Day 93: Planning Ahead

Today was one of those days where it is just plain fun to plan out a message series. This time it was the preliminary work for our 2010 Christmas series. Radiant Fellowship has always had allot of fun with our Christmas series. One year we did a "U2 Christmas" followed by "A Beatles Christmas." Last year we did "The Island of Misfit Toys" and now this year we are doing.......got ya! Not until November!

There is allot of legwork that goes into planning these series. Typically we try to stay a month ahead on our message planning. Yes we do leave room for the Holy Spirit if that is what some are wondering. Fact of the matter is we want God to take full control of our planning. One year we did "A Keith Green Easter" where each week the message title was one of Keith's songs. On the final week we flew in contemporary Christian music artist, Randy Stonehill to close it out with a message and concert. You see, Randy was instrumental in leading Keith to the Lord. This was a powerful series. The series we do may look bizarre but trust me when I say "it is nothing new, just a new packaging on an old story that still changes lives."

This is what I would encourage....go with what your heart is telling you to do for a series. Go with a series or message that you feel God is leading you to do. Remember, "to get people you never had you must do things you have never done."

So we are planning our Christmas series. Do we go with clip art Christmas wreathes and pre-made Christmas programs and dress to impress so that our Christmas service looks like every other one in the city? No. Welcome to Radiant Fellowship where we take the phrase "out of the box" and throw it away because to say "you are out of the box" would mean there is a reference point. This is one place far away from any box a person might put a church in at Christmas time.

With God in full control....this is going to be fun and I cannot wait to see the people that come to know who God is through it.