Coming This Weekend!

There are a couple of exciting opportunities for you this weekend that we wanted to let you know about!

1. Saturday (May 2) is Peak Day in downtown Apex. It's a great time when thousands of folks come and hangout in the streets downtown. We'll be there all day and we'd love for you to come and join us. We'll put up the moonwalk and have other games for kids including face painting and we'll be inviting kids to come to VBS this summer in June. If you'd like to come and help send Chuck or Matthew an email.
2. Saturday night (May 2) we're kicking off our "Center" sermon series during the month of May with a men's dinner called IGNITE. Warren Lamb is coming and it will be awesome. If you're a man and you haven't signed up yet send Amanda an email. The dinner starts at 6:00 PM and we'll be done by 8:00.
3. On Sunday, May 3, Hand of Hope Pregnancy Resource Center is hosting its annual Walk For Life from 2:00-4:00 at South Park in Fuquay Varina. Hand of Hope reaches out to young ladies with the hope of Christ and is an invaluable ministry in our neck of the woods. You can read more about Hand of Hope or the Walk For Life by clicking here.
   

Empty Nesters

Peter Dubbelman
Family Life Pastor and Church Administrator



Our last child, Ruth, is getting ready to leave for college this fall. Though we realize that our kids may be in and out of our house during the next several years, Brenda and I are excited about this new adventure that awaits us—being empty nesters. We believe that our best years are still ahead of us.

"Empty Nesters" face unique opportunities and challenges. We typically have more time and finances then we are used to, but we also are navigating new waters; e.g., ageing parents and adult children, a stronger need to be partner focused rather than child focused, and letting go of past disappointments and moving forward.

I want you to know about some exciting, useful opportunities at ABC that apply just to you:

• Roger Repp has started a Life Group class geared to empty nesters. If you are not already a part of a Life Group, please pray about this opportunity. For more information you can reach Roger at his e-mail address or see the above image for more info on the class.

• Brenda and I are reading a book on Empty Nesters: The Second Half of Marriage by David and Claudia Arp. It is published by Zondervan and has a Christian emphasis; and so far we like it. There are other books that address our demographic, but you might want to read it together as a couple.

• Brenda and I are also praying about leading a monthly discussion group on the above book or one similar. Right now, if there is enough interest in the idea, I’m thinking about starting it in either September ’09 or ’10 with a monthly evening meeting around food, fellowship, and book discussion; we’ll then culminate with the group going away for a weekend of fellowship, fun, and worship; however, I am open to suggestions. I’m not only wrestling with the idea but also with whether there is enough interest in doing something like this. So help me out. Ideally, I would prefer you join a community discussion of this idea or whatever else is in your heart with regards to Empty Nesters in the comments below. Simply click on the comments link under this entry and let us know what you think. You may also contact Brenda and I directly.
  

May our Lord continue richly to bless your marriage!

What's Wrong?

Alex Cosio
Pastor of Hispanic Ministries

I heard the story of a young man whose friends played a prank on him. While he was asleep, they rubbed an ointment with a very bad odor on his upper lip underneath his nose. When he woke up he complained: “this room stinks!” So he left the room and went outside. As he was walking through the hallway he said: “this hallway surely stinks.” He got into his car; as he started driving, he noticed the bad odor in his car too, so he complained: “this car is really stinky!” Everywhere he went he complained saying: “This really stinks.” It took him a while to realize that he was the one who stunk!

This story illustrates a problem that is common to many of us. There are people who constantly complain; and complain about everything. They complain about their neighbor, about their friends, their coworkers, their children, their spouse, their boss, their church, the prices, the government, the weather, etc. Do you know anybody like that? It is very easy to see the wrongs and defects on everybody else and never ask ourselves: “Could it be me the one that is wrong?”
The Lord Jesus said: “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.” (Luke 11:34-35) What a revelation! Could it be that we need to come into the light? What a difference the light makes around us! Jesus said: "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (John 8:12)

The Lord promises that if we come into his light everything around us will look different. Your neighbor might be the same but will look different because of the light of Jesus. Your spouse might be the same, but it will look different because of the light of Jesus. Before we complain and judge, let us ask ourselves: Am I looking through the light of Jesus or through the darkness of this world? Let us challenge ourselves by asking: Am I walking in the light of Jesus?

FOCUS Conference

We wanted to write a little on a great opportunity for all ABC teachers called the FOCUS Conference. Whether you teach adults, youth, or children this conference is for you! The dates are Friday night, April 17 and Saturday morning, April 18 so it's not a lot of your time, but we really believe that it will be worth it to you to come as we spend some time in fellowship and in training. One of our main goals with this conference is to equip you in your classrooms as you teach and to be sharpened together as teachers!

We'll eat dinner together on Friday night and then have one large group session altogether. Then we'll break out into our age-appropriate sessions. Here's the schedule for the weekend:

Friday 17th
6:00 – 7:00 Dinner in the Fellowship Hall
7:00pm – 7:45pm Combined Group Session with Dan Cook
7:45pm – 8:00pm break
8:00pm – 9:00pm Age-Group Track Session 1

Saturday 18th
8:30am – 9:00am continental breakfast
9:00am – 9:45am Age-Group Track Session 2
9:45am – 10:00am break
10:00am – 11:00am Age-Group Track Session 3

We've got some great folks coming in to teach and to train and they'll be covering some really good topics. Some examples of what we'll be talking about in the children's teachers breakouts are: discipline in the classroom, age-appropriate story-telling, games, songs and other tools that you can use in your classroom.

Feel free to email Nathan with any questions, but we really hope you'll sign up and join us that weekend! Click here to sign-up today!

Forgive Them

Tim Shaw
Adult Education Pastor

As spring is in the air causing the trees to bud and flowers to bloom, my thoughts are more on the approaching Easter season than the calendar season. The whole basis of our faith is the Cross of Christ and His resurrection!

When Christ was crucified, He made seven profound statements while He hung on the tree before He breathed His last earthly breath of air. As I think about Jesus Christ and what he went through on the cross, the word "amazing" dominates my mind. We can learn a lot about Christ's character from these few statements that I believe to be truly amazing. Of those seven, the one that I find the most convicting was the first. "Then said Jesus, 'Father forgive them; for they know not what they do'." Luke 23:34

Jesus, having just been nailed to a cross, was in the process of dying by the most painful method of execution that has ever been devised by man. In the midst of His agony, Jesus looked down from the cross at the people responsible for His suffering and offered up a prayer requesting that God forgive them. If you think as I do, you read this and thought, "Wow, that's amazing!" And from our human reasoning it is. But should it surprise us that He would offer such a prayer? After all, this forgiveness if the very reason that He chose to lay down His life!

There is debate among theologians as to whom Christ was referring when He said "they know not what they do." Is He referring to the Romans who were responsible for carrying out the execution or to the Jews who failed to recognize their Messiah? I believe He was referring to the Jews, for they made a serious mistake and failed to recognize God's plan for their nation. As Paul later wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:8, if they had known who Christ was, they would not have crucified Him. Regardless of which group He was referring to, all the participants in His death were included in the prayer for forgiveness.

This same forgiveness that Christ prayed from the cross is available for everyone. However, one must accept it before salvation can be claimed. How about you? Have you ever come to the point in your life where you realized that you were a hopeless sinner and that you stood in need of a Savior? Have you ever asked that Savior, who loved you enough to lay down His life for you, for forgiveness of the sins you have committed? Have you ever placed your faith and trust in that Savior as the only means by which you can have hope and eternal life? If you have not, there is no better time than right now.

If you have received Christ as your personal Savior, are you living by the example He set? Do you love your enemies? Do you offer or withhold forgiveness from those who have caused you pain and suffering? Amazing, astounding, miraculous -- choose any descriptive word you like. Then choose to live for Christ, and extend the mercy, grace, and compassion He has shown you to other people.

Keeping In Step With The Spirit

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

I recently finished a book by Mark Foreman entitled “Wholly Jesus.” Mark is a pastor out in California at North Coast Calvary and is the father of Jon and Tim Foreman, both of Switchfoot. It really was a great book filled with practical wisdom, but there was one section that really resonated with me.

He addresses Galatians 5 in which Paul admonishes us “since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Foreman talks about some practical ways that we can be filled by the Spirit in our everyday lives and I wanted to share them with you.

The first is giving thanks. Check out Ephesians 1:16, 1 Thessalonians 1:2 or Colossians 3:17. When we wake up overwhelmed with all the stress and worries of the day spend some time in thanksgiving and thank God for everything in your life—from family to the sunrise. “It’s a way of living in the painting of God’s reality and it clearly helps us to see the fingerprints of Jesus in one’s life.”

The second is praise and singing. See Ephesians 5:19. “When we speak and sing the truths of God privately or publicly, the Spirit is released more fully in our lives.” Sing constantly and remember that praise is a response to the love of God.

Studying God’s Word is next and it is when we are corrected, reminded and encouraged. The Word is when we rediscover “true north on the compass”.

When we’re in fellowship we’re encouraged and filled with the spirit. Like Sanctus Real sings, as brothers and sisters we truly need each other. To be and to live in community.

When we obey or resist temptation we are filled. We’re empowered and there’s a sense of victory. And when we love each other and give ourselves away to others we’re filled. Jesus said that when we love others (especially those that are “un-lovable”), we are really loving him.

So, there you go. Giving thanks, praise and singing, studying God’s Word, fellowship, obedience and loving others. Let us keep in step with the Spirit together, ABC!

On a completely unrelated note here's a commercial that NBC wouldn't air during the Super Bowl this past weekend.

Theology With A Tiger

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

I’ve always loved reading Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes. In fact, I can attribute much of what I am today to two adults (my Mother and Father), one perpetually young kid (Calvin, named after John Calvin) and one insanely intelligent and good looking tiger (Hobbes, named after Thomas Hobbes). That might be scary to some of you, I know, but it is what it is. For those of you not familiar with the strip, Calvin is the dreamer and philosopher while Hobbes; his imaginary tiger (or is he?) plays the realist.

During one staff meeting a few years ago Rick (now at Explore Church) and I had this crazy idea that we would bring lots of random things to the meeting to try and stimulate our creativity. So we brought play dough, crayons and doodling paper, our X-Boxes and, yes, you guessed it—a couple of Calvin and Hobbes books. I don’t know how many good ideas came out of that hour or so, but it was one of my favorite staff meetings ever.

I remember reading one of the strips in which Calvin and Hobbes are lying in bed. In the first panel Calvin asks, “I wonder why man was put on the earth. What’s our purpose? Why are we here?” In the second panel Hobbes turns to him and says matter-of-factly, “Tiger food.” In the third he grins at Calvin, who is taking in his comment. And finally, in the last panel, Calvin lies awake, with a worried look on his face and one eye on his tiger, as Hobbes peacefully sleeps. Existential musings from a 7 year old. How could you not love that?

I mean, I’ve had a few teachers like Miss Wormwood in my life and growing up I remember a few Susie Derkins. In fact, without revealing names one time in Kindergarten I was wrestled to the ground by an uber-aggressive female First Grader where I found a kiss forcibly planted on my lips while I screamed and shouted in protest.

I also treated my babysitters poorly, as Calvin did Rosalyn. I can remember one night refusing to come out of the bathroom the whole time my parents were gone and other times tying my babysitters to a chair and pretending they were damsels in distress. I usually got them untied after an hour or so.*

I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, my life would not be the same were it not for the exploits of Spaceman Spiff or for the wonderful carefree sport of Calvinball. As a future political science major I also conducted and interpreted polls on my Dad’s performance as a Father as I grew up, much to his chagrin. Sorry about that, Dad. Hopefully Aidan and Gavin won’t get any bright ideas.

And finally, if there was one thing I could change about my physical appearance I always wished my hair could have resembled Calvin’s amazing cut.

*In honor of the snow this week I’d also like to give a shout out to the whole Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons storyline. Brilliant.