Scheduling Community

Greetings current and future Community Group Leaders at Longleaf Church! Lindsey and I have transitioned our old Longleaf Blog to one designed to encourage and equip you! Help us by reading the posts and sharing via the comments section! My new group is certainly off to a great start this fall and I hope that yours is as well.

One thing I want to make certain I do is to meet 1 to 1 with each CG leader (Individual and Couple) over lunch, coffee or dinner this fall. My schedule works well for lunch on Wednesdays or Fridays, dinner on Thursdays or coffee just about any morning. Please email me a good time to meet with you and we'll set that up!

I have spoken to a few leaders lately about the challenge of working through scheduling conflicts and finding the right rhythm for your group in terms of a meeting plan. Here are a few tips:

• If you're having trouble developing a consistent schedule, consider meeting 2 or 3 times per month rather than each week. Developing your meeting schedule has a lot to do with the life stage of your group, but 2-3 times per month seems to be a good plan for most groups. It's good to have calendar margin for socials or to move a meeting to an off week when holidays and events come up.

• Schedule out at least two months.

• Ask one group member to manage your schedule. This involves email communication before each meeting about location and food/dessert plans. The CG scheduler will identify future date conflicts, such the week of Thanksgiving, and make adjustments. He or she will give a brief report at the end of each gathering.

• Take natural breaks. In my view, it's important for a CG to take at least 8 weeks off during the Summer and 2 weeks at the end of the year. These natural breaks mirror the pace of our lives and allows to fully retreat with family and enter a new season with more energy.

These are just a few thoughts. We realize that the scheduling component is sometimes difficult and we appreciate the effort that each of one of you demonstrates around the tactics and the spiritual nurturing that goes along with leading a Community Group. Does anyone have other thoughts or ideas on meeting plans?

Difference Makers

A shared passion for our mission and vision has fueled some remarkably generous giving towards our pre-launch funding goals at Longleaf Church. I'm excited to report that we were 95% to goal with our June giving! Average monthly giving at Longleaf Church has nearly doubled during the first half of 2010! Wow! Thanks for your amazing response and continued intentional giving!  In July we'll focus on another of our BIG 4 THINGS, Strategic Service....

The BIG 4 THINGS (giving, serving, connecting and inviting) represent participation in our mission and vision. I love how the people around Longleaf Church raise their hands to volunteer.  There's a contagious spirit of service that has surrounded our growing community of people since we first began our church planting journey. In the coming weeks as we prepare to launch our church, we will asking everyone to step-up or continue to Serve Strategically.  On Sunday, July 11 we'll continue the Simply Irresistible series with a message from Andy about this core value that we call Strategic Service.   

Our growing and contagious culture has a lot to do with our leaders in Family Ministry, Group Life and Service Programming that lead by serving well.  I'm so thankful for these tremendous leaders and all of the great volunteers around Longleaf Church. These people are Difference Makers.  Serving is a catalyst that grows our faith and while serving together we develop a deep sense of community and purpose.  Stay tuned for Strategic Service opportunities at Longleaf as we celebrate our journey and prepare for an exciting new chapter. See you at Longleaf LIVE on Sunday, July 11!          

Simply Irresistible Summer

Longleaf LIVE was awesome Sunday night! The momentum around our church planting journey continues to build... Longleaf LIVE is a series of preview environments running this summer that anchors our church planting movement AND offers visitors some tangible vision for our church. The recent message at Longleaf LIVE was about our core value of Authentic Community.  It's so encouraging to be part of an Authentic Community of people. Authentic Community flows best through Community Groups (Small Groups for Adults) at Longleaf Church.  This summer, we'll not only gather for Longleaf LIVE on 2nd Sundays, we'll gather for a conversational, coffee and dessert environment called Runway on 4th Sundays.  Join us for the next Runway on Sunday, June 27 at 6PM.  We'll hear stories of accountability, belonging and care that are happening within Community Groups at Longleaf AND we'll talk about steps for people to connect with a Community Group.  

There's also some socials going on around Longleaf Church this summer, including a Ladies Brunch on Saturday, June 26.  For details on the brunch, check our facebook page or email Lauren.  

Summer Fun!

The heat is on in Middle Georgia even though it's not even officially Summer.  Everyone is primed and ready for the most relaxed season of the year, Summertime.  We take vacations, hang out by the pool, and do a lot of grilling out in the Summertime.  There's definitely a lot of excitement among the kid's as they celebrate the end of the school year and the beginning of this fun time of the year.  The community of people planting Longleaf Church together are a fun bunch, so I'm sure that some great Community Group Socials are on the horizon!  My Community Group has already had one pool party.  Having fun together is certainly a big part of doing life together.  

In praying and planning for the full launch of Longleaf Church this September, we want to create a summer schedule that sustains our momentum yet also creates a healthy break for our volunteers. We want to uncork a lot of energy this September! We also want to maintain a consistent schedule that's not too difficult for people to track. With all of this in mind, here's the plan:

• Longleaf LIVE will continue to run the 2nd Sundays of June, July and August at 6PM. Those dates are June 13th, July 11th and August 8th.

• Runway will replace the 4th Sunday Longleaf LIVE Services.  Runway will run on 4th Sundays at 6PM. Those dates are June 27th, July 25th and August 27th. Runway is a round-table, conversational environment that's about building community, and developing the "4 Things" that are paving our launch runway. There will be childcare and a themed movie night for kids, but no Children's Programming.  Runway will culminate with an invest and invite celebration on August 27th!    

• Series Group will meet monthly this summer. Those dates are June 6th, July 18th and August 15th. The Series Group will continue to serve as a step towards connecting to a Community Group (Adult Small Group).

Please shoot as an email with any questions.  We look forward to a great summer as our community continues to grow and our momentum builds towards launch!  The Simple series was a great message to send us into the summer season with.  I hope that it was encouraging for our church planting community to consider how our journey of planting Longleaf is about following, believing and obeying Jesus. Thanks for your faith and courage to plant a church that's focused on leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

This Weekend!

Here's what's happening this weekend around Longleaf Church! A group of Longleaf folks are taking a Road Trip to Athens Church, a pioneering church in the North Point Strategic Partnership Community.  Our Series Group will also meet this weekend.  Click the images below for details...

Series Group
May 16th @ 6PM

Road Trip

May 16 @ 8:30AM

Guest Post

From Sonny Seneker.....

  

I was reading my devotionals this morning and the following are some thoughts that popped in my head:

 Plans for tomorrow

"You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." - James 4:14b

We don't know what tomorrow will bring nor do we know if we will be on this earth in the next second. All we have control of is our actions and reactions in this very moment. Are we living a Godly life or are we living a secular life? If God spoke to you and said, “You will die in 3 hours”, how would you spend your remaining time on earth? How many of your daily activities would all of a sudden seem meaningless?

Are we fulfilling every purpose God has for us on earth?

"For David...served the purpose of God in his own generation" (Acts 13:36 NASB)

God has a purpose for each of us. Are we seeking his purpose or are we chasing after worldly things? Think about your activities from the past week; think about what you are planning on doing today. Are we busy seeking worldly things and human acceptance separate from God or are we seeking His wisdom and guidance for our life here on earth?

Longleaf Church

After attending our small group last night and reading this morning, I have been thinking about how God has brought people together to create Longleaf.  It has become very clear to me that Longleaf is not just another church; it is intentionally structured to avoid the trap of tradition so that tradition does not become your religion. I believe each of us has been called by God to participate in building this church and in doing so we need to stay focused on Him and His will for us. Also, we need to be constantly reminded that we are building Longleaf not as a church for us to attend, but a church that will attract people who would otherwise not go to church. I encourage each of you to seek God’s special purpose for you in building Longleaf.

Don’t delay….ask Him now for who knows what the next moment in your life will bring.  

 

Sonny Seneker

Jet Blast

This past Sunday was a monumental moment in the life of Longleaf Church. It was great to pause and reflect on how far we've come and encouraging to see our community of people rally around our final pre-launch goal, a $20k regular monthly giving pattern. Since we began our church planting journey, we envisioned a process that's analogous to paving a runway before launching an airplane.

Runway dimensions vary from as small as 804 ft long in smaller general aviation airports, to 18,045 ft long and 262 ft wide at large international airports built to accommodate the largest jets. Whatever the runway dimensions, the distances are carefully calculated and constructed accordingly. If you have flown, you have experienced the sudden acceleration that occurs when an airplane is positioned on the runway and ready for take-off. In Church Planting, the calculations aren't exactly mathematical because Planting a church is about faith. However, God calls us to prepare and work hard in everything we do, especially the mobilization and expansion of His church....

To see God continue to build and establish Longleaf Church is so much fun. That's right, fun. Being part of the Longleaf Church movement takes sacrifice, faith and perseverance, but is also a lot of fun. God is faithful and he grants power and purpose to the church. His story of faithfulness is unfolding right now at Longleaf Church.

There is an exciting day on the horizon for our church. It's coming. Our church will launch with power and purpose. Jet blast is the phenomenon of rapid air movement produced by the jet engines of aircraft, particularly on or before takeoff. Get ready to feel a Jet Blast around Longleaf Church in a few months. As always, thanks for the part that you're playing to plant our church. If you haven't already, I hope that you'll take a moment to fill our our RUNWAY form.

Happening NOW

There are lots of great things happening around Longleaf Church this month! Check out our upcoming events and environments by clicking on the images below. Our Runway event will take the place of the normally scheduled Longleaf Live on April 25.

Series Group
1st and 3rd Sundays starting April 18

Road Trip

Sunday, April 18

The Runway Event

Sunday, April 25

Send us an EMAIL with any questions.

Energy

One of the spiritual catalysts that we seek to understand and leverage around Longleaf Church is called Pivotal Circumstances. While our lives are always moving in one direction or another, inevitably we will encounter defining seasons of life when we must respond to challenges or difficult circumstances. The sum total of our wisdom, our faith and our passion is brought to bear in the midst of Pivotal Circumstances. When we compile these three elements of spiritual fortitude and respond to life's challenges, the result is directed ENERGY. ENERGY derived from trusting God. The more daring our hopes and dreams are, the greater our ENERGY (faith, wisdom and passion) must be.

The prophecy, the life, the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important message in the world. Just before Jesus was betrayed, arrested and crucified, He prayed this prayer to The Father; "Father if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done" (Luke 22:42). The passion and the perseverance of Jesus rescued us all. Jesus subsequently placed the church (God's people) at the epicenter of a great struggle. We are called according to purpose to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. BTW, don't miss our Good Friday Service this Friday night!

In 2010, the subtle presentation of our struggle is complacency. When we take a complacent approach to church and treat it like a social club that simply runs programs for our families, we are really missing the mark. Our passion at Longleaf Church is to be defined by authentic community, life change and relevant environments that lead people into growing relationships with Jesus Christ. A church full of ENERGY! God has granted us ENERGY and we are preparing to fully launch our church!

The pre-launch chapter of Longleaf Church is winding down as we focus on our final pre-launch hurdle. The response to the pre-launch financial goals at Longleaf has been truly amazing. The final hurdle is for us to rally around our pre-launch goal of $20,000 per month in average monthly giving. Our current giving pattern is $14,000, so we are 70% to goal! It would be easy for us to skip ahead and ignore this final piece but we want to launch a church that's going to reach this generation, and the next. To do that, we need to reach this $20,000 mark. Thanks for your response. Thanks for your ENERGY. Thanks for your part in the Longleaf Church Community.

Renewed

You've got to love weddings. I loved the perspective that I had on one this weekend. I had the privilege of performing a wedding for a young couple this weekend, our friends Amanda and Kellen. Weddings are such exciting and purposeful events. Everyone's smiling at weddings, or even shedding tears of joy. People gather at weddings to celebrate the union of a friend or a loved one. Weddings instill hope for the future and they represent a celebration of family legacy. Family members of the Bride and the Groom are filled with pride as they recount the lifetime investments that they have made into the lives of the Bride or the Groom. While we celebrate the Bride and the Groom, marriage ceremonies are also a great time of reflection for everyone attending. The ceremony reminds us that marriage is a reflection of an even more significant relationship, that of Christ and His church, and for married couples the ceremony renews the vows our own marriages.

Renewal is a pivotal process for everyone. Renewal speaks to a process by which we recalibrate our focus and our priorities. We pause intentionally to remember our values and to put first things first. Life can quickly create a gravitational pull that makes our lives reactive and out of order. Unintentionally, we married people can make incremental sacrifices to our marriage relationships in favor of trying to manage all of the other relationships and related responsibilities in our lives. If we let it happen, the "urgent" will overtake the important every time. There is a limit to our mental and emotional margin. We can't expend all of our energy on other people and neglect the relationship that's second only to a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. I'm certain that I'm going to disappoint people in this life by not granting them all the time and energy that they want from me. I'm also certain that I don't ever want those disappointed people to be my wife or my children. Our time is limited so in turn the number of meaningful relationships we can have is also limited. We must make proactive, wise choices with our time or slippage will occur in our most important relationships.

As I reflect on Kellen and Amanda's wedding, I am renewing my mind around the priorities of this life. For believers, a central truth to this life is to love God and love people. This begins and ends at home. My energy and passion is also renewed for the vision and direction of Longleaf Church. In particular, I have renewed conviction about one of our guiding principles; our church will be mission driven and NOT program driven. Simply put, we want to focus on cultural relevance, small groups and empowering families. By taking a less is more approach to church programs, we challenge our people to spend more time investing in their families, doing life together with fellow believers and living out their faith within our communities.

As Amy and I spent time with Amanda and Kellen in the weeks leading up to their wedding, we charged them to take one key step after they tied the knot. That key step is to join a small group at Longleaf Church. Yep, that's how significant we think it is for people to "do life together" in small groups. When I've conversations with men and women describing broken marriages, it always occurs to me that the accountability, belonging and care of a small group could have guarded the healthy direction of their marriages. The healthy direction and the hope exists on a wedding day. As we renew our minds around God's truth this week, let's all remember the hope and promise of a wedding day....

Choosing Your Line

It's not hard to understand that looking forward is important if we charge down a mountain on a bicycle. There are obstacles and pitfalls along mountain trails that could cause us to crash. The most notable obstacles are rocks and trees. In mountain biking, choosing your line, refers to a bikers attentiveness to the trail ahead as he mentally plots a course to stay on the trail and navigate around obstacles. It also refers to the process a person takes in designing a mountain biking trail to flow with the features of the mountain yet avoid the obstacles. Looking forward to evaluate the paths we are on in the important arenas of life requires just as much attentiveness and prudence, but sometimes we just don't evaluate and plan our paths as we should.

• The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it. (Proverbs 27:12)

In part one of Destinations,we were introduced to the principle of the path; direction, not intention, determines destination. In part two, we discussed how looking forward is the answer towards staying the course and directing our lives to the place we want to be relationally, financially, spiritually, etc. Proverbs 27:12 teaches us that to stay on course, we can't ignore the warning signs. It takes courage to take the first steps to right our course, but relief will follow. One of the best ways to maintain personal guard rails in our lives is to connect ourselves to a small group. Another is to seek input from the people around you that care and have the courage to encourage you.

We can't wait for the next Longleaf LIVE and Part 3 of Destinations on March 14. We're excited about our new venue and the direction of our church! We are certainly applying the principle of the path as we plot the course of Longleaf Church. See you on March 14!

Destinations

The Destinations message series is one of the most penetrating and relevant that you'll ever hear. The Principle of The Path that Andy introduces in Part 1 of this series is an intuitive truth. Direction, NOT intention, determines destination. We know this. We just struggle to apply it sometimes. There is often a disconnect between where we want to end up and the path we choose. We all need to course correct sometimes and persevere through circumstances to get where we want to be.

Because grace and truth can set us free, we can focus on course correcting today rather than allowing the the past to hold us captive. Here are two important questions to process:

1. If you continue on your current course, where will you end up?
2. Has anyone tried to warn you lately? Your conscience? Do you know anyone who has walked your path and ended up where you want to be relationally?

Everyone around Longleaf Church that knows me well will not be surprised to hear me say that connecting yourself to a Community Group is one of the best ways to create guard rails in your life that will help you (and me) stay the course. If you're not connected, contact us about getting connected. Over the next couple of weeks, let's ask ourselves the two questions above, read through Proverbs 7:6-27 and process The Principle of The Path in our lives.

I can't wait to see everyone on 2/28! Stay tuned for details...

You Know It...

You Know It...

• Bible Passage - James 1:1-18
• Principle - Perseverance
  
• Bottom Line - Perseverance will make you wiser.
  

My Small Group recently started a discussion of The Book of James. Our discussion was super relevant to everyone, so I wanted to share it.

James is a book of the New Testament and most scholars agree that it was written by the earthly brother of Jesus by the same name. James was a leader in the early church. The letter of James is addressed to "The 12 Tribes" or the early Jewish Christians. However, it's profoundly applicable to all of us.

In the first few verses, James introduces the notion that trials of many kinds test our faith and produce perseverance (James 1:2-3). He reminds his readers that they know this to be true. Persecution was a part of life for the early church. Whether one believes in the gospel of Jesus or not, he knows he will face trials of many kinds. James further states that these trials will come internally as well (James 1:14). We call these internal trials temptation. As we individually deal with our inevitable trials and temptations, James reminds us that our response should be to seek wisdom from God AND have the faith to know that He will provide it.

Sometimes, it's tough to persevere and develop our patience. It seems that the internal and external challenges of life come at us in waves. The thing to remember is that all good things come from God and He will provide unique insight and revelation to us in the midst of difficulties if we will seek it in earnest.

I pray that you will have a a great week and that each one of us will grow in patience and wisdom.

empty chair

It's amazing how responsive people have been with the mission and vision of Longleaf Church. It's fun to watch our community grow and see people engage the 4 Things that allow us to become Longleaf Church together:

• give
• serve
• connect
• invite

Check out the Next Steps section of our website to review these 4 Things that get people involved in becoming Longleaf Church. As one might imagine, the giving piece plays a vital role during the church planting process that we are currently in. To learn more about how you can help fund the mission and vision of Longleaf Church, please go to our Empty Chair Page.

Thanks! We hope you'll join us for the next Longleaf LIVE on February 14.

Shoebox Action Plan! Help Haiti!

Looking for an opportunity to reach out and offer some hope to the Haitian people? Here you go. Let's love our neighbors and take action now! Longleaf Church is partnering with a relief effort based in Atlanta. Its called shoebox4haiti. We will assemble and ship shoeboxes filled with critical first aid and sustenance items. The turn around is fast but the needs are urgent. Here's the plan:

1. Review the list of items below with your family and pack your shoeboxes accordingly.
2. Deliver your shoeboxes to the East Entrance of the Houston Healthcare Pavilion this Saturday (TOMORROW) anytime 12PM - 2PM. The Pavilion is located at 233 N Houston Rd just off of Watson Blvd in Warner Robins (See photo below). Rain is in the forecast but the Pavilion has a portico that will work great.

Shoebox Items

First Aid Supplies
Water Purifying Tablets
Bandages
Band Aids
Gauze
Tylenol, Advil and Bayer
Childrens Tylenol
Imodium, Pepto Bismal, Tums
Hand sanitizer
Alcohol swabs/pads
Peroxide
Masks
Disposable gloves
Eye drops
Sinus/Allergy Medicine
Spam

FP2

We had a great start to 2010 this past Sunday evening! I really enjoyed the opportunity to share a little about how Longleaf Church got started and our dreams for the future. Several people seemed to enjoy the story around the origins of our name. You can share that video via our new website. In Part 1 of the FP2 series, we talked about how Longleaf Church is driven by our mission and our values. We talked about how the church is a First Person Plural journey of people following God together. We are the people connecting grace and purpose by faith (Ephesians 1:7-10, Ephesians 2:4-10).

The identity values of Longleaf Church are Biblical Authority and Authentic Community.

• Biblical Authority - God has spoken to us through the Bible and we recognize it as the final authority for our lives. We believe the entire Bible is the inspired Word of God and that men were moved by the Spirit of God to write the very words of Scripture. Therefore, we believe the Bible is without error.
• Authentic Community - Accountability, belonging, care and spiritual growth happen best with relationally-connected believers. We will always work to move people into small groups where we discover Authentic Community. Beyond this, Authentic Community really defines our culture as we become people who steward of the grace of Jesus Christ.

I can't wait until January 24. In part 2 of the FP2 series, we'll unpack what we do as church and how to engage in our mission. See you there!