Small group sign-ups will begin Sunday! You can sign up for a small group at the Welcome Table on Sunday or through our web site. We were handing out a list of the small groups last week, as well as the childcare guidelines. If you missed those, you can find the info on small groups here.

CONGREGATIONAL LETTER AND ANNUAL MEETING

Members, you should have received the congregational letter via e-mail this week. We will have additional copies available at church on Sunday. This has important information about our budget, a proposed change to our bi-laws and new members.

The annual meeting is 6-7:30 p.m. Sept. 19 at Alpha Baptist Church. This will be the time to vote on the budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, new members and a minor change to our by-laws.

Please also save the date for the budget meeting Sept. 12. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the new budget and answer any questions. Members are encouraged to attend, but the meeting is open to anyone who attends The Sanctuary. The budget meeting is at 3:30 p.m. at the church office.

RAISING OUR CHILDREN TO KNOW CHRIST

Is attending church on Sunday mornings enough? How can we be sure our children will know and love the Lord we serve? Eternal purposes deserve a close look. So, for new moms to veteran moms, come participate in a dialogue on the how and whys of raising our children to know our Savior. Bring a Bible, questions on child-raising, answers God has given you, and a prayerful AND open heart. We will have a light fare of munchies and hopefully a hearty helping of helpful spiritual nudges.
When: Sept. 25th 9-11:30 a.m.
Where: Sault home
Sign up at the Welcome Table on Sunday.

FAMILY SUNDAY SCHEDULE

This week is the last Family Sunday before the new ministry year begins Sept. 12. Kids in nursery through pre-school will still meet in their usual classrooms. Thank you so much to all of the small groups who have helped in KidsTown this summer!! We appreciate you!

TORN

Pastor Ronn will conclude the “Torn” series this week! If you missed the first seven sermons, you can download them from our web site or watch on YouTube. We will begin a new series on Sept., 12: “Out of Control”.

This was another great week in worship. If you missed the service, you can use the playlist to continue living a life of worship this week!

Salvation is Here

Song of Hope (Heaven Come Down)

You Hold Me Now

Beautiful Exchange

Jesus Paid it All

O Praise Him

We were planning to begin small group sign-ups this Sunday. However, we decided that we want to give you one more week so we can equip you with information to help decide which group is best for you. To do that, we will be handing out information on Sunday morning with details about each group — when the groups meet, and their location.  We would ask you to pick up those sheets on Sunday or find them on our web site and then pray over them next week before we begin sign-ups on Sunday, Sept. 5.

We know that in the past, one of the issues that has helped families determine the best small group to meet their needs was the issue of childcare.

This fall, we are asking you to think about childcare in a new way. You can assume that each group will make arrangements for childcare; however, those arrangements will look different than they did in the past.

The reason we are making this change is that our heart’s desire is to see every adult in our church body plugged into a small group and building significant relationships. Our desire is for each person to be able to fully participate and engage in the group so that they can build a home of faith. We want fathers to lead their homes spiritually, we want moms to be refreshed when they walk into a small group and when it is possible we want them to do this together. Small groups are a safe place where people can grow together in friendship, accountability and their walk with God. We have found that, as hard as we try, it is more difficult to do that when a significant number of people are bringing their children to the group.

We all love our children. In fact, we know that our children love small group as much as the adults in many cases! That is true for our children and our group. But we also have experienced that having a house full of children can be disruptive to fostering those relationships. As much as we love our kids and we love for them to have fun, they are kids and they have needs. Those needs often happen right in the middle of a deep discussion or an emotional moment.

So, we are asking our groups to think creatively on how to provide childcare this fall. Here are some ideas:

1. Group members can still bring their children to the host home where they will be watched by a babysitter, as they have in the past. However, the adults will go somewhere else to meet. Think about a meeting room at a firehouse, Panera, Caribou or the church office as a few options. Be creative!

2. The church will provide a list of babysitters and each family can be responsible for setting up their own childcare. Several families might even want to rotate their homes and share a babysitter. Others might want their children to go to bed, and they will choose to hire their own babysitter.

3. Go in together with another family that has small group on a different night and swap children. You watch their kids, and they watch yours! It’s a win-win. And it’s free!

4. If none of these ideas work, obviously, we don’t want to break up a group because of it! If your group decides to continue having children at your group, then we would ask that the group establish guidelines for how that will work. For example, the children will be respectful to the host home by helping with clean-up. And the babysitter will do his or her best to keep the children in a basement or separate room throughout the meeting time.

Of course, we would not expect infants to be left at a location away from their parents.  Please feel free to bring your babies to the group.

We realize this is a new way of thinking. And we know it can be more work than in the past. But we are asking each group to try it!

So, here are your next steps:

1. Pick-up an info sheet on Sunday to learn more about the small groups that are available.
2. Begin praying about which group might be best for you.
3. Give a group leader a call, if you have more questions.
4. Sign-up for small groups either at the Welcome Table or online beginning Sept. 5.
5. Your group leaders will work with the group to come up with the best childcare situation based on the membership of the group.

We would love to tell you in advance exactly how that will look for each group. However, we also realize that some of those decisions will depend on who signs up for each group.

We want to thank you in advance for your open hearts and willingness to try something new. We truly believe that in the long-run, it will help create stronger small groups and help each person in our church body grow in his or her relationship with Christ.

Serving together with you!

Pastor Ronn

Have you ever pretended to be something that you weren’t? Have you ever lied about your age? Exaggerated your job skills? Stretched the truth on a date?

As Pastor Ronn pointed out in this week’s message, “Deceitful or Authentic”, trying to be something you’re not will always catch up with you eventually.

It caught up with Jeroboam, the subject of the sermon this week from I Kings 14:1-20. Jeroboam’s son, Abijah, was sick and he wanted to hear some positive news from the prophet Ahijah. So, he sent his wife, dressed in a disguise, to visit the elderly prophet.

When Jeroboam’s wife arrived, she got a shock. The prophet was blind and couldn’t even see her disguise. Yet he called out to her: “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why this pretense? I have been sent to you with bad news.”

The prophet said the Lord has told him that because he had worshiped other gods and done evil, that the Lord would bring disaster on his house.

The story was a great reminder about the two choices we need to make. We need to choose authenticity over deception. And we need to choose God’s way over our own way.

Jeroboam wanted his own way, but he was unwilling to do what God had asked him to do. How many times in life do we want our own way without the pay?

Did God speak to you this week about an area of your life where you are trying to gain the reward without doing what you need to do? Are you wishing you had a strong family unit without spending time together? Or a strong marriage without dating your spouse? Maybe you want to hear from the Lord, but you aren’t spending time in His Word?

We would love to hear how God is calling you to be more real in your life.

Isn’t it incredible that we are able to gather together on Sunday mornings and worship the One and Only, the Maker of Heaven and Earth? It is our heart’s desire that our time of corporate worship is only an extension of the life of worship we are living seven days a week.

“People from every nation and tongue. From generation to generation. We worship you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We worship you for who you are. And you are good!”

The links below will take you to YouTube videos of the songs we sang during the worship service on Sunday morning. A few of this week’s links are to video of our own worship band. We hope you will use the links as you continue to live a life of worship this week!

Sing
Let the Praises Ring
Glorified
Hosanna
Only You
Revelation Song
You Are Good

If you missed the service this morning, we invite you to view this video of the announcement:

Stephani Suwanski will be stepping down from the position of Creative Arts Director, but The Sanctuary will continue to be blessed by her administrative and musical talent. Stephani will be moving into the role of Office Manager/Worship Producer beginning Sept. 1.

Stephani, Worship Director at The Sanctuary since 2004, and her husband Ian, who also serves on the creative team, have been praying during the last year about managing their time and balancing their life, and specifically about their role as part of the worship ministry. Stephani said this morning that she and Ian believe God is calling her to take a step back from her position as Creative Arts Director.

Jeremiah Higgins, who has been helping lead worship this summer, will be coming on staff beginning Sept. 1 as the Worship Arts Director. Jeremiah has been helping the team lead worship on an interim basis since Tyson Aschliman and his family moved to the east coast.

The Sanctuary has been blessed by Jeremiah’s musical talent and his love for the Lord as we have gotten to know him this summer.

We are excited that God has fit the pieces together at this time by bringing Jeremiah on board to join the ministry staff at our church. And we are thankful that Stephani will continue to help plan the worship services, as well as serve the church as the office manager. Please join us in welcoming both of them to these new positions.

Kids compete in the sack race at Family Fun Fest.

Thank you to everyone at The Sanctuary for all your hard work in making Sunday a wonderful day for so many people.  I am blessed and amazed to work alongside such talented, generous people. The weather was just incredible. God granted us a gorgeous day. And every time I turned around, people seemed to be having a great time.

I wanted to share with you a few things I observed, as well as hear YOUR stories and experiences. I encourage you to share some of those on the blog this week. Just leave your story in the comments section below or send me a personal e-mail.

Fun in the game tent.

Thank you so much to everyone who worked so hard in the game tent. You did an AMAZING job with what turned out to be the heart of the fun fest. I loved that children were given a place to interact. Thanks to the Crossfire crew for manning all the team games.

While Pastor Ronn was preaching, one person from the clinic noticed that a patient of hers was talking with her family and then actually stepped away from her conversation and walked over to hear better what Ronn was saying. This woman happened to be someone who Ronn prayed for in the hospital at Christmas time. These are the types of life-changing relational connections we were hoping for!

Bingo!

I walked by the Spanish Bingo table and saw children from The Sanctuary sitting alongside children from the health clinic, trying to figure out the pictures in Spanish. Talk about equipping our children to leave safety for adventure!

And we managed to match up everyone’s name with their back-to-school supplies. Thank you to our volunteers who tirelessly set up a great system and blessed SO many kids. Many thanks as well to each and everyone who filled those packs and for the generous donations of so many.

We were able to provide school supplies for 180 children.

So thank you all. I could spend another few pages delineating how each person made this event special. But just know that this ministry is alive and well because of you. May you be filled as you pour out, may you be blessed as you bless others and may the love and peace of God sustain you this week.

Please tell us how you were blessed by Family Fun Fest. Was it harder or easier than you thought to leave safety for adventure? How did God meet you when you were lost in translation? What did you learn when you took the leap? We would love to hear your stories!

Peace!
Cheryl Lynn

(Please visit our Facebook page for more photos:  http://facebook.com/cometothesanctuary)

Hear more about the trip by clicking here.

View a photo slideshow of the trip:

Also this week:

FAMILY FUN FEST

We are getting so excited about the Family Fun Fest happening on Sunday. The Justice and Compassion team, as well as volunteers at the Bolingbrook Christian Health Center, have done an amazing job putting it together.

We wanted to thank YOU for the generous outpouring of support for both the fun fest and the back-to-school supply drive. We were able to raise almost $2,000 through our benevolence offering to buy supplies for each and every child — more than 180 children. This is AMAZING! And if you could see the bags, they are packed with supplies. It’s a wonderful thing.

Please be in prayer the next few days about how the Holy Spirit might work through you to spread the love of Jesus to someone at Family Fun Fest. Whether you are helping with set-up, serving cotton candy, baking cookies or distributing backpacks, also be asking Him to break down any barriers that might keep you from reaching out to create genuine relationships. How can you step outside your comfort zone and strike up a conversation with someone new?

We would love to share your stories from Family Fun Fest on our blog next week. Was it harder or easier than you thought to leave safety for adventure? How did God meet you when you were lost in translation? What did you learn when you took the leap? Please be in prayer that we would spread the love of Jesus to everyone we encounter on Sunday.

WOMEN’S LINK

Ladies, please mark your calendars for Friday, Aug. 27! We will be having a Women’s Link coffee house at Fat Bean Bistro and Coffee Bar, 4001 S. Naperville/Plainfield Road. We will have live music and a fun evening to hang out and socialize. The coffee shop will only be open to us for the evening! Cost is $6, which includes coffee with flavorings and your choice of dessert. Sign up here or at church on Sunday so we can give the coffee shop a headcount. Bring a friend!

SMALL GROUPS

Small groups will start again the week of Sept. 26. You will have a chance to sign up for small groups both at church and online beginning Aug. 29. Get more info.

SANCTUARY SOFTBALL

The Sanctuary softball team will be playing in the church league tournament Aug. 21. We would love to have as many people as possible come out and support our team, which is ranked fourth in the league! The league will provide a continental breakfast and grill out for lunch for players and fans. We will have more info about the time our team will play in the next week.

ANNUAL MEETING

Please mark your calendar for Sept. 19 for our annual meeting. This will be the time to vote on the budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, new members and a minor change to our by-laws. The annual meeting is 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Alpha Baptist Church.

Please also save the date for the budget meeting Sept. 12. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the new budget and answer any questions. Members are encouraged to attend, but the meeting is open to anyone who attends The Sanctuary. The budget meeting is at 3:30 p.m. at the church office.

FAMILY SUNDAY SCHEDULE

The next four weeks will be family Sundays to give the KidsTown crew a chance to get ready for the kick-off of the new ministry year, beginning Sept. 12. Kids in nursery through pre-school will still meet in their usual classrooms.

TORN

Pastor Ronn will be continuing the series, “Torn” this week with another message from I Kings: Distracted or Alert. If you missed the first four sermons, you can download them from our web site or watch on YouTube.

Here are a few things to be praying about these last few weeks of summer:

SMALL GROUPS

Small group sign-ups will begin Aug. 29 and continue through Sept. 26. You will be able to sign-up for a small group either at the Welcome Table on Sunday mornings or through the web site.

Our small groups this year will continue to be sermon-based. In other words, we will be diving into the same topics that are covered during the Sunday morning messages at our small groups.

This is a great opportunity for our church body to grow together as we all study the same topic. The midweek study will not be a repeat of Sunday mornings, but it will complement the Sunday sermon.

We will have three opportunities to join a small group during the ministry year, which runs from September to May. However, once a small group session begins (about every three months), new members will need to wait until the next session to join a group.

Why? We believe one of the benefits of a small group is to be accountable to each other, to grow together and to get to a comfort level where we can be vulnerable with one another. This is harder to do if new people are coming in and out of our groups each week.

So how will you select a group? We will have sign-up sheets with short bios of our small group leaders. You might choose a group based on the night it meets, location or a shared interest with the leaders.

We know you will have lots of questions about this new process. We will be available at the Welcome Table beginning Aug. 29 to walk you through it. We also will be providing more information through e-mail, our blog and on Sunday mornings.

MINISTRY

The new ministry year also is a great time to find a way to use your gifts and talents to serve our church body. If you have a specific areas of interest, fill out the contact form at the bottom of this blog post. You also can read about our ministry areas here.

The area where we are in the greatest need right now is our KidsTown ministry. Whether you would like to teach, serve as a helper or rock babies in the nursery, we have a spot for you! Use the contact form below to let us know of your interest.

NEW BUDGET

Finally, we will be voting to approve our new budget at our annual meeting Sept. 19. Please be in prayer as we finalize that budget.

If you would like to understand all of the details of our budget, please make plans to attend our budget meeting Sept. 12 . Our leaders will review the budget in detail and answer questions at that meeting. Members are encouraged to attend, but the meeting is open to anyone who attends The Sanctuary. The budget meeting is at 3:30 p.m. at the church office.

If you have a specific question or would like to find out more about how you can serve at The Sanctuary, please fill out the contact form, which will go directly to our staff. You also can leave a public comment below.

Get to know other women from The Sanctuary and enjoy live music, coffee and dessert from 7 to 9 p.m. This event will be a hang-out time without a set agenda.

Bring your friends and join us! Cost is $6, which includes coffee, flavorings and a selection of desserts.

Please sign-up below, at church or by contacting Emily Neal so we can give the coffee shop a headcount. Hope to see you there!