Category Archives: small groups

2022 Word Of The Year

05 Wednesday Jan 2022

Posted by in Challenge, Church, Decisions For Christ, Holiday, Oikos, Salvation, small groups, Volunteer, Worship

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Every year I pray and go through a process for a Word of the Year for our church for the coming year.  For 2021 God gave me the word THRIVE. In all the chaos of the season when people were suffering and reeling from Covid and all the governmental mandates and division that came from it, people were just trying to survive in 2020.  We decided that wasn’t good enough, and God made it clear that we are to Thrive. We have certainly experienced a thriving at Skyline Church. Over 1,176 decisions for Christ, 233 baptisms, over 15,000 people at Christmas nights––we’re seeing God move, and Skyline is thriving with more and more people! Over the last several months as I’ve asked the Lord for the word of the year for 2022, it became clearer and clearer that Rooted is the word for Skyline Church.

2022 Word Of The Year: Rooted

Def:  To establish deeply and firmly 

I believe the main reason God gave me this word is because we have so many people that have made a decision for Jesus but are not connected any more than a Sunday service. Pre-covid the national average for church attendance was 1.3 times a month. This is someone who claims to be a Christian and claims a home church! There’s no way to establish a deep and firm root base at 1.3x a month.

Rooted In Scripture

At Skyline Church, we’re not interested in building a crowd. That’s where it starts for sure, and of course we want to see crowds of people saying YES to Jesus. But we don’t just want a Sunday event, we want a Sunday fellowship! We want to truly help people get rooted in their faith, rooted in the church, and rooted in our community.

We have to disciple people and show them how to live out the process. Colossians 2:6-7, “And now, just as you (1) accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must (2) continue to follow him. (3) Let your roots grow down into him, and (4) let your lives be built on him. (Result: 5) Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and (6) you will overflow with thankfulness” (Emphasis mine). 

Process

We see the process stated above in Col. 2:6-7. It all starts with a decision for Christ. But then, our work really begins. We’ve got to help them get connected and rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have to teach them how to build their lives on Him. Only then, will their faith grow strong in the truth they are taught and that will cause them to overflow with thankfulness.

Are You Rooted?

I’m asking you to think through what rooted means in your walk with Christ. How can you get more rooted and how can you help others get more rooted (more connected) in 2022? Do you need to root yourself, your children, and your family? While we’ll always be focused on our Oikos, this year Skyline will be even more intentionally focused on helping people grow deeper roots whether they are brand new to the faith or have been a Christian for many years.

The first teaching series of the year will be called Rooted and it begins this Sunday January 9. We will look at key biblical practices that help people get rooted in the faith. Join us this Sunday at Skyline Church in Rancho San Diego, Lakeside, Kansas, or Online. 

This is going to be a GREAT YEAR as we see more and more people establishing deep and firm roots in their faith!

Your Mission, Should You Choose To Accept It

26 Tuesday Jan 2021

Posted by in Decisions For Christ, mission, Oikos, small groups

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We’ve been given a very clear mission in Scripture. Any Mission Impossible fans out there? This is your mission, should you choose to accept it…

From Acts 20:24 we read, “My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” 

Notice, it doesn’t say our aim is to “start” the mission. It doesn’t say that we should aim to “think” about the mission. Our goal is to “complete” the mission of telling people about God’s grace. When we became Christians, we were actually given a mission to accomplish. 

The most important thing in our life is to complete the task the Lord has given us. Acts 13:36 says, “David did the will of God in his own generation and then he died.” Is there anything better that can be said of someone? That they did the will of God for their time on earth? That is completing the mission! 

That’s why evangelism is part of our Core Values at Skyline Church. Our church family knows that FOUND people, FIND people. Now, evangelism is a very churchy “Christianese” word, but it doesn’t have to be weird or awkward. So, how do we do it? Well, let me share a story with you from my baseball days when I visited a church as a new Christian. 

I sat in on a service where the pastor was sharing about a time he was in New York City. He was walking past a traffic cop when the Holy Spirit prompted him to go witness to the cop. But the pastor kept walking. Well, soon he felt guilty for ignoring the Holy Spirit and so he walked back to the traffic cop. In the middle of the street, he told the cop, “Hey, I want you to know, God told me to tell you He loves you.” And he turned to walk away. But the traffic cop said, “Whoa, hold on.” After calling for backup to have someone take his place in the street, the cop joined the pastor on the side of the road to chat. Tears slowly fell under the rim of his mirrored sunglasses as he spoke to the pastor and said, “I prayed last night for the first time in a long time. I asked God that if He was real, to send someone and just let me know.” The pastor led the traffic cop to Christ right there and then! 

NOW that’s something to get excited about––what a powerful story! I got so pumped up when I heard it that I went out looking for traffic cops to witness to!

We ALL get excited about stories like that!

But how do you think the church responded to that story? I’m not against doing what God tells you to do. However, we can hear a story like that and think that’s how we’re supposed to lead people to Christ. Did you know, less than 1% of people come to Christ through a stranger. The most effective way to help people know Jesus is by being a witness. Acts 1:8 tells us that we will spread the Good News of Jesus by being a witness. God doesn’t expect you to be a salesman. God doesn’t expect you to be His attorney. He doesn’t need your defense. He does say, to be a witness. 

But what does it mean to be a witness? It simply means to share what you’ve seen or experienced. It means sharing what God has done in your life. You don’t have to be a Bible Scholar, a Christian for 20 plus years, or sinless. We say it all the time at Skyline, NO PERFECT PEOPLE ALLOWED. You can share what God has done in your life with authority and confidence because it is YOUR story. Your story matters!

Do you remember the Bible story of the man born blind? The religious leaders were distraught over his healing and accused Jesus of many things. The healed man couldn’t speak to their accusations and said, “All I know is that I was blind and now I see.” 

You don’t have to be an expert or have it all figured out! You can take the evangelistic, preachy, and condemning pressure off your shoulders and remember the moment that Jesus changed everything for you. Sharing the Good News will suddenly become easy and impossible to keep to yourself. 

THIS is your mission, should you choose to accept it … to finish telling people of what God has done for you. 

You can start by telling me! Fill out a Connection Card at SkylineChurch.org. Tell me how the grace of God through Jesus Christ has saved your life. But don’t stop there. Our aim is to finish the race and complete the task Jesus gave us. Think of who else you can share this news with today … because your story matters!

Meat and Football

22 Wednesday Oct 2008

Posted by in small groups

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Saturday we’re having our first 7SD Men’s Breakfast…eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, hashbrowns, OJ and coffee…oh and a football game after breakfast. I’m going to be giving a vision talk and we’re going to hang out and have a great time…who knows we may go hunting, kill something, bring it back and cook it for lunch…all I know is we’re doing guy things and 7SD is all about helping men be men…the type of guy God created us to be.

Hope you can make it.

Small Groups and Monday Night Football

14 Tuesday Oct 2008

Posted by in grow, seven church, small groups

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We had our second small group session last night. Our small group is awesome. Here’s what we do. We record the first half hour of the Monday night football game and everyone meets at 6:00PM. We have food and watch the first half commercial free. We pause the game at half then do the Bible study. The Bible study is based off the message from the weekend service, discussion questions are printed on the notes each week. We pray for each other and then watch the second half commercial free.

We have a point system we’ve developed to add a little extra to the game. Prior to Monday night everybody emails their picks and we record the predictions like…1. who wins the coin toss, 2. 1st catch 3. 1st points 4. 1st Touchdown 5. score at end of each quarter 6. and score at the end of the game. 7. Who wins the game., etc. We are keeping a running tally and the winner will receive a MNF Bible Study trophy…and bragging rights for the rest of the year.

Small groups are vital in churches but I think especially in a new church. It really helps people get connected and put down roots and grow. God uses small groups to help each of us learn from others. And, when the group is doing the study based off the message from the weekend it helps everyone take the message deeper. Studies show that people forget 95% of what they hear within 72 hours…bummer for preachers when we take all week to prepare something people are only going to remember 5% of at best. So, this is another way to help people really “get” the message and take it to the next level.