We have said goodbye to 2007 and are now looking forward to a great 2008! Before we talk about the exciting things in store for this next year I want to be sure to thank you guys at Christian Life for wonderful year of unity, service, and fruitfulness.

I do have something heavy on my heart and I would like to encourage you to stand with us in prayer. The great nation of Kenya is in a battle for the peace of their nation. A conflict has arisen over the recent elections and the nation is somewhat divided. Many demonstrations have become deadly and hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes. We support several missionaries there and are pleased to report that they are all safe. We have sent some relief funds and as a body we are continuing to lift them up.

Here is an email I just recieved from Ibrahim and Diane Omandi,

Dear Friends,

The political impasse continues. Banned rallies deteriorated into running battles in Nairobi city center and several other towns around the nation. Schools that supposedly opened on Monday for a new school year/term were closed again. Double talk and lies are the prevailing mode of communication. We are asking God: FOR HOW LONG? Will Kenya recover?

We hope to be able to visit DOVE churches in Western Kenya next week; please pray that the roads will be clear and peace restored so that this will be possible. Our churches in Kibera continue to be safe and undamaged — praise the Lord. We are now able to begin channeling some relief to the suffering families there.

W are safe and thank God for His faithfulness and for your prayers.

Love,

Ibrahim and Diane

Be sure to keep them in prayer!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Don’t ya just love the holiday season? 

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up… Alan will be with us this weekend! Saturday morning he will be doing some training for our leadership team and then we will have 2 services on Sunday. I want to encourage everyone to come out and take advantage of this opportunity. Alan is indeed one of the most gifted and anointed teachers we have today. His life is rich with ministry experience and his insight into the Word is powerful.

Also, want to let you know we are beginning a new series on Galatians this Wednesday night. This series will continue on each Wednesday through the month of December.

What a blessing it was to have Franz in with us last weekend. I hope you took advantage of the opportunity to hear from this precious Man of God. Our ministry time with him on Sunday night was truly powerful. We are really excited about how God is using our brother in the Balkans.

I met Franz a couple of years ago at a School of the Word with Alan Vincent in San Antonio. Over lunch he shared with me how God led him to invest his life in raising up Apostolic Teams to plant churches in the war torn villages of the Balkans.

This is high level strategic spiritual warfare! Nothing happens without prayer. For instance, they  train “Strike Teams” and send them into cities to take on “Principalities” and “Powers”, breaking the grip of the enemy. Then they train up a “house of peace” and from this house a church is planted. As a result, there are over 70 works on the ground throughout the Balkans!

We are excited about partnering with Franz more in the future. I will keep you posted.

Wow! School started this morning for the Kairdolf children! What happened too our summer? I guess the saying is true, “time passes by when you are having fun”.  

What a summer for church life at Christian Life

Church. I hope you’ve had a chance to get involved with one or more of the powerful events which have occurred over the summer months.

 For those of you who missed it, our summer really began on Memorial Day weekend with our “No Strings Attached Free Car Wash”. We had a great time cooking hamburgers and washing cars. I just love doing this outreach! People simply cannot understand why. I had to laugh, when I saw an older man get besides himself when one of our teens refused to take his offering. When he demanded an explanation, our young student smiled at him and said, “we wont take your money, this is our way of showing the love of Jesus with no strings attached”. On a side note, we were really blessed last Sunday at Pastors Chat when two families told us they started attending CLC because somebody cared enough to wash their cars. Loving God and loving people, reaching up to God and reaching out to people! That’s what matters in this life.  Another summer highlight was the Salvage and Turning Point youth camps in southern Mississippi. Our senior high and junior high students brought us back some powerful testimonies. I want to personally thank all of you who made it possible for these young men and women of God to attend camp. Helping teens have an encounter with God is like planting seed in good ground. It’s bound to bring an eternal harvest. 

Thirdly, our Back to School Backpack Outreach was a resounding success! Eight local churches, 4 business partners, and the YMCA joined together to supply 1000 backpacks stuffed with school supplies to over 10 local schools this year! Plus hundreds of students and their families received prayer at 4 different distribution sites when they came to pick up their backpacks. One elementary principal of whom we surprised with backpacks told us, “we’ve heard about this and we were hoping we would have a chance to be a part of it… thank you so much”. I just love pastoring a church that has such a loving heart for people! 

Another thing on our list of Fun this summer was just last week! The Father and Daughter Picnic! Boy was it hot! But our girls didn’t seem to mind did they men? We had a blast. Hamburgers, hotdogs, ice cream, a scavenger hunt (at the wrong pavilion… we’re not mad at you Troy Hicks! lol!), and thank God they had the pool operating at the Cedars of Lebanon State Park. Dad, your daughters are never too old or too young… give them some quality time. You won’t regret it!  I guess this is where our summer went! Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned our Missions Trips. Two groups went to Kenya, one to Spain, and another to

Russia! Plus we had two of our church members who made a summer trip home to the

Dominican Republic.

Listen, Jesus loves the nations and so do we. I hope you get a chance soon to take an outreach trip to another country. Get your passports everybody!  What a summer its been for Christian lifer’s. Please, don’t sit around bored with nothing to do. Check out the calendar of events on this website. We have some very exciting opportunities planned for this fall. Get up and get involved! Remember everybody’s a minister at Christian Life!

The Easter Celebration is behind us and what a success we had! I am still amazed at the number of people who braved the frigid weather to hunt and find 50,000 scripture filled Easter Eggs. I want to thank everyone who worked so hard to make it happen. We had more than 20 people get saved over the entire Easter weekend!

Our May calendar is chock full with ministry opportunities for CLC members of all ages. I want to encourage you to jump right in and get involved somewhere.

First, Rhonda Chunn and the nursery staff are hosting a huge yard sale fund raiser for their ministry. We love babies at Christian Life and we can use some help here. This is an all day event happening May 5th. Call Rhonda at the church office ( 615 848 5222) and give her a hand.

Second, the Father and Son camping trip is happening May 11-12. This is one of the highlights of our year. The Men’s Ministry has been hosting this event for several years now and if you are a guy you don’t want to miss it. A group of men and their sons will be traveling up to Doctor Wiley’s farm on the mountain in Altamont to camp out and enjoy teaching our young guys how to fish. You can expect lots of fun, food, fishing, swimming, and fellowship around the camp fire! By the way, every year we need some big brothers to step in and serve some of our boys who may not have a dad to camp with them. This is a great way to invest some time helping a single mom raise her young man. You’ll have a hard time finding anything more rewarding. Call Les Rudd (615 969 1464) if you need more info. The cost is only $10 per family.

Also, the Core Leaders Retreat is planned for May 18th &19th at Horton Haven Retreat Center. If you are a CLC Core Leader don’t miss it! In fact, now is time to begin registration. We are making plans now, so give us a call at the church office so we can get your name on the list! Trust me, its going to be a powerful weekend!

Last thing on my list for May is the Memorial Day Weekend Outreach. Mark your calendars for Saturday May 26th. We will serving the Cason Lane Community with a “No Strings Attached Free Red, White, and Blue Car Wash”. That’s a mouth full! Oh well, we’ll have a team of servants washing cars and another team of clc members witnessing too and praying for the guest that show up for a free car wash. There will be free hot dogs, ice cream, and soft drinks for everyone. We need Workers and Witnessers and lots of smiling faces on the church grounds.

Like I said, lots of opportunities in May! Hope to see you there!

Pastor Ron

Most of you know last week was spring break for Rutherford county. Kerri took advantage of the time off and loaded up the covered wagon (honda accord) and headed west (witchita falls, tx.) with Abbey and Grant to spend some time with her family.

Didn’t sound much like a spring BREAK to me so I stayed at home and went out on visitation. For those of you who don’t know much about “visitation”, that’s the name of my bass boat. Smile! Now you know my secret!

I had a great time… got to relax a little bit, caught some nice bass, and enjoyed some alone time.

Yes, I missed Kerri and Kids and was happy to have them back home!

I am really excited about this year’s Easter Celebration. We have been offering this event as a gift to the community for 7 years now. It has grown into the biggest Easter Egg Hunt in all of Middle TN. This year we will be hiding 47,000 easter eggs stuffed with candy and scriptures. And this year, we will be in our new facility!

If you are a visitor to the area or new to Christian Life, come on out Sat. April 7th (10am-2pm) and have some family fun! Everything is Free… food, games, prizes…

If you are a Christian Lifer, we need you to minister! Remember, how do you spell ministry at Christian Life? W O R K! There will be lots of work (ministry) for you to do.

Not long a ago I got a call from an out of work(hmmm?) minister looking for a job… He was wondering what it would take to get hired on. His question made me think about what we are looking for in future staff people. So, if you are interested here’s my 10 Step Process to a staff position at Christian Life:

1. Move to Murfreesboro TN.

2. Begin attending Christian Life.

3. Get fully committed to Jesus. Demonstrate that commitment with passion in worship and faithfulness in prayer.

4. Get plugged into a ministry and serve faithfully.

5. Add so much value to your ministry area that we just have to hire you on.

6. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, tithe faithfully! Prove yourself to be a sacrificial giver and a person of faith regarding your finances.

7. Did I mention Serve Faithfully?

8. Volunteer in the Nursery, show up on every workday, take notes on Wednesday nights, be the first one present and the last one to leave at each prayer meeting, if you see a piece of trash in the parking lot pick it up even if it is not your job, be nice to people, and did I mention, serve faithfully.

Oh by the way, do all this unto the Lord and not so you can impress enough people to get a job.

9. Wait patiently for God to confirm that you are a good fit for the staff needs at Christian Life Church.

10. Serve Faithfully!

There ya go, a simple 10 step process to getting hired on at Christian Life. But you know that even after you complete these simple 10 steps, there is still no garauntee you will get a paid position at CLC. But what you will get is an opportunity to serve on a great team and use you skills and giftings to touch people’s lives. Everyday you have opportunities to advance the Kingdom of God. So, if you want please God and do something rewarding and eternal, start serving God and loving people.