Heartland United

Heartland United -Thursday April 30, May 7, and May 14, at the Plymouth campus, COTH ministries are hosting mid-week video teachings called Heartland United.  Each week a different COTH pastor will be broadcasting live from their campus or home.  Mark your calendars and plan on being part of this new avenue of reaching people through technology!  If you can’t make it to church, church will come to you.  On these dates starting at 7PM, you can watch it live on Mogulus.  Here is a link.  www.mogulus.com/churchoftheheartland   We will be using great COTH teachers with the message that is burning in their heart.  There will be time set apart for interaction and relationship, not just a message.  There will be child care and events for the children. 

This will be LIVE and you can ask questions from home or at the local churches through Mogulus.

If you need a shot of FAITH in the middle of the week, well here it is.

 

THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG

Just been pondering. Which is first RELATIONSHIP or FAITH. I know that God wants a relationship with me and I want a relationship with Him. I want to be loved by people and to love people. Can this just happen and these relationships develop? Did it start with God’s desire for relationship or did it start with His faith? I find that I can have no lasting relationship without applying faith or it goes south. My marriage relationship is great but the glue is faith. I have had times in my life where great faith was available and I was able to walk in this awesome faith but my relationship skills were not there and relationships took a hit.

Now I enjoy relationship so much that if I’m not aware and careful, my faith will dwindle. I don’t want faith that builds at the expense of relationship. I don’t want relationships that doesn’t have a Kingdom building purpose through faith.

Just pondering.

What an Easter

                                      This is a GREAT BIG THANK YOU.  First, thanks to all of you who parked in the back to make room for new guests and those unable to walk as well.  Twenty (20) cars parked behind the fence.  We still ran out of space but usaually we have only four park in the rear.  You opened up 16 spaces up front.   THANKS.  Second, I want to thank all the volunteers that served in the nursery.  Teaching, training, and controlling forty (40) preschoolers would take me over the top.  I truely appreciate your service for Christ,  To you, a great big THANKS Beth and team.  You are the best.  Third, for the workers who were in KWAM (our childrens’ church/Kids With A Mission)  Forty (40) kids from kindergarten to 5th grade.  Wow you deserve a medal and a GREAT BIG THANKS.  Thanks Chris and team.  Fourth for all twenty (20) who gave your simple but powerful testimonies on cardboard.  It brought the whole church to their feet.  Thanks for your humility and witness.  And last for all of you who helped us set a record attendance.  God love you all

THE WINAMAC HAPPENING

What a celebration we will have tomorrow night. The first Sunday in April 1987 we had our first service of Church of the Heartland. Then it was Grace Community Church and we didn’t even conceive of the idea of campuses. That has grown to 7 churches, Christian schools, daycare, coffee shops, biker churches, home extensions, and an awesome Bible College that has produced hundreds of leaders and believers. Believe me, this has been a work of God not a work of man.

22 years ago this was all a seed planted by God in my heart. The greatest of this is its ability to remain as fruit past its founders. This Good Friday and I mean good Friday, I will celebrate the beginning of another generation and the seed planted in their hearts. We the elders of GIM (Church of the Heartland) will present before God the leader for the next step. We will be celebrating the Easter Good Friday with awesome worship and commissioning Heath Hiatt for the second leg of the journey for Northern Central Indiana.

Thank you Winamac for the great start. Thank you Heartlanders for the awesome spirit you have to advance the Kingdom. Thank you elders for keeping your eyes on Jesus and not man. Thank you Heath for carrying on the dream.

Thank you Sandy for staying beside me even when times were rough. It could not have been done without you. And thank you Jesus for letting this little farm boy from Star City, Indiana be a part of Your World.

MOGULUS

MOGULUS is a free live video feed to anyone with a high speed internet connection to their computer.  Last night was a trial run for us Heartlanders by broadcasting live the Biker church service last night at 5:00 pm EST.  Several of us were logged onto http://www.mogulus.com/churchoftheheartland and watched the live worship and preaching at the COTH Biker Church.  There were 1336 viewer minutes last night.  If everyone watched the whole hour, then their were over twenty people watching the service.

What potentential does this have?  We can have live meetings for free from all our leaders including Serbia and Uganda feeds.   Every Campus could broadcast their services.   It takes very little eguipment.  All you need is a camera, computer and internet connection.

Let’s discuss the possibilities of MOGULUS.  Give me your input.

The Power of Baptism

What a Sunday!! I would appreciate a lot of feedback about the baptism service. We interviewed the eight youth who chose to publicly tell what Jesus had done in their lives. Then they were baptized on stage during the worship service. Normally we would have baptized separately but this time incorporated worship believing that the ceremony is worship to the Father.

Heartlanders, give me some feedback. What did it mean to you? Would you like to see it done this way again?

NEW SANCTUARY

So many have helped with this project.  It will be state of the art for video and sound when finished.  The lighing is awesome.  Come check it out.  We are progressing as the money allows.  We are about to start on the new KWAM (Kids with a Mission) room.  KWAM is our children’s ministry.  It will also be state of the art.  The nursery or WEE ROCK is already complete.  Wow does it look awesome.

Come and check out the progress.

THE FUTURE

Here I am very early on a Sunday morning tweaking my message and service order for today.  I was reading some responses from our website and was answering their questions, when it hit me so hard.  God has been preparing me so much for the future.

1.  Part of that preparation has been the moving up to an ambassadoral role in Church of the Heartland and watching Heath take what I birthed and maturing it into an awesome ministry with an awesome future.

2.   I am realizing that there has been an endowment from heaven to enjoy, train and empower young people, including youth and children to be powerful Christians for their generations.  I’m so excited for their generation.

3.  I have such a desire to be an available father to those especially under 40.  Fatherhood is missing in many of these young children and adults.  God shows us true fatherhood and we should embrace it.  We must become mothers and fathers to the young.

4.   Why do I like texting, Facebook and websights.  The answer;  I like connecting to those who have stuff happening.   And for now the happening is in the youth of our country.

Don’t look at CNN, CBS or Fox to bring you what is happening in this world.  Read you Bibles and let the Holy spirit, the most awesome teacher, tell you the news.  The news is that God is setting up generations to come that will know how to minister to a messed up world.

Best Winter Kids Camp Ever

Heartland Camp Team,

 

WOW!!! I just wanted to share how awesome I thought camp was (before I pass out! lol) Our goal was to make this one of the best weekend of the kids lives & I definately think we did that. I was impressed by all the little details that went into camp. I felt like one of the kids, I couldn’t wait to see what was next in the skits and at “Pirates Cove”.  From the time the kids arrived until they went home, you guys were making memories that they won’t forget. I also believe that lives were changed this weekend and that is because of all of you.  This was 100% teamwork from set up to clean up. I loved being part of the camp team this year! I can honestly say that I don’t think it would have been the same without each one of you. So thanks for being YOU!   

 

When I gt pictures, I’ll post them

 

By the way, all receipts are in and it looks like we have $425 to go towards summer camps! Yes that is +425 not -425! Woo hoo!!!

 

Love u guys!

Chris

A BIG THANK YOU

 

This thursday we viewed the movie “FIREPROOF.”  WOW, what a movie.  Thanks for all who made this happen.  We had popcorn, cupcakes, and cookies.  All free plus soft drinks and lovelydecorated movie theater/sanctuary.   Thank you Amy Schuler and crew for a great night.