Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Thursday, January 18, 2018
Life Group Coaching Update - 1.21.2018
Engage
This week we’re going to think about the Biblical theme of Covenants. The best modern example of a covenant is marriage. How would you explain what a marriage is to a 4 or 5 year old? What are the commitments, privileges, and responsibilities of a marriage covenant? What is the role of trust in a covenant relationship?
Explore
What are some of the different covenants in the Bible and where would you go to find them? What is a biblical covenant according to the scriptures?
What does God promise the people of Israel if they keep their covenant with him in Deuteronomy 29:9? What does God promise the people of Israel will be like if they keep their covenant with him in Exodus 19:5-6. What is the context of the New Covenant that Jesus establishes in Luke 22:14-20? In what ways does God’s provision, power, protection, and promises all flow through the covenants?
Apply
Since God’s covenants are built on people trusting his word, are we, as God’s children, trustworthy in the eyes of others? What would other people say about your trustworthiness? Do you keep your commitments and stay true to your word? What situations would cause you to vacillate? If everything we do is either earning or undermining trust, what sorts of things can we say and do to earn trust with one another? What sorts of things undermine trust? What practical steps can we take to become increasingly more transparent, consistent, and faithful?
Life Together at Summit View Church
“Gospel Goodbyes” On this episode of the Life Together podcast, Pastor Kyle announces his tranistion up to Rainier Valley Church in Seattle. He share his heart and talks about how we should understand transitions, see God's hand in the midst of each transition, and allow Gospel goodbyes to shake us up to rmember our mission and refocus our priorities.
Check out Pastor Kyle's Gospel Goodbye on this week's #LifeTogether podcast.
Check out Pastor Kyle's Gospel Goodbye on this week's #LifeTogether podcast.
If you have a question on leadership, discipleship or theology, you can write to kyle@summitview.net
Planning Center Training Videos
Take attendance from email
Group Leader – How to Edit a Group
How to Add/Remove Group Members
Church family-
I’m excited to share that our church now has access to an extensive, new video library called RightNow Media! It’s like the "Netflix of Video Bible Studies" and has a HUGE library of faith-based videos that you can access whenever and wherever you want—on your phone, iPad, computer, or at home on your TV.
As a church staff, we’re always looking for ways to help you develop and strengthen your faith. We believe that RightNow Media will be a tool to serve you as you live out your faith at home, at work and in your neighborhood. RightNow Media has videos for everyone—kids, youth, parents, married couples, college students, single adults, working professionals—all aimed at helping you grow.
You should have already received an official invitation email to give you FREE access to RightNow Media. If you haven't received it yet, check your mail filter (because it came from RightNow's system, it may have gotten caught there).
Once you find the email, simply click the link, sign up for an account, and you’re all set to explore more than 12,000 videos. We pray that RightNow Media will be a blessing for you and your family!
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Holy Calling #2 - "The Gospel" - Acts 2:22-46
Holy Calling #2
"The Gospel" (Acts 2:22-46)
"The Gospel" (Acts 2:22-46)
Summit View Church's HERITAGE PARK Campus on Sunday, January 7th
Engage
What are some of your goals, resolutions, or commitments for 2018?
What some of the events or activities that you are most looking forward to in 2018?
Explore
Revelation – what God did (Acts 2:22-36) How does Peter describe Jesus in the first Christian sermon? What names, titles, and events does Peter highlight to explain who Jesus is and why it matters?
Response – what we do (Acts 2:37-41) How do the crowds respond to Peter’s message. What is the importance of conviction, confession, and repentance?
Result – what we get (Acts 2:38-46) What benefits do believers receive?
Apply
What is the biblical Gospel and how would you explain the Gospel to a 4 year old, a high schooler or a college professor? Why can’t Christian faith just be a private thing? Why major reasons have you encountered that people reject Jesus? What ways can we answer their objections? How can we strive to win the person and not just the argument? What needs does the Gospel address in the hearts and lives of people? Since the Gospel is good news how can we communicate it joyfully? What common ground can we find with non-believing friends that can function as a bridge and how can we be praying for these friends this week?
Life Together at Summit View Church
“What is the advent and why does it matter?” This week a member of Summit View Church asked some questions about Advent and why it's important. We consider the question of advent and meditate on the truth that Jesus is God with us! If you have a question on leadership, discipleship or theology, you can write to kyle@summitview.net
Thursday, January 4, 2018
8 Ways to Be Transformed in 2018
·
1. Be Transformed by Resolve Convictional Learner
o
God-given, Holy-Spirit empowered resolve is the fuel for personal transformation
o
In the history of the world it isn’t the
smartest, strongest or most attractive that change the world; it’s those with
the most conviction, most drive and the most RESOLVE!
o
Do you long to be transformed? There is a vast difference between preferences and convictions. Preferences are things we hold and convictions hold us even when we don't want to continue. Only deep convictions about God, ourselves, and our callings will lead us to lasting change.
o Conviction is one of
the most precious gifts you can have. Jesus said, blessed are those who hunger and trust for
righteousness for they shall be satisfied (Matt 5:6).
· 2. Be Transformed by Reading your Bible - Visual
Learner
o
The Bible isn't an easy book to understand. We rarely read books older than a few hundred years and the Bible is thousands of years old and written in other languages by authors from very different cultures yet the Bible is God's timeless revelation of himself for us. This is a special gift, one that shouldn't be neglected.
o
Matthew 4:4 “Jesus answered, "It is written:
'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth
of God.'" Jesus is encouraging us to think of the Bible like our spiritual food. If your BODY needs carbs, protein, fiber, your soul needs truth, revelation, hope, and direction. If you are wondering why you aren't hearing from God but you haven't opened your Bible, you are being like someone complaining that nobody calls them when they've turned off their phone.
o
Practical tips for Bible Reading- Find a good Bible reading plan and if you can have your spouse, friend, roommate or someone else read with you. Follow this link to Ligonier Ministries for some great Bible Reading plan recommendations. Bring your Bible to church, mark it up, write in
it and write verses down on note cards. Use your imagination, what it looks like, feels like, smells like. Put yourself in
the story.
o Pick up a good Study Bible. Don't merely rely on personal interpretation but strive to understand the original meaning of any particular text. I recommend the ESV Study Bible which has some great notes that help clarify
difficult passages.
· 3. Be Transformed by Reading Good Books Visual learner
o Reading Good books make all the difference
§
33% of high school graduates never read another
book for the rest of their lives.
§
42% of college graduates never read another book
after college.
§
80% of U.S. families did not buy or read a book
last year.
§
70% of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore
in the last five years.
§
57% of new books are not read to completion.
o
Q: What books outside of the Bible have changed
your life? Here are my Top 10 Recommended Reads from 2017.
o
Ephesians 4:10 “he (Jesus) who gave some to be
apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors
and teachers”
o
God gives gifts to his church teachers, evangelists, pastors, etc –
Are you "opening" the gifts God has given his church? What kid do you know that would leave a Christmas
present unopened under the Christmas tree? Never hear excuses – Bow is to
tight, there is too much tape. Lay hold of the gifts that God has given the church.
· 4. Be Transformed by Listening Auditory Learner
o A popular idea among some evangelicals is to "redeem your commute" or "redeem your workout" Meaning you can now download and listen
to millions of lectures, sermons, etc. If you need some suggestions on what to begin listening to, check out my list.
o
Statistics show that most people can’t listen longer than 10 minutes which is now the average length of a YouTube video or TED Talk. As Christians, we must understand how are culture has affected us but we also must strive to create another culture shaped by biblical values and concerns, which will require us to grow in our ability to listen for extended periods of time.
o
Why is it so hard for most people to listen?
Listening takes humility because you can’t
immediately ask questions, interrupt, etc.
Listening to sermons is a lot like eating meals, we don’t always remember every meal with ever eaten but they nourish us, making us stronger, giving us energy and drive.
Lot of people think preaching is dead now, that is was an ancient
form of communication, outdated, one guy talking for 40 minutes isn't compelling anymore. That would be true but the
Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. More is happening in the act of preaching than merely listening to one man share his ideas. It's by the preaching of the word, saying God's words after him, that people are powerfully changed.
o
2 Corinthians 5:20 “We are therefore Christ’s
ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on
Christ’s behalf”
o
Preaching is Jesus speaking to us by the Holy
Spirit through speakers extolling God’s Holy Scriptures for our benefit.
·
5. Be Transformed by Writing Kinetic Learner
o
A big way many people learn is by writing, this can be anything from taking notes at a lecture to having a personal prayer journal. Writing offers us the chance to reflect and process the events of our lives and our own emotions, thoughts and actions.
o Many people who have taken up the habit of journaling find it helpful to leave a journal by the bed, in the car, etc – get it
down on paper before it’s gone.
o As I have had to write quite a bit more for school and work I have really enjoyed this quote --- “Writing makes a man more
precise”
o
What are you thinking? What are you feeling? Get
it down on paper and you will understand yourself and see your own motivations, thinking and heart at a level you have never seen before.
o
Statistics say that writing helps retention and also accesses parts
of your brain that speaking doesn’t! Writing can help you think clearly and remember better.
o
Writing allows you to write things down you
might not be willing to say yet. While we normally think of journaling as a personal discipline, it has great relational benefits.
o
Writing allows us to get ideas down and work
them over, edit them, realize their wrong. I carry a little notebook with me also every where I go and I try to capture thoughts as they come to me.
·
6. Be Transformed by Community Relational Learner
o
Proverbs 27:17 famously says, "as iron sharpens iron, so
one man sharpens another."
o
The incredible truth is that you can learn from anybody if you’re humble,
receptive and ask the right questions. Anyone and evey
o
Do you see other people that don't agree with you in issues of faith, politics, hobbies or lifestyles as being valuable in your personal growth and transformation? Do you see how the other people God has put in your life, workplace, neighborhood or family can teach you something? We can learn from your critics or our coaches, our enemies as well as our trusted advisers. We can learn from our friends, family, anybody!
o
How are we transformed by Community? Get into a community! Your friends will, in large part determine who you become. It's been said this way, you show me your friends; I’ll
show you your future!
o
There is a divine command for us to be in community. The best summery of scripture tells us that we’re called to love God and love others. It’s
possible to HIDE IN CHURCH and not really connect with others, open up our hearts and our lives to others.
o
Are you learning and being transformed in
community? Are you seeing God using the difficult people in your life to refine you? Are you opening yourself up to others? What ways might you be closing yourself off from deeper relationships? (comfort, bitterness, past wounding?)
· 7. Be Transformed by your Mistakes Wise Learner
o We don't like to think about the mistakes we've made but the truth is that mistakes can be one of the best fuels for transformation. When I've met with people who have made a massive mess of their lives, the one common thread I see is that they never learn from their mistakes. They don't think about what cause the divorce, why they keep being attracted to a particular kind of person, how their attitude lead to their choices, how their beliefs shaped their actions. We all make mistakes, the question is will we learn from them or run from them? Don’t waste
your mistakes!
o How will you take the time you need to slow down in learn
from your mistakes? What might happen if you don't learn from your mistakes?
o
Learn from the example of other people's mistakes. While personal experience is always the best teacher, in the school of life you don’t
have to step on the same landmine as your father, your friend or me. We can learn from other people's mistakes and be spared incredible pain. What have your learned from the mistakes of your family and friends? What can other peoples successes and failures teach you about habits, goals, fiances, relationships, work, and faith?
· 8. Be Transformed by Perseverance Consistent Learner
o
I’ll give this thing a shot. If you don't plan to succeed, you plan to fail. If you don't plan to change, you'll revert. Most diets don’t work because
they don’t focus on creating an ongoing healthy lifestyle, they merely focus on the numbers we want to see on the scale. Statistically New Year's resolutions are dumped in the beginning of February because most people just give up. True changes requires long, thankless, obedience in the same direction over months and years. If you think back on your life you may not see change over weeks or even months but over years and decades people go through incredible transformations. We change but sometimes the timeline is years, not days.
o
The Scriptures teach believers to train themselves in Godliness. This is similar to how a professional athlete trains for a sporting event. Pro-sports stars are great examples of absolute focus, their lifestyle is build around their training, maximizing their performance, they're always on, always vigilant, always working towards the goal. In the same way, Christians have no off season from spiritual warfare, no vacation from temptation, no sabbatical from the world's influence. As Believers, the New Year's season should remind us that we're called to be lifelong learners. We're called to be transformed by the Spirit of God as work in us. We must keep at the process of being teachable, humble, and consistent as we're being transformed by God the Holy Spirit. The minute we stop learning and apply, we stop growing. So push on faithful solider, knowing that it is God who is at work in us for his good pleasure. (Phil 2:13)
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
My Top 10 Recommended Reads from 2017
1. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You
Do You Control Your Phone—Or Does Your Phone Control You?
Within a few years of its unveiling, the smartphone had become part of us, fully integrated into the daily patterns of our lives. Never offline, always within reach, we now wield in our hands a magic wand of technological power we have only begun to grasp. But it raises new enigmas, too. Never more connected, we seem to be growing more distant. Never more efficient, we have never been more distracted.
Drawing from the insights of numerous thinkers, published studies, and his own research, writer Tony Reinke identifies twelve potent ways our smartphones have changed us—for good and bad. Reinke calls us to cultivate wise thinking and healthy habits in the digital age, encouraging us to maximize the many blessings, to avoid the various pitfalls, and to wisely wield the most powerful gadget of human connection ever unleashed.
2. This Is Our Time
Uncertain. Confused. Overwhelmed.
Many Christians feel bombarded by the messages they hear and the trends they see in our rapidly changing world.
How can we resist being conformed to the pattern of this world? What will faithfulness to Christ look like in these tumultuous times? How can we be true to the gospel in a world where myths and false visions of the world so often prevail?
In This is Our Time, Trevin Wax provides snapshots of twenty-first-century American Life in order to help Christians understand the times. By analyzing our common beliefs and practices (smartphone habits, entertainment intake, and our views of shopping, sex, marriage, politics, and life’s purpose), Trevin helps us see through the myths of society to the hope of the gospel.
As faithful witnesses to Christ, Trevin writes, we must identify the longing behind society’s most cherished myths (what is good, true, beautiful), expose the lie at the heart of these myths (what is false and damaging), and show how the gospel tells a better story – one that exposes the lie but satisfies the deeper longing.
3. CONVERSION: How God Creates a People
Does what a church believes about how people become Christians change how we do evangelism?
In this concise book, Michael Lawrence explains the doctrine of conversion and helps us consider the relationship between what we believe about how people are saved and our approach to sharing the gospel in the context of the local church.
Readers of this book will understand how the local church should participate in the conversion process through ordinary means, such as biblical preaching and intentional relationships.
4. Bible Project Coffee Table Book
This coffee table book is the entire collection of every diagram in the Read Scripture series alongside short, written summaries of each book.
The diagrams include the Old Testament and New Testament books in the Protestant tradition.
These illustrated summaries are bound together in a gray cloth hardcover binding. The dimensions of this book are 19in x 12in (48cm x 30cm).
It is perfect for displaying on a table or to use during family Bible studies or small groups.
5. Respectable Sins
Now available in softcover with a new, contemporary watercolor design that blends with Jerry Bridge’s most popular books. This new edition now includes the study guide (formerly available separately), combining that resource into this book.What Ever Happened to Sin? Jerry Bridges helps us confront the sins we tolerate.
The Christian journey is a life of practiced godliness, but too often we overlook or minimize sins that, while corrosive and destructive to ourselves and those around us, are overshadowed by more flashy, headline-grabbing sins. This classic book from Jerry Bridges helps readers understand and commit to a life of holiness by examining patterns of behavior we often accept as normal, rather than as violations of God’s law.
6. The 3-D Gospel
Learn How the Gospel Speaks to Guilt, Shame, & Fear Cultures!
Western theology emphasizes forgiveness of sins, but people in the Majority World covet honor or spiritual power.
The 3D Gospel is a concise, practical book explaining the world’s three primary culture types, and how the gospel addresses guilt, shame, and fear. In today’s globalized world, Christians need a three-dimensional gospel for all cultures. Is your gospel 3D?
7. Fool's Talk
Christians have often relied on proclaiming and preaching, protesting and picketing. But we are strikingly weak in persuasion―the ability to talk to people who are closed to what we are saying. Actual persuasion requires more than a one-size-fits-all approach. Guinness notes, "Jesus never spoke to two people the same way, and neither should we." Following the tradition of Erasmus, Pascal, G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, Malcolm Muggeridge and Peter Berger, Guinness demonstrates how apologetic persuasion requires both the rational and the imaginative. Persuasion is subversive, turning the tables on listeners' assumptions to surprise them with signals of transcendence and the credibility of the gospel.
This book is the fruit of forty years of thinking, honed in countless talks and discussions at many of the leading universities and intellectual centers of the world. Discover afresh the persuasive power of Christian witness from one of the leading apologists and thinkers of our era.
8. The Evangelistic Zeal of George Whitefield
Called the "Grand Itinerant" for his unprecedented preaching ministry, Whitefield crossed the Atlantic Ocean numerous times and lit fires of revival on two continents.
Yet, as Dr. Steven J. Lawson illustrates in this entry in the Long Line of Godly Men Profile series, we must note that Whitefield was a man whose extraordinary evangelistic fervor was marked by remarkable piety and deep theology, and whose unswerving devotion to his God led him to risk all that he had to preach the name of Christ.
9. Why The Reformation Still Matters
Does the Reformation Still Matter?
In 1517, a German monk nailed a poster to the door of a church, disputing key doctrines taught by the Roman Catholic Church in that day.
This moment set in motion a movement that changed the entire trajectory of church history.
But do the Reformers still have something to teach us?
In this accessible primer, Michael Reeves and Tim Chester answer eleven key questions raised by the Reformers—questions that remain critically important for the church today.
10. Who Is Jesus?
A famed historian once noted that, regardless of what you think of him personally, Jesus Christ stands as the central figure in the history of Western civilization. A man violently rejected by some and passionately worshipped by others, Jesus remains as polarizing as ever. But most people still know very little about who he really was, why he was really here, or what he really claimed.
Intended as a succinct introduction to Jesus’s life, words, and enduring significance, Who Is Jesus? offers non-Christians and new Christians alike a compelling portrait of Jesus Christ. Ultimately, this book encourages readers to carefully consider the history-shaping life and extraordinary teachings of the greatest man who ever lived.
Every Christian is a Priest - Holy Calling
Reformation 500 - Every Christian is a Priest
Engage
How was your Christmas? What were the highlights? What did God teach you?
What are you looking forward to in 2018? What are you fearful of in 2018? If you had to pick one theme for 2018 what would it be and why?
Explore and Apply
What was your understanding of the Reformation? Why might it be important to celebrate and remember the reformation five hundred years later?
Read Numbers 11:16-29. What is Moses hope for the people of God in the future?
Read Isaiah 61:6. What is God’s unfolding plan for all of his people in the future?
Priests of God have the privileges of (1) direct access to God, (2) offering spiritual sacrifices, (3) proclaiming the truth, and (4) priestly work. How would you explain each of these priestly roles? Priests prayed for people and ministered to their needs. Who do you need to be a priest to in 2018? How can you intentionally pray for them, minister to them and care for them like the priest you have been called to be?
What ways has the “secular/sacred” divide limited regular Christians from feeling like they can do the work of the ministry? How can you life be an example to other believers of their identity as Priests?
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