Last week, we started our new series, CORE. Over the next few weeks we will be exploring the Core Values of Village Church and laying out what the Church of Jesus is all about. We will be spending the next 10 weeks laying the foundation of what a life filled with Redemption, Mission, Community, and Culture.

Last week, we looked at the redeemed life that is available for us because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. We saw over 100 people at our worship experience last week! God blessed the efforts of all of you Villagers that spent time getting the word out and inviting friends and family to come hear the Gospel.

The journey is not over yet though. This week we will be looking further into the reality of redemption in our lives as God transforms us through the finished work of His Son, Jesus. You do not want to miss out as we begin to explore the new life that God has in store for us as we lay out the impact that the mission of Jesus has on the lives of His Church!

As we move through CORE, we will see that God doesn’t simply want us to explore His mission, but rather, He wants us to take part in His mission and form a plan to reach the world with His Gospel. Join us tomorrow @ 10 am @ Swift Creek Elementary School.

As the weather forecasts continue to worsen, Chesterfield County has once again closed all buildings for the weekend.  Because of this, we are unable to meet at Swift Creek Elementary School on Sunday.  We have weighed all possible options, and because of the deteriorating weather, have decided to cancel this Sundays service instead of seeking a different venue.

As I stated last week, this does not mean you cannot worship God.  God’s mission through His Son, Jesus goes far outside of the walls of our auditorium and into each of our lives.  As we dig out from this third snowstorm of the year, please keep all those around you in mind.  Maybe there were missed opportunities last weekend, or there will be new opportunities available this time.  Our neighborhoods are ripe with people, and will be busy with activity once the snow ends.  Be active and be visible for God to allow you to take part in His great mission.

Keep in mind that we WILL be meeting next Sunday, February 14 @ Swift Creek Elementary @ 10 am. We will continue through chapter 4 of Galatians as we conclude our 3-week Freedom mini-series with “Freedom to Dream.” This is a message that will cast a vision of the fact that God has a greater plan for our lives than we could ever imagine, and through Jesus, we have the freedom to dream big for the Kingdom of God.  You do not want to miss it! It would be a great way to start your Valentine’s Day.

As you go through this weekend and the following week, build relationships and invite people to the Village so that they can hear the Gospel.

Also, keep in mind that as the church is scattered throughout the week, we have many choices in community groups.  This is the greatest way to begin to build relationships within the church, and strategize with others how God can use your life on His mission!

Do not lose heart, and make sure you are there next Sunday as we begin to dream for the Gospel!

Steve
The Village
www.villagemidlothian.org

I hope this note finds you safe and warm, enjoying the beautiful scenery of yet another weekend snowstorm. Unfortunately, due to the snow, Chesterfield County has closed all of their school buildings for the weekend. This means that our Sunday morning Worship Experience must be canceled. We wish the situation were different, but it is out of our hands.

This does not mean though, that you cannot spend time in worship of our great God and King tomorrow. God has given us an amazing mission through His Son, Jesus, and that mission is all around you in the lives of the people in your neighborhood. Even though many of us may not venture out in our vehicles until Monday, this is an amazing opportunity to get to know the people in your neighborhood. From helping others shovel snow, to inviting them over to share a meal, we can use this as an opportunity to build relationships with those in our extended community.

Keep in mind that we WILL be meeting next Sunday, February 7 @ Swift Creek Elementary @ 10 am. We will continue through chapter 4 of Galatians as we conclude our 3-week Freedom mini-series with “Freedom to Dream.” This is a message that will cast a vision of the fact that God has a greater plan for our lives than we could ever imagine, and through Jesus, we have the freedom to dream big for the Kingdom of God. You do not want to miss it!

Who knows, maybe today or tomorrow, you will talk to someone who you can bring to The Village for the first time to hear this message and a life will be forever changed!

Please, stay safe. We are praying for you this weekend, but in all that you do, remember the mission of Jesus!

Steve
The Village
www.villagemidlothian.org

At The Village, we go to great lengths to create environments for people to experience God. From our Sunday worship experience to community groups to leadership meetings, we are creating environments. We do this in order to help people begin to understand the need to develop environments in their own lives to do the same thing.

One key in developing these environments is creating atmosphere. We create atmosphere in everything we do. When we invite people to our homes, we typically clean and do our best to bring them in to a welcoming and comfortable environment. When I am writing or studying, I prefer an atmosphere that is quiet with as few distractions as possible around me. Those atmospheres though, do not happen by accident – they are intentional.

In our Sunday worship experience, we do our best to intentionally create an atmosphere for worship. An entire team of dedicated people arrives at the school we meet at hours before anyone else shows up in order to transform a building from a school into a church. Our goal is to create an attractive, welcoming and exciting environment in which people can have an encounter with God.

For this to happen though, we must be intentional in every aspect of the atmosphere that we are creating. We could show up every week, put out chairs and use the provided lighting with no sound equipment and see what would happen. But we do not feel that this would be the best atmosphere to attract the most people in Midlothian to hear the Gospel. Nor do we feel that we would be giving God our absolute best and bringing him the most glory through everything that we do, as He calls us to in 1 Corinthians 10:31.

God has gifted us with the ability to be creative, and one way that we use this amazing gift is to create an unforgettable atmosphere that lends itself to the worship of God every Sunday. Through the simple use of pipe and draping, as well as creative signage and lighting elements, we have the ability to transform a harshly lit cafeteria into a sanctuary of worship that is both inviting and conducive to excitement.

The message that they will hear during this experience will probably be one of the most uncomfortable and convicting messages they have ever heard. We would like to keep that message the most uncomfortable thing they encounter that morning. If someone never comes back to The Village, we would prefer it be because the Gospel is offensive, and not because we were too lazy to be creative and create an atmosphere for worship.

If the purpose of the Ten Commandments is to lead us to Jesus, then what effect does this have on the type of life we live? When we come into a life of faith, what does it mean to follow Jesus?

Faith in Jesus is not simply about moral obligation and a code of ethics. Faith transforms life into a life that is lived the way it was designed for. In Jesus, we have a freedom to live. Too often though, faith is often seen as a restriction on the life many of us want. Is God attempting to limit us by placing restrictions? Is it possible though, that instead, freedom is different than we assume. Freedom is something that liberates from the binding of moral obligation as well as creating a life that joyously follows Christ with all that it possesses.

Join us tomorrow at the Village as we talk about, “The Freedom to Live.” God desires our liberation from any and all laws that condemn and bind our lives. Village Church meets @ Swift Creek Elementary School @ 10 am. See you there!

This Sunday at The Village we will be in Galatians 3. God has been showing me so much whereas my incessant need to depend completely on Him is concerned. Have you ever tried to live your life by obeying the 10 commandments?  Have you ever wondered if obeying them could get you closer to God only to find that you always fall short?  Maybe though, you are one of those select few who think that you measure up pretty good compared to those laws.

But we all will probably confess that there is a lot of confusion as to the reason behind those commandments.  Are they meant to get us closer to God?  If you try really hard to obey them, does that mean that God loves you more?  What happens if you can’t obey them? Some of the answers to these questions may surprise you.

These are just a few of the questions we will grapple with tomorrow as we continue to make our way through the book of Galatians.  This promises to be an eye opening and sacred cow shattering day as we are more honest than we are comfortable with about the Word of God.  See you there, tomorrow @ 10 am @ Swift Creek Elementary!

This Sunday, at 10 am at Swift Creek Elementary School, Village Church at Midlothian will launch its first weekly worship experience.  Months of preparation have gone into this launch, from begging God to bless us as we seek to bring Him glory through our worship, to the laying down of logistics, to how to pull off the most quality experience that we can for the community around us. We have prayed, worked, sweated (is that a word?), and learned valuable lessons of what to do and not to do.  Finally though, God has brought us here, to this weekend.  We are excited and anticipating what God will use the Village to do as He turns the page to the next chapter of His church.

We will be launching a new teaching series as well this Sunday.  The title of this series is “No Perfect People Allowed.”  That title may surprise you coming from a church, but it is true and it is even what Jesus Himself taught while He was on this earth. This series will be all about the fact that in the church of Jesus, there are no perfect people allowed.  We will spend five weeks looking at what Jesus Himself has to say about perfect people and just exactly who is perfect.  The answers that He gives may shock you and cause you to look at church in a whole new way.

We invite everyone to join us this Sunday at 10 am at Swift Creek Elementary School as we begin this series with the topic, “Jesus vs. Religion.”

This past Sunday at Village Church we were in John chapter 4 and Steve talked about the woman at the well. This rare conversation that Jesus had with the Samaritan woman revealed a lot about the difference between the average person’s perspective of worship and that of Jesus.

“Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.”- v20

As the conversation continues, Jesus explains to her that true worship has nothing to do with a location and everything to do with himself. Fast forward to the year 2009, these types of questions are still being asked in churches around America. What kind of music will we play? Will there be guitars? How loud will it be? Will it be traditional or contemporary?

These are not the questions that Jesus asks. He asks things like, Am I being lifted up? Are people hearing of my redemptive power to save? Are people treasuring me in their hearts above all?

Here at Village Church we have chosen a form of musical worship that fits the culture that God has called us to reach. We recognize that God uses many forms to draw people to himself. We know that worship starts with a transformed heart that can’t contain the satisfaction and joy that comes from knowing Jesus.

Church Planting is both an art and a science.  In order to impact the culture that a church is being planted in, there is typically going to be some sort of gathering that is commonly thought of as a “worship service.”  At the Village, we are attempting to create more than a service.  Instead, we are attempting to create more of an experience.  Our desire is to create a worship experience that is not the norm of the Midlothian area.  We want people to experience something that they have never experienced before in order to connect people to God through the hope that is found in His Son, Jesus.

In order to do this, we made the decision to do some research by going to a few churches that are intentionally creating atmospheres in their Sunday morning gatherings designed to create a memorable experience for those in attendance.  The first church was Lifepoint Church in Fredericksburg, VA.  A few weeks ago, Nate did an excellent job of capturing what was learned from a logistics standpoint.  The systems that Lifepoint has designed are excellent, and from the moment that a person drives onto their campus to the moment that they drive off, it is an experience unlike any other church in that area.  From their signage to their sound and lighting they are executing everything with excellence.  They successfully transform a high school into Lifepoint Church every single Sunday.  Through the signs, pipe and draping, and lighting; it barely resembles that of a high school once completely set up.  We learned some very valuable lessons and were able to take inventory of what will be needed in order to transform a school into a church campus.  This also has a great deal to do with their people.  We were able to spend a lot of time talking to the people that make up the volunteer staff of Lifepoint, and the greatest reason that they are able to pull off excellence every single Sunday is based largely on the willingness and worshipful attitude of their people.

This past Sunday, we had the opportunity to go to Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC.  Elevation is one of the fastest growing churches in the US.  They have 3 portable campuses offering 8 different service times.  The question that we are forced to ask about them is, “what is it that sets them apart that has brought such growth?”  From a completely human standpoint, after experiencing 2 different services, I would have to say that it is the atmosphere that they offer in their worship experience.  From the moment you walk into the auditorium there is a buzz of anticipation that begins with a 5-minute countdown, with amazing graphic imagery on 6 different screens covering from stage floor to ceiling.  This makes it possible to easily change the imagery in seconds, which they did a few times throughout the morning.

At the 2 campuses that we were able to attend, it was also obvious that both of the worship bands were committed to what they were doing.  Their stage presence as well as their precision on the instrumentation and singing was not by accident.  They obviously spend hours week in and week out practicing and strategizing as to how best to create an atmosphere conducive to worship.  Nothing during these services happened by accident, because it was all planned out and executed intentionally.

The things that we have learned from both of these churches are very challenging, but very necessary to help us to realize the time, energy, and effort that we must put into creating a worship experience that will connect people to God.  It is not going to happen by accident, and it will definitely not happen by simply showing up on Sunday morning.  It is going to take hours of preparation behind the scenes that no one will see to create an hour that will change people’s lives by introducing them to Jesus.