As theGATHERING faith-family is determining to be a gospel-centered, disciple making community, some changes are bound to take place. Change in this regard is good. For the past year we’ve been talking about the effects of a life that not only speaks the gospel, but lives the gospel in every area of life. We looked at the model of Jesus with the disciples and then the apostles with the churches that they planted. We even hit up Paul’s encouragement to Timothy to “estrust these things to faithful men who are able to teach others also” and then Paul’s model of this in the church on Crete in Titus 2.

It seems that we can learn from the show Growing Pains at this point. Do you remember that show? This might help flood your mind with memories:

Did you catch the lyrics? If not, listen to them carefully. Consider the Growing Pains that we’re experiencing.

theGATHERING is not a church within a church. We do not have our own deacons or elders. We are not a church plant of First Euless. We are apart of the greater faith family of First Euless. As a result, we have an opportunity to connect with the other aspects of ministry within the church. WE have the opportunity to learn from the generation before us and impart truth to the generation below us. Yes, there are areas to serve within the ministry of theGATHERING, but there are many more service opportunities within the rest of the church.

As we put all of these things in the blender over the past year, we’ve {the leadership of the church + the leadership of theGATHERING} determined that it is a time for a change. As a result, the Wednesday Gathering will now move to Thursday nights at 7:00. Regardless of what we determined to do about the time, we knew that people would have to shift. Yet, because of the following, we felt this was the necessary shift:

1. It will give more people the opportunity to be involved in First Euless EQUIP classes on Wednesday nights. Rubbing shoulders with other generations within the church community.

2. People will no longer have to choose between choir or theGATHERING.

3. It will give people the opportunity to be involved in the discipleship ministries of KIDVENTURE, Young Mom’s by Choice, and Preschoolers.

4. Those serving in 360Student Ministry will no longer have to choose between it and theGATHERING.

5. We will be able to keep the earlier time, 7:00, and continue chilling afterward.

6. theGATHERING will have Campus West to ourselves on Thursday nights. 360Students will have it to themselves on Wednesday. Win win.

As a result of all of the above, we are going to end theGATERHING on Wednesdays on August 25th. We will shift to Thursdays on September 10th, which will mean that we will have the first week of September off. I’d encourage you to take that Wednesday to check out an EQUIP class.

Voice of the Martyrs, a group that monitors and mobilizes Christians to pray for persecuted brothers and sisters marks Columbia as one of the most dangerous countries for native-Christians. As a result, the increase of the church is monumental. As we are studying Acts 8, where persecution is God’s means of spreading the gospel and the church, our faith family is going to minister to those very people.

The group will be using soccer, the international language, to introduce kids to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The ladies will be showing the ladies of Columbia where true beauty can be found–He does give beauty for our ashes through the gospel. The men will be showing the guys where true strength comes from. Pray that each member of our faith family has the boldness that only comes through the Holy Spirit of God.

Family, we must pray.

We’re going to adopt the same things from our recent trips to Tanzania, where God is continuing to work among the thousands who responded to the gospel. What if we all presented our request, centered around the purpose of taking the gospel, and asked God to do something? What if we united our voices, throughout DFW and the world, to pray.

In order to mobilize theGATHERING community to pray, we’ve determined to SLOW down. Synchronize your swatches. Set your alarms on your phone to go off at 1:00 PM or set up an appointment with yourself at 1:00 PM every day. If you have the opportunity, call someone on the phone and pray with them. If not, no m

atter what you’re doing, pray for our people. Each day an update to our twitter feed will hit to lead you in prayer. If you’re not on twitter, get on there to get the update sent directly to your phone.

We’re calling it SLOW because we want to ask the Lord for the following:

S-Spirit of God to move on the individuals that are SENT (Tanzania, yes; but also the college campuses, work places, apartment complexes), in the ministry of theGATHERING, and in your life.

L-LEADERS (we call them servants) of theGATHERING (Wednesday night leaders, Sunday Connection leaders, and Community Group leaders) to be led by God and firmly established in His Word.

O-Others would come to know Christ through the speaking and living of the gospel (Who is one person in your life who needs to know Christ?)

W-What would God have you to do in order to be an answer to some of these prayers TODAY?

We always joke that we’re poor college / post college students. Yet, when most of the world lives on less than what we spend on a small fry, we soon realize that we have been extremely blessed. Take it a step further, we realize that we have a call, because we’ve been blessed, to be a blessing.

On another note: we’re pretty pumped about our new shirt. At first, we thought we’d try to get them to you as cheap as possible. However, we then took a look at what is happening in the world around us. A dose of reality set in.

What if, instead of buying a shirt for dirt cheap, you bought a shirt for what you would pay at the mall for a similar quality.

What if instead of pocketing those funds to spend on things around theGATHERING community, we allowed the cash to be released in order to impact the nations?

What if you decided which Christ-centered organization we were going to pray + give + bless?

At theGATHERING we’re going to spotlight on three different organizations that are making a difference in the world for the sake of the kingdom. Do your homework, pray about which one the Lord is leading you to support, cast your vote, buy a shirt (20$), and then we’ll tally the votes. Who knows, maybe this is what the Lord will use to shine the light on some areas of your life where you can start supporting and sending on a long-term basis so that the nations may know Jesus.

Voting will start Sunday and will end Monday, June 21st. Vote at the bottom of this post.

1. Compassion International

Several of you already sponsor one, two, or even three kiddos across the globe. We love compassion because they love kids in Jesus name. We love compassion because they partner with local churches in the countries affected by extreme poverty, so that kiddos see the love of Jesus and the gospel in action. If you want an amazing book to read by the pool this Summer, check out Compassion President’s, Dr. Wess Stafford, book called Too Small to Ignore

Compassion International

2. OneVerse

What if you didn’t have the word of God in your language? What if you had never heard of the name of Jesus in your native tongue? 34% of Christians never read their Bible. An additional 32% only read it occasionally. Yet, 353 million have no Scripture in their language. We, as a group, can help fill in the blanks with these people groups with oneverse. Today, nearly one-third of the world’s language groups representing 200 million people are still waiting for God’s Word in a language that they can understand.  Oneverse is all about accelerated Bible translation, enabling us to support local Bible translators as they make the message of God’s love available.

Oneverse

3. Churches Helping Churches : Haiti

Churches Helping Churches was created to address the immediate and long-term needs of churches when disaster befalls a country, region, city, or people in the spirit of Galatians 6:10—“…let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

Both throughout history and following specific tragedies it is often the local church that cares for widows, orphans, and the poor. It is the church who performs the funerals, grief counseling and spiritual follow up with families of victims. Rebuilding local churches helps address the practical and spiritual needs of a country, one person, one neighborhood, and one community at a time.

When the magnitude of a catastrophe can be described as “biblical,” it is the local church that reminds people that another biblical concept is even more powerful: hope in Jesus Christ.

Churches Helping Churches

The average person earns $210 per year.

Yes, the statistic is true: American Christians spend more money on food for their dogs per year than funding gospel centered mission efforts among the nations. Thank you to the many of you who have given to financially support your fellow disciple-making, DNA carriers on the upcoming trips to Tanzania.

There is a desperate need for church planters and disciple-makers throughout the entireity of Tanzania. Yet, there is also a great need for pastors to be trained and equipped. On average, one pastor oversees 20 congregations. You can read more of how to pray for Tanzania in Operation World. Three waves of teams from First Euless, theGATHERING, and other E3 partner churches are going to be working, centralizing efforts in Arusha and Tabora.

We must pray.

What if we all presented our request, centered around the purpose of taking the gospel, and asked God to do something? What if we united our voices, throughout DFW and the world, to pray.

In order to mobilize theGATHERING community to pray, we’ve determined to SLOW down. Synchronize your swatches. Set your alarms on your phone to go off at 1:00 PM or set up an appointment with yourself at 1:00 PM every day. If you have the opportunity, call someone on the phone and pray with them. If not, no matter what you’re doing, pray for our people. Each day an update to our twitter feed will hit (and will hopefully be carried over to the facebook page). If you’re not on twitter, get on there to get the update sent directly to your phone. Included below is the prayer calendar (we also have some printed off at the connection desk).

We’re calling it SLOW because we want to ask the Lord for the following:

S-Spirit of God to move on the individuals that are SENT (Tanzania, yes; but also the college campuses, work places, apartment complexes), in the ministry of theGATHERING, and in your life.

L-LEADERS (we call them servants) of theGATHERING (Wednesday night leaders, Sunday Connection leaders, and Community Group leaders) to be led by God and firmly established in His Word.

O-Others would come to know Christ through the speaking and living of the gospel (Who is one person in your life who needs to know Christ?)

W-What would God have you to do in order to be an answer to some of these prayers TODAY?

The challenge, then, is to preach it to yourself. It is only through feasting upon the Gospel ourselves that we are able to lead other malnurished souls to the banquet table that God has prepared in Christ Jesus. This week, the challenge is to preach the gospel to yourself everyday.

Included below are some practical ways that you can rehearse  Gos’s glorious story of redemption throughout this week and for the rest of your life with Christ.

PRACTICAL WAYS TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO YOURSELF

•Meditate upon the Gospel

Isaiah 53.3‐6;

Romans 3:23-26;

Romans 5:6‐11;

Romans 8:32 – 39;

1Corinthians 15:3 – 4;

2 Corinthians 5:21;

Galatians 2:21;

Ephesians 2:119;

Colossians 1:19 – 22

• Pray the Gospel (Hebrews 4.16) – the whole reason we can enter into the presences of a Holy and Righteous God is because of the work Christ did on the Cross.Our worship, then, is a result of the Gospel. Our obedience is a response to the Gospel.

• Sing the Gospel (“Amazing Grace”  “When I survey the wondrous cross”, In Christ Alone, Before the Throne of God Above, Marvelous Light, Because of Your Love, Embracing Accusation, It is Finished)

• Remember how the Gospel has transformed your life (1 Timothy 1.13)

• Study the Gospel – to grow in your passion for what Jesus has done, increase your understanding of what he has done. David Prior said, “We never move on from the cross, only into a more profound understanding of the cross.”

• Practice incarnating the Gospel. Be a friend to sinners and engage in incarnational ministries.

• Community-have someone hold you accountable to this challenge during the week. Email them, call them, text them, or post something on their twitter to get involved in their lives and see if they’re preaching the gospel to themselves.

If you missed theGATHERING, you can download the podcast here.

The following are quotes from pastors thorughout the years which may help you grasp the importance of this daily discipline.

“My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, He is my righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He is now doing for me.” (Morning and Evening‐Sept 25 by C.H. Spurgeon)

“Reminding ourselves of the Gospel is the most important daily habit we can establish. If the Gospel is the most vital news in the world, and if salvation by grace is the defining truth of our existence, we should create ways to immerse ourselves in these truths every day. No days off allowed. . .Your audience is your own heart. And the message is simple: Christ died for you sins. It’s a matter of sitting down, grabbing your own attention, and telling yourself, “Hey, listen up! This is what matters most: You’re forgiven! You have hope! Your hope is based on the sacrifice of Jesus. So lets’ not view this day any other way. Let today be governed by this one defining truth.” (Living the Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney pg. 132‐133).

“God did not give us His Gospel just so we could embrace it and be converted. Actually, He offers it to us every day as a gift that keeps on giving to us everything we need for life and godliness… We extract these benefits by being absorbed in the Gospel, speaking it to ourselves when necessary, and by daring to reckon it true in all we do.” (The Gospel Primer by Milton Vincent pg 5).

There is simply no other way to compete with foreboding of my conscience, the condemings of my heart, and the lies of the world and the Devil than to overwhelm such things with daily rehearsings of the Gospel.” (The Gospel Primer by Milton Vincent, p. 14)

“You are loved and accepted by God through the merit of Jesus, and you are blessed by God through the merit of Jesus. Nothing you ever do will cause Him to love you any more or any less. (Transforming Grace by Jerry Bridges, p 73)

“Remember, therefore, it is not thy hold of Christ that saves thee‐it is Christ; it is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee‐it is not even faith in Christ, though that be the instrument‐it is Christ’s blood and merits; therefore, look not so much to thy hand with which thou art grasping Christ, as to Christ; look not to thy hope, but to Jesus, the source of thy hope; look not to they faith, but to Jesus, the author and finisher of thy faith. We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to the soul.” (Morning and Evening‐ June 28 by C.H. Spurgeon.)

“Learn to know Christ and him crucified. Learn to sing to him and say, ‘Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You took on you what was mine; yet set on me what was yours. You became what you were not, that I might become what I was not’.” (Martin Luther)

Remember the Gospel! – “There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live… it is always on His ‘blood and righteousness’ alone that we can rest.” (B.B. Warfield)

“The center of gravity is different. The true Gospel does not allow God’s love to be sucked into the vortex of the soul’s lust for acceptability and worth in and of itself.” (“The Idol Factory” by C.J. Mahaney) Rather, a true Gospel radically reorients people to look beyond themselves and to the cross for their acceptability, value and worth.

“May the Lord bring us in contemplation to Calvary, then our position will no longer be that of the pompous man of pride, but we shall take the humble place of one who loves much because much has been forgiven him. Pride cannot live beneath the cross. Let us sit there and learn our lesson, and then rise and carry it into practice.” (Morning and Evening‐June 3 by C.H. Spurgeon).

Gospel – Back to the start from DFWGathering on Vimeo.

Gospel 2 – I reckon from DFWGathering on Vimeo.

Motivated, compelled, arrested, and captivated by the great plan of rescue, reconciliation, and restoration moves us into living lives of grace and gratitude.

If you can’t join us or you’ve missed a couple of weeks, you can always find and subscribe to theGATHERING podcast on Itunes.

Join us as we worship the Lord in song with John Webb and word with Jeremy Lucarelli. 7:45 is when worship starts. We’re finished by 9:00. Go the map for directions and look for the red cross or check the facebook page for an event invite.

For four months a group of 20 people have been meeting to pray, consider Jesus’ methods of discipleship, and determine how to see more lives transformed for Jesus in DFW.

Over the past three weeks in theGATHERING we’ve been considering God as the missionary God. Jesus was SENT. If we are really serious about following Him, we are the answer to Jesus’ prayer in John 17:18 We are the SENT.

We GATHER for a purpose.

We Gather to be sent.

We reject the idea that church is just cruise ship and we are just rearranging the seats, playing the music on board, while the ship sinks and lives are lost.

We accept the role of the lifeboat.

We follow Christ in His mission to seek and save those who are lost.

We move off of the cruise ship into the lifeboats in order to be the church in the community, among those that are perishing.

University – Singles – all unified on the call to seek and save those who are lost within HEB, Tarrant County, DFW… our community.

It’s time to take AWAKEN to the call.

Interested? Check out the video:

the SENT movement from DFWGathering on Vimeo.

Want more information, make sure that you’re at theGATHERING on Wednesday for our Neighborhood Synch. We’re going to connect to others within our neighborhoods and communities, partake of the Lord’s Table, and then prayerfully strategize.

Many of you have asked what we’re doing to help those in Haiti. We’re so thankful for the millions in relief that have been given through the Red Cross and other reputable organizations. Our prayer, however, is that you will be motivated to pray and give to those who will meet both physical needs and spiritual needs.

Our church community is giving through the Southern Baptist Convention. The International Mission Board, North American Mission Board, and the Southern Baptist Texas Convention. You can also give through writing “Haiti Earthquake Disaster Relief” on a check and turning it into the church. The Southern Baptist organizations have stated that all resources donated will go directly to relief and none to administrative costs.

If you’d like to give more than a one time gift, you may want to consider either Compassion International or Churches Helping Church. Compassion works through the local churches on the ground in order to bring the gospel to children. Churches Helping Churches seeks to motivate churches in the West to apply Galatians 6:10.

You may know what God has already said. You may have memorized it in your heart, but you’re still questioning what God wants you to do. The same was true for Gideon. Consider the similarities–an encounter with God, obedience to the command, and being clothed with the Holy Spirit.

What is God’s will for you? Yeah, you want to know now. Consider these verses in that situation where the Lord is developing trust in you. He’s faithful. Each step of obedience that you take confirms His faithfulness and trustworthiness.

Psalm 32:8

Psalm 48:14

Isaiah 58:11

How do we know God’s Will? What is God’s will for you?

John 6:40

Ephesians 5:1-10

2 Corinthains 8:1-7

I Thessalonians 5:14-18

I John 2:15-17

Matthew 7:24-29

Matthew 7:21-23

I Thessalonians 4:1-8

Ephesians 5:17-19

Join First Singles and First University for our annual Thanksgiving Feast. We’ll be celebrating God’s goodness together after church on Sunday. Cracker Barrel will be catering, the girls are testing their Martha Stewart skills by decorating tables, and you’re invited to celebrate with us.

Come on, five bucks! Who isn’t a fan of Cracker Barrel for five bucks! Well, there is another catch to it as well. Thanksgiving is all about recognizing that you’ve been blessed to be a blessing. While we’re enjoying food, there are countless individuals in our church community who aren’t able to make ends meet. This year we’re going to partner with the Young Mom’s By Choice Community at First Euless. This group of young moms have made the choice to keep their children instead of getting an abortion. This is our opportunity to pray for them and shower them with gifts and necessities.

SO, in addition to your five bucks, bring some diapers. Each Wednesday and Sunday, the young moms are given diapers for their kids. It is an item that they literally can’t do without. Anything from Newborns to size two would be great. If the Lord lays it on your heart to bring other baby items, go for it!

One more thing, we need to you to RSVP so that the lovely Andrea Davis can order enough food from Cracker Barrel. Go to the first singles facebook page and click on the events tab. Sign-er-up. You are a fan of First Singles… right?