Life Group UPDATE
March 29 & 30, 2014
Life Group Leadership Rally Wed. April 2
All Life Group leaders, hosts, apprentices/assistants and spouses!
God is doing so many great things already this year! I get great reports of how you are stepping up to serve one another, and build community in the group, as we talked about last time. This time we will look at helping you as a leader personally. There are six myths every leader (even small group leaders) need to know and avoid. Otherwise you get bogged down and even discouraged. Maybe it's already happening!
Please RSVP to Holly McAndrew if you have not already at holly@gowoodland.com
Egg Drop Parrish Volunteer Sign Up Online!
Saturday, April 19 is our Egg Drop in Parrish at Buffalo Creek Park. Last year we had 6,000 attend and it took 200 Woodland Volunteers. It's time to start signing up to serve and this year you can CLICK HERE TO VOLUNTEER and choose a team to serve on.
Mark your calendar: our Volunteer Meeting will Be Wednesday evening, April 16 (6:30pm) at the Lakewood Ranch Campus. This is where each team meets together with it's leader and coordinates the details. Please attend this meeting please if you volunteer.
Teams to Serve On for Egg Drop
We hope those attending the Woodland Parrish campus will especially step up to volunteer as this will be a major way to grow the church.
Mark your calendar: our Volunteer Meeting will Be Wednesday evening, April 16 (6:30pm) at the Lakewood Ranch Campus. This is where each team meets together with it's leader and coordinates the details. Please attend this meeting please if you volunteer.
Teams to Serve On for Egg Drop
We hope those attending the Woodland Parrish campus will especially step up to volunteer as this will be a major way to grow the church.
- Friday evening Set Up Crew (6-9pm, 60 needed)
- Saturday Set Up Crew (6-8am, 30 needed)
- Tear down Crew 1-3pm, 30 needed)
- Kids Activities (60 needed, various booths)
- Parking (30 needed)
- Food (40 needed)
- Registration (20 needed)
- Other (30 needed)
- Specialty Volunteers (see details online)
Host Homes Needed for Our OASIS Community Center College Summer Missionaries
We have two of our three college summer missionaries already committed. Pray for God to send the third for our summer team for our OASIS Community Center in Samoset.
Right now we need to line up host homes for Brandon and Angie. If you have a spare room and can host let Banks Corl know at bcorl@gowoodland.com
Right now we need to line up host homes for Brandon and Angie. If you have a spare room and can host let Banks Corl know at bcorl@gowoodland.com
Focus Point Spring Semester Starts Wed. April 8th
Eyewitness to Majesty (Peter)
Ladies, join us for this 10 week Bible study starting Wed. April 8th at 6:30PM.
NOAH: What's the Scoop on this Latest Movie?
There has been a lot of buzz about the Noah movie that comes out tomorrow Staring Russell Crowe. The radio has been blasting ads how that have the fast talking announcer say, "no creative license has been taken" and that they producers believe the events are biblically accurate. Yet the director has gone on record saying he's an atheist and that this account has "little" Bible in it. So what's happening?
OK, first, there are rock giants in the Movie who look like they walked over from The Lord of the Rings set. And in fact they help Noah build the ark. What? You missed that part in Genesis?
Interestingly, though, the Bible does talk about a race of giants, the Nephilim (Genesis 6:4) who were the product of relations between human women and some of the cast out "sons of God" (most scholars believes this refers to some sort of angelic beings). The idea of these Watchers, as the movie calls them, were there to protect Cain, as God promised, comes from Jewish Midrash, extra biblical stories by ancient rabbis that fill in the blanks, so to speak, but were not considered part of Scripture. As Christians we would not take Midrash as necessarily true, and certainly not authoritative or inspired. It was part of ancient Jewish tradition and literature. The word Nephilim can mean "giant" but it can be translated "the fallen." The Jewish book of Enoch says those fallen angels were later cast into Tarturus, and the biblical book of Jude (v. 6) seems to affirm, " And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,"
In the movie, Noah appears as a man with deep conflicts at times. He is certainly not the typical character of children's Bible illustrations. And he is very concerned with the environment. Yep.
So what do we make of this movie? A good article that lists the good and bad in the movie can be found here. I recommend you read it over.
I love a good rock giant in a movie as much as the next guy. Maybe more! Russell Crowe is a great actor. Anthony Hopkins is actually playing a good guy, Methuselah, for once. Seeing the latest effects wizards bring the ark, the flood, the Nephilim to life certainly sounds cool. They did accurately portray Noah as the last of the decendents of Seth and the sole "godly line" remaining on earth. And a movie maker has to creatively fill in plausible actions, characters and conversations, that are in keeping with the biblical story and characters. No one argues with that.
But does this movie go off on a tangent that takes it out of the orbit of epics such as The Ten Commandments, or recent films such as the Son of God? There will be debate among believers for sure. Focus on the Family said it was OK, according to one HuffPo article. Other evangelicals are clear it is not. At any rate, if you go, do be prepared to see a movie that will go well beyond the biblical information and is more, as the studio says, "inspired" by the story of Noah, than an attempt to retell it literally. And as the Luis Palau association pointed out, either way, it may lead to the chance to have conversations with people and share our faith.
OK, first, there are rock giants in the Movie who look like they walked over from The Lord of the Rings set. And in fact they help Noah build the ark. What? You missed that part in Genesis?
Interestingly, though, the Bible does talk about a race of giants, the Nephilim (Genesis 6:4) who were the product of relations between human women and some of the cast out "sons of God" (most scholars believes this refers to some sort of angelic beings). The idea of these Watchers, as the movie calls them, were there to protect Cain, as God promised, comes from Jewish Midrash, extra biblical stories by ancient rabbis that fill in the blanks, so to speak, but were not considered part of Scripture. As Christians we would not take Midrash as necessarily true, and certainly not authoritative or inspired. It was part of ancient Jewish tradition and literature. The word Nephilim can mean "giant" but it can be translated "the fallen." The Jewish book of Enoch says those fallen angels were later cast into Tarturus, and the biblical book of Jude (v. 6) seems to affirm, " And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,"
In the movie, Noah appears as a man with deep conflicts at times. He is certainly not the typical character of children's Bible illustrations. And he is very concerned with the environment. Yep.
So what do we make of this movie? A good article that lists the good and bad in the movie can be found here. I recommend you read it over.
I love a good rock giant in a movie as much as the next guy. Maybe more! Russell Crowe is a great actor. Anthony Hopkins is actually playing a good guy, Methuselah, for once. Seeing the latest effects wizards bring the ark, the flood, the Nephilim to life certainly sounds cool. They did accurately portray Noah as the last of the decendents of Seth and the sole "godly line" remaining on earth. And a movie maker has to creatively fill in plausible actions, characters and conversations, that are in keeping with the biblical story and characters. No one argues with that.
But does this movie go off on a tangent that takes it out of the orbit of epics such as The Ten Commandments, or recent films such as the Son of God? There will be debate among believers for sure. Focus on the Family said it was OK, according to one HuffPo article. Other evangelicals are clear it is not. At any rate, if you go, do be prepared to see a movie that will go well beyond the biblical information and is more, as the studio says, "inspired" by the story of Noah, than an attempt to retell it literally. And as the Luis Palau association pointed out, either way, it may lead to the chance to have conversations with people and share our faith.