When: July 2-6

How Much: $75 (non-refundable) registration fee, $175 total ($225 if registered after March 11)

Where: Falls Creek Camp (Davis, OK)

Theme: Undiscovered Territory (See Image)

A few important things:

We are beginning camp registration now.  While space will probably not be an issue (we just upgraded to a new cabin!), we have to have our cabin fees paid soon, which is why we’re having an early registration fee.  Note that the $75 is a part of the $175 which is the total cost of camp.  Also note that if you turn in your $75 after March 11, the price goes up to $225.  Good news: for the 25 that were able to help with our fundraiser lunch on Sunday, you have $25 that is applied towards your camp balance, which includes the registration fee.  This means if you worked the fundraiser lunch on Sunday, your registration fee is only $50, and your total camp cost is $150.  We will fill out release forms later; currently we are just taking the registration fee.  And again, this is to pay the rent for our cabin, which is due soon.

A New Cabin

Like I mentioned earlier, we reserved a new cabin for camp this year!  The capacity is nearly double what we’ve been using, and that’s a great thing: we’ve been pretty much maxing out our old cabin, and have been looking for a new cabin for a few years.  How hard is it to find a new cabin?  Falls Creek does things differently, where individual churches own each cabin, and where I have to contact each church individually to ask about their cabin.  I left a message at around 60 different churches asking if there was a week available.  All of them said no.  That was at the end of last summer/beginning of last fall when it’s time to book for the next year.  I was put on a waiting list with most of those churches.  I’ve called many churches since asking if a spot has opened up.  Nothing was available.  This is actually how it has been for the past three years: we’ve been trying to get into a larger cabin, but it hasn’t worked out.  When multiple conflicts (including our leadership) arose over the last month with our initial camp dates, I knew that it would be a big deal if we were actually able to find a new week, because our cabin didn’t have any open weeks.  Praise God, we got a cabin!  In addition to holding up to 100 people, which will give us plenty of room to grow, it also has a ping pong table on the patio.  It’ll be great!  Here are a few pictures of our new cabin:

In politics, if you do a good job, you are usually rewarded with the opportunity to run for a higher office. If you do a good job on a sport’s team, you are usually rewarded with a starting position or more playing time. Success in the business world often ends up with promotions and salary increases. In almost all organizations, doing well is rewarded with more responsibility, more perks, and more pay.

So what are the rewards for doing well as a follower of Christ?

In John 15, Jesus described the rewards for bearing fruit (or doing well): to be pruned by the Father so that we can bear more fruit. Is that really a reward? According to the dictionary, to prune means “to reduce especially by eliminating superfluous matter.” Does that sound rewarding to you? One website I found taught this principle about pruning grapevines: “If left unattended, grapevines can become unruly, and fruiting will be poor due to overproduction of vegetation.” Best I can tell, the excess vegetation is pruned away from the vine so that the vine’s energy and nutrients go towards the fruit instead of being wasted on the excess vegetation.

How different this is from the way the world rewards a job well done. The world rewards with the excess vegetation of nicer offices, more money, and better perks. The Lord rewards by removing excess vegetation so that more fruit bearing can take place. The only thing that makes this kind of pruning endurable is knowing that our excess vegetation is in the hands of the Father who knows what He is doing.

So, if you are being pruned today, rest in the love and care of your divine Vinedresser who is rewarding your fruit bearing by doing whatever it takes to make you even more fruitful. And when He decides that the vegetation you deem essential is actually “superfluous matter,” consider it an opportunity to exercise your faith and trust in the loving and wise hands of the Master Gardner.

Sun, February 5 is our SuperBowl Party

We’ll meet up in the high school room at 5pm and hang out until the game is over.  Everybody is asked to bring some sort of Superbowl food item… think tailgating!

Fri-Sat, February 10-11 is Planet Wisdom

Planet Wisdom is our spring conference, starting at 4:30pm on Friday and lasting until 6pm on Saturday.  Drop-off and pick-up are both at the church.  Bring $50 ($40 for the ticket and $10 for food), a Bible and a pen, along with sleepover stuff (sleeping bag, pillow, toiletries, towel, pajamas, extra change of clothes).  They can also bring extra money if they’d like to get Planet Wisdom gear (like tshirts, dvds, cds).  Check out our video from last year’s conference.  For more information about the Planet Wisdom Conference, visit their website.

NOTE: We are looking for a home to host the guys that Friday night, preferably somewhere close to Benbrook.  Heather will be hosting the girls at our house.  The host home is also asked to provide breakfast on Saturday.

NOTE #2: Please print and fill out this Release Form.  Thanks!

Sun, February 12 is a Youth Camp Fundraiser Lunch

We’re having our first youth camp fundraiser lunch of the year.  Our theme is “Soup and Sundae Sunday”.  I will provide the sundae ingredients, if all of you could bring a soup/stew/chili.  We’re aiming to feed 120-150!  This lunch will run from 11am-1pm, which is immediately after Sunday School for those who attend the first service, and after the second service.  Youth who serve at this lunch will directly gain credit towards their camp expenses, which will be quite a bit more this year than in years past (somewhere between $100-$175, depending on if we get any youth budget this year, which isn’t looking promising).  In years past we put lunches towards a general camp fund, but this year the lunches will be directly assigned to students who participate.  We’ll have at least two more lunches between now and June 4-9, which is our week of camp.

Each student can expect to get between $25-$50 for helping out at each lunch, depending on the number of students helping and the amount raised.  We will also have another “rent a youth” fundraising opportunity in the coming months to help with camp expenses.

I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, ³¹that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, ³²so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. ³³May the God of peace be with you all. Amen. (Romans 15.30-33 ESV)

So many questions to ask the Lord this week, but the initial ones include:

• What does it mean to strive in prayer? What does striving prayer look like?
• What does it mean to pray “by our Lord Jesus Christ” and “by the love of the Spirit”? How do those two things impact and change our prayer for others?
• Paul’s specific request (verse 31) was that God would do something specific in Jerusalem, and that specific work involved changing the hearts, minds, and wills of other people. Can our prayers to God really impact the choices and directions of other people’s lives?
• How does our striving in prayer relate to the will of God (verse 32)? If God wills something, do we need to pray for it? Does our prayer change God’s will or impact God’s will? Or does God simply will that He acts in concert with our prayer?

These are weighty questions, and the answers to these questions can be life changing. I invite you to stop by each day this week as I seek to answer these questions. I would be honored if you would share your thoughts along the way.

As we study this together, may we also consider the following.

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. ⁹Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. ¹⁰He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. ¹¹You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. (2 Corinthians 1.8-11)

In situations of very real dangers, Paul sought out the very real help of believers striving together with him in prayer.  Oh, may we come to know what this means.

Father, open my eyes this week that I might see truth. Help me to understand what it means to strive in prayer. More importantly, teach me how to strive in prayer and what to strive in prayer for. Give me a vision for the power of prayer. 

You can follow the pastor’s study and preparation for this week’s sermon at his blog.

I am discovering that there is a difference between goals and ambition. Goals are those ends that we would like to reach, or those that we feel we ought to reach. But ambitions are altogether different. According to the dictionary, ambition is “the desire to reach a particular end.” Isn’t that what is missing from many of our New Year’s resolutions, the desire itself? We know the goal we ought to be chasing, but we also know that the desire is just not there.

But what if our lives were driven by a “holy ambition,” an internal desire placed there by our Creator that drives us internally towards the goals that God has set for our lives? How would this holy ambition change how we face the new year? And if we don’t have a holy ambition, how do we go about getting one? And once we have one, how do we feed it so that it grows from a desire into a reality?

Join us for worship this Sunday morning as we explore the words of Paul in Romans 15.22-24 to see what the Lord might say to us about our holy ambitions for 2012.

The conference is February 10-11 this year, and will be $40.  It will last from Friday afternoon at 4:30pm to Saturday at 6pm.  We currently have 12 spots reserved, but can add more if needed.  Let Dave know ASAP if you or your student plan on attending the conference, and if they have any friends that will be attending.

For more information about the Planet Wisdom Conference, visit their website.

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.