Awaken City Church

Awaken City Church….. “Awakened Hearts Loving Our City”

Here are a few quick announcements:

Last Meeting Before Launch: This SATUTRDAY night will be our last meeting before we go public on January 10! Can you believe it? We are getting ready to give birth to another life giving church in the city of Greensboro. Saturday night will be a time of worship and prayer as we come together to cry out to God on behalf of our church and our city. We will also give away t-shirts and invite cards to all of those who have not yet received them!

Public Launch: Will you consider joining us on this historic day? I know many of you who receive our update go to other life giving churches here in Greensboro and we are certainly glad for that. We are not trying to pull anyone away from their church, but rather asking you to stand with us as celebrate this historic event! So many of you have prayed, given and encouraged us all along the way and we would love for you to be our honored guests as we officially launch Awaken City church. Doors will open at 10:00 and our service will start promptly at 10:30.

Happy New Year!

Awaken City Church….. “Awakened Hearts Loving Our City”

As we are closing in on the end of this year and decade I am already in the process of preparation for 2010. For me it means doing an honest assessment of my life and sorting through the clutter. Before I can seriously look at the new places I want to go, I have to be willing to leave the places that I have been. As we prepare for 2010 I believe the first step is to ask yourself what things need to be left behind? Are their habits or sin patterns that need to be broken? is there forgiveness that needs to be extended? Are their mindsets and perspectives that need adjustment? We have to be courageous enough to let go of anything that will keep us from all that God has for us in 2010. Jonah 2:8 says, “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”

Secondly, as we close in on 2010 we have to be willing to prepare, to get ready, to position ourselves for all that is coming! In light of this, I wanted to give you more info and some options to think through regarding our coming 21 day fast! Before you look over the different options I think it might be important to answer the following questions:

· When is the last time your faith cost you something?

· What does radical love really look like?

· Are you really satisfied with just attending church?

· Is there an unshakable resolve that marks your life as you commit yourself to the destiny of Awaken City Church that includes, your time, your commitment and your finances?

We must embrace the same attitude as King David!

But King David replied to Araunah, "No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing." 1 Chronicles 21:24

With that, please look over the different options and start making plans now on how you will participate in our upcoming fast.

While preparing for your fast, it is important to choose ahead of time what type of fast you will participate in. Not only will this help with making the necessary preparations to implement your plan, but as you commit to a specific fast ahead of time, and know how you’re going to do it, you will position yourself to finish strong.

Choosing your fasting plan is a very personal decision. We are all at different places in our walk with God and our spirituality should never be a cause for comparison or competition. There is nothing more “inherently spiritual” about one type of fast as opposed to another. Your personal fast should present a level of challenge to it, but know your body, know your options, and most importantly, seek God in prayer about this and follow what the Holy Spirit leads you to do. It’s also important to not let what you eat or do not eat become the focus of your fast. This is a time to disconnect enough with your regular patterns and habits in order to connect closer to God.

Listed below, are some options and variations of different types of fasts you can choose to engage in. As you read over the information provided here, please consider how it applies to your circumstances and convictions. Fasting does require reasonable precautions. If you have any health concerns, please consult your physician prior to beginning your fast – especially if you are taking medication, have a chronic condition, or if you are pregnant or nursing.

This type of fast refers to omitting a specific item(s), activity or habit from your time of prayer and fasting. For example, you may choose to eliminate red meat, processed or fast food, or sweets. It could also involve fasting from an activity or habit, such as television watching, or social media.

The Daniel fast is a great model to follow that proves to be extremely effective for spiritual focus, bodily discipline and purification in the body and soul. It is probably one of the most commonly referred to types of fasts, however within the term “Daniel Fast”, there is room for broad interpretation. In the book of Daniel, we find two different times where Daniel fasted, once in Daniel 1 and again in Daniel 10. Daniel 1 states that he ate vegetables and water, and in Daniel 10, while the passage does not give a specific list of foods that Daniel ate, it does state that Daniel ate no rich (or choice) foods as well as no meat or wine. So based on these two verses, we can see that either of these, or any variations in between constitutes a fast. Again, there is nothing “inherently spiritual” about one type of fast as opposed to another. It is important to seek God in prayer and follow what the Holy Spirit leads you to do.

Here are some links that provide some suggestions of what a Daniel fast can look like as well as some recipe options.

A juice fast is when no solid food is consumed and instead involves the intake of vegetable juices, fruit juices and water.

A water fast is eating no foods and drinking no liquids except water for a period of time. Extreme precautions should be taken with a water fast and should be done under the direction supervision and monitoring of your physician.

A total fast is where nothing – neither liquid, solid food or even water is consumed for a period of time. We do not recommend total fasting as this can be very dangerous to your health. Attempting to go without water especially, for any period of time can be extremely harmful to the body.

Excited about our future!

Awaken City Church….. “Awakened Hearts Loving Our City”

As most of you know, we began a 40 day fast some time ago in preparation for our January launch. The beauty of this fast is that we have left it up to everyone to decide how they wanted to fast. This certainly has been of time of spiritual preparation along with all the other practical preparation we are in the process of as we approach January 10.

A few days ago I was made aware of another fast that will begin on January 10 that will include hundreds of churches all across the globe. The name of this fast is “Awakening” and it is simply a 21 day fast to seek God as we prepare to enter into, not just a new year, but a new decade! As I began to learn more about this event my heart was overwhelmed with excitement! I don’t believe this is a coincidence! I think this is an appointed time for the Church as a whole, but more specifically for us as we launch a brand new work in our city. Because I feel so strongly about this, in that I truly believe God is calling us at Awaken to this, I am challenging us ALL to participate as a church. I think God is setting us up to do more than we can even ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20). Right now, all over the globe, thousands are being swept into the Kingdom. For example, it is estimated that right now one million people come to Christ in just one week all over the world! I’m convinced more than ever that this church was God’s idea and over the past few months we have certainly seen the evidence of that! As we approach the new year I want to encourage you to begin to prepare yourself for this corporate fast as we look forward to all that God is getting ready to do. As you know Jesus himself set 40 days aside to pray and fast before he started his public ministry! As the Lead Pastor of Awaken City Church I don’t believe there is anything greater that we can do as God’s people to release all that He has for us, therefore I am calling all of you who call Awaken City home to participate in this great event! I will be sending out more info in the coming days and we will certainly be talking more about this in our Sunday morning gatherings in January, but I wanted to go ahead and let you know so we are all on the same page.

Joel 1:14

Expecting Great Things!

All,

For those who would like to give a year end contribution you can mail them to 6510 Highland oak Dr. Greensboro, NC 27410. As long as the envelope is post marked December 31st or earlier it will count for 2009.

Awaken City Church….. “Awakened Hearts Loving Our City”

Just a quick reminder that we will not be meeting this weekend. However, we will still meet in the morning for our homeless ministry at 8:15 at Center City Park.

Awaken City Church….. “Awakened Hearts Loving Our City”

All,

In light of the weather and our desire to be as safe as possible we are going to move our corporate meeting from 6:30PM to 2:00PM in the afternoon tomorrow. We will still have our Christmas Party and Karaoke fun. We also give away t-shirts to all who come along with invite cards. Don’t forget to come with a heavy horderve to share and any money raised for our Karaoke fundraiser.

We are still on go for our normal time for the homeless in the morning. Be at Center City Park at 8:15.

Also, the Parade of Homes has been rescheduled for Monday night starting at the Burks at 6:30.

Awaken City Church….. “Awakened Hearts Loving Our City”

Here are just a few quick updates.

First, after kicking around our “A is for Apple” campaign, we decided that it was taking too much of our time and resources to pull it off like we wanted to at this time. Instead, we have created invite cards and t-shirts for our upcoming launch. Along with our web site, this should give us two great tools for us to get the word out about Awaken City Church. The web site is now live and you can go to www.awakencitychurch.com to check it out for yourself! Obviously, we will be adding new stuff in the coming days and weeks, but it’s done in terms of being ready for people to use as a resource to learn more about ACC.

Parade of Homes – We are going to re-schedule this event because of the snow. I will let you know the new date as soon as I know.

Homeless – We WILL still do all we have planned tomorrow morning. Remember, the homeless are still in great need no matter the weather. We need to be there at 8:15 so make sure you leave extra early to allow yourself enough time for travel. I believe it will be a powerful statement to all our homeless friends to see us there in spite of the weather. Look at it like this: Our homeless friends will have a “White Christmas!”

Tomorrow Night – I will send out another e-mail to let everyone know if we are still having our Christmas Party and Karaoke celebration tomorrow night so stay tuned.

I hope everyone is enjoying the snow and this special opportunity to slow down and enjoy your family!

I love you all!!