Did you notice I didn’t send out my blog last week? Our family took a few days to get away. As usual there is a lot happening so let me remind you about a few things as we head into summer (Come Lord Jesus or the monsoons!).
New Teaching Series. This week we start a new series called 7 Things that Kill. We are going to look at the sins the ancient church called the “7 deadly sins.” We’ll see how God speaks to these sins so that we might break free from them to find life and freedom. After that, we’ll do a series called I am Jonah from the book of Jonah. I love this short book. It is rich and God has many lessons for us.
Tim and Sandy Coop Farewell. We’ll honor Tim and Sandy for their 17 years of service here at Pantano. The Coops are leaving to be with their kids and grandkids in Las Vegas in July, so on the weekend of July 4th and 5th we’ll honor them at the East Tucson Campus.
The Scrapbooking Life Group will be making scrapbooks for the Coops to take and remember us. Click here to write a letter to the Coops and include any pictures. We’ll present them to Tim and Sandy that weekend.
Spiritual Life Survey. Thanks to the 300 plus folks who have taken the survey. If you haven’t taken the Spiritual Life Survey yet, you can still take it through Sunday pm. We really want as many folks to take it as possible so we can get a good read on where we are at as a church. Click here to take the survey.
Twitter. If you use Twitter, you can follow Pantano Christian Church on Twitter. Twitter is a way we send out short (140 characters or less) messages reminding folks about events or sending an encouraging thought. Click here to follow PCC.
Leadership Summit. Don’t forget to sign up for Leadership Summit coming August 6 & 7. This is the best leadership conference you can get and at the bargain rate of $75. Click here to sign up.
Finances. In February I shared how bad our church finances looked. Back then we were depleting our cash reserves and if things didn’t change we would have to start cutting staff. But the staff cut the ministry budget, really cut back on spending and we all took pay and benefit cuts. And thanks to you Pantano, your generous giving has put us in a very good situation again. If giving continues as it has, we’ll be able to restore the salary cuts soon. By the way, our staff has not even had a cost of living increase for at least 3 years. Please continue to be generous as you have. Thank you!
Together to make a difference;
Glen
Beginning this Saturday May 16th we are asking everyone attending Pantano Christian Church to help us by taking the Spiritual Life Survey. First let me address the why. Pantano Christian Church is a great place to belong, grow and serve – but that’s my opinion! We want to dig deeper and hear from you. We want to know how you are doing in your spiritual life and walk with God. We want to know what our church is doing well and not doing so well in helping us all to grow spiritually. Here are some facts about the survey:
• It is only provided on line. You’ll find the button that looks like the logo above on the front page. Click it and you’ll be directed to the survey or click here.
• If you don’t have a computer, we will have computers set up in our lobbies (both the East Tucson -ETC and Sierra Vista – SV campuses) from May 16 – May 29. At the ETC they will be available during the weekend services and available any time our campus is open during the week. Stop in anytime the campus is open!
• The study will take 20-25 minutes to complete.
• The study is completely anonymous so you can respond in complete honesty without fear of anyone knowing your individual responses.
• We want EVERYONE who attends PCC to take the survey. Who is “everyone?” Everyone is our folks in Sierra Vista, those who attend Elements, students (above 18 years old), life groups, recent visitors and sinners and saints! Yep, I think that covers everyone.
This survey was created by a top notch professional group and it has been tested with hundreds of churches. Because we are hosting the Leadership Summit (August 6 & 7 – don’t forget to sign up today by clicking here and use the password TLS2009 to get the discount price of $75) we are being given this tool for free – that’s huge! We’ll get the survey results delivered to us at the end of June and I’ll be sharing the results in future blogs and with our elders, staff and Leadership Community (August 30th – 3:30pm).
Please take the time to fill out the survey. The more who take it the better picture we’ll get of our church and how we can adjust our programs to serve you better. Thank you in advance. Remember it opens up Sat. May 16th and stays open for two weeks, closing on Friday May 29th.
Glen
Check us out at – http://pccwired.org
Follow us on Twitter – http://twitter.com/Pantano
We are in week two of our 30 day challenge to a no regrets life. This challenge is to live like we were dying (which we all are). The challenge is be focused, intentional and decisive in our lives and to be and do what really matters.
How’s the challenge going? This is the second time I’ve done the 30 day challenge. I have found both times to be very challenging (that’s why we call it a challenge!). It is so easy to let our routines rule us. I think that the greatest temptations of the devil are not the gross biggy sins, but the narcotic of our daily lives that end up neutralizing us. When the goal of life is just to finish the day, we’ve missed the opportunity to make a difference, to join God in what he’s doing in our life and those around us. Jesus has invited us to join him in a revolution to change this world. His words – “Repent, for the kingdom of God is near.”
I’ve already had several people express how helpful this challenge has been. Tell us your stories (click here).
So far we focused on 2 key principles – live passionately and love completely. I hope you are making a genuine attempt to practice these. Let’s not wait for someday to live passionately. Let’s not wait for someday to love well.
I found some great quotes in a little book by the title of the Tim McGraw song Live Like You Were Dying (by Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman). I’ve edited some of them a bit and I thought they might help us focus on our challenge.
• You can’t control the length of your life. Just the depth.
• The simple words “I love you,” “I cherish you,” “I am better because of you,” and “I would be less without you” can change someone’s life. So just say it now. Don’t wait.
• Do something that makes your heart beat faster … every day.
• Your life is a gift from God. What did you do with it? You have all eternity to think about that.
Saint Irenaeus said; “The glory of God is man fully alive.” May we be so alive with Jesus that we bring glory to God.
Of course, the real challenge isn’t just living 30 days like they were your last, but making the most of every day until we die. The challenge will be in making it last. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live our life so that if you discovered you only had a month to live, you wouldn’t have to change a thing?” (Kerry Shook)
Choosing to make a difference today;
Glen
Check us out at – pccwired.org
Follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/Pantano
