my dreams

a few new ideas and below that, some old ideas.
* a book club: meets 3 or 4 times a year and the group could be more outreach focused and more comfortable for inviting non-christians or it could be more believer-focused.

* a movie club: same as above, except you watch movies and talk about them or watch movies, write a "review", then get together to talk about them.

* a study of feasts: study the feasts of the old testament and how those feasts pre-figure fulfillment in christ. include or conclude with a seder service on maundy thursday of easter week. seder is the passover supper.

*busking for burma: we go out on a streetcorner somewhere, set up shop with our instruments and play music to raise money and awareness for burma or a specific mission field. it seems like a great combination of music, potential evangelism and social justice.

these ideas are from the liveoak planning council--please see https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4114670011479311658&postID=7873655403111241947 for this and others' comments--there are some great ideas.

*reaching various populations of austin: singles, gays/lesbians, students, moms and kids

*having an ethnically, generationally and socio-economically diverse body of believers in liveoak

*refreshing and renewing believers in the church

*supporting times of transition (which often are times of attrition at liveoak) such as going from the student to the work world, singleness to marriage OR marriage to singleness (in the case of divorce, widowing)

*film ideas:
-Gay and lesbian international film fest entry: a middle-aged gay ballet dancer struggling through empty revelry and enticed by glimpses of real joy.

-a film on the life of john paton, missionary to south pacific islanders—a great quote about him:
Almost every one thought it very strange and very foolish for two young men to give their lives for the salvation of people so cruel and uncivilized as the natives of the South Pacific Islands. One old gentleman said, "The cannibals! you will be eaten by the cannibals!"
Mr. Paton said, "Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is: soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; and I confess to you, that if I can live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer." The old gentleman had nothing more to say.

*following the church calendar (a la michele’s comment)—I’d love to have an easter morning re-enactment/sunrise service.

*single’s ministry—that’s pretty general, but the moms have MOPS and playgroup, so I think something, even if it’s periodic (i.e., monthly/quarterly) would be a great time of fellowship among singles.

*pastor chats—different groups in the church getting some chat time with the pastors (i.e., students/families/singles/kids) informal, moderately sized group, just for people to get some “face time” with the pastors (or just one pastor) and for the pastors to hear how people are doing directly.

*book of the month—a discussion of a book of the bible….or other groups (fiction/non-fiction, etc.)

*film discussion group—discussing films at a variety of levels, what does it say about life? God?

*servant evangelism/compassion ideas: oh my goodness, the possibilities are endless.

Free carwashes, lemonade giveaways, windshield cleaning at gas stations, fresh flowers for hospitals/nursing homes/hospices, freshman care packages, food pantry, Austin food bank, blankets for the homeless, angel tree stuff at Christmas, soup kitchens, and on, and on….

*habitat for humanity

*liveoak/longhorn life involvement and visibility (t-shirts, etc.) in area events such as AIDS walk, walk for life, stand down (day for the homeless), etc.

*pub/café chats: discussion groups periodically meeting in public places to talk about theology/life/etc. –hey the protestant reformation really caught on from people talking about it pubs!

*vacation bible school

*youth group

*a missions map—since we’re a “sending” church we could have a map up with info about who we’ve sent where, what they’re doing, info about the country and how to pray

*PRAYER: I think we (or at least *I*) need very much to focus on prayer—some ideas:
Praying for unsaved parents/siblings/spouses
Praying for the world, country by country (see Operation World, a book for praying through all the countries)
Praying through current events

*missions focus: we could have a month, for example, focused on world missions where each week we highlight a different country or different types of mission work that goes on around the world. It seems logical enough to start with stuff that liveoak is/has been most directly involved in: the laffertys (Amsterdam), Shelley adler (Poland), ben bringardner (italy), nelson/renee/rebecca evans (zambia), ellen (Burkina faso/bible translation), etc.

*international student ministry—adopt a student, the pals program….

*mission UT or mission Austin--in town mission trips

*mission trips to mexico--several groups regularly make weekend building trips to mexico

*camping trips--time for renewal, relaxation, re-creation, fun, ahhh!