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sunday august 29, 2010
Sunday Night Rewind
What a great day we had at Renovation... it was so good to be back seeing everybody and feeling the excitement that comes out of our gatherings. Of course today was our Love Revolution Commitment day. This was for those who call Renovation home and want to commit to three things over the next year... to Serve Strategically to Connect Relationally to Give Generously I realize that many are in process about these 3 areas of engagement but my pray is that over the next couple of weeks you will commit... I know if you do that this next year will be an incredible year of growth in your relationship with God and with others! For those who missed today you can still get involved... just bring your LR Commitment card with you Sunday and get plugged into grouplife and a serving group. Today we revisited our 6 Core Values or essentials so here is a recap of those thoughts we talked about today... In order for us to really experience a LR in our life’s, families, and communities we will have to stay in process with our 6 core values here @ RC When we together are taking steps in our… · Priesthood… growing in relationship with Jesus Christ. Nobody can do this for us and we should not expect someone to do this for us… this is what makes our relationship with God personal · Understanding and telling our Grace Story… you have a story to tell, unlike any other and we have been given a command to share it. · Knowing/understanding our Spiritual Gifts and then using them in the World we are called to serve. It will take all of us… not some of us or a few of us. · Interpersonal relationships that reflect the One who lives within us. We probably should never call ourselves a Christian. People in the first generation church did not call themselves Christians…they called themselves followers of The Way. It was later that they were called Christians by the community because they acted like "little Christ." Would the people who work with you…go to school with you…play with you call you a "little Christ" because of how you conducted yourself? · Managing/Stewarding all of our assets for the expansion of the Kingdom of God… this is our time, talents, and treasures. Have you come to grips with ownership… do you really recognize that God owns it all and all that we have has been given to us to manage appropriately for Him? · Compassion that results into Action to see the reduction of lost-ness in our community… our Father wants…longs for all of His children to find their way back to Him before it is to late.
I have to admit I was a little nervous about what the response would be today as it related specifically about the Faith Commitment that we would pledge today. I have been gone so I felt a little disconnected but I also knew that we have already committed a certain amount of money to our LR partners so today was a big day for us. Once again I was blown away by the Faith Community that God is building and forming at Renovation... today we pledged the following amount over the next year... $61,000 That is awesome and I know that amount will probably grow over the next week. I am so proud of you Renovation and I know that God is going to do some amazing things over this next year in us and through us!
posted by brek cockrell
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saturday august 28, 2010
Love Revolution Commitment Sunday
Well it has been 3 weeks since I last posted anything here... We went on a long vacation as a family (the longest in our 18 yr history) we traveled almost 4,000 miles in 17 days! We had a blast together. I must say it is easier to travel once the kids are older. We got to spend some great time with my folks which was really cool since they have moved from Buffalo as of today to a new destination and a new assignment in Harrisburg PA. Dad will be working at ABWE which he has been on the board for the last 30 yr or so. We had a great time visiting a couple of different churches on our trip. it is always good to walk in as a guest to get a fresh perspective of what people feel like when they come for the first time to Renovation. We got back just in time to experience Bless Back Sunday which was an awesome day of hard work and celebrating afterwards together at our picnic. I heard great reports of both Sunday's that we missed... it is always good to have my Pastor down hanging with us and speaking. Jerry is a great communicator and is having a huge impact all over our region, state and a growing influence around the country and world. Wes Arum spoke the second week and it was awesome to hear of the decisions many people made to follow Christ on that day. Wes has a gift of sharing the Gospel in a compelling way that the Holy Spirit uses to draw men, women, students, teens, kids to Jesus! Tomorrow is our Love Revolution Commitment Sunday... we have been talking about Loving God, People and Proving It all month long. This will position us for the next year in allowing us to invest in our partner Churches and Ministries. I hope all of you have been praying about how you are going to invest a percentage of your Time . Talent . Treasure this year. I can't wait to be back to my favorite place... Renovation Church and to experience what God is going to do in us and through us! Don't Miss Tomorrow!
sunday august 1, 2010
Sunday Night Rewind
Today was the kick off of our Love Revolution Month! This is the time every year that we stop and pause and talk about what it means to really be a part of the Renovation Community. It was good to go back and tell our story (briefly) and how faithful God has been to bring us to this point in our short 20 month history at RC. I think it is important to share the history of how people pioneered and sacrificed and worked to get us launched and how it is so important to have an attitude of gratitude for what others have done and how God has provided for us in so many ways. It was a different day for us because we were coming off of such an emotional high as a staff and volunteers from SJ and I felt like I was working on fumes. I was trying to communicate what this month is going to look like each week... how important it is for everybody that can to get involved in using their time, talent and treasures within our Community of Faith and getting involved in some type of Group this year. We have had over 600 first time guest walk thru our doors at RC already in 2010 and so it is important for us to communicate what we are all about and how we plan to roll. For those who missed today here is a little rewind... Love Revolution is where we commit to give above our normal tithes in order to partner with like minded ministries all over Buffalo... we asked for people to take the commitment card home and to begin to pray about what God would want them to give over the course of this year (Sep -Aug 2010/11). We have always said that this is a faith commitment... if God provides it we will give it and if He does not you don't. It is through this faith offering that we give every week at Renovation that has allowed us to help partner to plant 3 churches with two more this year and to help other ministries like City Mission, Jericho Road, Riverside Food Bank, The Buffalo Project, The Vineyard, Youth Advantage, and our very own Xcel program. Last year we gave about $75,000 through our Love Revolution Commitment which is incredible for a church of any size the first year of its existence! August 8.. Pastor Jerry Gillis will be speaking and Benji and Jenna will be leading worship August 15 Wes Arum will be our guest speaker and I know he will bless us and challenge us! August 22 is Bless Back Sunday... we will not be meeting together as usual on this day. Many of us will meet @ 9.19 in work clothes and we will be going out into our community to work and bless our neighbor hood. Some of us will got to a couple of our partner churches and worship with them on that day. Then we will all come back to experience a huge Love Revolution picnic on our campus. This will be an awesome day! August 28 will be Commitment Sunday. This is the day that we will turn in our LR cards stepping out on faith that if God gives us this amount then we will give it back to Him through our LR offering during the course of the year. We will also commit to serve in some capacity and to get involved in a group. So it is a Big month for us at Renovation as we get ready for an incredible fall!
saturday july 31, 2010
Summer Jam 2010
Ok it is finally time to breath... the last two weeks have been a blurrrr. Fist just getting ready on campus to house and host 150 people for 7 nights and then getting ready for the morning projects and the SJ program at night... I am so thankful for the incredible team that we have at Renovation. God has blessed me with some of the hardest working fun loving people to work along beside me. Not only could I NOT do the things we do without each one of them I wouldn't want to! Just want to jot down some highlights of this week before they slip away into the black hole of my mind... Sunday was an incredible day as we gave everybody a taste of Summer TWyse flew in from Philly to be with us from Sunday till Thursday night. He did and incredible job in so many ways. loved his heart, attitude and the skill that he communicated with. The lyrics to his music is so right on and grounded in Truth. So proud of how you responded to him Renovation... our love offering was incredible that we were able to give him. We were both blown away by your generous giving not only financially but a couple of people gave him a boot to use for the week... Renovation you rocked it! Of course we were jammed packed in both of our gatherings and so the excitement was off the charts so Sunday just kicked started the week! Monday morning we hit the ground running as we did every morning...everybody up @ 7.00 am to get to the showers at the YMCA on Delaware (thank you YMCA)..then breakfast @ 8.00 and awesome time of prayer/praise/Word at 9.00... then we got on buses/vans @ 10.00am and went to our off-site work projects... which were many and diverse
We would then hop back on our vans and head back to RC for lunch... then chill for a little bit
Everybody would then go to their group meetings to get ready for the SJ program and we got everything ready for everybody to show up!
We served 375 (plus another 150 volunteers) on Monday night... 420 on Tuesday night... had more on Wednesday but we had to dismiss early because of the storm that hit right smack in the middle of SJ.
Wednesday night was incredible because we had to adjust our plans... the students came back to the aud after everybody got home safely and we had a time of prayer and worship that was beautiful... students/adults crying out passionately to God for our community...
Thursday was unbelievable!!
It was a perfect day and it seemed the whole community showed up!
Not sure how many we actually had but it was over 600... had 125 just in the adult workshop on budgeting!
The virtue for the week was Forgiveness and we ended Thursday night with an opportunity to receive the forgiveness that Christ offers to all of us... dozens of men, women, boys and girls asked Jesus to forgive them of their sins and to be their Lord and Savior!
The place was electric... Twyse sang Heaven and I thought we were about to "get in!"
We finished SJ off by celebrating together by eating a 120 ft long banana split in about 5 minutes!
SO thankful for Pastor Phil at ScottsHill for allowing Jon (my brother) to bring his crew up to Buffalo once again to invest in us!
I am biased but don't know of a better Student Pastor in the entire country than Jonathan Cockrell... his leaders are incredible and the students are passionately following Jesus.
I am also really proud of our own crew at Renovation... Joshua and his leaders did a great job as did our own students... every night seeing our students helping lead worship passionately was incredible... love each one you!
Our neighbors on St Florian are just awesome... they loved on the students every night baking them
incredible pastries/cakes/cookies...
God was so good to us this week with His favor, grace, love! Thank You!
sunday july 18, 2010
Party Time!
It was a great day at Renovation today! Awesome worship to get the morning started. What a cool thing it was to have my dad speaking at Renovation and to see so many people come into a relationship with Jesus Christ. We stirred up a big party today in Heaven. Dad gave an incredible message called Heaven and Hell and Everything In Between. It was one of the best messages I have heard on this area that so many of us struggle with. Here are few highlights...
Many chose to follow after Jesus Christ today... dozens of people raised their hands to declare their decision to step over that "line of faith"... it's their best step ever!
One day those of us who have taken that step of faith will take our last breath on this side of eternity and we will enter the party... what a day that will be!
friday july 16, 2010
Can't Believe It's Saturday!
Wow... can't believe it is Saturday already! This week has flown by as we are in a full court press getting ready for Summer Jam 2010! The billboards look great and we have 150 yard signs all over NW BUffalo. Had one of our city official offices call me last night wanting to know how they and other elected official's could get involved and help...I thought that was great! Summer Jam is our way of celebrating our community in NW Buffalo. My brother Jonathan is bringing his HS and College and adult workers up again to partner with us from Scottshill Baptist Church. This is there 5th trip to Buffalo. These students have been preparing since February for this trip. They have been praying for our community with maps of streets and schools asking God to do a great thing at SJ this year. They have been divided up into teams and have been getting ready to lead all the breakout sessions during the small group time of the evening programs... they did an awesome job last year at this. We (RC) also have about 25 HS and adult workers who will be staying all week on campus with Scottshill... so there will be about 175 people staying all week on campus, spending the night having a great time. We will be doing work projects in the morning all around the city and then coming back and getting ready for the SJ program in the evening... so it makes for a busy but incredible day. Here is what will be happening starting next weekend... Saturday July 24 150 HS & College with Adults get in 12 vans in Wilmington NC and make the drive to Buffalo NY arriving @ Renovation around midnight. Sunday July 25
Monday July 26
Summer Jam Program
5.00 -6.00 we will be having bounce houses and inflatables all over the campus, craft tent, a food tent that will seat 400 people, we feed everybody that shows up a great meal every night... the campus is covered with people!
6.00 -6.30 everybody heads into the auditorium for the program... awesome music, game show, dj, TwYse, drama...
6.30 -7.20 everybody heads to small group time in Renovation Center...this will be an awesome time to see students leading these environments.
7.30-8.00 back to the auditorium to wrap it all up for the evening!
This will be the flow for everyday through Thursday evening. We had over 650 different people register last year and we are hoping to top 1000 this year.
sunday july 11, 2010
Oh To Be Loved...
I am listening to my brother Thad live in concert tonight in Nashville via the internet... he wrote a song a while back that still rocks me to the bone with it's clarity and simple but profound words... Oh to be loved by Jesus, oh to be loved by Him Oh to have joy and peace within, oh to be loved by Him He knows the name of my sorrows He knows the names of my fears Why should I let them bother me for I know He is near And If no other will love me, in this life I roam Oh there'd be no love I'd long for, I know I am His own
Oh to be loved by Jesus, oh to be loved by Him Oh to have joy and peace within, oh to be loved by Him SO proud of him and how God is using his talents to connect people to Jesus! Had a great day at Renovation today...
Summer Jam is 2 weeks away! Do Not miss it!
wednesday july 7, 2010
It's Hot!
Whew it is hotttt! But I ain't gonna complain! Joshua got 3 supper slip and slides for all of our students tonight. It was great... neighbors watching all the kids having fun and sending their own kids over to get in on the fun! Had a great meeting this morning with Al Santino from East Harlem. He met with our leadership team... helping us move forward with CCDA strategies as we try to deepen our relationship within the NW community. Al has been very helpful to us over the last year as we have taken little steps toward participating in the empowering of people within our community. We will be talking about some new things we are looking to launch this fall at each of our Sunday Gatherings this week. You don't want to miss what you will hear and see this week... some very special guest coming!!
Don't forget our workday this Saturday from 8.00am-12.00 noon... no need to sign up just come on down!
sunday june 27, 2010
Sunday Night Rewind
It's Sunday night and we are having another rain storm... "they" say this has been the 3rd wettest June since they started recording it over 100 yrs ago and we still have a few days left so we might set a record yet! We had a great day at Renovation today... we got a chance to celebrate with some of our graduates... One of the real issues of serving in an under-resourced community that we do is the stark reality that very few people have gotten to experience the joy of graduating. Less than 30% of the adult population that surrounds us has a high school diploma. Less than 50% of last years potential graduating class of Buffalo schools graduated. So we want to encourage, applaud, inspire people to do what maybe has never been done in their family... graduate! So we celebrated anybody who graduated at anything this year... kindergarten, middle school, high school, community college, beautician school, college, masters program, recovery programs... it was great to see our graduates stand and get applauded! We also had the pleasure of having Benji and Jenna Cowart with us for each of our morning gatherings. They basically shared parts of their story of how God has brought them along on their life journey together and how they have grown in their marriage through some dark days to where they are today serving at Crosspoint and the Western NY region. I love hearing them sing and lead worship together and I know everybody was super blessed by what they heard today from them! We started signing up for our 2nd annual Summer Jam today... Summer Jam 2010 is going to be incredible! We have some 150 HS/College students again from Scotts Hill Baptist Church in Willmington NC where my brother Jonathan is the Student Pastor. Last year we saw over 650 people of all ages register to experience Summer Jam! I would love to see us break through and have over 1000 experience it this year! I will be giving more updates about what we will be doing and how many of you can get involved with making SJ the best experience in NW Buffalo this summer! Me and the kids are happy to have their mother back from her fun-filled annual weekend get-away with some of her HS girlfriends. I must say it is easier once they get older... but much more expensive!
thursday june 17, 2010
A Little Help for Parents
As a dad I know that I have a responsibility to help guide my kids through the culture we live in and to help them navigate through the land mines that are all around. Music has been and always will be a huge part of a teens life. So how do we stay informed and aware of the fast flowing river of music/video/ pop culture that is influencing our kids? Here is a great resource to help us and our teens/kids to be more aware of what is being said in the beat and rhythm of music culture... http://www.allprodad.com/media.php |
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