeff Borton, CF Pastor to Students will be speaking and Frank Gali will be leading worship. We will be observing the Lord's Supper at all our services and then recognizing the High School graduates at our Saturday evening service.

So good.

It was an awesome weekend

Rick talked about "knowing the will of God," and as always he did an awesome job.

Check this verse out. This is what I read in my time with God this morning:

First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Hebrews 10:8-10

Because Christ followed the will of His Father, we have been given the opportunity to know Christ in a personal and intimate way. Christ set the example in every way for us. What an awesome God we serve.

My son Andrew (Andy), led one of our songs during worship this weekend; You Deserve, by Hillsong. It was a great moment for me to have Andrew lead with me. He typically is there, but playing an awesome lead guitar. However, believing that he has a gift to encourage people in worship, I wanted him to lead in singing with me. He did great. It was a happy moment for me. I am blessed to have both of my sons leading with me.

Thank God for some redundancy. Today the power supply for the Soundcraft went out at our Downtown campus, but Jeff had a power supply back up. So, it was switched out and the service went on with out a hitch. Sweet!

The worship choir will not meet for the next two weeks. Enjoy!

You all are a blessing. I love you all.
Sammy