Missions
Global Impact Celebration: A historical review
Where have we been and why do we do this? Eleven years ago at LifeWay Church, we began dedicating one week of the year to a Global Impact Celebration, or GIC. It is a week on our calendar, but if that is all the annual GIC is for you, then you’ve totally missed the entire point. Let me explain. Why did we start this, and what’s the history of GIC? To be honest, most churches, when they are involved in missions,…
A Global Mandate from Our Global God
If you had a dream of going somewhere in the world where you have never been—seeing something with your own eyes instead of seeing just tourist photos—where would it be? It’s a bit of a “what’s on your bucket list?” question. A cruise through the inside passage to Alaska? The tropical islands of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean? The fjords of Norway? The glaciers and penguins of Antarctica? The Gobi Desert of Mongolia? The Great Wall of China? Machu…
LifeWay and the Desna Cup
The Desna Cup story and LifeWay’s long connection with it This coming Sunday, we are closing our building, leaving our church property, and heading to join a handful of local churches for a group worship service at an event called the Desna Cup. The worship time is at 10:30 a.m. and the basic instructions are highlighted for you in this week’s newsletter. Some of you, for the last several years, may have driven by Saghalie Middle School on a mid-August…
Ambassadors Are We
I am nowhere near a news junkie, as Billy would sometimes call himself. But from time to time, I like to keep up with the news and get informed about what is going on in our world. This week I learned that our president nominated Caroline Kennedy and Michelle Kwan to be U.S. ambassadors to Australia and Belize, respectively. The Kennedy nomination caught my eye because she formerly served as U.S. ambassador from 2013 to 2017 to Japan, a country…
GIC: What’s the Big Deal?
What’s the big deal with Global Impact Celebration week at LifeWay? Right now as this goes out to our church family, we are in the middle of our annual Global Impact Celebration week. Last night (Wednesday) we kicked things off with a celebration worship service, where we introduced some amazing guests who represent incredible gospel work around the world. But one part of the service really stood out to me. For about eight minutes, we showed a video produced here…
Dear LifeWay Church Family…
You have often heard me say that the Global Impact Celebration (GIC) week at our church is far and away the most important week of the year. I have said that now for 10 years; that has been and remains to be true to this day. With that said, I’m writing this to remind you of the value of what is coming over the next few days. I am pleading with you, as your pastor, to treat this week with extra care and attention. If…
Preparing for Sunday
Beginning with last Sunday, we are taking four Sundays to work through the biblical application of the word, OBEDIENCE. The essence is that we must determine our identity, and then literally live it out—do it—BE it. Take a moment and try to remember back as a child, to what you dreamed of being as a grown-up. I wanted to be a naturalist—a wildlife specialist of some kind. All I knew of and imagined in this job was that I would spend…
Global Impact Celebration—GIC Time
I recently preached two of what I call “location sermons” on video. The first of those sermons was in front of the Annex, where I began many years ago. The second sermon was in front of our main building, which was built about 30 years ago. I did this to help illustrate the fact that we think a church is traditionally formed—a building, a place, a pastor, a sermon. These elements are wonderful parts of our history, but they are not…
What I Learned Visiting Eternal Anchor
Last week I had the privilege of visiting Eternal Anchor, LifeWay’s missions partner in Baja California, Mexico. In many ways, it was probably a pretty typical missions trip—a high-poverty area, a mix of manual labor and time with kids, sleeping on bunk beds…but let me assure you, this was not a typical place. Here are several things I learned visiting Eternal Anchor: Eternal Anchor is a life-saving ministry. While many people with disabilities sadly still suffer discrimination and difficulties in…
Eternal Anchor: Day 6
This week our “field correspondent,” Heather Althoff, is sharing her daily highlights and experiences on mission at Eternal Anchor. Friday, August 13 Sometimes when your group gathers for an activity you just need to sit in a ball pit—and everyone is cool with that. The end of the week feels like a big celebration before everyone goes home for the weekend. Come experience Eternal Anchor for yourself! We’re accepting applications through August 15 for the next short-term mission trip in…
Eternal Anchor: Day 5
This week our “field correspondent,” Heather Althoff, is sharing her daily highlights and experiences on mission at Eternal Anchor. Thursday, August 12 Sam gets messy with the kids at Eternal Anchor. Shaving cream is a simple sensory tool used for drawing—and playing!! Each day the kids have a Bible story time. They often act out the story with costumes and repeat the story all week so they get lots of chances to learn it. Normal games like bowling are simply…
Eternal Anchor: Day 4
This week our “field correspondent,” Heather Althoff, is sharing her daily experiences on mission at Eternal Anchor. WednESDAY, AUGUST 11 Painting with shaving cream is one of many simple sensory activities the kids at Eternal Anchor enjoy. Not only do they dance and have fun, but members of the adult program learn by participating in everyday activities like cleaning up and setting up snack time. One of my favorite things about Eternal Anchor’s program is that they encourage kids to…
Eternal Anchor: Day 3
This week our “field correspondent,” Heather Althoff, is sharing her daily experiences on mission at Eternal Anchor. TuesDAY, AUGUST 10 We spent some time helping Eternal Anchor begin their move to a new school campus. A local community center is allowing them to use their space for the next 5 years. This will allow them to expand the residential program at their current campus. Stella and Emilie help Raul work on strengthening his legs for walking. Game time at the…
Eternal Anchor: Days 1-2
This week our “field correspondent,” Heather Althoff, is sharing her daily experiences on mission at Eternal Anchor. Sunday, August 8 Wow, they always tell you to be flexible on a mission trip, and we got to practice that right away. A 3 a.m. wake-up call, 5-hour flight delays, canceled Uber rides, and confused van rentals left the team killing time in San Diego—which, honestly, is not a bad place to kill some time. However, we still ended up hitting the…
Partnering With the World
Are you ready for your commitment? This whole week we have focused on ways that we are invited by the Almighty God of the universe to partner with him in his work. A Christian leader a while back famously said, “Find out what God is doing, and then join him.” The beauty of this truth is that we actually do get to join God in his incredible work. He offers this partnership to his people (you and me), but are…
A Quick Word from Billy about the GIC
A decade ago, LifeWay Church felt led by God to make a major shift in the reason for our existence. We committed to remaking ourselves into becoming… An equipping and sending church A going church A Great Commission church A missions church In 2012, we started what has become the most important week in the life of our church calendar: the GLOBAL IMPACT CELEBRATION (GIC). Since 2012, for every GIC we have invited guest missionary workers from around the world…
Suffering Outside of the Limelight
For what seems forever, television has made suffering seem stylish by recruiting people from all walks of life to endure danger and deprivation in seemingly real trials, pitting them against the elements or other contestants who are out to get them. The payoff scene at the end of the program celebrates lots of high-fives and expressions of relief as contestants board helicopters or Land Rovers to return to normal life and their often-healthier bank accounts. This kind of made-for-TV suffering…
Multiply! Buliisa Starting Up Again!
After nearly three months of COVID-19 interruptions, we are re-engaging with our plans for Multiply! Buliisa! Just in case you’ve forgotten, let me remind you what Multiply! is all about: Multiply! is a chance for us to consider how God views our resources, to be encouraged by the ways that God has multiplied resources for his glory in the past, and to commit to using our resources for the good of those in need. Specifically, we are focusing our efforts…
Consistent, Fervent Prayer
I will admit that I am not the prayer warrior that I wish I was. I’m not really great at praying consistently, persistently, and with a great deal of faith. And yet all of these things are descriptions that the Bible uses to describe the way followers of Jesus should approach prayer. In Luke 18, Jesus describes the need for persistent prayer with a story about a widow and an unrighteous judge. In Mark 11, he says that whatever the…
Behind the Scenes
Join Heather by video this week as she updates us on ways to engage in God’s mission and reminds us that God is doing exciting things behind the scenes, just as he did during the original Easter weekend. Find out how you can help at and around LifeWay here.