the encounter

Seth Godin shares ::

• When you love the work you do and the people you do it with, you matter.
• When you are so gracious and generous and aware that you think of other people before yourself, you matter.
• When you leave the world a better place than you found it, you matter.
• When you continue to raise the bar on what you do and how you do it, you matter.
• When you teach and forgive and teach more before you rush to judge and demean, you matter.
• When you touch the people in your life through your actions (and your words), you matter.
• When kids grow up wanting to be you, you matter.
• When you see the world as it is, but insist on making it more like it could be, you matter.
• When you inspire a Nobel prize winner or a slum dweller, you matter.
• When the room brightens when you walk in, you matter.
• And when the legacy you leave behind lasts for hours, days or a lifetime, you matter.

And above all else – you matter to a God who loves you more than you could ever imagine! No matter what you do, what you’ve done or what you’re going to do –

He loves YOU!

Brennan Manning writes:

“For His love is never, never, never based on our performance, never conditioned by our moods — of elation or depression. The furious love of God knows no shadow of alteration or change. It is reliable. And always tender.”

He loves YOU!

(And so do we.)

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I got a copy of a great DVD last week in the mail — Francis Chan’s “Crazy Love.” The DVD is a companion to the book of the same title and is put together as a great resource for small group discussion.

I watched four or five chapters right off the bat and loved the simplicity as well as the quality of the videos. I instantly thought it would be a great resource for our small group in the coming months and I’ve asked all the other community groups at encounter to consider doing the same.

The DVD is broken into 10 chapters, to correlate with the book. In each “chapter” of the DVD, Chan talks about various topics related to the same chapters in the book. The videos then wrap up with several questions for the group to discuss.

Publisher’s Weekly writes about the book:

Chan, senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, Calif., offers a radical call for evangelicals to consider and emulate in this debut guide to living crazy for God. Chan’s own life compels him to live with urgency, and with good reason. His mother died giving birth to him, his stepmother died when he was nine, and his dad when he was 12. As a pastor, Chan says that conducting weekly funerals for people younger than himself has likewise sobered him to life’s unexpectedness and frailty. Chan writes with infectious exuberance, challenging Christians to take the Bible seriously. He describes at length the sorry state of lukewarm Christians who strive for a life characterized by control, safety and an absence of suffering. In stark contrast, the book offers real-life accounts of believers who have given all—time, money, health, even their lives—in obedience to Christ’s call.Chan also recounts his own attempts to live crazy by significantly downsizing his home and giving away his resources to the poor.Earnest Christians will find valuable take-home lessons from Chan’s excellent book.

Just the first few “chapters” on the DVD alone had me re-thinking my relationship with God and how lacking it can be. Chan makes the point early on that he realized as a teenager that his prayers really seemed to be lacking – he never really “prayed to anyone.” His prayers were more about rattling off a list of requests than actually talking with someone.

He shared that as he began to read about the God of Scripture (in places like Revelations 4) and saw the mighty power and majesty of God, he began picturing coming before this mighty God each time before he prayed — it suddenly changed his heart, his mind and his thoughts. Suddenly he was no longer just praying out into space, but he was talking to his creator and God.

I’m looking forward to going through this book/DVD with our group and seeing and hearing what they take from it as well. We’d love to have you come join our discussion in May as well or start a discussion group in your own home. Just drop me an e-mail jonathan.blundell (at) encounterthis (dot) com and we’d love to get you plugged in.

And to get your own copy of the book, Amazon has a copy of the book in paperback, or you can buy the CD/Audio version, the Kindle version or Audible.com has the Mp3 version for your portable player.

Or for more information about the book and DVD visit http://crazylovebook.com/ or read other reviews at http://viralbloggers.com/2009/01/crazy-love-interactive-dvd/

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Golden Rule
Originally uploaded by thePLOWblog (Click the picture to enlarge)

So in everything you do, do to others what you would have them do for you. This sums up the laws and the prophets.

How would you illustrate this verse? Use graphics, video, photos, stories etc and lets see what encounter peeps have up their sleeve…

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Last week, I heard this amazing story of Heather. She grew up in a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses and found real grace after years of abuse and even rejection from her own family. The audio is 40-45 minutes in length and WELL worth the listen.

Pastor Ryan shares ::

Our God is a God of Justice and I believe once we understand that, we will no longer be okay with the things that aren’t okay…

…Another thing that’s been pressing on me lately is just how relentless God is. He wants us and He will stop at nothing to reach us. So often our arms are jammed so tightly into our sides that we won’t let Him embrace us, but He doesn’t quit. He doesn’t give up on us. Ever.

That was evident with Heather’s story as she shared it with our body last weekend.

Download the Mp3 file

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What does a story like this do to you? Does it shake you? Does it make you want to jump into action?

Share your thoughts…

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“Pastor Ryan” and his men’s group got together for their weekly Monday night gathering and took part in their annual tom-foolery.

If there’s a good way to show some people that you were thinking of them during the Christmas season, it’s butter, sugar, cinnamon, and some more butter. Nothing says you’re special quite like the famous Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Rolls.

They even added some custom greeting cards to the mix.

See some video footage from their Advent Conspiring ::

Cinnamon Rolls from Ryan Detzel on Vimeo.

How are you conspiring this season?

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