We’d like to thank all those who participated in our outreach to the residents, families and kids of Deer Run and Mill Creek this summer.  Over the course of 10 weeks, 350+ CPCC volunteers provided 2,500 lunches, reading, mentoring, games, ice cream, bubbles, popsicles and fun through this lunch program, book club and SNL.  As we’ve built a relationship with these families over the summer we’ve seen kids join Upward leagues, receive school supplies and clothing donations, and get connected with our tutoring program at Heritage elementary school among other things. 

As much as the church has ‘programmed’ a response to the needs of these families we’ve been overwhelmed to see how partners from CPCC have stepped up and simply met needs of others in this community without soliciting our input or help.  This, we truly feel is a great win, when Christ-followers rise up on their own initiative to help those around them with love, grace, basic need assistance and anything in between.

A special thanks to Terrie, Robert, Christy, Laura, Kristine, all our Book Club Reader Leaders and SNL volunteers.

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You are invited to be a part of some bridge building this summer… to extend the love of Christ and meet needs in our community. Specifically, we’re inviting you to be a part of the Deer Run and Mill Creek Summer Lunch Program located in West Chester off Smith and Beckett Roads- though you don’t have to bring any food… We’re inviting you to help make an impact on the Children of these complexes by reading with and to them throughout the summer. Literacy in this complex is always a struggle and we all know how important reading and literacy are to an individual child’s development. Your assistance in the afternoons this summer could make a tremendous difference, and you can help one of two ways. First, we want volunteers to host a story time everyday throughout the summer. We plan to have a chapter book read to the kids over the course of a week as they eat lunch on the lawn. We need volunteers that can come for about 30 minutes Monday through Friday (from about 12:15-12:45) for one week any week between June...

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In a Google culture where we can find any obscure autographed album or sports memorabilia in less than 45 seconds how does the church meet emergency needs on demand?  Feeling convicted that God’s church needs to be the center for meeting needs of those struggling in our community we’ve established the Community Needs List.  This list is basically an email distribution list and online community needs bulletin board combined.  As we are partnering more with those in the community who have needs we are learning more and more about how we and you can help those around us. 

Do you have a stock of items in your basement that you don’t need anymore?  Baby clothes, furniture, old computers, and more can be of benefit to those around us.  Maybe you have time and resources to give to an elderly lady that needs yardwork or gutters fixed.  Maybe you can help purchase diapers or formula for a young mother with no funds to raise a child she’s decided to keep in this world.  There are a lot of ways you can help and it...

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Dear Life Group Leaders and Needs List and Thank You Foundation Volunteers:

Dear Life Group Leaders, Needs List and Thank You Foundation Volunteers:  As part of our X-Focused Initiatives, we have been partnering with the Thank You Foundation in seeking ways to support military families in our area.  There are several needs and we are hoping that our Needs List Volunteers,  Thank You Foundation Volunteers and Life Groups will help to fill those needs

We had originally hoped to provide a Thanksgiving dinner banquet on November 21st  for the military families, but that has been cancelled.  The Thank You Foundation and Family Readiness Leaders have indicated that they would prefer our help in preparing individual baskets of Thanksgiving dinners for several military families so that they would have the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with their family and friends.  We are looking for volunteers to provide 6 complete Thanksgiving dinner baskets for military families.

Another opportunity to help...

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 “What is the biggest obstacle you have to ministry here in West Chester/Liberty Township?”  I asked the elders in my interview for employment nearly 2 years ago.  Their answer… materialism, self centeredness and lack of motivation to step out of our comfort zone and see the fullness of Christ’s gospel realized in everybody’s daily life.  Don’t we all struggle with this?  We tend to go about our day, worrying about ourselves, our families, what’s for dinner, how to excel at our job and then pull into our garage at night, shut the door and forget about the world around us.  Thousands of people living a life without hope, without food, clothing, help, medicine or Jesus…in our own backyard.  Well, the X-Focused ministry team has worked hard over the past 8 months to begin to identify needs of the hurting and struggling in our area and it is time to get to work.  Really, let’s do it.   Below are two sign-up links for you to participate in some outreach this summer…more opportunities will follow this summer and fall.

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So we know that we need to become more externally focused as a church, but how?  From an organizational standpoint, there are three things we need to do: assess the needs of our community, find out our strengths and abilities to help, and from those two evaluate what we will do.  Some ways that we can assess the needs of our community include doing a survey and speaking with representatives of different services within the community, such as schools, hospitals, social services and law enforcement.  It is also important to figure out what our strengths are as a church; we need to have some idea of what individuals within our congregation are willing to commit to, and what gifts and talents they have.  Once we have established these two things we’ll be able to match up our church with some important projects within the community.

Today’s meeting opened up with the question “What would the church be remembered for if it ceased to exist today?”  Unfortunately many churches today are known only to the outside world for the buildings they inhabit.  But I don’t think this is what Jesus intended; He and each of the apostles were actively involved in the communities around them, talking to, loving and serving others.  Why then has service to others become an afterthought to so many churches?  One reason could be that people don’t think of the poor and lost in their communities as in need when there are so many government welfare programs available.  However, this is a dangerous thought since government agencies at best can only meet physical needs, leaving the spirit as lost as ever. While the people serving their communities have the best of intentions, only Christians supplying water to the thirsty can provide a glimpse of the “living water” Christ spoke of, even without preaching a single word.  The Bible says we are to have a servant’s heart,...

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A few months ago my father was sharing with me a few stories about his life growing up.  My grandfather and grandmother on my dad’s side of the family passed away years before I was born so I was recently inquiring about his home growing up.  He was recollecting to me how Grandpa would work hard all day on the farm and with local farmers as a Veterinarian but would come home every day to sit at the table for dinner at 5:30p.m.  There, awaiting him would be a table full of food and kids (6 to be exact) where they gathered every night for dinner as a family.  As they would begin eating my grandfather would turn to grandma and say, “Well, Mother, how were the children today?”  And then the report would begin. Dad said you always knew if your name was going to come up and you were always terrified when it was.  If you were included in the “bad report” you would go stand next to grandpa at the table where he would sit calmly in his chair, grab your ear, start to twist until your feet came of the ground and then give you a “stern” lecture about what you had done while holding you, feet dangling on your tiptoes for support, until he finished his lecture.  My father reports that it was an effective means of punishment.  He also likes to joke that his brother Bruce had more ear twistings than anybody else in family history....

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Today’s meeting opened up with the question “What would the church be remembered for if it ceased to exist today?”  Unfortunately many churches today are known only to the outside world for the buildings they inhabit.  But I don’t think this is what Jesus intended; He and each of the apostles were actively involved in the communities around them, talking to, loving and serving others.  Why then has service to others become an afterthought to so many churches?  One reason could be that people don’t think of the poor and lost in their communities as in need when there are so many government welfare programs available.  However, this is a dangerous thought since government agencies at best can only meet physical needs, leaving the spirit as lost as ever. While the people serving their communities have the best of intentions, only Christians supplying water to the thirsty can provide a glimpse of the “living water” Christ spoke of, even without preaching a single word.  The Bible says we are to have a servant’s heart,...

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