Note: If you want weekend service details, click here. If you want info on the Saturday flyer distribution, click here. This post is about our week long Heart Break project, which wraps up today.
7:16 a.m. – Carey
So this is it, the final day of Heart Break. I am so anxious to find out what God has been doing in your life. Lots of people have read the blog this week, and I would love to hear more stories. What has God put on your heart? Where is it breaking?
Here are some near final thoughts as I head into the last hours of my fast (but hopefully not the last hours of my praying….):
- For me, something shifted last night. Toni and I had some extended prayer time where we were able to deal with issues that were on our hearts personally and pray deeply for our campuses and into the community. It was one of those powerful prayer times where you just leave thanking God that He is who He says He is.
- I feel like there is more God wants to do in me (confession, repentance), and that he will continue to chip away at me in the next few weeks.
- Of all the things that are breaking my heart this week, four stand out the most:
- The sheer size of the mission. 162,896 people in Barrie and 37,290 people in Orillia will not be in church this weekend. Of those, over 69,000 in Barrie are under 24 and 9,000 in Orillia are under 24. Man, does God long for both their salvation and a day to day walk with our neighbours.
- The stories those numbers represent. Many want hope. All need it. They just don’t know where to find it. The more we are like Jesus, the more we can help them.
- Resources that go beyond our needs as a congregation. This has
come up in more than a few prayer times this week. I did some math as a
follow up. The people of Connexus will see approximately $70,000,000 in
personal income this year (that figure is the combined annual incomes
of people who call Connexus home if we are merely average income
earners). We are currently releasing less than 1.4% of that back into
Kingdom work right now (our operational budget for both campuses
combined is under $1,000,000). If that was to double in the next 3
months, we would go way beyond just being "operational" (our
congregational "needs" aren’t that great) and into extravagance in what
we could do in the community in terms of reaching families, helping the
poor and giving back what God has given us. If that was to rise to the
level God imagines for us (10% or ‘generosity’ – you pick the biblical
standard), imagine what could happen then.
- Unity in the body of Christ. It was a joy to pray for other churches this week. If we think we can do it all, we’re mistaken. It’s going to take every follower of Christ in both cities to turn things around. We need to live that out to the core of our being. Unity doesn’t mean one organization, it means a deep respect and celebration of the diversity we have in the body of Christ, each playing a role (1 Cor. 12). God has us positioned to play a role (I pray a significant role) in reaching lost people, but he’s got many other churches positioned to do their part. We need to celebrate this.
Praying for favour as we distribute an invite to Connexus and free popcorn to 2000 homes in Barrie and Orillia today (that’s 6000 people) (that’s something that wasn’t in the original budget but we’re doing it anyway). You can help us (click here for info). Pray that this would be a way for everyone who receives an invite to begin a new relationship with their heavenly Father.
What are you hearing? What are you feeling as you fasted or as you prayed? What has God done in your heart?