New Deeper Roots Series!

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1 MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF WALNUT GROVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH AUGUST 2016 VOLUME 8 Church Events Free Rummage 8/6 All Church Picnic 8/6 Youth Mission Trip 8/7-8/12 Council Mtg. 8/8 8/9-11, 16-18, 23-25, 30-9/1 Deacons Mtg. 8/14 Eunice Club 8/15 Nursing Home Church 8/21 Meals on Wheels 8/22-26 Team Mtgs. 8/22 New Series! Each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday through the month of August! (Details inside)

2 Eunice Club will meet on August 15 th at Mandy Chupp s home. Jelly & Canned Fruit All Church Picnic is Aug 6 th at 4pm. Bring side dish, lawn chair & a life jacket if you want to swim! Office hours have resumed back to normal. Monday Friday 8am 1:30pm In August we will begin our next study called Life Apps by Andy Stanley. There are hundreds of thousands of phone apps available for download. These apps can be used to wake you up, to show you where to shop, to help you count calories, or to log your exercise minutes. But they can t actually make you get up, control your spending, manage your diet or force you to exercise. The App Store isn t the only place you can find apps. Did you know that the Bible has also given us many apps to enhance and improve our lives? In this 6 part series, Andy Stanley and Jeff Henderson identify five life applications worth living by: the forgiveness app, confession app, rest app, trust app and encouragement app. Please join us at one of the following locations: Tuesdays: Edwards Funeral Home at 1pm & Jerry & Julia Hudson s home at Wednesdays: Vaughn & Debbie Plunkett s home at Thursdays: Frances Hudson s home at Sign up under the Connection Board in the North Entryway.

3 From our Pastor... Pop quiz! Can you guess the Greatest Public Works Project in American history? It is a project that has impacted every single person living in our country; it radically reworked commerce, exploration, and economics. The answer is literally where the rubber meets the road. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 when it was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower revolutionized transportation. Whether you are a snow bird driving down to Florida to escape from another blustery winter or you are just taking in an Illini game in Champaign, it is all dependent on the interstate and infrastructure. I know what you are thinking: Roads are boring. They can be annoying when there is construction that slows us down, they can be confusing after we take a wrong turn, but they are pretty straightforward beyond that. As long as you have something with four wheels, whether a shiny Cadillac or a rusty red 84 Ford Fiesta (my first car) you can access millions of different destinations. Infrastructure is something we usually take for granted until it stops working. When you are driving over a bridge you don t usually stop, get out, evaluate the structural integrity and then carefully roll across. Why does this matter to you? Since Walnut Grove Christian Church is the church at the crossroads and we have had a presence in the community since 1889, it might be a good time to look at our infrastructure. I m not thinking about the building itself, but rather the bridges we have constructed out into the community and the experience people have walking through our doors. Next Sunday, I want you to try a unique experiment. As soon as you drive down 1700N or Filson Road, start viewing the experience from the lens of a new guest/first time visitor. Pretend you just saw the sign off highway 133 or 130 and you stopped by to experience a Sunday morning at WGCC. When is the first time you are greeted? Do you know where to drop off your children or where to get more information about getting plugged into deeper community? In Paul s letter to the Christians in Corinth, he told them something radical about his own life and mission of making disciples. (1 Corinthians 9:19,22-23) Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. Where can we become what those who have yet to know Christ need? Christian journalist Rob Dreher recently pointed out two-thirds of millennials who were raised religiously unaffiliated still have no denominational identity today. If as Paul said, we exist as a church, for the sake of the gospel where do we need to change our methods to achieve our unchanging mission of making disciples? Let me know what you see when you look at the church from the eyes of a first time guest. Whereas the interstate system opened up millions of new destinations, we can offer people a relationship with Christ that will go with them regardless of where their four wheels stop and which will last into eternity. That is by far the GREATEST PUBLIC WORKS PROJECT of all time! - Steven

4 To finish out the summer, the Seconds class is headed to the bayou for August! Honk, honk-honk-honk, honky-honk-honk. If you are a fan of the TV show, Duck Dynasty you probably understood that call! Translation for all you yuppies: join Phil, Alan, Jep, Jace, Willie and Uncle Si Robertson for Faith Commander a study on how to apply New Testament lessons to your everyday duck hunt life. The Robertson family discusses some of the Bible s most-loved parables. You will learn how to build a legacy of faith and apply five faith-based values to your life. With their trademark humor and commitment to faith in Jesus, the Robertson family will challenge you to live a new kind of life. Join us as we meet in the church basement classroom across the hall from Pre K/K class at 9:30 am to study Faith Commander during August. Mission of the Month: Illini Christian Missions The Mission of Illini Christian Ministries is to glorify God by restoring and empowering families. Since 1967 Illini Christian Ministries, Inc. (located in Champaign) has focused on protecting and caring for children at risk and preserving families. Numerous children and their families are served yearly by our dedicated Christ-focused staff. Whether the problems are abuse, neglect, crisis pregnancy, infertility, a runaway or behavior-problem child, a parent's inability to care for their child, or family dysfunction, ICM can help. Everything they do in the ministry of ICM requires partnerships and collaborations. It is about connecting those who are in crisis with those willing to serve. It is about connecting with people and churches who share a vision and passion for a compassionate ministry to children and families in crisis in their own community and the state of Illinois. It is about connecting resources and people who can help each other. There are multiple ways you can help out at ICM. You can become a Prayer Partner, Giving Partner, Family Care Partner or a Network Partner. To find out about these serving opportunities or more about ICM, check out their website at

5 August 2016 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Auxiliary to Heartland Cara Edwards Brent Pedigo Breanne Pedigo Council (1pm Free Rummage from 8am 12pm All Church 4pm Karen Coombe Youth Mission Trip Jesse Babbs Mildred Babbs Julie Ashworth Deacons 8am Rick Biggs Eunice Mandy Chupp s Steven Stern Nursing Home 2pm Team Mtgs. Meals on Wheels Mike & Kay House Jayde Hoshauer Allison Boothe Emerson & Norma John & Hope Nisbet Lynn Leffler Don Munson Cody Coombe

6 ` Often times we get discouraged. Whether that is at work when things don t go right, or when the bills come in. Other times we get discouraged because of stagnation. We find that we are sitting still when there should be progress. That raise didn t come like we thought it would, or we look in the mirror and we find that the diet isn t working as fast as they said it would. I find that many times when we get down and out it is because we lose sight of the big picture. We get so microscopic with our focus that we can t really see forest through the trees. Many times the big picture takes much longer to develop than the small ones so we run right passed the larger view of our situations and get caught up in the small minutia of daily life. What we need to realize is that just as God had long suffering, we need to realize that our life is more of a marathon than a sprint. This is common sense, but we get so caught up in the speed of everything around us that common sense is left at home on the counter like many of our breakfasts. I find myself many times trying to go so fast in this life that when at the end of the day I can think of four to five things that I should ve done or forgot to do entirely, mainly because I was so focused on a remedial finish line rather than the end goal. The race we are on is not a short quarter mile sprint or jog, but instead it is a long path with bends and hills and valleys and distractions and shortcuts and detours. This life is a long road. If you find yourself discouraged, down and out, not stacking up or not meeting your expectations, remember this: we must run the race laid out for us. When we run the race laid out for us, that means not running the race that others must run. It also means that the race isn t just a day, week, month, or year long. It is a life time. We are all on the long road. Take a deep breath. Rome wasn t built in a day; neither will your spiritual life. Sometimes our race requires baby steps. May the God of peace equip you with all you need for this journey. Blessings and joy to each of you. ` Published and mailed by Walnut Grove Christian Church E County Road 1700N Arcola IL Office Phone (217) WORSHIP 10:30am SUNDAY SCHOOL 9:30am FELLOWSHIP 9:00am OR CURRENT RESIDENT Steven Stern Pastor Aaron Boothe Youth Pastor Tera Arnold.Ministry Assistant Deanna Woolley.Bookkeeper Diana Groff. Custodian