Christmas Eve Services @ LBF

@ 7 p.m. on Thursday, December 24: Family Christmas Eve Service

A family-friendly, kid-oriented service with fun songs and activities to celebrate the birth of Christ. Children are welcome to wear their PJs and bring a blankie. (Yes, adults can too!)

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@ 11 p.m. on Thursday, December 24: Candlelight Communion Worship Service
A tradition for many years at LBF, join us as we sing many of the traditional Christmas carols, take communion together, and usher in Christmas right at midnight by singing Silent Night in candlelight.

Reflections: December 20, 2009

This week's "Reflection" by Jeff Taylor, Pastor of Teaching & Worship

Where will you have the story of Christmas end? Who will you allow Jesus to be in your life? Just a baby in a manger, or the Lord of your life?

This Weekend's Message: A Christmas Tale

You do not want to miss this weekend as we have two very special events in store for each of the three Sunday services! First, the Christmas choir will be back, leading us in worship through music. This will be a great time of singing carols of worship to our Lord. Then, there will be a musical drama presentation telling the Christmas story in a way that will give everyone something to think about as we head into the celebration of Christ's birth.

So throw on a scarf, invite a friend, and come ready to be blessed by the Lord. See ya Sunday!

Pastor Jeff

Thanksgiving Love Feast Recap

Post by Russ Parker, Pastor of Administration & Leadership Development

We at LBF sure know how to eat! The Thanksgiving Love Feast has been a long-standing tradition at LBF. It’s a time to gather as church family and eat, build friendships, eat, create memories, eat, and also to eat. And we certainly practiced thankfulness. We packed the place forcing us to get creative with our seating arrangements. It was encouraging to watch people open up their tables and squeeze people in. I saw one table with 12 people sitting at it. A normal table holds 8! It was a home group that loves each other so much they made it work! Others of you brought neighbors and friends who don’t even attend LBF. What a great introduction! Thanks for reaching out. Thanks for being a loving community. Here’s a fun group quiz we took during our Love Feast. It represents lots LBF has to be thankful for.

Can You Guess The Total?

LBF has been so blessed this year by all the volunteers who have made this ministry happen. From Coffee House, to chair setup, to worship, there is no doubt that God has been honored here through the service of His followers.

1. How many people have been baptized in ’09 at LBF?

A. 32 B. 17 C. 86
2. How many LBF members do we have as part of our Leadership Catalyst?

A. 237 B. 111 C. 8
3. How many LBF Missionaries have stayed at the Belleview house in ’09?

A. 2 B. 42 C. 29
4. How many people visited LBF for the first time in ’09?

A. 87 B. 108 C. 123
5. How many chairs have been set up in the worship center in the past year?

A. 23,400 B. 1,098 C. 12,876
6. How many people served in our Outward Bound outreach in February?

A. 300 B. 534 C. 722
7. How many church bulletins have been printed this year?

A.16,387 B. 35,100 C. 102,000
8. How many donuts have been served on Sunday mornings?

A. 13,728 B. 8,098 C. 16,856
9. How many pages of sermon material have been written this year by Jeff and Gary?

A. 787 B. 598 C. None
10. How many Outward Bound projects are ongoing?

A. 27 B. 19 C. 6

11. How many hours have the Sunday morning worship teams rehearsed this year?

A. 208 B. 56 C. Rehearsal??

12. What percentage of Harvest Party attendees indicated they do not attend LBF?

A. 100% B. 25% C. 60%

13. How many cups of coffee have been served this year from the coffee house?

A. 11,000 B. 17,680 C. 27,942
Answers: 1A,2A,3B,4C,5A,6C,7B,8A,9B,10C,11A,12C,13B

Reflections: December 13, 2009

This week's "Reflection" by Gary Keith, Executive & Teaching Pastor


This week we looked at Christmas through the eyes of the wise men. This part of the Christmas story is simply intriguing - why would highly intelligent men travel around 1,000 miles across the desert to visit a child king who was not even part of their ethnicity? What interest did they have in visiting this newborn "King of the Jews," when they were not Jewish?

 

What do you think? Why did the wise men travel all that distance to see a child who did not live a palace, but in a little town of Bethlehem, who didn't even look like or live like a king? Pretty interesting story if you ask me!

 

Christmas through the eyes of the wise men is a story of giving and worship. What gift will you bring to the Son of God this Christmas? How will you worship Jesus this Christmas? I found this story not only intriguing, but also challenging to my personal journey of knowing and loving God - How about you?

This Weekend's Message: Thoughts on Gift-Giving

Christmas shopping - by now most of us have been involved in some way with buying Christmas gifts. But what do you buy for the person who has everything? What do you do about gift- giving if you are out of work? Why does gift-giving have to be such a big deal at Christmas? While most people in America say they like the Christmas holiday, only a small percentage say they like the shopping. For most, shopping is a stress producer. Why is that?

 

Gift-giving is one of the things we will talk about this week. The wise men and their journey is one of the most mysterious and intriguing parts of the Christmas story. This week we will look through their eyes and see what we can learn from them as we celebrate Christmas 2009.

 

Just for fun, let me ask you two questions that we will answer on Sunday: How many wise men were there and when did they arrive in Bethlehem to see Jesus? We'll answer those plus other questions this Sunday.  By the way, our adult choir is singing this Sunday and next - it should be a wonderful time of rejoicing in the birth of our Savior, Jesus.

 

See you Sunday. I can't wait!

 

Gary

Reflections: December 6, 2009

This week's "Reflection" by Gary Keith, Executive & Teaching Pastor

This week we looked at Christmas through the eyes of the shepherds. Two key things come out of the story of the announcement to the shepherds. The first is humility. God gives grace to the humble, but opposes the proud. We know that, but what does humility before God look like to you? How do you know when you are walking in humility with God? Let's learn about that together.

 

The second is witness. A witness just simply tells what they know. So let me ask, "If someone asked you to be a witness to the things of Christ in your life, what would you say?" And if you are like the shepherds, you don't even wait to be asked - you just talk about Jesus in your life - you talk about what you have seen and heard.

 

This Christmas let's apply the lessons we've learned so far. Last week it was trust. In what areas do I need to trust God even if it seems outlandish? This week it is humility and witness. My prayer for each of us this Christmas season is that we might not just look at Christmas through their eyes, but we might live Christmas the way they lived Christmas.

 

God Bless you this week.