Observing Lent with Impact Church

I’ve come to realize that many evangelicals, especially those that have recently come into the faith the last ten years, have never heard of various Christian traditions.   I’ve also recognized that in the geographical area God has called me to, which is still one of the most difficult places to have a successful ministry, there is an almost “zero” understanding of Christian history and tradition.

Traditions are good.  They are designed to help us remember and honor.  We all should have our own personal and family traditions.

Unfortunately, traditions have become dangerous throughout history when their observance trumped the Word of God.  When we fall prey to that concept, we lose touch with the purpose of the tradition therefore legalizing ourselves to the observance rather than the remembrance. We must be careful with them, but not ignore them either.  We must leverage their purpose.

This Sunday, I will introduce our church to the tradition of LENT.  In a very small nutshell, Lent is a 40-day penitential preparation for the Christian believer, which is done through prayer, penance, repentance, giving, and self-denial. The “40 days” is taken from the preparatory days of fasting that Jesus did in the desert, after His baptism, before commencing His ministry.

The 40 days of Lent are designed to bring us to focus so we can understand the meaning of the resurrection of Christ.  Its intention is to mature the believer in areas of character, hope and faith.  When observed passionately and correctly it brings us to a place of power and faith that comes from the resurrection power of Christ.

Since Lent can be observed in many ways, we are going to observe it in a different way this year.  We usually receive an Easter Resurrection offering every Easter Sunday morning.  This year, I want to incorporate Lent with that offering.  In these 40 days of Lent, we are asking for everyone to sacrificially put away $2.50 per day per family member.  This is to be observed as a sacrifice and a financially seed of faith for Easter.

I’ll speak more on this topic this Sunday….

Lent began yesterday, please consider doing this fast of obedience with me.

International Food Festival

I’m very excited about our upcoming city-wide outreach.  As a church, it’s our mandate to LOVE OUR CITY.  And there’s no other way to love our city than to gather hundreds of people to a celebration of diversity, culture, music and food.  As people gather, we will be loving on them and sharing the Gospel of Christ.

On March 4th, we will have our inaugural International Food Festival.  It begins at 10:00 am during our church service and afterwards we will have multiple tents of food booths representing the cultures in our church!  We will also have various venues for our children.  Make your plans… join us and bring as many people as possible!

800 Pound Gorilla or Elephant in the Room

Join us for every Sunday morning in the month February as we attempt to explore the vast subject of THE HOLY SPIRIT.  I’ve come to realize that in most churches, especially ours, He’s the unrecognized, untapped and unaddressed  “800 pound gorilla” or the “elephant in the room” in church services and prayer meetings.

You do not want to miss out on this message series.  It’ll contain the information needed for you to understand who the Holy Spirit is in your life.  I cannot stress anymore how important it is for you to be present. 

Join us…

Pastor Manny

 

STUCK IN THE MIDDLE

Tomorrow, I’m sharing a message that has brought me though many tight places in the past.  I feel it’s a timely message for our church tomorrow.

And in case you were wondering, not all the messages that I preach are new messages.  There are some sermons that I will preach hundreds of times before I die.  For the record, God’s Word is always fresh and alive.  The book of Hebrews says that it’s “living and active!”  Therefore, any message that is scripture-centric will always be fresh, alive and new.  

With that said, our lives are always filled with many situations that require a recognition of God’s involvement.  Although life, at times, appears to seem bleak, just know that Jehovah Shamah is always there.  This message will teach you to recognize God’s clues and finger prints in every seeming crisis.

Join us tomorrow….

 

Sticky Resolutions

This Sunday I’ll be sharing the message  titled STICKY RESOLUTIONS.  

Like me, I know that all of us have made New Year’s resolutions.  And like me, I know that most of those resolutions died before they turned 14 days old.

Unfortunately, resolutions have lost their resolve.  Resolutions have developed a bad reputation.  No one believes in them anymore.  Well, this Sunday I’m out to DISPROVE that!

Join me, this Sunday, as I teach you how to make your resolutions stick! 

 

Year in Review

I’ll have to admit, the year 2011 carried the good, the bad and the ugly.  But all in all, we are very thankful for the process we went through.  His keeping power was very evident. Hindsight is definitely very clear here.   I stand firm on the promise of Romans 8:28 “…all things work together for good or those that love God and are called according to His purposes.”  

Even in the midst of a seemingly difficult year, we realized that God’s Word is what kept us moving forward.  And it’s been God’s Word that has paved a way for us.  It’s a NEW SEASON which brings NEW BEGINNINGS! 

Below is our year in review.  Take a couple of minutes and watch the video below… I thank God for our media team that has, once again, created another masterpiece!

Enjoy…

New Year Directives

Happy New Year!  Today marks the official beginning of a new season in Impact Church.  Although it was the middle part of November God began to shift things for us, we’re taking a month and a half of momentum into the New Year!

Today, we officially begin our 21 days of fasting.  Fasting is relative.  It’s all based out of obedience and it’s always about focus.  It’s the denial of the physical and mental to achieve a greater focus in the Spiritual.   When I fast it’s usually food; it’s my “LARGEST” hindrance to self-control.  As for you, fast what you feel directed to fast. It could be television, caffeine, etc.   We’re going 21 days with this; let’s believe God for a great beginning!

As you fast and pray, please pray over the following directives I shared at our New Year’s service.  In prayer, I wrote a few things I felt we needed to be responsible for in 2012. Here they are:

• PRAY, PRAY and PRAY again!
• Speak Life – Continue to speak God’s Word over every area of our lives!
• Be POSITIVE – No Bad Attitudes!
• Encouragement, Encouragement, Encouragement.
• To pull people out of darkness! (Prayer, evangelism & discipleship)
• To DECLARE that it’s a NEW SEASON
  • Open Heaven
  • God’s favor
• To remind each other and ourselves that our roots are activated again!  We have the ability to produce life!
• To remind each other and ourselves that Impact Church is a Great Investment!

 

Again, Happy New Year!

21 Years – It’s Only Getting Better!

Today is a very special day!   Today I celebrate 21 years of marriage to the most beautiful women I’ve ever known!

I’m a “list person.”  All my study notes, plans, strategies and dreams are in a list format.  My lists are never prioritized by importance.  I also never number my lists; they’re simply a way of structuring my thoughts.  So, with this in mind, I’ll make my  “short list” about my 21 years of marriage, after all, this is a blog.

Babe this is for you!

• I know I married way out of my league! I was very lucky (“blessed” since I’m a Christian)!
• I still don’t know what you saw in me, but I sure know what I saw in you! 
• Just about everyone we knew counted us out at one point or another.  BUT GOD is faithful!
• I still, to this day, can’t believe we never met in high school!  It’s probably a very good thing.  I mean… without JESUS we were the complete and total opposites!  I was a jock and you were… Um, we’ll leave it there – LOL!!
• Dating you was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done as a Christian… the temptations were so, so, so, so STRONG!
• I must admit, I’ve finally forgiven you for breaking up with me and returning to me the engagement ring that I worked so hard for in the summer of 1989.  I was building sidewalks in the 102 degrees just for you!  LOL!! JK!
• After several months of praying and singing “Baby Come Back,” remember who came back to whom first!!  :-)
• Our wedding ROCKED!!  Thank-you for making it a Christmas wedding, it’s formed our traditions as to how we celebrate the the holidays!
• I know we hit a few (actually many) bumps in the road, but through it all, it’s made us better!  We’re a great TEAM!!
• People counted us out…we’ve had many critics and naysayers, here’s to them – 21 years!  (Raising our glass).
• We make beautiful children together!  That’s definitely your doing!
• You are a great mother.  You are the glue that keeps us all together!
• You’ve put up with me now for 3 years of dating and 21 years of marriage.  I can’t believe you’ve been with me longer than you’ve been alive without me.
• We’ve had many adventures – enough for many other people’s lifetime.  Thanks for believing in me.
• Victoria, I have no regrets!  You are my true love!   Thank-you for being my bride!

Love you much…

Manny

       

 

 

LOVE OUR CITY!

I love CHRISTMAS! Impact Church, this Saturday we get an opportunity to LOVE OUR CITY!  We will be giving services, gifts and lots of love to our community!

We will be giving away car washes along with pizza and drinks to anyone who wants them.  And for all the children, we will be taking pictures with Santa Claus! We are calling on all Impact Church to be a part of this Christmas blessing.  We are expecting hundreds of cars to show up!  Hope to see you there!

Meet us at Lake Stevens Middle School  - December 17th (this Saturday)  @ 10:00am

I Love December!

I love Decembers.  It’s our favorite time of the year!  And to be truthful, our December really begins on the last Thursday of November – Thanksgiving.  We get a little over one month to celebrate new life, new seasons, hope and love with family and friends!  We also get opportunity to be a blessing to many people!  Got to love it! It’s just awesome!

But there’s more… The month of December is perfectly designed to be a pivotal time of transition.  Amid the parties and times of celebration, I take this month to review the previous eleven months.   I try to archive as much as I can.  I see the areas where I failed and the areas where I won.   I see what I accomplished and where I lost battles.  And with this in mind, I begin to write out my plan for the next eleven months.

December is a gateway month which ends in celebration.   It transitions us whether we like it or not.  We might as well leverage it and use it to chart and plan out our yearly journey in our lives in Christ.

I challenge you today, don’t just use December for buying gifts and attending parties; use it as a time of assessment and processing.  Use this month for transitioning with clarity.