Guest Blogger: Kazia Ferguson

"Financial Pece Univeristy"
It seems everywhere you turn these days there is talk about the economy. I turn on my internet and headlines of the failing economy flood the screen. I pick up the newspaper and article after article tells of how businesses are closing their doors after many years in business. I turn on the TV only to see the stock market fall at record speeds. If I let it, it can become quite depressing.

At NewLife Fellowship we are in the midst of Financial Peace University. What an eye opener!!! I have learned so much and we are only in the fifth week. Dave Ramsey has been given such a gift of explaining basic principles on managing your money and not letting it manage you. Hearing his tips on budgeting has truly brought freedom into our home. I now know how much money we have and what we can spend and I never have to feel guilty about spending it. Unless, of course, I somehow spend money outside of our budget. :-(
I think our government could learn a thing or two from Dave Ramsey.

Whether we want to believe it or not, money is so important. Without it we can’t give, we can’t feed our families; we can’t pay our bills or send our kids to college. We need it to survive. But in order to make it work for us we must learn basic, Godly principles on how to balance it. Through FPU lives are being transformed including my own. A window of communication has been opened between me and my husband. We are now able to talk about it without fighting about it. Well, so far this is true. Ask me again at the end of the class.

There is hope for the gloom and doom that is everywhere we turn. That is if we follow God’s plan for our life and practice good stewardship with what He has given us (give, spend, save) He will take care of our every need.

Guest Blogger: Terica

Terica posted this yesterday on her blog.

"A Tribute To My Ministry Family"

This past week, I had the privilege of attending a leadership conference, C3, with some really incredible people. For the past three years, we've been fortunate to attend. The first year, Brandon and I went. The next year we were able to take some of our staff and this year, all of the pastoral staff made it. And make it they did. This year was by far the best...and that has everything to do with those who were there. There were times we laughed so hard our stomachs hurt and we couldn't breathe. Yet, there were also times of quiet introspection as we listened to some phenomenal speakers; each taking away personalized nuggets of information but with one common denominator. For two days, I was surrounded by an undeniable sense of family. Contrary to what many may think, we don't get to spend much time together outside of church. We all have lives and families that dictate what free time we may have so what an incredible treat those two days were. We actually realized how dangerous we could be if we were all full time and we greatly look forward to that day.

I couldn't imagine a better group of people to be so intimately connected to in this adventure called ministry. I love them all to the core and appreciate, more than words can say, their dedication to the Father, my family and the cause of NewLife. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. May your family be blessed for generations and generations to come because of the legacies each of you are creating. I am truly blessed and my life forever altered due to the pleasure of knowing each of you. I am forever thankful for the opportunity to be in ministry with such an incredible group of people.

Unpacking C3

Last week I attended the C3 conference with my team from NewLife. We had a blast. I am still trying to unpack all that I heard. I went back through my notes and read just some of the things that I joted down. In of themselves I thought they were pretty powerful…you can probably imagine how much more impactful they were when heard in context.

So here are a few of the nuggets I wrote down. Like I said, these are out of context but still very powerful:
“The higher God takes you the more people hate you.”
“The more God does through you…the more critics will come after you…you must be ok with that.
“Characteristics of People Pleasers: They find it hard to express their true feelings and have a hard time saying no.”
“Characteristics of People Pleasers: They take most criticism personally and feel and extraordinary fear of rejection.”
“Being obsessed with what people think about you is the quickest way to forget what God think about you”
“If spiritual reproduction is not happening in your church…you are NOT a mature church!!!!”
“A biblically functioning community will have unbelievers, new believers, and mature Christ-followers”
“Everybody wants to reach people until you start “reaching” people.”
“If we don’t face our constraints it will cause us to not reach the next level.”
“Three challenges in ministry - Time, People, Money…somewhere in there is your ministry problem”
“We should not give excuses…when we have a God that poured out His life for the world… Give your excuse to the blood stained cross”
“Senior pastors need to speak not as things are, but as things can be”
“We all seek God to know His will, but seeking Him is His will.”
“Not everything God wants to tell you is for a sermon or your blog. He just wants to talk to you!”
“Leadership is measured more by your absence”
“Ministry is like giving birth on Sunday and finding out your pregnant on Monday.”
“Don’t get mixed up with negative emails or letters. Ignore them, they’re vision killers.”
“When people say they…ask who are ‘they’”
“3 types of people: Those who are with you. Those that are for you. Those that use you.”
“When conflict happens you’ll know who has your back. The rest will run when it gets tough.”
“The majority is usually wrong! God is a God of the remnant!”
“When God gives vision, its not a committee thing!”
“When pride walks on the stage, God walks off”

This Weekend At NewLife

About this weekend...
I am looking so forward to THIS SUNDAY as we are praying for and anticipating God to do incredible things as we do something that we've never really done before.

- Get to church EARLY this weekend...seriously, I'm begging you..at LEAST 10 minutes early! The service is actually going to be a "little different" and we don't want anyone missing one single second!!!

- We are praying and believing God for a HUGE crowd...so be nice and be happy! :-)

- PRAY!!! Seriously! I believe God is going to do a work in our church over the next several weeks like we've never seen! Pray now until this weekend that God will draw people to Himself...and that He will do an UNBELIEVABLE and UNDENIABLE work among us!

- INVITE!!! Fill up your car with people this weekend! Call people! Bribe them! Do what it takes to get people in the doors!

Here are a few other things I wanted to throw out...
- THANK YOU, times a million, to all of you who helped with our Campus Cleanup project. The NewLife campus looks incredible!

- The Change series is over...BUT that doesn't mean the change is over. I blogged about what I mean on Tuesday HERE. (go check it out!)

- I am at the C3 Conference today and tomorrow with the rest of my team. Honestly I can't wait to get there every year and share with church leaders from around the world! It's going to be AWESOME! You can follow what's going on with us there as it happens on twitter.

- LOOK!!! Take a second when you pull into the parking lot this weekend at our church. It's great to see all that's been accomplished in the past year...GREAT THINGS are headed our way!
- REALIZE!!! Our best days are still ahead of us...God is growing a church...and He has amazing plans in store!

25 Things I Hate About Facebook

I jumped onto the Facebook bandwagon last week. I'm not sure if one week's time is enough time to properly form an opinion of whether I like or dislike Facebook but I do know which way I'm leaning.

In this short YouTube video, Julian Smith comically explains his frustrations. So far I would have to say that I concur with all twenty-five of his reasons.


All that being said, I'm going to stick around on Facebook a little bit longer.

Personally though, I find Twitter so much easier to use and much more rewarding—and certainly much less annoying.

What do you think of Facebook? What do you like? What annoys you?

The Change Isn't Over

Here at NewLife we are just coming out of a series on change. Real change...not the superficial change that many of us are use to, but REAL supernatural change. Change that leads to growth.

As we close this series we need to remember that God is committed to our lifelong growth as members of His family - the end-goal being a people who are "holy and blameless before Him" (Ephesians 1.4).

Here's the rub: You were not meant to take this journey alone. Christianity is not individualistic. Ephesians 2.19 talks about Christ-followers being "saints and members of the household of God."

Christ-followers are always talked about in plurality. We are family. Jesus calls us to "Come Together."

Yet so often we find ourselves hiding under the covers. And we avoid meaningful relationships. Why? Because community always exposes our sinful self-centeredness.
Yet God intends us to experience change together.

So as we move forward and away from this series let's never forget that change is still the goal.
Change is a corporate goal - it's a community project.

What we become, we become together.

Sunday's Work Day

A great big THANK YOU again to all who helped out!

Heart Check

Read this quote this morning. I think it's a good heart check.

"To be a witness does not consist in engaging propaganda, not even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one's life would not make sense if God did not exist."
- Emmanuel Suhard

Some Are Just Born With It

Tribute To Staci McAuley

Last summer at NewLife we did a series called 30 Days to Live where we listened to the interviews of a few brave people who were facing life-threatening illnesses.

Staci McAuley was one of those incredible people.

Staci went home to be with Jesus on Sunday, January 18th.

In honor of her life, I wanted to share her interview again in case you missed it.

Staci Mcauley Interview - Part 2 from LifeChurch.tv on Vimeo.

What's Wrong With Us?

You probably felt this way last night...especially if you were pulling for the Arizona Cardinals when they got flagged for 15 yard penalty's three times on the same drive.

As a football official I hear fans and coaches whine about this very thing all the time.

As we whined about the way the "Big Game" was called last night I thought to myself...
Isn't it amazing how often we look for someone to blame for our performance? I do it. You do it. We all do it.

"What's wrong with us?" - blaming something else for our desires, our behavior and our results?

Don't blame God when you are tempted! God cannot be tempted by evil, and he doesn't use evil to tempt others. We are tempted by our own desires that drag us off and trap us. Our desires make us sin, and when sin is finished with us, it leaves us dead. Don't be fooled, my dear friends. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father who created all the lights in the heavens. He is always the same and never makes dark shadows by changing. He wanted us to be his own special people, and so he sent the true message to give us new birth. - James 1:13-18