What an incredible weekend it was April 24th -26th! Campus Students of the Northwest are Stepping Up! 120 students attended the "Step Up" Campus Retreat hosted by the Spokane Christian Church. Sunday there were about 260 total people in attendance for Worship. The weekend was filled with keynote messages, breakout lessons, d-groups, prayer, games, entertainment and just good ol' fellowship and confession. Friends that came out made decisions to start studying the Word to become disciples of Jesus.

All keynote lessons are uploaded under the media tab, click retreats and see "Step Up messages.

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Over the next few months the Church will have two new classes during Midweeks which takes place on Tuesdays at 7:00pm.   (Our classes are broken down on three levels: Core Foundations, Christ Formations and Deeper Teaching.)

Deeper Teaching (Men's Class): The Book of Romans                                    Christ Formation (Women's Class): "Surrender"

"...he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed." -Proverbs 11:25b

Over 20 disciples from the Church in Spokane traveled to Missoula, Montana to encourage the Five Valleys Church of Christ.  It was a great time of fellowship, worship and prayer.  The Spokane Church band, "The Void Reclaimed" lead a worship concert on Saturday night.  The night was filled with prayer and singing.  Thanks to Jake and Nancy Jensen, the Evangelist and Women's Ministry Leader and the family of the Five Valleys Church of Christ the Christians from Spokane were housed, fed and loved on. 

On Sunday the atmosphere was one of joy and excitement; The Five Valleys Worship Team and the Void Reclaimed led us in worship, Jermaine Peacock preached the Word.  Aftewards, the Church had a huge feast to feed everyone in attendance. 

Thank you to all who traveled and sacrificed to refresh the disciples in Missoula, Montana.   In the end, many of the disciples from Spokane found themselves spiritually refreshed as God moved throughout the weekend. 

In light of our focus on serving, and specifically related to Jermaine's lesson from last Sunday, 3/14, I wanted to share how the Lemes family was impacted by being served by our brothers and sisters in Spokane. 

As you know, my grandmother passed away on Tuesday, March 10th.  It was a tough time for Jeremy, Cosette, & I and we were all, frankly exhausted.  Unbeknown to me, a sister in our small group, Sabrina, setup for our family to receive dinners for a WEEK to help ease the load.  I had just gotten done helping care for my grandmother and was facing planning a funeral…2 things I've never done before.  When I got the call from Amy Meyer, asking, when I'd like my dinner delivered I was totally blown away!  What an amazing group of disciples we have here in Spokane.  The care & thought that was put into each meal was so amazing. 

As the week went on, family came in from out of town for the funeral and the meals kept coming in each evening.  On Saturday and Sunday, I was able to bring the food that I received from my friends, to provide dinner for our out of town guests to enjoy and they LOVED it!  I not only shared the food we received but I shared with them how this food was provided by my wonderful brothers and sisters at MY CHURCH and they were all blown away.  These dinners provided an opportunity for me to share with my family what true Christianity is about and it was decided that if there were more of this in the world, it would be a much more peaceful place. I would just like people to know that there may be times when you think that you're just making dinner for someone but really, its much more than that. 

These acts of kindness, generosity, and servitude was really what allowed me to share God's love with my family of non-Christians.  You never know who you might be serving when you're "just serving"

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. -John 13:34

At the end of the year 2008, the Core Leadership Team of the Spokane Christian Church decided after prayer, discussion and planning that the year 2009 would be focused on the theme “Loving One Another.”  The idea was to become the family that God intended for us to become…to be a people that truly cared for one another that way that Jesus cared about people…to be that refuge from the world, to be that safe place, to be devoted to one another in brotherly love. 

Recently, the Church began a 40-day focus on relationships with one another.  For the next several days, we will examine the one another scriptures in the Word of God.  Each day, we’ll study a scripture and be given a practical challenge.  Our hope as a fellowship is to be transformed by God’s Word.  We’ve called it the “40-Day Relationship Building Plan.”   Members of the Church were given a booklet that has a daily “one another” scripture and challenge.  We are off to a good start; we are at day 9…to give you an idea of what each day looks like here is a sampling from Day 9:

Hebrews 10:24-25
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Consider means to think through, to take time to contemplate and to put some thought into it.  Today, think through the people in your small group, who can you spur on toward love and good deeds.  How so?   Are they any others that you’d like to encourage?  Decide that you will encourage someone in the fellowship daily this week!

Pray for the Church to be all that God intends for us to be so that the world will know that we are his sons and daughters.