The Purpose Driven Life

Presentation Notes

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PDL Group kicks off with the National simulcast

Last night was the kick-off to our 40 Days of Purpose and Small Group Book study. The leadership team of Laurie Bennie, John Davidson and Sherry and Greg Vera had worked hard to set both the mood and the climate for change. We choose to show the powerful and moving National Simulcast, which was an overview of the whole course and a great way to start things off. We had an exciting number of participants turn out for the showing of the Simulcast and after some brief introduction to both the course and Rick Warren we let him take it away.

The simulcast begins with a powerful music video called "In this Place" which definitely got everyone's attention and set the tone for the evening. Rick uses a very interactive style during his lectures and each participant had a 4-page handout which they were asked to refer to, write on and even read aloud from during the telecast.

Rick began his talk by introducing is main principle which was based on Pr. 16:4 "The Lord has made everything for his purpose." In a world where lots of people believe in "fate" and "destiny" Rick let us know that there are no accidents and that we are here for God's pleasure and to fulfill his purposes for us. He then introduces the first of the five reasons we were created by God and corresponding purposes God has for our lives.

1. You were planned for God's pleasure.

Just as we take pleasure from watching our children grow and change so God takes pleasure in watching us. Rick showed us through scripture that God wants to know us and love us. How can we bring pleasure to God is then our first purpose, and Rick defines Bringing Pleasure to God as WORSHIP.

I think at first this definition confused us as we typically think of WORSHIP as what we do in church on Sunday morning but Rick explained the true meaning of WORSHIP is anything that we do that will bring pleasure to God. He also challenged us to look at our time in traditional "Worship" services as not being about what we can get out of a worship service but what did we give to God during Worship.

2. You were formed to be a part of God's Family.

Rick used a number of biblical references to support this purpose and encouraged everyone to embrace their brothers and sisters in Christ as family. Loving God's Family then becomes our second purpose which is called FELLOWSHIP.

3. You were created to be like Christ.

Again using biblical support and reason Rick took us through the third reason God created us and why following in the path that Jesus set for our lives is really our third purpose which we learned was called DISCIPLESHIP.

4. You were shaped to serve others.

God's fourth reason for creating us was so that we could do "do good works" and Rick explained in a powerful way that each of us has a unique heartbeat and a unique SHAPE for serving him.
Our SHAPE was defined like this:

S piritual Gifts
H eart
A bilities
P ersonality
E xperience

When we use our SHAPE to help others it is fulfilling our fourth purpose which is called MINISTRY. This is probably not the definition most people think of for this word but with Rick's interpretation it became a word that I will look at a lot differently.

5. You were made for a mission.

God's fourth reason for creating us and the reason we are here is for a mission. This again is a word and imagery that many people had trouble with. Rick explained that it is not enough to have fellowship with believers that we need to go out into the world and do God's work there too. I expected that this purpose would cause some folks to wonder if this was the right course for them and so I took a moment to remind our listeners of Rick's Southern Baptist roots and challenge them to look beyond his zeal for "mission" and see how this purpose might apply to their lives. Rick then gave us our final purpose that is fulfilling our mission in the world, EVANGELISM. This is another word which brings up negative connotations for many of our listeners but again with some addressing of the intention of the purpose and allowing ourselves to see a new definition for this word; I think we will be able to find a new way to view this word.

Rick then challenged all of our listeners to commit themselves to spending the next 40 days reading and learning about the reasons God created us and the purposes he had in mind for our lives.

The video was well received by the almost 30 people in attendance. Rick Warren is a powerful speaker and although sometimes he comes across a bit more charismatic then we are used to, I think everyone was able to look beyond that and gather good information and get a really good feel for the challenge and journey we are entering into as we begin our 40 Days of Purpose.

We are looking forward to starting our reading and getting together in our small groups next week.

Till next week, God Bless
Sherry Vera

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