Northstar Church: News

Sit With Me Sunday

This Sunday parents of our Jumpstart kids (grades K-5th) are invited to sit in on a class! We want parents to get to know our awesome volunteers and have a chance to see what their kids are learning each week. Please plan to come along with your child at 9:00 and stay as long as you would like.

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Celebrate Recovery begins February 20

After almost six months of planning, training, praying and preparing, Northstar Church is excited to offer Celebrate Recovery to our community and local campuses! CR is a Christ-centered and Bible-based recovery Program that originally began at Saddleback Church in Southern California.

So many lives have been changed by going through this recovery program. Over 700,000 people have gone through the Celebrate Recovery program in more than 17,000 churches worldwide. The purpose of this program is to focus on God’s healing power through fellowship with others and by working through the 8 Recovery Principles. Celebrate Recovery at Northstar Church is a safe place that is designed for healing life’s hurts, habits, and hang-ups!

You may think that CR is for folks with “real” problems. However, CR is for real people. We all struggle! In fact, the Bible is clear that we are all sinners. Everyone of us at moments in life encounter trials and hardships that may leave wounds or hangups. Therefore, CR is for anyone who is hurting, confused, or struggling and looking for some peace and sanity in their life.

Some of the struggles that people are coping with at Celebrate Recovery include, but are not limited to, the following:

For more information, check out the Northstar Celebrate Recovery website!

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Discipleship training class

Beginning Sunday, February 12 at the 11:00 service, we will be offering a discipleship training class for anyone interested in learning more about the process of making disciples. It will be led by Adam Wilson (click here to contact him with questions). It’s a six-week class, and the cost is $15 for the workbook that you will be using.

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New Series in February: 100% – All In

Beginning February 5, Northstar will enter into a new 4-week teaching series called 100% – All In. It’s an examination of what it means to be a biblical steward. You’ll be surprised and encouraged at how gracious and good and liberal our God is in blessing His people.

The outline for the series is as follows:

• The Heart of a Steward – February 5
• The Body of a Steward – February 12
• The Relationships of a Steward – February 19
• The Purse (or Man-Purse) of a Steward – February 26

Don’t miss this helpful and enlightening series! Northstar’s Stewardship Team is also working to develop some practical and creative ways that Northstar can respond to the series at its conclusion.

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Membership meeting scheduled for Sunday at 3:00 p.m.

Our first Membership Meeting of 2012 is scheduled for Sunday, January 29 at 3:00 p.m. at the BCM building. We have a lot to celebrate, discuss and share with one another!

Here’s the schedule:

• 3:00 – 4:30 Membership Meeting
• 4:45-5:45 – Fellowship Meal

The mealtime is open for guests and regular attenders who are not (yet) members of Northstar! It’s a great opportunity for new folks to meet members and vice versa. Since the meal is potluck, please visit this link and sign up to bring a meal item!

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Luke Celebration and Testimony Service

We started studying the Gospel of Luke in January of 2010. We completed the study on January 15, 2012! What an amazing time it’s been in this rich gospel as we’ve learned about the character and audacious love of God in Jesus Christ.

On Sunday, January 29, join us in our three services for a special time of celebration, praise and testimonies. We encourage you to read back through Luke in preparation for this week! Come prepared to share about a passage that has encouraged or spoken deeply to you over these past two years of study.

It will be a perfect time for guests to hear how God is shaping His church and still speaking to His people today!

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State of the Church 2012

Listen in as we celebrate our annual State of the Church Sunday! It’s an opportunity to reflect on all that God has done and to renew our commitments to be the church!

Click here for sermon notes. We’d encourage you to click the play button and then to use the slide show below. Advance it as Jeff shares with you each thought from the State of the Church message.

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You can also view today’s presentation here:

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Financial Peace University starts January 30

Northstar is excited to offer once again Financial Peace University to the community! This year’s emphasis is “The Great Recovery,” and through the class, you will receive practical tools and personal encouragement to take control of your money and begin putting it to good use – for you, others, and ultimately the Lord.

This 13-week program will help you change not just your management but your attitude toward money. It takes the knowledge from God and turns it into real action in our lives through a step-by-step process taught by best-selling author and financial counselor Dave Ramsey. The course includes practical lessons on eliminating debt, building wealth, giving like never before, and much, much more!

Northstar will be offering FPU on Mondays from 7:00-8:30 p.m. from January 30, 2012 through May 15, 2012. Sign up here to register and purchase your materials. The cost is $100 per household. Various payment options are available. For more information or questions, email Jarred Caple.

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State of the Church 2012

Sunday, January 22 will be an exciting day for the Northstar family. We’ll celebrate our annual State of the Church Sunday as we look back in thanksgiving and celebration to what our Lord has done in us and through us in 2011. We’ll also prayerfully look forward to what He is calling us toward in faith. Also that Sunday, we’ll move back to two services – 9:00 and 11:00 a.m.

Our annual State of the Church Sundays are wonderful times to invite people to experience heartfelt worship and to hear about the direction God is leading our church.

Please be in prayer for that day as we exalt our God who has given us salvation and a mission in Christ!

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What A Year Its Been

Every year about this time I start thinking about how crazy it is that another year has come and gone. How is it that time can go by so fast? And it goes by especially fast now that I have kids.

So in reflection I just wanted to put down some of the highlights in Children’s Ministry this year. We have done some really fun stuff! And all glory to God that we were able to pull it off!

We began last year uncertain of what would happen with our Jumpstart classroom. We were losing some faithful servants as teachers, our curriculum was no longer applicable, and we were uncertain how to manage having classes for the Elementary kids at 2 different services. Although it is still a work in progress, God has blessed us with some amazing new teachers and assistants, a wonderful new curriculum and a classroom to house it all at the high school.

We had two baby dedications in 2011. Eight families committed to raising their children God’s way with help from their Northstar family. We were so excited to see a baby boom in late Summer and Fall and began to recruit more workers for the Nursery! And they keep coming! More babies are due in 2012!

Over the summer we challenged our families to get to know their neighbors, coworkers and friends and invite them to a picnic at the end of the summer. The picnic at Hand in Hand park and our pool party at the Shawnee Pool were lots of fun.

We had a Northstar family night at Chick-fil-A and enjoyed some yummy food together in October. We also gathered at Sinkland Farms to watch some pumpkin flinging and pick one of our own. In November we collected over 106 boxes for Operation Christmas Child and in December we had a Family Fun Day and made edible nativities.

And in the midst of big events there were the most important things to remember of all: the parents who prayed over their babies, the mamas who asked God for wisdom as they taught their children at home, and the dads who dealt daily with ungodly coworkers in a godly way. The kids who made their teachers uncomfortable by telling other kids about Jesus and inviting friends to church. The boy who told his parents, “I am fantastic!” after learning Psalm 139:14. Or the girl who went home and washed her whole families’ feet after studying John 13. These are moments worth celebrating!

So tonight at the end of this 2011 year I am thankful to call you all family and to know that you are running beside me toward the same goal of bringing God glory! I hope it has been a wonderful year for you and I pray the best for your families in 2012!

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