Henry Williams

Hi Five Oakers,

The weekend's coming and there are a few things I want to share with you.

The Weekend

If you are a follower of Jesus, who are some of the people who influenced your walk with God in deep ways when you were growing up? Some of the big influencers on my faith were my friend Rick, his parents, lots of VBS and Sunday school teachers (Mr. Varner, Mr. Dalby, Mrs. Edwards), my youth group leader Mrs. Everett (and several youth group sponsors), some older students in our church, my pastor, my mom (especially in high school), and my best friend Tom. I could go on. It took a church to launch me into eternity.

Kids need a church to launch them into eternity. They need relationships with other believers. Specifically, they need three different kinds of quality connections with other believers. And there's not a person in our church that doesn't have a role in this. Parents, you need to know what these are because they impact your kids' eternal destinies.

That's what I'm talking about this weekend as we continue our Connect series and focus on 2 Timothy 3:14-15.

FYI

Ed Stetzer on "Marks of a Biblical Church Part 1: What Makes a Church a Church? The way we view the local church is changing, and we may need to learn to be more flexible.

The Church is the tool, the instrument, the vessel for carrying out God’s agenda in the world, but churches frequently make adjustments that do not take that agenda into consideration.

Caesar Kalinowski on "5 Things You Must Do: The Secret to Making Friends Quickly"

I have noticed that a lot of folks seem to have lost the art of making friends. Maybe its just a modern culturural phenomenon for everyone, but it sure seems to be the case amongst our tribe.

One More Thing

This is a quote from this weekend's sermon. It's powerful and we'll unpack it.

Christian formation means shaping our loves, not just educating our minds. (Jamie Smith)

Here's last week's sermon in 10 Tweets (Hebrews 10:23-25):

1/ God commands quality connections.

2/ The "one anothers" require quality connections.

3/ God has hard-wired us for connection.

4/ Most of us have seen & can tell story after story about how lack of or wrong connections has bad results.

5/ Science confirms we are hard-wired for connection.

6/ We are made in God's image. God has never existed in isolation, without connecting relationally. God has always been three in one—a Trinity.

7/ Matt Woodley: The doctrine of the Trinity tells us that the core of reality is a God who lives as a community of happy, delighted love.

8/ Lack of boundaries may have hurt you. But if your new boundaries keep you from connecting, you're simply being unhealthy in a new way.

9/ A lot of you are saying, “I know it’s important and I’ll get around to it soon.” But some of you have been saying this for years.

10/ Jesus needed his friends on the night he was betrayed. You need spiritual friendships, too. You need to connect.

Watch last weekend's sermon here: