Church News May 2012

God is continuing to work in the church in many wonderful ways. We have now seen more than 40 people baptized and restored to the Lord since the beginning of the year. This past week Mike Hill was baptized into Christ. Mike was met by the Sweeney family a year ago when they shared their faith with him near a retail store that he owns. Many have been involved in helping Mike come to a strong faith, especially those in the Newport Beach Family Group. Also in the Korean ministry Sung Min Cho was baptized into Christ on Sunday. Sung Min is a professional golfer and has been studying the bible for many weeks. Please keep praying for all of the people God is bringing to us.

We are now half way through our “Rise Up and Build” leadership training series. We have been averaging 120 disciples that have been participating in the sessions to learn how to become Family Group Leaders and Shepherds. The next session will take place on May 20th at 1:30p.m. at the church building. The class will be  “A Fruitful Family Group”. Come and join us.

Our Special Missions Contribution is coming up on June 10th. This contribution will go to support the 37 churches that have been planted since 1987 in Mexico and Central America. These funds will also help to continue to plant more churches in Latin America. We are asking that each member gives ten times their normal weekly contribution. Nine times will go to missions and one times will be used for our normal weekly contribution. This will insure that $275,000 will be given to the churches in Mexico and Central America.

We have a new curriculum we are trying out in our Kid’s Kingdom classes. We are excited that part of the curriculum are take home family devotionals. These are for school age children. Please use the devotionals with your family and let us know what you think about them. I would also like to thank all of the teachers and Kid’s Kingdom coordinators that have worked so hard to help our children learn about and fall in love with our great God.

The World Discipleship Summit called, “The Mountain of the Lord” will be held on July 5-8 in San Antonio Texas. Over 17,000 people have registered for the conference so far. There will be many different tracks depending on your responsibility in the church and your stage in life. Please make plans to attend this historic event as disciples from all over the world will come to learn and fellowship with one another.

Finally, make sure you check out our Scripture Memory Page.  Each day you will get a new passage of Scripture to memorize.  What a great way to draw closer to the Lord!

Thanks for all you do,

Kevin

Church Update March 2012

This has been a very exciting time in the Orange County church of Christ. God has blessed us in incredible ways. In the past 8 weeks we have seen 23 people baptized and restored to Christ. These new disciples have come from the Married, Singles (Edge), Campus, and Teen ministries. The married women hosted a women’s day that was spectacular with over 350 in attendance. The Internet Ministry has introduced many people to the church who are now studying the Bible to become disciples. Starting this Sunday at 1:30 PM at the 10 Goodyear building we will begin our new Family Group Leader and Shepherd training. These training sessions are so important in order for us to be able to raise up new leadership to care for and mature the new disciples as well as our existing disciples in the church. There are also other needs in the church as we grow. We are asking each disciple to consider how they can best be used by God to advance His kingdom here in Orange County. Here are a list of needs we have as a church. If you are able to fill these needs please contact your ministry leader.

• Empty Nest Coordinator
• Hospital Visitation Coordinator
• People to help write articles for the website
• Volunteer Administrators
• Mentoring the Youth
• Mexico and Central America Trip Coordinators
• Bible Give away for new visitors Volunteers
• Greeters to Church
• Ushers
• Teen Workers
• Community Connection Volunteers for the poor and other various needs

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. (1 Peter 4:10 NIV84) 

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. (Romans 12:4-8 NIV84)

A Bible-centered Parenting Approach

Teaching Children to Honor Their Parents

March 22, 2012 from 6:00pm to 7:30pm
Shining Stars Christian Preschool
Orange County Church of Christ
10 Goodyear, Irvine, CA 92618
Childcare will be provided
Cost: Free, RSVP with Stacy Williams

Beyond Obedience

The special guest speaker will be Dr. Mike Messina, Clinical Psychologist and Board Certified Behavior Analyst.
Here’s what Dr. Mike has to say about the day.

I am excited to present this special parenting class.  With two children of my own, I am very passionate about the topic of parenting.  Being a parent is not easy, but I consider my job as a parent the most important job that I have.  As a Christian, I want nothing more than for my children to love God and obey His Word.  It is for these reasons that I strive in prayer and hard work for my own kids, and strive to teach Bible Centered Parenting to other parents, so that they too can know the joy of their own children loving God and obeying His commands.

You may find it surprising that children are only specifically addressed once in the entire New Testament: Ephesians 6: 1-3 says,

God’s vision for our church is beyond our imagination.

Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. (Psalm 40:5 NIV84)

The leadership of Orange County Church of Christ have tried our best through prayer and fasting to be in tune with what God’s vision is for our church. We have landed on a long-range plan to have eight “worship centers” by the end of 2020. Five of the centers would be geographic: Fullerton, Costa Mesa, Garden Grove, South Coast and Irvine. The others would be language based: Spanish, Korean and Vietnamese.

For this to happen, we need every disciple in the church to examine what gifts God has given him or her and decide to fully use these gifts to advance God’s kingdom.

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. (1 Peter 4:10 NIV84)