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Bill, the guy I met at the cafe, put together a group of musicians and they played an eclectic group of “gospel” songs.  After a few songs I had the chance to share for a few minutes and focused on why people hate religion.  As I talked about the way religion makes us feel inadequate and convinces us that God doesn’t really like you anyway I could sense people connecting with what I was saying.  I closed by telling them that Jesus doesn’t like religion either and in fact is calling us to come to him if we’re tired of playing that game.

In the end it gave us a chance to meet a few new people and partner with a local business in the community.

We’ll be back in 2 weeks on Sunday October 17th at 10am.  Would love to have you join us.

I preached two different sermons, one for the morning congregation and one for the 707 group.  Both of them cast a vision for Renew Communities as well as how you can personally step out in faith for the sake of the Gospel.

Listen to my final CVC sermon here…

Listen to my final 707 sermon here…

Flag Football
October 16th at 10am
At North Quarry Picnic Area of the Mill Stream Run Metropark (just south of Bagley Rd).
Bring friends and we’ll have a cook out after.
Questions? Contact Jason Fronek -  JFronek@swgeneral.com
http://www.clemetparks.com/visit/index.asp?action=rdetails&reservations_id=1013

Fall Party at the Stuckey’s
Saturday Oct 23rd @ 5:00 pm
If you have questions contact sarahstuckey@wowway.com

Renew by Raking
Saturday October 30th (TBD)
We’ll be meeting to serve some of our friends and neighbors throughout Berea and the surrounding areas.  Bring your rake and let’s make some people’s day!

Hemophilia Walk & Red Derby 10k Run
Saturday November 6th – 9.30-11.30am
We’ll be manning a water station for this race that is dedicated to finding better treatments and cures for bleeding and clotting disorders, and to preventing the complications of these disorders through awareness, education, advocacy and research.

The Cleveland Pregnancy Center has an office in Berea and provides “services to meet the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of pregnant, parenting, and post-abortive individuals and families.”  We’ve had the opportunity to connect in 2 ways.  First, our launch team has been giving faithfully to Renew Communities since mid July and we’ve decided that every month we’ll give 10% of what the Launch Team gives to a local non-profit.  For the summer months we were able to give over $250 to the CPC through a friend who is doing their Walk for Life this weekend.  The second way we’re partnering is that I’ll be emceeing this event (should be fun!).

The Berea Children’s Home is a group that “Through a continuum of services… strives to respond to the individual mental health and developmental needs of the community’s most vulnerable children and their families.”  We’ve recently met with their volunteer coordinator Debbie and are looking for ways to serve with them in the near future.  We’ll also be giving the 10% donation from September to this group.

The Berea Chamber of Commerce is the final connection we’ve made recently.  It’s very cool to meet someone who is so connected to the community and has such a heart to see positive things happen in the community.  Please pray for them as they continue to connect people throughout the community.

This event really is just about information, you won’t be asked to commit to anything but we would love to be able to share with you and answer any questions you have.

Details…
Renew Communities Information Meeting
Berea Public Library
Wednesday October 6th 7-8pm

Towards the end of the evening we spent some time looking at these words of Paul from 2 Corinthians 4.5-10

For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

When we read these words we don’t focus on the broken jars we focus on the “all-surpassing power” that is at work in spite of that brokenness.  We are the broken jars and He is our hope.  Our plans, our dreams, our abilities are still broken but He is at work in us so that people might be renewed!

The question we walked away with tonight was How can we as a church and as individuals live in away that celebrates our brokenness and embraces the power that renews?

Prayer is the foundation and means by which God floods his presence into a community. The purpose of the Berea Prayer Walk is to cover the whole Berea community in prayer BEFORE we launch. BEREA NEEDS PRAYER. The Berea Prayer Walk will also be a way that we will get INTO the community. By physically walking, we will be able to see parts of the community that we may never have seen and be able to better discern how we can better pray and serve the community.

Instructions

Berea has been separated into four quadrants with Rt. 237 being the North/South axis and Bagley Road being the East/West Axis. Each quadrant can be accessed either by handout or downloading the PDF of renew communities website here [HYPER LINK LATER].

Choose the Quadrant that you live in and start with your neighborhood.

Highlight the streets that you have prayed and walked through on the map that you have received.

Two Ways

1. Commit to one Prayer Walk a week in your given Quadrant. Highlight your journey on your individual Quadrant Map. Every launch meeting we will briefly share our progress, stories, ideas for Berea, and or special things that God has shown us during our Prayer Walk. Furthermore, we will record our individual progress on a larger Launch Group Map of Berea.
2. Choose a night when as a group that we can Prayer Walk in a specific Quadrant. Break out into small groups and Prayer Walk in a chosen area. Reconvene and share our progress, stories, ideas for Berea, and or special things that God has shown us during our Prayer Walk. Furthermore, we will record our individual Progress on a larger Group Map.

Ideas for Prayer

Worship God as you walk so that his praises will fill Berea.

Consider what the needs and struggles of the people and neighborhood that you are walking through.

Imagine what the people, places, and the area would look like if God were to move into the neighborhood.

Pray for…the people you see …the schools you see…the neighborhood you are walking through… the businesses you walk by…

(prepared by Curtis Carnes)

Some of these roles have already been filled but we’ll be looking to build teams in these areas while other roles are still wide open.  E-mail me (Andy Sikora) if you’re interested in taking leadership in any of these areas.

As an FYI most of these positions are volunteer.  There are two roles that I forsee being paid positions but as with everything in church planting payment will be generated through fund-raising.  Don’t let that disuade you – fund-raising is possible!

Open Positions

Children’s Ministry Director

Worship Point Person (description coming soon)

Filled Positions (looking to build a Team!)

Financial Coordinator

Administrative Coordinator

Missional Service Coordinator

Prayer Coordinator