Outreach Training this week!

This week at Freedom Valley, there are many opportunities to stretch your faith! This being the Year of Aggressive Faith, we have created an event just for you--to help you understand how to create faith conversations with your friends!

Our Outreach Training kicks off tonight! Don't miss it!  Click here for all the event details!

Thoughts on playing catch-up...

Anybody out there struggling a little to keep up with our 40 Day Bible reading plan? Don't give up! I hope you'll be encouraged by the fact that you're surely not alone.

I've done a one year Bible plan for the past few years. This year I decided to do something a little different...unfortunately I never solidified a plan for myself and didn't do well keeping up with my vague idea of what I wanted to read. So I was out of the habit of following a plan when we started this challenge as a church.

Needless to say, getting back into the habit is taking a little time. Here are a few ways I keep myself from getting discouraged and giving up.

~If I'm REALLY behind, I don't put pressure on myself to catch up all in one day. Instead I'll do two days, or one and a half if I don't have time to do two.

~I'll “schedule” some time in for extra Bible reading. Usually on my day off, I'll designate the morning or afternoon my reading time....put on some worship music, and just read for a few hours. Instead of being stressful or just an obligation, it's a wonderful time in God's presence!

~I remember the reason I'm doing the plan in the first place. It's not homework, and it's not something I'm doing so God won't be angry with me. I'm disciplining myself to read the Bible because I want a greater love for God's Word. I want my thoughts to become more like His thoughts, and my ways to be more like His ways.

What about you? Do you have any tips for pushing through discouragement?

Week 5 Prayer and Fasting Focus

Prayer for this week of Prayer and Fasting

2 Corinthians1:3-4: "What a wonderful God we have-He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every mercy, and the one who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. And why does He do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us."

Let us be motivated to pray this week from a heart of compassion for those who have suffered loss or are walking through trials at this season of their life.  Pray for those families who have lost children and loved ones to feel God’s comfort and strength. Pray specifically for the children and young adults in Adams County to come to know Jesus Christ personally and have a living relationship with him. May God give every one of us opportunity to invite someone to the upcoming services with Johannes so they would have the chance to hear the Gospel personally.  Pray for divine appointments to invite others and for boldness to fill us to ask those who need Jesus.

Week 4 Prayer Focus

Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. For everything, there is a season...

As we enter this week of prayer and fasting let’s focus on seasons of life and ask God what season he would have us in and what He would have us learn from it. Remember that God is present in every season of our life – birth and death, planting and harvesting, weeping and laughter, war and peace – and gives us the power and grace to deal with each one.

God, as we prepare for Johannes to come this month, we pray that we would prepare for a season of harvesting souls by sowing time and love into the lives of those we have contact with. In Jesus name.

Week 3 Prayer and Fasting Focus

2 Corinthians 2: 1-5

"And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power."

Lord, we pray for those who will come to hear Johannes preach that they would encounter the living God in a dynamic, fresh and real manner. That the new visitors would walk out of our church not caring about our Church's name, but would know the name of Jesus and His power. We pray for the Word of God to be proclaimed in power and with signs following. We ask that those present would know that they had an encounter with God this weekend.

Week 2 Prayer and Fasting Focus

2 Peter 3:9: "The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent."

Lord, give us the strength and determination to believe for extended periods for those in our lives who are slow about repenting. Help us to see your plan for them and not too quickly write them off as lost or not winnable. As the time for Johannes approaches, we pray and cry out for those friends, family members, and co-workers who are lost and trapped in sin. May their heart soften, may their heart long for peace, purity and forgiveness;and  may they be willing to admit they are lost and in need of a Savior. Give us opportunities this week to be in contact with them and may we have compassion, love and kindness for them when this time comes.

Fasting, week one.

How is your fast going?

Don't forget to encourage yourself by staying in the Word and prayer! Today, try reading Hebrews 4:1-12.

From Candace:
I will share with you a little about my own journey through this fast...and maybe it will encourage some of you!


I have been studying about the Word of God....And interestingly enough, this new devotional that I got from Kenneth Copeland's ministry was labeled "Addicted to the Word" for yesterday. I feel like God is leading me through a season of deep love and respect for the Word of God.  I LOVE it! I am getting so much out of it these days...to the point where, I can't live without it....which is exactly what this day was about.

1 Corinthians 16:15, "Ye know the house of Stephanas...and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints."

So many things I love about that verse...

• first of all, the house of Stephanas was known for being Godly people.  They had a REPUTATION for being Godly, and that is something that is built by consistent actions!  I want to be known that way!  
• 2nd, they have addicted THEMSELVES. Addictions are a powerful thing.  And it usually takes some decision-making toward the addiction.  There is a knowledge beforehand that I could get addicted to this...but we do it anyway.  Kenneth wrote, "All you have to do is make a decision to give yourself to it. To focus your time and attention on it. The more you give yourself to it, the more your desire for it will grow. Eventually, it will consume your thinking."  I want to be a person addicted to the Word and ministry!  God, help me become that way.