God's Plan for 2019
Woohoo! Men’s Retreat was amazing once again. Raw authenticity, relentless encouragement, biblical authenticity, and genuine friendship all over the place. It was also fun to get shot with arrows, skid on the top of water after zip-lining down a mountain, and playing basketball at midnight! (I guess you had to be there.)
As we study the Bible and seek to be a community that puts God’s glory on display, builds courageous people, and engages in society’s pain, we are consistently asking ourselves what our church family is lacking. For the past three years Jesus has given us a direct answer.
In 2016 we experienced leadership transition. Our leadership spent countless hours refining a renewed vision for Living Streams. In the end, we launched something called, “Vision Nights”—six weeks of sharing and teaching designed to infuse more vision into our church culture.
In 2017 we heard Jesus say we lacked community and unity. In response, we launched “Fam Nights.” The goal was to bring together different age groups, socio-economic categories, and ethnicities, to eat together, and to grow in our relationships with Christ and each another.
In 2018 Jesus told us we lacked in the area of service. We went a little crazy and launched, “Kinetic Missions” and “Urban Kinetic.” The response took our breath away. Over two hundred people participated in catalyzing missions experiences; and over three hundred people engaged in society’s pain by serving in a variety of outreaches right here in Phoenix.
Now, that brings us to 2019. This year our leadership is hearing Jesus say that we lack in “the church” that which is supposed to happen outside of church: People gathering in the name of Jesus outside of the Sunday morning context. As a response, we are launching Life Groups—small groups of adults who gather consistently for raw authenticity, relentless encouragement, biblical counsel, and genuine friendship.
We believe participation in a Life Group is vital for those who consider themselves a part of the Living Streams family. Some of the richest “pay dirt” in Christian spiritual formation takes place in Life Group experiences.
Beginning August 25 we will ask everyone attending Living Streams to join a Life Group. We understand that it may take some courage, as well as some adjustment in weekly routines; but we promise to try to make this easy and enjoyable. We will provide the groups, leaders, and curriculum to help our congregation find the pay dirt that God has for us in these Life Groups.
If you are ready, click on the link below to register.
If you are not ready, click on the link below to register…or at least to get more information.
https://www.livingstreams.org/groups
David