April 2004 letter to small group leaders
from Bill Christensen, Small Groups Pastor


Dear Small Group Leaders,

Over the past few months, there appears to be an increase in the work of the Holy Spirit within the church. There has been a significant upsurge in the number of people coming to Christ in ways that indicate the sovereign work of God. There have been a number of verified healings lately as people pray for one another in services, small groups, conferences, and outside the church walls. Perhaps you have sensed yourself an increased expectation and desire for more of our Lord. These are all signs of the Kingdom! Along with the advances many among us in the church report an increase in resistance from our enemy, the devil, who hates seeing God’s rule extended.

We cannot create any wave of the Spirit. Only God can. But we can certainly decide whether or not to ride the wave if it comes. Rich and the senior pastoral team believe that now is a time to lean into what the Lord is doing and ride the wave. To this end, there are several approaches we will take. Rich will begin a 9-week series the week after Easter called Living an Empowered Life. Over the same period we will complement the series with other opportunities to learn and engage in the Holy Spirit, Healing, Hearing God and Spiritual Warfare. There will be seminars and conferences on each of these subjects. In addition -and here is where you come in- we are asking all our small groups to work through a series of 7 Bible studies that Beth Crawford has prepared for us. The Bible study series is entitled the same as Rich’s series, Living an Empowered Life. Each week the study will correlate with the sermon Rich has preached to the congregation. We believe the Lord wants us to grow together in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. If you are doing something else right now, please set that aside and lead out in this ministry endeavor. The tentative schedule for Rich’s sermon topics and church seminars (in italics) are listed for your planning purposes.

The Bible study booklet will be available for all leaders to pick up after the services beginning April 3rd and 4th. Please come by the card wall area where you can pick one up on the table located beside the Joshua House card case. The series will begin the weekend after Easter, so the booklet should be picked up no later than the weekend of April 17th & 18th. This series will also be posted on our website. You can click small groups; resources.

Also, please reserve May 21st this year for our annual May Leadership Dessert, 7:00 -9:00 pm. We will take this time to have Rich share with the leaders of the church his vision for the upcoming year. Please plan to attend this dessert.

Thank you for your faithful pastoral shepherding of all the precious people God has given us to care for. I pray the Lord will visit your groups during this series and do a work that will refresh and empower you all to enter into the ministry of Jesus in both word and deed.

Your brother in Christ,
Bill

Living an Empowered Life
Holy Spirit Series
Tentative Schedule

• April 18
  The Promise of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1) -
  The Jesus Model of Ministry
• April 25
  The Gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2)
  Holy Spirit Weekend, 4/30-5/1,
  Craig Heselton teaching
• May 1-2
  The Kingdom of God - Guest Speaker
• May 8-9
  Healing of a Beggar (Acts 3)
  LDC-Who is the Holy Spirit, 5/11,
  Sue Burkett teaching
• May 15-16
  Healing of Dorcas (Acts 9)
  LDC - Healing Prayer Ministry, 5/20 & 5/21,
  John Cook and Mike Burkett teaching
• May 22-23
  Listening to God (Acts 8 ) - Divine Appointments
• May 29-30
  Listening to God (Acts 9, 13:1-4, 16:6-10)
  Listening to God through Prophecy Seminar, 6/3-4,
  Craig Heselton teaching
• June 5-6
  Spiritual Warfare (Acts 13:4-12; 16:16-40)
• June 12-13
  Spiritual Warfare (Acts 19:13-20)
  Spiritual Warfare Seminar, 6/18-19 or 6/17-18
  Steve Robbins teaching

Seminars in Italics
LDC=Life of Disciple Classes