More local music...

After a wildly popular local debut at Huber's last month, Say it With a Smile (Jaron and Katherine's band) will be playing again tonight! They are playing a house party (at their own house!!!)

Music starts at 7pm.

If you were one of the crowd who came out to watch them at Huber's, you know this is gonna rock. In addition to all your favorite Say it with a Smile tunes, you'll also get the chance to hear some music from another visiting musician.

Giving it up...

So Lent starts today. I've never been a big fan of giving things up for Lent. (Also never really got into making new year's resolutions). Most years I just decide to give up giving anything up.

But this year, I'm giving it a shot. I'm giving up chocolate and candy. (I hesitate to tell ya'll because I can just imagine a dozen boxes of chocolate showing up at the office tomorrow).

Here's the thing though: the reason for giving something up for Lent is to help us connect with Jesus. The 40 days are Lent are meant to be a time that reminds us of what Jesus gave up for us. And he gave up everything. So I guess if we really get Lent, it's not about giving something up. Its about GETTING something. Its about a getting a deeper connected with Christ.

So...two questions:
1. What are you giving up?
2. How are you "getting" Jesus more?

which way do you swim?

Even a dead thing can go with the stream.
But only a living thing can go against it.

G.K.Chesterton


What does this quote say to you?

To Hiroshima with love...

Tim and Debra Larson are leading one of our new sermon based small groups.
Each of our small groups are trying to identify a way to get involved together in serving our community.

The Larson's group came up with a fantastic idea. They decided to try to make a difference by offering their support to Barkstall School, where the Launch meets. The good folks at Barstall took them up on their offer and asked them to help string together a thousand peace cranes which had been folded by the students of Barkstall school. The strings of cranes are being sent to Hiroshima, Japan.

Below is a picture of the finished product!

Click here if you want to know more about the project the Larson's small group is helping with:
Hiroshima Cranes

Sarah's video interview...

You can hear Sarah's interview if you click on the sermon mp3 for last Sunday on the right side bar. We didn't record the video, but you can listen in. It's about 10 minutes into the sermon.

A skype load of awesomeness

In case you missed it on Sunday, we did a live video interview with Sarah (Wackerlin) Spiker during the sermon. Sarah shared a little bit of her incredibly relevant personal story about giving her life to Jesus just a few years ago. After growing up very active in our church, working here with the youth group, and even going to seminary, Sarah finally hit a point of realizing that even though she believed all the right things about Jesus, she remained Lord of her own life. So Sarah gave her life to Jesus. Her whole life.

In the sermon we talked about the difference between believing the right things ABOUT Jesus and giving your life TO Jesus. What a profound difference. To call Jesus our Lord is to acknowledge that our lives are not our own; they are God's. It is to say that even though I know quite clearly what I want, Jesus knows completely what I really need.

In many ways, the struggle to really and truly give our lives away to God is the ongoing task of discipleship. We don't ever learn for learning sake. We learn in order to better know ourselves, better know God, and better yield ourselves to God.

And that is especially hard for us independent, hard working, pull yourself up by your own boot straps, kind of people. Giving up control is never easy.

But it gets easier the more we keep our eyes on Jesus.

I'd love to hear any stories or reflections on how God is challenging you in the process of giving your life to him.

A shift in focus

For sometime now, this blog has been sort of waffling between (on the one hand) things that particularly relate to our life together as a community of faith at the Launch and (on the other hand) broader reflections on life, culture, entertainment, etc.

It has become apparent that the Launch community would benefit from a blog with a more specific focus regarding our life together. At the same time, its also clear that I need an alternate outlet for me rambling thoughts about life in general.

So from here on, this blog will be the place where we I'll really focus on church stuff. You'll see posts on our vision, our goals, our strategies. Sermons will continue to be posted here. Links and such will focus on our church partnerships. Small Group stuff will soon be available on here. Things like that.

And I'll be creating a different blog to contain some of my larger thinking and conversation regarding all the other stuff I find myself talking about.

Hope that will help you know if you want to keep reading or not!!!