your Journey Group should adopt a missionary

Below is a note drafted by Craig Walter, CCC's newest member to the Bridge/Global team. We (Journey Groups / Adult Discipleship) are partnering with the following efforts.

As you read this note from Craig be pondering this phrase in the back of your mind: "should I be the one to OWN this for my Journey Group?"

As part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, Christ Community Church has always been a very mission's focused church. To me this means that we don't just talk about "doing" missions so we can check it off our list. Instead, we actively participate in developing RISKS disciples who are at their very heart "missional" people.

What does that mean? "Missional living" is a Christian term that describes a missionary lifestyle; adopting the posture, thinking, behaviors, and practices of a missionary in order to engage others with the gospel message. I know that's the heart of your Journey Group Pastor Dusty White for all of the Journey Groups here at CCC.

One way we strive to do this here at CCC is to connect the hearts and minds of our people to our missionaries who are serving the Lord throughout the world. As we deepen our relationships with missionaries, understand the way they think and the way they live, it impacts the way we think and the way we live.

So we are asking each Journey Group to adopt a missionary. To begin with, that simply means the following:

1.) Someone in your group (perhaps you?) keeps up-to-date on the issues and prayer requests going on in the life of your missionary. For all the missionaries we recommend you send them an email and ask to be put on their list to receive their newsletters. For some, you can get more in depth information by reading their Blogs or connecting with them on Facebook.

2.) Each time your group spends time in prayer, you remember to pray for that missionary. Depending on which missionary you choose there may be other ways to be involved in their lives and ministry, but we will leave that up to you and your group.

NEXT STEP: Talk to your current Journey Group leader about the adopt a missionary project and lets get started!

After talking with your Journey Group leader, with his or her permission, you will then email Deb Beck at debb@cccomaha.org so we can get the ball rolling with this project. She will send you out a PDF list of CCC missionaries for you to puruse. After looking through the list, if there is a missionary that you are naturally drawn towards please communicate that to us so that we can start from there. If no preferences arise, we can help guide your Journey Group to a good fit for the adoption process.

If you have any questions or need any assistance, please contact Deb Beck, Craig Walter, or Dusty White at 330-3360.

Blessings,
Craig Walter
Global Outreach
craigw@cccomaha.org
(402) 938-1575

P.S. We have a list of missionaries and brief info on each of them for you to puruse. We won't be putting this info on the blog post for sensitivity reasons. Please note that on a couple of our missionaries the information sensitivity is set to HIGH. This means you must be very cautious in your communication to them through email. Please contact me first before you attempt to contact them for any reason and I can help you understand the guidelines.

This blog has moved!

Dear blog readers,

Christ Community Church has a new website. Hopefully you will find www.cccomaha.org to be useful for all things up and coming at CCC. One of the necessary changes was to move this blog. To continue to receive updates, please subscribe using the following link:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/cccomaha/journey-group

Thank you,

Greg Nunamaker
Web Manager
Christ Community Church

you gotta double your impact

"Double Your Impact" is a phrase that has been recently flying around our church. These three words are the challenge, they are the focus, they are the future. If you wanted, you could plaster those words on the bumper of your car (no...I'm not recommending that).

So what does this mean? (Thanks for askin.)

It can really be wrapped up into one personalized question - What would it look like for you to double your impact?

Prior to answering that question, we need to answer another question - What kind of impact am I currently having? That question is answered with a series of more questions: What are you currently involved in? Is your life comfortable or stretching? Are you making a difference? If you walked away from the things you're involved with right now, would anyone notice? Would people's lives be at stake? Would certain things lose leadership and intentional involvement?

A quick impact inventory excercise - take one sheet of paper and write as many "things" on it as you can based on the things that you're involved with. From the big rocks to the little rocks. For example, a few of my big rocks are: Disciple, Husband, Father, Provider, Pastor, Friend, Journey Group leader, Pre-marital counselor, etc. Some of my little rocks are (looking at the last few days): golfed 9 holes, need to finish my landscaping project around our house, aerate the lawn, likes baseball events, etc.

As I look at my sheet of paper, there are a lot of "things" that are just "things." They don't necessarily matter in the kingdom impact category. The question becomes, "Are any of these things stealing from my impact - my difference in this world?" Based on how I answer that I probably should slice and dice a few "things" off of my "things list."

So, how about you? How about your impact? Lets ask God to help us double it so that He might leverege His kingdom here on earth through us, for his fame and glory. And always remember, the impact that you will have is a drop in the bucket compared to the everlasting impact that Jesus can have in you and around you. But that doesn't get humanity off the hook. He wants to use his church and describe Himself through the Gospel message to the nations.

On the double,
Dusty