Target Practice

Soon the leaves will begin to change colors and Fall will be here. During this time each year, I find myself regaining composure; I guess because of all those Youth Ministry years. It was to me – January - the beginning of the new year (school year!) I think for a lot of us it is the same way. Summer is over and we are getting back to our regular schedules - things begin to slow down (yeah, right – at least in our minds.) But it is obvious because church attendance typically picks up from where it left off in early May!
With this in mind, I want to tell you about our next Sunday morning series. We will be looking at the book of 1 Thessalonians. The title of the series is “Target Practice”. Paul’s letter is to Christians in Thessalonica, but his letter is not like the letter to the Corinthians (which we just finished.) Instead, Paul writes to encourage them to keep living like they had been. Simply put – “Stay on Target.” We want to stay on target as we seek to live as people who “Seek First HIS Kingdom.” In order to stay on target we have to keep living as a Christian…we have to keep practicing. So to do this we must have ‘target practice’! We will spend the next 6 weeks talking about how we can stay on target.
Are you ready for practice? We will ‘practice’ our ‘Aim. We will be “Sighting in the Target” [1:2-10] – (what is the target?), “Aiming for perfection” [2:1-16] - (What is the bull’s eye?), “Aim for the Goal” [2:17-3:5] – (What does encouragement looks like?), “Aim to fill what is lacking” [3:6-13] – (What do Christians do after choosing Jesus as Lord?), “Aiming for a holy life.” [4:1-12] – (What do I do with a holy life?) and the last week we will look at “Aim for the future” [4:13-5:11] – (Why spend time aiming for the target?)

On your mark, get set, AIM!