praxis - january 2015
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At the end of 2014, we explored and practiced Intimacy, Identity, and Purpose.
Intimacy with God leads us to a deeper understanding of our Identity in Christ. Knowing our Identity leads us to profound Purpose in everything we do. And as the
Church, we’re united in these three things. Each of us has the opportunity to step into intimate relationship with God. He highlights our identity in Him. And He commissions us with a purpose.
January 2015
001
Second Volume
What an amazing year we have ahead of us. The last two years have set the stage for deeper encounter and more fruitful ministry in 2015. We’re grateful you’re present with us in the journey.
Our mission statement begins with the word “together.” That word is reinforced in one of our values: relationship. And it defines what we desire to cultivate in our time together. We believe City Beautiful Church can be a family built on the foundation of Jesus that leads us to deeper places with God and one another.
Our church can provide opportunities to connect through things like worship gatherings, small groups, and serving opportunities. But depth with God and one another is developed as we get outside what makes us comfortable and begin to establish relationships that lead us to lean
on one another. It’s in this willingness to trust that we find the depth of intimacy we’re created for.
So we encourage our family to be a family of risk-takers. As we find a home in the loving arms of God and with one another, it platforms us to be people who step out. We begin loving God, each other, and the world with a bigger heart that embodies the love of Jesus. This foundation of the love of God represented in the life and death of Jesus is truly what makes us Agents of Change. It’s what empowers us to be people who influence and create a culture so compelling it’s irresistible.
This year will be a stretching year for us all, and it’s essential that we love well in every moment. Dig in deep, and let’s change the world together.
WELCOME
As we step into 2015, we move into a new place of discovering how each of us uniquely lives out the Purposes of God. We embrace the uniqueness of who God has created us to be while recognizing and honoring the value of being unique, together. This is the picture of the Church: each part playing a unique role as a unified body.
Our vision for 2015: Disciple and Commission each member of City Beautiful Church in their Spiritual Gifts to serve the church and the world as part of a culture of honor.
Disciple… each member of City Beautiful Church in their Spiritual Gifts…
As we devote 2015 to Spiritual Gifts, we’ll begin by discipling our community. What does that mean? Each Sunday night during the first several months of 2015, we’ll be devoting time to asking “what does the Bible say about these gifts?” “how do we see these gifts lived out?” and “what does that mean for my life?” These weekly times of teaching are to provide a foundation for each of us to explore the gifts in our lives.
M T WMeet and Eat for Women | 6.30pm (1st Mondays) Freedom to come and goConway
Jennifer NeSmith [email protected]
Creeds 7pm Freedom to come and goColonialtown
Terry Olson [email protected]
Ladies: Real Talk | 7pmCommitment appreciatedEola Heights
Jenn Jackson [email protected]
SheSculpt Women’s Fitness | 6:15pm 5 Week Commitment requested
Sherry Crossman [email protected]
Every Good Endeavor | 7pm Freedom to come and goSouth Downtown
Nathan & Jill Smith, Keith [email protected]
Ironmen | 7pm (2nd and 4th Wednesdays) Commitment requestedWinter Park
Mark Jackson [email protected]
Wednesday Night GatheringsFirst and third Wednesday of every month
R F SIntercessory Prayer | 9.30am Freedom to come and goDowntown
Ryan Adams [email protected]
Women, Coffee, Jesus | 9am Commitment appreciatedCollege Park
Alex Veintidos, Kaye Green [email protected]
Beth Moore “Children of the Day” | 7pm(Starts Jan. 8th) Commitment requestedConway Area
Jennifer NeSmith [email protected]
The Gospel. Food. Worship. | 7pm Freedom to come and goAltamonte/Maitland
Lori and Ken Thieme [email protected]
SheSculpt Women’s Fitness | 10:15am 5 Week Commitment requested
Sherry [email protected]
DISCIPLESHIPThis past year has seen tremendous growth in our discipleship presence beyond the Sunday night gatherings. Both our seasonal rhythm and the continued cultivation of Sunday nights has allowed us to cast out into the week to create meaningful space for our community to gather, learn, share, and experience God together. The strength of our small group presence is found in the incredible diversity uncovered and celebrated when the body recognizes itself as inherently unified under Christ. The recent theme of “spiritual home” has been most poignantly felt in these gatherings as we center ourselves on word, worship, prayer, generosity, and hospitality.
The heart of Beloved is to cultivate and champion relational health and harmony between the men and women of City Beautiful Church. By facilitating conversations and fostering environments where our community can explore and adopt Kingdom perspectives, our hope is to encourage relational and emotional inner healing. We meet monthly to continue ongoing conversations on inner healing and forward steps, as well as have periodic weekend retreats for more in-depth and extensive self-reflection and healing focus. Always, our goal is to encounter Abba and to be left changed, more whole, and motivated in our forward movement.
Beloved is about emotional and relational wellness, seeking healing, restoration and activation through the presence and increasing reality of Father’s love. This
ministry is not just for singles or just married couples, but for everyone - every man and every woman. No matter what season you find yourselves in, there is much to learn about engaging each other from a place of compassion and honor and understanding. Our heart is to see all of you come out and dig deep with us as we, together, ask big questions and dive into Father’s heart for each of us.
Monthly Meetings: the first Friday every month.
Weekend Retreat: be on the lookout for our next announcement!
BELOVED RELATIONAL MINISTRY
But it’s not enough to simply hear and know about the Spiritual Gifts. We are meant to live in them.
In 1 Timothy 4:14, Timothy is told to “not neglect [his] gift, which was given [him] through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on [him].” For each of us, there is a moment of commissioning that takes place. Spiritual Gifts are lived out in the context of community.
Throughout the year, we will build a rhythm around prayer, worship, and practice of Spiritual Gifts the first and third Wednesday night of each month.
Disciple… each member of City Beautiful Church in their Spiritual Gifts…
As we devote 2015 to Spiritual Gifts, we’ll begin by discipling our community. What does that mean? Each Sunday night during the first several months of 2015, we’ll be devoting time to asking “what does the Bible say about these gifts?” “how do we see these gifts lived out?” and “what does that mean for my life?” These weekly times of teaching are to provide a foundation for each of us to explore the gifts in our lives.
Commission… each member of City Beautiful Church in their Spiritual Gifts…
In the book of Acts, we see the church meeting daily in the temple courts. They were praising God, enjoying life together, growing, and creating a culture that was irresistible. There was something so powerful in the way they built their lives around spiritual family.
Beginning in conjunction with our Spiritual Gift series, we are developing the rhythm of gathering on Wednesday nights.
On the first and third Wednesday nights of each month, we have community wide gatherings built around worship, prayer, relationship, and the practice of Spiritual Gifts. These curated environments – led by
leaders and elders in the church – are specifically created to help us move from philosophy to action. Many weeks, we have specific opportunities to practice the Spiritual Gift we’re discussing on Sunday nights as we commission the church into our gifts. This time is open to everyone, and we encourage you to establish this new rhythm of worship and gathering in your week as we grow together.
This Wednesday night rhythm will also give us other opportunities to gather. Each of our ministry teams gather the second Wednesday of each month to spend time together to build relationship, celebrate fruit, evaluate, and dream about the future.
This is a perfect time to join one of our ministry teams and help us thrive together.
The fourth Wednesday of each month varies from month to month. These weeks are an opportunity to gather in many ways. Ministry teams like Beloved, Men’s, Women’s, Family, Married, Creative, and any other ministry may host gatherings. And at times, we use the fourth Wednesday to host church wide relational events around doing something fun together.
We hope you’ll begin making Wednesdays a rhythm of worship and relationship as part of our growing life together.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT GATHERINGS
words / Marc Vander Vennet
Going to Beloved Retreat was exactly where God wanted me to be. At first I was really looking for an encounter with God, something profound that would leave me speechless and wanting more. I would watch Dan Green (Ryan’s Spiritual Father) go from person to person as the Spirit led him but he never came to me. I was really wrestling with this. Why not me? Was I not good enough? In hindsight I realized I was feeding into the lies of the enemy. So I continued to pray to just desire God, not an experience. The second day at Beloved was the day where God gave me the experience I was asking for as Dan said, “to touch and remove the rocks in our heart for God to dwell where He hasn’t yet.” God used Dan so beautifully as His hands and voice to twist and turn the dial on a safe I was afraid to let God into and in reality I wasn’t aware of. God cracked the safe and the tears started to flow, He was meeting me exactly where I was in the exact way I needed.
His love poured into the safe and since that moment I have been forever changed. As a friend of mine put it “I was a seed that’s been watered and nurtured but that moment was the breakthrough, the soil,” and God has been constantly by my side taking care of me and growing me at a rate that scares me but I turst Him. Since that encounter, I have taken on the identity that God gave me and have been confidently walking in it, and with that identity came spiritual gifts I was not prepared for. He’s been shaping me as a pastoral figure, a leader, a teacher, a prophet, a brother, a father, and many more. I honestly can not get enough of Him. I have this thirst or hunger that is unquenchable but yet oh, so satisfying. He is my dad, my God, my friend, and I don’t ever want to leave Him. I can’t describe what life has been like since that encounter with Him, all I know is that I’ve been taken to such a deep intimacy with Him and it’s all I desire, He is my love.
But it’s not enough to simply hear and know about the Spiritual Gifts. We are meant to live in them.
In 1 Timothy 4:14, Timothy is told to “not neglect [his] gift, which was given [him] through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on [him].” For each of us, there is a moment of commissioning that takes place. Spiritual Gifts are lived out in the context of community.
Throughout the year, we will build a rhythm around prayer, worship, and practice of Spiritual Gifts the first and third Wednesday night of each month.
The Spiritual Gifts are not only meant to provide purpose in the life of the individual. Spiritual Gifts are meant to be shared with the church family.
Paul tells the Church in Ephesus that Spiritual Gifts are given “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
Our church is not all it’s meant to be until each of us is living out our Spiritual Gifts generously. We’re not living in the fullness of our potential together until we share what we have to contribute and celebrate the gifts of others in the context of love and cooperation. You have something unique to contribute to what God wants to accomplish in and through City Beautiful Church, and we’re committed to discovering and platforming you in those gifts!
Disciple… each member of City Beautiful Church in their Spiritual Gifts…
As we devote 2015 to Spiritual Gifts, we’ll begin by discipling our community. What does that mean? Each Sunday night during the first several months of 2015, we’ll be devoting time to asking “what does the Bible say about these gifts?” “how do we see these gifts lived out?” and “what does that mean for my life?” These weekly times of teaching are to provide a foundation for each of us to explore the gifts in our lives.
Commission… each member of City Beautiful Church in their Spiritual Gifts…
… to serve the church…
Operations
We are an operations team that goes beyond simply executing tasks. We focus on relationship and creative thinking. Keeping both of those attributes in the forefront, we are able to provide our ministries with a unified team who can successfully execute their goals. We are wanting to transition to a place where we can create teams within, that can serve together on a rotation. With that goal in mind, our hope is that we get to see our team expand, allowing us to fully support our gatherings, ministries, and explore what it looks like to further bless our city.
Worship
We in the Worship ministry aim to create an open, inviting space to encounter God. The Lord’s presence is not exclusive and His call to each of us is as diverse as our response. We want to remove the distractions and give the most honest and beautiful offering we can to Him. He is worthy. The possibilities ahead of us are only growing and we are very expectant about what God is doing in and through us. As we continue to grow together and explore His presence offering Him our hearts and voices, there is no limit to how He will change us and how we will impact this city.
Technical
The tech ministry at City Beautiful Church serves the purpose of complimenting all the communication that goes on during a Sunday gathering. This ministry serves to facilitate environments for clear communication both audibly and visually. As a ministry team, we believe these times can provide a place where the people who have entered the space can connect with God through all the means that are accessible to them from worship to experiences to giving.
Content
The content team exists to care for creative communicators and platform them to develop engaging content, keeping people connected to City Beautiful Church through ongoing conversations. This includes capturing, curating and creating stories, digging deeper into creative gifts given to us by the Lord.
Engagement
Our responsibility as the Engagement ministry is to continually have conversations that are meaningful and connecting, while discovering the connections that people in our community are seeking. We as a team aim to truly uncover people’s identities and help turn their passions into a reality. Our hope would be to do all of this in a way that is genuine and relationship-based. We want to get to know the real you, because the real you is essential to the City Beautiful Church family.
Greenhouse
Greenhouse is a family ministry intent on cultivating our call to be a multi-generational church community. Our goal is to create a firm foundation and an ongoing legacy for our families where both parents and children are extraordinarily valued, and all members of the body seek to embrace and support one another as we journey through life together.
MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES
But it’s not enough to simply hear and know about the Spiritual Gifts. We are meant to live in them.
In 1 Timothy 4:14, Timothy is told to “not neglect [his] gift, which was given [him] through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on [him].” For each of us, there is a moment of commissioning that takes place. Spiritual Gifts are lived out in the context of community.
Throughout the year, we will build a rhythm around prayer, worship, and practice of Spiritual Gifts the first and third Wednesday night of each month.
The Spiritual Gifts are not only meant to provide purpose in the life of the individual. Spiritual Gifts are meant to be shared with the church family.
Paul tells the Church in Ephesus that Spiritual Gifts are given “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
Our church is not all it’s meant to be until each of us is living out our Spiritual Gifts generously. We’re not living in the fullness of our potential together until we share what we have to contribute and celebrate the gifts of others in the context of love and cooperation. You have something unique to contribute to what God wants to accomplish in and through City Beautiful Church, and we’re committed to discovering and platforming you in those gifts!
It’s such a joy to serve from a place of intimacy, identity, and purpose, relying on Christ and not ourselves. We begin living lives that are bigger than the limitations of our humanity and into the fullness of God’s purposes for our lives. That means we’re overflowing with the Fruit of the Spirit, the power of God, and the person of Jesus in every area of our lives.
We want to continually empower one another to love well in everything we do. And while we want to do this individually, we also see huge opportunity in our ability to serve the world together.
2015 provides us an opportunity to step into a new level of intentionality and effectiveness in serving locally in Orlando and around the world.
Disciple… each member of City Beautiful Church in their Spiritual Gifts…
As we devote 2015 to Spiritual Gifts, we’ll begin by discipling our community. What does that mean? Each Sunday night during the first several months of 2015, we’ll be devoting time to asking “what does the Bible say about these gifts?” “how do we see these gifts lived out?” and “what does that mean for my life?” These weekly times of teaching are to provide a foundation for each of us to explore the gifts in our lives.
Commission… each member of City Beautiful Church in their Spiritual Gifts…
… to serve the church…
… and the world…
Locally, we will make official our partnership with The Human Experience – a school started in 2014 by one of our own, Nathan Smith. It’s our desire to not just serve our city, but to do it in the context of supporting the dreams and visions God has planted inside those of our community to step out and start something that will change the world. And The Human Experience is doing just that.
Globally, 2015 will see us stepping into a long-term strategic partnership with a ministry and/or church family somewhere around the globe. In the same way we are serving locally alongside members of our church who have been called to a specific purpose, we want to do so globally as well. Our leadership team is praying and actively seeking the Lord to give us direction regarding how City Beautiful Church can serve the world together.
LOCAL + GLOBAL
The Human Experience
We are called to be a light unto the world. Our church finds itself in downtown Orlando as a call from God to affect the culture around us for His glory and to reflect His heart to His children. As the call invites us to be a faithful presence in our neighborhoods and families here, it also draws us unto the world platform. We believe as we step out into the world at all levels we come to a deeper understanding of who He has created us to be; therefore, we also endeavor to educate the community at large on the value and necessity of outreach.
As we have seen the past year as a time of refining and redefining by the Lord, we now respond to His call to step beyond the walls of our church with greater confidence in who He is and who we’ve been created to be. In tangent with a vision to see individuals grow in their awareness and application of the spiritual gifts we want to make concerted effort to see the Kingdom advance where God has placed us in the next year. 2015 will see us focus on a handful of opportunities within Orlando as expressions of our heart for this city. We are also gathering people who are passionate about educating the greater church body in how to engage the world in healthy, sustainable, Spirit-led ways.
Our first partnership will be with the Human Experience, a new educational venture created by our very own Nathan and Jill Smith, and their associate Danita Jones.
A teacher for several years, Nathan started to see negative connotations to the system in play. Out of love for his students and a desire to be faithful to the passions God instilled within him, Nathan has laid the foundation for a new model of school where the lessons that matter are cultivated by the children themselves. Currently his school is fifth grade only, but has plans to expand to a full K-12 program. We have committed to support the Human Experience in several ways this year.
First, we plan on blessing them financially through our benevolence fund in order to help cover the cost of tuition, classroom supplies, and the like. Secondly, we will take part in several special projects that will utilize the gifts of our community to tangibly improve the learning experience for the kids. This will include cultivation of the environments in which the students find themselves and the design of creative ways to teach curriculum benchmarks that are more engaging than simple bookwork. Finally, we want individuals to bring their knowledge and passion into the classroom, whether as guest speakers, teacher aides, and mentors.
If you would like to know more about the Human Experience, please visit theorlando.org.
We are also currently discussing opportunities to work with local ministries downtown that love our homeless brothers and sisters well. We believe our church has the opportunity to meet the needs of the street in conjunction with fellow believers from other communities in some truly creative ways. That same desire for sustainable, long-term relationship will be exercised on the global platform as we plan to seek out new small-group missions partnerships while continuing to champion individuals to go forth and share the love of Christ.
It doesn’t matter if we discover our Spiritual Gifts or serve the world if it’s done without loving one another. A culture of honor is one in which we are conscious of how we view one another. It takes every thought captive and surrenders it to the Lord. Honor leads us to consider the words we speak to one another and how we speak them. A culture of honor is one that is free from gossip or slander and proactively builds one another up. Honor is powerful in that it not only sees people how they are today but who they are becoming. When we honor one another, we call each other into a place of growth and power. We love one another how we are today, and we platform each other in who we’re becoming.
… as part of a culture of honor.
There are so many exciting things ahead for us in 2015. And as we come to a better understanding of each of our roles in the context of City Beautiful Church, we will find a new sense of purpose and value together. You are important in this process. You are valued, loved, and wanted. And we can’t wait to see what God has in store for us all!
