The Breakthrough
Last fall, the Lake Avenue Church Ministry Council, our congregation's leadership group, went on retreat to plan for the church's future months of ministry. Most of us who have been on church retreats know that they are usually not retreats at all. They often are times of intense strategic planning, debate and dialog, and policy making. As Garrison Keillor once said, "Church retreats are not retreats. They're more like advances."
Last fall, the Lake Avenue Church Ministry Council, our congregation's leadership group, went on retreat to plan for the church's future months of ministry. Most of us who have been on church retreats know that they are usually not retreats at all. They often are times of intense strategic planning, debate and dialog, and policy making. As Garrison Keillor once said, "Church retreats are not retreats. They're more like advances."
But something different happened at this retreat. Kathy Hollimon and Roger Bosch called us to stop our frenetic activity and spend time seeking the Lord together—not just for a few moments but for the entire first evening. And on the second evening (and we had only two of them), Jeremy Rose insisted that we take extended time worshiping God. And I believe that we heard some things together.
When we tried to formulate what we had heard, this is what we wrote:
We are sent ones, intergenerationally:
- Worshiping in unity
- Learning in community
- Progressing toward completion in Christ
- Serving God's mission
Since that time last October we have been considering how we should move forward in ways consistent with the vision gained at the retreat. That brings us to the study we will be engaging in each weekend from April through August 2013. If any book in the Bible guides a local church into becoming a community of people who 1) meet to worship in unity and then 2) go out into the world as sent ones in service of God's mission, it is The Acts of the Apostles. I think that a better title might be "The Acts of God through His People."
Listen to what Bible scholar, translator, author, and pastor J.B. Phillips wrote about Acts in the middle of the last century:
No one can read this book without being convinced that there is someone here at work besides mere human beings. Perhaps because in their very simplicity, perhaps because of their readiness to believe, to obey, to give, to suffer, and if need be to die, the Spirit of God found what surely He must always be seeking—a fellowship of men and women so united in love and faith that He can work in them and through them with the minimum of let or hindrance. Consequently, it is a matter of sober historical fact that never before has any small body of ordinary people so moved the world that their enemies could say, with tears of rage in their eyes, that these people "have turned the world upside down"! (Acts 17:6)
I am praying already that the same will be said of us at our church and at all churches who name Jesus as Lord in the San Gabriel valley.
To His Glory,
Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor
The Breakthroug Series Schedule
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The Foundation of A Break Through
Week 1■April 6 - 7
Acts 1
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Greg Waybright, Senior Pastor
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Week 2■April 13- 14
Acts 2
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Jeff Mattesich, Associate Pastor of Children & Students Ministries
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Week 3■April 20-21
Acts 2:1-13
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Greg Waybright, Senior Pastor
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Week 4■April 27-28
Acts 2:14-41
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Greg Waybright, Senior Pastor
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Week 5■May 4-5
Acts 2
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Jeff Mattesich, Associate Pastor of Children & Students Ministries
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Sent from the Church to the Streets
Week 6■May 11-12
Acts 3
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Greg Waybright, Senior Pastor
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In the Name of Jesus
Week 7■May 18-19
Acts 4:1-22
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Greg Waybright, Senior Pastor
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Standing In the Face of Fear
Stand Alone Message ■May 25-26
2 Timothy 1:7
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Dr. Eric Walsh, Guest Speaker
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How To Know God Has Broken Through
Week 8■June 1-2
Acts 4:32-37
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Greg Waybright, Senior Pastor
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God's Vision for Church: Beyond the Kids' Table
Week 9■June 8-9
Luke 2:41-47
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Jeff Mattesich, Associate Pastor of Children & Students Ministries
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Made Possible by our Hero and Savior
Week 10■June 15-16
Acts 5:12-32
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Greg Waybright, Senior Pastor
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A Community of Truth & Grace
Week 11■June 22-23
Acts 4:32-5:11
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Greg Waybright, Senior Pastor
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Beauty in a Hostile World
Week 12■June 29-30
Acts 6:8-7:53
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Greg Waybright, Senior Pastor
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A Church on the Move
Week 13■July 6-7
Acts 8
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: John Secrest, Associate Pastor of Adult Ministries
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Conversion
Week 14■July 13-14
Acts 9:1-31
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Greg Waybright, Senior Pastor
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Guess Who Is Coming to Dinner?
Week 15■July 20-21
Acts 9:32-43
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Greg Waybright, Senior Pastor
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How NOT to Stand In God's Way
Week 16■July 27-28
Acts 10:1-48
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Jeff Liou, Pastor of College & Young Adults
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Who Is In Control?
Week 17■August 3-4
Acts 12:1-25
Sunday Speaker: Greg Waybright, Senior Pastor
- Saturday Speaker: Matt Barnes
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Where Are You Going?
Week 18■August 10-11
Acts 11:19-30
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Greg Waybright, Senior Pastor
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Quo Vadis? the Prequel
Week 19■August 17-18
Acts 13:1-3
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Greg Waybright, Senior Pastor
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The Life long 'Yes'
Stand Alone Message ■August 24-25
Psalm 27
Saturday/Sunday Speaker: Dr. David Gyertson, Guest Speaker
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Reflecting Forward
Stand Alone Message ■August 31-September 1
Acts 15:30-41
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Sunday Speaker: Jeff Mattesich, Associate Pastor of Children & Students Ministries
- Saturday Speaker: Jesse Oakes, Pastor of High School Ministries
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