1. “Lord, cleanse us for revival, remove our idols, forgive us for the distractions of eyes and ears (unnecessary things).”

• What distractions do I need to lay down?
• Everyone has time to pray and to read the Bible—what do I need to give up to make time?

2. “Lord, we need Community Group leaders, intercessors, finances and “gray hair and wrinkles.”

• Should I consider being a CG leader?
• Do I have a burden to pray for the church? Can I come at 9:30 on Sunday mornings to pray and/or to the monthly prayer meeting?
• Have I been generous, sacrificial, cheerful in my giving?
• Lord, bring us “gray hair and wrinkles”–older adults who have walked with you faithfully for many years and have been faithful in their marriages and raising their children.

3. “Lord, renew our joy and thanksgiving for people who serve in our midst: the people who hold our babies and play with our children, the people who set up chairs, the people who give financially. Thank you, Lord, they keep the lights on and allow all of us to hear the truth.”

4. “Lord, please show us the woundedness, the hurt and the brokenness of people in our church.”

• How can I open my home to strangers?
• How can I welcome Metanoia guests into my home/life?
• With whom could I share my pain/hurt so that I may find healing?

5. “Lord, stir our heart for the lost. May others be drawn to you because of our worship of you. Lord, make us ready to welcome and love the people you will bring into our church family in the coming months.”

• All of us need to bend our knees in prayer.
• …be deeper in love with Jesus that we would love as he loved.
• …begin now loosening our grip on some relationships we currently enjoy that we may embrace new and wonderful relationships and help people feel “at home.”

Volunteers for the kids activities will: man the moon bounce, help build scarecrows and paint faces. You may sign up for one of three shifts (or you can stay the whole day!):

• Shift 1: 8:30am-11:30am (blow up balloons, help set up moon bounce, etc.)
• Shift 2: 11:30am – 2:30pm (moon bounce, face painting, scarecrow building volunteers needed)
• Shift 3: 2:30pm – 5:30pm (moon bounce, face painting, scarecrow building volunteers needed)

If you are interested in helping, please contact Metanoia Church via email or sign up during a Worship Gathering later this month.

• Sunday, 22 – Current challenges and ministry alignment plan presented during the Worship Gathering.
• Sunday, 29 – Brief Q&A on ministry alignment immediately following Worship Gathering

September 2010

• Sunday, 5 – Metanoia’s 5th Birthday! Celebration picnic at Patapsco State Park immediately following Worship Gathering.
• Sunday, 12 – Brief Q&A on ministry alignment immediately following Worship Gathering.
• Sunday, 19 – Community Group co-leaders submit their group’s ministry plan.
• Sunday, 26 – Leadership Cohort (immediately following Worship Gathering, includes lunch)

October 2010

• Sunday, 3 – Community Group “fair” immediately following Worship Gathering. Meet the co-leaders of each Community Group. Learn about times, locations and “out” (mission) ministry for each group. Choose a group to begin participating in.
• Monday, 4 – Community Group re-launch; LTGs cease to be official program.
• Sunday, 24 – Leadership Cohort (immediately following Worship Gathering, includes lunch)

Fall 2010

• Launch Metanoia U

December 2010

• Sunday, 5 – Leadership Cohort (immediately following Worship Gathering, includes lunch)

2011

• Spring – Launch spiritual formation program

In November of last year, we began seeking clarity of the Lord Jesus’ calling for our church. In March of this year, many of you attended the annual Partnership Retreat where together we discerned our Church’s values (“how we do things”) and vision (“what we are doing”). Our vision constitutes our church’s unique calling for this season. It is as follows:

We desire to make and grow as disciples of Jesus Christ by…

• …conforming our lives to Jesus and his desires by his power, with the result that we express greater love for God and one another, experience increased victory over sin and enjoy greater confidence and contentment in the Lord.
• …equipping individuals to minister in the name of Jesus Christ with the result that the communities where we live, work and play become places of hope, healing and justice.
• …seeking the transformation of the spiritual, business and artistic life of Main Street through our presence with the result that Jesus Christ is increasingly recognized as Lord and sought as the true source of spiritual vitality.
• …partnering long-term with like-minded churches and organizations with the result that churches meeting the spiritual and physical needs of their communities are planted in a variety of cultures.

On Sunday, August 22, I shared with you how the Elders’ are discerning that the Holy Spirit is initiating a movement to see this vision accomplished. I also shared with you that there are four significant challenges that must be addressed if we are to follow the Holy Spirit into this new movement. Left unaddressed, these challenges will hamstring our capacity to join Him:

• Inability to connect guests: Our current ministry structure—Worship Gathering, Life Transformation Groups (LTG), Community Groups—is failing to connect guests within smaller communities.
• Atrophy of missional impulse: We have seen a clear drop in missional activity in Community Groups, primarily because they meet only once/month and lack consistent direction and purpose as a program. Additionally, a once/month meeting is insufficient to connect guests, new believers and spiritual seekers.
• Inability to provide a small group environment for spiritual seekers: A once-a-month Community Group environment is insufficient to meaningfully connect spiritual seekers in Christian community.
• Lack of opportunities for Partners to exercise gifts and talents: Our current ministry structure does not facilitate opportunities for Partners to teach, lead mission projects, etc..

While Metanoia is not “failing” in our ministry, we are certainly not effectively accomplishing Jesus’ calling on our church (our vision). The challenges above should serve as a warning that if we do not make changes in our ministry structure, we will become increasingly ineffective in accomplishing the Lord’s vision for our church. In short, we cannot disciple believers, welcome spiritual seekers and reach out to the lost if we continue ministering in the same way.

Therefore, on August 22 I introduced a plan for aligning Metanoia’s ministry and programmatic structure to facilitate seeing Jesus’ will for our church accomplished (for a timeline, click here). The plan consists of four ministry environments that will facilitate fulfilling the Great Commandment (Matt 22.34-40), the Great Commission (Matt 28.16-20) and our church’s unique vision:

• Worship Gathering: Gather weekly for adoration. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
• Community Groups: Scatter weekly for action. “…You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… baptizing them… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
• Metanoia U: Periodic seminars and courses to teach the deeper things of our faith. “…love the Lord your God with all your… mind.”
• Spiritual Formation Groups: Organically designed program facilitating spiritual friendships. “…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

“Where are LTGs?” The Elders recognize and celebrate LTGs’ positive impact on Metanoia Church; however, LTGs will not facilitate our ability as a church to move effectively into this new season of ministry. As of October 1, LTGs will no longer be an official program of Metanoia Church, meaning that there will be no Elder oversight over the program and it will be removed from our literature. This does not mean that persons currently in LTGs cannot meet informally as an LTG. You may continue to do so as your schedule permits. A spiritual formation program will be debuted in 2011 that will facilitate spiritual formation and discipleship in the church.

Let me encourage you to listen to the sermon from August 22, “New Horizons: Mission,” to hear the above elaborated in detail (click to listen now). If you are unable to podcast the sermon, please contact me via email and a CD copy will be provided for you. If you have questions about the ministry alignment process detailed above, please do not hesitate to contact the Elders (Jesse Florida, Art Wong or myself). We love you more than you know and are praying for you!

Grace and peace,

Adam Feldman, Lead Pastor

• When: Sunday, September 5; immediately following the Worship Gathering
• Where: Hilton area of Patapsco State Park (click here for map); 1101 Hilton Avenue, Catonsville, MD 21228-5878
• Food: Bring your own picnic style food (and some extra to share with guests). Community Groups will coordinate “family style” meals for those in a group. Plasticware, drinks and charcoal will be provided by Metanoia.
• What to bring: Besides food, bring a frisbee, football, hiking boots, sunscreen, bugspray or whatever else you wish for recreation. You may also wish to bring a folding chair as picnic table seating will be limited.
• Children: There is a HUGE tire park in Hilton area, so our children should have fun running around on it!
• Cost: There is a $2/person charge to get into the park. Metanoia will provide $2 for persons who are unable to pay their own way.

We are asking for people to submit short prose, poetry, song lyrics, prayers, sketches, and photos that will help people pray and meditate on Christ’s incarnation.  We will collect these into a book of meditations for each day of the Advent season.

Advent is a time to prepare and meditate on the true meaning of Christmas, so submissions can be anything that is about Jesus coming into our world and into our lives.  A submission can be a personal reflection of your own experience of coming to understand what Christmas really means.  Even if you do not consider yourself a writer, many of you journal. Look back at your entries around Christmas in previous years and see if one can be revised into something that will encourage or challenge others in the community.  We will gladly help you to revise and edit your work into something that can be published, so do not worry if it is something that is not already a polished piece.

Each submission must have a related Scripture reference to go with it to encourage others to be in the Word during the season of Advent.

Guidelines:

• Short prose, poetry, song lyrics, prayers, sketches, or photos
• Less than 200 words
• At least one scripture reference
• No more than 3 submissions per person
• Please send submissions as an email attachment to the church office
• Submissions due Sunday, September 26

If you are interested in helping with selection, editing, layout, cover design or proofreading please let Kim Feldman know via email.

Come join us for Laura Koo’s baptism.  Afterwards, we’ll have pizza to eat and everyone is welcome to enjoy the pool.  For directions, please email the church office.

If you are new to Metanoia or are curious about what we do and how we go about doing it, consider committing to attend the Worship Gatherings during this six week sermon series:

• August 15 – “Truth”
• August 22 – “Mission”
• August 29 – “Worship”
• September 5 – “Passion”
• September 12 – “Relationships”
• September 19 – “Authenticity”

• Where: Eutaw Place Median Park, 1400/1500 Eutaw Street, Baltimore
• When: Saturday, September 4, 12pm-4pm

If you are interested in helping, please contact Metanoia Church via email or sign up during a Worship Gathering later this month.

During this Sunday’s Partnership meeting, every Partner present will receive a copy of the September 2010 – August 2011 Spending Plan (our church fiscal year runs Sept-Aug, not Jan-Dec). The Elders and the Financial Team have prayerfully worked through this Spending Plan and are confident that it reflects where we believe we are heading as a church over the next year.

Sunday, August 22 – Vote

Partners will be able to ask questions about the Spending Plan at the meeting on Sunday and will have an additional 2 weeks to talk with any of the Elders or Financial Team members for further clarification. The 2010-2011 Spending Plan will be voted on by Partners on Sunday, August 22nd at a brief Partnership Meeting. (There will be no opportunity for discussion or questions at that meeting.)