{"id":980,"date":"2017-04-07T03:00:31","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T08:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kerryaclark.com\/?p=980"},"modified":"2019-08-14T11:48:15","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T16:48:15","slug":"how-we-do-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/how-we-do-church\/","title":{"rendered":"How We Do Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vision: The Purpose for My Life – Part 7<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Let me remind you that our blog posts’ focus for this year is on creating a family plan-planning for your family. <\/span><\/p>\n

One area of life that most people rarely plan for is their church involvement. \u00a0They just do it and don’t do it. \u00a0Have you ever considered outlining what your family is willing to do or set the boundaries for what you all will do as it relates to church participation? \u00a0Let me jump right in and illustrate what our family does and give you an open door into our plan.<\/p>\n

Plan for church attendance <\/b>
\n<\/span>We made the decision that church attendance in our household isn’t optional. \u00a0We will attend services at our local church each Sunday and for us this doesn\u2019t mean from the comforts of our home (online). \u00a0The only time online service is an option for us is when we’re on vacation that may extend through the weekend. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t misunderstand, church attendance isn’t a legalistic ritual for us, but rather our way of saying we place God first. \u00a0We refuse to sleep in on God and get up for the companies we work for or the schools we attend. \u00a0For our family, it\u2019s just not happening.<\/p>\n

What plans do you and your family have regarding church attendance? \u00a0Maybe this is something you wish to outline now that your thoughts are on it.<\/p>\n

\"\"Plan for messages from our pastors<\/b>
\n<\/b>Because our family is blended, by default we have to be open to having multiple pastors<\/a>. \u00a0You can read more about that in a previous post<\/a>. \u00a0<\/span>We have several pastors and make it a priority to hear a message from each weekly, usually on Sunday. \u00a0While most attend one church service, our family on a regular basis gets in 2-3 on a given Sunday. \u00a0Why? \u00a0We love it! \u00a0We stopped going to church for church sake, but instead we attend so that we can get our takeaways for the week; things that will help make us the persons we were created to be. \u00a0We believe those messages have exactly what we need for what we will face in the upcoming week.<\/span><\/p>\n

Plan to be involved (prayer shield and monthly prayer service)<\/b>
\n<\/b>We believe being a member of a church also means we should be involved at our local church. \u00a0We should give of our time. \u00a0We do so as a part of the prayer team. \u00a0We are a part of the prayer shield dedicated to praying for the Leadership team and the people who support them. \u00a0\u00a0That means everyday, we pray for that team, often calling them by name. \u00a0We participate in 21 days of prayer including fasting. \u00a0We’ve also committed ourselves to attending Saturday morning prayer service on the 1st Saturday of each month. \u00a0Lastly, we receive regular prayer requests multiple times a week of people who request prayer. \u00a0\u00a0This is the least we can do to give back to what God has given us through our local church. \u00a0<\/span>What are you and your family doing in your local church? \u00a0What’s the plan? \u00a0It’s your plan that makes all the difference.<\/span><\/p>\n

Plan for small groups<\/b>
\n<\/b>Our local church is a church of small groups. \u00a0It’s at the core of what we do. \u00a0However, our family had to alter how we’d participate since we have so many other activities in our life. \u00a0We have what I like to call “closed” small groups. \u00a0These are groups we’ve hand selected to help us and the participants do life together. \u00a0We sort-of merged 2 church ideas together to create what works best for our family. \u00a0At the end of the day, we have a plan for meeting in small groups. \u00a0What’s your plan? \u00a0Who are you meeting with and doing life with? \u00a0Life is better in groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

Plan to be generous<\/b>
\n<\/b>I saved giving to last. \u00a0Giving, which I will address further in the fiscal and financial section of The Family Plan, is an important piece of what we do. \u00a0We no longer have a plan for just giving a tithe (10%) of our earnings, but we plan to increase our giving percentage each year. \u00a0What’s your strategy to be generous? \u00a0What plans do you need to put in place to make certain you’re a “cheerful” giver? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You know what today is…<\/span>
\n<\/span>Today is Friday!<\/span>
\n<\/span>I hope these examples help you define the plans you need for your family. \u00a0Usually when we provide real-life examples, our readers have many questions. \u00a0We’d love to answer your questions. \u00a0What will planning in the area of church involvement make happen in the lives of your family? \u00a0Ask a question or leave us a comment. \u00a0Click here.<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vision: The Purpose for My Life – Part 7 Let me remind you that our blog posts’ focus for this year is on creating a family plan-planning for your family. One area of life that most people rarely plan for is their church involvement. \u00a0They just do it and don’t do it. \u00a0Have you ever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,266],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-executive-administration","8":"category-vision-the-purpose-for-my-life","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170407-TIF-Blog-The-Purpose-for-My-Life-Part-7.png?fit=760%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4jb7V-fO","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=980"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2718,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980\/revisions\/2718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}