Guest blog post by Chase McKissick, Children’s Pastor

One of the best Sundays of my tenure on staff here at Compass Church happened just two Sundays ago.   It was the first Sunday of the merge and the energy in the church was incredible.  From the parking lot to the stage there was an excitement and buzz around this place and an expectation that God was going to show up in a powerful way!

Then… sure enough He did!  It was incredible to walk into the back of the worship center and see it packed full of people singing praise to God and to see so many people with “arms high and heart abandoned”.  The spirit of God was all over that worship center in that moment as we came together as one body.

As amazing as that experience was it could only be topped by my experience that day in Compass Kids.  We decided that as we kicked off our new worship series it was time to take our kids’s worship to a whole new level.   So for the first time, we had the incredible 706 band lead Compass Kids in worship.  It took the kids a little bit of time (especially for the older ones) to stop worrying about what they looked like to their friends standing around them, but pretty soon the kid’s theater was filled with the same spirit of worship that everyone experienced in the adult service.

Seeing so many kids in such a short period of time learn and then experience what it means to worship was an event that challenged me to the core.  Seeing so many little kids genuinely raise their hands in worship and sing praise to God reminded me that we are truly wired to worship. What if I was like some of the youngest kids in the theater that day in my worship to God?

What if I let go of everything that gets between me and God and truly worshiped Him like a child?  What if we were like that in our worship to God as a church? Maybe this is part of what Jesus meant when he said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).

This Sunday at Compass we continue our “Worship Him” series.  I invite you to join us as we seek to experience that same kingdom Jesus spoke of by learning more of what it means to worship Him like a child.

Compass, I’m more convinced than ever that you need to click HERE and sign up for a Connection Group TODAY.  Here is what God revealed to me through His Word and my experiences this past week.

Lately, I’ve been journeying through the Book of Acts. The book begins with telling us about the first great movement of God in His church (over 3,000 people are saved, baptized and added to the church that day). Over the past month, we have been blessed to see a great movement of God happen in our day and time as well. During this time at Compass, we have seen 66 people come forward to publicly celebrate their faith in Christ through baptism. Over the past two weeks we have seen 20 more people come forward and pray to receive Christ and we can’t wait to see what God is going to do this Sunday during our last week of The Gospel series. May we never think this is normal or take for granted getting to see God move in such a mighty way!

With the end of this series upon us….many might ask, “What is next? Where do we go from here as a church?” It is interesting to me that Acts makes it pretty clear what our next steps should be. After witnessing such a powerful move of God and seeing a great number added to the church Acts 2: 46 – 47 tells us exactly what they did. They worshiped together at the temple and they met in homes to praise God and enjoy fellowship with His people.

No doubt, we will continue to boldly proclaim the Gospel together every Sunday and we will continue to see people respond and ask Christ into their life. I find it interesting that the story of the church in Acts doesn’t stop with gathering at the temple, though. In the same breath, it says that they met in homes to praise God and for fellowship among His people. Yes, the Gospel is boldly PROCLAIMED when we gather together for corporate worship. However, the Gospel is best LIVED OUT when we gather together in homes with other imperfect people passionately seeking Christ and encouraging one another on in that pursuit. This is why I am so excited about the kickoff of our Fall Connection Group season here at Compass!

This past Sunday I had the privilege of gathering with 20 other passionate leaders who will be leading Connection Groups this fall. After spending time with them and hearing the heart that God had given them to lead groups, I can honestly say that I believe the next great move of God in our church is going to happen in these 20 Connection Groups that will be meeting once a week throughout the Athens area.

I can’t think of anything better for you to be a part of this fall if you are serious about growing in your relationship with Christ than one of these groups. I encourage each of you to not hesitate and go ahead and SIGN UP to be a part of one of these groups today. Sign ups have only been open for one week and we have already filled 1/3 of the total spaces that we have to offer. As of right now all the groups still have space, but there are several that are already 75% full.

Current Connection Group members, don’t forget that you must re-sign up for your group. If you haven’t already, then your spot is fair game. If you’ve never been in a Connection Group, there has never been a better time to jump in. Don’t miss out on the next great movement of God in our church. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to see the Gospel LIVED OUT by being part of a group. Get CONNECTED today!

LIVING the Gospel

The New Testament makes it clear that our love will distinguish us as followers of Jesus.  It is clear that God has called us not just to talk about the Gospel but to LIVE the Gospel…which means being willing to love, give and serve extravagantly…just as Jesus did for us!

Well just last week, God allowed our church to love, give and serve extravagantly! He allowed us to be the hands and feet of Jesus to a community. Last Friday, I got to watch our church LIVE the Gospel and a week later I still can’t get over it!  I just wanted to take a moment today to celebrate a job well done with each of you.

Compass Church, you can rejoice that through your extravagant love, generosity and service we were able to be Jesus to a community in need by providing 365 families and 1704 total people with 13 meals for every person in the family!   Those final numbers fire me up almost as much as the memories that I have of seeing our volunteers “bust it” to do whatever it took to put that food in the hands of families that needed it!

If you have given generously by making a commitment to BEYOND and make it a discipline to give back to God through your tithes and offerings, I want to say thanks for LIVING the Gospel!  It was through our BEYOND offerings that we were able to partner with the Northeast Georgia Food Bank to make this event possible and through your continued generosity that we will be able to continue this outreach.

If you were one of the 40 plus volunteers that showed up and showed out to express the love of Jesus to our community in a tangible way, I want to say thanks for LIVING the Gospel!  Never have I been more blown away by our volunteers than I was seeing you do whatever it took to put over 28,000 pounds of food into organized boxes and ultimately into the hands of families that needed it!

Finally, if you have been on the fence about partnering with Compass Church through your time, talents and treasures, then I encourage you to get in on the action as we seek to see the Gospel LIVED out in Northeast Georgia!

Since I get to post today and the blog is all mine…. I’d also like to take this opportunity to tell you how fired up I am about this coming Sunday!

It is week 2 of GET SOME, perhaps the most audacious yet impacting series we have ever done!  I heard from so many couples and singles that this series could not be more timely and God is already challenging people in a HUGE way.  I have absolutely no doubt that God wants to use this series to change homes, marriages and families all over Northeast Georgia…but you have got to be here and invite your friends so that he can do that!   Bottom line is Satan wants to destroy marriages and wants to lead singles into destructive relationships and marriages.  He wants YOU to do anything but GET SOME of what we are talking about on Sunday….GUTS.  You don’t want to miss out on what God wants to say to you and how He wants to challenge you THIS SUNDAY!

Chase McKissick
Compass Children’s Pastor

Compass has always been passionate about local outreach.  Our belief is that we are never more like Jesus than when we give of ourselves expecting nothing in return.  The crazy thing is when we operate with this mindset often God shows up and blesses us the most.

Back in December, a few other staff members and I were blessed to represent our church as we delivered the 100 coats and Christmas gifts for 30 families that Compass generously collected for needy families in the Fowler Drive Elementary community.  We weren’t expecting any fanfare or much interaction with the families receiving these gifts.  We were wrong and blown away by our experience at the school that day!  We took the Christmas gifts over first and had to make a second trip to bring over the 100+ coats.  Upon our second arrival at the school, parents were already arriving at the school to pick up the Christmas gifts for their families.

Several school administrators and teachers were waiting for us as we walked in the building.  They said that in all their years at the school, they had never seen an outpouring of unselfish love like this one.  The school counselor escorted us outside and told us there was someone who wanted to meet us. It was a mom who had just finished picking up her family’s Christmas gifts. I can’t tell you how appreciative she was! She said she teared up when she received a call earlier in the week to confirm that someone wanted to help her out with Christmas and the gifts would be available to pick up at the school.  She continued, “I never expected anything like this!” This couldn’t have happened at a better time for her family because she had been laid off at her job three weeks earlier. She wanted me to tell everyone at the church, “Thank you so much!”

I was blessed and my heart was deeply touched by the events of that day, but I have to admit a part of me felt guilty.  I felt guilty that so many from our church made the events of that day possible through their generosity and so few of us got to experience the impact of that generosity firsthand.  I wished that more of our people could have gotten to experience being the hands and feet of Christ like I did that day.

Well, thanks to the generosity of those of you who have made and are making commitments to BEYOND our church is once again positioned to have a HUGE impact on the Fowler Drive Elementary Community. I want so much for you to experience what I did on that day in December last year.  A portion of all BEYOND commitments are allocated specifically to outreach, allowing us to book a tractor trailer filled with enough food to feed 500 families through the Northeast Georgia Food Bank.  This is meeting a HUGE need in the Fowler Drive community because many families at the school receive assistance with meals throughout the school year that will be unavailable during the summer. We will be unloading the food and distributing it to families in need THIS Friday, May 15th from 2:45 – 6:30 p.m. It’s not too late to sign up to volunteer! Take a half-day off work or come as soon as you get off work. It will be well worth it. This time we wanted to make sure that YOU could see the results of your generosity firsthand and receive the blessing of physically being Jesus to a community in need.

See you Friday!

Chase McKissick
Compass Children’s Pastor