Photo Essay: Easter Weekend 2021 at Life Church

1,000+ Guests.

40 Volunteers.

20 New Christ Followers.

Two Life Church Campuses.

One Risen Carpenter-King.

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EASTER SUNDAY
MIDLAND CAMPUS

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EASTER SUNDAY
SAGINAW CAMPUS

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Photo Essay: Palm Sunday 2021

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He must Increase, I must Decrease

I've been spending a lot of time reading and meditating on the Gospel of John, not just because we're tackling it this Sunday at Life Church, but also because the Spirit daily draws me deeper into its waters for my own spiritual well-being.

In fact, just yesterday as I was spending time with my counselor, without knowing that I'm chewing on John's Gospel, my counselor himself spent an hour pouring into me with many of the accounts and teachings from the Gospel of John!

In my life, when a particular passage or book of Scripture repeatedly comes to my attention from multiple sources in a short amount of time, it is God the Holy Spirit knocking me over my stubborn head with the Holy 2x4 saying, “Shut up and listen to Me!”

For what it's worth, here are a few lines of Scripture that grabbed my imagination and my heart early this morning...

• ‘Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.’ (John 1:17) -- If I don’t lead with love, nothing I say or do matters.
  

• ‘The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother… And he brought him to Jesus.’ (John 1:41-42) — Found People Find People!
  

• ‘On the third day a wedding took place…’ (John 2:1) — A foreshadowing of the Resurrection! Jesus rose from death on the Third Day and a New Beginning and ReCreation began!
  

• ‘You have saved the best till now!’ (John 2:10) — Because in Christ, the BEST is always YET to come!
  

• ‘Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.’ (Jesus in John 3:19) — Wow. Even though I walk in darkness as a sinful man full of pride and arrogance, the Light pursues me. If Jesus never gave up on me, who am I to ever give up on people?!
  

• ‘He must become greater; I must become less.’ (John the Baptizer in John 3:30) — Wow. Wow. Wow. In a look-at-me, TikTok-drenched world, this statement is the most counter-cultural thing you can say in 2021!!
  

• ‘True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth…’ ‘God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.’ (Jesus in John 4:23-24). Jesus emphasized this point twice. When Scripture is repeated, it’s God’s way of saying, ‘Pay attention — this is important!’
  

• ‘Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.’ (Jesus in John 5:14) — Yikes. If Jesus looked me in the eye and spoke those words, it would scare me straight! In fact, through Scripture, Jesus IS looking me in the eyes and speaking those words to me!

• ‘My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I, too, am working.’ (Jesus in John 5:17) — Jesus never stops. Jesus never gives up on people. Jesus perseveres. Jesus oozes with love and radical acceptance. There’s always more ministry to do, more people to serve, more lives to impact, more room at the table, and more Sundays to welcome Guests into Heaven. We gotta keep working!

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Lincoln's Leadership Critics

Leaders are generally encouraged after they've led courageously, but not always in the moment.

Take Abraham Lincoln for example.

He had loud critics everywhere.

One of his army commanders, George McClellan, described Lincoln (his boss) as "no more than a well-meaning baboon."

In 1863, the Chicago Times described one of Lincoln's speeches as "an offensive exhibition of boorishness and vulgarity," adding:

"By the side of it, mediocrity is superb."

The name of that speech?

The Gettysburg Address.

My point?

There are no statues of George McClellan or the Chicago Times overlooking the National Mall in Washington.

Make It Happen

There are moments in life where you can't overthink your reaction. 

All you can do is pivot and make it happen.

Take for instance the adoption of our youngest: Alysia Hope.

Adoption wasn't even on our minds. 

We thought our family was complete with four kiddo's and a wiener dog to boot.

Isn't it funny how life interrupts our perfectly-laid plans?

That's when we got the phone call out of the blue: The birthmother of our one-year-old son, Levi, had just given birth to a baby girl -- Would we be willing to adopt her?

"Yes" escaped our mouths before our brains had a chance to catch up with what our ears were hearing.

We committed to a major life-change and significant price tag in a matter of 15 seconds.

Suddenly we were responsible for coming up with over $20,000 in 7 days plus preparing our home for a newborn.

We had to make it happen.

I didn't panic, I ran to the internets and did what any good daddy would do: I started a telethon to raise 20 grand!

Every hour on the hour we went live with stupid human tricks, lip-sync battles, and improv games. 

The goal was to pay for our unexpected adoption in cash and bring Baby Girl home.

We had to make it happen.

Here's the thing:

When you boldly declare what you want, multiply that with grit + hustle, and then seek help with compassion, empathy prevails and magic happens.

Together with friends and strangers on the internet, we made it happen.

What giant obstacle are you facing today?

What if you leaned in toward the challenge and fearlessly declared what you wanted to do?

How might people around you rally around your cause?

Today let's all dare to make it happen!

Happy 8th Birthday, Life Church

““I will build my church — and the power of death will not be able to overpower it!””

— Jesus in Matthew 16:18 (TPT)

8 years ago today, my family took a deep breath and cannonballed into the unknown by launching weekly worship experiences... the birth of the church we love!

Just like childbirth it was messy, scary, and even a little bloody... yet what emerged is beautiful and bringing Life to the Great Lakes Bay Region.

We started by renting theater and classroom space at Saginaw Valley State University. 

It was a herculean task setting up and tearing down our portable church environments every week, but we got it done (even in Michigan winter!).

When you start something new completely from scratch, EVERYTHING is HARD... but it's worth it.

For the past 8 years, we've lifted up Jesus, inspired our region, and seen lives transformed by God's amazing love.

To date, we've seen two hundred and eighty-eight people baptized at Life Church -- Holy Wow!

Every number has a name, every name has a story, and every story matters to God.

I CANNOT WAIT to see what our future days bring us as we continue to reach the lost at any cost!

Photo Essay: Nashville Artist Erskin Anavitarte at Life Church's Campuses in Midland + Saginaw

Introducing Anthony Bowman

It is an honor and privilege to welcome Anthony Bowman and his amazing family to our Life Church staff team!

With nearly twelve years of worship leading experience in local churches plus studies at Cincinnati Christian University, Anthony is a down-to-earth guy with an irresistible passion for Christ.

Anthony will lead our Band, oversee all aspects of Worship Production at our Midland and Saginaw campuses as well as our Central Operations volunteers during weekday office hours.

He can play just about any instrument you put in front of him: guitar, bass, piano, drums, ukelele, mandolin, and even a little bit of banjo (although that fifth string trips him up)!

Anthony and his wife Grace are celebrating 10 years of marriage this September as they raise three amazing kiddo's: Iraela, Ember and Cyrus.

Please help us welcome Anthony on his first official morning with us on Sunday, March 28th!

Everyone
wants to belong.

You belong here.

At Life Church, we’re not here to judge or tear anyone down.

Our church exists to build people up with the hope and love of God.

You should know:
No matter who you are or where you’ve been, you’re welcome here!

As God has blessed our church family with tremendous growth in such a short amount of time, we’ve learned that with an increase of people calling Life Church ‘home’ comes an increase in the complexity with improving our internal ministry systems to serve more people.

Making It Better

Over the past couple of months, Life Church has made strong internal improvements and changes to ensure greater ministry health going forward.

One example is Life Church’s new Financial Systems overseen by Sommerville & Associates, P.C. and pending accreditation with the ECFA.

We believe in transparency.

Our robust new financial systems serve to provide donors with an increased sense of comfort and trust as we continue loving and serving our region in Jesus’ Name.

Honor & Integrity

Another example is in the area of ministry staffing.

We have revamped all our internal policies and procedures to create a positive, gospel-centered work environment with clear, written expectations and accountability for all ministry staff including:

• a Character Clause on Biblical Qualifications for Staff: It is a privilege to serve in the local church and we will be held accountable.

• a revised Integrity Clause for Post-Employment Activities: For a period of twelve months, both paid and unpaid staff will walk in integrity and be above reproach by not serving in a similar church role within 90 driving miles of any Life Church campus. Lacking integrity in this area of biblical leadership only serves to stir up division, confusion, and harm to the local church they just left and the larger Body of Christ.

• No Gossip Policy: Gossip is defined as sharing a problem or a negative with someone not in a position to fix it. Sharing a negative “up” to someone who can fix the situation is not gossip; that is leadership integrity and having your teammate’s back! Gossip will not be tolerated and can lead to termination of employment.

• Pro-Team Policy: In all public and private communications (in person, groups, social media, etc), all staff and their spouses are expected to reflect and represent the radical love of Jesus Christ, to always believe the best and not assume the worst about people, and to represent Life Church and its employees and church family with honor and integrity.

COVID SAFETY PROTOCOLS

In cooperation with Midland Center for the Arts, our 9:30am Midland Campus worship gatherings on Sundays will include the following safety protocols:

• 100% Face Masks for everyone at all times inside the building
  

• Social-distanced seating in the theater (with 400 seats to choose from, this is easy to do!)
  

• All Church Volunteers and Guests will CHECK-IN via Digital Kiosks as they arrive & enter the Front Lobby.

  In the event of COVID contact, Digital Check-Ins will allow our team to conduct Contact Tracing.

Thank you all for understanding, cooperating, and loving thy neighbor.

We're excited for this coming Sunday at 9:30am and we believe that the best is yet to come!

#YouBelongHere #SafetyFirst