The LIFEhouse Church, Rocklin

Work Days 2009

2009-11-10T01:44:45Z

There has been a great deal of upgrading going on at the LIFEhouse. An army
of LIFEhouse members have been moving dirt, rocks and debris.

Real men doing REAL work!

Everyone pitched in to make our facilities look their best!

Thanks to Dan Heinze and Oliver Crandell who have been spearheading this
project and coordinating the efforts of so many so that we are seeing a
dramatic impact on the appearance and attractiveness of our facilities.

LIFE in the house!

2009-04-11T20:50:00Z

These are great days in the life of our church. We saw an army of people show for a workday to get our facilities ship shape in preparation for bringing our guests to the Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday services.

Last night Jathan Good and our church choir created a wonderfully reflective worship experience as we held our Good Friday services, took communion together and burned up those accusations that Satan is hurling our direction. The roasting of marshmellows over the open flame was quite a touch!

Ministry to Women

2008-12-08T21:31:06Z

Last Friday night our women gathered together to raise funds for a vital ministry called "Acres of Hope." The night was called, "An Evening of Hope", and women, young and seasoned gathered in the name of Christ to share crafts, sing praise, sell backed goods etc, with one purpose in mind, to give all the proceeds to a dynamic ministry to single moms and their children.

$1200 dollars was raised. Thank you Lord for using our women to make such a big difference.

Last month, my LIFEgroup visited Acres of Hope, located in Applegate just up the I-80 from our church. The facility can handle 11 women and their children. Since we had two hairdressers in our LIFEgroup, we decided that we wanted to cut everyone's hair for free as a ministry to these recovering families.

We were so impressed with the ministry. 77% of the moms were abused or neglected as a child; 41% lived in foster care; 73% were sexually molested as children; 89% suffer from addictions with 77% haing been exposed to drugs or alcohol as children; 95% have experienced domestic violence by a past partner.

We spoke with one women who has been clean for two years and became a Christ follower one year ago. Another woman had graduated from the program and was plugged into a strong church and was working in a computer business run by Christians.

What an honor to partner with this special ministry!

One of our Women's LIFEgroups recently participated in fund raiser for another vital ministry to women in our community. It is called "Mercy House" and it is opening up a home in Lincoln that can handle 40 single women who are recovering from addictions, eating disorders, depression, self harm, unplanned pregnancy, abuse etc.

The home will open in February, 2009. Check out this video. See progress on the home.

Financial Accountability at the LIFEhouse

2008-12-08T17:25:00Z

In these times we know that many are sacrificing to support the ministry of our church. We understand that there are many places where people can give and we need to be accountable and worthy of trust as we manage what has been entrusted to our care.

How do we handle church finances?

Our Financial Controls:

1. We will spend LESS than we bring in.
2. Our giving will be spread out over MANY people (not a few).
3. No debt on DEPRECIATING items
4. We will SAVE for surprises (Genesis 41:34, Proverbs 30:24-25)

a) Crisis

b) Opportunity

5. We commit to IMPECCABLE integrity in spending and reporting. (Luke 2:52, 2 Corinthians 8:20-21)
6. We will be INTENTIONAL in our stewardship education (no begging).
7. We will worship God as the OWNER of all we have. (1 Chronicles 29:11-12, Job 41:11, Psalm 24:1, Haggai 2:8)
8. We will trust God to PROVIDE all we need. (Matthew 6:33, 2 Corinthians 9:8, Philippians 4:19)
9. We will serve God with CONTENTMENT of heart. (Philippians 4:11-15, 1 Timothy 6:6-10, Hebrews 13:5)
10. We will HONOR God in the management of finances. (Matthew 25:14, Luke 16:10, 2 Corinthians 4:2)
11. We will be HONEST in our financial dealings. (Leviticus 19:36, Proverbs 16:11)
12. Designated giving is a RARE exception (Acts 4:37-38)
These controls are only part of a complete financial management system designed to ensure that we handle money in a way that honors Christ and preserves the long term trust of our congregation.

First Christmas BBQ

2008-12-08T03:43:00Z

Yesterday afternoon I showed up at church to participate in the celebration of a life. We were there to honor the life of Robert Archie Noyes, the father of Bob Noyes Jr., a long time member of The LIFEhouse.
Last week, Bob Jr gave me Bob Sr.'s diary from his experience in the Marines during WWII as he served on the Battleship, USS West Virginia. I read every page as this Marine wrote of days of routine duties, chipping paint on the ship, and performing maintenance work on the ship's artillery, followed by days of sheer terror as the Japanese dive bombed and strafed the ship. Bob was there when Iwo Jima was shelled relentlessly as 20,000 Japanese were killed on the island, and only 1,000 were taken captive. He was there on the ship overlooking the island when the six men placed that American flag on the Island, on mount Suribachi.

Our worship center was filled with WWII veterans, who were there to honor Bob and pay their respects. Post 169 of the American Legion was there to present the American Flag to Bob's family, to play taps and to fire three rounds in memory of Robert Archie Noyes.
I felt that I was on holy ground, and did my best to express gratitude to these valient, and often unthanked veterans for their service to our country and willingness to pay such a great price for our freedom.
Some of these veterans never enter into a church, except to attend a funeral. So I took the opportunity to give a clear gospel presentation of how much God loves us, how we blew it by sinning against our perfect Father, how Jesus came to be a bridge back to God and how we much choose to cross the bridge.
What a tregedy that there are men and women who have risked their lives to save our country, and yet they have yet to experience the saving faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It just reminded me that life is brief and the time to honor those who have served us well is fleeting.
Then today, I wrote a letter to a soldier and wrote the words of Jesus, "greater love has no one than this, that he lay his life down for his friends."
Do you know a soldier that needs some words of encouragement and honor? The time is now.

Thankfulness

2008-11-29T02:11:04Z

1 Thessalonians 5:18 ^“give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” NIV

We don’t have to ask if it is the will of God for us to express thanks. So in cooperating with the will of God, I want to take a minute to thank God for all that He is doing in our church.Every pastor should be as blessed. From where I sit, I see God working in lives in a powerful way. He continues to draw people to our church, some who are just investigating the claims of Christ, some who are coming back to Christ, and some who are looking for a church with a God honoring passion for Christ. The recurring theme I hear from new people, is how friendly the people are in our church. I’m so excited to know that these new people see so quickly what I see every week.

One recent visitor wrote, “Lifehouse is the friendliest church we've been to. Period. We had so many smiling people greet us warmly. It is still somewhat amazing to recall. We felt entirely welcome. Great people.

Strong message, well grounded teaching without compromise or apology for standing on the Word of God. That my son felt entirely welcome when he met his peers and the staff in the Sunday school class. He is eager to check out the Sunday school class and engage with the other children his age. The biker on the Harley coming to church didn't appear to offend anyone.”

I’m grateful for how God is growing us in the area of prayer. I’m thankful for each person that carved out time to participate in our recent 24 hours of prayer emphasis. I’m grateful for each one who set aside the last three Tuesdays for prayer and fasting in order to bring the needs of our church before God.

Last Sunday night we saw a record number of 125 people attend The Well, where we gave ourselves to worshiping God.

Last Sunday morning we saw a movement of God’s spirit as 13 people made decisions for Christ. One woman in our church commented, “I’ve been in this church for over 20 years, and I’ve never seen anything like that in this church.” We are seeing our prayers answered! So keep in praying, and don’t lose heart.

Our LIFEgroups are serving the community as never before, and people are responding to our expressions of love. On Sunday, December 7^th we will be wrapping gifts for the families of prison inmates and for soldiers serving in the military. We will also be giving gifts to needy families in our community. I love our theme, that we would give so that people would receive their first gift this year from Jesus.

We have an army of students who have signed up to serve as short term missionaries in Mexicali.

Last Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, I was so proud of our church for giving so that I could go visit members of our church who are suffering the consequences of our bad economy, and be able to hand them some funds, on your behalf, in Jesus’ name.

And I THANK God for you!

Stan

LIFEhouse Update

2008-11-28T21:56:00Z

83 women attended the retreat this year, held at the Best Western in Sonora, CA. Hanan Haddad did a phenominal job of organizing the retreat. The topic of the weekend was contentment. The = time was filled with the opportunity to find contentment in Christ, while building valuable relationships with one another. The food was fabulous as always and our women took time to serve our soldiers by preparing gift bags to be sent to our soldiers serving abroad.

Ministry Update

2008-11-23T01:32:00Z

Ministry Update

August 29, 2008 in Relocation, Sermon Series | No comments

These are exciting days in our ministry as the summer comes to a close, families return from vacation and school is now in session. We will be launching a special series of Bible studies entitled “40 Days of Community” in our church. I cannot wait to preach on this topic because I believe it is a message that we can all rally around. It is a message of love where we lock our arms together so that we can express the love of Jesus to our community.

We believe that we can make a far greater impact by serving our community in ministry teams as we ask God to use us to be salt and light in our world. Don’t hesitate to jump into a group for the next six weeks as we enjoy this ride of faith together.

We are currently pursuing buyers for our current property. There is some activity by those who want to purchase a portion, but not all of our land. Please continue to pray for the right buyer to come along soon as we are continuing to pay for the 25 acres of land that we already own in preparation for our relocation.

Standing in the gap!

Pastor Stan