Team Church Collaborative

Team Church Collaborative is an ongoing collection of thoughts and stories from the leadership and team at Champions Centre. We want to inspire and encourage everyday people—you can make a difference in your world. So take a look around, make yourself at home and check back often. For more information about Champions Centre please visit championscentre.com.

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In Construction:

We are currently in the process of updating our BLOG site. Please stay tuned.

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Weekend RECAP: Greater

ALL GOD NEEDS IS WHAT YOU HAVE

We often EXCUSE OURSELVES from God’s Greater plans for our lives because WE BELIEVE WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH FOR GOD TO WORK WITH.

One of the enemy's greatest strategies is to get you to focus on what you don't have, or what you used to have or what someone else has that you wish you had. 

What you have is enough to start you towards GREATER in your life! All God needs is what you have.

THINK INSIDE THE BOX

There’s a book called the Houdini Solution. The author points out that everybody has a box and thinking outside that box doesn’t make that box go away…it just makes you frustrated. When you’re done thinking outside the box you realize that all the ideas you came up with are pointless because your still very much inside the box with no way to implement those ideas.

The box is what it is. But, within the box is everything you need to get started towards something Greater. I'm not saying don’t dream…plan… However, I'm saying start right where you are and see what God will do with it.

This is how you turn your frustration into innovation: Stop waiting for what you want and start working with what you have

Embrace your limitation as God’s opportunity. Ask yourself: What talents do I have? …What resources do I have? What is underutilized in my life? What do I have that God can use?

God is not asking you to give what you don’t have in your house…he wants us to start right where we are... in the box.

A KEY TO GREATER IS TO GIVE GOD WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE.

One reason some people never experience greater is because they overlook, underestimate and withhold what they have. A key to greater is to give God what you already have. When we give God what is in our house, He uses it, multiplies it and resources us with more!!

WHEN WE THINK INSIDE THE BOX - GOD MAKES OUR BOX BIGGER!

watch this message here.

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Real Life Champion Story from Fall Issue of Champion Life Magazine:

When I was 11 that was the age that I was first raped, and it was by my father.  And that continued until I was about 15.  There came a point where I just kind of disconnected myself….disconnected from the situation as best I could.  I just kind of became very destructive.  I became very promiscuous.  What really drove me was just simply anger that it had happened to me in the first place.

Read the rest of Catalina's story here.

And, you can watch the video here.

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Lead with Heart: reblog

One of our team went home to be with the Lord last night. Jill had not even been on the team for very long. She was still a fairly new Christian. But she got connected almost immediately and became a part of our team and a part of our Champions Centre family. She was loved and she will be missed.  And I thank God that I had the chance to know her and the opportunity to connect her to the team.

I can’t imagine if she hadn’t been on a team, if she had just attended church without really connecting with God’s people. She would have been lost in the crowd and no one would have known she was gone. Because she was connected, we knew her. Because she was connected, she enjoyed her life just a bit more. Because she was connected, our lives intersected for a while and we are better for knowing her.

If you lead with heart, genuinely love and care for people, and realize that being connected is exactly what God intended for us all. Then building the team is easy. Open up your life to others and they will touch yours. Ask them to join your team.

“For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.” Galatians 5:13

- Robin McCoy, Connections Director at Champions Centre

Originally posted here.

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One Day Article, @Kevingerald

We all have norms, our routines, and our daily schedule. Often, it may seem like a blur of the same things, day in and day out. These daily routines even begin to overlap each other; Wednesday is just like Tuesday. Thursday is just like the Thursday the week before. What we do on these days is what we do every day.

Continue reading here or on your mobile device try reading it here.

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Having God's heart for His House. Different perspectives from some of the team at Champions Centre.

read it here.

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Weekend RECAP: Greater

1 Kings 19:19-21 

So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” “Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?” So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.

BURN THE PLOW 1. ELISHA’S FIRST ACTION WAS NOT FOLLOWING ELIJAH (which was God’s purpose for his future), BUT IT WAS TO BURN HIS PLOWS SO HE HAD NOTHING TO GO BACK TO. The Greater life God has for you doesn't start with you imagining and planning out your perfect future. -BURNING THE PLOW is about what you have to leave/let go of in order to go where God is taking you. When God is speaking, one word is more than enough. He’s more interested in your full obedience than your total understanding. -When God speaks its usually in sound bites “Go”, “Come”, “Follow Me”,  rather than a full dissertation of details. 2. TO PURSUE A NEW LIFE THAT IS GREATER, WE FIRST HAVE TO MAKE A DECISIVE BREAK WITH OUR OLD LIVES. Elisha's oxen and plow were his only means of making a living... he probably had no other trade. It all seems insane unless you realize that this is not a story about being frugal or how to recycle plows... It's a man on a mission that begins with making sure he has nothing to come back to. The plows were symbolic of the life he had lived... BUT Now it was time for a new chapter in his life to begin.

When Pastor Kevin came to the Northwest 26 years ago to help a church find a pastor and then ended up becoming the pastor. A couple years into the move, he went back to hometown in St. Louis, Missouri where his dad was the pastor of a church and would have been a more logical place to stay in place and become a pastor. A contractor in his dad’s church offered to build him a custom house - any house/paid for to come back to St. Louis. He turned it down to go back to apartment living. He made the decision to not having anything to go back to - when you’ve left, you’ve left. YOU'VE BURNED THE PLOW. The act of burning the plow is different for everyone.   The plow is what chains you to the ordinary: It could be anything.... - A sentimental attachment to the way it was yesterday. Yesterday’s “Greater” is today’s mediocrity!!! - A job that’s holding you back from what God is calling you to do… OR the passionless approach to a job God is calling you to remain in. - A relationship that is comfortable and safe but is hindering you… The plow of your apathy is chaining you to the ordinary.         3. SOME PEOPLE NEVER GET TO  “GREATER”   BECAUSE THEY’RE NOT WILLING TO LEAVE GOOD BEHIND. Lev 26:9-10 “‘I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. 10 You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. When God is calling you to something higher your life tends to stay as it is  until you “surrender” and “part ways” with the things that are filling your schedule and filling your life.

Questions to ask yourself:

Are you willing? Is God calling you to leave something behind to experience something greater? Something emotionally? Relationally? Financially?

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Weekend RECAP: Greater Pre-Launch

This fall we are studying "GREATER" as the idea that God wants us to live with a sense of expectation, a hope for our future, a faith and confidence about our lives. He wants us TO DREAM BIG, START SMALL and ignite the vision of God for our lives!

WE ARE ALL BEING CALLED TO BE A GREATER VERSION OF WHO WE ARE.

The path to greater = The life changing realization that God is ready to accomplish a unique kind of greatness in your life. Something beyond what we see in ourselves on our best days, something beyond where we are but true to who we are. 

But, this "path to greater" is like a path with a ditch on both sides. 

(The mediocrity mindset): This is ‘base line” living the place of low expectation.

This is not where we are meant to live!

ON THE OTHER SIDE = FAIRY TALE GREATNESS

(The fairy tale greatness mindset): The vague, unrealistic fantasy’s for our future that don’t work in the context of our life.

“Grasping for Greatness” that is not ours to have.

In between those two ditches is a path to greater things in your life!

THE PATH TO GREATER is a sense that God has more for us and that we have been put where we are and have what we have so that we can be a GREATER version of who we are.

(THE GREATER MINDSET): Is grounded in a confidence that the value of my life is not based on fame and popularity. It is based on my mission, my purpose, and being the best version of who I'm created to be.

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The "path to greater" is like a path with a ditch on both sides: On One Side = Miserable Mediocrity On The Other Side = Fairytale Greatness In Between those two ditches is a path to GREATER things in your life.

Greater Series, Fall Challenge

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"Someone's One Day can begin in the parking lot." 

Team Spotlight: CC Connections

Read about it here in the Fall Issue of Champion Life Magazine.

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How To Build Your F.A.I.T.H.

An acronym for faith that has helped me increase its presence and power in my life is:

            F--focus on the positive

            A--affirm yourself

             I--imagine God doing something good in your situation

            T--trust God in all things

            H--hope for the best

This F.A.I.T.H. conquers mind monsters, those negative invaders of the mind who come to steal your life and mine one day at a time. 

Pastor Kevin talks about this acronym in his book called, Mind Monsters. You can also read an excerpt from Mind Monsters on "Wayward Thinking" in a recent issue of Champion Life Magazine here or on the new CCWeb here.

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Find out what's in this issue of Champion Life Magazine here.

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BOLD MEN

In each age men of genius undertake the ascent. 

From below, the world follows them with their eyes. 

These men go up the mountain, enter the clouds, disappear, reappear. 

People watch them, mark them. 

They walk by the side of precipices. 

They daringly pursue their road. 

See them aloft, see them in the distance; they are but black specks. On they go.  The road is uneven, its difficulties constant. 

At each step a wall, at each step a trap. 

As they rise the cold increases. 

They must make their ladder, cut the ice and walk on it., hewing the steps in haste.  A storm is raging.  Nevertheless they go forward in their madness. 

The air becomes difficult to breath. 

The abyss yawns below them. 

Some fall. Others stop and retrace their steps; there is a sad weariness.  BUT the bold ones continue.  They are eyed by the eagles; the lightning plays about them: the hurricane is furious.  No matter...they persevere.

--- BOLD Men's Conference continues tonight at Champions Centre Tacoma. Click here for details.

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Get all the details here

It Starts TONIGHT at Champions Centre Tacoma.

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Weekend RECAP: At The Movies

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Before I made you in your mother’s womb, I chose you. Before you were born I set you apart for a special work

Jeremiah 1:5 - At The Movies Weekend Series

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"You Gotta Let Go" By Miles McPherson:

At a youth conference in Colorado, out in the middle of nowhere, I see these people falling out of the sky. Parachuting. I had never parachuted so I go over to the parachute place in between my speaking engagements and say, “Yo, I want to jump out one of those planes.” Turns out I have no idea what I am saying.

The guy signs me up and we do a little practice. I think I’m ready. We take off and they put an altimeter on me. As you go up, you watch it say 1,000 feet, 2,000 feet, 3,000 feet… 12,000 feet. Two miles up in the air. Then they open the door.

You know, it never really dawned on me what was gonna happen. Six dudes are in that plane and they all screaming, and I’m starting to come to my senses. I’m married, I got a family. You know? I yell to my instructor (have to -- it’s loud in that plane!), “Hey, has anybody ever punked out? Like, refused to jump?” He thinks a minute and yells back. “One time. A 12-year-old girl.” Oh, I mutter. Just wondering…

continue reading here.