What are we up to?

Our community is full of people that are searching for help. You can't find one individual or family in the Niagara Region that is not hurting or needy. People hurt relationally, financially, socially, emotionally, physically and so on. We live in a hopeless community that is looking for answers and not finding them. We have the solution.

Church at the Falls has a simple mission. We exist to lead people into a growing relationship with Christ. Everything we do has an end goal of bringing people to a relationship with Christ and walking believers closer to Him. We offer the only hope for this world. This is not an arrogant statement, it is fact based on God's Word. We hold the only solution for the needs of the people in our community.

• We accomplish our mission in three interconnected environments.

1. Doing Life On Sunday - We gather together both those exploring faith in Christ and followers of Christ. To serve one another, to lift up God, to participate in practical teaching and to show Christ to our community.
   
2. Doing Life In Groups - The Bible teaches that iron sharpens iron. So we need to hang out with one another. This takes place in LifeGroups. This takes place as you serve with others. This also takes place in more informal social gatherings. This takes place one on one. We need to do life with other followers of Christ.
   
3. Doing Life In The Community - The Church is for the world. We are to be lights in the world and we can't do that if we "circle the wagons or hunker down in a fox hole". We need to be hanging out in society. Living the gospel (the good news of Jesus). This happens when we serve the community with our service events, like the recent Peanut Butter Drive. More importantly this happens when you build relationships with coworkers, neighbours and friends. Do you know what message you send when you spend time with people who are not yet followers of Christ? Here's the message you send, "You are important, you matter, I value you". You say more by your actions than you words. People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care.

As followers of Christ we need to embody all three of these areas. Not just one or two. We need to live these. We need to keep investing in each area. You are a key part of accomplishing our mission. Will you participate regularly on Sunday bringing people to gather with us and by serving. Will you gather in groups to help one another? Will you serve you community with the goal of showing Christ?

Here's a few reminders to keep us focused.

• The church is not about you. It's about you giving your life to further the church.
• Jesus said deny yourself. Again, it's not about you.
• Jesus didn't give his life for you so that church would be just one of many good things in your life. The Church is the hope of the world.
• God never intended the Church to be a comfortable or cool place. He intended that the church would be a life changing agent and that the church would challenge people to be all the God created them to be. Comfort is not part of it.
• You don't go to church on Sunday. You gather with the church. You are part of the church. As part of the church you are the only picture that many will see of the church in the week ahead. Sorry to discourage you (just kidding).
• Many within the church will let you down and at times the church will do things you don't like. I will let you down at some point. All I can say is, get over it.
• Realize that God calls you to a church. If you came to faith at CATF, I think God clearly called you. If you came on board from another church, I trust you came here because you want to give of yourself, you want to grow in your faith, you want to be a part of something greater than yourself and you are a team player (all of the above not just one or two). Don't come just because you think we are a cool church. Don't come because you think you can turn us into what you want, because you won't. Don't come because you think we are perfect, we will dispel that lie real quick. If you came on board after being absent from a church connection in your life, God has you here to heal you and for you give as he heals you. No matter how you got here, I am glad you are here.
• Why the reminders? #1 I need them and #2 you need them. Vision leaks so we need vision refuel along the way.
  

Let's sell out with total abandon to leading people into a growing relationship with Christ. It is the only hope this world has.

Video Update

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Follow Up To Nobody Cares

I felt I should add something to help further explain or clarify what I had to say yesterday. In no way am I saying, just tough it out when it comes to the challenges you face. Your struggle is real. Your need is real. I am not saying go into denial. I am simply saying the best way to fill a void in our own life is to begin giving and then seeing God work in our lives. 

I give you permission to be real. I also urge to give out of your greatest need.

Praying for all of you. I care and I want the best for you. 

No One Cares

Do any of the following statements describe your recent thoughts:

• No one calls.
• No one cares.
• No one understands.
• No one has time.
• No one listens.
• No one knows my struggle.
• No one ____________.
  

As a pastor I hear about a lot of pain that individuals face. I am keenly aware that the "No ones" really do exist, so you are not alone when it comes to pain. This broken world is full of pain. So what do you do when you feel like no one cares or you feel all alone or the world is just not fair. What do you do when you so desire someone to care for you? Here's what the Bible has to say:

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.5 For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.6 Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer.7 We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us. 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

What is this verse saying? God is the ultimate source of comfort. Look to God for comfort and then go comfort someone else who is struggling. That's right, serve out of your greatest need. I believe with all my heart that God will do amazing things and bring amazing comfort when you go meet your own greatest need in someone's life. I also believe that God wants us to meet that need while we are needy, not wait to be comforted. Comfort and He will comfort you.
1 Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Hebrews 11:1

Are you lonely? Go be a friend to someone that is lonely.

Do you so want to receive an email or a call? Go do that very thing for another.

Do you need something? Give something away to another.

Do you need a friend? Be a friend.

God will fill you up as you give. If you just look for others to meet your needs you begin to get stagnant, but if you let God's comfort flow He will fill you up. Here's a picture to help illustrate the principle. The Dead Sea is dead because it takes in and has no outlet. The Sea of Galilee is full of life because it gives. Both seas are fed by the Jordan River, but only one is alive because it gives. Both have equal access to a life giving source. Yet only one is alive because it gives away the very thing it needs to be alive.

What do you think you need. Give out of that area. Let the exact thing you need flow from you to another and the Life Giver will fill you up.

Weekend Update

Hey CATF,

We have a great weekend coming up. We continue our One Prayer Series with our teaching pastor Craig Groeschel bringing us "God is Father". This will be a powerful message. We all have a misdirected image of our Heavenly Father because of the influence of a well meaning imperfect earthly father, maybe even a hurtful father or an absent father. How you see God shapes your faith. How you see God influences whether you even want a relationship with Him. You will be refreshed as you hear about your Heavenly Father this weekend. You will leave with a new picture of your Heavenly Dad. I can't think of a better way to celebrate Father's Day than gathering with the church to honour our Heavenly Father. In addition dad's, the best way to give back to your family this Father's Day is to bring them to hear about your Heavenly Father or kids, honour dad by bringing him along with you. It will be a great day. Lives will be changed and healed.

This Sunday we ask you to consider contributing above your regular giving to support One Prayer church planting in places like India and Cambodia. You can simply mark the giving break down on your envelope and all gifts marked One Prayer will go to this initiative. In addition any cash not in envelopes will also be directed to One Prayer. What an opportunity to have a part of establishing a church in a needy country. If every person gave $10 we could easily give $1000 to this great cause. Looking forward to your participation and celebrating what we can do together.

In addition we are serving our community as part of One Prayer by holding the Peanut Butter Drive. The Peanut Butter Drive will be held this Saturday at Zehrs in Niagara Falls. You can drop off peanut butter from 10 am to 2 pm. For every jar donated, you can enter a ballot to win a bbq. Unfortunately the charity bbq, to raise funds, was canceled by Zehrs due to health regulatory concerns. So let's make up for that, by really coming through with the peanut butter. All proceeds will go to Project Share. We will also give out free Tim Hortons coffee in the morning, to serve our "neighbours". For the many people from other communities in the Niagara Region here is a map to Zehrs

Don't forget to check out OnePrayer.com to participate in daily prayer.

Invite a friend along to meet us at the Peanut Butter drive or along with you on Sunday. So many people are searching for answers. God is Father and He is the answer.

How Often

How Often Do We Tell Him? June 18, 2009

By Perry Noble - Pastor of New Spring Church

The other day I was standing in Charisse’s (Perry's daughter) play room and she came up to me and kept saying, “I love you, I love you…” over and over again.

I thought to myself, “hearing my child say that NEVER gets old!”

Then I felt the Lord speak to me and say, “it never gets old to Me either!”

I am so guilty of telling God I love Him right before I ask for something or when I am really sorry about a sin that I have committed…but 

I am understanding that He likes it best when I communicate my love to Him out of appreciation for who He is and what He has done…and not in desperation in hopes of manipulation to get Him to do what I want.

When was the last time you thanked God for all that you have…or simply said “I love you” just because?

He is the perfect Father…so He KNOWS when we are tying to “butter Him up!” AND…I am guessing it doesn’t really work with Him.

My prayer is that I will become more desperately in love with HIM because of WHO HE IS and not because of what I perceive He can give me! And a way to make sure that happens is to offer consistent and sincere praise and thankfulness to the ONE who has blessed me with more than I could ever imagine!

Taking A Little Break

I will be taking a day or so off the week, so if you email or call a reply may be delayed. Jesus modeled the importance of getting away when ministry got heavy. So I'm trying to follow his lead on this. I love vacation, but at times I do a poor job scheduling time off without the help of my wife that is :-) I have been feeling pretty stressed lately so take a extra day or two this week to recharge and help me be more effective. I encourage each of you to take breaks when you are able to. Please remember that God created the weekly sabbath principle. So think of it this way, we need to divert daily to some replenishing activity, we need to rest weekly (a day off) and we need to abandon regular activity by vacationing in the backyard or getting away. We all know what happens when we push too hard. So let's enjoy opportunities to replenish. I will be scheduling a week off coming up soon to spend time off with my wife. Thanks to our great leadership team and our church, I am able to make healthy choices. 

Don't forget about our Peanut Butter Drive this Saturday 10 am to 2 pm at Zehrs, Niagara Falls. Thanks to all those that volunteered. See you then! I can't wait!

Trust

This is profound 1 Peter 1:9 "The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls."

Think of all the times each day, week or month you put your trust in something. You trust your mechanic to safely repair your car, you trust others with your health, you trust you company to pay you on Friday, you trust people to stop at read lights, you trust the builder who put up the roof over your head. We trust all the time. The greatest relational trust is with God and this trust has the greatest result of them all, a relationship with God and life eternal. Won't you trust in Him?

One Prayer Update

• Have you checked in at One Prayer.com to participate in the daily prayer focus?
• Be part of starting churches around the world. We will provide you an opportunity to give above what you normally do to help start churches around the world. This will take place on week 3 of One Prayer. Please prayerfully consider what you can do. The giving for this initiative will not be tax deductible and will be separate from your regular giving. Last year 660 churches were started in Cambodia, India, Sudan, and China. What amazing impact we have when we stand together. Let's see what God does through the One Prayer churches this year.
• Peanut Drive on June 20th. Sign up this week to be part of this great event. Rally your coworkers and neigbours to give peanut butter.
• Be still this week and pray. I need to do this more than anyone...count me in.
  

Praying along with One Prayer

Just checked out OnePrayer.com and the prayer focus today is pastors. I would be honoured if you would pray this portion of scripture for me on a regular basis. Ephesians 6:19-20 Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

One Prayer

If you missed today at Church at the Falls you missed a big big day, as we joined together with over 1700 other Churches participating in One Prayer. Our guest speaker today was Francis Chan from Simi Valley, California. Francis pointed us to a mighty all powerful God. Next week we will have an equally impacting guest speaker, don't miss week two as we explore "God is Great God is Good"

As part of One Prayer we will serve our community, pray along with the other churches and give to start churches in countries around the world.

Please check http://oneprayer.com to see how you can pray along with others.

Video Update

In this video

• Food Drive Recognition
• One Prayer Update
• Peanut Butter Extravaganza to benefit Project Share

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We Have An Enemy

Every time we chose to battle sin, we face the enemy.

• If we battle selfishness we will face the enemy.
  
• If we strive to point our kids to God's way for their lives we feel the wrath of the enemy.
• If we decide to be faithful to our spouse physically, emotionally and in our own mind we will deal with the enemy's onslaught.
  

The Bible teaches that we have an enemy, our adversary, the devil. He is the god of this world. He is a liar. He most often works in very subtle ways, propagating lifestyles that are anti-God. 1 Peter 5:8 Make no mistake you will face intense battles when you decide to live for God. Satan is an enemy that does not give up.

The battles can be fierce and many followers of Christ have succumbed to the battle, not losing a little ground, but just deciding to go with the flow. We will all struggle through the battles and gain and lose ground at times, but many begin to tolerate a little unfaithfulness of the eyes, a little pride, a little jealousy or inappropriate behavior from their kids (after all kids we be kids). The truth is, when you give in a little there is a little less pressure because you are now a conquered foe and no longer a warrior. You are no longer battling, but are siding with the enemy. This seems good for a time, but then come the consequences. You see, a life yielded to sin is one that will be ravage by consequences and plundered by the enemy. You can't sleep with the enemy and come out unscathed. Galations 6:7

Do I sound a little extreme? Please don't play that card. The battle is real, trust someone who has walked with Christ for over 24 years through many battles. Trust someone who has given in and had to break lose from the enemy.

Are you ready to do battle? Are you reading the Bible daily and praying daily? Do you have a support network of Christ followers who you can call out to for support? Are you bound and determined to depend on God for the strength you need? You can't do this alone. You must be prepared for the long haul. Trust me, it will be worth it.