NO EPICENTER TONIGHT - MARCH 1

Sorry for the late notice but we have decided to cancel epicenter tonight due to the weather. We will resume our regular schedule next week. Please help us spread the word to others. Stay warm!

Building a grassroots community

Epicenter is off to a great start. We’ve already had 5 services and it is clear that God is present and working in our lives. If you haven’t had the chance to visit Epicenter yet, I want to give you an idea of what it is like and what we’ve been up to.

When Epicenter began, it was stated it would feature three primary elements: experiential worship, biblical teaching, and intentional community. How do you define experiential worship? I think the answer to that question is going to be different for each of us. What I’ve seen is our worship time has allowed each person to step fully into the process of worship. We are asked and challenged to engage in worship and respond to God in our own unique ways.

At the first service, Aaron Young began teaching from the Book of Acts Chapter 1. We are really soaking up the Scriptures because as we approach week 6, we’ve only made it to Chapter 2. I think when we normally read the Bible, we have the tendency to fly through it in order to complete the task. Taking the time to move slowly through these stories of the early Church has allowed us to place ourselves into the story of the first followers of Jesus.

Acts 1:6-8 (New International Version)6 So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

This was a powerful passage we heard on the first night. Aaron told us that the greek word used in this passage for power was “dynameos”, which was the origin for the word dynamo and eventually dynamite. That is some serious power. It was such an amazing passage to hear the first night of Epicenter. To hear that we are to receive “explosive power” and that God will work through us to be his witnesses all over the earth. We’ve continued to go through the first few chapters of Acts and get a clear idea of what it was like to be in the shoes of the earliest members of the Church and to discover that we probably share more in common than we might realize. They were the grassroots beginning of something that would change the world forever. What will we be?

This realization really brings me to the last element of Epicenter which is intentional community. Epicenter takes place at Sugarloaf United Methodist Church. We have the benefit of a place to gather, worship, and learn. We have Aaron, Jake, Hannah and a worship team providing leadership, but we are very much in the same place as the earlier Christ followers in Acts. We are doing something new and unknown. We don’t know what's ahead of us. We are striving to discover what plans God has for this community and what our roles will be within that community. Epicenter has been designed as a grassroots community that will look to God for direction and be driven by the hearts, minds and gifts of those that call it home.

After the worship and service time ends, we join in smaller life stage groups where we discuss questions about the message we’ve heard. We are still feeling out this small group time. Many of the groups get together for dinner afterwards. We are still trying to figure things out, but we are being intentional about connecting people. We hope people that attend will find strength and support in these relationships and, as we connect, we will discover more of what God has planned for us.

If you haven’t made it to an Epicenter service yet, I encourage you to join us. If you are a regular, I would love to get your thoughts, ideas and dreams for Epicenter. Hopefully this blog can become a place for us to let others know what Epicenter is about and also a place where we can connect and share.

Epicenter podcast is now available!

The epicenter podcast is now in iTunes. You can click here or the logo on the right to be taken there automatically. If you don't use iTunes, you can directly download it here.

First Service is coming soon!

This Sunday will be epicenter's first service. We will meet from 5:30-7:00 pm in the Student Life Center at Sugarloaf UMC. We are so excited about starting the new year off with this new service. We hope you'll join us this week for an exciting start to 2009! If you need directions, just click the map below:

View Larger Map

Epicenter Info Meeting

Tonight we held our first volunteer info meeting in the Student Life Center. About 35 people came out to hear Aaron cast the vision for what Epicenter will be and how it will all work. During this initial phase, Epicenter will be entirely run by volunteers. At the end, we split into several groups based on where people were interested in serving. The response was very encouraging!

Here are the areas where we need volunteers:
1. Set-up/Clean-up - we will have to move chairs back and forth from the main sanctuary each weeek.
2. Greeters - people to make newcomers feel welcome and guide people with children to the nursery.
3. Tech crew - running sound, video, and lighting during the service.
4. Shockwave - volunteers for the children's ministry program that will happen during Epicenter.
5. Band members
6. Breakout group facilitators - people who will facilitate discussions and encourage community during the small group time.
7. Publicity - print and web promotion

If you missed the meeting and are interested in helping in any of the above areas, email aaron@sugarloaf.org for more information.

Introduction Video from Preview Service

In this video, Aaron gives a brief explanation of what epicenter is all about followed by several ways to get involved.


Epicenter Introduction Video from Jake Sumner on Vimeo.

Preview Service Recap

Well, today was the preview service for epicenter - the new service our church will be starting in January targeted at 18-30 somethings. This is a demographic that is currently a very small minority in our church. We have a tremendous kids ministry, a vibrant youth ministry, and a solid core of middle-age adults. Unfortunately, we are missing those college, post-college and young families in our community. We hope to change all that with the addition of epicenter to our weekly schedule of events. There are three main components of this new service:

• experiential worship

Jake and Hannah Sumner will be in charge of designing engaging worship experiences each week. We'll have the help of a worship band comprised of musicians from the existing adult worship teams (many thanks to Larry, Harrison and Kendra for working all the details out on this!) and hopefully some new musicians that will be attracted to this service.

• biblical teaching

Aaron Young will be the teacher each week and will focus on biblical messages that concentrate on biblical books or themes as opposed to topical teaching. Nothing against topical teaching but we are specifically focusing on a target audience that wants to grow deeper in their understanding and experience of God. We believe in-depth biblical teaching is the best way to achieve this goal.

• intentional community

Each meeting will end with the entire group being broken down into smaller life-stage groups - college/career, post-college singles, young married (w/o kids), young married (w/kids) and adults. There will be a facilitator for each life-stage group and several assistant facilitators in case the groups are still large, they can still be broken down into groups of 8-10. In these small groups, the focus will be on getting to know others at epicenter and form meaningful relationships. Initially this will be accomplished by times of discussion but our goal is for community to develop. Our hope is that members of the life-stage groups will continue building relationships outside the service by going to dinner together and experiencing community outside the context of the epicenter service. Right now we are currently praying and searching for the right people to facilitate these life-stage groups.

Although we are targeting the 18-30 demographic, we're putting some wide boundaries on this age bracket. We recognize that this alternative service will appeal to a variety of people who don't necessarily fit neatly into a predefined age group. If this approach to worship, teaching and community resonates with someone outside the target group, we want them to feel like they have a place to connect with our church.

We're excited about this new service. January 4th is the official launch date. It will be from 5:30-7:00 pm in the Student Life building. Check back for more updates and click below to join our facebook group. We hope to see you there!