Richmond Road Blog & Events

These songs can be downloaded on iTunes.

This weekend we are introducing a new song called Oceans and it is one of my favorite worship songs right now. The first time I heard this song I knew it was one that we should do as a church family. The lyrics talk a lot about faith and how we should put our trust in Him even though it may be difficult.

The theme is taken directly from Matthew 14 where Jesus walks out to the disciples on the water. Once the disciples realize that it is Jesus that is walking on the water Peter asks to come meet Him. I love what it says in the Message, "Jumping out of the boat, Peter walked on water to Jesus. But when he looked down at the waves churning beneath his feet, he lost his nerve and started to sink. He cried, 'Master, save me!' Jesus didn't hesitate. He reached down and grabbed his hand. Then he said, 'Faint-heart, what got into you?'" (Matthew 14:30-31)

It makes me think of how often I get distracted by waves around me and the things that don't really matter in life. Jesus is right in front of me and inviting me to step out in faith to Him. I'll leave you with the lyrics to the bridge:

"Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior"

Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) - Hillsong United

Great conversation, delicious Chic-fil-a chocolate chip cookies, sweet tea, and a kick-off into community!

Ladies' from Danville, Richmond Road, and Harrodsburg Road campuses gathered for their next step into a life group last night. We launched women into 6-week study groups out of our Ladies' Night event. If you are interested in picking up the resource, you can check out Amazon to order the Beth Moore, Living Free. If you are interested in connecting in a life group, feel free to contact the following for your campus:

Along with all of you our hearts go out to the people in Moore, Oklahoma who have experienced devastation and heartache. Pray with us that the love of Jesus would surround those impacted by the tornados.

We are in the process of gathering information. We’re contacting local churches, organizations and people closest to the destruction to help us develop a plan of action. But in the meantime we know many of you would like to help in some way so here are some things you can do now to get involved:

• Pray, pray, pray - it’s our greatest resource and we want to be sure we’re praying for those impacted by the storm.
• Give to the RED CROSS: text 90999 to donate $10.00 or call 1-800-RED CROSS.
• Give to the Salvation Army: text STORM to 80888 to donate $10.00 or calling 1-800-SAL-ARMY.

Thanks for your part in the efforts to help. As needs become assessed we’ll want you to stay informed so check back for updates to this blog.

Updated 5/22:

The Bluegrass Region of the American Red Cross will host a telethon for Kentucky Cares Oklahoma Tornado Relief this **Wednesday, May 22 from 12 pm (Noon) to 12 am (Midnight)**. The telethon will be aired on multiple television stations and donors can call 859-977-5366 to donate during that time.

**We are recruiting volunteers to answer phone lines during this 12-hour period.** Volunteers will report to our call center at the Bluegrass Chapter location at 1450 Newtown Pike, Lexington KY, 40511.

If you are interested in volunteering for one or more shifts, please email Cally Edwards at cally.edwards@redcross.org or call 859-253-1331 x327.

**Volunteer Shifts:** (shift times can be flexible if necessary)

  Noon – 2 pm
  2 pm – 4 pm
  4 pm – 6 pm
  6 pm – 8 pm
  8 pm – 10 pm
10 pm – Midnight

Summertime is almost here. That means swimming pools, popsicles and best of all, the drive-in. This summer the Big Picture Show Children’s Ministry will be hosting another drive-in movie event for preschool and elementary families to come out and make some memories. Bring a lawn chair or a blanket and invite some friends to join us Monday, June 10th, 6:30 pm in the Parkside Theater at the Richmond Road campus.

We’ll be watching the Dr. Seuss’, the Lorax, and there are two different ways you play along to win a prize:

1. Decorate a home-made Seuss car.
   Just like we did at last year’s event, we’re challenging you to make your own family “car” that kids can sit in for the night. But since we’re going Seuss this year, we’ll be giving prizes for the wildest, wackiest most Seuss-like home-made vehicles you can create. The sillier the better!
    
2. Come dressed as your favorite Seuss character.
   Dress up as the Cat In the Hat, Horton, Cindy Lou Who or anything that looks like it comes from the world of Seuss and you will have the chance to win.

Just like last year, we’ll kick things off with worship, popcorn, give-aways then get straight to the show. No, we won’t be out under the stars, but we do want to create an opportunity for your family to connect with other families and each other.

So come on out and make some family memories with us before the summer passes you by.

Here at Southland we value marriage! So much so, that we radically invest in the next generation of couples through our pre-marriage environment. We just wrapped up our 6-week pre-marriage experience and here is what the couples who participated had to say about it:

"It encouraged us to anticipate and work to resolved issues we may not have foreseen."
 
"This experience showed us many positive examples of marriages."

"Reinforce things that we may know, but seem to fail to put them into practice."

"We loved everything...finances, intimacy, and well...everything."

"I learned the actual role of the man in the house and marriage."

"This class and the homework has opened up conversations and made it easier to talk about certain topics."

"It brought us closer to Christ and how to deal with conflict better."

"We feel much more encouraged about our upcoming walk together spiritually, emotionally, and physically."

Our next pre-marriage class is in September! For more info and to register, go here

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 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:

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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