January 5th, 2012
This is the last week we have of preparing our new facility! Can you believe it? For weeks we have been working hard, and now we are down to the final touches in each of the environments. We’re doing all this so that you and your family will have an awesome place to grow in your relationships with God. We’re also doing all this so that you have a physical place that you can point to and say to your friends and their families, “Why don’t you come to church with me?” and so that you can watch their relationships with God grow too.
Since the launch of Access Church nearly five years ago, we have strived to make Access Church a place where you are encouraged and equipped to pursue intimacy with God, experience community with insiders, and have influence with outsiders. This week you should be so excited that you’ve got a great excuse to ask a friend to join you this Sunday. Invite them to sit through the service with you, and take them out to lunch. Know that the message and music have been selected especially with outsiders in mind as we anticipate visitors who are coming to see what is going on in the neighborhood.
As we prepare for the official launch of our new facility, please pray that it will be a place of joy, truth, rescue, and salvation. This isn’t about having a building. This is about helping people grow!
Thanks for all that you’ve done to help Access Church get this far. Thanks also for trusting God with the future of Access Church.
Please pray for these things:
- Pray for our staff and volunteers as we lead the transition from being a portable church to a church with a more permanent facility.
- Pray for the people who you are inviting to attend with you by name.
- Pray for the challenges we may face with traffic in and out of our new location.
- Pray that God will fill in all of the gaps on the day of our grand opening—working both in us and through us.
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December 29th, 2011
We have new neighbors! Some of the most impactful relationships I had growing up were those with my neighbors! I also recall getting new neighbors next door or down the street and wondering if they would be fun, friendly folks or the type of neighbors you see pull in and out of the garage everyday without a wave or nod of the head. There were always so many things to learn and observe about the people next door.
In some strange way, neighbors become a part of your life, for better or worse. As Access Church moves into our new building, we have the incredible opportunity to know and invest in the people next door. As we become the new kids on the block, join us in praying that we will influence and love well. We want to be good neighbors as we enter an already existing community!
Here are a few thoughts to guide you as you pray:
- Pray that God will give us opportunities to know and serve our neighbors.
- Pray that God will use Access Church to influence our neighbors to know and love God.
- Pray that the additional traffic Access Church brings will create a healthy curiosity and buzz in the communities around our new building.
- Pray that we would take captive every opportunity to share the reason for the hope within us with our new neighbors.
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December 27th, 2011
One of the best gifts we can give to the next generation is a healthy home. Healthy homes begin with healthy marriages. But anyone who has been married can tell you that it’s very difficult to have a great marriage. There are so many challenges—trying to understand the opposite sex, baggage from our childhood, temptations from the world around us, busyness in all of our lives that keeps us from having time or energy to truly care for each other well, and even the realities of trying to raise children.
So this week, will you spend some time praying for the married couples of Access Church? Here are some ways you can pray for them:
- Pray that they’ll have the courage to spend time with a biblical counselor to make their marriage healthier.
- Pray that they’ll build a daily discipline of connecting with each other, not just to discuss events of the day, but to pray, share their feelings, and genuinely connect.
- Pray that they’ll connect their lives with other couples in a Community Group.
- Pray that they’ll fight together for the oneness God intends for them to experience.
- Pray that they’ll remain emotionally and physically faithful to one another.
- Pray that husbands will love their wives sacrificially and make them feel like the number-one priority in their lives.
- Pray that wives will respect their husbands, whether they deserve it or not.
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December 20th, 2011
In just 18 days, we’ll be gathering for our first Sunday in our new building on Losco Road. In the meantime, we’ve got a lot to do!
Just today a neighbor who was jogging past my house stopped and said, “The church is looking good!”
I looked at her, puzzled. We have never had a conversation about church, and I was confused.
“Losco,” she said. “I was showing some clients a house over on Losco, so I stopped in to see the church. It’s looking good. We haven’t gone to church since we got married, but I’m going to try and get my husband to start going in January. January 8th, right?”
I nodded, and she jogged away.
Folks, January is going to bring some awesome opportunities. Let’s get ready! Join us at Losco this week, and we’ll keep making serious progress!
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December 16th, 2011
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December 16th, 2011
We’re so excited about moving to two services when we move to the Losco campus!
After listing the pros in cons in every staff meeting since August, we’ve settled on these strong reasons to take this step.
- We believe it creates the best possible experience for first-timers. While staff and leaders love to see a big crowd packed into our environments, it’s not always as fun if you are the person who has to stand in the back, and not very reassuring to see your child placed in a room that seems jam-packed full of kids.
- We have always said that if we could choose just one word to define our organization, it would be, “relational.” Two services will allow our Waumba, UpStreet, and Transit leaders to serve on a weekly basis, which builds meaningful relationships with their students.
- Our volunteers are missing the opportunity to worship. Serving twice a month means that many leaders are only able to attend worship once a month. Or less. That’s not a sustainable strategy.
- We believe that our church is about to reach hundreds more people, and we want to be prepared to receive them well. We have always said that our church exists for those who aren’t here yet, and this is opportunity doubles our chances of reaching them. We’re turning up the volume on our serving and rolling out the red carpet!
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December 14th, 2011
Ephesians 4.3-6 says, “Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all.”
The way that we speak about other churches in Jacksonville, the way that we embrace each other in our common mission, and the way we offer resources to each other says more about our faith in God than any other activity we can engage in. Did you know that scripture records one instance of Jesus praying for us? It’s in John 17, and he prays that we would “all be one…so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
It’s our desire that the evangelical churches in this area would view themselves as teammates rather than opponents. Your prayers can help make this a reality.
Will you please pick a different church each day this week and pray for them to be the church God dreams of them being? Will you also pray for Andy Stanley and the North Point churches?
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December 6th, 2011
As we transition to our new facility, there are many changes on the horizon for Student Ministry at Access Church. We are very excited about the prospect of creating a permanent, irresistible environment for middle- and high-school students that will foster community and growing relationships with Jesus.
- Pray that we will be able to lead hundreds more middle- and high-school students into a relationship with Jesus.
- Pray that God will develop a burden in students for their unchurched and non-believing friends.
- Pray that more and more middle- and high-school students would invest in and invite their friends to one of our environments.
- Pray that students would experience life change as they engage in authentic community in their small groups.
- Pray for our small-group leaders, who carry an enormous responsibility of helping middle- and high-school students navigate these years spiritually, relationally, and emotionally.
- Access Student Ministry has the potential to help entire families grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Pray for the many families who might be disconnected from God and church altogether, but who could potentially reconnect simply because their middle- or high-school student wants to attend church.
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November 29th, 2011
You guys are amazing. Simply amazing! Thank you for all you have done to get us this far on the new facility. We still have a long way to go, and January 8 is rapidly approaching. We have six weeks to make this place look incredible. Your time, given sacrificially, could be what makes the difference between launching on January 8 with all of our environments ready or just a few.
It seems that, like any good project, the more we complete, the longer our list gets! Here is our schedule for this week:
Tuesday—Thursday, 6:00—9:00pm
Saturday, 8:00am—5:00pm
Sunday, 2:00—6:00pm
However, we have folks at the building just about all the time now, so if you’d like to work during the weekdays, just let us know, and we’ll be here to open the building!
Here are the jobs we’re working on this week. It’s a lot, and your help will make a huge difference!!
Exterior
- Haul away smoker on UpStreet side of building
- Sweep and pressure wash entrances
- Pressure wash sidewalks
- Clean windows
- Spray for wasps, knock down nests
Auditorium
- Remove blinds from Starting Point windows
- Clean floors
- Build sound-absorption panels
- Hang sound-absorption panels
Landscaping
- Cut back bushes around the Attic
- Remove two trees in front of the Attic
Restrooms
- Clean ceilings
- Remove blinds
- Replace (and raise?) countertops
- Replace fixtures
- Remove paper-towel and soap dispensers
- Replace trash cans
- Paint walls
Green Room
- Remove doors
- Remove copier, lockers, etc.
- Remove overhead cabinets
- Remove drywall separating east rooms
- Paint walls
The Attic
- Remove chair rail and ceiling fan
- Replace or remove shutters on front
- Install AVL wiring
- Paint cabinets in kitchen
- Paint in garage, hall, laundry area
- Paint walls in kitchen
- Clean garage
- Paint walls in garage
- Paint walls throughout
- Repair all window locks
- Fix bball hoop outside
- Pressure wash driveway, spray roundup
Thanks for leveraging all that God has given you for the greatest purpose possible! You’re not just changing a facility. You’re changing environments that God will use to change lives!
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November 29th, 2011
Did you know that most kids form their entire idea of who God is and choose whether or not they’ll have a relationship with Him before leaving 5th grade? Kids grow up so fast and are changing every day. This is why we want UpStreet to be a place where kids feel safe to be who they are but free to grow into who they are becoming.
We teach kids biblical virtues that can be lived out in their daily lives. Our desire is for every 5th grader to walk out of UpStreet knowing they can trust God no matter what, they need to make the wise choice, and they should treat others the way they want to be treated.
Please join us in praying for UpStreet in the following areas:
- Pray that UpStreet kids would know and understand who Jesus is and what He did for them on the cross. Pray that they would choose to put their faith in Him.
- Pray for engaging volunteer hosts, singers, storytellers, and production technicians to teach kids who God is and how He wants them to live.
- Pray for coaches and small-group leaders who want to invest in children’s lives and form meaningful relationships with kids.
- Pray that we could partner with parents to help them have spiritual conversations with their kids at home.
- Pray that UpStreet kids will know they can trust God no matter what, that they will learn to make the wise choice, and that they will choose to treat others the way they want to be treated.
- Pray that UpStreet kids won’t just be hearers of the Word, but they would be doers as well. (James 1:22)
- Pray that UpStreet would be an environment where parents leave thinking, “I can’t imagine a better place for my kids to be,” and kids leave thinking, “That was so much fun! I can’t wait to come back next week.”
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