Mother's Day

Hello Friends,

This Sunday of course is Mother’s Day. I’m thinking about this because I just got back a couple days ago from a brief trip to El Paso, Texas where my Grandma and Grandpa live. I got to preach at their church this past Sunday and spend some quality time with them. My Grandparents aren't in the best of health anymore and I hadn't seen them in a long time so it was very special for me to be with them. It was actually the first time my Grandma had ever seen or heard me preach. And it was the first time I ever got to personally give my Grandma flowers in advance of Mother’s Day. So it was very special. I love them so much.

And as we said our goodbyes, for the first time I got to tell them how thankful I am for the legacy of faith that they’ve passed down to their family—a faith in Christ that I share, a faith that I see now especially gives them so much comfort when nothing else can, a faith that I want to pass on to my family and to share with our community.

Now I’m not trying to say “I’ve got the perfect family” or “If only you were brought up like me.” Far from it. I’m a nobody. It’s just that I’m so thankful for what Christ has done for me and I’ve seen firsthand the blessings of being in a Christian home.

And that’s why I want to invite you this Mother’s Day to join us for worship at Victory of the Lamb as we learn together what our gracious God has done for us all through his Son, Jesus.

Whether you’re a life-long believer, someone trying to work through some issues, or someone totally skeptical about God or the church, please know that you are welcome at Victory of the Lamb. Come worship with us. No matter what your earthly family is like, please know that we are spiritual family ready to welcome you and share God’s truth with you in love.

Our worship service starts at 9:30 am at Showtime Cinema in Franklin. If you’ve got kids, bring 'em! If you'd like you’re welcome to bring them a little early and register them for Bible Quest, our Sunday morning kids’ ministry that takes place during the worship service. For more info about our church in a movie theater, please check out our website at www.victoryofthelamb.com.

In Christ,

Pastor Ben
 

The Easter Project

A big thank you today to everyone who helped with our second Operation Jesus Cares project! In case you're wondering what that is...Operation Jesus Cares is our ongoing mission to help people in need by showing the love of Jesus in real world ways. Today was another awesome opportunity for us as a suburban church to show our heart for the city. That is something that is important to me and I'm excited to be part of a church that is passionate about loving people where they are.

Giant bin of candy!

Today we had about twenty volunteers helping elementary school kids on the south side of Milwaukee put together Easter baskets which we then delivered door to door to their neighbors. Each basket included some candy (of course!), some essentials like soap, a jump rope, a kids' book that told about the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and a bi-lingual invitation to Christ Lutheran church's Easter services.

It's really fun to get out with the school kids and see the reaction of their neighbors when they receive a gift like that...and to watch as their suspicions or apprehensions melt away when they realize they are receiving a gift, that it's free, and we tell them, "Happy Easter. Jesus loves you."

Me and the group of mostly 7th graders that I hit the street with today.

New Bible 101 Opportunity

What is Bible 101?

Basically it is your opportunity to casually learn about the Bible with other people in a group and ask whatever questions are on your mind. You don’t have to go to our church. You don’t have to know anything about the Bible. You don’t even have to have ever met me before.

As for me, I’ve just noticed in conversation that a lot of people would like to know more about the Bible but assume there’s no safe place for them to begin exploring it. Or a lot of people assume that they know what the Bible says but have never actually taken the time to check it out for themselves.

So I want to help. I want to help provide an opportunity for people maybe like you to see what the Bible actually says so that you don’t have to take anybody’s word for it, not even mine, but that you can make up your own mind about it for yourself. Don’t you owe it to yourself to spend at least some time learning about the bestselling, most influential book of all time?

What are the details?

• Bible 101 is just 4 lessons / 4 weeks long. (There is a Bible 201 component afterwards but there’s no commitment or pressure to be a part of it. Totally up to you.)

• Bible 101 will take place on 3/8, 3/15, 3/22, and 3/29 from 6:30-8:00 pm each day, all Thursday evenings this March.

• The location will be in the downstairs community room of Harris Bank located right on the Northeast corner of 76th and Rawson here in Franklin.

• All materials are free!

How to register?

Click here to fill out a brief registration form…and I’ll look forward to seeing you next Thursday evening.

Please register if possible by Wednesday, March 7^th.

Path to Victory

Dear Friends,

I am a bundle of excitement right now and here’s why. Since starting from scratch 5 years ago, God has grown our church from a small group of less than 10 meeting in my home for Bible study to the 180 who’ve been worshiping with us on average lately in the theater.

Over this time God has had to teach us countless times that we live by faith and not by sight as is always the case and that’s just how our God would have it! In our reading of The Story last week, I was struck again by how God calls us to follow him with bold confidence. He’s not a God who calls us to play it safe. Instead he calls us to the grand adventure of a life lived in step with him. Just look at how he called Abraham to lay everything in his life on the line with nothing but a promise of things unseen.

I’m excited because God is giving us some opportunities to live out our faith in that same kind of way. The next couple months especially are going to be packed with lots of things going on. After almost a year of negotiating and doing our homework, we have an accepted offer on a 17 acre parcel of land in southwest Franklin with frontage on both Loomis Rd and Ryan Rd. This is the piece of land we talked about at our open forums last year when it became available for purchase.

It is an amazing piece of land in an amazing location with lots of green space. It will give us room to grow and plenty of opportunities to benefit our local community as it grows with us long into the future. However, our offer to purchase is contingent on getting the property rezoned which is an ongoing process that will last into April, God-willing. An opportunity to exercise faith in things yet unseen! Already a lot of planning and quite a few meetings have taken place in this process. Please keep this process in your prayers and over the next couple weeks we’ll be sure and let you know how you can help when needed.

At the same time over the next couple months we have begun to move forward with a plan to launch an Appeal with the faith driven goal, God-willing, of completely paying off the land within a 2 year time frame. It will be a professionally led Appeal. The professional expertise will be provided for by Wisconsin Lutheran High School as part of their Mutual Benefit Appeal program. Ninety percent of the funds raised will be used towards our land purchase. Ten percent will be gifted to the High School in support of their Gifted for Praise Capital Campaign. Our “Path to Victory” Appeal will become more visible after Easter, and culminate with a Commitment Sunday on May 13. Much more information about this will be forthcoming in the next couple weeks to help answer your questions. Please pray for God’s blessings as we make plans for this important Appeal in the life of our church family.

In Christ,

Pastor Ben

Parenting Seminar

Hello Friends,

I want to personally invite you to attend a free Love and Logic® parenting seminar sponsored by our church. Please feel free to pass along this invitation to anyone you think would be interested even if you're not.

It’s for parents of children of any age who want to sharpen their parenting skills or anyone hoping to be a parent one day. As a parent of two myself I'm really looking forward to meeting up with others. Here’s the scoop.

When? There are two sessions. Each session will explore different content. You can attend only one day if you want.

Session A—February 18, 2012   5-7 PM
Session B—February 25, 2012   5-7 PM

Where?
Root River Center
7220 W. Rawson Ave
Franklin, WI 53132

Cost: Free (includes pizza and soda!)

Registration: Online directly at this link or from our church homepage. Please register by February 12th.

Here are just a few things you will learn during this training:

 Session A
- Handling misbehavior without breaking a sweat
- Putting an end to whining and arguing
- Neutralizing arguments
- Empathy vs sympathy
- Picking an empathetic statement
- Teaching kids to listen the first time
- Affordable and unaffordable mistakes

 Session B
-The science of control and meeting control needs
-The power of choices
-Modeling
-Turning your words to gold with enforceable statements
-Delaying the consequence
-The energy drain
-The team mentality
-The "Uh-Oh" song

Aaron and Sara Bauer will be our guest presenters. They are trained Love and Logic® presenters and Aaron currently teaches 4th grade at Garden Homes Lutheran School in Milwaukee. Aaron and Sara are parents of three preschool aged boys.

The VotL Story Blog

Howdy Friends,

Yesterday was a great day. We had a nice crowd for worship. Bible Quest re-expanded to serve kids through 5^th grade. We began our journey together through the Bible using The Story. I was extremely excited to see such a great turnout for the introductory session yesterday. I am praying that everyone who was there and even more of you will come aboard as we really get going our journey together this Sunday at 8:30. I think this journey together is going to be one of the most beneficial things we’ve ever done as a church. Please consider how you can be a part of it.

Just a quick reminder that there are a number of different ways to experience The Story.

1. There are of course the readings themselves. For example, please read through chapter 1 for this coming Sunday. Suggestion for parents: read your kids the same story using the appropriate kids’ version of The Story before bed and say a prayer afterwards. Or with older kids you could have a discussion after supper about how what you read applies to your family.
    
2. There are the group sessions which I will lead from here on out at 8:30 am in theater #1 at Showtime pending any changes.

3. There is The Story Blog online which you can interact with during the week.  Please be sure and check it out as there is some great content on there already. You can access the blog by clicking on The Story graphic from our website homepage or directly at http://thestoryvotl.blogspot.com/

4. We hope to record video from the Sunday morning group sessions so that if you miss a Sunday you can watch it online.

 Have a great week in the Lord, everybody!

Pastor Ben

The Best Laid Plans

"A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" (well not that far away actually), I played Quarterback on a football team. So bear with me. I will explain...but I'm going to use a football analogy. You see, as a Quarterback on the football team, I had to learn how to call an audible sometimes. An audible is when the Quarterback reacts to the defense by changing the play at the line of scrimmage... in other words, right before the play starts. Usually an audible is called when the play you had previously called just isn't going to work. Usually an audible is called because of an unexpected look that the defense presents. It's not that the original play itself was bad, it's just that the defense changed.

Why am I mentioning this? Because my friends, it's time for an audible. Unfortunately, the extra 30 minutes that we expected to get after church at the theater is suddenly only going to last one Sunday. That's because a Star Wars movie is being released in 3D at the theater on February 7th which they are under contract to have to show a certain number of times, meaning they have determined they have to show it early on Sunday mornings (around 11:30). Since they are going to be staffed and opening for an early showing of Star Wars they are also going to return to having other movies shown before noon as well. This decision was just recently made. I have discussed other options with theater management in the hope that we could still work out an arrangement whereby we could stay in the theater for an extra half hour, but it's simply a reality of the movie business that we are at their mercy and right now there are no alternatives. Such is the life of a portable church. We do our best to call the plays, and sometimes we have to call an audible.

What does this mean? A couple things...

1) We will proceed with having the introductory group study to The Story this Sunday, February 5th at the previously scheduled time, from 10:50-11:20. To make this happen for this one week. Bible Quest will run from 9:30-11:20. We're going to make use of our one extra half hour to get into God's Word.

2) Starting the following Sunday, February 12th, we will have The Story group study from 8:30-9:00 in theater #1. Because one of my goals in using The Story at VotL was to bring our whole church together for a journey through God's Word, we hope to recruit parents to volunteer to watch kids from 8:30-9:00 on a rotating basis so that most parents can still attend The Story group study.

3) Bible Quest will continue to start regularly at 9:30. Also, we are still going to be able to expand Bible Quest through 5th grade once again. Thus Bible Quest will be able to serve children 18 months - 5th grade thanks to the number of volunteers that we have who make this possible for us by willingly choosing to serve even though it means they aren't then able to go to church and worship with the rest of us. I cannot say enough about how awesome and flexible our Bible Quest staff has been. Cassy and her team have done a great job of being flexible in dealing with all the unique challenges of our situation as a portable church even though many times plans have had to change. Cassy will be sending out more information to parents regarding Bible Quest later this week.

So we commit this and all our other plans to the Lord. I am thankful for all our blessings. I am still hopeful that you will be able to participate in the The Story group study even though it will mainly take place before church instead of after now.

May God be glorified in all that we do and may he enable us to share Christ's victory with our community.