Richmond 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.

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.

 

Technology has changed the way we do a lot of things in our everyday life. We know that even applies to how we pay our bills. Most of us are writing fewer and fewer checks and letting modern conveniences take care of our finances. We have even heard from a lot of you who want your giving to Southland easier as well. So to make giving to Southland easier, we are offering the convenience of automated giving. Not only does automated giving make it easier for you, but it also helps Southland by reducing the number of physical checks we have to process each week.

How do you set up your own automated giving to Southland?

You have to complete a short form available here and send it, along with a voided check, to the attention of our finance department.

Your automated giving options are to give twice a month on the 5th and 20th or once a month on either the 5th or 20th.

If you have any questions, feel free to let us know!

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:

These songs can be downloaded on iTunes.

We’ve experienced quite a few “firsts” at our Richmond Road campus since opening in January. This past Tuesday was no different. After months of praying, dreaming, meeting and planning, the Care Team launched Celebrate Recovery with around 20 very passionate leaders plus around 50 courageous people, most of whom were first-timers. Seventy people gathering together to face those hurts, habits and hangups that can weigh us down. It was a humbling experience.

After enjoying some pizza in the cafe, we moved together to the Student Ministry Room for worship through music and teaching. The teaching introduced us to the first step toward freedom and wholeness - “Dealing with Denial.” It was a great reminder about how great we are at rationalizing and coping with our stuff rather than dealing with it. It’s a big step but it’s an essential step to move us toward the next.

We then gathered in small groups to encourage each other and process the teaching we had heard. There are groups for men that deal with general issues like, anger, resentment and lying, for example. There are also groups for guys dealing with sexual integrity and chemical dependency. For women, there are also general issues and chemical dependency groups.

Celebrate Recovery isn’t something you sign up for. It’s not a seminar or a class. It’s truly a community - an ongoing safe place to find acceptance and healing. Why don’t you try it? Just park on the north side of the Richmond Road campus (next to the park, on the opposite side of the building from Richmond Road). Come in the doors next to the Celebrate Recovery banner and we’ll be there to greet you. We would love to see you next Tuesday at 6pm!

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.

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.

These songs can be downloaded on iTunes.

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 in the Studen Ministry Room on Sunday, May 19th after our 11:15 LIFT service . It should be a short meeting, but there will be a lot of content.

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.

What do chainsaws, Braveheart, cake pops and a photo booth have in common? In the past week all four things were a part of our Man Night and Ladies’ Night here at Southland. I will let you guess which ones appeared on which night.

Regardless of your gender, both nights were a lot of fun and spiritually encouraging at the same time. It was incredible to see Theater 81 full of men one week and full of women the next week as both groups came together to hang out with friends, celebrate their uniqueness, and become more of the man or woman God made them to be.

Our hope and prayer for both nights was that lasting connection and community would emerge from the event. And it has. But the good news is even if you missed out on either event, it is not too late to get plugged in to a men’s group or a ladies’ group. However, they will be launching soon so make sure you take some “next steps” quickly.

Men, go here to let us know you would like to be in a group and to subscribe to the 6 week study guide we will be using for your group and to access resources discussed that evening.

Ladies, go here to let us know you would like to be in a group and to find out more about the resources we will be using for your group.

We are really excited to announce the first ever Middle School Carnival at our Richmond Road Campus! As a tradition that has carried on for years at our Harrodsburg Road Campus, Carnival is a great opportunity for our students and volunteers to come together in May to celebrate another successful school year together.

This event is open to all current 6th-8th graders, as well as the 5th graders who will be joining LIFT in June! This event is FREE! There will be classic Carnival games like Plinko, and more exciting activities like an inflatable jousting game.

As one of our biggest outreach events of the year, it takes a small army of volunteers to pull off Carnival. Please consider volunteering at the Carnival. We need people to run the games, organize food, help check-in students, and run security. We would especially love it if middle school parents would volunteer at this event! If you'd like to volunteer, please contact Ellen.

The Carnival will be held in the Student Ministry Room on Friday, May 24, from 7-9pm. Volunteers should arrive at 6:30pm and plan to leave around 9:30pm after clean-up.

Thank you for considering volunteering for a night!