Angel Food

What if our church suddenly was gone? Would anyone miss us? That question is one that fuels my passion to reach our community.

About six months ago C1 started a ministry called, Angel Food. An outreach to help feed our community. Our first month we fed about 40 families. This month over 100 families, mainly unchurched, walked through our doors to receive food. We have about 30 volunteers who work for about three hours to help distribute the food, encourage each family, offer to have prayer, and invite them back to a service or event. It's amazing to see so many families who would never normally come to our church walk in and have a great 1st impression.

Our prayer is that God's favor is on each invitation and that the Holy Spirit will nudge families toward connecting with someone. As that connection happens I believe we'll see more and more families connect with God.

What are you praying for God's favor in?

Community Service

C1 church hosted a community wide Lenten service Thursday evening. We had a great night. There were five churches represented and it was cool to be a part of something that connected area churches.

Too often we talk about what we don't agree on instead of focusing on the main thing: Jesus.

I'm excited about Easter and focusing on the main thing - Jesus is alive. To me when you focus on the fact that Jesus is alive it makes me feel alive. My life feels active...my marriage feels alive...my passion to reach the lost is energized. All because I choose to focus on the main thing: Jesus.

What is your main focus?

Rabbi

Sunday was great! We, again, had quite a few 1st time guests and the energy was amazing. God is definately building something awesome.

We had Rabbi Kirt Schnieder in to speak and he was sweet. He taught about the relevance of the Jewish Tabernacle with today's world. Very interesting! You can hear the message at www.c1church.com.

We also had a high attendance for the year this past week - #173!

Also - there's only two weeks left till Easter? Who are you inviting?

21 Day Journey

Yesterday I ate two bananas, an apple, some pears and some organic chips with refried beans. Why? Well we started a 21-day Daniel Fast at C1 Church Saturday.

As we began the fast my 6 year, Gabriel, asked why we fast. How do I answer that so that a 6 year will understand it? So I said, we are choosing to give up something, like food, so that God knows He is more important than that. It seemed to make sense to him.

What in your life is important? Is it more important than your relationship with God? My prayer over the next few weeks is that God reveals to me anything that is in the way of perfect fellowship with Him.

I'm hungry and that must mean it's time for another apple!

500

Last night the C1 Men's Group got together for our annual "All you can Eat" wing night at Quaker Steak & Lube in Erie, PA. What an amazing time of fellowship and gorging.

In all over 500 wings were consumed and I've already heard that several C1 men had a sleepless night - I wonder what they were doing all night...

A big congrats to Nick for putting away 55 wings! And his brother Stephen, a close second with 50!

I am still feeling the effects of the "atomic wing" I crushed. Just in case you've never had an atomic wing it's definately something you have to put on your life to do list! It's an experience and it's called atomic for a reason.

Last year we started this annual tradition with 8 guys. This year we had 25 men show up and I was so excited to see the growth. The C1 Men's Group is growing and relationships are being built.

Proverbs 18:19 says, "Do a favor and win a friend forever nothing can untie that bond."

I feel honored to be a part of a great and growing church with so many friends!

Maybe there's someone you know who would love to be involved in C1 Men - do me a favor and invite them to our next Life Group or a Sunday Service. Your investment in their life will be rewarded and who knows maybe next year they'll be holding the C1 Wing Eating Champ Trophey!

Adopted

So I got to church Saturday afternoon to help set up for a dinner and these little guys were in a box in our entryway. I guess someone just dropped them off. They were cold & hungry so we've TEMPORARILY adopted them.

They needed us! We've found a home for one of them and have a few "maybe's" on the second one.

Like I said we've (my wife and I) temporarily adpoted them and that got me thinking about how God chose to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:5) and it's not a temporary thing but eternal. God often finds us when we need help the most too! This weekend, being a temporary adopted dad of two dogs has reminded me of joyful I am that God the Father always takes such good care of me.

Trust Me!

Opps! Several thousand $1 gold coins have been printed without the saying, "In God We Trust."

How many times have you heard the term: Do you trust me? Trust is a powerful thing. My wife and I are huge fans of the TV show 24. The other night we were watching the show and I quit counting at 10 how many times Jack Baurer said, "you gotta trust me," or "trust me I know what I'm doing."

At C1 I am trusting God for something HUGE! Something that will rock our community. Something that have thousands of people buzzing about C1. Last Sunday I talked about how we are going to have a 21-day fast the three weeks prior to Easter. For me, this is going to be a time of really trusting God to take me to the next level. I really believe that as I grow so does the church.

The coins that were printed without 'in God we trust' were called an oversight. I wonder how many of us in our lives just live each day with the "oversight" of not trusting God.

Trust defined - to rely on, to believe in, to have confidence in

So who are you trusting in today?

It's grow time!

For those of you who don't know, I love to lift weights. It's challenging, stress relieving and it's competition (which I love) with myself. I like to see growth. Whether it's physcially or spiritually, I love to grow.

I read a few years ago that in order to grow physcially you have to eat 1 gram of protein for every pound you weigh. So in order for me to grow more muscle I have to eat approximately 185 (or more) grams of protein per day. That's how I'll grow.

What about spiritual growth? How do you grow spiritually?


I believe that if you will spend the time everyday with God you will grow. But when you proclaim God's truth in (your) everyday speech you're letting others in on the truth so they can grow and be strong and experience His presence with you. I Cor. 14

As you spend time with God, everyday, you will begin to see your actions, your attitudes, and your ambitions will be to please God.

Now growth doesn't happen overnight but over a period of time you'll be able to tell you've grown.

Here are some things I've done in my life to grow everyday:

Prayer Time - mix it up...go for a walk or spend time in a church
Book Reading - reading is tough for a lot of people so find a good (short) book and begin the discipline of reading
Journaling - writing down your thoughts and dreams are a great way to express, to God and yourself, how you feel
Music - listening to music and singing (even if it's bad) is a great way to spend time with God

How do you grow?

Royal Ranger Day @ C1

C1 launched Royal Rangers (kind of a like a Boy Scouts) program last fall. This past Sunday was our 1st Ranger Day at C1. It was a pretty cool presentation. The boys received merit badges and were honored in front of the church. A huge 'thank you' to our Ranger Leaders.

We also continued our 'ask me about c1' series by looking at the ONE thing Jesus wanted us to become. At first glance we would think that he would want us to be more holy, or pray more but as a follower of Christ God wants to become 'fishers of men.' That's it! To follow Jesus is to fish. That is the ONE thing Jesus wants u to be...fisherman. If you've ever been fishing you know it can take a while for that catch. But like all great fisherman patience pays off!

Where are you fishing? Are you fishing?

Sunday's Boxscore:

Attendance: 162