Harrodsburg Road Blog & Events

Here at Southland, we generously extend hope to the poor by spreading a revolution of love through our Global Outreach Ministry. Each year through your generosity, Southland gives about $1.5 Million to support works all over the world!

Global Outreach is working in areas like Haiti, Mozambique, Asia, Europe and the Northeast United States. From rocking babies to meeting medical needs, Southland is involved and reaching out to people.

We'd love for you to get involved! We have three amazing opportunities that can make a huge impact in the lives of others:

1. Take a Trip
Short term trips are a great way to understand what we're doing all over the world. Head over to our Global Missions page to see upcoming trip details. If you'd like to know more about what these trips are about, or want to look into going with us, contact Andy.

2. Sponsor a Child
We partner with Danita's Children who rescue orphans, feed, clothe, and provide life-saving medical care and shelter to many needy children in one of the poorest countries in the world. Your family can sponsor a child for just $29 a month. If you'd like more information on sponsoring a child, contact Mark.

3. Pray for Global Missions
We're praying for Global Missions for 30 straight days beginning May 24. Sign up to receive four emails that include a daily schedule of what to specifically pray for on each day. Each email will go out on Friday mornings from 5/24-6/14.

 

Summer means cookouts, vacation, swimming pools and.... SOFTBALL! Southland is partnering with the YMCA to bring summer softball leagues to our fields. Men's leagues will play on Monday nights and co-ed leagues will play on Thursday nights. To register a team or learn more , visit the YMCA website.

Registration has been extended to May 24!

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. 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:

Imagine your church moving each week from location to location, being led by women because the government does not think women can lead churches, and always thankful for the Lord’s protection. This is the case of many Christians around the world, including places in Central Asia.

Imagine growing up under Communism, working for the KGB, and then your world...

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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.

Every week in several central Kentucky neighborhoods, we visit families to pray with them, meet basic needs, and build relationships to share the love and hope of Christ. We call this ministry Serve the City.

If you're interested in serving with Serve The City, please watch this simple training video to learn more and follow the instructions after it's over, if you want to serve. We would love for you to partner with us to unleash a revolution of love in Kentucky! 

Serve The City Locations & Times:

• Downtown Nicholasville - Tuesdays at 6:30pm
• Woodhill Neighborhood (Lexington)- Mondays at 6pm
• Downtown East End Neighborhood (Lexington)- Tuesdays at 6:30pm
• Long Run Apartments (Danville)- Wednesdays at 6:30pm

Each week, people come together here at Southland to plant, cultivate, and harvest vegetables. The goal is that this produce can be distributed, free of charge, to people in our community that need help providing food for their family.

We're looking for some people with green thumbs. In particular, we'd love to hear from you if you would be interested in serving a leadership role with the Community Garden team. We need people that can be committed to ensuring that the garden can continue to be used as an tool to help our community.

Don't feel like you're up for a leadership role but still want to help out? This Saturday, May 4th, is planting day at the Community Garden. Our team of leaders and volunteers will be planting most of the remaining crops for the season including corn, squash, tomatoes, peppers, and beans. Gardening experience is not required, so bring your gloves and come out and get dirty!

If you're looking for a family friendly activity where you can serve the community alongside your kids, then look no further! Grab the whole family and come on out!

If you're interested in helping out and want to know more, check out our Facebook page for pictures, events, garden operation times. If you're interested in volunteering, contact Nathan at nathan.janson@gmail.com. Or if you're interested in being a part of the Garden Leadership Team, contact Craig at schumaan@aol.com.

Craig Schuster
Community Garden Volunteer

Do you play volleyball? Are you ready to take your game to the sand? Do you want to find community and compete at the same time? Put a team together and let's play. The Beaumont YMCA will be overseeing a volleyball league on Southland’s sand courts this summer from June 3-August 6. Registration is open to all teams April 22 through May 19. Be sure to register early so your team doesn’t miss out!

To register your team, sign up online, visit the Beaumont YMCA, or call (859) 219-9622. If you are registering online, click here and follow these easy steps:

1. Create a new account.

2. Select the Beaumont Branch.

3. Select “Program participant.”

4. Enter your information and select a password.

5. Register your team as an Adult sports leagues.

For free agents, contact Steve Schweitzer at schweitzer@prestressservices.com for more information.

If anyone ever asks what I do at Southland, I tell them I’m a Care Pastor on the Care Team. Now, I know what you’re probably thinking, “Aren’t all pastors supposed to care?” Good question. And I think most do, yes. But our team has the unique privilege of helping our church respond to innumerable needs through prayer, counseling, hospital visits, funerals, support groups, recovery groups… I could go on.

We have a saying around our team: We just want to take great care of people. When people approach us with a need, we don’t see them as needy. We see them as courageous.

Some of the most courageous and authentic people I know are those who have become part of our Celebrate Recovery community. Many people associate the word recovery with alcohol or drug addiction. The truth is we all have some hurt, habit or hang up that bogs us down. While Celebrate Recovery boldly offers hope for those struggling with addictions, it also helps provide a way to freedom for people like me and my friends… through a Christ-centered, 12-step journey.

“Hi. My name is Greg, I’m a grateful believer in Jesus Christ and I struggle with people pleasing, perfectionism and jealousy.”

What I love about Celebrate Recovery is that nobody judges me based on my struggles.

We’re excited to announce that the Care Team is launching a new Celebrate Recovery at Southland’s Richmond Road campus on Tuesday, May 14, at 6 pm. Every week we’ll gather for a meal together in the Café, followed by a time of worship through music and either a teaching or someone sharing their story. After that, we move to gender-specific small groups where we can safely share and listen to others talk about their struggles and journey of healing. After our group time, we enjoy some dessert and coffee before heading home.

Come join me and others on the road to healing and wholeness every Tuesday night beginning Tuesday, May 14. And by the way, there are no perfect people allowed.

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...

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My dear friend Monica, a volunteer on the worship team, recently went to Haiti. She shared a story with me that truly touched my heart and I couldn't help but share one of the experiences she had while serving there. May it encourage you to worship God at all times, in all things, through every circumstance.

True worship is not only displayed when we sing pretty songs at church on the weekends. People will see and come to know our God through our daily interactions with others, how we treat our kids...

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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.

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As we settle into the new campus at Richmond Road, the vast majority of people I encounter are very positive about the look and feel of the new building. They also are supportive of Southland and our mission in the community. Occasionally, however, I talk to people who are highly critical about the amount of money we "raise." "The church is always asking for money," they erroneously add.

I strongly disagree. You know why? Because it simply isn't true. In reality, it's the world, not the church that always ask for money. When was the last time you went to the grocery store and they didn't ask you for money? When was the last time you received a note from your mortgage company that said, "Don't worry about making a house payment this month, it's on us!" The church doesn't withhold 15-35 percent of every dollar you earn; the federal government does. In fact, there are no "free lunches" anywhere in the world...except at church! People come and go week in and week out; no admission charge whatsoever. If you're sick, we will visit you. If you need counseling, we will provide it. All of our classes are free. All of our ministries to the community are free.

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Are you looking for an introduction into serving outside the Southland walls? We have a great opportunity for you to do just that! We are asking you to be a part of a "Serve the City Day" on Saturday, April 13th. We're partnering with other local churches to do service projects all throughout the city. We'll be doing things like yard work, light cleaning, delivering flowers/baked goods, and much more. We have lots of kid-friendly projects because we want to encourage you to serve with your families. The day will begin at 8:30am at Immanuel Baptist Church where you'll be assigned a project and location to serve. We will be finished around noon.

Sign up here or email me with any questions.

I love how God uses creative people to design and produce memorable, life changing experiences at churches all around the world. At Southland, I believe we truly have some of the best. Each week we see their dedication and talent at work, creating moments where we can have a fresh encounter with God. We want God to take the efforts of the brainstorming, planning, message preparing, music arranging, light cue programming, video production, band rehearsing, and many other areas of creativity, and multiply them outside the walls of our campus buildings. 

We've seen great success in what has been the Southland Hour on WTVQ 36. Our tv program will still continue each Sunday morning at 10am, but beginning this Thursday, April 11, you can watch our service online as well! It is part of a greater vision of reaching people with video services.

Each Thursday, at noon and 8pm, you and your friends are invited to join in on our weekend service, in it's entirety, at southlandonline.tv. Whether you missed an entire weekend, or want to participate in worshipping with us again through the message and music, we have you covered! Also, this is a less intimidating way of inviting a friend to check out Southland before attending a campus.

So join us for Southland Online and connect with God and his Word as we worship Him together! See you April 11th at noon!