You’ve seen them. I know you have. Bumper stickers, t-shirts, and signs like the one above lambasting those who’ve heretically replaced Christ with the infamous letter X. I mean, I’ve even been reprimanded and accused of “selling out” on Facebook due to a status update that left out the reason for the season– or did it…

You see, we see the English letter X there, but actually it is kai, the first letter of Christos, the Greek name for Christ. Dating back many centuries, that X became a shorthand symbol for Christ.

No one protests the use of the “Jesus fish” do they? Interestingly enough, the X in X-mas and the fish have the same roots. The greek word for fish is ichthus, which is an acronym  involving the use of the first letters for the Greek phrase “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.” So the early Christians would take the first letter of those words and put them together to spell the Greek word for fish. And  a universal symbol for the faith that would be used for many centuries was born. Notice the second letter. It’s X, the same abbreviation for Christ that is so negatively regarded in legalistic Christianity.

So here’s the point: There’s a long and sacred history of the use of X to symbolize the name of Christ, and from its origin, it has meant no disrespect. Ironically, history tells us that many of the same individuals who religiously and ignorantly view the X a sellout of the real reason for Christmas will do little individually to proclaim what the story of Christmas is all about, that Jesus came to bring hope to the starving animistic tribe in Africa and the hurting businessman who lives across the street.

Here are a few X-mas ideas for you:

• Invite a friend to one of our Christmas eve services.
• Buy less presents this year and choose to use that money to serve on mission among the nations.
• Spend time this holiday season praying for the billion people around the world who’ve never heard the Christmas story.
• Talk together as a family about whom you can share the story of the hope Christ brings. Then, well, share it.

I’d love to hear your ideas as well.

For more about the X, click here.

In July, my wife and I spent 10 days in Guinea, West Aftrica with a team from LifePoint.

Fall is one of two times each year  that are very strategic in terms of connecting people to church. We call those re-engagement periods. You know, those times when people are already naturally thinking about new things and re-establishing old habits and patterns. So we leverage that time with a campaign designed to re-engage our faith family, plug people into serving on campus, and start new small groups. This year’s campaign, Radical, was an amazing success! Over 800 people made commitments to live a life of Radical commitment to Christ by serving in a context other than their own, reading through the Bible next year, praying daily for the nations, and giving generously.

At Stewarts Creek, the campus I lead, the fall has been a great time of connection and growth.

• Within the past week I’ve sent emails to 8 families who attended worship after being invited by a friend. Awesome!
• Today I had conversations with 5 people who’ve committed their lives to Christ and are interested in following with baptism. Awesome!
• Last week, I followed up with 60 families who attended our Fall Festival. (Most of them were invited by friends.) Awesome!
• Approximately have of those who attended worship last Sunday were not there when we launched about a year ago.

It’s been a great season of growth and excitement. We continue to ride the wave of momentum. But…..the best is yet to come!

Summer has officially set in at LifePoint Church. You can feel it in the air. Many of our faith family are traveling, visiting relatives, or at the lake. Though growth has slowed for the summer (as it always does in a young church like ours), the excitement and passion for our mission remains as strong as ever. Here are a few highlights from yesterday.

• We celebrated baptism of Maegan, one of our middle school students who was baptized by her dad, Bryan. What an amazing testimony of not only a young lady who wants to be a world changer as she follows Christ, but also, of a mom and dad who are committed to pointing their kids to a Christ-centered life.

• Someone who attended Servology shared with Brad Bynum that the two weeks her family attended Servology were, in her words, “very eye-opening.” She realized that though they have lived in their home for several years, they did not know their neighbors. Now, every day, as she drives home, she looks intentionally for neighbors she can meet and begin to influence.
• Yesterday was an epic day in the life of LifePoint Church, as we united as 2 campuses to commission the launch team for our third. Our Bangkok Campus Pastor, Bret Cox departs today. The rest of the team will soon follow. Please pray for our Bangkok team as we send them to be the church where there is no church.

• One of our Worship Arts volunteers and his wife (They’re two of our few senior adults at SCC.) approached me after the 11:00 service yesterday to simply ask, “What else can we do to live out the mission- to point people to a Christ-centered life?” What an amazing question! I’m more and more amazed by Lifers who are willing to give their lives away with reckless abandon…..and by the way, later this week, I’ll post 5 Ways to Live the Mission this Summer.
• I met several families of guests who were invited by friends and had an amazing experience. Keep up the good work, Lifers!

I’d love to hear your stories of life change from the week. What is God doing in and through you or your small group?

Just prior to entering the Promised Land God told Moses, “But commission Joshua and ENCOURAGE  and strengthen him for he will lead this people across and will cause them to inherit the land.” (Deuteronomy 3:28)  In a very critical moment in this young guy’s life God reminded Moses to encourage him.  The Hebrew word for encourage is chazaq which means, “to make strong or firm”. Encouragement has power.  Here are 7 things encouragement will do for its recipients:

1. It helps them see the work God is doing in or through their life
2. It motivates them to continual improvement.
3. It enhances their confidence and courage.
4. It expands their vision.  When they know the progress they’ve made has been recognized and appreciated it causes them to dream bigger.
5. It validates their giftedness.  Most people struggle with clarity in understanding the area of their giftedness.  A specific word of encouragement can help bring needed confirmation.
6. It creates relational trust. A team with no trust will crumble.
7. It teaches them to encourage others.

Within a team, family, small group, or business, and/or church, when encouragement becomes viral, the culture that is created is powerfully contagious. So, be intentional this week to encourage those you lead, parent, do life with, or simply pass in the hall.

Content adapted from here.

• I had a conversation with a dad who led his son to Christ and will baptize him on mother’s day. He was passionate about leading His family spiritually. His son wants to invite his whole baseball team to see him be baptized.

• Someone who’s new to Stewarts Creek told me that Micah Huebner and the guys are, “by far the best church band (he’s) ever heard.” They do an amazing job leading us into the presence of God every week.

• 2 new families completed Discover LifePoint and became members. I was reminded again how joining the LifePoint family is much more than “membership”. It’s partnering in our mission to point people to a Christ-Centered Life. Every member is expected to do his part.

• Someone told me she loved LifePoint because we don’t use churchy jargon that no one understands outside a stagnant church subculture. We use authentic and understandable language that everyone- Christ follower or not- understands. That culture is contagious.

• Several parents registered for The Parent Adventure with LifePoint Marriages Director, Rodney Wilson and Selma beginning next Sunday at 11:00. There’s still space for you.  If you’re interested, e-mail Charity.Smith@lifepointchurch.org.

• In June, Vanessa and I along with several other Stewarts Creekers will join the Schroeders, our missionaries in Kankan, Guinea, West Africa to do ministry there for a week. I had someone else tell me yesterday she will be going.  Its exciting to live God’s heart for the nations.

• There is lots of excitement about our new opportunities for prayer among both LifePoint campuses. Visit LifePointChurch.org/prayer to find out more.

• I had a meeting last week with a team of volunteers who are planning the first annual Stewarts Creek Campus family picnic. It will be Saturday, May 22nd at the Stewarts Creek Campus. More details coming soon!

If you saw God do something amazing in any of our on-campus environments or in your small group, I’d love to hear about it. Please comment.

• We dove into a new series called Authority Issues. Over the next several weeks we’ll be diving into Luke 4-5 and talking about the freedom, fulfillment, and protection that comes from living under God’s authority structure.
• Several LifePointers asked how they could plug into serving. They’ll all be test driving a ministry area this Sunday.
• I had an amazing conversation with a woman in her 50′s who grew up in a very traditional church. When she came to LifePoint, she was concerned that her flip flops would be out of place. She quickly found that we are truly are a come-as-you-are church. Her key quote was, “This is a special place.”

• LifePoint Senior Pastor, Pat Hood, visited the Stewarts Creek Campus. Aside from that cute little statement about me teaching on Authority because Vanessa(my wife) wasn’t there, it was great to have him! He was stoked about the energy and passion there.
• I met several new familes who were first time guests. I’m so thrilled that our folks have are living the mission of LifePoint, “Pointing People to a Christ Centered Life.” Stewarts Creekers are Investing 2 Invite!
• I spoke with a Stewarts Creeker who brought some friends on Palm Sunday. She indicated that her friends loved it and were blown away by the friendliness they experienced.

To God be the glory for what He’s doing at the LifePoint Church Stewarts Creek Campus! Keep on keeping on. The best is yet to come! If you have a story of life change, I’d love to hear it…..Comment below or email me at kris.dolberry@lifepointchurch.org

Looking for a way to invest in your neighbood? Easter is a great time to do it. This is an easy opportunity to get to know your neighbors and have a fun-safe event for the kids. A neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt will only take a small amount of time to carry out. Here are 5 quick steps to make it happen in your neighborhood.

Step 1: Decide how big (or small) you want your hunt to be. You could have multiple hunts, grill burgers, even have your HOA or a couple of families pitch in for an inflatable bounce house. Your hunt could be as large or small as you wish. Mine are normally simply a”hunt” no burgers, bounce houses or games- just a hunt.

Step 2: Invite some neighbors to be part of the core group that will help you host the hunt.  Get together with these people and decide on who can bring coffee, get prizes, set up tables. You may choose to have the kids bring eggs, or you and the core team pitch in to buy some plastic ones.

Step 3: you and the core team invite your neighbors. Another great idea if you have time is to design a flyer (or email if you have a directory of your neighborhood), copy, and have core team distribute to homes.

Step 4: Core team will meet on Friday night to stuff eggs.  Saturday morning, hide eggs, set up prize table (usually 5 prizes -stuffed animals, coloring books, crayons, chocolate bunny, etc.), rope off division areas, (we use wooden stakes and caution tape), and keep kids out of hiding areas until 10 minutes after start time.  Some of the core team will manage the hunt while others work the crowd.  Many parents will stand around, drink coffee and introduce themselves to their neighbors while the kids hunt eggs.  Be sure to be very intentional meeting others, listening for stories and discerning next steps in the relationships with neighbors. Some great next steps would be an invitation to dinner with your family or your small group. You may even be able to start a neighborhood small group or invite some families to worship or to your existing small group.

Step 5: You’re not going to want to miss the opportunity to build off of this momentum with a second event. Encourage everyone to attend the next event (such as a neighborhood camp-out, July 4th party, etc. Gather names of people who would like to help with next event and then clean up

Bonus: You might also choose to do an egg toss with some older kids and parents. The egg toss consists of real eggs and teams of two players of any age old enough to catch and throw.  The two players line up across from each other approximately five feet.  One has an egg that he/she tosses underhand to the other player.  The receiving player must catch the egg without it breaking.  Take two steps back and repeat toss in the opposite direction.  Be sure to not catch the egg over your head or in front of your face or a messing cleanup will be the result.  The team who can toss and catch the egg without breaking it is the winner.  Kids (and some parents) will continue to play this until all the eggs are broken.  It will probably take two dozen eggs for this game.

I ran across this post by strategic thinker and innovator, Mac Lake. It has great value in explaining why we do what we do at LifePoint Church and, maybe more specifically, why we don’t do what we don’t do. Take a look…

Why is it that simplicity is so difficult?  As leaders we recognize the wisdom of keeping things simple, yet we seem inexplicably drawn to complexity.

When I planted a church in 1997 my mantra was “Do less and do it better.” When pressed to start Sunday  School, Wednesday night services or special ministries I answered, “No, we’re going to do less and do it better.”   For three years I held true to that principle until we moved out of a weekly set up and tear down facility into our own building.  Suddenly we went from doing a few things well, to starting a multitude of new ministries, programs and events that served to reduce our effectiveness .  Quantity won out over quality and it hurt us.

Why did it happen?  Lots of reasons…the pressure to please people, neglecting our predetermined strategy, getting caught up in our success and loss of focus, just to name a few.  It’s easy to build a complex church, ministry or life, all you have to do is add more. But simplicity is the product of intentionality and discipline.  And it’s this focused simplicity that allows us to be more effective in what we do.

Are you longing for excellence?  Maybe your next step isn’t improving what you have, but eliminating those things that aren’t absolutely essential. I’d love to hear you comments.

• Because God didn’t create us to do life alone.
• Because authentic life change happens best in the context of authentic Biblical community.
• Because we know that church attendance without participation in a small group leads to stagnation, frustration, and isolation.

In this video, Dr. John Piper explains why.

If you’d like to find out more about how to connect with a small group at the Stewarts Creek Campus, visit a GroupLink booth in the foyer this Sunday, or simply email Brad Bynum, our Small Groups Coordinator.

I’d love to hear your own stories of Biblical Community. How have you become more Christ-centered through participating in a small group?

If you’ve been tuned to news reports the past couple of days you know that the massive earthquake that hit the small country of Haiti will be regarded as one of the world’s worst natural disasters ever. The death toll is projected to reach close to a half million.

Many LifePointers have asked, “How can I help?” That’s a great question! Since we do not currently have a missionary team on the ground there, our strategy is to work directly with organizations we know and trust who have a presence there.

Click HERE to find out more about how to help out!