Wednesday night community group is meeting at the ULM Volleyball Courts for a fun active night and we would love for everyone to join us!
When: Wednesday, May 29
Time: 5:30
Place: ULM Volleyball Courts
Bring a brown bag supper and come join us! We are providing the volleyball and water.
SUNDAY, MAY 19
10am – Palace Auditorium
Quarterly, the Volunteer Staff of The Portico Church convene to encourage one another in the “death to life” work of our fellowship. We will gather this quarter for a pot-luck brunch, provided by small groups, and spend our time talking up what God is doing among us. We will hear from the Elders about what they are sensing The Spirit saying and how God is at work in our church. Ministry leaders will have an opportunity to report successes and needs. There may even be a little fun and games along the way.
All Volunteer Staffers are highly encouraged to make plans to attend.
Need Childcare? There will be a sign-up list in the lobby on Sunday nighs for parents to notify us so we can help provide care during the meeting.
UNVEILED: Worship
Tuesday, April 30
7:00pm – Palace Auditorium
Melissa Batson will speak about her recent mission trip to New Orleans where women were rescued from the streets and with whom she and others shared Christ. Come hear her story, along with God’s amazing work!
Unveiled is worship for women who attend Portico Church as well as women in our community.
Portico Kiddos has evolved many times in its short history to meet the unique needs of families and children. From the Axis building to The Palace, each phase of transition and change has been born out of deep consideration of what our community needs and wants to facilitate.
Currently, we are prayerfully considering where our next steps for “Family Worship” lie. This piece of Portico Kiddos has taken several forms over the years, but currently is unsustainable. Involvement among the target audience (families & children Kindergarten – 5th grade) has been waning over the past couple of years and we are in need of additional facilitators.
We are dedicated to the principle of helping come along side families to assist in their own unique discipleship of their children and are considering what that might look like moving forward for our church. Please share your thoughts with Valerie Ramsey over the next couple of weeks & prayerfully consider if you would like to be involved in shaping the future of this ministry.
This is a Men’s book/Bible study that will be working through Francis Chan’s book, Multiply. The book challenges the way many people view the concept of discipleship. We will meet beginning April 2nd, every other Tuesday. For more info contact Kevin Shelby.
In what we refer to as The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), Jesus left His followers with three imperatives. Namely: 1) Go. 2) Make disciples. 3) Teach them. In those simple instructions, Jesus set out His plan for spreading the Good News.
Notice that His plan wasn’t at all passive. Rather it required action on the part of His followers. Jesus made that abundantly clear when He said, “Go.” Don’t sit around waiting. Take action. Take initiative. Go!
But what action are we to take? Jesus made that clear, as well. “Make disciples,” He said. Remember that a disciple was someone who wanted to look, dress, talk, think, act, etc. just like their teacher. So, Jesus was saying, “You pattern your life after mine then show others how to do the same.”
Finally, Jesus instructed his followers to teach others what they had learned from Him. The application is that we are to be constantly learning more about Jesus so we can strive to be like Him and then teach others to do the same.
But keep in mind that in the Scriptures this process of going, making disciples and teaching others what Jesus taught was done in community. That is to say, it all happened through relationships.
Portico Church’s spiritual development emphasis for 2013 is Invest At it’s essence, Invest is the pursuit of The Great Commission through relationships. We are going to ask you to invest in two ways. First, invest in someone and, secondly, be invested in by someone. We are going to ask you to take investing initiative. In other words, pursue someone in whom you can invest and pursue someone who can invest in you.
This coming Sunday night we will have an opportunity to commit to invest in a specific person and be invested in by a specific person. Please pray diligently this week and ask God to show you who those people should be. They can be part of Portico Church or not. It may be one person or several. Don’t get hung up on those kind of details. Just ask God, “Who should I invest in and who should I ask to invest in me?” If God brings some people to mind, consider talking to them about it prior to Sunday. And, if God doesn’t bring anyone to mind, don’t worry, we will give you some help in getting connected. Please, though, plan to participate in Invest this year as the benefits are potentially HUGE. You will grow spiritually. You will help others grow spiritually. In that way, we will each become better disciples as we help others do the same.
The Great Commission is the only plan Christ left us to grow His Kingdom. It’s about investing. It’s about relationships. It’s about obedience to what Jesus has told us to do. And here is the crazy thing….each and every one of us is qualified to invest and be invested in. Followers of Jesus are ever in both relationships because Jesus has so decreed.
Got questions about all this? More information will be available as we gather this coming Sunday night. Please make plans to attend and please encourage others to be there, as well.
The call to action for Portico Church in 2013 is the call to Invest! Are you in?
Randy
Portico Church 