The impact of churches coming together in worship from different backgrounds, denominations, and ethnicity has been electrifying the first couple of years. As we all join together to lift up these songs as one voice before God I thought we would give you a chance to practice first. So here is the playlist for our Celebration Service with links to iTunes if you don’t yet have a couple of these. Burn a cd and warm up your own vocal stylings and get ready. Of course, these are subject to change and there are some other elements of the service not on here. We will see you Sunday night.

Awakening – Chris Tomlin

The Time Has Come – Hillsong United
Let God Arise – Chris Tomlin
Unchanging – Chris Tomlin

Healing is In Your Hands – Christy Knockles
Revelation Song – Kari Jobe
God of Second Chances – Carlos Whittaker

Our God – Chris Tomlin
Glory to God – Steve Fee
With Everything – Hillsong United

Music will be led by Atlanta area worship leaders Brett Stanfill and Rachael Gillis, and recording artist Carlos Whittaker.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

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I grew up with a Dad. His job and life moved him away when I was 12 or 13, and then my Mom worked valiantly to play both roles, but that story is for another day. My parents were divorced, but up until I was 12 I got my Dad time in on the weekends. My Dad took me to basketball games, football games, gave me an allowance and was pretty engaged during our time together. So why does a book about a guy without a Dad resonate with me?

Early on Miller quotes a book by Dwight Eisenhour (‘At Ease: Stories I Tell To Friends’). “Eisenhour said his mother and father made an assumption that set the course of his life – that the world could be fixed of its problems if every child understood the necessity of their existence. Eisenhour knew the world needed him. If he wasn’t around somehow his family couldn’t function.”

At this stage of my life My Dragon is about the Dad that I want to be. I feel like the best gift I can give to my two boys right now is to let them know that they are both wanted and needed in my life. We have taught them that God has brought us together and allowed us to be a family. We have taught them how much God loves them, and tell them that we love them every day. But I don’t want them to feel like we live in the same house by default. I want them to feel like the reason we play games on the floor or throw the football in the backyard is because I want to, not just because I am trying to fulfill a job description.

I’m beginning to believe that one of the best legacies a Father can give his kids is to make them feel wanted.

Miller’s book has been released under a new title, called Father Fiction. I would recommend it no matter which bin/shelf you find it on.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

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Here is one of my favorite passages of scripture. It is found in Ecclesiastes 9:

¹³ I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: ¹⁴ There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it. ¹⁵ Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man.

Christ-followers need to be willing to go to the place or do the thing that God commands us to do, and put all of our energy into that. I think we should strive to make extraordinary impact on the places we live and move and have our being. I just think the motive should be so that everyone remembers a name that is higher than our own, and above all others.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

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Last Saturday at West Ridge Church – Every month at West Ridge Church we invite people from our church to come volunteer in the community, and invite others to come along as well. We have multiple opportunities available every ‘Last Saturday’. This month we are serving new widow in need of some home maintenance, working in a community to encourage some of our neighbors with some acts of service, planting a garden that will be used to give healthy food option to those who cannot afford them this summer. Go here to register and we will let you know how to prepare.

Help us serve our neighbors in the week to come and beyond!

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

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There are hundreds of families in Paulding, Cobb, and Douglas County, GA that are trying to live in homes that they can’t afford to put back together. Most of their valuables left in a dumpster sometime last fall. I believe the local church is the best vehicle of Hope that has ever been created. I also believe we have entered into a season where God has opened the eyes of church leaders so that they would see that the challenges faced by communities are bigger than any one church.

This little note is a reminder that we are continuing to ask churches to come together so that all of us can lead the way in helping to restore what was lost. West Ridge Church and our church partners at Engage Atlanta are all partnering together with Samaritan’s Purse to help rebuild homes in this community.

When there is this much work to do it can be paralyzing to the point that you never get involved. Let me make it simple, and give you some basic ways you can get involved using the skills, talents and resources that God has given you:

1. Volunteer to work – Tuesday – Saturday is the work schedule that our friends at Samaritan’s Purse have established. If you would like to volunteer, and bring some friends along, call 770-222-2125, and ask for extension 372. You’ll probably get a voicemail, but we are checking it. It helps us to plan for volunteers in advance for these kinds of projects so give us a call. If you are out of state you can volunteer on the Samaritan’s Purse website.
2. Volunteer to feed – Every week from now until the end of April we have volunteers here from all over the country. We are trying to save construction funds by using local groups to feed these incredible volunteers. If you would like to help with this, please send me a note by using the contact form on this blog. While I’m at it, if there’s anyone with connections to ticketed events around Atlanta we would like to hook up these volunteers. We have tons of college students giving up their Spring Break in March and April to be a part of this. I hope they get to experience a little fun in the ATL while they are here.
3. Contract Labor - A lot of money can be spent on HVAC, plumbing and electrical just in labor. If you are a licensed professional and are willing to volunteer your skills, please let me know.
4. Adopt a home – Engage Atlanta has been inviting churches to adopt a home. Several in our local area already have including Burnt Hickory Baptist, Cedarcrest Church, Bethany Christian, and others are considering it. If you would like more information about that, let me know.

Looking forward to sharing the stories of what can happen when a whole group of people find what they have in common and make a difference.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

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So a huge minority number of the children attend school, and a minority pass the standardized test. Without education kids have no chance to break the cycle of poverty.

Part of our strategy for Burkina Faso is to help break the cycle by investing in the number one school in the country called, Lycee Alliance Christienne or ‘LAC’ for short. LAC is run by a church here in Ouaga and is the number one school in the country. Their students pass the standardized test at an average rate of 87%. One year they had a class hit 97%.

There is a chaplain on staff named Agabuse who cares passionately about the students here. Most of the students at this school arrive Muslim, and over 20% trust Christ each school year. Cabinet members and other gov’t leaders send their children here. Many have trusted Christ, and some are already in positions of influence throughout the country. It is a truly a way to break the cycle of poverty, and to put Christ-followers in the work place.

LAC has an attendance of 400. Our hope is that God would somehow give us the favor and the cash to expand it to over 1,000. The compounded potential of our impact if we are able to accomplish this goal would reap benefits for generations to come.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

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1. $38 a month. Seriously, people. There just aren’t a lot of excuses in America for not sponsoring a kid. Unfortunately, many people in the U.S. have dropped kids in the last year because of the American economy. I hope they cut their cable off first.

2. They connect to the local church. As far as the children know the church is taking care of them. The Compassion Director on site works as part o the church staff. It is a beautiful relationship.

3. They check on the families. The Compassion staff really care about these kids and their families. You can see it on their faces. If a child or family needs something like an extra malaria treatment or they don’t have enough food, the Compassion staff does everything they can with the budget they have from sponsorship dollars.

4. You can visit the kids. Of course we get letters and pictures in the mail from our sponsored child, but actually seeing and connecting relationally with a child is an incredible opportunity. If you are sponsoring a child in Burkina, like over 250 folks are from West Ridge and a couple of our church plants, are you need to come meet these kids. You are making a tremendous difference.

If you are not sponsoring a child yet, I have a handful of cards in my pocket with kids who need sponsors or you can visit Compassion’s website.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

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West Ridge teams have helped build these homes, which may as well be palaces by West African standards. Stucco exterior, tiled floors, appliances, furnishings, screened windows, ceiling fans, and hot water for showers and coffee. I highly recommend you bring the Starbucks Via with you.

We built these homes on the property of the number one ranked high school in the country called, Lycee Alliance Christienne, or LAC for short. ~More on the LAC later

We’ve built these places to stay as a base in order to facilitate teams to can come and build relationships with Pastors and communities and make a difference in Burkina. So when are you coming?

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He was born in an obscure village
The child of a peasant woman
He grew up in another obscure village
Where he worked in a carpenter shop
Until he was thirty

He never wrote a book
He never held an office
He never went to college
He never visited a big city
He never traveled more than two hundred miles
From the place where he was born
He did none of the things
Usually associated with greatness
He had no credentials but himself

He was only thirty three

His friends ran away
One of them denied him
He was turned over to his enemies
And went through the mockery of a trial
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves
While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing
The only property he had on earth

When he was dead
He was laid in a borrowed grave
Through the pity of a friend

Nineteen centuries have come and gone
And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race
And the leader of mankind’s progress
All the armies that have ever marched
All the navies that have ever sailed
All the parliaments that have ever sat
All the kings that ever reigned put together
Have not affected the life of mankind on earth
As powerfully as that one solitary life

By Dr. James Allen Francis

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

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I am no expert on this subject, but it appears to me that few things are more isolating than having a special needs child. Many of these families don’t feel like they belong anywhere. At our event a couple of weeks ago, many of these children sat on Santa’s knee for the first time. I’m not talking about 4 and 5 year olds, but 11 and 12 and 13 year olds. Going out in public can be a real challenge for these families. Going to church is almost impossible, because churches are not ready for them. We are trying to be.

And then there was our Hope For Christmas Party. We invited people from less fortunate communities around NW Atlanta. We provided food and Christmas presents to hundreds of families. There’s really no way to put this event into words. Christmas was provided to somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,500-4,000 kids, and more than 700 volunteers helped out.

This event requires a lot of organization and a lot of great volunteer leaders. For all of those volunteer’s, their mission was to look people in the eye and be a friend. The people that we serve are pilgrims on the journey just like us. We do not want people to feel like they are just a part of some matrix somewhere (the government does that for us). We want to communicate to them personally; ‘I want to be a friend to you’, ‘With me you are welcome’, and that God’s love is accepting and redeeming.

There are a lot of people in our society who feel isolated. They feel isolated by their own choices, or by circumstances that they had nothing to do with. For some reason the last place those people feel like they can come is the church. Those reasons have nothing to do with the building, the dress code, the style of worship, or whether or not the coffee is free. It has everything to do with the people inside.

The church should be the first place the isolated and the outcast come to. Christ-followers should be looking for these fellow travelers all day, every day. We should also be looking for them at our worship gatherings, and personally telling them of a loving God who desires to bring guidance and hope to their life. It’s not just the Pastor’s job.

Once there was a baby in a manger who invited the outcast to be the first to see him. As a man, those with physical afflictions were never overlooked by him. The guilt ridden prostitute, the crooked tax-collector, life-weary leper, and the young and wealthy all received the same invitation. In Him there is life and hope and 2nd chances available to everyone.

In Him ‘Everyone Belongs’,

Paul

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