With Thanks

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Pausing from the daily grind to give God thanks for His abundant provision is both refreshing and humbling. And this year we have so much to be thankful for as individuals, as a church and as a campus.

Not Without You Commitments

Last weekend the entire Eagle Brook church family made personal sacrificial commitments so that thousands of people in the Twin Cities and around the world will have an opportunity to become followers of Christ.

Like many, I’m eager to hear the total amount of our commitments when the final figure is announced during the weekend services of December 12/13.

As I reflect on the services last weekend, the impact of watching God’s church in action is etched in my mind and on my heart. I’m grateful for a church that cares so deeply for others.

Operation Christmas Child

The spirit of generosity was also visibly evident in the lobby of each Eagle Brook campus this past weekend.

Operation Christmas Child

As I walked through the Spring Lake Park doors early Sunday morning, I was drawn to the Operation Christmas Child drop-off table where hundreds of shoeboxes filled with gifts for children around the world were piled high.

When the final service had ended on Sunday morning, the expanded wall of shoeboxes completely filled a huge trailer. Again, I’m grateful to be part of a church that cares so deeply for others.

Improvements at the Corner House

This coming weekend we’ll launch the Overcome message series. We’ve designed this series to give hope to those who, for one reason or another, are out of touch with God.

Many SLP attenders are on board, inviting friends, family and neighbors. Others are making their seat available for a guest in the main worship center by choosing to worship at the Corner House at 9:05 or 11:05 on Sunday morning.

And it gets better—those who consistently attend the Corner House have viewed changes almost every week. One of the next big changes at the Corner House will be the addition of softer chairs in the worship center and comfortable seating in the lobby.

I’m grateful for the volunteers and staff who invest their time and gifts each Sunday to make the Corner House a great, albeit temporary, worship environment.

An Amazing Church

Eagle Brook is an amazing church and Spring Lake Park is an equally amazing campus. As Jolene and I reflect on the past two years, we’re grateful God brought us here from Arizona on Thanksgiving Eve, 2007. I’m so pleased to serve as the SLP campus pastor and I’m thankful for each person that is part of our church family.

Just a reminder, there are no Tahnksgiving Eve services this year. Happy Thanksgiving!

A Bright Tomorrow

God continues to work in amazing ways at Eagle Brook’s Spring Lake Park campus. And the future looks bright.

Commitment Weekend

In all of the services this coming weekend, we’ll be making our individual commitments to the Not Without You (NWY) campaign. It’ll be one of those experiences you don’t want to miss—we’ll literally see God’s church in action.

What is the NWY campaign? It’s a three-year financial commitment individuals are making in addition to what they give to the EBC General Fund. And people are eager to participate because it will help us open two new Eagle Brook campuses, one in Blaine and the other in Woodbury. It will also provide support for other key EBC initiatives. You can get more information at the NWY website.

Overcome Series

The first invite message series of the fall season begins next weekend. We’ll be discovering how, with God’s help, we can overcome those things in life that keep holding us back. Feel free to bring your friends, family and neighbors. You can find more information and access web-based invite tools on the EBC website.

The Value of Your Chair

We want to make sure everyone has a place to sit at the Spring Lake Park campus throughout the Overcome message series. And it’ll take all of us working together. Many of our Sunday attenders are making their seat available for a guest in the main worship center by choosing to worship at the Corner House at 9:05 or 11:05 on Sunday morning. The value of providing your chair for someone who’s exploring the Christian faith? Priceless.

Parking

Where is the best parking at SLP? It’s about a block south of our campus on Sunset Road at Rise Inc. Why is it the best place to park? You can park at Rise and catch one of the free shuttle busses that will drop you off at the front door on the SLP campus. After the service, you can ride the shuttle bus back to your car and forego all the parking lot congestion. Best of all, your kids will love riding the shuttle busses.

Random Thoughts

Last weekend was a winner—2,199 people attended at Spring Lake Park…and that’s with Halloween on Saturday night! Ninety-seven regular attenders enjoyed worship at the Corner this past weekend as well–thanks for using this one-of-a-kind Eagle Brook venue.

Feed My Starving Children

When winter winds pile snowflakes atop mounds of old frozen snow…and the sun refuses to press its way through thick gray clouds…and you begin to think I can’t take another day of this madness…you can put a smile on your face and warm your heart by participating in an event that will provide 2 million meals for those who are among the poorest of the world’s poor. Click here to get more information on an upcoming winter serving event that’ll be a burst of delight for all of us.

Just for Fun

How has the Eagle Brook worship experience evolved over the years? Click here for an enjoyable journey through EBC’s worship style transformation and go to “10 Year EBC Retrospect”.

Not Without Out You

The View From Here events have been an amazing success. If you weren’t able to attend one of the presentations, I’d encourage you to find someone who did and ask them about their experience. Click here to get updates on Not Without You.

It’s Growing Season

Six weeks from now marks our second anniversary as Eagle Brook Church, Spring Lake Park. And we’ve learned a lot along the way. For instance, we’ve identified three growing seasons of the year, one of which began last weekend.

Last weekend 2,216 people attended services at the SLP campus. And we all worked together to make sure our guests had a seat in the primary worship center. Some regular attenders chose to attend on Saturday rather than Sunday. Others chose to worship at the Corner House Sunday morning. Thanks for suiting up and participating on the SLP team.

Not Without You

The Not Without You campaign is up and running. Here’s some information to help you get the most out of this series.

· You can stay up to date with the campaign by clicking here.

· If you miss a weekend service, you can click here to watch the message online or click here to watch On the Fly online.

· Be sure to bring your Journey Guide to church and use the weekend notes section to record message notes. If you forget your Journey Guide (as I did last weekend), we’ve provided blank message notes paper near the worship center entrances for your convenience.

Blaine Campus

As you know, opening the Blaine campus will give us an additional 800 worship center seats in our geographic area (800 seats multiplied by four weekend services makes room for 3,200 potential attendees). Until the Blaine campus opens, we must do our best to reach people for Christ with the resources God has given us. These resources include our primary worship center (564 seats) and the Corner House (150 seats).

I’m grateful for each of you who are choosing to worship at the Corner House at 9:05 and 11:05 on Sunday mornings. You’re making seats available for our guests, many of whom are experiencing church for the first time.

We’ve designed the services at the Corner House for regular attenders only. If you’re a regular Sunday morning attender and physically able to climb a flight of stairs, please consider choosing the Corner House at 9:05 or 11:05 this weekend. You’ll experience the entire service simulcast live from Lino Lakes, get to hang out with Pastor Greg Grimstad and enjoy a sense of community in Eagle Brook’s smallest venue.

And as always, if you’re bringing a guest, please choose to attend with them in the primary worship center.

God is at work in amazing ways at SLP—all glory and praise belong to Him.

New Art at SLP

It’s our pleasure to display the art of fellow Eagle Brooker, Scott Sample. Each picture is part of a series and two pieces from the Hand Series adorn a wall in our Café 5000. As you can see from Scott’s description below, the works are dense with detailed meaning springing from a heart of authentic worship.

The Hand Series by Scott Sample

The Hand Series

The Hand Series was created to be a visual metaphor and reflection on the active nature of God’s grace and timeless love— and it is through His hand that all things are created and with His hand is formed all of life.

It has struck me many times to think of the amazing grace, compassion, strength, power, and love that God enacts both past and present with His creation—this continues with God’s hand over us; guiding, protecting, and empowering us.

In these works, the rendering of each hand in it’s different forms is meant to reflect on the various ways that God interacts with us, and how we come to God with an outstretched hand—that in this relation it is active, never ceasing. This is the reason for the looser kinetic drawing style—it is in the energy of the strokes and marks that we get a sense of His unceasing and powerful love—it is always there and always moving.

The drawing style also conveys a sense of simplicity and honesty to the medium—actually being hand done and not meant on any level to look mechanical or like a photo impression leaving room for personal connotations.

Outward from the center drawing and in the backdrop is the actual Latin translation for Psalm 19:1-2—it is not meant to be read literally but as a centering paradigm to the hand of God coming from and over the “Word.” The font chosen for the background is also a timeless serif, based on Trajan Roman, which was the defining font used within Rome at the time of Christ.

Another aspect to the works is to convey an element of timelessness within the materials—the plaster and fresco style with layers of glazing is drawn from the artists of the high Renaissance. The hands are drawn in an active loose sketch style to reflect an active and kinetic grace, defined through God’s hand. The style of the works is created with layer upon layer to transcend any specific time, and let the viewer pull visual contextual cues from history, culture, and architecture.

The hope with this series is to pull the viewer in and let them sense and feel the timeless grace that is forever God.

Scott Sample 2009