ALCC Magazine

Welcome! Welcome to Abundant Life! We are glad you are here. We trust that wherever you are on your spiritual journey, that you will find something for you and your family here at ALCC.

It is our hope that as you join us in your our journey of seeking and finding God, your purpose and His plan for your life, that you will be changed.

Those who call ALCC their church, their home, are everyday people just like you. We are all wanting to follow Christ and bring the message of hope to a hurting world.

REAL PEOPLE, REAL LIVES, BEING TRANSFORMED

A Monthly Insight into the Abundant Life MARCH 2012

Where lives are being changed

640 Grosvenor St. London Ont N5Y 3T4 519-858-4123

[email protected]

Pastor Bill & Kathy Conversation Group

Sunday Nights 6 Café

6:30 Group

Sermon Series March 11-25

March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb.

IGNITE (INTENSE) If you

are between the ages of 12-17, join us on Tuesdays from

6:30-9:00 pm for intense games, intense clusters, in-

tense discovering and dis-cussing, intense friendships,

intense fun, intense making

fun of things, intense chillax-ing with an intense God,

IT’S JUST INTENSE EVERYTHING.

Doors open at 5:30pm.

HIS KIDZ Our children’s pro-

gram is growing in numbers and in faith. It’s just wonder-

ful to see how free and safe they feel in this place that we

call home. We now have split

our children into three age groups downstairs during

Sunday service to better serve them! Sunday School is from

10:45am to the end of the

service.

YOUNG ADULTS CALL TO ALL YOUNG ADULTS: Our

community goal is to coexist to showcase the

Grace of Christ, the Love of

God, and the Communion of the Spirit.

Don’t know what that means? Come out to the Crabby Joe’s

on Saturday March 3rd. Contact

either myself or my wife Beth-any for more details.

MUSIC: Andrew Thompson is

in the house of God leading and sharing his cultivated

heart of worship on Sunday

March 4th! Are you a member of ALCC? Play an instrument or

sing? Interested in joining the team? Contact either Johan

Laning or I.

MISSIONS “We are here and

we care.” was brought up in a meeting and that is the empha-

sis of the Mission’s Committee to be globally and locally aware

and active. Thank you all who

supported the (RED) cam-paign which raise over 1000

days worth of meds to prevent and treat HIV. There will be a

local campaign announced

shortly.

CHURCH “. . . encourage one another and build one an-

other up, just as you are doing” 1 Thessalonians 5:11. Thank

you for all the love and support.

In this together, Tony

give us a chance to investi-gate Andrew’s Soul Print

and discover how to culti-

vate a heart of worship. This is gonna to

be great….

Leadership Team!

Abundant Life

Community Church is unique.

We have been blessed with Eld-

ers, Board, Staff

and 9 Department heads. Over the next season of

ministry, we are going to “Train, Equip and Release”

people into their destiny. This will serve as a step-

ping stone to greater

things for ALCC and the community at large. Are

you ready?

Faith, Hope & Love! This is our new theme for all of

us as individuals. Faith comes

from the Word, Hope happens in prayer and Love means to

give oneself away. Over the course of Lent, consider how

you will grow deeper in Christ as we allow the Holy Spirit to

take us deeper into 1 Corin-

thians 13:13, “now these three remain, faith, hope and love,

but the greatest of these is

LOVE”…let’s share the wealth!

From the desk of Tony

Spring is Coming!

Soul Print!

The new series is called Soul Print. We are

going to look at David of

the Old Testa-ment and dis-

cover why the

writers of the New Testa-

ment called him, “a man

after God’s

own heart” It will be a longer series over the month of

March and April. Come and be blessed!

Andrew Thomspon! Andrew is no stranger to us.

On Sunday March 3rd, Andrew will be here to minister in

song and we will have an ex-tended INNER-view. It will

Thoughts from PB

Abundant Life Community Church

...we are going to “Train,

Equip and Re-lease” people

into their destiny.

IT’S JUST INTENSE EVERYTHING.


GREY We all know grey is a

color, but there is another

meaning in my old Gage Dictionary: Being inter-

mediate or indeterminate in char-acter, condition, or

situation. It’s like be-ing luke- warm instead

of hot or cold! God says

He’d rather we were hot or cold so He wouldn’t

have to spew us out of His mouth.

It’s like we expect to live

life according to our fleshy lusts and still ex-

pect His blessings! There’s no in-between with Jesus. He

gave His life as a ransom for us and expects us to give our best. How can

we do our best when we’re stuck in

inappropriate behavior in our everyday life? No, I’m not referring to sexual

impurity, murder or stealing! We can be just as inappropriate when we mur-

mur, complain, or hold a grudge

against a person instead of forgiving them. Been there, done that, got the

T- shirt!

He came to give us life more abun-dantly; He also wants us to choose to

live our lives transformed to His will by renewing our mind in His

Word every day (Rom. 12:2) and not be conformed to this

world.

I think of grey as a shadow. Even though danger lurks in

shadows, there are good shadows:

When the Apostle Peter

walked through a

village people would line the streets

with sick people on beds and couches so

that his shadow

would heal them as he passed by. Imag-

ine that? (Read about Peter in Acts 5:15)

One of my favorite Psalms is 91. He

who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the

Shadow of the Almighty.

So are we for or anti Christ? Are we walking in the Light of His Love

or the darkness of the evil one? No grey possible!

He gives us a choice: “Choose Life or death.” That should be an easy

decision but we can’t waver.

Are we walking in the Spirit or in the flesh? Following His Spirit

there’s no condemnation, just gen-tle conviction. For the law of the

Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set

us free from the law of sin and death. (Rom.8:2)

Luke 11:23 states: “He that is not

with Me is against

Me; and he that

gathers not with

Me scatters.” Je-

sus warns us that

neutrality (grey

areas) between

Him and Satan is

not possible.

Let’s all get out of the grey!

From my Heart to Yours Annette

Wed March 14 LIFE Lunch

11:30 am

$10

A time of music, inspirational message and

fellowship

Sunday Mornings 10-10:25 am

Step 7: HUMILITY

We humbly ask Him to remove our

shortcomings. “If we confess our

sins, he is faithful and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all

unrighteousness.” (1John 1:9)

Step 7 is about walking in humility. After examining

our life closely (as we did in Steps Four, Five, and Six,) we

may feel cut off from God. Considering the scope of what we have done, we may feel unworthy to ask God for anything. Maybe our sinful behaviors are despised as the lowest kind of evil by those whom we consider re-spectable. We may struggle with self-hatred. Our genu-ine remorse may cause us to won-der if we even dare approach God to ask for His help.

God welcomes us, even when we feel this way, Jesus told this story: Two men went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a dis-honest tax collector. The proud Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax collector over there! For I never cheat, I don’t sin, I don’t commit adultery, I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I

am a sin-ner. ‘ I tell you, this sinner, not the Phari-see, re-turned jus-tified be-fore God.

For the

proud will be hum-bled, but the humble

will be hon-ored” (Luke 18: 10-

14) NLT. When we put our life in God’s hands, He will re-shape us as He sees fit. It is our humility that allows us to accept the fact that he is the Crea-tor. Our new life may be similar to the one we left behind or entirely differ-ent. God is the Master Craftsman. Whatever He does, we can trust that he will recreate our life beauti-fully, one we get out of His way!

COME JOIN US ON Thursday ‘s @ 7 P.M


Marty & Blanche

Fisher CR Directors

2003– 2012

When we put

our life in

God’s hands,

He will

reshape us as

He sees fit

Join us

for our Monthly Dinner

Thursday March 29

6:15 pm


The Shack by William P. Young

Is there a place where bad memories lie? Perhaps it is a certain park in where bullies hurt you, or perhaps a restaurant where a blind date went bad. Or maybe it’s your child-hood home. For all of us, there is a place that warrants nothing but negative memories, for Mack, it is the shack. This novel is about an ordinary man who has had more than his share of sorrow in his life. Mack is a guy who goes to church on Sunday but has rarely engaged God on any other occasion. His biggest struggle is The Great Sadness, which comes upon him daily

regarding a personal tragedy that is so close to his heart. His youngest daughter, Missy, kidnapped and evi-dence in a dilapidated shack that she was brutally murdered. One day he receives a note that says:

It’s been a while. I’ve missed you. I’ll be at the shack next weekend if you’re interested in getting together.

-Papa

“Papa” is Mack’s wife’s name for God. So, out of curiosity, Mack goes to the shack: the place where there is nothing except his beautiful daughter’s blood. What happens there is beyond imagination; a real encounter

with God. Not an old man with a flowing white beard though, but Papa, a large Af-rican-American woman who is like fresh-baked bread, warm and inviting. Jesus, a plain Hebrew who is a master craftsman and has a great sense of humor. And Sarayu, a female Asian gardener who is music in motion, constantly moving but profound in her speech. All three are God, and Mack is about to embark on a spiri-tual journey like no other. This novel shows God in a way that is too easily overlooked. As a culture, we are obsessed with the Holy God or God of Wrath. Too often, we forget that He is a re-lational God. In The Shack we encounter a God who is not only profound and lovely, but fun and full of laughter. It is an interesting look at what the Trinity could actually be: a three-way relationship. Although Mack is confused at first, he slowly begins to enjoy himself and begins to ask questions. Such as: “If You couldn’t take care of Missy, how can I trust for You

to take care of me?” and “If Jesus is fully human, how can He be inside me?” or “Didn’t Missy have a right to be protected?” Each of these hard questions is met with astoundingly profound answers. It makes you wonder if this event really did happen. There are many layers to this book, not unlike the Bible itself. I believe anyone who has ever though that

God has let them down somehow, needs to read this book. Because it just may answer some questions that

you may have. This novel is pretty heavy at times, it is not a light read. However, it may show you a differ-

ent side of God that is not often depicted in churches. This book will challenge you

to change the typical way of seeing our Lord. If you’re willing to take a risk, visit

The Shack and I guarantee you will be changed. But, you must take the first step,

for God is a gentleman, and you must choose to let Him.

Teletha Giffin is a faithful member of ALCC since 2004. She is homemaker and is raising

two lively little boys with her husband Dustin. She is a avid reader, loves to paint, write, enjoys Italian cooking and hopes to visit Italy one day...soon!

The Shack website: http://theshackbook.com/index.html

http://theshackbook.com/index.html


Happy Birthday

Johan Laning 5th

Sebastian Fickling 10th

Sarah Quarrie 15th

Pat Dowd 17th

Elaine Wake 17th

Stephanie Macaulay 6th

Matt Goodwin 18th

Bessie Wesley 27th

Joanne Huston 28th

Jody Dionnne 29th

Jacqueline Moore 31st

Carmella Fairbanks 21st

Bible Stories/Crafts Games/Snacks

Sunday’s 10:45

To Noon


18-29 years

Saturday nights @ 6:30 pm

Our purpose is to develop and

grow in our faith, discuss the issues on the minds of our

generation and fellowship.

March 3 , 8:30-5 West Park Baptist Church 955 Gainsborough Road London

Register at promisekeepers.ca or 1.888.901.9700


LINKS TO TOOK AT:

Charles Stanley Daily Devotional

Read the Bible in One Year

Free Music Download

Coming in April

Palm Sunday April 1

EASTER Pancake Breakfast April 8 9 am

Sunday Gathering April 8 10:30 am No Conversation Group

LIFE Seniors (50+) Lunch April 11 Women’s Conference April 13-14

Celebrate Recovery Potluck April 26

Guest Speaker/Musician Andrew Thompson Sunday March 4 10:30 am

Thank you for using

the donation basket at

Good Morning Cafe

MARCH EVENTS March 2-3 IGNITE Men’s Conference

March 3 HIS KIDZ Leadership Meeting

March 4 Special Guest Andrew Thompson

March 14 Life (50+) Seniors Lunch

March 29 CR Potluck Dinner

1 Peter 1:3 “We’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for “

(Message Bible)

http://www.intouch.org/magazine/daily-devotional#698

http://feeds.feedburner.com/ESV-daily-reading-bible

http://www.itickets.com/freemusicdownload/index-indi.html?id=310511

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