It has been a lot of fun to speak to so many of you after the services during our current series.  It is pretty exciting when you get a grasp of what it means to be awakened by God and journey with him. And I am finding that many of you have made a decision to start your own journey with God.  But how many of you have declared this to the rest of us, and begun to deepen the impact of the journey?  Here are a few ways that you can do this.

How many of you are interested in being baptized on the weekend of April 26-27?  Why not send me a response as you read this?  If you have found yourself awakened during this series or you just have never decided to be baptized, then contact me and join the group that will celebrate that weekend.

Before you decide your weekend activities, remember that this Saturday morning you can join us for one of our core Discovery classes.  If you want to explore membership and find out why we believe that developing community is part of the journey of awakening, then come to D¹ - Discovering Community.  If you want to get a better handle on the disciplines associated with your journey and understand why knowing God is the first step, take D² - Discovering Spiritual Journey.  And if you want to take a step into service and catch the fever of bringing hope into our world, then come to D³ - Discovering Ministry.  Keep in mind that these are sequential classes.  Sign up today.

I have been to Cuba twice in the past five years.  During each trip, I fell more in love with the Cuban people, and left inspired to learn further about the history and current affairs of this neighboring island.  As you can probably imagine, it was with great interest that I watched Fidel Castro step down earlier this year.  As I listened to him address his people, I wondered how he considered his 49 years in power: whether he looked over his career and evaluated what he had really accomplished.

A museum opened in Havana last year to commemorate the Castro years.  In a news article covering the event, a reporter commented that on the Saturday he visited the building, he found it completely empty but for a lone, bored attendant who asked him for an antacid (since “medicines are very scarce”). In this caricature of the country’s larger problems, I can’t help but think that Castro’s revolution died well before his retirement.

Meeting the needs of people is a critical lesson that Castro should have learned.  Let’s not make the same mistake at home.

Jesus is our cornerstone.  He is relevant and compassionate to each generation. God’s Word and our faith should continue to meet the practical needs around us, because the incredible work of Christ will naturally see people around us changed, just as we are transformed.  Friends and strangers should walk through these doors because they want to experience a relevant, a compassionate, a practical love.

I don’t want anyone to live less than a full life — do you?

The first four-service weekend went extremely smoothly, and I want to thank all our regular attenders for helping with this transition.  I was concerned that the 10:30 service would be crowded, but in the end all three services were evenly attended and we topped the 2 000 mark for combined attendance at all four services (not including the children in Promised Land and Kids Klub Church).  Remember that we will now continue with the new weekend service times of 6pm on Saturday, and 9am, 10:30 and noon on Sundays.

During the next five weeks we will continue our new series, Awaken.  We will see how Scripture tells of lives that were changed when a connection was made with the risen Jesus.  And this weekend, you will actually hear more than one account…

This week I read that the Gospel of Luke speaks about the poor and our responsibility towards them an average of one in every seven verses.  Now, I haven’t counted the verses myself, but I will definitely be studying them further.  And if it is true, then it’s an issue we need to think much more about as a church.  If you want to join me in your own personal study to see what Scripture has to say about the poor, I’d welcome the chance to hear about your findings: send me email me at bloghannold@princetonalliance.org or just hit reply if you received this entry in your Inbox.

I’ll be enjoying time with my family next week.  I probably won’t post another entry for a little while, but you are always in my prayers.

We have been experiencing tremendous growth in the number of people who walk through these doors.  The Sunday services, particularly at 11am, have become so packed that we’ve had to break out extra chairs in the café!

Realizing the need to address this, we considered a number of alternatives: adding a Sunday evening service, an earlier service on Sunday mornings, or even a service on another weekday.  After much prayer and thought, we chose what we believe to be the best option, took a straw poll, and decided on our new service times:

• Saturdays — 6pm
• Sundays — 9am, 10:30am, 12pm

This weekend we begin the new schedule.  We trust that it will let even more people encounter Jesus firsthand.  In fact, I would be thrilled if we continued to grow beyond even these four services, and had to talk about our next set of options…

Now, we expect that 10:30am will continue to draw a crowd (just as 11am did), so we’re asking that you try the 9am or noon service for a few weeks to see whether it works for you.  And particularly this Easter, when we expect many visitors to join us at 10:30.

Speaking of, I am very excited about Easter this year!  It is one of the few times when we can talk about the foundational truth of our faith to so many, and afford everyone the very real chance to meet a very real Savior.  (Besides that, I just love to celebrate, which is exactly what we’ll be doing!)

Join us for Good Friday at 6pm or 7:30pm (both services are identical), and for our Easter services during one of the newly scheduled times.

See you then.

A survey of thousands of individuals by The Barna Group found that the three most common perceptions of present-day Christianity include:

• that we are anti-homosexual,
• that we are judgmental, and
• that we are hypocritical.

Among young people (ages 16-29), these numbers were found to be particularly high: 91% said we are against homosexuals, 87% saw us as judgmental, and 85% felt we are hypocritical.  We have become known for what we oppose, rather than what we are for.

If these statistics hold for our area, where literally 100,000 young people are attending colleges within driving distance of PAC, then we can assume that 80,000 - 90,000 of them will never be interested in attending our church.  And that doesn’t include the young professionals in our area.

So, how do we address this?  The answer is not as complex as we may think.

First, we have to leave our facility to reach our community.  If their perception of us deters them from approaching us, then we need to find them where they are.

Once outside our walls, we need to live and speak in such a way that people can experience the true nature of Jesus.  We will never change someone’s mind with a sermon — they have to see us in authentic action. They need to see that our love and concern for other people is real.  They need to see that we are open to talk about and struggle with difficult issues. They need to see that we do not consider them as objects to win to Christ but that we are interested in them as people.

They need to know us by our love.

I have been spending some time in the book of Acts these past two weeks.  As I started on chapter five, I was struck by this summary of the first church:

The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.

I always loved that last sentence — that people were coming to know Christ daily.  But this time, as I read these verses, it struck me that no one but the believers gathered together for the meetings. Even though people held them in such high regard, there remained this fear or awe that kept others away from the Christian gatherings.  If that were the case, then how did more and more people come to know Christ?

It had to be outside these meetings!   Believers were coming in to be informed and impassioned about Christ but they were going back out to live and speak these truths to their friends and neighbors.   They may have met together at the “hub,” but it was their lives out at the “rim” that made the difference.

Where is the strength of our Christian lives lived out — at the hub or the rim? Where are we working harder to get the message out through our lives and words? If we want to learn from the first church, then we had better start making “rim-work” a priority.

I hope to see you this weekend.  (And don’t forget to set your clocks forward by an hour on Saturday night.)