If you were with us on Sunday you couldn’t miss the three Christmas trees in the foyer decorated with hundreds and hundreds of tags. These tags represent gifts that we plan to purchase as a church for several Christmas Stores hosted by DSC in partnership with area ministries, to help parents and children give gifts to one another who might otherwise not have that blessing.

If you are new to DSC or are just learning about the Christmas Store, check out this video and visit the recently updated Christmas Store page to learn more about this great opportunity for ministry in the surrounding communities.

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In addition to the Christmas Stores we have partnered to host in years past, this December, DSC will host a Christmas Store on our own property. We’re working with a local elementary school to identify and invite families in need from the community around our church.

If you’ve been around DSC for a while, you should know that we are laboring to be a church that plants churches that plant churches. In fact, just this past Monday, Carlos Griego signed the lease on a meeting place for Redemption Rio Rancho, DSC’s first local church plant.

With 2012 just around the corner, now is a good time for a refresher on why and how we’re going about church planting. Clint is DSC’s Missions Director, and he was happy (as you would imagine!) to answer several questions for us on the subject:

Can you explain to us again why we want to be a church planting church? 

For the long answer, visit our Church Planting Page, especially the FAQ section, and read Pastor Ryan’s Ten Reasons to Plant Churches Now. The bottom line is this: God sent His Son into the world to save sinners. Once Jesus accomplished this work on the cross, he came back to life and sent his followers out to proclaim the good news. Then Jesus instructed his followers to disciple believers in the context of the local church. We believe that the most Biblical and effective way to reach people and people groups is to plant churches that multiply. In light of this, we want to send folks out to North Africa and across our region to plant churches. We also pray that God will use this spirit of multiplication to awaken DSC to reaching our friends, family, and neighbors with the gospel.

Church planting is obviously a major undertaking  and at a number of levels. What are the costs involved for us as a body?

Comfort and coin. It’s going to cost us relationally as well as financially. Folks we love and find deep friendship and fellowship with may uproot from DSC and go with the first church plant (Redemption Rio Rancho), a future local church plant, or even sell all they have to move to North Africa to plant churches. And as a body, we must prayerfully serve them as they count the costs and step out in faith. It is also going to be an expensive endeavor. We hope to send out multiple church planters both locally and globally. Local church planters need temporary financial support from DSC, where as global church planters will likely need perpetual support from DSC. Either way, we are calling all of DSC to prayerfully consider starting by giving $1 per day for a year to church planting above their normal offerings. Then, as each year comes to an end, ask God in faith to provide through you to give another $1 per day to church planting. Our hope is that families and individuals will continue to increase from $1 per day, to $2 per day, to $3 per day, and more. The question shouldn’t be when can we stop, but rather, how much farther will God take us!

Giving is obviously, then, a big part of this. How can I get started or increase my giving?

The absolute best way is to set up both your regular giving and your church planting giving online here. If you’d prefer, you can use a missions envelope to designate your gift to “Church Planting.” Then, once you’ve made the commitment to give to church planting on a regular basis beyond your normal giving, you can send an email to missions@desertspringschurch.org in order to receive bimonthly updates on our church planting efforts via email.

For more information about DSC’s church planting strategy or how to set up your online giving, visit DSC’s Church Planting pages.

In Sunday’s sermon, “In Hot Pursuit of His Presence,” Ryan explored Psalm 16 to show us how we can pray with the Psalmist, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you…in your presence there is fullness of joy.”

In the course of his message, Ryan took some time to develop how the Bible relates the presence of God with the people of God. In what sense is God always with us and in what sense is He with us when we meet together on Sunday mornings? How And what is different for us as those who live on this side of Christ’s coming and have received the Spirit of God?

That portion of the message is worth listening to several times, as those are important questions. But if you are particularly interested in this central biblical theme, there are two previous sets of messages that you should consider: Ryan’s Saturday Seminar, Biblical Theology, and Ryan’s Sunday morning series, Mapping Out the Old Testament.

In reflection upon Psalm 16’s call for us to find our delight in God and in His people, Ryan addressed what has become a rather obvious and awkward weakness here at DSC: Some of us are not coming regularly and many of us are coming late to our Sunday services.

Noting the obvious periodic good reasons for being late, Ryan gave us several reasons why we should labor to make showing up early the new normal at DSC:

• Reverence for God
• Respect for others
• To set an example to our children of what’s really important
• To demonstrate to visitors that God is among us (1 Corinthians 14:24-25)
• To get as much of what we ultimately need (God) as we can get

Ryan also gave several practical suggestions:

• Prepare on Saturday night
• Plan to be early and take into consideration various predictable interruptions
• Listen for the band when they start playing one minute before the service starts
• Be willing to end your conversations around the building graciously, even if awkwardly, in order to get to the service on time

On this subject, two resources are helpful, including a sermon by John Piper, “Prepare to Meet Your God,” and Coty Pickney’s “Preparing to Worship.”

Benjamin Franklin had a great idea when he thought up Daylight Savings Time. We get plenty of sun in New Mexico, but Daylight Savings Time allows us to get the most sun at the best times of the day. The only downside, of course, is that we must eventually set our clocks back in the fall.

As you probably know, the day to set your clock back by one hour is tomorrow, Sunday, November 6. So, don’t forget to “fall back” by setting your clock back tonight ahead of tomorrow’s Sunday services.

Last week we published a post in follow up to our recent Elders Q&A. Below are links to audio for specific sections from the Q&A, along with relevant links around DSC’s website and additional recommended resources. 

Church Planting 

• Q&A Audio
• DSC’s Church Planting Page
• Frequently Asked Questions about Church Planting
• Messages on Church Planting
• Church Planter: The Man, The Message, The Mission, Darrin Patrick

DSC Finances

• Q&A Audio
• DSC’s Budget Process, recently posted by Ron Giese
• DSC’s Financial Accountability

DSC’s Affiliations and Accountability

• Q&A Audio
• The Gospel Coalition

Shepherding

• Q&A Audio
• DSC’s Leadership Page
• DSC’s Community Group Page
• The Trellis and The Vine, Colin Marshall and Tony Payne

Church Membership 

• Q&A Audio
• DSC’s Membership Class Page
• Messages on Church Membership
• 9Marks Video on Church Membership
• Excerpts from Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck’s, Why We Love The Church
• Ligon Duncan’s articles on Church Membership, (Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Community Groups

• Q&A Audio, Part 1
• Q&A Audio, Part 2
• DSC’s Community Groups Page
• Message: So What Do We Mean by Community?

Adoption Ministry

• Q&A Audio
• DSC’s Adoption Ministry Page
• Messages on Adoption
• Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches, Russell Moore

Schooling Approaches

• Q&A Audio

Global Church Planting

• Q&A Audio
• DSC’s Global Missions Page
• DSC’s Church Planting Page
• Messages on Church Planting
• Let the Nations Be Glad, John Piper

Click here to listen to previous Elders Q&A’s.