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Name: Parents with kids in choir
Contact person: Jerry Newman
Exertion/Impact Level: Medium-High
Notes: Open to anyone old enough to enter the weight room without a guardian (min. 10th grade)
Explantion of workout: This is a fact paced workout to accomplish as much as possible in a very short time. After a quick stretch, the group will spend 5 minutes on 3 different cardio machines, followed by a 5 minute cool down.
For more information, or to join this group, please post a comment.
What did you think of Camp CUMC?
What should be done different?
What should we NOT change?
Tell us what you think.
What is the weight room etiquette for the Christian Life Center? Share your thoughts by clicking "comments" below.
Futsal is a type of Brazilian indoor soccer and CUMC Sports is building Futsal leagues for children, youth, and adults to play at the Christian Life Center. What are your thoughts on Futsal and other programming ideas for the CLC?
Transformation
I am often amazed at how the general on-goings of life parallel our relationship with God. Psalm 19:1 states “the heavens declare the glory of God” as if all of creation is centered around communion with the Creator.
Jesus taught with parables. He took a simple ordinary event, and used it as an illustration regarding our faith. Our understanding is dependent upon our frame of reference. When Jesus tells the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11), we can relate because we put ourselves in the shoes of the characters. We have all been through similar situations and know how they must have felt. Parables are an exceptional teaching tool because they take the abstract (faith, God, Heaven) and put it in a context we can understand, i.e. our life.
Have you ever taken a moment to think about how often our lives mirror our faith? Think about the relationships you have. How dependent are they on good communication? Very much, I would assume. How does that relate to prayer? Think about the food you eat. Is your health dependent upon what you put in your body? How are you feeding your faith? It seems as though everything in our life is somewhat symbolic of our relationship with God, as if God is the center, primary, or the most important.
I was in the gym this morning, going through my routine and began thinking about transformation - the idea that a true follower of Christ should be transformed by their beliefs. I realized this idea is exactly like an exercise routine. The human body is a remarkably adaptive machine. Any fitness expert will tell you 2 things: 1. mix things up, and 2. intensity matters not duration. Why? Because the body adapts. By varying the type and intensity, you prevent your body from “becoming comfortable” and you will continue to make improvement. We plateau when our bodies adapt, and settle into a nice comfortable routine. At this point, the process of transformation comes to a screeching halt.
For transformation to continue, we must be challenged.
What is the point of exercise? Weight loss, endurance, flexibility, general health? Regardless of the goal, we will plateau if not challenged.
How is your faith? Are you continuing to be transformed or have you gotten comfortable in your routines? How can you start the process of transformation? What areas do you struggle with?
Transformation is a process, not a goal. Be it physical or spiritual, there is always room for improvement. We are made in the imagine of God, for God’s purpose. I pray that you seek out ways to grow in your faith and recognize that our lives are precious gifts. Gifts that, at the core, cry out for God and desire nothing more than to glorify the Creator.
Chris Jones
Director of Sports and Recreation
Playing with a Purpose
Pursuits
For the past several months I have been plagued by a single question. I think about it when washing my truck, mowing the yard, and even paying bills. "What is truly important?” When I obsess over a minor detail of life, I often catch myself and ask, “Is this really what is important?”
For the past year I have been building a patio in my backyard. This project started as a small fence for our new puppy, grew into a pergola, and in the next few days I hope to complete the deck of our new patio. The funny part is that this all started so the dog could have his own shaded area. Now he spends most of his day on the couch and will only go outside if it is 65 degrees with a cool breeze! Safe to say, he won’t use it much but hopefully my wife and I will. During this process I have found myself obsessing over it. Unfinished projects irritate me so the year-long time-frame in itself has been difficult enough. And now that it rains every other day I can't get my schedule and the weather to mesh. I have obsessed over its completion and at times gotten very frustrated. Countless times during its construction I have asked myself, "Is this really important?" Initially my thoughts were towards my attitude, “Is this worth getting upset about?” But over time they have grown into a deeper question of “Is this worth spending my time and money on?” We can argue at length about increases in home values, entertainment opportunities, etc. But instead let’s remove my patio example and ask a much larger question. Are you spending your resources on the things that really matter? And what really does matter? Is it a car? A house? A relationship?
My deepest frustration lies within the realization that I am obsessing about worthless pursuits that carry no kingdom value. What if I put the same time and back-breaking energy into a relationship? Or dedicated it to the glory of God?
Colossians 3:1-2 reads: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
I also like Matthew 6:19-20, which reads, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal”
The cold reality is that those trinkets which we so passionately pursue today will be dust tomorrow. So my question remains. What really matters? How do we "store up treasures in Heaven?" In looking at the life of Christ in its complete context, I can immediately learn two things. 1) Jesus came to serve, and 2) It's all about God. This idea is summed up perfectly in Luke 27 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself."
I have heard it said God does not mind us having things, only when things have us. I honestly don’t believe that when I stand in judgment, God will point to my patio with disapproval. But if I choose to spend this gift called life shopping and building sand castles, then I might have something to answer for. Don’t be confused or worried about where to start. Just reach out to a fellow human being and love them as Christ loves you.
Chris Jones
Director of Recreational Ministries
Practice
May 2007
I’m a person of repetition. To be successful I need to practice and repeat a motion over and over again before it ever becomes a skill. Recently, I was asked to sub for a fast pitch baseball team, and while the church league softball team can get pretty competitive, it does nothing to prepare you for real baseball! I stepped onto the field, and for the next 6 hours (we played a double-header) I was as awkward as a new puppy. I fielded some grounders, made a couple of outs, and even made contact at the plate. Nothing spectacular, but not a failure either. At the end of the day, what bothered me most was how uncomfortable I felt, not with the team, but with my own skill. I quickly realized that if I were ever going to make the big leagues, I would need considerable practice to reach any level of comfort.
Practicing your faith is a lot like practicing medicine - at what point do you actually get in the game? Maybe we practice our faith because we never really get it right. It’s always growing, changing, evolving. At least it should be. This brings us to our question. How do we practice our faith? I will never be skillful at baseball, golf or anything else if I do it occasionally. Even if I practice once a week, I might only reach a small level of comfort. To reach my full potential, practice must be a constant and never-ending commitment.
Now the question becomes, are you happy where you're at? If your level of maturity is satisfying then this issue is irrelevant. However, I'm willing to bet we all desire a deeper relationship, a deeper level of comfort. I can hear it now because I've said it, “If I had the time to be a professional golfer, better parent, husband, or movie star, I would.” We have all been lectured enough about priorities. So this is not going to be a “put God first” lesson. Instead, I hope to share with you the importance of creating habits in your normal routine that can help further your faith.
Put aside your fears of technology and embrace it. Some technology will do as promised and actually make your life easier. To feel connected, I have to saturate myself in the things that ignite my soul. Sunday is not enough, as this renovation project requires a lot more effort! That being said, there is a wonderful thing called podcasting, and I suggest you try it out. A podcast can be anything. A radio show, TV show, book review, or sermon, all online and ready to download to your mp3 player. If you subscribe, broadcasts are sent directly to your computer like a magazine to your mailbox. I subscribe to several pastors and hear sermons from all over the country. If you are a frequent reader of the
Rec Connection, then you know how I love to run, and sermons on podcast have replaced my music. My wife has even bought in and when you see her on the elliptical, she is listening to a sermon. Our very own Christ Church is in the podcasting business and months worth of sermons are online, ready for download. I am always in Full Court, and to stay connected to sanctuary worship, I use the podcast. This way I know what the rest of the congregation is learning and can stay up to speed.
If this isn't your thing, that's fine. It just an example of a system I have built to keep me saturated. This is just one way I practice my faith. I challenge you to look for new and creative ways to practice yours. Stop “subbing in” as a Christian and embrace the rich, full life God desires for each of us.
Chris Jones
Director of Recreational Ministries
Playing with a Purpose
I Just Can't Run Far Enough
Oddly enough my favorite form of exercise is running. I say oddly because running was so often a form of punishment in the sports I grew up playing. However, I have found it to be the fastest way to get my heart rate up, get a good sweat, and enjoy the outside air. For a long time running was a task to marked off, a means to an end. But I have come to realize that running is therapeutic in multiple ways, both good and bad.
Running is great for the heart, but bad for the knees. It is good for the lungs, but torture on my lower back. Running facilitates weight loss, but also skinned knees! This two-sided effect can be felt beyond the physical body. I run to find time for myself. It is here that I can focus on one task and nothing more. There are not emails to be answered or chores to be done. The pressures of life seem so distant when your priority is the next breath. It is so often in running that I find peace. If there are physical side effects, then there are emotional side effects. Often the run around the block is less practical and more metaphorical, meaning that I am actually attempting to run away from something. Maybe if I run far enough or fast enough, I will somehow leave all my worries and troubles behind. I have thought if I run a little further, a little longer, or a little faster, that life won't be
able to find me.
The Bible may be thousands of years old, but it still speaks to the human condition. It is full of stories where people run to escape their problems and hide from the pressures of life. We get only a few pages into the story and Adam is already hiding his nakedness.
There have been many times in my life when I have run from God. I have gone out on my own and muddled through life only to realize how much better off I was with God. But what does that mean? I've heard people say that all my life and never really understood what that meant. How do we let God take control? This can be a very confusing statement. I've come to realize it's about being connected. The times in my life when I have felt most distant from God are the times when I did not pray, did not read the Bible, and did not worship. When you don't seek to understand the Creator, you won't find him.
I want to be very clear here. So often the canned answer to all of life's problems is "read your Bible more, pray more, or just DO more." Understand that God loves you just as you are today, not once you have memorized the New Testament. Being connected is not a matter of DOING, it's a matter of SEEKING. Let me continue the running analogy. You and I will never forget how to run. But there is a difference between running daily, and running once a month. I can sit on my couch and understand why running is important and the mechanics of how to do it. But if I never engage in the activity, I will never see the benefits. The same can be said of God. I can understand WHY God is important, and the love that exists. But I will never experience the fullness of life God desires as long as I stay on the couch.
I wish I could tell you that I will never run from God again, that I will face all of my problems. But the truth is, I will run. I will hide. But you can't run from God and for that I am thankful. It is in these brief moments of clarity that I laugh in my own insecurity, and praise God for his patience. I will run, but God will be still be there when I return.
Chris Jones
Director of Recreational Ministries
Playing with a Purpose
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