Harrodsburg Road Blog & Events

We love middle schoolers here at Southland. Middle schoolers have a perfect combination of curiosity like a child, but the critical brain of an adult. This past school year has yielded so much fruit in the lives of our students that we have been praying and processing for months about what's next for LIFT (Middle School Ministry) at all of our campuses.

Check out this video to hear a little bit of our heart for middle school ministry, as well as some important changes we are making in our approach, starting this fall.

If you have any questions at all regarding the content of the video, or simply the vision of LIFT, please don't hesitate to e-mail me or call me. I'd love to discuss this further with you. I'd also love to talk to you if our vision is resonating in your heart and you believe God may be calling you to be a leader in our ministry!

Either way, we are excited to follow our God into this next season of ministry at Southland.

Remember that baby bottle you picked up last weekend? When you fill it with coins, bills, or checks, all of the donations from our Harrodsburg Road and Richmond Road campuses go to Assurance Care Center - a local crisis pregnancy center in Lexington that saved over 150 lives just last year alone. Assurance offers a range of services that most people don’t know about.

Those services include:

• Medical grade pregnancy tests
• Onsite limited obstetric ultrasounds to check for viable pregnancy and gestational age
• Confidential counseling
• Factual information on abortion procedures and risks
• Education on fetal development, pregnancy, childbirth, parenting, adoption and abstinence for singles
• Post-abortion counseling
• Abstinence education on-site and for school and church groups

Check out this video to see some of the great stories that have come out of this ministry:

I am blessed to have four-year-old twins: a boy and a girl. They couldn’t be any different from each other. My daughter Sophie is mild-mannered, easy-going girl, and does what her mommy and daddy ask her to. My son Riley... not so much. The other day he did something particularly disobedient and I had to give him a spanking. He usually spends a few minutes trying to convince me that he doesn’t need a spanking because he will listen and obey this time – if I don’t give him one. And I tell him that he should have decided to do that before he got in trouble. Then he always says, “But daddy, I don’t want a spanking!” No one does. But even though he doesn’t fully comprehend this, I do it because I want the best for him.

“Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:9-11

I think back through my life at the times that my Father has had to discipline me. Surely he didn’t enjoy it, in the same way that I don’t enjoy disciplining my son. But I know that God disciplines me because he loves me, and He must really love me a lot! Because as my wife would quickly point out, Riley is just like his daddy. So unfortunately, I need to be disciplined often. But as I recall all of the times that the discipline has been tough to deal with – the times I’ve been told no, or not yet, or suffered a setback – all of those difficult times have made me better. I probably spent time pleading with God, making promises of future obedience if this would just go away. I’m sure I probably even told Him that I didn’t want it this way. And He probably whispered back, “No one does.” And even though I don’t always fully comprehend it, God disciplines me because He wants the best for me.

My prayer is that it produces in me a righteousness and peace that can only come from the training of discipline.

Each year at Southland, we have the opportunity to support the ministries of Assurance Care Center in Lexington and The Pregnancy Resource Center of Central Kentucky. With your help, these ministries can offer free confidential medical and counseling services to men and women in the midst of crisis pregnancies and also healing through a post-abortive ministry.

Your part is simple. This weekend, May 11/12, grab a baby bottle after service, fill it with change, cash or checks, and bring it back on Father’s Day weekend (June 15/16). 

Your change will go a long way to help these ministries offer healing and hope to post-abortive women and men.

Despite the stormy weather, we'll be having our annual Spring Family Picnic at Harrodsburg Road and Danville tonight, but indoors!

At Harrodburg Road we'll gather in Building F. In Danville, we'll be gathering in the Connection area. Same time, food and games – just a whole lot less mud.

See you tonight!

Do you live in constant bewilderment of your student's mood changes and growth spurts? Are you beginning to notice a new smell coming from your son's bathroom - a strange mix of B.O. and Axe body spray? Are your daughters spending more time at the mall "shopping" than they do at home?

If this describes you, then you might be a middle school parent! And we love you!

Our LIFT Middle School Ministry exists at Southland to partner with parents and assist you in the discipleship of your kids. We know you have a tall task at home, and we want to do whatever we can to be your cheerleader from the church.

In order to maximize our communication and to inform you of some very important details regarding the future of LIFT, we'd like to invite you to a parent meeting on Sunday, May 19th after each LIFT service at all campuses. It should be a short meeting, but there will be a lot of content.

Here are the details for each campus:

Harrodsburg Road
Building C, right after the 9:30am and 11:15am service

Richmond Road
Student Ministry Room, right after the 11:15am service

Danville
Mallards, right after the 11:15am service

Let me know if you have any questions. Hope to see you there!

LIFT Middle School is headed to Louisville, July 14-19, for a Summer mission trip!

From July 14-19, 6-8th grade students are invited to come and serve Louisville. While we are there, we will be working with the elderly, playing with kids, hanging out with the homeless, and getting to know Louisville's community. But don't worry, this trip won't be all work! There will be plenty of time to hang out, build relationships with other students and leaders, and do some fun things in and around the Louisville area.

Cost for the trip will be $285, which includes transportation, meals, and housing for the week. Grab an application at any LIFT event or through the Student Ministries office. Applications are due by Sunday, May 12.

Last Friday night our High School ministry had its annual Mud Bowl event. This year we had a slip-n-slide into the pond, a bonfire, and as you would expect, MUD! Basically the premise is for everyone to get as muddy as you can, throw mud at each other, pour mud on each others heads, especially in their ears and just pray it doesn't get in your eyes.

Read Full Entry

Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of busy family life it’s hard to find time to just stop and enjoy each other. That’s why I love our annual Spring Family Picnic. It’s just a cool, casual night to hang out at Southland and connect with other families.

Bring a blanket and lawn chairs and come crash with us by the pond at the back of property for a laid-back night of family fun. We’ll have several inflatable bounce houses for different ages, face painting, cotton candy, popcorn and drinks. Feel free to pack a picnic meal or we’ll have pizza available to purchase by the slice.

So slow down and enjoy the spring and invite some friends to come join us on May 10, at 6pm, at the Pond for Spring Family Picnic!

Waiting. Waiting for anything seems to become more and more difficult these days as our culture bulges with quick fixes and instant gratification at every turn. While we may not be good at waiting, we all would defend that there are things worth waiting for, and that many times the things or people we’ve had to wait on, are the things or people we value the most.

Scripture encourages waiting and even offers insight into how to wait and some of the benefits of waiting. We wait on the Lord, but sometimes, I believe He waits on us. Certain requests God makes of His people do not require waiting, they simply require doing.

We’ve been introducing a new song lately called “Here and Now.” This song calls us to action and says, “I want these things to be true for us right now. These are things we don’t have to wait for, these are things we can be and do in the here and now.” For me, this song creates a modern day creed for the church or manifesto...

Read Full Entry

Student ministries is sponsoring a day of service for Middle School students to put the love of Jesus into action by serving all over Lexington. Go! A Day of Service will be held this Saturday, April 27, from 12-7pm. Head over here to get your student signed up to be a part of unleashing a revolution of love on our city this weekend!

Already registered for GO? Great! Here is what you need to know:

We'll meet in Building C on Saturday at 12pm. From there, we'll head out to our work sites. Once we're done, we'll meet back at the church to clean up, eat dinner (we'll provide it!) and then close out our afternoon with worship and sharing.

Parents will need to pick up their students at Building C at 7pm.

We ask that all students wear clothes that can get a little dirty (no holes please), they also must wear closed toed shoes. Also, have your student eat lunch before they come, and bring a water bottle! 

Can't wait to see you there!

Contact Mallory if you have any questions!

At the beginning of April, I was given the opportunity to lead worship at a youth conference in Haiti and it really changed my life. The conference was at Sonlight Church and School, which is the same one that Jon worked with when he lived down there. It was the same church a group of production staff from Southland visited and did a technical install last fall and it was an amazing experience.

After a days worth of plane rides and a six hour bus ride, it was great to arrive at the church and see that most everything was working great from our install last fall. There were a few things to tweak, but for the most part everything looked and sounded great.

Read Full Entry

It's that time of year again… Students are finishing up school and gearing up for summer - a time for sleeping in, having pool parties, eating a lot of junk food, and, OH YEAH, moving up to the next grade in school! Starting Sunday, June 2, all current 5th graders will be officially considered 6th graders at Southland! We know it's a big transition to move from elementary school to middle school, so here are a few dates and events coming up that we'd like you to be aware of:

Read Full Entry

Are you a High School student looking for something to do this friday night? Well, you are in luck! Come on out for our 2013 Mud Bowl! This is not a play on words or a time when we are trying to trick you... this is literally a giant bowl that is full of mud.

This is a great opportunity for students from our Harrodsburg Road and Richmond Road campuses to invite anyone and everyone that they possibly can. We'll have hundreds of high school student from all around the Lexington and Nicholasville area that will show up to play games in the mud. We'll also have prizes, a 30 foot slip n’ slide, and a bon fire! No matter what the reason is, you are not going to want to miss the Mud Bowl this year.

So come out and have a blast with us at our Harrodsburg Road campus on Friday night from 7-8:30pm. We'll be hanging out between the volleyball courts and the pond. See you then!

Is It Time to Do Something Big?

We live in a world that loves big. The biggest roller coaster in the world is almost 500 feet tall. The biggest cruise ship is over 1,000 feet long. The biggest building? Almost 3,000 feet tall. Bigger seems better.

Deep down we all know God has put us in the is world to do big things. Make a big impact. Change the world. Big, planet shaking stuff.

But what if we discovered we could actually make the biggest difference by going small instead? What if the most astronomically huge thing we could do in God’s kingdom is invest in the tiniest people?

God’s kids.

When Jesus’ disciples were fighting over who was the biggest among them, Jesus pulled a kid over to stand beside him and basically said, “You want to know who’s biggest? Let me tell you who’s biggest. Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you who is the greatest.”

Read Full Entry