Living Hope Church in Dixon, CA

In yesterday’s sermon I told the story of how Horatio Spafford wrote the hymn It is Well With My Soul. My decision to tell that story was kind of spur-of-the-moment and my memory was a little faulty. I stated that Spafford’s wife and children were killed, but, in fact, his wife survived. Regardless, the story is so good I decided to post the factual version here.

Sometime in 1871, a fire in Chicago heavily devastated the city, and months before that , Horatio Spafford, a Presbyterian lawyer, had invested hugely in real estate by the shore of Lake Michigan. The disaster greatly wiped out his holdings. Before the fire, Spafford also experienced the loss of his son.

Two years after the fire, Horatio Spafford planned a trip to Europe for him and his family. He wanted a rest for his wife and four daughters, and also to assist Moody and Sankey in one of their evangelistic campaigns in Great Britain. He was not meant to travel with his family. The day in November they were due to depart, Spafford had a last minute business transaction and had to stay behind in Chicago. Nevertheless, he still sent his wife and four daughters to travel as scheduled on the S.S. Ville du Havre, expecting to follow in a few days. On November 22, the ship laden with his wife and daughters was struck by the Lockhearn, an English vessel, and sank in few minutes.

After the survivors were finally landed somewhere at Cardiff, Wales, Spafford’s wife cabled her husband with two simple words, “Saved alone.” Shortly after, Spafford left by ship on his way where his beloved four daughters had drowned, and pen at hand, wrote this most poignant text so significantly descriptive of his own personal grief – “When sorrows like sea billows roll…” The hymn “It is Well with My Soul” was born.

After prayerful consideration, the leadership of the church has decided to take a break from the Saturday evening worship service indefinitely. We WILL have service this Saturday (11/28) and the next (12/5), but after that we will not have worship on Saturday nights. (Our 10am Sunday morning service will continue as normal.)

While our church as a whole continues to grow, the Saturday night service has been declining in attendance for some time now. We believe there are several reasons for this. Some within our control and some not. The honest answer is I believe I made some mistakes when we originally launched this service last May. They say hind-sight is 20/20 and this has definitely been a learning experience for me. Some of the mistakes I believe I made are:

• I rushed into the launch of this service too quickly. More time should have been invested into researching the best way to launch, casting the vision, and church-wide prayer.
• We launched the service at a bad time of the year — right before summer. Any momentum we had in late spring was lost during the summer.
• I was overly optimistic that we could get the word out effectively through word-of-mouth. I see now that we really needed to invest some funds into more effective advertising methods to properly insure that our community knew this service existed.

After conversations with many of you, I believe that we pretty much agree on a couple of things. First, no one dislikes the Saturday worship service. Second, there’s no reason why a Saturday night worship service shouldn’t work in Dixon. We still believe this is something that can be effective in reaching people in Dixon. So what we have decided to do is to shelve the Saturday night service for now and re-launch it at a later date. We will learn from the mistakes we made this first try, and re-launch it when we believe we can do it right. We don’t know when this will be, but we won’t rush into it until we believe we can do it properly. In short, we’re not giving up on Saturday nights, just re-grouping.

One thing I want to encourage you to consider is that as a church we have a vision for reaching this community. We will constantly make plans to help make that vision reality. Some plans will succeed and some not so much. Plans might change, but the vision never does. Every mentor I’ve talked to has told me the same thing–if you’re not occasionally failing, you’re not trying hard enough. We have to have the guts to try new things. The bottom line is we learned some valuable lessons that will help us in our future plans.

Finally, I want to thank all of you who stepped up and invested time, energy, and prayer to make this service possible. Your service and sacrifices did not go unnoticed. It’s an honor to serve our King alongside of you!

Go With God!!!

Pastor Jeff Myers

If you have recently committed your life to Christ and/or you’ve never been baptized, we will have an opportunity for baptism this weekend (Nov. 21-22). If you would like more info about baptism, email (pastor.jeff@att.net) or call Pastor Jeff (707 592-4003).

Baptism is the physical act of submersing someone in a pool of water. It is symbolic of the washing away of our sins and the death and resurrection of Jesus. There’s no saving power in baptism; it is simply an outward expression of the inward change that has already taken place. It is both commanded and demonstrated by Jesus himself. It is an awesome time of celebration in the life of a Christ-follower!

Chances are you’re getting ready to do some shopping. The average American family spends almost $500 on Christmas gifts. (Some of you are thinking, If I get through Christmas under $500, it’ll be another Christmas miracle!) However, the sad truth is that almost half the world, or 3 billion people, earn in one year less than what many of us will spend on gifts. But instead of being a Scrooge, why don’t I tell you how your shopping can actually make a difference!

People around the world a starting small micro-businesses in order to break the cycle of their own poverty. These are artisans who make incredible hand-made household items, jewelry, toys, clothes, food items and more. American non-profits such as HeartCraft and Trade As One are making it possible for these skilled entrepeneurs to offer their products to a larger customer base by setting up web-stores and gift bazaars for them. By purchasing these fair trade products you can literally help to lift someone out of poverty this Christmas!

In order to make this more accessible, Living Hope will have a HeartCraft gift bazaar following our worship services on December 5th and 6th. This is a great opportunity for you to take care of some Christmas shopping and make a real difference in someone’s life at the same time. However, no on should feel obligated to make a purchase. Simply take advantage of the opportunity if you’re interested. You can find out more about HeartCraft at heartcraft.org.

Another great organization is Trade As One. They offer a similar service and you can find out more about them at tradeasone.com. Check out this great video from Trade As One that really explains the need and benefit of choosing to have a Fair Trade Christmas this year.

Hey, LHC! We need you to bring in those shoeboxes full of gifts for needy children around the world this week. If you can’t remember how to pack the box, here’s a video giving all the details.

Our Mission Trip to India and Little Flock Children’s Home was a success and God really came through. 9 Living Hopers were able to both minister to the children at LFCH and draw closer to God in the experience. Thanks to all who supported with time, energy, finances and prayer to make this trip possible. This was a huge step forward in seeing Living Hope Church become a local church with a global impact!

Below are some videos from our trip. The first is a comparison between Indian culture and life at Little Flock. Second, is Bev’s baptism at Little Flock. Finally, a powerful reminder that God doesn’t have any orphans!

The Saturday evening worship gathering will start at 6pm beginning July 25th. Let everyone know and invite a friend!

In an effort to fully cover the book of James over the next several weeks, Pastor Jeff is providing these supplemental studies for use in your LifeGroup or personal devotion time. Use the following study guide along with the corresponding video below. If you’d like to rally some of your friends together and start a new LifeGroup discussing the AUTHENTIC series, contact Pastor Jeff atpastor.jeff@att.net.