Activity Lineup for The WELL

Here’s what in store for the next couple of months at The WELL! (Remember The WELL takes place on every other Saturday night, beginning at 7:09pm.)

Nov. 17: Game Night: Guitar Hero 3, Halo 3, card games, board games, snacks and drink
Dec. 1: Pool Hall Night: Pool, Ping Pong, Air Hockey, Fooseball, snacks and drink
Dec. 15: Karaoke and Open Mic Night: [Sign up to perform now!] snacks and drink
Dec. 29: Festival of Bands: List of Bands to be announced shortly! and…snacks and drink

Should you have any questions or are willing to lend your TV, XBox, Wii, pool table, etc, please let us know right away. The more games the better!

The WELL gets a facelift

People have been asking me, “So how’s The WELL coming?” I usually say, “Alright” or “Okay.”

We’ve been maintaining a group of about 10-12, based on inconsistent attendance since we began in July. The summer has been a hard time to start up this ministry!

Most recently the WELL leadership has determined that we’re not quite hitting the mark with this age group. Because attendance has been slowing down recently, we decided to take the time to stop holding group meetings in order to “get our ducks in a row.” We currently meet once a week and we’re gaining great momentum and enthusiasm—more than we’ve had in awhile. God has also sent us another member to our team. We met Jordan, at Seasons during a recent meeting. Jordan is interested in creative new ways to provide a Christian context for those of us in our 20’s and 30’s who aren’t really interested in the way churches approach Christianity in our area. Jordan will bring new ideas and a connection for ministry work in Defiance.

We look to begin The WELL again with a better approach November 3rd with concert: a medley of 5 local rock bands. It may look a little differently than we’ve been doing, but we feel that being the church goes beyond “having church” in the typical fashion. We’re looking to create a venue where bands can perform, people can enjoy area talents with open mic nights, karaoke nights, video game tournaments, coffeehouse nights with plenty of games to play (which may include renting a whole bunch of pool and ping-pong tables), as well as just kicking it out with an evening of rockin’ worship.

We hope to post an event schedule soon. But for now, live concert Nov. 3 and Dec. 1. The WELL will meet every other Saturday beginning Nov. 3 on the corner of County Road C (Fountain Grove Drive) and County Road 13 in Bryan. We’ll see you there!

Small Groups Forming

Have you ever heard about or participated in Weight Watchers? It’s an interesting weight loss philosophy. Aside from the diet, the thing that makes Weight Watchers so different from other diet plans is the accountability that comes with it. Weekly meetings of people gathered with a similar purpose offer accountability and assistance with staying on track with the diet plan. Dieting on our own, we often tend to give up on as easily as a New Year’s resolution. But with Weight Watchers, people have a higher rate of success than with other “self-help” diet plans. The community aspect is what makes it distinctive above other plans.

Being a follower of Jesus Christ is a lot like following a diet plan. It’s easy to get excited about at first, but the longer you do it alone, the harder it becomes. However, if you’ve got a support group, a cluster of people that gather with a similar purpose to offer accountability and assistance with staying on track, it’s a lot easier to make it through life. That’s why we’re offering small groups. “Church” during the week. It’s like Weight Watchers for Christ followers.

We have a number of small groups forming right now. If you’d like to get in on the action, come find out when the groups are meeting and where. We’ll also be posting what their “similar purpose” is, or in other terms, what they’re studying or what activity they’re doing. (Hey, they might even be doing Weight Watchers!) If you’d like to lead a group, all you have to be to qualify is someone who’s been on the road, travelling with Jesus, and found some reasonable success in your faith (the same rules that apply to WW meeting leaders). Don’t try to learn about Jesus by yourself. It’s a lot easier to do it when everyone else is doing it and can help you do it too.

Official Kickoff July 7th!

The WELL begins officially on July 7, 2007 at the regular time of 7:09pm. We’ll be leading up to this official launch with a 24-hour prayer vigil featuring an interactive prayer labyrinth. There will be sign ups at Bryan First Brethren Church to get your 1-hour prayer slot to work through the labyrinth, otherwise, feel free to stop by any time July 5th-6th to work through the labyrinth for anyhow.

We’ll also be celebrating this launch on the 7th with a FREE COMMUNITY CARNIVAL. Features of the carnival include games for children with free prizes, strong man competition/presentation (really strong guys bending, lifting and breaking weird stuff), free popcorn, sno cones, cotton candy, hot dogs, and drinks, a bake sale with all kinds of goodies, a 50-50 raffle, and so far we’ve booked two live bands.

You WON’T want to miss out on this opportunity for your family! Celebrate the 4th with some family fun! The carnival will begin at 3:00pm with several events taking place throughout the afternoon. (Raffle winner will be announced around 6:30pm.)

Check back later for more details about the carnival.

After the carnival plan to stay for The WELL, something different, something comfortable, something real. (Then sleep in the next morning!)

Meet Jesus YOUR way

“I Don’t like church!”

We don’t either. The idea of going to a place, following an uncomfortable dress code, trying to live as someone we’re not, it just doesn’t sit well. If you have caught yourself either thinking or saying, “I don’t like going to church,” you’re in similar company with the WELL.

The WELL isn’t a church. It is the church. We believe that Jesus never intended for us to build a building or a highly structured system in order to worship God. He came to free us from that. But for some reason, we’ve found ourselves organizing things once again and packaging Jesus in a neat little box that makes sense to us. While this isn’t wrong, we feel it limits who can come to Jesus. We also feel that it restricts what Jesus can do in our lives because worshipping God sometimes becomes conditional.
At the WELL, church is about doing life together, wherever we are. When two or more of us are hanging out together, church exists. We can be fixing a car, having lunch, or swinging clubs out on the green. That is church. Our goal is to help you find Christ as you go about your regular, daily life.

“I Don’t like Church people!”

Over time, the concept of an ideal church-goer has developed into a happy-smiley perfect person nobody can live up to. Like Flanders on The Simpsons, people who go to church appear to be goody-goody people who are way out of touch with reality. We don’t like these sorts of people either. To us, they aren’t real.

At the WELL, people are encouraged to be themselves. God has created us each uniquely. We celebrate the fact that we are all different. In fact, we embrace that so much that we believe that we all have something to contribute to the group. Whether you are joining us for the first time, never considered yourself the “churchy” type before, or have been attending church all your life, we believe that we can learn from you, benefit from your story, and gain something more from the journey you have been on already. Conversely, we believe that we have something to contribute to you. The WELL is about people for the sake of people.

“All they want is my money.”

Like any other non-profit organization, in order for us to accomplish the things in the community that we would like to do, we need some sort of funding. Therefore, we encourage everyone to join the cause in making a difference in our town, our region, and the world by being generous with what they have to help out. There is no obligation to give anything. None.
The WELL is about helping people who need help and making life easier for everyone. We do a lot of service projects and community volunteering. We want to make a difference in the places we live. Therefore, we try to pool our resources, talents, connections, abilities, and even money, in order to help out those people in need. The money we collect for the WELL goes directly to the ministry work we do as a church community. Every penny.

So When and Where?

Since the WELL is people, not a building or a meeting place, we meet together at different times and different places throughout the week. Small groups of people are forming and will meet in a number of locations. To get plugged into our different church clusters, visit us online to find current gatherings, or talk to anyone at our Saturday night gathering.

Saturday nights, beginning July 7th, we will be meeting at 7:09pm to be the church in a larger group setting. You are welcome to join us and learn more about what it means to be part of a lifestyle revolution that allows you to be yourself as God has created you and to experience Jesus Christ without any restraints.

Oh, and we have a free coffee and refreshments in our “café” too!

Stop Going to Church, Start Being the Church

Stop Going to Church

For so long going to church has been “what you do.” Any more, it doesn’t matter whether you like what happens at church, or even if you participate, if you go to church, that is enough. But for many of us, just going to church leaves something to be desired. It’s either too boring, too uncomfortable, or just not like anything we really enjoy doing.

The concept of going to church is no different than going to the Eagle’s midweek for a drink and a chance to maybe win some money. It’s no different than going to work or dropping the kids off at daycare. It can be routine. It can be “just another thing to do in an already busy schedule.”

This is not how Jesus intended for Christians, his Body, the church, to be. It’s time to stop going to church…really!

Start Being the Church

The Bible teaches us that the church is not a building, or a specific location, but it is actually the people who gather together in Christ’s name to build each other up, to worship God, and to live life together.

All over the New Testament we read about how Jesus and his followers invested in each other’s lives. They didn’t meet once a week for a couple of hours, they met on a regular basis. They ate together. They visited each other when they were sick or going through a rough time. They helped out when there was a need. The church was actively involved in each other’s lives.

To Jesus and his disciples, church wasn’t a place to go, it was who they were—the very fabric of their inner being.

This is what the Well is about. It’s about being the church, rather than going to church. At the Well, we gather as a community, looking to encounter Jesus Christ in a way that is real, relevant, and relational. Come and find Christ at the Well.