The Holidays are Upon Us
Pastor Robbie with some thoughts on loving and serving others this holiday season.
Here we are Church, right in the midst of the Christmas season. Let me encourage you to not fall into a pattern of laziness or apathy. This is a prime time for us to step up as Believers and love those around us! Practice random acts of kindness in public or at the workplace, pay it forward in line at the drive through, get outside of the house and serve others this holiday season. It's not about the gifts, or the lights, or the treats - it's about Emmanuel: Christ with us! It's about the whole world anxiously awaiting the coming King for 700+ years, and then celebrating his arrival; as a baby…in a manger (which is a very important fact).
Sure, he could have come to Earth in a beam of bright light, a blast of glory shooting down from the heavens. That would have been pretty wild! That certainly would have confirmed his divinity, but not his humanity. We would have a hard time believing that Jesus was actually human if he came down from heaven like that. To be human, he needed to be born as a human.
God could have had Jesus born from the relations of both a man and a woman, just like you and me. The problem with this, though, is that it would allow for his humanity, but not his deity. Jesus would have had to become deity at some point early in his life. But it would deny his full deity if his divine nature began at a specific point in time.
So he came as a baby - fully human and fully deity, in the person of Jesus Christ. And we celebrate that this season! We reflect on his first coming, we relate to Israel longing for their coming King through the observance of Advent, and we long for the Second Coming of Christ in an Advent of our own. We have the opportunity to spread real love and joy this holiday season. Will you strive to do that, or will you circle the wagons and shut down for the holidays? He gives us the choice, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord this Christmas.
Pastor Robbie Earle
Time to Push Forward
Pastor Robbie with some thoughts on where Legacy City is heading and how You can be involved!
I don't generally feel like God always gives me a "word" for the year, but I have been thinking about a specific idea for a little while now. The idea is: forward, progress, advance. I know there is a fine line between marketing the church and sharing the mission of the church. Outsiders might see a fine line between seeking numerical growth and wanting to reach more people. They also might look for a fine line between being "seeker-friendly" and simply loving others unreasonably. So I think I have taken the route of caution over these last years. To not give off the impression like we are "into ourselves," we didn't really do any marketing in the community - a result is people still don't know we exist 2 years in.
In spite of this, God has brought new people, we've seen steady growth over the first 18 months, and this has been a home and a place of healing for many de-churched people.
But here's what I know; God has placed us in a very unique place with a very unique mission. I believe that he has commissioned us to fill some gaps in this community and reach people that could not be reached otherwise. Legacy City is not church as usual, this is a movement and I think it's time for this movement to progress forward, to advance. If we really believe that God has given us this unique vision and mission, then we have to own it, live it, and share it.
How do we do that? A few simple ways:
Invite. That's right, take some invite cards, reach out to those around you, and share what God is doing here. Studies show that more people respond to a personal invite than any other form of marketing we could come up with.
Social Media. I know, I know. This seems lame to some. Many of you may not even have social media and that's perfectly fine. But if you do, why not cut through the madness and the darkness by sharing the message of hope that God has given us? Why not tell people that there is a place where they can come to be loved and cared for no matter what their situation is? You all simply liking, sharing, and commenting goes a LONG way to getting our voice out there. Leaving reviews on FB and Google helps a ton also!
Leading by Example. Do you know what people really want? Authenticity. They want to see that you practice what you preach, that you are buying into the same thing you're inviting them to. Because if you're not, then we just come off as a bunch of hypocrites. Be involved.
These are just a few thoughts church. Let's move forward together. Let's prepare the way for more church plants to come. Let's prepare the way for training up future leaders. Let's prepare the way for impacting a community like never before. These are our mandates. For God and his Kingdom, For People and this City. Forward. Progress. Advance.
Pastor Robbie Earle