The LAMP - Lighthouse's Newsletter

Hello Lighthouse Friends and Family,

It sure was great being back in worship with you this Sunday! We had a great family vacation, but as Dorothy said, “There’s no place like home!” During our message this week, Pastor Mark talked about “Prayer Connections” using Luke 11.1-13 as our text. So often we slip into prayer clichés and forget that prayer is a relationship tool between God and us. We either make our prayer time so nebulous we get little out of it, or only use this powerful gift during times of stress, crisis, and need. The fact of the matter is, though, that prayer is a gift God wants us use every single day, and we must for maximum effectiveness! If you would like any help with your prayer life, or some resources to make the most out of your prayer life, please contact Pastor Mark!

 

Pastor Mark made a BIG announcement during this Sunday’s worship celebration: the merger of Lighthouse and Cokes Chapel has been approved and we are cleared for the beginning of the transition! We will have our first service in the Community Hall of the Cokes Chapel Childcare Center on Sunday August 15 at 10:55am with our hospitality time beginning at 10:30am!!! Please note this is a time change as we adjust in order to maximize Sunday morning resources and run concurrently with Cokes Chapel’s current schedule for Sunday School and worship.

Sunday August 15^th is also the date of the Lighthouse’s 4^th Birthday celebration (Lighthouse turns 4 on the 13^th). We will kick off our first Sunday in our new space on the 15^th with a Birthday Party for the church and share it with our new Cokes Chapel family. They are so excited to welcome us “officially” and I know you’ll want to be present for our first Sunday, the Birthday Party, and welcome dinner. It will be a day to celebrate for sure!!!

 

The first month or so we are at Cokes Chapel will be a sort of “soft opening” to enable us to get familiar with the space, meet some new friends, and determine the best flow of Sunday mornings. That being the case, our official launch celebration and activities will not take place until sometime in mid-to-late September. We will have a huge celebration event and a powerful worship celebration to coincide with our launch. Plus, our new District Superintendent, The Rev. Carol Cook, will be in attendance for our launch Sunday! During this first month and time of transition, we will be working hard to get ourselves prepared for this new ministry by resuming small groups, new ministries for children and youth, establishing new Sunday School classes, fine-tuning worship and our hospitality procedures, etc. We need lots of help, so keep your eyes and ears peeled for how you can get involved!

 

There are, of course, some other announcements of some important things coming up; check these out and avail yourself to these opportunities for ministry:

 

Ministry Reveiw Video: We are compiling pictures to be used in our 4th Birthday Party ministry review video. If you have any photos of this past year you'd like to sahre, please email them to Andy Manuel or bring them on a CD to worship with you this Sunday. For more information, please contact Andy Manuel.

 

Cokes Chapel Worship Choir: The Choir at Cokes Chapel that sings in their 10:55am blended/traditional worship service is resuming choir practcies this Wednesday, July 28, at 7pm. If you are interested in joining the choir, come on out for practice that meets in the chapel/sanctuary building.

 

River Of Life Recap: Our River Of Life participants had a wonderful time serving, sharing, and shining for God in Macon, GA. On Sunday, August 1, the youth and leaders who attended will help lead us in worship as they share some testimonies and experiences from their mission trip. Please continue to be in prayer for these individuals, that the Spirit of God continues to lead them in a life of service, and for their preparation for worship on August 1.

FOCUS Youth (Updated):The FOCUS students will resume gatherings on Sunday August 15. For more information on upcoming FOCUS activities, please contact Bobby Totten.

 

Cokes Chapel Childcare Center Enrollment: If you know of any families looking for childcare/after school care for fall, please let them know that Cokes Chapel is accepting applications at this time. Pass on the word that Cokes Chapel Childcare Center is a great place to be! For more information call 770-253-6414.

 

Cub and Boy Scouting @ Cokes Chapel (NEW): The Scouts at Cokes Chapel are gearing up for another great year. This award winning program seeks to help boys and young men grow into strong leaders in the community with morals, virtues, and character development. To learn more about scouting at Cokes Chapel, click here.  

 

Summer Giving Reminder: Remember that as we enter the summer months, your commitment to helping us keep our ministry program going is as important as ever. Churches everywhere experience diminished attendance and giving throughout the summer months and we need your regular committed offerings to help us meet our expenses. If you plan on being out of town at any point during the summer, please make plans to give your offering in advance, or make it up when you return. We also have added the PayPal account to help make it super convenient to give to God's work through The Lighthouse. Simply go to our website, www.lighthouseumc.net, and click on the donate button.

 

 

Subscribing To The LAMP: For those of you who tend to get behind on reading The Lamp, there are a few alternative ways to read this blog. If you use Microsoft Outlook (other email programs have this as well), you have a folder called RSS feeds. You can add this blog as an RSS feed that will show up every time it is updated (kind of like getting a new email). To get our RSS link, click on the orange RSS button at the top of the blog under our sermon series logo. Another way to read the updates is to use a blog subscriber service. Click on the orange RSS button and you'll see the different options. If you read many other blogs, this is a great way to organize all of them. Of course we always send out an email to our list of contact each with tell you that the blog has been updated. There is a link in this email and we will still continue to do that. If you are not part of this distribution list and would like to be, please contact Kathy Willix at lighthouseumc@bellsouth.net with your email address.

Weekly Prayer Meetings: We are holding brief (no more than 5-minute) weekly prayer gatherings at 10:15am before worship. This is a great way to pray for the worship team, speaker, Lighthouse, our community, and seek God's face as we strive to be the church He has created and called us to be. Please make plans to be a part of this new weekly prayer ministry at Lighthouse!

Follow The Lighthouse On Twitter: You can follow The Lighthouse on Twitter to get & share prayer requests, news, and the latest updates. Follow us by clicking here or going to www.twitter.com/lighthouseumc.

Staff Bio Pages: You can see what our Pastoral staff is up to by checking out their Twitter feeds, viewing their Facebook pages, as well as reading their blogs. Links to all of these are now posted to the staff bio page on the web site. Pay us a visit and see what we're up to!

Lighthouse Kids (Updated): Lighthouse Kids meets on the 2^nd through the last Sundays of the month. If you would like to help with Lighthouse Kids one Sunday a month, or on a schedule that works for you, please contact Tiffany Jordan.
 

Are You A Fan? Have you checked out the Lighthouse page on Facebook? We have pages for our AOK projects (share your stories and ideas here!), FOCUS Youth (students only, but monitored by Bobby and our pastors), and for the general church family. Check us out by going to Facebook and searching for Lighthouse Church.

Listen to Weekly Worship Online: You can listen to weekly worship online or download them to your computer or favorite portable listening device by going to the Social Media and clicking on the "Box" logo, the ap (AcidPlanet) logo, or by subscribing in iTunes. 

Prayer Team: We have dedicated persons who seek to serve and support others in the power of prayer. If you ever have any prayers requests, please email them to prayer@lighthouseumc.net. Also, if you’d like to serve on the prayer team, please contact Pastor Mark.