What happens when 4,000 people cross their denominational, racial, and traditional boundaries and agree on one thing – we want God to transform our city and our nation?

We are planning on finding out on Thursday evening, May 5th and would like for you to join the 40 plus churches and ministries across the Katy/West Houston area. The Robbie Seay Band will lead us in praise and worship. Eight pastors and ministry leaders will facilitate us through a concert of prayers. It is going to be a truly historic and city changing event.

Katy Fellowship’s vision is to be a church that lives out God’s design for the church to be a house of prayer. We want to be a church that leads in reaching out to unite the churches of the Katy/West Houston area in prayer and city transformation. That is why I would like to challenge you to join me, the staff, our elders, and trustees in participating in this very important event. The Merrell Center and Rhodes Stadium have no problem being filled up with sports and school events. What happens when we fill it with prayer?

The event begins at 7 p.m., so arrive early and begin praying over the seats in your area to be full of praying people to see the most significant prayer event ever in Katy.

Praying for You,
Tim

Life Quotes:

“Life is good.” “Life is what you make of it.”
“Life is but a game . . .” “Life is short. Pray hard.”

How is life going for you? Is your life everything you thought it would be? Is it “good” or is it the “pits?” I
imagine most have figured out life is definitely not a game. For many people life has offered many disappointments and heartbreaks. For others, exciting moments and opportunities. Life can be what you make of it but Jesus has offered life to the full for those who are willing to follow Him.

Life can best be experienced with others. For those who choose to do life on their own it can be a lonely and difficult journey. Living life within the church was what God had in mind for us. Ephesians reminds us that we belong in God’s household with every other Christian. Life is better together. Ecclesiastes teaches that if one falls down, the other can reach out and help him up. But if someone is alone and falls, there is no one to help him. We need to encourage one another to love and good deeds as Hebrews instructs us. Proverbs tells us that people learn from one another just as iron sharpens iron. Fellowship is an important aspect of life. But fellowship is hard to develop in the short window of time that Sunday morning worship service provides. That’s why we have LIFE Groups. A place to fully experience life (to the full) the way Jesus intended. Acts 2:42 says, “They devoted themselves to teaching, and to fellowship, and to eating meals, and to prayer . . . and they were testifying of God’s goodness.” That is exactly what LIFE Groups consist of at Katy Fellowship.

We are spotlighting each month a ministry that gives the opportunity to love God and others. This month we
spotlight our LIFE Group ministry. Jesus came that we might have a full life and a love for life. I hope you will
keep cultivating your love for God and for others and add to that a love for learning His Word and a love for life.
Get in a LIFE Group today!

Praying for You,

Tim

Living a life of love starts with keeping company with the author of love, God. He enables us to truly love. June marks the halfway point in 2010 and our word for the year – LOVE. We’ve tried to discover what love is and how to love. We’ve identified people God has called us to love. Now is the time to live it out.

Over the next six months, Katy Fellowship will be highlighting ministries that are “love givers” and identifying places and needs for us to love like Christ.

Our 2:45 fund is a ministry to help those in need experience the love of the body of Christ. Acts 2:45 says, “Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” KCF now has a team in place to minister love by way of financial assistance to those who have a need.

Sunday, June 6th, we will highlight a ministry that has been in place for several months. James and Amy Dean along with their daughter Janelle prepare and serve sandwiches each Saturday to the day laborers along Roberts Street.

Our Worship Pastor Chris Jones and Joanna will leave June 6th for Zimbabwe for nearly three weeks to show the love of Christ to people in Africa. Our student ministry will take two groups to Galveston in June to continue the rebuilding of homes destroyed by Hurricane Ike. A missions team led by elder Allan and Caran Peterson, along with Dallas and Denielle Golden, will be organizing a mission trip to Guadalajara, Mexico in October.

Each month more ministries will be highlighted and hopefully some will begin that allow KCF HELPERS to live a life of love. Jesus did not love cautiously. Neither can we. He loved extravagantly, not giving to get, but giving sacrificially. My prayer is that Katy Fellowship can love like that.

Praying for You,

Tim

There were several key characters in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Pilate, his wife, Judas, Peter, John, Jesus’ mother, Mary Magdalene, Simon of Cyrene, the two thieves, and the soldiers. I would like to examine the perspective of the soldiers and the role they played.

For them, the crucifixion of Jesus was just another aspect of their jobs. Let’s observe three reasons the soldiers dismissed Jesus as just another criminal.

#1 – Familiarity – they had seen all this before. Death by crucifixion was common in the first century. These soldiers had probably performed so many crucifixions that it was methodical for them. It was no big deal. Just another day at work.

#2 – Prejudice – they were turned off by God’s people. The Romans and the Jews hated each other. The Romans looked down on Jews as inferior people. Either group couldn’t stand the other. The soldiers were so prejudiced against the people of God that they couldn’t see the Savior dying for their sins.

#3 – Distractions – they were focused on other things. The soldiers were preoccupied with who would win the garment that had been taken from Jesus. Perhaps all the uproar surrounding this so-called “King of the Jews” led to their thinking that Jesus’ robe may be worth something. Thus there at the foot of the cross they are focused on winning the piece of cloth.

Maybe like the soldiers you’ve dismissed Jesus. Maybe you’ve heard the Easter story so many times that familiarity has bred indifference. We’ve viewed and heard so much about the cross we are no longer moved by it. Or perhaps you’ve dismissed Jesus because you’ve developed a prejudice against those who claim to be His followers. Maybe the church has left such a bad taste in your mouth. The value of putting our attention on what is of first importance is that it focuses us on what really matters and keeps us from being distracted or preoccupied with what is not. Would you stop for a moment and look up at the cross? Even if you have heard the story a thousand times, even if you are turned off by Christians, even if you’ve go a lot going on in your life – would you turn your eyes upon Jesus and accept the gift of His love and forgiveness? What’s your perspective?

Praying for You,
Tim

March 8-9 the pastors of Katy will meet for 24 hours of prayer, seeking God for our city. Eighty pastors and ministry leaders are expected. This year members from several churches have asked for the chance to come take a one, two, or three hour time slot to pray over this event. If you would like to be part of this prayer opportunity contact the church office.

Sunday, March 7th I will introduce a series called The Easter Experience. City On A Hill Productions (H2O series) produced this study of the Easter story from the perspective of those who were closely related to Christ in the last hours before his crucifixion. The following two Sundays, March 14th & 21st, we will watch and experience the pain and suffering that Jesus endured and rejoice in the victory and hope that came with his glorious resurrection.

Palm Sunday will be a very special service as the director and lead actor will be at Katy Fellowship to share his experience of portraying Jesus Christ in the series. Shane Sooter (see bio on page 3) is also the founder of City On A Hill and will be sharing his testimony of how he met Christ. A great opportunity to invite someone to church that day is to tell them that Jesus will be there in person!! Best of all, we have the opportunity to experience each day in March the love God has for His children and then express that love to each other and to those who have not yet accepted God’s free gift. Should make for a great reason to be glad!

Praying for You,
Tim

Galatians 5:6 “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

The year 2009 took us through a study on the word FAITH. Now, in 2010 we will have a chance to express our faith through LOVE, our word for this year. The question for us might be this, “Do we live as though faith, demonstrated through love, really is the only thing that counts?” I must admit, much of my life I didn’t. The LORD, in His great patience with me, gently reminded me through this passage that loving God and loving others should be what my faith is about. God assesses our lives based on how we love.

We began the our study by asking how God defines love. . .

1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Those words have grown tired and overly familiar, haven’t they?

Let me challenge you with a little exercise with the above verses. Take the phrase Love is patient and substitute your name for the word love. (Example: “Tim is patient . . .”)

Do it for every phrase in the passage.

By the end, I felt like a liar. How about you? If I am meant to represent what love is, then I often fail to love people well.

Following Christ isn’t something that can be done halfheartedly or on the side. It is not a label we can display when it is useful. It must be central to everything we do and are.

If we are to love our God with all our heart and love others, we are to surrender ourselves totally to God’s purposes. I would like you to join me in the pursuit of making the only thing that really counts is expressing our faith through love. The journey will not be easy or comfortable. The cost could be extreme but isn’t that what Jesus showed us?

1 John 3:16-18 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

God will bring you the most pleasure in this life and the next as we love the only way that counts.

With a pastor’s LOVE,

Tim