We’ve reached the halfway point of Leap Of Faith. For those who are just tuning in, this is an exciting opportunity we’ve taken as a whole church over the last two years to exercise our faith muscles and believe some big things for us personally and for us as a whole church. The word I’m hearing is that this year’s Cross That Moat challenge hasn’t been easy and has caused many of you to re-examine how faith works.

Strange stuff

I’ve found exercising faith kind of like gathering “manna”. Manna, which in Hebrew meant something like, “What the heck is that?” was the strange, miraculous food God provided for his people in the wilderness. You can find the full story in Exodus 16, but for our purposes, I’d just like to highlight a few similarities between manna and my experience with faith… Read more ›

Our 40 days of prayer & faith, called Leap of Faith, is on now through Easter Sunday. You will find all the materials you need to join in here.

We suggest taking a look at the User’s Manual, then sign up for daily email to get your readings & reflections via email every morning.

User’s Manual

Daily Study Guide (full 40 days)

Daily Readings

We’re about to begin our second Leap Of Faith 40 days of prayer. During the course of our preparations you’ve heard Lent, mentioned a lot. Maybe you’re not quite sure what Lent’s about, so I thought it might be helpful to explain a little bit about it.

A special season

Today, dedicated believers all over the world begin observing the Lenten season. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter. Read more ›

Every 3rd Sunday some of us from the NBV have been going to meet & help out day laborers who gather at Division & Marcy to find work. The idea is simply to make friends & help them out however we can. It’s really been a good time! Join us Feb 20!

Here are the groups that will be meeting from February through April 2011. You’re welcome to check out any of these groups.

Most groups are a combination of building friendships, some Bible or book study & prayer, although different groups might focus on different things. Contact the group leader for more information about a specific group.

Did you know that the great Hindu leader, Mohandas Gandhi at one time had considered becoming a Christian … that is, until he was turned off by the inconsistency in the lives of the believers he encountered. Rather than convert to faith in Christ, he retreated to his native religion and would later say, “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

Author Brennan Manning wrote, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

Misunderstanding our beliefs

One of the big reasons for this inconsistency is that too many of us misunderstand our faith. And if we’re uniformed about the basic foundational teachings of the Christian faith how can we live out the message of the gospel the way it was meant to be.

For many today the “gospel” has become a self-centered, me-first exercise in personal improvement. The central question has become, What can Christianity do for me? How does being a follower of Jesus benefit my life? This thinking is far from the first-century concept of the faith, which centered its message in kingdom-building, not coming up with “steps” to becoming a better person and achieving personal success.

Jesus has called us to be his ambassadors. Therefore we need to know what we’re representing and communicating. Read more ›

Mike concludes his Rethinking Prayer series with a reminder that we’re not left to struggle with prayer on our own. We’ve been given very special help. 11am at the school or 6pm at the Trash Bar.

After four frustrating days of cancellations and delays Char and I finally made it to Phoenix and our grandsons. Can you tell I’m smiling?

There’s another reason I’m smiling. I sense something wonderful taking place in our church. A God-thing. Something that just a year ago when things were at their bleakest looked so unlikely. When the loss of key leaders along with mounting financial woes had taken the steam out of us. When we were existing month to month. At that time a trusted member of my Advisory Team, in a moment of candor confessed, “If we were a company we’d have gone out of business by now.”

But despite the gloomy forecasts and my worst fears we haven’t gone out of business. God’s played much bigger than that. Today as we stand at the beginning of a new year it’s like night and day around here! God’s turned things around and because of that, I’m smiling. Read more ›

The Foundation Fund Offering
Sunday, December 19th

Be on the lookout for more details about how you can participate.