Restored By God

On Easter Sunday and EVERY Sunday Northwest Community Church celebrated the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Why? Because we believe it is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that restores our relationship with God. We celebrated the fact that God does not want nor expect us to clean up our own mess.  God allows us to exchange our mess for the forgiveness, hope, and bright future found in Jesus Christ when we profess Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior.  We discovered in Romans that once this exchange occurs, God begins to restore our lives from the inside out. And then as if you are watching a Ginsu Knife commercial the story gets even better... As God restores our lives he invites us to share the story of life-change with others. It's truly an amazing journey!

At Northwest, we believe it is our responsibility and privilege to reflect God's character and share the message of restoration with everyone we meet. In the weeks leading up to Easter Sunday, I could not have been more proud at the way Northwest lived out this incredible responsibility and privilege.  I continue to hear stories from Northwesters who have recently stepped out of their comfort zone to serve a neighbor, reach out to a coworker, invite a family member, and open up their home to develop new friendships in order to earn the right to share the message of Christ with people who may be far from God.  As a young church we are learning that discipleship (showing people how to follow Jesus Christ) requires conversation, modeling, encouragement, debriefing, and practice, all of which happen in the context of relationship.

As we continue to build relationships and invest in other people, we are reminded that there are 3 moving parts in the discipleship process:

1. God’s Part (John 6:44)
• Draws people to Himself
• Justification and sanctification
2. Our Part (Colossians 4:2-6)
• Pray for others
• Live wisely
• Make the most of every relationship God gives us
3. Their Part (Matthew 19:16-22)
• Each person is responsible for either accepting or rejecting Jesus Christ
• Individuals must make a personal commitment to Jesus Christ; You can't do it for them

It is my prayer Northwest will remained focused on trusting God to do his part while at the same time doing our part in a way that points people to the only God who is capable of restoring lives.

Restored

Come join us for Week 1 of Restored at Northwest on Easter Sunday, March 31 at 10am. Together we will learn that God is a restoration expert specializing in restoring people.  If you have never experienced life at Northwest you will discover that we are a group of imperfect people who have encountered the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. God is knocking off our rough edges, giving us hope, and allowing us to live with purpose, meaning, and excitement. Along the way, we want to share this experience with an many people as possible.

Easter Sunday will be an opportunity for you to gather with others for worship and teaching designed to help you connect with God. Northwest will be a place where you can come as you are, meet new people, and pick up a fresh cup of coffee. The environment will be casual, friendly, and contemporary. As you enter Cooper Elementary, you will have the opportunity to check in your children ages birth – preschool at Northwest Kids. For parents of children ages K-5th grade, we encourage families to worship together until the children are directed to a separate time of Bible teaching during the service. Basically Sunday mornings at Northwest will help you and your family focus on the things in life that are the most important...your relationship with God and your relationships with other people. 

For more information check our website or on Facebook.

Northwest Kids

From the start Northwest has been modeled after the basic blueprint for the Church given to us in the Bible.  We believe that the New Testament not only describes how the early church got started, but it also prescribes how we are to function and operate today. For example, in 1 Cor. 12, the human body is used as an analogy to describe how each member of a healthy church is to be valued and needed.  In addition, Acts 2 describes the attitude of the early church as members made great sacrifices to serve each other and meet the needs of a growing church.  Likewise, we want to duplicate a similar culture so that every member feels valued, needed, and personally responsible for the health and growth of Northwest.  As the needs of a growing church fluctuate, we anticipate sharing specific needs with you and then watching as God uses our individual gifts and talents to meet those needs. 

Recently Cassi Luka, our Children’s Director, sent a letter out to all the parents with children involved in Northwest Kids. Cassi reminded us that over the past three years the children’s ministry has grown from only 1 child when we first launched to now averaging 20 – 25 children each Sunday morning.  Cassi and her team of leaders who consist of Keslyn Erb, Michelle Sanders, and Jennifer Powers have done an amazing job at adapting to the growth and staying focused on the vision of discipling children and equipping parents.   

Ideally a growing ministry of this size requires 23 adult volunteers each serving one Sunday per month. However, Northwest Kids currently has only 15 adult volunteers on the rotation.  Beginning on Sunday, May 5 the key areas of need for the children’s ministry will be:

• Nursery (Birth - Walking)
• Toddler (1 - 3 Year Olds)
• Early Elementary (PreK - 2nd Grade)
• Hall Monitors

As you can see, Northwest Kids needs 8 additional volunteers in order to meet the needs of a growing children’s ministry.  Over the next few days, please prayerfully consider if you would be willing to serve in this important area in the life of Northwest. Feel free to contact Cassi Luka at cmluka01@gmail.com or 502-939-8281 for further information and questions about how to become involved in what God is doing through Northwest Kids.

Happy Birthday Northwest

This coming Sunday Northwest Community Church will celebrate 3 years since we officially launched in Bella Vista, AR.  As we celebrate together we are going to focus our lives on God's faithfulness and the life-change He has produced in us.  During the worship service we will wrap up our teaching series Stretched as we continue to see how being stretched causes us to depend more on God and less on ourselves.

     
This week we will continue to study God's character as revealed through the life of Moses. In Exodus 18 we will see how God was stretching Moses' leadership ability to accomplish a significant movement of God. In the midst of being stretched, Moses's father-in-law, Jethro, showed Moses how to setup a produce and release culture and shared with him the benefits it would have on his leadership, the well-being of people, and the overall movement of God. In addition, we are going to see how a P&R culture has heavily influenced the culture of Northwest.  In fact, mission and vision are directly linked to the principle of produce and release.

The mission God has given us at Northwest is to produce and release leaders who are fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. Our mission comes right out of the Great Commission as Jesus gave his followers their final instructions.  As a result, Northwest is setup to be a leadership factory that cranks out leaders (disciples) who are willing to devote their lives towards making the name of Jesus Christ famous in their community, workplace, school, circles of influence, and around the globe. Produce and release is who we are. It defines why, how, and what we do. And of course our mission is closely tied to our vision which is to lead people to experience a new life in Christ. We want to see people's lives transformed by Jesus Christ. Our mission and vision are the driving reasons we launched Northwest three years ago.

In light of this milestone, we recently asked ourselves a challenging question. What would it take for us to lead 200 people in worship on Easter Sunday, March 31? Our answer had two components:

1. Intentional Obedience on our part to invited unchurched friends, family members, and neighbors.
2. Prayerful Dependence upon God as we ask God to move and stretch us to reach more people. 

But, here's the deal. This is not just a gimmicky church growth strategy. Rather it is our attempt as a young church to allow God to stretch us. We want to live out our mission, vision, and the lessons God has been teaching us in His Word. We want God to continually stretch us out of our comfort zones and cause us to depend more on Him and less on ourselves because we are serious about our mission and vision.

Happy Birthday Northwest! May God stretch us in new ways as we follow Him with total abandonment and obedience this next year.  

Oh yeah, and we will have a big lunch after the worship service on Sunday. There will be a huge cake and a ton of smoked meat. Bring a side to share and come ready to meet new people.