Post by Sharon Miller, a Summit member and leader at the Saturday night service at our Brier Creek Campus.
Several months ago my small group got so big that we had to make a decision: keep accepting new women, or cap it off? We’d been together for years and intimacy is a tough thing to build, so we went with the latter. Cap it.
Shortly thereafter we got an e-mail from one of the group members. She’d decided to break off from the group and plant a new one. If we were turning women away, then clearly the church needed more small groups. That’s what she aimed to do.
I eventually had a chance to sit down with her and hear more about her thinking. I was pretty challenged by it. When she started a new group it almost immediately exploded. So much so that they planted an additional two more groups in the following months. By January, they will be at six groups. She explained this phenomenon as follows:
“The girls knew from the start that God might call some of them out of the group to start new ones. We were praying for that. But in the mean time we responded to our numbers by asking for a miracle of intimacy. Even though our group was big and no one knew each other, we asked God to provide.”
This idea of praying for a “miracle of intimacy” totally blew my categories. We think of miracles in terms of an inexplicable healing from cancer, or surviving a natural disaster, not small group relationships.
The conversation made me wonder if our pragmatism makes faith unnecessary. As long as we have a system, we don’t have to rely on God to provide. Or when we do seek Him, it’s more of a “Lord, please be present in this” approach. We may exercise faith by acknowledging the need for God’s presence, but are we making room for the miraculous? Are we allowing for God to move in ways that make our systems obsolete?
Planning and organization should not be under-rated. God calls us to be good stewards of what we have. But we go awry when our systems turn into limits on where and how God can move. God can provide a miracle of intimacy in small groups that are busting at the seams. He can multiply the proverbial loaves and fishes of whatever meager resources we have. So rather than work from a theology of scarcity or a ministry driven by pragmatism, we should work from a theology of abundance. We already have more than we will ever need.
Published on Tuesday, December 8, 2009 @ 8:28 AM CDT
Post by Jonathan Welch, the worship pastor for the Saturday service at our Brier Creek Campus.
As one of the worship pastors at the Summit, worship is one of the most significant words in my vocabulary. (After all, it’s in my job title!) What comes to mind when you hear the word “worship”? Briefly, I want to challenge your understanding of that word…
First, we are created to worship. Yes, Chris Tomlin is right, you and I were made to worship. Shortly after God created Adam, He placed him in the garden and gave him a purpose—to work it and to take care of it. These two verbs, as noted by a prominent Hebrew scholar, can be translated “worship and obey.” So, the first charge given to humankind was to worship.
What exactly is worship? Worship is more than just music. In a single phrase—worship is a lifestyle. Check out Romans 12:1. After considering who God is and all that He’s done for us (Romans 1-11), the logical response is to offer our entire lives up to Him. When we encounter the living God and see the beauty of the gospel, is there a more appropriate response than a lifestyle of worship?
You can probably imagine the radical implications of this worshipful lifestyle. Every action, every circumstance, even every thought becomes an opportunity to worship our Lord. Previously mundane tasks—commuting to work, watching a movie, or even changing diapers—are transformed into intentional reflections upon the majesty of God. Before you know it, your lifestyle is the embodiment of Scriptures like Psalm 19:14 and 1 Corinthians 10:31.
As a worshipper, learning to ask the right questions is imperative. If you haven’t realized it yet, there’s not a formula for every single aspect of the worshipful life. So, start by asking yourself, “How can God be glorified in this circumstance?” Or, “Am I worshipping God with the way I do this?”
I hope this post stretches your definition of worship. Hopefully, you’ll find more freedom and meaning in everyday situations as you strive to worship God. In some of my future posts, I’ll try to unpack how this biblical lifestyle of worship can apply in specific scenarios.
Published on Tuesday, December 8, 2009 @ 8:24 AM CDT
This post was authored by Curt Alan, the Summit’s Church Planting Pastor. Curt and his family recently returned stateside after serving on our church planting team in a Muslim context in Southeast Asia.
Well, another “Black Friday” has come and gone.
I have to admit that, this year, the whole kickoff to the Christmas shopping season surprised me more than usual. For the last 3 years, my family and I spent our Christmases in a dark place on the other side of the world – a place historically hostile to the Gospel. In that setting, Christmas wasn’t wrapped in any of the cultural traditions we’ve been numbed by…and it was beautiful.
Stripped of the decorations, the mad crush at the malls, and the obligatory gift giving, we focused on celebrating the only gift that really matters and that is truly priceless – the Gospel.
In Isaiah 55, God provides a guarantee that can’t be matched by any merchant, mall, or vendor:
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
As those that have already received this gift, we have the incredible privilege of joining the mission of God. For some, this may mean bringing the Gospel to the ends of the earth, for others, it may mean bringing the Gospel to our own city…or to the office next door.
100% of the Summit’s Christmas Missions Offering will be used to bring the Gospel to places where it is desperately needed. What criteria are we, as followers of Christ, using to decide who does or doesn’t have the chance to hear about and receive the most extravagant gift ever given? Don’t let our response to “Black Friday” supersede our response to Good Friday.
As you pray through your response to the Christmas Missions Offering, please focus on giving the gift of the Gospel this year.
Published on Tuesday, December 1, 2009 @ 8:32 AM CDT
Every year, the Summit Church offers a gift to our community in the form of a Christmas music event. It's a chance for us to invite friends and neighbors to experience the Summit and hear the message of the gospel.
As a church, we are continually looking for ways to impact our community with the love of Jesus Christ. This year, instead of asking people to come to us, we are going to them. The Worship Choir will be singing at Southpoint Mall in Durham this Friday night, December 4, from 6-9 in the food court. They will sing for about 30 minutes at a time and take short breaks throughout the night. Wear your Summit t-shirts, invite a friend and come join us this Friday night!
Published on Monday, November 30, 2009 @ 2:57 PM CDT
Summit--we are challenging you to give radically to our Christmas Missions Offering. 100% of your giving to this offering goes to support people like Aaron Coe, one of our domestic church planting partners. Aaron is the pastor of the Gallery Church in New York, New York. Here's an update from Aaron.
2010 will mark the the 5th year of existence of the Gallery Church in New York City. As we approach this anniversary, I find myself looking back on all has taken place since we began this journey. It is certainly true that "the Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy." There have been a lot of victories. There have also been setbacks along the way that have proven to be great learning experiences. We are deeply indebted to the people who have journeyed with us. We are especially thankful for the partnership of churches like the Summit.
Partner churches have been vital to making our ministry happen over these last 5 years. Anytime you start a church from scratch (we literally had 8 people at our first meeting), you wonder how you are going to get the resources to accomplish the vision that God has given you. A city like New York City only compounds that anxiety. New York is one of the most expensive cities in the world. The average cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan is about $3000 a month. That’s about what we pay for our little 597 square foot slice of heaven for our family of 3. So without the partnership of churches like the Summit, our family literally wouldn’t be able to live in the middle of its "mission field."
So now that we are almost to our 5th birthday, has the strategy paid off? I’m sure this is a question that many of you are asking. I am happy to say that it has. One of the best things about living in the heart of the city is that it’s enabled us build relationships with our neighbors. These relationships have grown slowly, but over time we have seen our friendships with our neighbors grow strong – so much so that this last year, at our son’s 3rd birthday party, over 80% of the people there were our neighbors. We’re now starting to see some of these people come check out our church. Over the past couple of weeks my wife, Carmen, has had so many conversations with other moms about spiritual things…many of these women have NO ONE to talk to. Their husbands work long hours, and they are struck at home raising their children, with no family or community around them. Carmen has become a voice of encouragement in their lives and is starting to see some of the fruit of her labors.
If the city is going to be changed, it is going to be changed from the inside out--Christian people sharing Jesus with people in the midst of doing life with them. I am grateful that churches like Summit are giving us this opportunity!
Published on Tuesday, November 24, 2009 @ 1:54 PM CDT
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