Christ, Community, Connection
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"Christ, Community, Connection. This is Praise4Change." Why do we use this motto? Why IS this Praise4Change? Last month, our team went to a week conference for teens called CIY Move (if you're curious who they are, check out the link on our home page). This conference was life changing and made us want to do something about our growing convictions for foster care. We want to make a difference in our community. That's why we are here. Foster families and sharing the gospel is our calling and we want to fill this hole in our heart that we have. This is who we are. Praise4Change. But why "Christ, Community, Connection"? Christ.1 Corinthians 11:1-“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” As Christ followers, our job is to be like Christ. Pretty simple huh? Wrong. It’s way more complicated than that. We were put on this Earth for one reason. Go make Christ followers so that when Jesus returns, we can all go with him. Why is this so important? Well read the book of Revelation and you will know why. Trust me, you DON’T want to stay here. God is preparing a place for us called Heaven. But how does this even connect to foster families? Our motto verse for our whole ministry is 1 John 5:4 which says “For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith”. As we minister to these kids and families, we are bringing them closer and closer to Christ. They are creating a lifelong relationship with Jesus that means more than anything. But, they can’t do it alone. That’s where we come in. Matthew 28:19 says “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And that's exactly what we are going to do. Community.Matthew 18:20- “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” John 15:12- “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” Our community is something that is different for every person that lives here. For me, personally, Danville needs a little Jesus. I've grown up here for my 15 years of life so far and I can’t help but notice how little, teens try and make a difference. P4C wants to change that. Investment in the community is something that is super important for our spiritual lives. In our spiritual lives, community is essentially a body of believers who are committed and will put down the first steps in bringing more and more people to know God each and every day. Jesus calls us to love one another as he has loved us. In fact he had so much love for us that he literally carried his cross and die upon it to show us how much he loved us. Jesus did that so we don’t have to. We have something called P4C nights. These nights are dedicated to Christ followers coming together and worshiping and hearing a testimony or two about how investment in community, or in this case, foster families, can make a huge impact. When two or more gather in the name of Jesus, he is present. He HAS been present, IS present, and WILL be present. It just takes us to minster that faith he has called us to. Connection.John 15:5- “ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing…” ” Connecting to a good WiFi network is almost a necessity in today’s time, right? When we have a good connection, we can do almost anything on the internet like watching that YouTube video about cute puppies or scrolling on your Instagram feed and liking that photo that your friend posted from the beach. Well surprise, it’s the same as God if you think about it. When we have a good, scratch that, GREAT connection with God, we are able to bear great fruits from the vine and minister the faith he is calling you to. If you decide to bear fruit from a vine with no connection to the root, you will starve. In modern words, you will not receive the Holy Spirit in your heart and you will be thrown into the fire and flames(A.K.A. h-e-double hockey sticks). Having a strong connection with God is essential for our ministry because it is what drives us to do our work. Think about it like this. God gives the fruit to us, but tells us to share with our friends because they are hungry and then asks those friends to share with their friends because they’re hungry too and so on. Point is this. We can’t keep this good news. We have to spread it and connect more hearts to God’s. This is our sole purpose. If you read on in this chapter 15 of John, Jesus compares someone who does not remain in him as “...a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned.” Ouch. That’s a little scary. I don’t know about you, but, I don’t wish that upon even my worst enemy. Jesus calls us to bear good fruits and share every now and then. I’ll end this with two of my favorite quotes by David Platt from the book “Radical”.
On 7/31/19, we will be in downtown Danville, seeking sponsorship opportunities from local businesses who want to help us do kingdom work. Sponsorship will help us further our ministry and what we want to accomplish for these families. We are also going to be going into the neighborhoods of Danville and doing community service. God is good. If you would like to sponsor us, contact us at [email protected]. #p4c_kingdomwork Author for this post: Braylon EHello! I'm Braylon Emerson, one of the founders of Praise4Change. I'm into most importantly Jesus, my girlfriend(who is part of the group as well!), family time, musicals, the Tennessee Volunteers, my hometown, and writing. I love hanging out with kids and I love to worship God. I think Worship is truly the way I can connect with God and I'm so ecstatic to start this ministry in my hometown. I'm so blessed to be part of this ministry and freely share the gospel with our community. Kingdom Work is what I like to call it. "The noblest art is that of making others happy." Follow our socials or shoot us an email!
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AuthorsThese blog posts are made by the P4C team on the second Saturday of every month. Writers are composed of:Lauren L,Shiann S.,Danika L., and Braylon E. |