Daniel Floyd

WEATHER UPDATE

Good evening Lifepointers!

Hope you have enjoyed your snowy Saturday.  Unfortunately due to the weather we’ve been experiencing - we have been forced to cancel our weekend services. We hate to have to do it, but our concern for your safety is our number one priority. If you were planning to bring your giving tomorrow you can still give online at http://www.visitlifepoint.org/connect/online-giving/ or mail to the church office at 6308 Five Mile Centre Park Ste:219 Fredericksburg, VA 22407.  Your contributions are very much appreciated as inclement weather days adversely affect the general budget!

Don't forget - a week from tomorrow we will begin our much anticipated series "Money, Sex, & Power," geared towards men.  You don't want to miss it!  And you don't want your brothers, dads, sons, boyfriends, husbands, or the guy next door to miss it either!  Make your plans now!

Be safe if you venture out and we look forward to seeing you next week!

SUNDAY RECAP

Yesterday was week three of MADE - awesome day as we talked about being MADE for the Family.

* Worship was great - nothing like worshiping with the LC family.

* Preached on the importance of community - greatness is never achieved by I, it must be achieved by WE.

* Introduced our newest staff member, Beth Baron. Beth is joining the team to develop our Life Groups and create the structure and systems needed to take us to the next level. She was formally on staff at Mclean Bible and has been doing consulting in the area of groups.

* Had an amazing turn out for the LC360 Tour - this our environment for connecting new people into serving and groups. They also visit all the ministry areas and hear the story of Lifepoint.

* Josh highlighted the Lifepoint fan page on facebook - if your not a fan yet, then go their now!! It's a great way to stay connected with all that's going on with the LC family.

* We announced how we are going to participate in the relief effort for Haiti - go here for more information.

* On a lighter note, the COLTS won this weekend and the Jets beat the Chargers!!

* The 24 season premiere was last night - nice to have Jack back in my life!!

WEATHER UPDATE

Hello Lifepointers!

Due to the overwhelming snowstorm of 2009 we are canceling both services for tomorrow, December 20.  We will miss you all terribly, but your safety is our highest priority!  However, we did want to remind you of a few things.

Christmas Eve

Don't forget about Christmas Eve!  Make sure you invite one person to come with you for that service.  Again, the service times are 4PM & 5:30PM at Riverbend High School.  You are in for an amazing night!  If you need invites for the service please stop by our office at 6308 Five Mile Centre Park Ste:219.  We will be in the office Monday through Wednesday.

Year-End Giving

We have had some inquiries about year-end giving.  In order for your contributions to be credited to your 2009 tax period, all contributions must be either received online by December 31 or postmarked by that date.  You can always give online through our secure site by clicking HERE.

God bless you all. 

We look forward to seeing you on the 24th for the Greater Fredericksburg's Christmas Eve Service. Love,The

SUNDAY RECAP

God spoke, we listened, lives were changed!! That pretty much sums it up but here are some additional details.

* Guest worship band in from Hope Church in Richmond, VA

* Week two in the BELIEVE series - preached on what we believe about ourselves.

* Parking team was amazing - working hard out in the rain!!

* Newcomers event yesterday - always love meeting new people and sharing the heart of God for this community.

* Thankful for our Mighty Men!!

* Felt like I bombed the first service, but no one else did, reminded once again that thankfully this isn't about me :) It's all about Jesus!!

* Can't wait for GREATER FREDERICKSBURG'S CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICES - 4:00 & 5:30 - WHO ARE YOU INVITING?

* URGENCY is the Word God keeps giving me - we don't have time to waste, people need JESUS!!

* Met a family yesterday that started attending as a result of Lifepoint Gives Back - that was almost a year ago, amazing!!!

* There are so many hurting people, thankful we can offer hope and life in Jesus!!

* 4 people in the first service accepted Christ (don't know about the second service as of yet) THAT NEVER GETS OLD!!!

* Over 325 people have placed faith in JESUS this year, Lifepointer's you ARE making a HUGE difference in this community!!

TURN UP THE VOLUME

What is the loudest volume in your life and ministry?

I have learned something over the past couple of weeks. If you don't turn up the volume on the right things, others will turn up the volume on the wrong things. As the senior leader it's your responsibility to keep the volume UP on the vision. As you grow and add complexity many things will seek to take center stage but it's our job to continue to turn UP the volume of the vision.

The difficult part is that some of the things competing for time and attention are good. They are outreach programs and care programs and the latest great group strategy but if they don't increase the volume of the vision then turn them down and turn the volume UP on the vision. (it will go to 11 - that's for you movie buffs)

MAKE THE ASK BIG (CAPITAL CAMPAIGNS LEARNINGS)

If you're not comfortable with making the BIG financial ask, it could be because you're not sold on your vision.

Going into this project I thought that one of the major hurdles I would have to cross is asking individuals and families to give. I pictured awkward, uncomfortable moments that could possibly damage relationships. However, the exact opposite is what I found.

I encountered people that were willing to give and were looking to me to give direction. I found that my role was to increase their understanding on how to give, and how to know that what they were giving was the will of God.

I also found that those with the capacity to give wanted me to challenge them by asking BIG. And why wouldn't I? If I really believe in the vision then I should also believe it's worth giving towards. Once I got this revelation, I looked forward to giving people the opportunity to invest in the vision of Lifepoint Church.

However, if you aren't sold on your vision then your apprehension will be much greater. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars waiting to be invested in your ministry. But it will require you to make some BIG ASK. So, what's stopping you from giving those with resources the opportunity to invest in the kingdom?

BELIEVE :: NEW SERIES BEGINS THIS SUNDAY

It's starting to sound a lot like Christmas. The bells are ringing, the carolers are singing. But what does all of this really mean? Do we believe in what we are celebrating? You see, what we believe actually matters because who we are depends on what we believe. Can we believe the way a child does this time of year?

Join us as we celebrate the birth of our Savior and prepare for a shift in our thinking during this 3 Week series called: BELIEVE

YOU START BEFORE YOU START (CAPITAL CAMPAIGN LEARNINGS)

Two Sunday's ago we finished our first of, what I'm sure, will be many capital campaigns. We learned a lot and experience the power of God in so many amazing ways. So, I wanted to share some helpful learnings this week.

Lesson #1 - You start before you start! After crunching the numbers with our consultant we arrived at an initial goal of 1.5 million, which would have been a stretch for us. Especially considering we didn't have a "real project". No building we wanted to build, no property we had our eye on to buy. We simply challenged our church to give towards the vision of "reaching people far from God". To give towards placing us in the best position possible to move on whatever door God opened. To say we were fighting an uphill battle is an understatement.

But you start before you start and we saw the fruit of this big time when 100 of our leaders, two weeks before "commitment Sunday", made their commitments totaling over 1.5 million. This is the fruit of a culture of TRUST. See, long before we ever started an official capital campaign we were creating equity with our leaders. We were coming through on promises made; we were the first to call ourselves out when we blew it. We were proving ourselves trustworthy. So, when the time came to raise 1.5 million as a church with no "real project" 100 of our leaders stepped up and positioned us in a place to experience the unthinkable.

Are you building TRUST? 

Are you following through on promises made with your leaders and your volunteers? 

Are you the first to call yourself out when you blow it or do you hope it gets overlooked? 

Because you start before you start.

MINISTRY COST MONEY

I know this is not a new revelation for anyone. Obviously, it takes money to operate a growing ministry or a ministry of any sort. However, I have learned somethings about this on a whole new level. This past Sunday we announced the total amount of commitments towards our capital campaign called Accelerate. Through this process God has taught me some things that I want to share with you. So, starting next week I will spend the week sharing some thoughts on raising capital to advance the kingdom. Hope you'll check it out!

SOWING THE HARVEST YOU WANT

There is a principle that God is teaching me at the moment, here it is. I must sow the seed for the harvest I want. If I wanted to grow corn I would sow corn seed, because I need to sow for what I want to harvest.

This principle for hit me when I began teaching Owen, my son, to memorize scripture. I decided to start with John 3:16 because I wanted to reap a harvest of salvation in his life so I began to sow the Word of God into his life.

Today I saw this principle fleshed out again as I spent time with workers here in Turkey. I had the privilege of participating in their prayer time, which they set aside three hours for, yes you read that correctly, three hours. They were sowing what they wanted to harvest. They want to harvest the transformation of this country and are willing to spend the time sowing in prayer what they want to harvest in their ministry.

Another amazing day, each day God continues to challenge and convict me to increase my commitment to support the work. 

Please continue to pray for our team as we conclude the conference tomorrow and visit the city that Lifepoint supports on a monthly basis.