Southland Christian Church

There are literally thousands of children and students in our church that thrive off of the spiritual, relational and emotional development they get at Southland. The investment it takes to love and care for our youth doesn't just happen on it's own. It takes hundreds of volunteers to come in every week and be servant leaders to them.

If you've ever had an interest in working with children or students, there's no time like the present to get involved. There are places to serve from the nursery all the way up to hanging out with high school seniors.

• Contact Laura for more information on how to get involved in the Nursery.
• Contact Wende for more information on how to get involved in Children's Ministry.
• Contact Mallory for more information on how to get involved in Student Ministry.

If you've never had an interest, you should watch this video from Reggie Joiner, and then you'll know for sure if you have an interest or not.

Do you have some thoughts you would like to share about the proposed campus on the Lexington Mall property? Maybe you are considering Jon's request to attend that the new campus to help get it off the ground and would like to offer some input on the ministries needed there? If so, plan to stop by Building F on Sunday, July 18 from 9:30am to noon and share what's on your mind. At that time, the Architects, site designers and Southland leadership will be there to hear your ideas. This opportunity is similar to that being offered at Lexington Mall site on Tuesday evening, July 13 where we will hear specifically from the community surrounding the site. Regular Southland attendees are not expected to attend on Tuesday evening as we want to make that a community event.

As the project progresses, there will be many opportunities for you to provide input and have your questions answered. You are invited to continue visiting the website for further updates and planned events.

We've got a few middle school students and their families heading to Jamaica this week.  We know when students and families serve together...GREAT things happen!

High School students are at CIY this week. It's an entire week devoted to hanging out with each other and focusing on God.  Don't forget to pray for these students as they will experience God in some life changing ways which will have great impact.

I have a lot of great Life Group stories but one that has stuck with me recently is from a group of couples we launched in March.  This is an excerpt from a note we received within days after the launch of their Life Group:
 
"Our Life Group rocks!!!!! Talk about an awesome group of people!? Our Life Group has actually already met once... We had another meeting scheduled for Saturday, March 27th, but unfortunately [we] had to cancel because of a family crisis. However, three of our four couples accidentally met at the 11:30 service on the 28th so we all sat together.

Prior to the beginning of the service we had an opportunity to explain what was going on… and why we cancelled the group meeting. On Wednesday, March 24th, [my husband’s] mom threatened suicide. She lives in Holly, MI about an hour from [my husband’s] only living sister. She was a recovered alcoholic for approximately 20 years and apparently relapsed a year and a half ago (unbeknownst to us until a few months ago) when her daughter,45, died unexpectedly of a heart attack. Needless to say, the last year and a half has been a little rough to say the least.  However, when we received a call from [my husband’s] sister last week regarding their mother’s threat of suicide we were quite shaken up to put it mildly.  I honestly didn’t know what we should tell our Life Group as we had just met these wonderful people and when I asked my husband he said, “just tell them, this is supposed to be a real Life Group.”  Thus, at church last Sunday we did.

During the part of the service when Mike Breaux said they were going to flash scripture up on the screens from the ME series and to feel free to pray with your eyes open we did.  During that time, our Life Group gathered around us and [one of the members] said to us, “If it’s okay with you all we are going to pray for your mom.” Needless to say, [we] lost it.  We both cried a lot.  

…I am crying now as I write this for I am so unbelievably blessed by God to have his Son die for us, to have Southland Christian Church where I have truly found my faith and it is stronger than it has ever been in my life.  It is only growing and becoming stronger during this trying time in our lives.  We are so blessed to have this Life Group, these people who are so loving, caring and strong. I cannot tell you how much this group means to [us]."
 
Needless to say, they get it!  This is what a Life Group does.  Whether you have known them for 30 years or 3 weeks, this is what true biblical community looks like.  I am so blessed to get to be a part of this church and help others see how God designed all of us to live in community.
 
-Jennifer

Were you there when the Community Garden was just an idea during the weekend services? In a few short months this idea has become a reality through the hard work of some dedicated volunteers. Even better, we're already reaping the first harvest.

In these pictures are the fruits of those volunteer labors. Or maybe we should say vegetables of volunteer labors, given it's a garden? Whether we say fruits or vegetables, because of the giving and sacrifice of resources and time that you've made we're going to be able to gift this food to some friends in need in downtown Lexington through our missional groups. Sharing the love of Jesus really is this simple. 

Want to get involved in the garden, meeting the real needs of real people with love? There are still plenty of work dates which can be found on the Harrodsburg Road Calendar under Local Involvement.

Recently we've entered into a contract to purchase a portion of the Lexington Mall property at the corner of Richmond Road and New Circle Road. That's right. We're heading into an additional campus in Lexington.

Our 10-7-5 vision has us looking to grow by 10,000 more followers of Jesus over a seven year period. And this property will certainly be vital to that plan. We couldn't be more excited about what God is doing and we invite you to celebrate with us. Please join us in prayer over the upcoming weeks and months as we begin our journey to reach more people in the Lexington community. We'll keep you posted about emerging details via the Southland Blog as things develop.

Our plan right now is to make Jesus famous... and we're thrilled that we're about to have a greater opportunity to do that.

If you'd like more details you can read the Press Releases.

Awesome News from Southland Christian Church on Vimeo.

If you're looking to get plugged into Southland, you'll want to come to our Welcome to Southland class that we have Sunday mornings at 10am. You'll learn the ins and outs of who we are and why we do what we do. You'd also learn that the Welcome to Southland team is crazy about fireworks... which makes this a quick reminder that there won't be a Welcome to Southland class on July 4. Make sure you join us the next week, though. We'll be there sans sparklers and bottle rockets.

If you have questions about Welcome to Southland, contact Jennifer.

O Holy Spirit of God, visit now this soul of mine and tarry within until eventide. Inspire all my thoughts. Pervade all my imaginations. Suggest each of my decisions. Lodge in my will’s most inward citadel and order all of my doings. Be with me in my silence and in my speech, in my haste and in my leisure, in company and in solitude, in the freshness of the morning and the weariness of the evening; and give me grace at all times to rejoice in thy mysterious companionship. 

Thanks for joining us for an awesome week of Who's in the House! Look how excited we were to see you. We want to hear your stories of what's going on in your home after WITH. Send them to us and we'll post some of them up here on the blog.

Heroes in the House was awesome last night! We had an awesome time learning about what God is doing and can do in our families. If you missed last night, make sure you visit us tonight, June 24 at 7pm in the Worship Center. We'll see you there!

Recognize anyone in this video?

Here's a cool email from someone who's beginning to understand the value of following hard after Christ every day.

"I think I'm just learning more and more the benefit of getting in the word each day, and for me, starting each day in the word. Getting up an hour or so earlier each day than I would've otherwise doesn't make a ton of sense in the physical world as far as feeling rested each morning, but I've found a balance in my life like I've never had. It's kind of hard to explain, but I'm regularly waking up earlier than I ever had, because of work and leaving time to read/study the word, but God always gives me more than enough energy to make it through the day. And each morning, for me, has been a little bit of a chance to be faithful. In my head it would make sense to sleep that extra hour to have more energy for the next day, but the more and more consistent I've been faithful in getting up early, the more He has been faithful in providing me with energy and motivation to make it through the day."

Know Jesus is awesome. If you want to know more about a daily walk with Him, contact Myron.

Here's a cool email from Andy who was returning from Mozambique...

"Having just returned from Gorongosa Mozambique I thought this fitting as a win story. During our time in Gorongosa we visited numerous villages and were blessed to teach to close to 300 pastors who lead churches around Gorongosa. Many of the pastors walk 3 hours each way to reach their churches while we drove in over 1 hour in 4-wheel vehicles (one rough ride!!). They walk it as the crow flies, otherwise the exact route we drove would take them nearly 6 hours to walk. We’ve been very involved in the work in Gorongosa for close to 5 years; since Mark first visited. During that time we’ve been blessed to have a few pastors visit here at SCC as well as our partnership has resulted in a curriculum which is being used in the Food for the Hungry-Church Strengthening program.

This last visit I incorporated what we’ve been learning to expose the pastors and some of their wives to “The Triangle” of living with Jesus in Community and on Mission. I’ve included a shot taken during the explanation I gave in a village named Tsaca. I also included a shot of the 100+ people that came out to the training on Saturday morning. The entire trip was a huge blessing and success largely due to the work that Mark’s done as well as the great teaching provided by Dan Hamel and elder Roger Wellman who accompanied us on this trip."