Summer Calendar 2021

Hey LCC, Here is a calendar of events for the next few months:

• With the exception of the below dates, Living Room Worship Sunday Zoom gatherings take place every Sunday @ 10am (No in person, only Zoom)

• Wednesday, May 26th - Night of Worship @ the Davis’ home (6:30pm) - in person, no Zoom

• Sunday, May 30th - Monthly Celebration Service @ the Davis home (10am) - In person, no Zoom

• Sunday, June 13th - Monthly Celebration Service @ the Davis home (10am) - In person, no Zoom

• Sunday, June 27th - No Zoom gathering or Celebration Service (church is in your home this week)

• Sunday, July 4th - No Zoom gathering or Celebration Service (church is in your home this week)

• Sunday, August 1st - Monthly Celebration Service @ Bass Lake - in person, no Zoom See HERE for details

• Sunday, August 29th - Monthly Celebration Service @ the Davis home (10am) - In person, no Zoom

Lent 2021

Tomorrow is Lent, which means it is the beginning - the first day - of the 40 day journey towards Easter. The first day of Lent is traditionally called “Ash Wednesday”, and depending on what tradition you follow, Lent ends during Holy Week (the week following Palm Sunday). Easter this year is April 4th. Since tomorrow is the first day of Lent, that means that today is “Fat Tuesday” (or mardi gras…the last day before the fast). As with most years, many People in our community take part in Lent in very meaningful ways. I want to invite you to think about how you could participate in joining our church community in celebrating Lent. Some people take part in a fast, while others use these 40 days as a time of reflection. However you feel you would like to participate in celebrating Lent is up to you. There are a lot of amazing ways people from all over the world take part in this six week period leading up to Good Friday, and it would be amazing to celebrate it with you. Consider joining us in this time of focused devotion to God as we worship Jesus together in these days leading up to the celebration of Easter.

21 Days of Prayer & Fasting

Hey LCC, As 2020 comes to an end and 2021 begins, we will be joining with churches from all over the world in 21 days of prayer and fasting. Tomorrow marks the start of a new year, and as such we want to seek the Lord with others for the things God wants to do in our lives, families, communities, work places, churches, cities, and world. Like we talked about last week at Zoom church, from January 1-21, 2021, we are asking our LCC family to join in on this global endeavor to fast and pray.

Along with our Foursquare family, many churches in the Central Valley are asking their people to fast and pray for God to intervene in the current situation of our church and world. You can see details about how churches in Fresno, Clovis, and the surrounding areas are participating in this time in the links below.

Whatever prayer and fasting looks like for you and your family is up to you. We value your partnership in prayer as we seek God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength as a community .

Check out some of these links with resources for us to maximize this time of prayer and fasting as a church community:

• Here is a Prayer Guide complete with Scripture readings and prayer focuses for each day.

• See the Foursquare website on 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting.

• Here is a PDF copy of the chapter on “The Discipline of Fasting” from the book “Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth” by Richard Foster.

• From the Fresno/Clovis Pastor’s Cluster, see this digital schedule of the “21 Days Live Stream schedule for January 11-31, 2021.” Although the dates are a bit different for the 21 days of prayer and fasting that we are doing, these live stream events provide great ways to seek God and connect with others in prayer, worship, and mutual encouragement.

We look forward to the things God wants to do in our hearts and lives as we join with others in this time of prayer and fasting!

Praying, Fasting, and Serving for our Central Valley Community!

Hey LCC, As you all very well know, there are multiple fires raging throughout our state, and a big one right here in our Central Valley. Many people, families, churches, schools, and businesses are coming together to help provide resources to help during this time. What can we as a church do? Here are some ideas:

• Fast and Pray - Many churches in the Central Valley are asking their people to fast and pray for God to intervene in these fires, and we as a church are joining in on this endeavor. Whether it’s daily, week, or monthly, would you consider joining with us and others in fasting and praying for God to move in our city, valley, and state? Starting today, Christen and I will be fasting and praying for the rest of the week till Friday, and would like to invite anyone who wishes to join with us in doing so. Whatever prayer and fasting looks like for you and your family is up to you, we just value your partnership in prayer. We will be fasting as a church from now until Friday September 11, 2020.

• Join with us for a Night of Prayer & Worship - Tomorrow, Wednesday September 9th at 6:30pm, we will be hosting a time of prayer and worship at the Davis home for anyone who wants to join. This time of worship is happening live and in person at the Davis house (in our backyard), so you are welcome to join with us in person if you would like, but will also be live streaming via Zoom if you would like to participate that way (contact Ryan Davis for address details and/or Zoom credentials).

• Provide Resources for People with Needs - There are many needs that are arising during these fires, and donations/resources are needed. Entire families, along with their pets and livestock, are being evacuated, and people are coming together to provide for these needs. Kayla West posted a Family Resource Guide, and I thought I would pass it on (See below). As you will notice from the guide, your house, cars, and donations (financial and otherwise) can be helpful during this time. Jed Noonkester, who works at Clovis North High School, mentioned that donations can be dropped off at Clovis North. As you will notice from the Family Resource Guide below, Clovis North is one of the Current Resource Centers. As of now they need cheap blankets and animal crates donated for the pets that have been dropped off in the small gym. According to Jed, they are not very picky right now, so anything can help. Jed also said that he is available to give direction to anyone that needs help navigating the campus (Jed’s contact number is: 559-760-7001).

Creation to Christ (2020-21)

Hey LCC, We are now set to start our 9th year of Creation to Christ, or what we call C2C. Our first year of doing C2C was in the fall of 2012, and here we are beginning yet another year in the fall of 2020. Man, how time flies (if you are feeling nostalgic, you can see our first C2C schedule HERE. We are beginning our third and final year of our Luke/Acts with Epistles series, and wanted to make it available to anyone that wants it. This is a good time to get plugged in to a Home Church too (if you want more info about how to either get started or back in to a Home Church, contact Ryan Davis for details and info.

We are excited to dig in to another year of studying God’s Word together as a community.

Here are the links to both this years 2020-21 C2C schedule as well as the full three year schedule we have been following.

• 2020-21 C2C Schedule

• Full 3 Year C2C Schedule (2018-2021)

So that all may see and hear,

Ryan and Christen

Night of Worship!

Night of Worship tonight, Wednesday May 27th at 6pm.

Hey LCC, As we mentioned last Sunday at Zoom church, tonight at 6pm we are having a Night of Worship. As a way to prepare our hearts for Pentecost this Sunday, we'd love for you to join us in worship. If there ever was a time to come together as a community to encounter God and hear his voice, now is the time. There are lots of questions many churches, including ours, are having about such things as how and when to "reopen" during this quarantine season we all find ourselves in these days. When it comes down to it, Jesus is King. Come worship Jesus with us.

The Zoom link will be posted to our Facebook page about an hour before worship. The link will also be texted/emailed. If you do not receive texts or emails from us, and would like to receive them, contact Ryan Davis, and he can get you all set up.

We will be singing songs found both in the LCC Songbook as well as a couple newer songs not found in the songbook. You can find the lyrics to the newer songs here.

See you tonight at 6pm!!!

Supplies for Community and Communion

Hey LCC, as per our Living Room Worship time together yesterday morning, tomorrow - Tuesday May 5th from 6-7pm, we will be available to personally hand out communion cups and song books to anybody that needs them. If you want to take us up on this offer, send Ryan Davis either a text message or a personal message via Facebook, and we can get you details as to where we will be.

If you, or someone you know needs to stock up on communion elements (our little pre-packaged communion cups we have been using) or needs a song book, come on out and grab what you need...we have plenty. We will make sure that we follow all the social distancing rules, so feel free to come out and BYOM (bring your own mask)...you don't even have to get out of your car if you don't want. Also, Tim and Kris Lockwood will be there to hand out any supplies to people interested in helping support our local nursing homes through care cards and stuff. If you have any cards or things you have already made, and want to drop them off, you can do that too. Again, contact Ryan for more details...You are all amazing!

A Reminder of Hope

Hey LCC, As we continue to pray and seek guidance during this global issue surrounding the Coronavirus (COVID-19) that is literally impacting the entire world, I wanted to remind all of us of the faithfulness of God and the need for godly and Spirit-led responses from the people of God as we navigate these next few days, weeks, and months as a community.

Responses from people on Facebook, the news, workplaces, schools, and the like provide us with a wide spectrum that ranges from fear and panic on one side to irresponsible and dismissive on the other. Wherever you are at in your response to this season we all find ourselves now in, let us remember to trust God, pray, and offer hope to people who desperately need it. Feel free to use our Facebook page or this News forum as platforms to post prayer requests, messages of hope from God's Word, encouraging words from others, as well as resources for us to utilize so that we can stay connected and realize that we are never alone (Psalm 23, Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:42-47; 2 Timothy 1:6-10).

Remember, we can absolutely have faith in God and still use wisdom. As we have heard many Christian leaders say over the last few days, these two things do not have to be exclusive. After all, some of the names of God found in the Scriptures are the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, council and might, and knowledge and the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2). It might help to remember also that a day is coming, no matter how bad it may seem now, where God will wipe away every tear, and sin, sickness, death, and suffering will be no more (Isaiah 11 and Revelation 21:1-8). PRAISE GOD! Whatever this wisdom looks like in your world, home, home church, meetings, and the like, we trust you and want everyone to know that we support your ability to hear God's voice and make the best decision(s) for you and your loved ones. We love you all and are praying for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to be with us all. God is good!