Upcoming Week of Prayer and Fasting
Every January we as a church enter into a corporate time of prayer and fasting. This year it will be from Jan. 4-9. The primary purposes of our prayer and fasting week is to devote ourselves afresh to God at the beginning of the new year, to receive his direction for our lives in the upcoming year, and cry out for his kingdom to break forth in our area like never before.
We encourage everyone to participate in whatever way they feel the Lord is leading them. Many choose to fast from food and drink only water and juice. Others depending on health restrictions may fast from meat or sweets. It can even be something as simple as fasting entertainment. However one chooses to participate, the goal is to deprive oneself for the purpose of gaining a greater hunger for God and his fullness in our lives. It is not to manipulate God or impress others, but rather to humble ourselves and seek his face (Matt 6:17-18).
We will also be hosting Spiritual Renewal Services Wednesday-Friday Jan. 7-9 at the 424 Duss Ave. Ministry Center. These services will be a time to spend in the presence of God with passionate worship, teaching, and personal ministry time. Each night will have a special emphasis:
Wednesday- “Worship & The Presence of God”
Thursday- “Healing: Physical, Emotional, & Spiritual”
Friday- “The Baptism in the Holy Spirit: Spirit Empowered Living”
I hope you can join us for one or more of these services as well as participate in our fast. There’s no better way to start off the new year!
Join the Revolution
The point of our Christmas series this year is to intentionally join the revolution started by Jesus Christ over 2,000 years ago. This revolution is all about spreading the message of hope, salvation, and forgiveness. Practically we also wanted to do something special to help those in need this holiday season. So, for every 1st time guest to church through the month of December we are giving $10 to Food For The Poor, an organization devoted to feeding starving people all over the world, and Africa Oasis Project, which serves to fund the digging of freshwater wells in Africa.
This Sunday we will conclude our Christmas Conspiracy series with a message called “When The Future Emerges From The Past“. The basic idea is looking into how we should live today in the light of Christ’s coming and his 2nd coming. If you missed a week, you can find previous messages here on our media page.
This has been an incredible year for us as a church. People have been committing their lives to Christ every week since we’ve expanded into our new location at Ambridge Area High School! God is doing great things in Ambridge and southern Beaver County and this is just the beginning! Here’s to a new year of lives being changed for the glory of God!
Join us this Christmas Eve!
Join us this Wednesday at either 5:00 or 7:00pm for one of our traditional Christmas Eve services. They will be at our Ministry Center (424 Duss Ave. Ambridge).
Remember, for every 1st time guest in the month of December our church is giving $10 to Foor For The Poor and Africa Oasis Project. Feel free to bring someone with you.
Hope to see you there!
Poll Results
After a few weeks of polling readers on the question “How often did your parents or guardian take you to church growing up?” here are the results:
#1 Regularly, we only missed for emergencies and vacations- 50%
#2 Every time the doors were open- 39%
#3 Once or twice a year- 7%
#4 Never- 4%
#5 Roughly once a month- 0%
Spiritual Boredom
One of the most frequent criticisms leveled against Christianity is that it is just plain boring. While its not a very philosophical criticism, it is one worth addressing. When you step back and read through the pages of Scripture you find evidence of a God who is anything but boring. The heroes of the faith listed in Hebrews 11 lived lives that make our action/adventure heroes look lame.
What made their lives so exciting and adventurous? I venture to suggest that it was their willingness to obey God, take risks, and step out in faith. This teaches us that following God is not the pathway to boredom, but rather greater adventure. In fact, spiritual boredom is more likely the result of a lack of faith, a lack of obedience, and a lack of risk taking (and those are all pretty much synonymous).
In Scripture, I can’t think of a more boring existence than wandering in the desert for 40 years, yet that’s precisely what happened to the Israelites for choosing fear and disobedience instead of entering the promised land. When we resist the will of God will find that the boredom is unbearable. Yet that is not the kind of Christianity God calls us to walk in. When we choose faith and obedience we will enter into the most exciting life imaginable.
What fear is God asking you to face? What risk is he asking you to step into?
You’ll find that there’s no more exciting way to live than to say yes to God.
Reflections On The Launch
I can’t even describe how amazing this past Sunday was. I am so thankful to God for his faithfulness and I’m so grateful that he’s allowed me to be a part of the ministry of this church! After the service Sunday I received this in an email from a friend: “After everything that occurred today, I was just reminded that we are given limitless potential as a church.” I could not agree more! I believe we are seeing the beginning of an amazing move of God! Here are some of my reflections on the day in no particular order:
- It was awesome having Pastor Denny Ugoletti back to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the church. It was a privilege to have him share with us for a few moments and then pray over the church.
- The facility was, umm… well… AMAZING!!! What a beautiful school and auditorium! We are incredibly blessed to be able to meet in such a fabulous facility.
- I am so proud of our worship team and our worship leader, Matt Cooper. They sounded amazing and did a phenomenal job leading us in worship.
- I am so proud of our volunteer force! I was floored by the level of ownership and dedication that rose to a whole new level. Its amazing to see what’s possible when we put our hands and hearts together for God’s kingdom. The setup crew, the hospitality crew, and the kid’s crew rocked my face off this weekend.
- Really loved having the prayer leaders at the front to pray with people. This is a really important addition to our weekly services. Each week prayer leaders will be available to pray with people for needs, healing, and the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
- There is nothing like stepping out in faith and obedience to follow God! I’m convinced that spiritual boredom is the result of refusing to obey God and walk by faith. There’s no more exciting way to live than following God’s plan!
10 Year Anniversary Video
This is a video we put together and showed at our 10 Year Anniversary Celebration Service this past weekend at Ambridge Area High School.
Preparation and Consecration
Today is a huge day for our church. It is the day before we launch weekly services at Ambridge Area High School and the eve of our 10-year anniversary. Today we will be moving equipment, practicing setup and teardown, and praying together in the facility. I’m reminded of Joshua 3:5 which says, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.
For us, today is a day of preparation and consecration. We’ve finally come to the moment that we have been praying and planning about for months and it feels a little surreal. This has been a process of faith and obedience every step of the way.
Though we have put much effort into planning and preparation, more than anything we want the presence and power of God at work in our midst. The book of Joshua teaches us that God does his part when his people step out in faith and do their part. I have so much anticipation for what God is going to do. I am SO EXCITED!
Remember: Tomorrow morning 10:30 a.m. at AAHS (909 Duss Ave. Ambridge, PA 15003)!
Thoughts on Prayer 2
A few more thoughts:
Prayer is powerful and effective
Rational people do not do things that they feel have no value. Many people do not pray much or at all because they don’t believe it will make any difference. However James 5:16 tells us that “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” In other words, prayer matters. This was true in the life of Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Jesus, and so on. It is also true today. Effectual fervent prayer from a pure heart makes a profound difference.
Prayer transforms us
I believe it was Leonard Ravenhill who said, “A praying man will stop sinning. A sinning man will stop praying.” Prayer changes us. True prayer causes us to die to ourselves and become alive to the will of God. It is impossible to be in God’s presence and not be affected by it.
Thoughts on Prayer 1
As our week of prayer continues I wanted to post some thoughts about prayer. Here are some in no particular order:
Prayer presupposes that God is relational
God is not an impersonal spirit. He is a personal God with whom we can cultivate a relationship just as we would with a person. We get to know people by spending time with them. Prayer involves spending time with God in order to come to know him better.
Prayer is not meant to be a monologue
Being a person of prayer is not only a matter of expressing requests to God, it is also a matter of listening to the inward speaking of the Holy Spirit. People who always talk and never listen can be annoying. I believe that God has more to say to us than we can imagine. We just need to make the time to listen. This also is prayer.
Prayer connects us with the heart of God
In contrast to pagan prayer, Christian prayer does not seek to manipulate God to get what we want, but rather seeks to come into alignment with God’s heart and will.
Prayer is about heart choice, not word choice
It’s not about the eloquence or amount of words spoken. It is about the heart of the one praying. Between the Pharisee and the tax collector, it was the tax collector’s 7 word prayer that caused him to walk away justified in the sight of God rather than the eloquence of the Pharisee’s hollow prayer.
New Location This Sunday!
You will not want to miss this coming Sunday morning! It is the launch of weekly services at the new Ambridge Area High School. This is also a historic moment because Sunday is also our 10-year anniversary as a church!
Make sure you don’t go to 424 Duss Ave. this Sunday morning. We will be at 909 Duss Ave. Service starts at 10:30!
Week Of Prayer Begins
Today we begin our week of prayer in anticipation of all that God is about to do in our area. Each day we will have a special prayer meeting from 12-1pm at the church. If you can swing the free time we’d love to have you join us.
Prayer is the most important thing we can do. God has chosen prayer to be the means by which his power is released in the world. This week we will be contending in prayer for God’s glory to be manifest, souls to be saved, and lives to be transformed. Even if you can’t make the meetings, join us in spirit by taking time this week to cry out to God with us this week.
Over the next few days I’ll also do a series of blogs on prayer. Stay tuned!
Light and Heat in Preaching
This morning I decided to start re-reading the classic book, The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. This book had a great impact on me early in my spiritual journey. One section has good implications for preaching. He says,
“For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.”
This reminds me of what the Puritans used to refer to as “light and heat” in the pulpit. The Puritans placed a high value on rigorous, doctrinally accurate Bible exposition which they referred to as “light”. This was the declaration of the truth of Scripture which informs the understanding.
The Puritans also valued the passionate, heartfelt proclamation of these truths with an aim to stir and awaken holy affections in their hearers. This they referred to as “heat”.
Both of these aspects are vitally important to effective preaching and ministry. Without the heat of soul stirring passion and spiritual vitality, even the most thorough exposition of Scripture will result in lifeless, unfeeling legalism. The danger on the other hand is that passionate preaching without the light of sound Scriptural interpretation will produce flaky Christians with no anchor in the truth
May those of us who proclaim God’s Word strive for a healthy balance of light and heat in our ministries.
