What Are Your Kids Doing on Sunday Morning?

By Laurie Baiz, Director of Life Kids Children’s Ministry 

This fall in Life Kids Children’s Ministry, new classrooms and curriculum began on Back to Church Sunday! These new programs have been going along great, but I wanted to take a moment to pause and highlight all the wonderful things happening on Sunday mornings with these new changes.

Starting on the preschool side, our nursery has changed the age grouping from birth to 18 months to birth to 12 months. Making this change has made the nursery a calm area for our new babies to come, get rocked, and be loved on. My hope is that the parents of the new young babies will feel comfortable bringing their bundles of joy in at an early age, so they get used to the nursery and then will not struggle with stranger anxiety as they get older. Having the nursery is a wonderful opportunity for parents to go to church and take a moment to truly focus on the message and God’s Word.

This Weekend's Message: A Tale of Two Christmas Stories

Recently I was at Disneyland and it was decorated for the holidays. As I walked around, I was struck with how elaborate the decorations were, and yet how utterly absent Christ was. There was a lot about peace and joy. There were a lot of ornaments and trees and snowflakes. The holiday mood was present everywhere I looked. It was a true Christmas celebration. It just happened to be one that didn’t involve Jesus.

I realize that this is not a new phenomenon. For years we have found ways to celebrate Christmas without Christ. But, absent the biblical Christmas story, what story are we telling? And, more importantly, what if the Christmas story that our society has embraced is tragically inferior to the original Christmas story? 

Don’t miss our services this Sunday as we being our series: Christmas Mash-Up.

Dan

Is the Service Starting Already? Kinda!

By Jeff Taylor, Pastor of Worship 

One of my favorite things about going to the movies is getting there early for the “pre-show” entertainment. I’m not talking about the movie previews; I mean the 20 minutes before that where there is the entertainment trivia, behind-the-scenes looks at movies, actor interviews, and learning how they do the special effects. It all just gets me in the mood to see whatever movie I’m there to watch.

You may have noticed over the last three months or so at LBF, you hear something coming from the Worship Center before the scheduled service start times at 8, 9:15, and 10:45. This is our “4B4.” The 4B4 is 4 minutes (roughly) of pre-service information that serves a variety of purposes. Some weeks the 4B4 is a precursor to the message, showing videos that tie into the theme of the passage that we will be focusing on throughout the service. The 4B4 may be announcements of upcoming events or ministries that we want to point out in a special way. The 4B4 may also just be for fun – an entertaining way to start the service and get your attention.

We realize that with getting kids checked in, getting a coffee refill, or just running late, not everyone will make it in for the 4B4, but for those of you in your seats and ready a few minutes early, we hope it serves as something to ponder as you prepare to enter into worship through music and the message, as valuable information for things you may be interested in, as entertainment, or even as a little motivation to get into the service on time each week. We hope you enjoy this little extension of our services.

This Weekend's Message: Devote Yourselves to Prayer

One reality will have the single greatest impact on your prayers (or lack of prayers). That reality is what you believe about God. Who do you think He is? Is He distant? Is He indifferent? Is He waiting to condemn? Is He a pushover? Is He a well- intentioned weakling? What is your god like? Your answer will drive your prayers.

Here is the good news. You are invited to embrace – and pray in light of – the true God revealed by Jesus. This Sunday at Life Bible Fellowship Church we will wrap up our prayer series by exploring the God to whom we pray, and responding to all that is true of Him. Don’t miss it!

Dan

Thanksgiving Serve @ Los Olivos

Sunday November 24, 2-5 p.m. @ Los Olivos Community located south of 13th St. on Campus Ave. in Upland 

By Russ Parker, Pastor of Administration 

This year we have an incredible opportunity to bless others and build friendships by preparing and serving a full Thanksgiving dinner for our neighbors in the Los Olivos Community. Our event will be held at the Los Olivos location.

The Los Olivos Community is in North Upland, located on Campus Avenue, just south of 13th Street. It was constructed in the 1940s and has been under the care of the Upland Housing Authority (UHA), providing Section 8 affordable housing to 96 families.

We’ve been invited by the UHA to partner with them in connecting and caring for residents of Los Olivos! What an invitation. UHA is already spreading the word and communicating our Thanksgiving Serve to their residents. They’re excited about our partnership.

Providing a cooked Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings is a huge opportunity for LBF to serve with Love in Action! It embodies the values of Love in Action: moving beyond our church walls, engaging with our neighbors life-to-life, elevating the dignity of others, and partnering with other organizations to make a greater impact.

Our goal is to prepare and serve a full Thanksgiving meal for 300 people. We will need volunteers with serving hearts to help make this Thanksgiving Serve successful. We envision people planning and preparing the food; people helping to set up tables, chairs, pop up tents, and other logistics; people serving and replenishing the food; people engaging with kids; and people coordinating games and activities.

Would you help us serve this Thanksgiving? Bring a dessert this Sunday to church.

Would you pray for this effort? We want God to move powerfully through us as we bless families, and we want God to move powerfully in us as we come face-to-face serving those in need. May God stretch us out of comfort zones and may God be glorified as we live out Matthew 25:35-36:

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

What is Operation Christmas Child? And How You Can Get Involved

By Jeff Crawford 

Operation Christmas Child brings joy and hope to children in desperate situations around the world through gift-filled shoe boxes and the Good News of God’s love. This program of Samaritan’s Purse provides an opportunity for people of all ages to be involved in a simple, hands-on missions project, while focusing on the true meaning of Christmas – Jesus Christ.

This year, National Collection Week is Monday, November 18-Monday, November 25, and once again, we at Life Bible Fellowship Church and others are dedicated to be part of the process of God’s mighty hand at work in this ministry.

The ministry has two components:

First Component – LBF and its church family distributing empty green GO (Gospel Opportunity) shoe boxes, filling them, and returning them to LBF, which will then go from LBF to OCC to be sent all over the world.

Volunteers are needed at church to pass out brochures, boxes, and answer questions between Sunday services. We will need help moving the collected shoe boxes on Sunday, November 24.

Second Component – LBF is a Collection Center for other churches and organizations and will maintain a Collection Center for National Collections Week. Churches from all over the Inland Empire bring their OCC boxes to LBF. We load all shoeboxes into cardboard cartons, place them in a trailer, and ship them to a distribution center for further handling.

Volunteers are needed Monday, November 18 and Monday, November 25 to work at the Belleview House at LBF, which is designated as the Upland Collection Center for OCC. We will be collecting boxes from various churches, social organizations, and relay centers from cities all over our local geography. Contact Jeff Crawford @ (951) 205-3840 to get involved!

This Weekend's Message: God, It's Me...Again

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? We can’t talk about prayer without addressing the obvious question – what happens when God doesn’t answer? Jesus has a surprising response to that – you keep asking. God tells us that when something causes us to pray again and again – with persistence – He notices. For many though, one of the hardest parts about prayer is usually holding out hope long enough to keep asking. This week we will be looking at the idea that if something is important, if something has captured our heart so strongly, then it’s something that you can’t let go. I hope to see you this Sunday!

Matt Sasso
Pastor of Student Ministries

What do Jesus Followers Wear? Part 2

By Gary Keith, Lead Pastor

Last month in part one of this article, I talked about a very important decision that every Christ-follower must make. That decision is simply, “What will I wear today?”

Each day we choose what type of clothes to wear and this is an important decision. As I write this it is a cold and rainy day, so I chose to wear something warm. But I know that at the end of the week it is supposed to be hot again, so of course I will wear something different, maybe shorts and a T-shirt. The clothes that I choose to wear each day will affect how my day unfolds.

Knowing that we could all relate to wearing clothes, Paul wrote to the church in Colossae describing what they should “wear” when it comes to who we are as people. Last month I talked about the first part of this passage, in which Paul said that each day we are to put on compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience. And in this article I want to pick up where I left off, looking at more things that Paul says we should put on.

Starting in verse 13 of Colossians 3, Paul goes on to say that Jesus-followers should “bear with one another and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

Okay, so when I read these two verses I’ve got to ask, “How am I doing with living these expressions of passionately pursuing LIFE in Jesus?” Here are three more items of clothing to put on:

Bear With One Another – This phrase literally means “to hold up” or “to hold back.” God bears with us in that He holds back His judgment. When we bear with one another we hold back judgment, we don’t allow the desire to judge hinder our ability to keep the relationship close. Bearing with one another is putting up with others even when they fail or act differently from what you expected.

Forgive One Another – It is not enough that as Jesus-followers we simply endure grief and frustration and refuse to retaliate – we must also forgive. Failure to forgive leads to feelings of hatred in our heart, which will move us into greater sins. Forgiveness is a powerful healer as it opens our hearts to the love of God. The very moment we have a complaint against another person, Paul would say that we should forgive them in our hearts. Why? Because we are to forgive as the Lord forgave us.

Love – We can look at love as the overcoat we put on over everything else. This is the most important piece of clothing to put on because it builds perfect unity. When love rules in our lives, it unites so that there is a beauty and harmony in our relationships. Love is a product of allowing the Holy Spirit to rule our life – it is the first fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5. And the kind of love we are to have is a self-giving love that is more interested in the other person than having your own interest in mind. It is a love that is not dependent on the worthiness of the person being loved.

How are you doing at daily putting on these valuable and essential articles of clothing? If you’re like me, there is plenty of room for improvement. But whenever I consider what it means to passionately pursue LIFE in Jesus, I can easily look to these words of Paul as the place to focus on and apply to my daily life. The journey continues…

Read the Psalms in November...with LBF

By Dan Franklin, Pastor of Teaching 

This past July we finished up a year-long Bible Reading Plan at LBF. We wanted to do something formal to encourage everyone to taste and experience the benefits of God’s Word. Several hundred of you chose to take us up on the offer, and we had a great time reading and discussing what God was saying to us. This month you will have another opportunity to dig into God’s Word with your friends at LBF. For the month of November we are going to dig into the Psalms. Why Psalms? Three main reasons:

1. During November we will be talking about prayer each Sunday morning. The Psalms are prayers. They are songs being sung to and about God, and many also serve as personal prayers to God. They model to us what authentic prayer can look like. 
2. Reading one psalm each day will give us the opportunity to read and respond to God’s Word without getting lost in reading too much content each day. It will be a great way to put your toe in the water if you are not a regular Bible reader, and it will be a great way to slow down if you regularly read larger chunks of God’s Word each day. 
3. On December 1, we will follow up our “In Jesus’ Name” series and the Bible Reading Plan with a Deeper event that will springboard off the subject of prayer. This will serve as a great resolution to both the series and the plan. 

As you prepare to approach the Psalms, you can know that you will be exposed to a number of different kinds of prayers. Here are just a few:

This Weekend's Message: Hi God, It's Us

Have you ever had someone ask you to add your signature to a petition? Most of us have. A group of people are advocating for a change and, in order to communicate the urgency and significance of this request, they add as many people as possible to the request. After all, the more voices that are asking for the change, the more likely the request will be heard.

Scripture tells us that God hears every prayer. There are no secret words or special codes. God hears it all. At the same time, Scripture continually depicts a special power that takes place when God’s people gather together to pray. God’s heart responds in a special way when He is pursued in prayer by His people. Sometimes we avoid praying with others because we fear that we will say the wrong words or that we will become vulnerable by admitting our weakness. These are very real concerns, but when we set them aside and instead prefer to humble ourselves and approach God as a people, we experience a response from God that is otherwise unavailable.

This Sunday we will explore God’s heart toward His people when they pray together. You will be invited to see a side of God’s heart that becomes evident when He sees the hearts of His people gathered together and crying out to Him.

Dan

56° & Life Kids Midweek Starts Tonight

By Laurie Baiz, Director of Life Kids Children’s Ministry 

The midweek program for both 1st-4th grades and 5th & 6th grades will be starting up Tuesday, November 5. Although there are two different programs, they meet at the same time, which is 6:30-8 p.m. in the Worship Center.

Life Kids (which is the program for 1st-4th graders) offers a time for games, a Bible lesson, and a fun activity that they can choose. Each activity lasts for 5-6 weeks and then they can change groups and try out another activity.

For 56° (our 5th & 6th graders), the program has a time for the kids to be social and play large group games, then a Bible lesson, and a time to meet in small groups to discuss the lessons further. 

Registration for both midweek programs are online at lbfchurch.com. So sign up, invite a friend, and see you tonight!