Sunday Aftermath

Yesterday, Lakepointe Church moved to her new location from Iroquois Middle School to Lutheran High School North. The move was only 2 miles away from Iroquois and we are paying almost $3000 less a month in our rent! Our first service yesterday at Lutheran High North was incredible!

Here are some of the highlights of this past entire weekend:

• On Saturday AM, we had our monthly 2nd Saturday serve event. About 35 people went downtown Detroit to feed over hundred homeless. One of the homeless guys that our people met was deaf and by the end of the morning, he had received Christ as his Savior! PTL!

• On Saturday PM, we had about 30-35 people come out to help with the set-up of our new location. Thank you to all who gave up their Saturday evening to give us a hand so that Sunday AM would be a lot smoother.

• On Sunday AM, we had an incredible crowd of over 150 in attendance. Including in the attendance, we had about 30 special guests that we honored and recognized. We had two church planting teams from Holly, MI (Flint area) - Nicholas and Jennie Klemp - and Ann Arbor, MI (Go Blue!) - Michael and Melissa Dendy - that were with us. Plus, we had a church planter friend from London, England, Brian Clark, in attendance with us as well.

• In my message, I shared how Lakepointe Church plans to be strategic in the way we give to help church planting and other non-profit organizations in our area and around the world. Later this week, I will post another blog about our two special offerings that Lakepointe Church plans to be involved in to impact our community and world for Christ.

God has blessed us so much and we are so thankful for what He has done for us at Lakepointe and in our lives. We look forward to the future of what God has for us!

Check out PHOTOS from yesterday. Click HERE!

(Must have a FACEBOOK account to see pictures)

Sunday Aftermath and Sermon Notes

This past Sunday, we closed out our series on the "Sport's Nut" in which we challenge our church to "up their game" in their walk with Christ. Last Sunday message was our vision casting sermon for the upcoming Fall, which technically begins next week when school get started. There's a sense of excitement and anticipation in our church family and we can't wait to see what God is going to next in our church and in our community this fall! Below is the sermon notes from Sunday:

The Team Must Work Together

Philippians 3:12-14 - Paul was running toward the goal of knowing Jesus, but he wasn’t running alone - he had a team of people around him who were heading for the same goal.

UNITY is essential to a winning team!

Remember the Titans (2000, starring Denzel Washington)

“If we don’t come together right now on this hallowed ground, we too, will be destroyed, just like they were. I don’t care if you like each other or not, but you will respect each other. And maybe…we’ll learn to play this game like men.” –Coach Herman Boone

Acts 2:41-47 - The reason the first church was so successful was because they had unity.

Team Members Must Know and Play Their Position

1 Corinthians 12:4-12 - On a football team, not everybody can be the quarterback—the backs, linemen, and receivers are just as important for the success of the team.

At Lakepointe, we offer Ministry Pointe Class throughout the year to help people in our church to find their spiritual gifts and passion.

Do you know what your position is on God’s team? Are you willing to gladly play that position?

Team Members Must Encourage Each Other

Hebrews 10:24-25 - Every team needs cheerleaders. The Bible teaches that the members of God’s team should constantly be encouraging one another.

Team Members Must Know the Game Plan

Proverbs 29:18 – “Where there is no vision, the people perish!”

Lakepointe Stats Since Launch in March 2010

• Weekly Attendance: 110
• Salvations: 22
• Baptisms: 9 (11 candidates for baptisms next month)
• New Partners: 83
• Weekly Volunteers: 30 (will jump to 60 in Sept)
• Monthly Offering: $7,000 (last 3 months)

Game Plan for the Fall

• Fall Sermon Series

Made - September

The Blessed Life – October

• Adult Life Groups – Week of Sept. 12
• Tara Grant 5K Run – Saturday, Sept. 25
• Outdoor Enthusiast Dinner and Auction – Oct. 2
• Special Guest Speaker - Michael Franzese – Oct. 3
• Launching “Aftershock” LP Students Ministry – Oct. 10
• Christmas Outreach – More Info to Come…

Team Members Must Play for the Audience of One

Hebrews 12:1-2 - “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…”

It is God that will build His church! We are to give Him all glory for all He has done and for what He is about to do!

Sunday Aftermath

Every week, we continue to see God at work at Lakepointe Church. This past Sunday was no exception! Highlights:

• We are still in the summer "slump" mode. However, Lakepointe Church has not seen a "slump" in attendance, decisions, and giving! We have seen growth in all areas! School starts in 3 weeks - can't wait to see what's going to happen this fall! It's going to be a whole nutha' level!

• In the last two weeks, 60 volunteers (about 40 new) signed up for ministry this fall! The more you involve, the more impact your church will have! We have one more Sunday to encourage people to volunteer before our Training Weekend on August 28-29.

• We had our 3rd partnership class on Sunday night. About 25 adults and 8 kids came. At the end, we had 3 decisions for Christ, 7 candidates for baptism, and 12 new partners of Lakepointe!

• The stories behind the 3 decisions for Christ are AWESOME! One young lady, who has cerebral palsy, received Christ and wants to get baptized next month! Her dad also received Christ too. This is the result of their Christian mother/wife who has been coming to Lakepointe since day 1 and eventually brought her family to church!

• The 3rd decision for Christ is another awesome story! One of our young ladies had moved back home from Delaware and Lansing, MI so that she can be a "missionary" to her own family. After searching for a church, she found ours. Shortly after she was regularly attending, her parents asked her about Lakepointe, so they visited our church. On Sunday night, the young lady's mom became a follower of Christ!

• These decisions for Christ are THE highlights of everything we do at Lakepointe!!

• We are planning our 2nd Baptism Sunday next month. We have about 11 total candidates for baptisms!

• This Sunday in week 4 of the Sport's Nut series, my message is about "Fishing." Have some great stories, but also a very important application from God's word! Don't miss it!

Sunday Aftermath - Memorial Day Sunday - Outdoor Service and Cookout

One of the things to know about Michigan culture, especially in Macomb Township: most people have a cabin or a camper, and during the holidays and summer, everyone travels "up north" to their favorite spot. Instead of thinking "well, it's going to be a low-attended Sunday", about a month ago, our team came up with the idea to "counter" the low attendance by doing an outdoor service and cookout.

Immediately, we started to talk about it, we made flyers and doorhangers, and started to broadcast the special service. We wanted to leverage this service to the best we could. On Thursday night, we handed out 2,000 doorhangers/flyers. We facebooked about it. We contacted everybody either by phone or email.

Here are the highlights of the day:

• Approximately 120 people attended, which is one our highest attendance since Launch Sunday (300).

• Two decisions for Christ!

• Several 1st time guests - met two families that came because of the doorhangers! Thanks to those came out to help on Thursday night. It was absolutely worth it!

• The band did a great job!

• The weather was great - it was unusually warm. Everyone left with a farmer's tan!

• This was our first real test to see our people volunteer and go the extra, extra mile! Thanks to all those who help today! This is how the church should function: not the "pastor doing it all", but EVERYONE is doing something! Personally, this was the highlight of my day! This is what makes the church "unstoppable" - when everyone sees that it's not about them, but that it's everything about Him. We just serve and do our part.

• Oh, and I wore shorts! I'm pretty sure that some people were blinded by my white legs! Sorry about that. :)

• The post-service cookout was great! The grill masters and the "kitchen" ladies did a fantastic job!

• The set-up and tear-down team did an awesome job getting us ready for the service!

• We were able to get a pretty cool "bounce house" for the kids at no cost! Thanks to Kenny for hooking us up! The kids absolutely love it!

• "Rethinking Church, Rethinking Life" - glad that God gives me and our team an opportunity to start this new church in an area that needs it! We continue to pray that God will open more doors to reach more people for Him!

• We are planning to do another "outdoor service" this summer! Stay tuned for that info...

• I was just researching about riding on a Hot Air balloon. Sounds like fun. Cost about $200 per person. Ok, that's not happening anytime soon.

• Happy Memorial Day! Thanks to all who serve (or has served) in our armed forces - "All gave some, but some gave all."

Click HERE for more pictures from today.

Thanks to Lisa Bewley for the awesome photo ops!

Sunday Aftermath

It has been almost 3 months since Lakepointe Church has launched. Since we've started, we have seen God works in the lives of those who have been attending. Yesterday was a great day to see how God is moving. Here are some highlights:

• Nine baptisms after the morning service! We had t-shirts made for each person that says "I Took the Plunge @ Lakepointe." The baptisms took place outside in an octagon-shaped feeding trough.

• We had two new decisions for Christ yesterday! That never gets old!!

• Great attendance - 109! Thankful for a strong attendance day in May (which is typically can be a very tough month).

• The band was kicking yesterday! Great job, team!

• We start our first semester of Life Groups this week! We have 4 different groups - Crazy Love (Sunday PM), New Believers (Tuesday), Destinations with Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Wednesday), Outflow (Thursday). Last night group had 15 in attendance - way to go, Crazy Love people!

Two Sundays from now, we are having an outdoor service/cookout on Memorial Day Sunday. We plan to blitz the surrounding neighborhoods and invite them to attend. Pray for us to leverage this service to reach more people in our community.

Sunday Aftermath

What another great day at Lakepointe yesterday! We continue to see new guests (average 15-20) every week since our launch and yesterday was no exception. The attendance was good and we continue to see lives being changed.

• Spoke on "Is there Hope when I feel like Quitting?" God continues to speak into people's lives in this series. Can't wait for the next two messages in the series.

• We announced the different Adult Life groups that begin on the week of May 16th. A good number of people have already registered.

• We had our first Starting Pointe class on Sunday night. We had 60 in attendance (include 12 children). About 48 people became the first members of Lakepointe Church! Also, we have 6 people who made decisions to get baptized on May 16th. More on this in another post this week.

• LP Kids continues to be tearing it up! I constantly hear good things about it through the parents. Way to go, Jared!

• Our worship band continues to improve over the past few weeks. We have made some new friends in our area that has some great talents. Also, last week we landed a permanent practice place for the band to practice every week. Thanks to Harvest Baptist Church! So proud of the work that Ben has been doing!

• Lakepointe Church is underway and just about in full force. We have a few things to implement, mainly LP Students. This will begin in May as well.

Looking forward to next Sunday! If you're in Macomb County in Detroit area, come visit us and see what it means to "Rethink Church, Rethink Life."

Easter Sunday Aftermath

Today was Lakepointe Church's 3rd weekly service and we celebrated the HOPE that is found in Jesus Christ! A few highlights from this morning:

• Saw 126 in attendance. This weekend is the beginning of spring break, so naturally some of our regulars attenders were out of town (approximately 20-25).

• Also had 20+ first-time guests!

• Lately, it seems that every week we have been having different technical issues. Today, everything works like it was supposed to do! BTW, the worship team did a great job!

• Our children's environments have been improving. Love what I'm seeing and hearing in LP Kids!

• Since our Launch Service on March 21st, there has been a great response to the call of salvation! This morning we saw 8 new believers in Christ!! All together in 3 Sundays, we have seen about 15 total decisions! THAT NEVER GETS OLD!

• Started a new series this morning: "Is There Any Hope for Me?" The topic this morning was: "Is there Hope for My Broken Heart?" Below is the testimony video that I used in the message.

Can't wait to see what God does next week! Thanks to all of our volunteers and ministry team leaders! The sky is the limit; let's go high for God!

Launch Sunday Aftermath

I have been meaning to blog all week regarding our Launch Sunday this past week, but it has been crazy insane - in a great way! I would like to highlight some stuff on Sunday and what has been happening since then.

• Launch Day Attendance - 300 (+/- 2.5) - about 75 of the 300 were from out of town or have a church but came to see Chris Sligh. 200-225 were people in our area that are legitimate prospects.

• Launch Day Decisions - 5 new believers! This is why we do what we do!

• We had an awesome volunteer team in place! There were 14 people that came to help us from our sending church (Marcus Pointe Baptist, Pensacola, FL). We also had several local churches donate volunteers to help in different capacities. Thanks to all who helped!

• We had the most exciting environment set-up in the lobby where we served coffee and donuts. A few weeks ago, I was eating at sandwich place and met a man that was playing acoustic guitar and singing some classic songs in the corner. I invited him to play for our lobby on Launch Sunday. He came and was a instant hit!

• We gave out about 100 books to first time guests (1 per family). The book was "How Good is Good Enough" by Andy Stanley. We had also put a personal handwritten letter in each book.

• Met so many people as they left. Had some awesome conversations - "looking for a new church home", "we are coming back next week", "we have been catholics all of our lives and we're tired of all the rules, so we plan to make Lakepointe our new home", etc.

• Great week of follow-ups. On Monday, we emailed all of our first time guests with an optional survey to be filled out. Also on Monday, we mailed handwritten "thank you" notes with a $5 coffee card to each 1st time guest families. On Tuesday-Friday, we made personal phone calls to every family to thank them for coming and to see if they had any questions about our church - we still have more calls to make but hope to contact everyone by Easter.

• We collected about 19 great responses from the survey. We asked 4 questions: 1. What did you notice first?, 2. What did you like best?, 3. What was your overall impression? and 4. How can we pray for you?. I'll try to post some of the top responses next week.

• The buzz about Lakepointe is still going on. Today, we had a team of people involved in a community outreach at the Macomb Rec Center inviting people to our Easter service. Many people mentioned that they knew about our church!

• Yesterday, we mailed out 20,000 mailers promoting Easter. We are praying for a great turnout on one of the biggest day in the year!

• On a side note, last Sunday was Nate (my son) birthday! He turned 3. This evening, we had a party for him and had a great time at my parent's house.

Please continue to pray for us as we establish Lakepointe in our community! We are off to a great start - to our God be the glory as we continue to make His NAME more famous in Macomb, MI! Time for bed - we get to do this again tomorrow AM!