UPDATE

Hello everyone!

It has been a long time since I have taken some time to give an update as to what is going on here at LifePoint church. Wow what a time we have had! We have had a very busy summer working on the building project. In answer to MANY prayer for many years, phase two of the building project has progressed by leaps and bounds over the last three months! Our Mrs. Char writes " The people at LifePoint Church have continued to forge on with faith in the promise that God has a plan for each day, each person and place, each event, and each problem. To our delight, the Lord does continue to encourage and enlighten us with his miraculous helps toward this project- our new facility.

In May and June, the electrical for Phase two was nearly completed, which brought about the next step for building- insulation, vapor barrier, drywall and mud. A good portion of the insulation and vapor barrier was completed by one of our own, Mrs. Antypovich, who spent a great deal of time taking this project under her wing- along with the help of a few friends.

In June, word was received that a missions group from the Edmonton area, desired to purchase and install all the drywall as a gift to the Lord. WOW! They also wanted to try to mud and tape the building. The team arrived (7 in all) on July 26^th and worked for two weeks, alongside members from our own congregation, as well as some friends from the community. Through hard work, determination and the promise that “each day is new”, the group managed to completely board the entire phase two expansion, as well as apply the tape and the first coat of mud. Praise the LORD!

The new kitchen is nearing completion with countertops and sinks being put in just recently. The children’s ministries area in the basement of the old facility has taken on a new look- due in part to the new concentrated effort LifePoint is putting into reach the many new young families in our community.

As we look to the future, we are excited and enthusiastic about what God has planned for us. At present, we are searching for help to complete the mudding in the new expansion so that the electrical can be completely finished. Following that, plans are being made for paint and flooring. Time is a factor now, as we are planning to have our first service in the new hall on September 21, 2008.

We are also looking forward to the 40^th Anniversary Celebration being planned for Thanksgiving weekend, October 9-12. Many exciting events, activities and celebrations are being planned for that weekend, including Lifepoint’s first-ever ‘Fall Supper’! This meal is a ticketed event, and will see us serving up a full-course, Thanksgiving feast to all those who wish to attend! We are including our ad for this event. Please know that you are most welcome to join us! It is with a great deal of satisfaction that we look towards the future in our new facility. However, much work is still to be done!

It is with unwavering faith in God that we continue to “press on toward the goal”, knowing that He can make miracles happen! We rejoice and give Him praise for the many blessings He has put before us already. For friends and family- even strangers- who have come into the circle of this dream and helped make it happen. We continue to pray daily for His courage and wisdom to “stay in the race”.

Again, we thank each of you, our friends in this ministry, for your support May God richly, richly bless you as you continue to work and pray with us for the miracle of salvation for everyone!"

WELL SAID!!

Check out this video

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1137883230/bctid1509297822

Forward by Heather A!

Something To Ponder

This is a quote from “The Externally Focused Church”

“The church has a place in creating healthy, transformed communities. Churches don’t have the luxury of withdrawing from the community. Whether they feel wanted or not, churches must realize that the community cannot be healthy, and all that God wants it to be, without their active engagement and involvement in its life - that’s the way God designed it.” - Page 58

The Resurrection

Here’s the story as told by Eric S. Ritz in The Ritz Collection:

Dr. Carlyle Marney was one of the great preachers in the South during the time after the Second World War. He was a mentor and role model to many pastors. One of the stories attributed to the rich legacy he left behind took place on a seminary campus where he was invited to be the speaker for a distinguished lectureship. One of the students asked, "Dr. Marney let us hear you say a word or two about the meaning of the resurrection." It was a fair question and an appropriate one from a future preacher to one who was already a great practitioner of the art of preaching. However the young seminary students were taken aback by Marney's response. Dr. Marney replied, "I will not discuss that with people like you."

"Why not?" the students asked.

Marney said, "I do not discuss such matters with anyone under thirty years of age." Marney continued, "Look at you! Just look at you. You are in the prime of your life. Full of talent and energy. Very few if any of you have experienced poverty, failure, defeat, heartbreak or a brick wall that stops you dead in your tracks. So tell me, what can any of you know of a dark harsh world which only makes sense if Christ is raised from the dead?"


Amen!
-PK

A Surprise Party

Here is a great story for you to think about today!

-PK

once there was a small lad whose mother, unknown to him, planned a surprise birthday party. After he got home, he went upstairs to his room. Then all his classmates and teachers gathered in the living room.
When his mother went to his room to get him, he was gone. He had climbed down a tree outside his window and was hiding in a nearby park. The rest of the children went on to enjoy a good time, but Johnny never turned up.
When he came in for supper his mother asked where he had been; he had missed a wonderful time, planned just for him. He tearfully confessed he had heard her call but hid until suppertime because he thought she had a chore for him to do!

How sad - for him and for us if we make the same mistake. There is a party being prepared. The guest list is all inclusive. No matter how many parties we have missed in this world, we don't have to miss out on this party. The One who throws this party is all loving, all gracious, all generous. We are invited even though there is nothing in this world we can do to repay our host. All that is asked is that we accept the invitation.
(Eric S. Ritz, The Ritz Collection)

Check it out!

hey!
Look at the youth blog for some cool pixs of the leap day party!

http://lpcteens.blogspot.com/

Nice work Vanessa!

-K

1967- 2007

This past Monday evening marked the 40^th year since the 1^st service was held at the newly built Lanigan Pentecostal Church, December 31^st, 1967.

We gathered this New Years Eve to mark this special occasion and to begin 10 months of celebration events that will have it accumination on THANKSGIVING Weekend 2008.

We also renamed the sanctuary that we currently meet in, the Denniss Chapel in honor of Alf and Florence Denniss as they were founding members of that 1967 meeting. They are still actively involved in the newly named LifePoint Church!

It was a special night of fellowship and worship of the Lord our God! Praise God for 40 years of ministry!

A new Logo for US!

Designed by...

Kurtis Albers BA (CRT) GD
Corporate Identity Specialist
kurtis@vinecomm.ca

Thanks Kurt! Great work!

Is the Current 'Church' Model Not Sustainable?

Hello everyone,

Today I am at a church planting conference in Quebec. As I am listening to the various speakers, I am also writing this entry and I would like everyone from our church to read what I am about to write.

I have been banging on this ‘drum’ for many years now and I realize that my convictions and ideas are the working of the Spirit of God in me. People all over the world are raising the same alarms but speaking much more articulately. I am hearing over and over the message that the way we have done ‘church’ is not the way we can continue to do church, because for the most part, it is not working. I am amazed at how passionately people are communicating their call to reformation of the institutional church model. The 1^st guest speaker, Allan Hirsch (writer of the book “The forgotten ways” (http://www.theforgottenways.org/blog), quoted Einstein a bunch of times with this particular quote, I had not heard before. “The kind of thinking that will solve the world's problems will be of a different order to the kind of thinking that created those problems in the first place.” In other words, the model of how we do church is not working and, generally, is in decline in every evangelical denomination in Canada. We need to look at the model and exchange it for something that is working or has worked.

LifePoint is a rarity in churches in Canada, it is growing and is 'risk taking' in its approach to its future. I want you to know that God has been challenging me a lot in my personal leadership goals for the next several years. I was asked by a friend last night at dinner at what my plans were for succession in leadership at LifePoint. I have been thinking about this for a while now and I do not have an answer. We need to have one. Now, if you put that last sentence in context of the previous verses, I am suggested that we should think differently at what succession should look like. I know that in our church model, it has been that the pastor is the linchpin to our ministry. We hire the right guy to lead us and he (or she) is the hub of the whole thing. Is it reasonable to continue to think this way?

Yes, you need to have a leader, because proper leadership is important. Yet, LifePoint needs to mature to a new understanding of how churches will succeed in the future. Am I transferring this new understanding to you, its people? Are you being trained to know some of the key concepts of future successful ministry? I am not sure the answer that is yes.

What is our purpose as a church? What are it's most important actions? Is “pastoral care”, or have our personal needs met by the main leader, the driving factor of our church? Or can we look beyond ourselves and our lack of training, lack of healing or whatever else can be seen as a road block to stepping out, to a new model of doing church?

Folks, are we ready to leave our understanding of how the church is to operate? By this I mean that we leave “The kind of thinking that will solve the world's problems” for” a different order to the kind of thinking that created those problems in the first place”? As Allan Hursch said this morning, “more of the same is not going to get the job done”. I agree completely.

At the Billy Graham conference, the high call that they repeated over and over is that people need to be presented the gospel, and the church MUST train and release our people to do this. The speaker this morning, said that the church was SENT out not told to BRING in. I also agree completely.

But with this statement, that brings to me to many more questions. I have badly underestimated the need and energy that discipleship, bringing people into maturity in Christ, brings. It is great to see people saved and baptized but are they still serving God after 5 years? This is also of GREAT concern to me. I feel that is where I have failed as a leader at LifePoint. I feel that the style of ministry that LifePoint has is often focused on the lost coming to Christ. In this, have people not been challenged to grow up into Christ? Are the calls to holiness and total Lordship of Christ also the hallmarks of LPC? I am not sure I would say yes to this. Would you?

I am simply not able to communicate all this on a Sunday. So I am not sure what to do with this question. I would like to have a Vision day where we the church family come together to discuss these ideas and be trained to discover the a new church model. I am not sure who would make the time to come. Would you consider this a priority? Are we getting complacent in our “success”? Yet, if we do not do this, what is going to be the future of this church?

Listen, we can not bring massive change to the church instruction in Canada, but WE CAN bring massive change to how WE are doing church. I never have been more aware of how LifePoint is poised to step out into uncharted waters in our denomination and in our region. I want to, even as my ministry changes. Please do not be concerned about the expression of my ministry changing. I want to experience these changes at LifePoint, but I feel the Lord calling to me to uncharted waters, and it excites and terrifies me.

What does this all mean? I am not sure, to be frank. But I feel the need to step out and I hope you would step out with me. LifePoint has the most wonderful opportunity, especially as we finish the new building, to redefine how we do church. The last speaker said that our model for church is Building + programs + pastor = church. HE is right, that is exactly how we feel in general. Yet all are important, but all are not a biblical definition of what church is.

SO what are your thoughts?

Much to pray about.

Updated pictures of the new building as of today

Hello!!
We are almost done Stage 1plus. The siding is now done on the new side. We will finish the rest of the building in the spring. The eavestroughs are going up as I write.

The inside is being painted this week! Yahoo! Lights are beginning to be connected.

Much more to get finished, yet it is coming.