In case you missed it, here’s a quick recap from last night’s Core Group Meeting:

• "Welcome to Pinelake Clinton."  It felt good to say those words for the first time.  Loved the applause!
• How awesome was it to worship together!  I got a little choked up singing "God of This City."  I can’t wait to see what "greater things" God is going to do.
• Chip pointed out two images that will be so important to us over the coming weeks: 1) the empty chair, and 2) the baptistry.  Each empty chair represents a person that hasn’t heard the good news of Jesus Christ.  The baptistry represents stories of lifechange.  Ultimately, that’s why we’re planting a church in Clinton - so that people who don’t know Jesus may come to know Him as their Lord and Savior.
• Finally, lots of good "nuts and bolts" training for the various servant leadership teams.

If you missed last night, two things you need to know:

1. It’s not too late to sign up for one of our servant leadership teams.  We need your help!  Just click here.
2. The first preview service will be November 30 at 10:30 a.m.  We’re close!

What about you?  Any thoughts?

From an asbestos filled shell to a God filled church. What a transformation!

I loved this quote from one of our servant leaders after tonight’s Core Group Meeting.  I’ll forever remember your faces as you came through the doors.  The sound of your voices as we sang for the first time.  Your willing spirits to do whatever it takes.

I’ll post pictures and updates soon.  For now, let me just say thank you for allowing me to go on this journey with you.  Greater things are yet to come…

As I’m writing this, we’re less than 24 hours away from the next Core Group Meeting.  Chances are, by the time you read it, we’ll be less than 12 hours away.  Honestly, I don’t know how I’ll sleep tonight.

I can’t wait for you to see the building.  It’s awesome!

I wish I could see your faces throughout the night.  I don’t want to give away all the surprises as to what we’ll do Wednesday night, but I think it’s going to be really cool.  Definitely a night to remember.

I wonder what I’m going to say.  I have a million things I want to tell you, but barely enough time to tell you two.

I’m anxious about how you’ll respond.  Launching a church isn’t easy.

Mostly, I’m pumped about what the Lord is going to do.  It’s an honor to serve Him, and all along the way I feel like we’ve walked in obedience where He’s led.  No matter what happens, He gets all the glory and honor and praise! 

It’s not about the building.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about you.  It’s not about Pinelake.  It’s about the One who created us, who sustains us, who loves us, who gave His life for us, who conquered the grave, who sits at the right hand of God, and who one day is coming again for us.

I can’t wait to do HIS work!  See you Wednesday night at 6:15.  Come with your heart ready.
 

There was a great article in the Clarion Ledger this morning concerning the Pinelake Clinton campus.  Here’s a link to the article in case you missed it:

 “Spreading the Word: Pinelake Church to open Clinton campus”

I guess this means we’re official now!  Don’t forget about:

• The Core Group Meeting next Wednesday night
• Signing up for a ministry team

Did you read your Life Journal this morning?  It was such an appropriate passage for the Clinton campus.  Here’s a highlight:

1 Corinthians 12:4-7
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.  And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.  There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.  But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

Paul spends the whole chapter talking about how God has gifted each of us to play a role within His church.  And He places members within the church with particular gifts to accomplish His purposes just as He desires (vs. 18).

At Pinelake, our goal is to help you discover and fulfill your God-given purpose for living.  Part of that purpose is serving a local church.  We need you!  When you choose not to serve, you suffer because you’re not doing all that God created you to do.  But the rest of the body also suffers because we’re not benefitting from your unique call and gifting.

Here’s how you can help.  Go here, and let us know what ministry teams you feel will best allow you to use your unique spiritual gifts, passions, abilities, personality, and experiences to build up the body.  At the Core Group Meeting next Wednesday, we’re going to divide into these ministry teams so that we can all be equipped come time for the first service.

If you’d like to read more about spiritual gifts, check out these chapters in the Bible - 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, Romans 12, 1 Peter 4.

This morning I had a stark realization that we’re only 8 days away from our next Core Group Meeting and less than a month away from our first preview service.  I don’t know if words can adequately describe the excitement/anxiety/fear/I can’t believe it’s finally almost here feelings I’ve been experiencing all day.  I’m pumped!  Really.  But I’m also overwhelmed.  This is definitely a God-sized task.  Which is maybe the most encouraging sentence in the whole paragraph above.

I love this prayer of Paul in Ephesians 3.  Paul was realizing who he was (the very least of all saints - vs. 8a), but at the same time the incredible God-sized task God had placed before him (vs. 8b-9).  Paul’s response was to pray.

Ephesians 3:14-21
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Don’t you want to be part of something like that?  Where God does something far more abundant than anything we could ever think or imagine!  I believe that’s exactly what He wants to do in Clinton.

So that’s what I’m praying over you today.  That He would strengthen your Spirit.  That you would know His love.  That He would fill you with the fullness of God.  That He would prepare you for the task He is about to accomplish.  It’s humbling to think God is going to use sinners like us to accomplish His work.  I pray that He would be glorified in this church!

I promised earlier this week to get you the details concerning our next Core Group Meeting.  Well, here they are! 

What: Clinton Core Group Meeting
When: Wednesday, November 19, at 6:15 p.m.
Where: New Pinelake Clinton campus
Who: Anyone interested in being a part of the Pinelake Clinton launch

This will be a great opportunity for you to see the new campus as construction should be close to (if not completely) finished.  We’ll also talk specifically about launch dates, the Christmas Eve services, and other details.  Lastly, we’ll offer some specific training for each of the different ministry teams.

Most of you have seen this list before, but just in case be praying specifically about where God may want you to serve.  Listed below are just some of the various servant leadership roles:

• Usher
• Greeter
• Welcome Desk team
• Baptism team
• Preschool
• Children
• Student
• Tech (Sound, video, and lights)
• Praise Team
• Band

We’re really getting close now.  Hope you’re getting excited!

We’re going to have another Core Group Meeting soon (look for details this week!), but as we get closer to the launch, I’m realizing there are still a few specific servant leadership needs that we need to be prepared for.  Listed below are several of those needs.  If you’d like to serve in one of the positions below, it would be great if you could take the next couple of weeks and volunteer at either the Reservoir or Madison campus to get a better idea of the specific needs of each servant leader position.  Or at least let us know who you are.  Just send me an email to mmanuel@pinelake.org, and I’d love to help you get connected.

Here are a few of the needs:

1. Serve at The Source, our on-campus bookstore
2. Help run sound
3. Help run video.  This one is pretty important for a multi-site campus! 
4. Help run MediaShout.  This is the program that puts the lyrics on the screen during worship.
5. Play in the band.  Let me know if you have a couple of years experience on an instrument.
6. Sing on the praise team.

There are plenty of other ways you can get involved including serving in the Preschool, Elementary, or Student Ministry.  Or maybe serving as an usher, greeter, or part of the Welcome Desk team.  We’ll talk more about those at the Core Group Meeting in a couple of weeks.  In the meantime, pray…pray…pray!

Job 25:2
Dominion and awe belong to Him who establishes peace in His heights.

Monday, the day before the election, I had just about had all I could take of political ads, political commentary, and political jargon.  I just wanted Tuesday to be over.  In many ways, it seems panic and paranoia are at an all time high.  Maybe it’s the economy.  Maybe it’s the price of gas.  Maybe it’s the Internet.  But for me, this verse out of Job in the Life Journal reading plan was timely.

Regardless of who wins Tuesday, dominion and awe belong to the Lord.  My dictionary defines dominion as "sovereignty."  It defines sovereignty as "supreme power or authority."  That’s the God we serve.  Supreme power and authority belongs to God alone, and no man - not even the President of the United States - can take that away from Him.  He is the One who deserves and demands our admiration and our awe.  He is the One who has the ability to establish peace.

I hope you’ll join me in praying for whoever is declared the winner of today’s election.  If there is any hope for either candidate, it will be because the God who has "dominion and awe" and "establishes peace" is gracious and grants favor to His people.  May God be gracious to us all as we bless Him. 

I don’t know if you noticed the ad on the back page of the new DISCOVER magazine (pictured above), but Pinelake is coming to Clinton on Christmas Eve!  I hope that excites you as much as it does me.  And we’re not having just one service but two!!

That means there will be plenty of empty seats for you to invite your friends, your neighbors, and your co-workers.  We’re having two services not because we know enough people to fill all the seats, but because we believe there’s no better gift you can share with your friends than Jesus.

I’ll share more details soon, but just wanted to make sure you saw this and made plans to join us on Christmas Eve.  Wow!  This is really happening.