CORE

JOIN CORE!

Date:      NOVEMBER 19th

Time:      7:30 pm

Place:     V3 Auditorium.

We will be starting a new series so join us, Wednesday, November 19th. See you there!

THANKSGIVING - OPEN HOMES EVENT

Dates:    NOVEMBER 26th - 28th

Times:   To Be Announced

CORE members will be gathering for the Thanksgiving Holiday at various open homes.

Dinners will be hosted on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, November 26th through November 28th.

Please sign up to attend at a table in the lobby following Core sessions.

REGISTER NOW!

CORE’S MYSTERY DINNER THEATRE

Date:    WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17th

Time:    7:00 pm

Place:    V3 Auditorium

Cost:     $15.00/person (dinner & theatre)  

CORE invites you to climb aboard the Grand Jubilation as you “set sail” to enjoy dinner and be introduced to some unique characters traveling with you.

Through an incredible evening of drama, interaction and laughter, you’ll discover that one of the passengers has resorted to crime! We’ll need your assistance in solving this whodunit.

Join us for this special evening. Your “cruise” tickets must be purchased in advance. For more information, stop by our “Travel Agency” in the lobby or click REGISTER NOW to reserve your seat beginning Saturday, November 15th, or contact Ronetta Slaughter.

Note: Online registration period from November 15th until December 8th. 

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

NORCROSS CO-OP

Dates:    MONDAY, DECEMBER 8TH & MONDAY, DECEMBER 15th

Time:     4:00 pm - 8:00 pm

PLACE:   Norcross CO-OP, 2275 Mitchell Road, Norcross, GA 30071

Come join us in an opportunity to serve in our community. Service opportunities include distributing gift bags to families of the Norcross Co-op on the above dates and times.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10th

THE LOCKER ROOM - CORE MEN 

7:30 pm - V1 Building (Multi-purpose Room)

CORE Men will be discussing pertinent and challenging topics.

Come and hang out with other guys and talk about the real deal in a safe, relaxed, and comfortable setting.

In this July series, Pastor Steven challenged us with the question: Can one person make a difference in the world? The answer was: Yes! We were further challenged with the question: Will YOU be that person?

PART I - THE CRISIS:

With every legend story, there is always a CRISIS that the hero must face. In each of our lives, we must face the crisis. The crisis is what defines the character and integrity of the legend.

The top three crises of Singlehood are:  Isolation, Selfishness, and Purity. As singles, we must overcome these crises by guarding our hearts with the word of God and not guarding our hearts with our own human experiences. We must learn to trust in God completely and recognize that he will perfect all things concerning his children. This includes our purpose and our relationships. Finally, we must presevere. We must stay in the trial, if we desire God’s great purpose for our life.

PART II - THE SACRIFICE:

In every legend’s life there is also a time for SACRIFICE. The life of the legend is a life consumed with laying down his or her life and picking up their cross. That cross is the  sacrifice of living not for yourself but living your life so that through you others are drawn out darkness to the light.  A legend must also be a person who is totally committed and a person who keeps their word. If we cannot make a commitment in the small areas of our life, we will not be able to make a commitment in the large areas of our life. Someone once said that it is easier to die for God than it is to die to Him.

Therefore, we must make a personal commitment to dying daily and realize that our life is not our own because we belong to God.

Our CORE Singles Summit 2008 on April 18th & 19th was phenomenal with dynamic Praise & Worship and powerful messages from gifted speakers, Pastor Dennis Rouse, Wendy Widder, and Pastor Jeff Hidden.

We discussed how contentment is a huge issue for everyone whether you are single or married. However, there is a secret to growing in areas of contentment. Through the openess and honesty of the speakers in discussing their real life experiences and delivering God’s perspective on singleness, we discovered the secret to contentment.  We also learned what is means to commit and be a part of the church and how we fit in with our own unique gifts. We discussed the pitfalls of self-sufficiency, living alone, and going through transitions. We were shown how we can enjoy where we are at and the journey to where we are going by smelling the roses and embracing the thorns along the way. We were admonished to also make sure we don’t become so focused on the destination until we become unhappy when we see others reach the destination before we do.

Here is what some of you had to say about the conference:

“It was awesome! This is exactly what I needed.”

“I loved all the speakers. They said things that really hit home with me. They were honest and kept it real.”

“I met a lot of people and learned so much. I was so glad I came.”

“Awesome praise and worship and awesome messages!”

“What a wonderful Singles Summit! My only regret is that I didn’t invite more people. The speakers were awesome and I got to meet many new people by working as a greeter! I have been married before but am now single due to my husband’s death over 11 years ago. I do enjoy not washing dishes every night and being able to eat out whenever I desire to without asking. Living a single life can be easy if we really want it to be! I feel wonderful that God has allowed me to have experienced a great life being married and now He has ushered me into a contented life of singlehood.”

“This conference was great for me. I attend another church and was invited to come. You all are launching something that will have great impact for the single community. I’m just so excited by what I have seen and heard.”

We know that when we fully surrender things in our lives to Jesus, we will start living our lives to the fullest potential. With the right mindset (contentment/balance), operating with the tools of relationship with church and other Christians (authentic relationships), you will enjoy the Journey to the Center of Who You Are.

Click here to view pictures from the Summit.

Why is it sometimes hard for us to focus on the things that are essential for our life? What are our motivations and how do we pursue pure motives? How do we know when we are getting good or bad counsel? Who should we really be listening to for advice?

We discovered the answers to these questions the month of March and April.  Our first session topic, Living Large - Building High Impact Priorities covered the great need for us to build high impact priorities for our lives. Our priorites define our direction (where we are going), devotion (what we spend our time doing), and dynamics (who we are).  We have to be aware of priority killers and at times, refocus our priorities.  Sometimes we need to ask ourselves are we still on a Kingdom direction for our lives and are we walking towards God’s word in our lives?

In our second session topic, Living Large - Pursuing Pure Motives, we discovered  how to pursue pure motives for our lives. We found that pursing pure motives moves us closer to becoming more like Christ, who is pure, and allows us to become so aware of His presence, that we forget about ourselves, become sensitive to His directions, and the needs of others. 

We were challenged to ask ourselves: Are my actions in harmony with God’s truth, will my plan of actions work under real-life conditions? Is my attitude pleasing to God?

We should examine our emotions considering another person’s perspective.

In our third session topic, Living Large - Whose Your Lifeline?, we discussed the need to seek wise counsel. Sometimes within us there are obstructions to seeking wise counsel, and we have to be aware of what those obstructions are so that we can overcome them. Seeking wise counsel is for our own well-being, as it provides security, broadens our vision, and holds us accountable. Any counsel we receive should always be evaluated in the light of God’s word. 

Questions for discussion:

     What are you doing now that you need to stop doing in order to start building high impact priorities into your life?

     How do we know when “speaking the truth” or just saying what is on our mind is done with the wrong motive or right motive?

     Have you ever neglected to seek wise counsel? If so, why and how did the situation turn out for you and what did you learn, so that it may help others?

Do you have thoughts, opinions, and questions on love and relationships? We all do. 

In our February series, What’s Love Got to Do With It? - Truths & Myths About Love, we explored some truths and myths about love and relationships with an experienced panel of singles and marrieds. Sometimes we mistakenly live by the myths created by Hollywood and society regarding love and relationships. We learned that understanding our personality type can affect our relationships in positive ways and discovered our personality type from the 4 personality types: Popular Sanguine, Perfect Melancholy, Powerful Choleric, and Peaceful Phlegmatic.  We also discussed how crucial it is to be transparent in our relationships and talked about the work that goes into developing healthy relationships.

Recommended Book Reading: Personality Plus by Florence  Littauer

      What are your thoughts, opinions, and/or questions on love and relationships?

Welcome back, CORE! We ended last year with a series entitled, “Born Identity.”  In this series, we learned that we were created to live in the image and character of Jesus Christ.  If you are like me, you have to admit we have a lot of changing to do. We began our first session for 2008 entitled, “Embracing Change,” tackling the big question, Are You Ready For Change?

Since we know we must be transformed to His image, how do you face change? For many of us, we face change with fear, denial, or eagerness. Depending on how you relate to adjustments in your life, change can be seen as an enemy or a friend. We move from subtle, to moderate, to radical change all the time in our lives.

God wants us to move with radical change when it comes to him. Radical change requires us to totally depend on God and trust him for each step that we take. Change represents the movement of God as He moves us from our current human mindset to having a mind like His. Our “Born Identity” is shaped and becomes clear as we journey from one point of potential with God to the next.

Are You Ready For Change? This year let’s get radical with God about changing our attitudes, our ideas, and our habits to take on the journey to the new life in Christ.

Our Opening Question:

        How do you manage change or deal with it in your life?

In November, the men of CORE ventured to the mountains of North Georgia for short trip to hike and build relationship. It was a fun time for the guys to see how in shape they were as they hiked up and down many steps. In addition to just having fun hanging out with the guys, there were some powerful moments of spiritual insights.

As the guys climbed up and down the steps, along the way, they were helping and encouraging one another to take another step. Comparably, we are on a similar journey in life and  we need to take the time to help one another by encouraging each other towards victory. It was powerful to see the guys extend a hand to one another, and to help pull each other up. The journey was great because the guys really came together with the focus:  No one gets left behind.

As we all came out of this journey, we had the mindset that no one is on this journey by themselves. We are called to help each other take the next steps to journey to the CORE of each other’s life.

Check out the rest of the photos from the trip by clicking http://core.vwcblogs.com/gallery.

Calling All CORE Poets, Inspirational Scribes, Creative Writers
to join us in the Spirit of Excellence…
In whatever genre you write, that best express yourself,
be it poetry, prose, etc… Bring It and Deliver!

We invite you to get on board the CORE ExPress “Poet’s SpotLight”
The Time is Now!

ALL Aboard! Let’s get this ExPress Line Rolling!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To the Poet…
      …as with the artist, words paint “polyglotic” pictures over the brainscape;
      …as with the sculptor, words mold and shape the mind into and out of time;
      …as with the dancer, words create movement, accentuating rhythmic art;
      All of which serve as tools to communicate L.I.F.E.
      May we never lose our artistic diction
      - an invaluable tool, for to do so we will surely
      lose a segment of our soul’s expression.

Welcome to CORE WEBlog

At this season’s end, CORE will have a short hiatus in meeting, to resume in January.  However, we will stay connected via our weblog. 

If you missed our last CORE session, WOW you really missed out…we got down to the real issues of living a Christ-like identity.  What we found out about ourselves during this session really challenged us to seek deeper to understand where we stand on a lot of issues facing singles.  The bible says that we will be victorious by the blood of Jesus and the testimonies of others. 

Supported by a panel of our CORE leaders, many of the singles shared their struggles and victories, which served to create hope for those who needed it.  We also learned how much we need each other as support and accountability. 

Here is what some had to say about the session: 

“This series was so good.  It was great that we had the freedom to talk about what was really on our minds.” 

“I really appreciated the leadership team’s honesty about their struggles; it helps to know that you are not alone.  They were also an encouragement in hope about the future.” 

“This was really great to get real for a change in a safe environment.  I will not miss the next CORE sessions.”

This format of open, honest discussion is just one of the many to come in the future.  As we begin to see ourselves in the new “Born Identity,” we will be able to reach others for Christ in a powerful way.