February 2, 2012

7 Ways To Volunteer With Samaritan Village

Posted by Michael

On Christmas Eve of 2010, Summit Church gave generously to Samaritan Village. The mission of Samaritan Village is to “to provide a Christ-centered program for women transitioning from chemical dependency and sexual exploitation to healing, wholeness and productivity in society.” Thanks to your generosity, Samaritan Village was able to purchase a house on Valentine’s Day of 2011. This past November, four women moved into the house to begin the process of recovery and healing.

Rhonda Stapleton, Founder & CEO of Samaritan Village, is excited about the future of these four women. “They are learning how to live in a caring community,” she says. “They are able to see a counselor and a doctor for free on a regular basis and will be starting the Jobs Partnership program soon. They all have weekly chores to do at the house and are amazing cooks! “

Samaritan Village is doing very well, but they can use some help in a few areas. Here are 7 places that Rhonda can use some good volunteers in:

1. Got a van? Samaritan Village is looking for a 6-to-8-seat mini-van that can be used to transport the women to various meetings and doctor appointments. If you have one that you would like to donate, it would be a huge blessing to the women.

2. Like to drive? As mentioned, the women go meetings and doctor appointments every week. Volunteers are needed to drive the women to and from these appointments. Ideally, several volunteers would be put on a rotation so that the time commitment would be flexible.

3. Like hanging out? Every Saturday night the women have a “fun night” at the house and play games or watch movies. Volunteering at these fun nights is a great way to meet the women and get plugged into the vision of Samaritan Village. If you are in a Connect group, this would be a great way to serve together. You can bring some board games and some DVDs to the house and just have fun hanging out. A few groups have even signed up to give manicures and pedicures to the women!

4. Good at math? Rhonda is looking for someone to help with bookkeeping. She estimates that the time commitment would be about four hours a week. Jobs would include helping keep track of the inventory at Transitions and budgeting. If you are good at Quick Books, this job is for you!

5. Like being around people? Transitions Resale Boutique is right across the street from Summit Herndon, and helps to fund Samaritan Village. Last year it brought in $30,000 in gross income and over the past two months sales and donations have been at an all-time high. Volunteers are needed to work in the store.

6. Own a business? As the women graduate from the program, they will need jobs. If you own a business, Rhonda would love to talk to you about this possibility.

7. Like to run? On Saturday, April 14th Samaritan Village will have its annual Run For Her Life 5K in Baldwin Park. This is one of two yearly fundraisers. Volunteers are needed to help put on the event. And, of course, they need runners!

If you are interested in volunteering in any of the above areas, please email Rhonda at rstapleton@samaritanvillage.net. And please spread the word. It really matters.

Six years ago, Rhonda had a vision to create a place where women could seek refuge and learn how much they matter to God. Because she and others were faithful, it is now a reality. “It is going better than I thought it would,” she says. “I love seeing God work and care for the women. They are becoming whole. This is the hardest I’ve ever worked, but it is worth it!”

February 1, 2012

Second Stories Q&A

Posted by Michael

There were a lot of questions asked at The Forum last week about Second Stories. There wasn’t time to answer them all, and so this past Sunday Isaac, John, and Andy took some time to record a podcast answering all the questions. If you have any questions about Second Stories at all, this podcast will be helpful. The guys answered questions regarding:

- The North Orlando campus
- The future of The Plaza
- Base Camp
- The Second Stories budget
- Expansion of the Herndon campus
- Expansion of the Waterford campus
- Summit’s multi-site strategy

You can download the podcast here.

January 31, 2012

Summit Students Serve Series

Posted by Sarah

The Summit vision is “to form biblically functioning communities that reach lost people, connect in Christ-centered relationships, teach truth, serve others, and worship God.” Within Summit Student Ministries, we strive to live this out alongside the church body, incorporating the components of the vision into each talk series. We are now in the third week of a series simply titled Serve in which we are encouraging our students to “serve others” just as Jesus did.

Through this seven-week series, we are analyzing how Jesus exemplified true and genuine service throughout the Gospels. Our hope is that students will walk away with a greater understanding of how to incorporate Jesus’ approach in their own lives. This series will end with an opportunity for students to practically apply what they have learned by participating in niceSERVE on Saturday, February 25th.

Week one’s topic was “Serve God”, in which speakers at Surge, The Edge and Launch focused on how we can better love God through our actions. Students walked through Mark 12:28-34 as well as Philippians 2:5-8 in order to better grasp service as an innate response to God’s incredible love for us. We also love because God first loved us – we are called to love him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength and in turn reflect this love in our attitudes and behaviors.

During week two, students delved into how to “Serve Family” in their daily lives. We read through John 2:1-11, when Jesus performed a miracle at a wedding in order to resolve a problem that was not his own after his mother asked him to. Sometimes it may seem inconvenient and difficult to love our families. Nonetheless, when we serve our families, it pleases God and shows our families just how much we love and care about them.

This week, speakers will discuss how to “Serve Friends” and make a difference through sharing our servant hearts with our friends. John 13:1-17 and John 15:13 are the scriptural references students will read through as they explore the potential impact of creating relationships founded on service.

The last few weeks, students will become more aware of how to serve daily, serve the forgotten, and serve the poor. The last week of the series will follow niceSERVE and students will have the opportunity to share how they were able to recognize how God used them through their serving experiences.

January 30, 2012

Second Stories: Wk 1

Posted by Michael

This past weekend we began a new series called Second Stories. The Second Stories initiative is all about increasing Summit’s capacity to reach, serve, and love people by creating space in our community. The reality is we are out of space at the Herndon and Waterford campuses. At Herndon, both morning services are at capacity and there is overflow seating in the lobby. At Waterford, the children’s space and BCL Theater are at capacity. We want to be a church that keeps its doors open for all who want to come. We can’t do that if we are out of space. There are still people in Orlando who don’t know how much they matter to God. There is still work to be done.

At Herndon, the Second Stories initiative will allow us to, among other things, add a balcony to the sanctuary which will add 300+ more seats, increase Children’s Ministry space, and expand the BCL Theater (which will also be used for Summit Students). At Waterford, we will also increase Children’s Ministry space and the BCL Theater. In addition to all this, we will be launching another multi-site in the North Orlando area (if you’d like to be a part of that team, email Allie Adams), funding the jail multi-site, and paying off the Herndon mortgage. We are doing all of this for the purpose of reaching more people with the gospel of Jesus.

The cost to do all of this is $10,000,000 over the next three years. That is a ton of money. We are asking everyone who is a follower of Jesus and calls Summit their church home to do three things over the next seven weeks: Surrender, pray, and obey. Surrender all you have to God (because it’s all His, anyway), pray about what He would have you do, and then obey Him. You don’t have to worry about ten million dollars. You simply have to be faithful with whatever God asks of you.

If you are not a Christian, you don’t have to worry about any of this. Don’t give a dime. We don’t expect you to give to a cause that you don’t yet believe in. Your next right step is simply to figure out if Jesus is who He says He was. Your answer to that question will have massive repercussions on your whole life. We want to be a place that helps you to answer that. As you seek truth, we are confident that it will lead you to the person of Jesus.

As you go through the process of surrender, pray, and obey, we will be posting weekly devotionals to the Second Stories blog to help you and your Connect group.

What do you hope gets accomplished through Second Stories?

How will you pray, surrender, and obey over the next few weeks?

Learn more about Second Stories by visiting second-stories.org.

January 30, 2012

The Forum: January 2012

Posted by Michael

Last week at The Forum, we heard about some exciting things that will be going on at Summit over the next season of ministry. In case you missed it, here are the highlights:

- Sam Arocho was commissioned as the Waterford Campus Minister. The Waterford campus has experienced tremendous growth over the past two years. It has gone from a core startup team of 25 people to over 800 people this past weekend. But there are still more people in the Waterford area that need to know they matter to God. Sam is the perfect person to lead that team.

- Garry Abbott (who led the team that started the Waterford campus) will begin forming and leading a team that will start another Summit campus. This campus will be in North Orlando. Garry asked everyone to pray about joining that team. If you live in North Orlando, if you have friends in North Orlando, or if you’d like to play a role in getting this campus started, it may make sense for you to join the team. North Orlando will have their first service on April 1st at 9 a.m. at The Plaza, and will continue meeting there throughout the summer. In the fall, they will head up to north!

- We learned about the Second Stories initiative. Second Stories is all about increasing Summit’s capacity to reach, serve, and love people by creating space in our community. Our campuses our growing, and we never want to turn people away simply because of a lack of space. At the Herndon campus we will be adding a balcony (which will add over 300 more seats), increasing our children’s space, expanding the BCL Theater, and moving staff offices to the Fashion Village strip (by the Annex). At Waterford, we will be increasing our children’s space and expanding the BCL Theater. The motive behind this initiative is to reach more people with the message and love of Christ. This will require us all to be faithful, and over the coming weeks we’ll be walking through that process together.

If you’d like to learn more about any of these things, you can listen to the podcast of The Forum.

Isaac, John, and Andy also recorded a Second Stories Q&A session. You can listen to the Q&A podcast here.