Wednesday Recap

It's really hard to recap with words what we experienced this past Sunday night, but I'll do my best. Basically, there were four unique elements that really left us in awe of what God is doing...

1) The People. It was a blessing and an honor to have 44 people with us Sunday night. I truly believe that God gave us a glimpse of what was to come. The immediate questions are... What will this Sunday be like? Will the numbers drop? Honestly, I don't know, they could, but then they couldn't at the same time. Right now, I'm just praying that God would continue to bring the right people and help them connect to our group. Having quality people with a diverse set of backgrounds and abilities is what I'm praying for at this stage. The number of people excites me, but it doesn't drive my passion!

2) The Vision. We took some time at the beginning to cast the vision of where we've been, where we are, and where we are headed. I hope it was a great reminder for everyone of what God has already done, but I also hope it inspired people to step up even more. How can you become even more generous with your time, abilities, and resources as we move forward? Here are the dates that you need to make sure you know...

• Beginning August 22nd, we'll begin a time of worship and teaching from 6:30-7:30 with our main focus being on reaching the students on UT's campus.
• Starting September 19th, we'll begin training people in our different volunteer areas from 5:00-6:00 as we move forward with our launch team development.
• October will be a busy month, and we are asking everyone to keep your Sundays clear. Both in the AM and PM. Also, we'll be taking a trip to Elevation Church in Charlotte. This experience is going to really help us see what can happen when people get truly passionate about Jesus and the church. I'm really pumped about this trip! We'll also launch our Overflow Groups at some point in October.
  
• October 17th will be our last night at the BCM. On Sunday, October 24th, we'll transition our Sunday nights to South-Doyle Middle.
• November 7th will be our final Sunday night gathering. Beginning November 14th, we'll move to the launch preparation phase and everything will transition to Sunday mornings.
• Key dates that we need people to clear on their calendar: November 14, December 4th, 5th, 12th, January 9th, and obviously January 16th (launch date)

3) The Worship. When we talk about worship within The Overflow we are often referring to much more than music. Yes, our time of worship together is always motivating, but our worship must be more about who we serve than what we sing! Kyle, who was leading our worship Sunday night, was really able to communicate this message of worship. Not only is he gifted musically, but he gets "it!" He knows what worship is about. Please be praying for Kyle and our leadership as we continue to talk with Kyle about becoming our Worship Pastor.

4) The Opportunity. Our Outflow focus for this week was on friends and family. I think this week really hit home with many of us. This is often the hardest group of people to reach, but at the same time, these are the people we want to show God's love to the most. I briefly shared and summarized some key points from the readings during the week by using James 1:19. If we are going to allow God's love to overflow to our family and friends we have to...

*Be quick to listen: In most cases, we would communicate so much better with our friends and family if we would listen to what's going on in their lives. Our tendency is to rush and tell them how much they need Jesus, but we should learn to listen to what they are saying and walk through those doors at the right times. It must be more about them than it is about us!

*Slow to become angry: We have to realize that those closest to us know how to "push our buttons." That's just part of being family and friends. We know each other very well. However, we have to learn how to respond when someone pushes our button. We need some self-control. On the other hand, we have to avoid pushing their button even when it's so tempting.

We won't Bible-thump our family and friends to Jesus, but we can love them to Jesus! We can be there for them, live an authentic and consistent Christian life in front of them, and allow God's love to overflow at the right times.