DATE: Saturday, July 24th

TIME: Leave FBC @ 8am and get back late, like Midnight.

COST: $40

FOOD: You’re on your own. You can pack a cooler or buy food there, but we won’t be stopping to eat on the way up or back.

The deadline for sign-up will be Friday, July 16th. You won’t be considered registered until your money is turned in. Sunday’s in the church lobby, in the church office during the week, or Tuesday at The Well.

For directions click here.

We’re also on Twitter, but don’t expect too much from us there.

We’ve talked about Loving One Another, Not Giving Up, Doing Something and being Real. Please check out the audio on the audio page if you’d like to get caught up.

We have not only been gathering on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month but we have also been meeting outside of the barn for a couple different locations.

Some of us went to a chili cook-off for a little boy named Nicky who suffers from Cerebral Palsy and just donated some money when we went to eat.

We also had the opportunity to serve at a benefit dinner for the children of a young lady named Brandy, who passed away earlier this year. We had a great turn out, the help was overwhelming. So much so that we didn’t know what to do with all of it. Also, the Conotton Valley Class of ’04 did a great job of putting it on. When it was all said and done they had raised over $3000 for the kids.

This summer we have a few other plans. Such as: a credit class for youngsters, an internet class for oldsters and we hope to build a well in a developing country by next May through the organization Charity: Water.

Also, at the end of this month, June 30th, the Class of ’09 will be joining us. We’ll just be hanging out at the church playing Frisbee and grillin’ stuff. It’s a fifth Tuesday, we don’t usually meet on a fifth Tuesday, just on the 1st and 3rd, but this month we’ll hang out on June 30th, and then we’ll gather again on July 7th (which is the 1st Tuesday of July).

Oh, one more thing happened since the last update… I got married! Woo Hoo!

Craig

Some reasons why we struggle with prayer:
– Not sure how to pray.
– Get bored or distracted while trying to pray.
– Think our requests are too small for God.
– Not sure our prayers will make a difference.

Prayer is simply communicating with God.

God hears our voice – Psalm 5:3

Some ways we can communicate with God:
– Talk to God with gut-level honesty. – Jesus criticizes lengthy, inauthentic prayer – Matthew 6:5+7
– Talk to God about everything that matters to you. – There is no concern of yours that is too small for God – Philippians 4:6
– Talk to God continually. – Find ways to talk to God all throughout your day. – 1 Thessalonians 5:17
– Talk to God and listen for his response.

Pray…

Credit to Craig Groeschel for message on prayer.

We hear it all the time, and some times we believe it, but we rarely apply it to our lives when it comes to our fear of failure. A few weeks ago at The Well we talked a little about this fear of failure, below are some of the key points of that night.

- Some think that the fear of failure is a good thing because it will motivate you to succeed at all costs, when in reality it keeps you from trying at all.

- Most people do not achieve a fraction of what they are capable of achieving because they are afraid to try, because they are afraid to fail.

– God will always be bigger than we can know until we are willing to stretch ourselves past where only he can catch us if we fall.

– We will be a ministry that will fail; but we will not be a ministry that fails to try.

- There is no such thing as an idle movement.

- We will not fear failure but embrace it as a chance to learn and become better at what we do.

- Try – Fail – Learn – Adjust

That night we also brainstormed some ideas of how we could attempt to serve others knowing that we might fail, but determined to try nonetheless. Here are those things, please pray over them.

NEIGHBOR:

- Invite them over for dinner.
- Look for opportunities to just be friendly.
– Recognizing needs and meeting them.
- Serve someone in the area that you’re good at.
– Babysit kids.
- Mow lawns.
– Wash cars.
- Take advantage of their invites.
– Be neighborly.

COMMUNITY:

- Food banks.
– Nursing homes.
– Homeless Shelter.
- Hispanic community.
- Jail.
– Big Brothers, Big Sisters.
– MRDD.
– Clean up.
- Volunteer in organizations already in place.
- Even Start (GED Tutoring)
– Harbor House
- Art Auction.
– Kent.
– Block party.

WORLD:

- Compassion International
– Team Prague
– Disaster relief.
– Darfur.
– Build a well.
– Sex Trafficking.
– International Justice Mission (IJM)

Some of these ideas may seem incomplete, this is just what we wrote on the board. Please feel free to add to this list and pray about if God would have you take initiative on one of these. Remember, it’s okay to fail, it’s better than doing nothing at all.

To catch all of the talk of that night, and the other nights, please check out our audio page.

Credit to Craig Groeschel for most of these thoughts on the Fear of Failure found here.

These words can be found in the book Visioneering by Andy Stanley. I thought they were a near perfect summary of what we talked about at the first night of The Well.

What’s the vision for your life? Do you even have one? What is it that you dream most about accomplishing for God? Is it to plant a church? Share the gospel with your entire office building or your entire class? or is it to share the gospel with the guy in the cubicle next to you? or your college roommate? or a neighbor or family member?

Whatever your vision is, if you don’t have the dependency and expectancy for God to come through, chances are you won’t see your vision come to life. And just like Jesus’ hometown in [youversion]Matthew 13:58[/youversion], he will pass you up and not use you to do many mighty works because of your unbelief.

So determine your vision and live as if God is going to do what you believe he has promised to do.

- Craig

P.S. – Thanks to Ryan for getting the audio up… see post below.