Stimulus...Coming Soon!

Now that the Bazaar is behind us, we are gearing up for an awesome month in July!

Stimulus: something that incites to action or exertion or quickens action. It’s time for us all to wake up to our potential and discover our divine purpose. It’s time to let God breathe new life into us all. Join us on July 9th and 23rd for a two week series on allowing God to ignite us for greatness as we are about to launch into a brand new college year. We know we are created for influence and impact, but what is the stimulus? 

Can't wait!

pc

Consumerism?

The church as a vendor of religious goods and services?

Yikes. Those are strong words. But I have started thinking about this. Have we, over time and with good intentions and pure motivation, turned our churches into vendors of religious good and services? In our desire to attract people to our churches, have we taught that church is where you come to learn about how God can help you fix your problems? Where you come to have others teach your children about God for you? Where you come for your weekly feeding in the Word of God? Where you come for quality programs to help you live life better and develop a social network? Where you come to experience high quality worship music?

If the church has become the place instead of the people on a mission, leaders only naturally start focusing their efforts on what people experience when they come to the place on Sundays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. In recent years, churches have added the words excellence and relevance to their value statements for the church. In doing so, have our churches naturally began to spend more time focusing on the quality of the music, sound system, and bulletins? As the church grows, the pressure to continue this focus increases and the problem escalates.

The bigger the church gets, the better the preaching needs to be with more dynamic presentations and better PowerPoint slides. The music needs to be more professional with better sound systems and lighting. The youth ministries need to be better to keep the teenagers happy and paying attention so their parents can sit in the larger gathering where religious goods and services are dispensed. Great intentions, but as a result the church can subtly lose sight of its identity and missional function, and people come to church to have their needs met by others, volunteering only if they have time to spare. We must be careful not to create a culture where people come  to church; if so, people generally are content to remain spectators. 

Remember, we don't go to church. We are the church.

pcraig

Bazaar Tonight

Join us tonight for the "Bazaar!" It is going to be a fair of epic proportion...

We will have a stilt walker here juggling, a man tying helium balloons, a cake walk, volleyball, hot dogs, cotton candy, popcorn, boiled peanuts, and snow cones....and it is all FREE!

For all of the college and 20's - tonight will be the best night of the summer. Don't miss it for the world!

See you soon.

pcraig

TURN Kick Recap!

So Team "Lead Feet" took the title! Of course....who was on the team: Pastor Craig, Pastor Clay, Pastor Dustin, Dillan, Blake, Alex, Cody, Valerie, and Adam.  We had a great time last weekend at Lanier Pointe Softball Complex...it was theTURN's first-ever Kickball Tournament, and everyone had a great time!  Check out the pics below.

Our cheering section....

Patty and Cassandra having a good time!

Victors!

Almost took the title...

Blake grilling up the great burgers!

Always Be Yourself

I am thankful to have the opportunity to share with all of our community here at theTURN! So I will write away:

Always be yourself; never be anything you're not. Trust me, I know from experience. For each one of us is fearfully and wonderfully made by God in our own special way, to fulfill His own special purpose that God has made for us. He has a special story for all of us, called His will. Why would you want to mess up something that is already perfect? To save your time and your emotions, seek and follow HIS will, not yours. It may be hard sometimes to see what God is doing in your life or His reasoning behind the stressful times. Pastor once said, without messes in our life sometimes, we would have no message. Without tests in our life from time to time, we would have no testimony. When we resort to being something or someone that we are not, we are messing with God’s plan for our lives. God made us individually and uniquely, everyone one of us. We are all different, each with our own strengths and weaknesses. Ask God to show you His will for your life. But don’t expect Him to tell you everything that will happen to you or where He will take you. For if He told us everything, then we wouldn’t need Him. If we acted like we didn’t need Him, He was crucified and died in vain. 

Blogging, 

Cody Sweat (theTURN Intern)

Gonna get Bazaar!

Come join us this Thursday night for night one of our brand new series!  

Bazaar: a fair or marketplace. Create a buzz, Cause a groundswell, Create and sustain momentum - that is what the college and 20's are about here at theTURN during the month of June. Two dates: join us on June 4th for a service and the 18th for a free festival with cotton candy, snow cones, an old school cake walk, and more. It will prove to be bizarre!

Luau Recap!

Thursday was an awesome night for us as we are building momentum going into the summer months! Thanks to all who joined us for coconut shrimp, bbq sandwiches, fruit kabobs, frozen drinks, snow cones, a hula hoop contest, limbo lines, and volleyball! We had a great time with 20 new visitors totaling 132 people in attendance.  Pictures will be posted soon!

Join us this Thursday night for night one of "Bazaar!"

pcraig