Larry James coming to Garnett April 19

We've invited Larry James, CEO of Central Dallas Ministries, to return after three years and speak to our congregation April 19, 10 am.

Larry and his right hand attorney, John Greenan, gave us the spark and imagination three years ago to launch the Green Country Event Center, a "business as mission" effort to be good stewards of the Garnett Church facility and partner with God in pursuing our community.

Since then, we've been learning and enjoying rubbing shoulders with people from all walks of life, from five different churches that meet regularly, several schools including Union GED/ESL, dozens of businesses and people of peace who have come to use our place. We're on an amazing journey, and Larry is coming to help spark vision again, this time for another phase that includes land around our church as another part of the mission to be good neighbors and make disciples of Christ in East Tulsa.

Your view of life, the poor, the economy, and the kingdom of God will be challenged by what Larry James has to say Sunday, April 19 at Garnett, 10 am. We'll have a lunch after worship to talk more about our vision and show a video that Lance Newsom is working on that asks a couple dozen people around Garnett and event center, "What's God up to in your life and this community?" Please join us for worship and lunch!

Update

• Tulsa Soul-Winning Workshop is next week, March 26-28 at Tulsa Fairgrounds. The theme is Evangelistic Explosion.
• Wednesday, March 25, 5-7 pm come for a free meal and fellowship called Neighborhood Kitchens. We'll also be hosting visitors coming for the workshop (item above), and we'll have a time of worship and telling of good stories about what God is doing in East Tulsa and beyond.
• For student ministry events and news, check out the student blog (click student link above)
• We're hiring a full-time children's minister at Garnett. If you know of a qualified person who may be interested, please contact Greg Taylor, gtaylor@garnettchurch.org.
• Jessica Rogers was baptized Sunday, March 15 during our worship. What a great day together and to end with a baptism brought great joy to the congregation.
• Want to sign up for email updates that are send daily at 3 pm? See link on right navigation bar.
  

Hello from Lubbock!

I'm staying with a high school friend and his family and enjoying reconnecting with them. I'm here for the ZOE Conference at the Monterey Church of Christ. I'm involved with ZOE because we help people break free from legalism and experience a new journey with Jesus Christ.

We help people with stepping stones like articles on Wineskins.org, conference experiences in worship, great speakers such as Mike Cope, Jeff Walling, Randy Harris, Scot McKnight, music in CD and printed sheet music for fresh approaches to worship, and a Growing Deeper Spirituality program. Check all this out at www.wineskins.org and www.zoegroup.org

Plans are to return to Tulsa Saturday night, and I'll be preaching Sunday on Matthew 5:38-42.

May our love with God grow deeper and passion for our world go wider.

--Greg

P.S. Here are the small group questions for this week:

Small Group Questions

Read Matthew 5:38-39

Tell about an experience you've had in your family, work, church where you've seen someone living out Jesus teaching.

Have there been times when your punishment or "justice" exceeded the wrong done? For example, for parents: can you tell about a time when the punishment you gave your children inappropriately exceeded their wrongdoing?

How can we live this teaching out in our homes, work, church, neighborhood?

Read Matthew 5:40-42

Tell about an experience you've had in your family, work, church where you've seen someone living out Jesus teaching.

How can your small group give to those who ask, share your "two coats" with someone in need, go the "extra mile"?

How can we pray for you?

Daniel Mwaza Fast

During Lent I'm on a Daniel Fast. No, not Daniel in the Bible.

My friend, Daniel Mwaza, in Uganda told me how to lose weight . . . He said, "Stop eating so much."

So I'm eating half of the normal American calorie intake (which about matches intake of half the world), with about 4 oz of protein a day.

I lived seven years in Uganda, and this fast helps me remember those days when I saw children in villages eat their one meal for the day, a handful of beans and some cassava (yucca root).

Fasting can heighten your awareness of God, lead to deeper prayer and discernment. It can also lead to poor brain function. I could barely make it through a seekers Bible study last night after our Neighborhood Kitchens meal, but God gave me the power to finish when we discussed from Mark 3 the way the evil spirits bowed down in the presence of Jesus. We saw that nothing can prevail against God, nothing.

The last few weeks have been a bittersweet whirlwind with my move to lead minister of Garnett Church of Christ and the exit of my friend and co-worker, our former lead minister Wade Hodges.

I'm very happy to preach and help lead this church under the guidance of our shepherds, the teamwork of a great staff, and in partnership with an incredible congregation that is seeing before us the greatest opportunity in decades--probably since the bus ministry--to reach out to our neighbors through Neighborhood Kitchens, Angel Food, Food Pantry, where we see hundreds of guests and fellow servants seeking the Lord, community, life.

We're also looking for a full-time children's minister and rebuilding a great ministry to children as well as continuing an incredible student ministry that Lance Newsom and Deanie Johnson and a band of volunteers run so very well.

Last night, a Garnett teacher taught class, filled with both children from families currently at Garnett and children of adult guests who are checking out what this community is all about. She was headed home and said she was hungry. We had fed more than 200 guests and our beloved Chef Roy was not there to stretch food like he normally does (he was home recovering from surgery). So we ran out of food, and this teacher had been last in line. She was heading home with her boys, hungry but smiling, another kind of fast for the sake of the kingdom and the mission of this congregation.

Preaching at Garnett

I've let the news of Wade Hodges leaving Garnett to plant a church in Austin, Texas settle in for a while and now want to tell you a little about how I'm feeling about preaching at Garnett Church of Christ in Tulsa.

I love Garnett Church of Christ more today than ever before, and I'm very happy to preach and help lead the church alongside very capable and loving shepherds, staff, and other servants in the church.

I grew up in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, so I've known of Garnett for decades. The Tulsa Soul-Winning Workshop was a rite of Spring, and I have fond memories of my mother, Charlotte Taylor, and my aunt, Karen Williams, spreading out picnics in the Expo when it was cold and rainy and at Woodward Park when it was sunny and the azaleas were about to bloom.

For twenty years I've wanted to preach and help lead a church going through a neighborhood transition, and Garnett has been doing that. East Tulsa was growing with new housing when the church built near 31st and Garnett many years ago. Now the neighborhood is revitalizing with new stores and active neighborhood associations and Community Schools that we partner with, including Briarglen and Cooper Elementary Schools. What I mean by this is that some churches either grow old and die or they move to the suburbs, but Garnett has stayed put through neighborhood transition economically and ethnically, and this has been a dream of mine to help a church like this transform to serve God right where we are.

In the past several years, the church has declined in attendance but has grown stronger in other ways, including the ability to dream again, creatively use our resources, stop gossiping and speak face to face with people and not behind their backs. Other areas of growth are Garnett's outreach to the community, continued small group participation, and an element that has been true of the church for a long time: joyful worship and good preaching.

With God's help and illumination of his word and gospel, I plan to continue that tradition of good preaching. In the weeks leading up to Easter we will finish the Sermon on the Mount series, and we will have special events for youth, for families, including a showing of the film, Fireproof, and ongoing classes such as Single Parenting led by Jo Morton and Robert Garland, Better Life 101 led by Jim Roberts, Hebrews led by James Lawrence, and Following Jesus led by Greg Taylor.

We have classes both Sundays (9 am) and Wednesdays (7 pm) for cradle to high school and for adults. We also have a free meal called Neighborhood Kitchens, and all are welcome from 5-7 pm. Just come in the West entrance and we'll welcome you there. We'd love to see you come to our worship at 10 am Sundays, and we'll welcome you and show you around and enjoy worshiping God with you.

Greg Taylor
Preacher, Garnett Church of Christ

What will 2009 bring?

Could you have imagined one year ago what 2008 would bring? Can you imagine what events will happen in your life in 2009, what will happen internationally?

What can you do in 2009 to be ready for the changes that will occur in your life and in the world? Since I was a child I have made personal goals at the beginning of each year. I no longer make personal goals but try to think about the communities I'm in and what our community goals will be.

Last night my family sat down to a beautifully prepared meal my wife made. Pork tenderloin wrapped around spinach and provolone cheese, sauteed peas, mushrooms, carrots, salad, and potatoes. Jill offered the children a copy of our family's one year Bible to read personally and suggested we read it together as well. We talked about what the year would bring, we discussed how we were getting our house in order individually and collectively.

Next week our church will have these discussions, sitting around meals, in offices, in coffee shops. I'll have these conversations with various ministry leaders, shepherds, fellow ministers at Garnett. I'll talk to Eric, Keith, Lara, and others on the ZOE team and we'll discern what God is leading us to in 2009. I'll meet with Jeff Krisman and talk about what will happen with Neighborhood Kitchens/Wednesday night meals at Garnett.

To begin this year, I'll also talk with Leonard Allen about what's going on with Leafwood/ACU Press that I can help with. We have a few cool things up our sleeves in all these areas. I'll check in with Clint Davis about Kibo's goals--he and I met yesterday in his yard, but for a different purpose: to cut a pesky tree that was damaging his house. I'm glad I'm down off that roof and the limb is safely down without breaking windows. We were proud of ourselves!

January is really about conversations of direction and purpose in the communities I live in. We don't make goals as much as we prepare ourselves for what could come, for what God is doing in the world. Will we be ready to face challenges that come, and what do we need to do and be to be ready? That question is more important than the goals we make. Are we shaped in the image of Christ? How do we do that so we're ready for opportunities and challenges that life and God bring our way?

So our exercise fitness, the way we eat, the way we daily pray, fast (or not), enter in Scripture and thought of fellow Christ followers, all serves the purpose of the communities of Christ followers I live in. For many years my goals were about fitness and Bible reading and books to get through and degrees to obtain, but those things all serve the end of my life becoming shaped into the image of Christ in the communities I'm in.

What communities do you need to talk to about what 2009 will look like? Enjoy talking and acting on those conversations.

May God bless those talks. Happy New Year 2009.

Garnett looking for a designer

Garnett Church of Christ is looking for a good designer to produce several new brochures to describe our church, ministries, and outreach. Are you a designer? We welcome talking with anyone who would either volunteer or charge a fee--just be straight with us about your abilities (bring some samples) and what you'd like to charge or not charge. We'll take a look at samples of your work or that of others you recommend, and make a decision early in 2009. Deadline for getting samples by Christmas. Mail samples to 12000 E 31st St. Tulsa OK 74146 Attention: Greg Taylor. You can also email PDF files to gtaylor@garnettchurch.org.